"You may be right Nova, Emily may be a good change of pace, and she has a decent starting place with her business partner." Kenneth nodding making up his mind, "Emily would be an excellent addition to the hunt. It might also prove to be a good test for her as well. If she succeeds all the better, if she fails… well better to know now then waste more time on a failed project."

Nova's eyes remained steady and calm. She smiled up at her mate and slid one of her nails along Kenneth's leg that was resting in her lap. Her nail bit into and sliced open his flesh as she leaned down and licked up the trail of blood just as the shallow cut was sealing itself.

Nova slid off the couch and stood up tall, softly stretching her lithe frame, letting the backdrop of the cityscape behind her backlight her profile in all her feminine glory. She smiled and walked back towards the elevator, "if you're going to give Emily an assignment, I want to freshen up a bit with a shower. You're free to join me if you wish, my Lord."

* * * * *

Emily found herself riding the elevator up to the penthouse level of the Dukart Tower. She was wearing a playful outfit today. A black pencil skirt, a tight beige blouse with a wide red leather belt that hugged and separated the skirt and blouse. It may have looked a bit uncoordinated except that she had recently dyed her hair a rich Auburn red, and she wore red four-inch-high heel Louboutin shoes. The outfit was perfect. It was right at home in an office but playful enough that she wouldn't be out of place at a night club either. She smiled at herself in the steel mirror reflection of the elevator doors. If anyone had told her that she would actually take pride in her outfits, fashion, and looking good for the sake of looking good, she would have punched them in the face. But now, it was nice to look good, and looking good made her feel good, not for anyone else's sake, but for her own.

The doors to the elevator slid open and she stepped into the familiar office. The lights of the city around them were almost enough to illuminate the office by themselves, the overhead glow of the electric office globe lights was unnecessary for her vampiric sight. She guessed it was habit, or maybe some other attachment to classic decorum that the office was lit by actual lights, lights that only a human would need to see by.

She walked towards Kenneth's desk near the back of the office, and by his side, sitting in her office lounger was Nova. She almost smiled at her mentor… almost. There was a distance between the two of them since Nova had turned. It wasn't something that Emily consciously had done, or wanted. I mean, I'm a vampire. How could I hate her for becoming what I am? And yet there was that lump of resentment, or disappointment, in her mind whenever she saw her statuesque friend. Nova had been everything Emily had come to respect in women. She had wanted to be like Nova in almost every way, and then she had turned. Emily let her eyes slide from Nova back to Kenneth.

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"You wanted to see me, Kenneth?"

The Head of House Dukart smiled and nodded, "I did indeed. I have an assignment for you. It's far more dangerous than anything you've done so far, and may prove fatal. But I think you are ready for a real test of your skills."

Emily saw a trap in his words, her eyes flicked over to Nova whose features remained icy calm and serine, giving away nothing.

"What is this assignment? What do you want me to do now? Help Trevor with some sort of virus that only targets the dead cells of Vampires? Or work on a designer plague that wipes out all of humanity?"

Kenneth's brow furrowed at the sarcasm, "If we wipe out all of humanity, then what would we eat?"

Emily arched an eyebrow as she scoffed audibly as she crossed her arms under her breasts, "What do you want me to do Kenneth?"

"I want you to hunt down a man for me," Kenneth stated.

"Just like that?" Emily responded bitterly, "Go out and find a guy? Would just any guy suffice? Do you like tall and muscular, short and scrawny? Martial artist? Fat in-cell? Just what sort of guy would you and…" Emily's voice caught for the briefest of moments. If she had been talking to a human, they probably wouldn't have noticed it. But she knew that Kenneth most certainly did. She pressed through her pause though, acting as if it had never happened, "Nova, like me to bring back to you?"

Kenneth listened to Emily as she finished. Taking the micro tirade in stride and noting the pause before she had been able to force Nova's name from her mouth. Kenneth acted as if Emily had asked an innocent question and responded in kind, "He is tall, six feet, maybe three or four inches tall right around there, broad shoulders, well-muscled, he has long black hair and blue eyes. He was in this office a few months ago, where he attacked me and I failed to kill him. I want you to do what I failed to do."

Emily thought this might be a joke, but seeing how evenly Kenneth held her gaze, she knew that it wasn't. The realization of the assignment and what exactly Kenneth was asking her to do settled down around her shoulders, but she refused to take this seriously, "If this guy is so dangerous, and you want him dead so badly, send Brian after him. I don't have time for this crap."

"Don't you think I already sent Brian after him?"

The words from the Head of House sounded like a gong in the suddenly deadly still office.

Kenneth spoke into the silence," Brian has been looking for him ever since the night I killed Alessandro and took over as the Head of House. He failed. He is too well known in this city to accomplish this task. The would-be assassin? Friend of Alessandro? Whoever the hell he is, I don't know a shred bit more about him now than I did that night he violated my office with his presence."

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