Van and Luna were in the great hall alongside the other guests. Introducing themselves and being introduced to some of their neighbors and allies. Some of which were Thea’s Vassals and one of them being his father’s. Friends of the family were also invited, but in the end, there were only about a hundred guests in total, if one were to include the family those vassals and friends brought with them.

The tables were laden with food and musicians were playing in the corner, adding some background music to the atmosphere. It was a surprisingly peaceful affair, everyone was quietly enjoying themselves. Van and Luna were chatting together, and going over to the buffet to get some food. Two Annas following them at all times and joined in on enjoying the treats that the table had to offer.

Van noticed then that Katherine and Karen were all by themselves, except for their own maids, near another corner of the hall. Some of the guests clearly wanted to get close to talk to Katherine but were kept at bay by Karen’s mere presence, not wanting to have anything to do with her. Which amused Van to no end, sadly every so often, despite clearly not being welcomed, Karen acted professionally, as if she was supposed to be there, and didn’t cause a scene.

Van was surprised by this but decided that it was best just to ignore her, he then asked one of the nearby waitresses for a drink. “Excuse me? Can you get me some Remshola fruit juice, please? You know, the one made with shoka and alore fruit. ”

“Right away young master.” the waitress replied, turning on her heel and leaving the hall to get his order.

“Seriously?” Luna said. “You’re addicted. You know how expensive those are, right?”

“What? It's a celebration! Come on, I don’t get a lot of chances to enjoy it you know?” Van defended himself. Luna rolled her eyes but said nothing more on the matter.

Just then the lights dimmed a tad and focused on Thea who started to give a speech. Mostly about how happy she was to see so many friends and family able to make it to the celebration.

“Thank you all for coming.” she began in a cheery manner “while I know I could have just written a letter to inform you all, I wanted to throw this celebration so that everyone can come and enjoy themselves and feel as happy as I do!” a small cheer rose up at that. She then began her speech, mostly talking about the things she had to go through to finally reach this point. How happy she is that so many were able to come, and how they will all work together for a brighter future. When done, she gave his father and mother a chance to also add a few things in.

“I have to say,” Alvaroz began “it's been a long time coming, with many ups and downs, but finally, I and Thea have done it and married each other, bringing our two houses together as one and making them stronger than ever. We had thought we had fallen, but now we will rise!” more cheering was had at that.

Van was enjoying the speech when one of the waitresses came up to him with his drink. “Your drink, young master,” she said, taking a single glass goblet off the tray and handing it to him.

“Ah, thank you,” Van replied, taking the offered cup and looking into it. A bluish liquid that bubbled and fizzed filled the cup, its thick fruity aroma wafted into his nostrils, making him drool inwardly. He took a swig and enjoyed how the sugary mellow and smooth liquid ran over his tongue and down his throat, giving gentle shocks along the way. Once it hit his stomach, a cool feeling enveloped it and spread out to the rest of his body, relaxing his body and already calming him down. “I can’t believe this isn’t a drug, though it does make sense then why this drink is so costly.” he thought with a smile.

Then his mother began to speak. “When I first came to Alcray, I thought I was alone, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite not having married Alvaroz yet, Thea treated me like a sister and loved me like family. Now it is official, me and Thea are sisters! And we always will be, I swear this on my blood!” she said seriously, which surprised many of the guests. As normally, swearing on your blood was a vampire thing. But slowly as people realized she knew what she meant, they started to cheer, slowly at first but then with great vigor at how serious she was about it. Which touched them greatly and made her go up a few notches in their eyes.

Van was impressed by his mother, while it wasn't really talked about, most vampires didn’t like the fact that his father married a non-vampire before Thea. he supposed that this was a way for her to reach out to them.

Lillia continued her speech, getting a few more smattering of applause here and there. With Thea taking up the finishing lines once she had finished.

Van was enjoying the talks when his stomach gurgled and a strange feeling came over him. He tried to ignore it but over time it just got worse and worse, instead of the cool feeling that he should be having, his body was starting to feel a little hot instead and he started to sweat.

Luna, who just so happened to take a glance at Van, noticed some wrong. “Are you okay? You don’t look so well.”

“I’m fine,” he replied, slightly out of breath, “I must’ve eaten something bad is all.”

Luna looked more worried now. “Do you need to go to the bathroom?”

“No, no, I’m fine, I don’t need to go to the bathroom, don’t feel like it.” Van replied.

“Would you like to lay down?” she asked.

Van hesitated, he looked up to his parents, now done with their speech and a bunch of guests crowding around them.

Luna noticed this. “You don’t have to worry about that. they can handle the rest, and you can introduce yourself to the rest of the guests later.”

Van still hesitated.

Luna raised an eyebrow “if I told them you were not feeling well, they would send you away anyway. Would you prefer it if I did that?”

Van couldn’t help but smirk at that. “Not even married and already acting like my wife, should we just tell everyone now?” he teased, before doubling over with a groan.

Luna blushed and was about to say something when Van doubled over. “That's it. Let's take you to bed until this passes over. Anna can stay behind and keep us informed if anything happens.” she turned to Anna, “ is that fine with you?”

“Of course, leave it to us.” then to Van. “master, please go with Luna and get some rest, we’ll tell your parents what happened should they ask.”

“Well… alright.” Van reluctantly said.

Luna then helped him out of the room and down the corridors, Van groaning all the while.

Van had never felt like this before, his body was sweating and he felt light-headed as if all the blood in his head was receding. Slowly and gently Luna opened the door to her room and guided Van onto the bed.

The zapper that was resting on the bed on its side, woke up with a start as Luna and Van entered. It then started to float around Van worriedly as it realized that something was off.

Once Luna layed Van down on the bed, she opened the window just a crack, in hopes that some fresh air would help Van with his affliction. The zapper then went out the window as if looking for something.

Luna placed her hand on Van’s head, trying to gauge how sick he was. She then chanted a light healing spell she learned from Lillia which worked to no avail. Her hand moved to his cheek. “Are you okay?” she asked with worry.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” he said, trying to hide the pain that he was going through.

The zapper then returned carrying a small flower and it dropped on Van’s face and looked at him as if expecting him to eat it.

Van chuckled, affectionately amused. “Thanks, little bug, but unfortunately a little flower isn’t going to fix this,” he said.

The zapper didn’t seem to understand and just flew worriedly around Van before zipping out of the window once more.

As Van tried to rest, he couldn’t help but notice how close Luna was, how beautiful she is, how nice she smelled. Slowly, his body started to feel weird, and he was taking deep breaths through his nose as more blood seemed to go from his head to his waist, as he longingly looked at Luna.

“Are you okay? You're breathing heavily.” Luna said, starting to worry even more.

Van tried to tell her he was fine, but before he could say anything the door opened and Karen walked through, she closed the door and locked it behind her. Both he and Luna turned in surprise at the unexpected visitor.

“Ah, good. Looks like you already prepared yourself for me,” she said, taking notice that Van was already on the bed. She then raised a piece of paper with strange runes that combusted into flame. A shockwave of strange energy washed over the room, giving both Van and Luna a sense of vertigo for a split second before disappearing.

“What did you do!?” Van asked, panicked, slightly dizzy, and still in a state of surprise by the sudden turn of events.

Karen grinned and took out another piece of paper, she then placed it onto the door. The paper adhered to it and began to glow. “Oh, just a little something so you two can’t pull off that little trick you did before. While I still don’t know how you did it, my little spell should at least prevent you from doing it again for half an hour or more.” she said “honestly, I hate to have to use such an expensive spell, but it's worth it if I get what I want.” she gave a feral grin at the both of them as she walked closer.

Van panicked and tried to call for help mentally, trying to reach Anna and was surprised when he couldn’t. “What!? I can’t reach Anna! Is it like there's interference or something!?” then he realized what must have happened. “Shit, that spell must be something that interferes with mental connections!” he thought. He tried to get up but he was still in much pain and could only wince.

Luna looked at Van and immediately realized something was wrong. She then turned and got in between him and Karen, not even realizing that she was afraid, more worried for Van than her own fear of Karen. “Stay away!” she said and raised one of her hands and shot out a small light spell that she also learned from Lillia.

Karen casually swatted it away, more amused than annoyed. “A light spell? And here I thought you couldn’t be any less of a vampire.” All of a sudden, an inky black shadow grew from around where Karen was standing and tendrils of shadow whipped out and entangled Luna and threw her to the other side of the room. They then proceeded to tie her up so she couldn’t move.

“LUNA!” Van shouted. This time he ignored the pain and got up off the bed only to be forced back into it by some mysterious force, followed by the shadowy tendrils tying his arms and legs to the bed.

“There, there, no need to panic. You and I are going to have some fun.” she teased as she casually strutted her way over to him.

“VAN!” Luna yelled, only for a shadowy tendril to cover her mouth and prevent her from talking.

“Let Her GO!” Van said, trying to resist the tendrils that tied him up. Only to be surprised by how tired and weak he felt. His momentary resistance was already over before it really began.

Karen giggled. “I see the drug is working as it should. That's good, I was worried that you would be too young for it to work. How does it feel? I hear the first time a male takes the drug it’s extremely painful and they have to spend the whole day alone until they recover and can start taking the drug normally again without consequence.”

“Drug?” Van asked, confused.

Karen leaned over the bed, her eyes looking into his, she placed a single finger on his chest and gently slid it down to his belly, making Van shiver. “Did you think I only brought one maid with me? That serving girl, she was one of mine. She put a special drug into your drink.” she grinned. “I hope you liked it.”

“What do you want from me?” Van said, trying to remain calm.

Karen smiled and started to undress his shirt. “ I simply want what's mine. Do you know how pissed my mother was when she found out that Luna was going to marry into a family instead of the other way around? Essentially getting rid of our claim to this county through the right of inheritance? Or how for some reason, House Umbra is interested in your father and mother and wants to welcome them into the faction with high positions?”

Her expression turned angry. “We worked for centuries to get where we were. Finally, we thought we would take what the branch family stole from us, finally, we would be recognized as a powerful duchy, instead of a random small-time one. Everything was going as we planned.” she then glared at Van. “then you two brats were born and fucked everything up for us.”

Then as if doing a complete one-eighty, her smile returned. “But we have a way to fix that, which was why I was sent here,” she said, finally taking the shirt clean off of Van. “ Oh, my!” she said as she saw Van’s torso, with its absent nipples and belly button and lack of a single follicle of hair. “You're so smooth! That’s kinda hot.”

“What are you going to do to me?” Van said, trying not to show his panic.

She gave an evil smile. “Like I said. We're just going to have some... fun...”

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That's when the door smashed open. The paper that was adhered to it, turning out to be completely useless under the sheer raw power that broke the door into pieces. Karen turned to stare at the now open entryway in shock and paled as Thea walked on through. “Shit! Did I take too long? How did they know?”

Thea’s eyes were of a deep crimson red. Black tendrils seemed to form around her eyes and sclera, giving her a demonic look. For the first time ever, Van saw her us an aura other than neutral, as a reddish glow formed around her body and added to her crimson eyes.

“I’m going to give you ten seconds to get off my son and then I’ll kill you,” Thea said, her voice sounding strangely distant, and cold, hiding the absolutely livid and raging anger inside herself.

Karen paled, “don’t you mean or I’ll kill you!?” but, looking into those eyes, made her realize Thea knew exactly what she said. with quick thinking, Karen elongated her nails and put them to Van’s throat. “Let me go, or he dies!” she said with absolute seriousness.

Thea stared at her like a bug for a good solid five seconds that felt like an eternity, before nodding. “ I swear on my blood, if you leave now, I won't attack, or try to kill you.”

Karen stared back for a good solid second. Before realizing that was as good as she was going to get. She blasted the window next to her and dove out before anyone could make a move. Her shadow tendrils slowly dissipating away.

Thea stared at the broken window with barely controlled rage for her own solid second before saying. “Get her.” and faster than Van could blink, Alvaroz, at first hidden from view, flew from the side of the broken door and jumped out the window to chase after Karen, with the same crimson eyes as Thea.

Lorenzo then entered the room with a vial in his hand. Worry on his face. He proffered the drink to Van who unconsciously leaned away from it in fear. Saddened, he gently took Van by the back of the head and with his other hand holding the vial, pushed the liquid towards Van’s lips and made him drink. Van was too weak to resist and slowly found himself falling asleep once the liquid entered his stomach. “You’ll feel better when you wake up, I promise.” Lorenzo quietly said as Van closed his eyes and everything went black.