Under the light of the silvery moon (Anna)

[Tristan Holt]

This was a night that Tristan had been planning for quite some time, everything had to perfect. Nothing would go wrong, he would personally make sure of that. Much had changed in the year that Anna had been his servant, she had changed, grown and aged. He would lying if he said that he hadn’t grown attached to her as her silly childish ways. She was young and still learning what it meant to be part of his household, to be his servant in a house jam packed with other vampires.

Unlike most of the other servant that had come before, she was the first he had educated personally. For some reason he felt that it had been a necessary at the time. Maybe he longed for intelligent conversation, for companionship that he had lost when Victoria, his sweet victory had been taken from him all those years ago. Maybe it was that he saw a sliver of his mate in this human child in his employ even though he never thought of paying her for her service, for her blood.

With a little something special, tucked away comfortable inside his jacket pocket, Tristan carried on his way to Anna’s bedroom. Anna, his little blood servant who of late did not complain, just carried on living by his side. It was perfect, it was almost like the days of his beloved when they raised hell through Europe. Oh what fun they had but alas everything ends, even his marriage, well actually that ended several times.

A melancholy smirk played on his lips, as he reminisced the times when they broke apart, and when they came back together. Their love burnt brighter and brighter with each break up and make up. It had been a happier, more exciting time, when the master vampire had been in loved and that love had been returned. However tonight was not a time to reminisce but a time to celebrate, celebrate the thirteenth anniversary birth of his Anna. The young teenager deserved a night out, a night away from the coven.

Everything had been sorted out ahead of time, the restaurant had been booked out, no-one else would be there but himself, Anna and their surprise guest. It would be simply perfect, nothing would go wrong, Tristan was certain of this. The only thing left to do was to gather up the guest of honour, to collect Anna from her room and head out.

Tristan found himself standing outside the teenager’s room, his hand poised to knock. Dressed smarter, more formally than usual, he was sure that this would be a dead give away that he was up to something but then again Anna might not notice, might think he was off to a council meeting or event in the big city. Three times he knock clearly “Anna, open this door” He commanded, his voice boomed as he called to his servant through the simple wooden room. Yes he could storm in, burst through the door like a madman but not tonight, tonight he would be civilised master of this coven and act like the gentleman he once had been all those centuries ago.

[Annabella Demarkus]

Anna had always had these big parties on her birthday. Her parents would invite all their family and friends and they would get a giant cake and there would be lots of presents. It really was a little girls dream. Holidays were always like that with her family. Every Demarkus had this mentality of it could be their last and because of that they treated it as such. Then she came to the mansion. She was a no body human servant who was the daughter of a hunter; she really hadn’t expected anything for her birthday when she turned 12. She was certainly not surprised when she didn’t get anything. She had spent that entire night crying herself to sleep missing her family more than ever and feeling completely alone. But then Tristan came along and he started being so nice to her and this year she really didn’t know what she expected. It almost seemed silly of her to think that he would be there to wake her up and say happy birthday like her mom always did. This was the master of the vampires for crying out loud, not her dad. She needed to stop living in a delusion where she was family to him and he to her. She needed to grow up and realize where she was… but somehow she couldn’t. She loved these people around her for some reason and even though they may not have even known it was her birthday at least she wasn’t completely alone… right?
Anna discarded her book, too distracted by her thoughts to read, and flopped down onto her bed. With a sigh she looked over at the small picture on the table of her brother and her that was her only connection to her family. Though they were only blocks away in the heart of the city it felt like they were in another world and in a way they were. A world that intertwined with her own but would never cross. A sadness came over the girl as she thought about the distance and the fact she would more than likely never see them again, but she quickly pushed it down knowing that crying would help nothing. She had learned long ago that she would have to live without them and in a way she had found a way to accept this. She had made herself at home and formed a family with the people around her. Even if that family was more messed up then any she had ever seen she still thought of them as her family and that was all that mattered. She moved the framed picture into the drawer of her nightstand knowing that looking at it on this day more than any other day was almost unbearable. It was on times like this that pushing that pain aside was just too hard and a reminder was not helping her at least try. She sat up looking over at her laptop and knew that she would be to tempted to look upon thing that she shouldn’t if she were to open it so she decided against it.

Anna jumped as the loud knock pulled her away from her thoughts. She sighed at hearing his tone. He did not sound like he was in a good mood but she simply shrugged it off knowing that he would be a welcome distraction no matter what his mood may be. She rose, still dressed in her pajamas, and shuffled over to the door opening it as commanded, but she did not even try to force a smiling knowing she may not be able to. Though, at the site of him confusion shot across her face and she raised an eyebrow at the way he was dressed. He only ever dressed up if she was doing something official but he didn’t really call upon her on those days because he tended to be too busy. “Why are you dressed like that?” It was a stupid and rather candid question but she wanted to know and as of right now she wasn’t really in the place to stop herself from asking.

[Tristan Holt]

This was simply a master being courteous to his favourite servant, even though the other vampires within his household might see this as something else, they would reading into this situation, through rose-tinted glasses. How could he deny her this? It was her birthday, her first birthday within his care if you really would label the past twelve months that. It was more of a forced existed within these stones walls, Anna would his property and would celebrate this particular birthday with him. Tristan had planned out of the evening to the letter, nothing would go wrong, nothing would happen outside of his control.

Waiting patiently was something Tristan did not do well, he hated to keep outside waiting for whoever happened to be on the other side of the door. If she took too long, then he would take matters into his own hands, then he would burst into the room without her consent. Tristan was civilised but his patience would stretch only so far before it snapped, and he reacted. It was always best, not to be around when that happened, most would receive some form of injury.

As he excepted as she opened the door, revealing that she had undressed for bed, ready to let herself succumb to the tiredness that had built over the daylight hours. “Do not ask silly questions Anna” He vaguely started, dodging her question as it would have ruined the surprise. “Now get dressed as we are going out this evening” He ordered abruptly before he slipped into her room, taking in how human it looked, how cosy and warm it felt to be standing in her simple room decorated the way she had wanted it to be decorated.

Oh how his room differed to her bedroom, his was dark and cold. It was only used during the light of the day when he slept like the dead. His room held no other use to him now, without Victoria why bother, without the distraction of Rebeckah why bother with sexual affairs that burned with a ferocity of only a moment. At the end of his night, it did not matter, well not really they were only temporarily distracting him from his heart wrenching pain and agony, from that void within his dead heart. Victoria had been his world, the very air that he did not need to breathe.

Anna, her mannerisms often mirrored hers which would pull upon his heart-strings. Unwanted memories would claw back with a nasty vengeance. This night would be for her, for Anna the flickering light within his never-ending, consuming darkness. She was the daughter he had hoped that Victoria would have given him, but alas it would not meant to be. His mate was gone, but his little human remained by his side.