English Literature. What a joke. Lucius wondered if it would have been better for him to play dumb and study with the less advanced students. Whilst they were studying interesting stuff like H.G. Wells and William Golding Lucius was stuck with fucking Shakespeare. He never could see the appeal himself. O.K. so 'A midsummer night's dream' did have its moments but much of old Will's stuff was just too predictable. And the characters were such dorks. I mean come on, Romeo, at least check the bitch for a pulse before offing yourself, dumbfuck!<br/><br/>He was sat next to Emma, who was doing her best to ignore him as usual. He had smirked when Ms. White had decided to go over the balcony scene and had Lucius and Emma read out the lines for Romeo and Juliet respectively. Lucius hammed it up in his usual fashion and it was kinda fun watching Emma squirm as she was forced to pay him some attention.<br/><br/>She both fascinated and irritated him at the same time. Both his irritation and fascination came from the fact that he couldn't really work out what made her tick. It wasn't just that she refused point blank to have anything to do with him whilst the other girls were basically fawning over him, it was also the fact that she insisted on putting on a dumb act when it was obvious that the girl had a pretty high I.Q. In truth, Lucius secretly longed for her approval if only because the other girls were just too easy, too eager to please him and in his opinion just not genuine enough.<br/><br/>Of course there were complications with getting too close to anyone given his true nature. The bell finally rang and Emma was out of there like a shot, as usual. Lucius thought about following her but he really needed to get to his after school Aikido lessons near Elm street and so he let her go.<br/><br/>As he made his way to the fitness center, Lucius thought about Emma and how funny it would be if he bent her to his will. In truth, he would never have really practised his jedi mind tricks (as he called them) on her. He valued her free will. However, he did have all the other girls to pick from. Which one would make a suitable slave? In fact how does one turn a human into a slave?<br/><br/>It wasn't that Lucius was pro slavery. The Stones had a pair of werewolves that they kept as pets and even that made Lucius somewhat uncomfortable despite the fact that Sarah and Ralph were well treated and protected from persecution by the other kindred. The problem Lucius had was the little white lie he had told to his father to get the old man off his back. The one about owning a human slave. The one about being able to teach the rest of the clan how to make more slaves. In the cold light of day Lucius had to admit that he was in the middle of one royal fuck-up that could cost him his rightful place as leader of his clan.<br/><br/>Three hours later and as Lucius was leaving the fitness center he began to sense that something was very wrong. Elm street was too quiet. To the ears of a vampire, the sounds of the hidden life in the form of pet cats, mice, insects was as audible as birdsong on a summers day was to humans. These sounds were suddenly absent. Something had spooked the wildlife and for that to happen it had to be something unnatural.<br/><br/>It was at that point that he spotted the two men in hoodies. Judging by the stiff lying a few feet away Lucius concluded that they weren't there to tag the wall of the nearby corner shop. He couldn't place the clan, their scent was unusual but they were definately vampires. The red eyes and fangs were a dead giveaway.<br/><br/>The man about to chow down on Emma was robbed of his meal just before he could sink his teeth into her delicate neck. Lucius had drawn on his heightened reflexes and swooped up the girl from the man's grasp mid-bite. He now stood across from them smiling warmly with Emma held close to him. ~She' gonna hate being this close~ he thought to himself.<br/><br/>"Didn't anyone teach you proper etiquette?", he calmly asked the two undead in front of him. "It's customary to introduce yourself to the clan leader when entering somebody else's territory is it not?" He pointed at the corpse and shook his head. "Messy, very messy. I hope you're going to clean that up. That's a serious violation of the masquerade you know. Not to mention that its impolite to steal cattle from another vampire's land without being invited to first. That's poaching don'tcha know."