BloodStar

It was well into the evening, and Erika and Constance had more than made their rounds together. While it had made for a great image, Constance was exhausted from entertaining and conversing with Erika.

After several hours, Erika was finally pulled away for a private conversation with several VIP’s from the Starfallen Empire. Constance felt a rush of relief within her, and she would’ve killed to be able to openly roll her eyes at Erika; however, she used every ounce of her discipline to wish her a good night.

Constance thought to herself, “Erika is so exhausting she has nearly extinguished my will to smile. A rare feat, indeed.”

She walked over to her chair at the head of the table and took her seat with proper form for a moment of rest. However, no more than 30 seconds after sitting, a representative from the Heraklinos Empire took a seat next to her, “Mistress Khan, may I?”

He was an eager middle-aged man. Constance gave a half-smile and nodded to him. He sat and wasted not a second jumping into his speech, “I am a district representative from the Heraklinos Empire, Sir Jonathan Rayuse. It is absolutely wonderful that you are mending your own empire and simultaneously preventing civil war. I feel we could use someone of your talents in the Heraklinos Empire. Have you considered visiting? We would be happy to welcome you. You could stay courtesy of the Rayuse household. We would throw a great party, and we-“

Rayuse spoke 100 words a minute without ever a moment for Constance to intervene or reply. He kept spilling his words at Constance until a man walked up and stood behind Constance’s chair. She took note of Rayuse’s face as he looked behind Constance and said, “General Magnus, great to see you! I was just telling Mistress Khan how she could be useful in our own empire. Wouldn’t she be great? She could-”

“Sir Rayuse!” Vega raised his voice to cut the gentleman off, “If I may have a moment with my date for this evening.”

Rayuse immediately nodded, “Of course, certainly General.” He then turned to Constance, “I wish you a wonderful remainder of the evening. Please consider what I have said, Mistress Khan.”

The man took his leave as quickly as he had arrived. Vega took his seat adjacent to Constance, “Consider what he had to say? Knowing Sir Rayuse, you hardly had the chance to even catch your breath much less consider what he had to say.”

Constance for the first time this evening slouched in her chair and laughed, “Thank you for saving me from him, Vega. I was this close to killing myself just to escape him.”

Constance rested her head in her hand and looked up at Vega who said, “The dance floor is open. I may not be a great dancer, but I know if we get out there… not a single person will bother you. I’ll make sure of it.”

Constance leaned up and rested her head on Vega’s solid shoulder, “You are probably right. But Xenia was the dancer. I’m not nearly as graceful as she. I can also hardly remember which fork to eat with at these damn dinners.”

Vega laughed, “That makes two of us then. Forks and dancing.” He paused and then addressed her mention of Xenia, “I am sorry for your loss. As a warrior, I know what it means to lose a comrade.”

Constance kept her head on his shoulder, “Thank you, Vega. It was my loss, but it was the world’s gain. I suppose it was a fair trade off.”

Vega put his arm around her as she rested on his shoulder, “Well Constance, it seems all of this party has to offer us is gladhanding, dancing, and formalities of which we can hardly remember. Why don’t we escape for a moment?”

She pushed herself up to look at him, “Pool?”

Vega laughed, “Well… I suppose we could turn this into a pool party though I didn’t bring my swim trunks I’m afraid to say.”

Constance leaned over laughing, “No, No! Pool!” She then made a hand motion with a pool stick, “Billiards!”

Vega shook his head and laughed to himself at his own misunderstanding, “Now there’s something I am good at. Let’s go!”

Constance stood with Jacek and raised her eyebrows at him, “You’re good huh? So am I.”

She then turned and grabbed his hand leading him out of the main hall. Vega was all smiles as they escaped the party together, “I should warn you. I’m more than good actually.”

Constance led him down several hallways, twists, and turns on their way to the pool room, “You sound awfully confident Vega. Should we bet on it?”

Constance led him into the billiards room and closed the door behind them. Vega was stunned by the luxurious finishes of the room including dark wood walls with green felt accents to match the pool table, leather arm chairs, and a cigar box filled to the brim with the BloodStar Empire’s finest cigars which were unrivaled in the world even besting Cuban cigars.

After taking it all in, Vega looked to her, “Okay, If I win… I get to take a case of your finest champagne home with me to the Heraklinos Empire.”

She smirked at him and then scoffed, “Too easy Vega. Done.”

He then said, “And if you win?”

She grabbed a pool stick and began to chalk it while he racked the table, “If I win…” She walked around the table to stand directly next to him and waited for him to finish racking the balls. Once he turned to her, she said, “… You have to stay an extra day here at Khan Island to take me on a second date tomorrow.”

Vega pushed his tongue into his cheek, “I did go to easy, didn’t I?”

She looked him in the eyes and smiled, “Uh huh.”

“Fine. Deal! I don’t plan on losing though Constance.” Vega grabbed his pool stick and then motioned to the table, “Ladies first.”

She moved into position as she prepared to break the rack. She leaned over as she lined up her shot gripping the stick with her crimson red gloves. Before shooting, she looked up at him as she leaned over the table prepare to shoot, “Your first mistake, Vega. And probably you’re last.”

“What? Letting you go first? We will see.” Vega laughed at her confidence.

“Uh huh. Youwill see.” Constance then broke the rack with a powerful shot as the cue call let out a loud ‘crack’ as it made impact with the other balls.

The powerful break scattered the balls all over the table even knocking in three solid balls. She let out a fake gasp, “Three balls?! Is that good?”

Vega shook his head, “Lucky break!”

She offered no response and instead lined up her next shot. She took aim lining up her shot. Then she shot a powerful cross table shot knocking in another solid ball.

“So you have power, but do you have finesse? You’ll need it if you hope to win.” Vega stood with his arms crossed watching her thus far.

She moved around the table to her next shot passing Vega and running her hand along his back saying, “Finesse? Does my touch not feel gentle and soft to you? Let’s see if it translates to the table.”

She took aim at her next shot and softly hit the cue ball causing it to just barely graze one of her balls gently knocking it in while also lining up her next shot perfectly.

She remained in her leaned over position over the table and looked up at Vega, “I guess I do have a soft touch… on and off the table.”

She stood up and walked over to Vega and playfully nudged him out of the way to take her next shot, “Power, finesse, and I even have flare.”

She quickly hit the cue ball knocking in the obvious shot; however, she put enough spin on the ball to curve it around one of his striped balls then colliding with another solid to make two balls with one shot.

She had a huge grin on her face as she stood to chalk her stick, “Oh look Vega! Just the 8-ball left for me!” She then pretended to count the other balls, “And you have… 7 balls left.” She looked at him with a close-lip smile before bursting out in laughter with him.

Vega laughed, “You had better make this next shot, or I can guarantee you will lose. Leave me with this much room on the table, and I will make you pay.”

Constance opened her mouth and feigned a gasp, “I rather like the sound of you making me pay, but I like winning too much, Vega.”

She lined up her shot and let it loose. The cue ball hit the 8-ball perfectly sending it into a pocket; however, the cue ball continued traveling towards a pocket for a potential scratch.

Constance and Vega both held their breaths as the cue-ball inched ever closer to scratching. It slowed its roll just as it approached the pocket. It sat teetering on the cusp of rolling in but held its ground.

Constance let out a huge sigh of relief and Vega shook his head saying, “Excuse me while I go ask the DJ to turn up the bass to knock that in!”

“I don’t think so, Vega!” She threw her stick on the table and walked over to Vega. She stood next to him and hopped up to sit on the edge of the pool table and pulled him in front of her between her legs as she looked up at him.

Vega laughed but shook his head as he was still in disbelief, “I suppose it was a mistake to let you go first. You ran the damn table. Next time. I’ll go first.”

Constance laughed, “Next time? Like tomorrow? Is that our second date? Me beating you at pool again?”

Vega put his hands on her thighs and inched closer, “Maybe. But what else is there to do on Khan Island? I’m afraid to say this is my first time here.”

Constance tilted her head pretending to be in thought, “Well. There’s world-class training facilities, cliff diving, stargazing. We are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The stargazing is amazing.”

Vega didn’t respond and instead just looked directly into Constance’s eyes. They shared gazes for a moment which both knew could only mean one thing. As if gravity itself were willing it, there lips began to inch slowly and ever closer one another.

‘Knock! Knock! Knock!”

Constance and Vega were suddenly ripped from their fairy tale moment as an attendant called out, “Mistress Khan, pardon my interruption; however, recall, you asked for a reminder pertaining to your scheduled midnight meeting.”

Constance gave a soft apologetic smile to Vega, “Will you walk me to my room for the night, then?”

Vega stuck his arm out and helped her hop down from the pool table, “Of course, I’d love to.”

Constance and Vega exited the billiards room, and Constance greeted her attendant, “Thank you for the reminder. I can’t be late to this particular meeting.”

The attendant nodded and asked, “Should I escort you to your room then?”

She looked back as she walked off with Vega, “General Magnus will see me to my room. Thank you.”

Constance hung to his arm as she led him up a grand spiraling staircase to the top of the castle where her room was located.

They finally reached the top where they walked across an open-air walkway towards her room’s set of double doors.

Constance pulled his arm to stop, “See those doors over there? That’s my room.”

Vega gave her a look of disbelief, “Wow. What a beautiful place for a master suite. Sometimes I forget that you are a real princess in a very real castle. It’s amazing.”

Constance then leaned over on the ledge of the open-air walkway and looked up at the stars, “What did I tell you? Look at the stars tonight.”

Vega looked up to see a veritable sea of bright and shining stars. “It’s amazing. Is this real? You are a master of illusion ki aren’t you?”

She laughed, “I’m afraid this world is all too real. But thank you for making me forget it exists this evening.”

She stood to face him, and he took her gloved hand lifting it up to kiss the back of her hand. “I had a lot of fun tonight, Constance. You are an amazing girl.” They shared a look before Vega then said, “But don’t plan on keeping your undefeated pool record intact.”

Constance laughed and followed by saying, “Goodnight, Vega.”

He smiled back at her, “Goodnight, Constance.”

He let go of her hand and took a few steps back before turning to walk back down the staircase. It took all of his discipline to not kiss her under the romantic starry sky.

Before he could reach the stairs though, Constance called out to him, “Vega.”

He stopped at the top of the stairs and turned back to face her.

She stood with her hands behind her back looking at Vega with a longing look, “I- I know we shouldn’t for a lot of reasons. But. Tonight was a perfect date. And forgive me for being selfish, but- I was hoping it would have a perfect ending too.”

She looked to the ground and sighed, “I know you have a girlfriend, and I know-“

Vega made several quick and quiet steps back to her. Without saying a word, he reached his hand for her chin pushing it up towards his face and leaned in for a long, romantic kiss which Constance willingly returned with a passion of her own.

The two kissed under the starry sky releasing a passion which had been building the entire night. After nearly a minute, the two reluctantly broke off their kissing. Vega stood with his hand still on her chin, “Get some rest, Mistress Khan. I believe tomorrow I am set to give you one hell of a sparring match followed by cliff diving.”

She smiled with a warmth which he had never seen in a girl, and he once again retraced his steps to the stairs. She called out to him once again, “Get some rest, General Magnus. I believe tomorrow I am set to give you another lesson in pool.”

He looked back to her with a smile before beginning his descent down the stairs and back to the party.

Constance threw herself against the wall with genuine delight as she thought to herself, “I actually really like him. I cannot wait to make him all mine. Body, soul, and mind. All mine. MmmMmm.”

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