Chapter 70 The Suspicious Neighbour* (1/2)

Rassa had just been thinking it had been uneventful for too long when she showed up. For a prisoner, she smelled rather clean. The Guards just showed up one morning and tossed her into the cell beside Rassa's. She begged and pleaded, and Rassa had to commend her acting. If not for the smell of some floral perfume, he would have probably believed she truly was a prisoner.

Though it did make him happy to know that Zaroth hadn't worked out how heightened his senses were.

The sobbing that originated in that cell for the next few hours was ignored. Rassa had been attempting to rest when she was thrown in, so having that interrupted wasn't earning her any sympathy points. In fact, Rassa found it quite irritating that the space that had been his for the past three years was being invaded. Sure, it was a prison, but all those hours he'd spent inside it alone, he couldn't help but call it his. When rest turned out to be a dead end, Rassa picked up the white rock and started drawing again. He'd gotten better over the years, at least in his opinion. Not like anyone really commented on his erratic drawings. He was working on a Sanguine mark at the moment. He'd thought for a long time what he wanted his mark to be. He didn't want to just copy Victor's use of flowers. Though they were always beautiful, it felt too impersonal for Rassa to use them. In the end, he'd decided on the first thing that had made him enjoy his new life. The Moon.

The moon itself was obviously pretty easy to draw, even the phases of the moon were the same. The circle, crescents and incomplete circles were just shapes, they didn't seem to have any personality to them. Rassa had filled the shapes with patterns. Seemingly erratic and chaotic, just like his Life Lines. It served as a sufficient distraction from the young woman next door. The woman who, upon acknowledging the fact that Rassa was purposefully ignoring her, became increasingly frustrated.

Rassa could not actually see her thanks to the solid wall between them, but that didn't mean he couldn't hear it as her lips uttered near silent curses, and her fists clenched in annoyance.

It was nearly twelve hours before Rassa learned her name, and that was only due to Zaroth's visit with another slave.

The slave shivered in fear as it was pushed into Rassa's cell, the Vampire too preoccupied with his drawing to care about him.

”Rassa, your meal is here,” Zaroth prompted.

Rassa ignored Zaroth, he would feed when he was good and ready to.

Zaroth, like always, was not to be deterred, ”If you do not wish to feed we can take him back”.

The slave ran back to the cell door at these words, though the door didn't actually open.

Rassa rolled his eyes, ”Should you not feed your house guest as well? Can't imagine why you would put her in the cell beside me though, really a poor choice of accommodations. The arrangement doesn't suit either of us”.

”So you've met Seri?” asked Zaroth, sounding pleased.

”I've listened to her whine and moan for the past half a day,” Rassa replied, ”It's really quite irritating”.