Country house

　　Irena’s POV

　　“Oh my fucking god!” he exclaimed with the most scared expression on his face, and then he started laughing.

　　I pressed the blade harder against his neck, making him stop laughing. “You think this is funny? I’ll fucking kill you here if you don’t fucking tell me where you’re taking me,” I threatened further with spite.

　　He started laughing again, “Irena, will you calm down and take the fucking blade off my neck, so I’ll fucking tell you where we’re going. I’m driving for fuck’s sake,”

　　“no, tell me now. I want to know now because I’m goddamn serious about killing you if you’re putting my life at risk, and you don’t want to test me on that,” confused about why he was laughing. What did he find amusing, does he think that I am joking about killing him?

　　“Alright, alright. I lied about the trip, it was a joke. We’re going to my country house at the outskirts of the city, now please take the blade off my neck, I’m fucking driving and the last thing we want is an accident,”

　　It was a fucking joke? Oh fuck, now I feel stupid, I should have calmed down and asked him rather than placing a swish blade next to his fucking neck. I took the blade off his neck and sat back properly, keeping the blade back in my pants.

　　“Why the hell would you joke about that?” to me, it was unnecessary. “it was totally uncalled for!” I exclaimed.

　　“well, I thought it would be funny telling you we’ll be traveling by flight because it must have been annoying thinking about how you’ll have to get on another airplane when you’ve been from one to another in the past days, long tiring flights to be specific,” he exclaimed taking a glance at me with an amused expression.

　　“I don’t find that funny Alexey,”

　　“Well I do, and I found your reaction funny too,” he looked like he was going to laugh and I felt heat rush up my face. He glanced at me again and started laughing, and I felt even more embarrassed.

　　“Stop laughing,” I punched his shoulders lightly.

　　“I mean you brought out a fucking blade, why the fuck do you have a blade with you?” He was cracking up, tears were running down his eyes, “oh my god, I don’t think I can drive in this state,” he parked the car at the side of the road and rested his head on the steering wheel, laughing. “Why the fuck do you have a blade Irena, do you think I’m going to hurt you or something? Do you mistrust me that much?”

　　“Dude, it’s not my fault, I think I reacted as a normal person should, I mean you’re taking me somewhere that I am unaware of, somewhere that’s not part of the original plan, how the fuck did you expect me to react?”

　　“I don’t know how I would have expected you to react, but I sure know that I wasn’t expecting a blade to my neck and a threat of death,” he replied amidst laughter. “it’s so funny, I can’t fucking breathe,”

　　“It’s not funny Alexey, I did that in self-defense, and believe me, I was really going to kill you,”

　　“I kind of believe the last part, you look threatening, it was as if your eyes were turning red out of rage or something, for a moment, I was scared shitless,” he said with a serious expression on his face.

　　“Good,” I folded my arms, “I’m glad you felt that way,”

　　“of course you are,”

　　I rolled my eyes and smiled, and then he started laughing again, making me laugh in response and we spent some minutes laughing non-stop.

　　“So shall we continue,” Alexey asked, smiling and looking at me fondly.

　　I shrugged, “I’m not the one that stopped or asked you to stop, am I?”

　　He shook his head smiling more, “whatever you say feisty,”

　　The rest of the journey continued in comfortable silence and I used that time to reflect on all that had happened in the past few days. I thought of how Pompeii’s blood had spilled all over my clothes and how I actually wore the blood-stained outfit proudly throughout the rest of the meeting. I had forgotten to find out who informed the rest of the council members about the fight that broke out in my club and I wonder how the squad Detective Robert came to arrest Pompeii was faring, after waking up with no memory of how they got there or anything that had happened before then. I wonder if Robert had a family, he was just a man who loved his job and did it well, but he just had to be killed like that, from the hands of someone wicked with no regard for human life. If he hadn’t totally severed Robert’s body and had just hurt him instead, I wouldn’t mind turning the good man into a vampire if it would guarantee his survival.

　　I thought of Pompeii’s words to me when he was kept in the empty room. 'I feel strong in his absence, but I can never run away from his shadow'

　　What the fuck did he mean by that? I knew what he was talking about, but he is long dead and there's nothing I should be worried about.

　　I have more important things to do than worry about someone dead. I had to find Fabian and figure out how he managed to hurt me. I could have fucking died if I wasn't as strong as I am, any vampire would die when shot with a silver bullet.

　　"What are you thinking about?" Alexey asked, breaking the silence.

　　I looked at him, "nothing important,"

　　"Are you sure?" He asked, sounding concerned.

　　"Yes, I am," I replied, smiling at him reassuringly.

　　"Alright, we're here," He informed me.

　　I looked around me and was impressed by the structure in front of me. It was a huge stone mansion surrounded by a large field.

　　"This is nice," I complimented while still looking around.

　　"Thanks, I'm glad you like it, this is where we'll be spending the next few days, and trust me you'll enjoy every bit of it," he said, stopping his car under a large car park.

　　I opened the door and stepped out.

　　"I was going to open the door for you," he complained, stepping out of the car too.

　　"As to what? The gentleman you're not? Oh please give me a break, I'm not a damsel in distress,"

　　" Of course you're not, I'm the damsel in distress here, I mean you wanted to viciously murder me minutes ago," he retorted, laughing.

　　" Oh fuck you,"

　　" You want to?"

　　Yes- "heck no!"

　　" Sure, tell yourself that," he snickered, laughing.

　　I gave him the middle finger, "if you want to be useful, help me carry my bag,"

　　He opened the door and scoffed, "I was going to do that, it shouldn't be something you have to tell me to do," he took out my bag and shut the door of the car before locking it with the remote control.

　　"Sure you were,"

　　"This way," he said, placing his hands on my waist and pushing me forward, towards the direction of the building.