As promised, the very next day, people come to Kita's house and begin moving his things—with his help, of course. His father is busy down at the pub, but his mother is there to assist as well. She's very emotional the entire time, and makes him promise to spend one more night at the house, clearly not ready to say bye to him just yet.

So, he keeps enough of his things for just the night, and plans to head to the castle first thing in the morning. From there, he's expected to help plan the wedding, among other miscellaneous things. He will also have to go through a class that will teach him a few things about ruling.

It's all planned out, and Kita has no problem with any of it, he wanted this, it was his idea in the first place. There's just one problem.

He's hungry.

The blood that Evander gave Kita sated him for about a day, which was amazing, since he'd gone so long feeling hungry all the time. However, it's coming back now, and he moves into the castle tomorrow. He does not see himself able to get out of there any time soon. He will have so much going on, he won't be able to leave for awhile.

That said, Kita needs to figure something out today.

Luckily, he actually has an idea. He remembers the last thing Evander said to him, before disappearing. When you need me again, go back to the market.

Kita didn't think he'd ever need that man, but he stands corrected now. He has no idea how to get blood—he doesn't want to kill anything. He also just doesn't know the limitations, or which blood types have what effect. He's going to assume human blood is better, but again, he is not killing someone.

Kita needs help. So, after the sun goes down, he heads to the market. He's not taking Bermuda this time—doesn't want to risk any questioning from his parents. That's why he walks, and it's not exactly a short one. Once he reaches the market, it's going on midnight, and something occurs to him.

How is Evander even going to know he's here? It's not like they set a date and time or anything.

The place appears completely empty, only a few stalls out, and the ones that are, are completely vacant. Kita just stands in the middle of it, looking around, and at first he thinks the place is empty. However, when he closes his eyes, his senses feel almost heightened. He realizes he's not alone. No, there's someone diagonal from him, to the left. Hidden around the corner of a building.

"Evander?!" Kita calls out, thankful that the market grounds are large and nobody lives close by. He wouldn't want to risk waking anyone up, this would be a hard sight to explain.

As expected, the person he can sense around the corner comes out. He immediately recognizes the person as being Evander, but he has a girl with him this time. She's tall, almost the same size as him, and the two of them look really similar. Kita wonders if they're related somehow.

"Nikita," He greets Kita the exact same way he does every time. Kita can't help the slight irritation he feels, almost positive the guy is doing this on purpose at this point.

Through grit teeth, the man drawing closer, Kita replies, "it's just Kita."

"Alright," He says, like he's never been told that before. "Your abilities are kicking in."

He's probably just talking about the fact that Kita could sense him, while a human could not. Kita can even sense their species. Both of them are vampires. Kita shrugs as his only response, and the two move on.

"I need to know why I was bitten. This is not going to end any fucking wars," Kita cuts right to the chase, the stress of the entire situation eating away at him. He needs answers, he needs to know why on earth these people would ruin his life like this. There's no way it was only revenge, and Kita is sure Evander was in on it.

"It will," Evander disagrees patiently. Kita only narrows his eyes further. "You are very close to the royal family, they will have no choice but—"

"Not close enough," Kita snaps, only growing angrier at how oblivious this guy is. How does he not see the gravity of the situation? If anyone finds out, Kita's life is ruined. "I don't think you understand how much Alexis hates vampires. He will kill me."

Evander frowns, and the girl with him is looking at Kita doubtfully. Kita doesn't understand where the confusion is. "You're about to marry him."

Kita raises his eyebrows in surprise, unaware that they'd gone public with it yet. Even though he's not supposed to tell people, he needs them to know what a big deal this is. How much they have fucked up his life.

"It's a platonic marriage."

Wow, that sounds really stupid to say out loud. Kita can't even blame them when they each give him strange looks. The two of them exchange glances, before the woman speaks.

"Can you not... tell?"

Kita frowns, "tell what?"

The girl looks intrigued that Kita isn't aware of whatever she believes he should already know. What in the world is she talking about? Is he missing something? These two are acting like it should be obvious, but he has no idea what they're talking about.

"He's so obviously in love with you," The girl reveals, and Kita completely freezes. What?

Kita's eyes widen in surprise, eyebrows raising as he processes this. Alexis? In love with Kita? No way, these people have lost their minds. "Uh, no he's not."

"He's refused to marry for years, despite the pressure," the woman begins listing, "he's never been reported in a relationship, he spends all his time with you, he's about to marry you. It's so obvious. How do you not see it?"

Kita frowns, thinking about this. He can come up with valid reasons behind everything she just said. For one, he just has really high standards, which answers most of that. Also, the entire reason they're getting married is so he can rule. Kita and Alexis have known each other for so long, and they've always been very honest with each other.

Surely, if Alexis had feelings for him beyond platonic, he'd have said something? He at the very least wouldn't have agreed to a platonic marriage, if he wanted something more.

Right?

"Whatever," Kita says dismissively, not wanting to argue about this anymore. He doesn't like the way they're looking at him, and he'd like to avoid getting more angry or frustrated than he already is. These people really have no idea what they're talking about. Kita knows Alexis better than anyone! "I'm moving into the palace tomorrow, and I have no way to get blood."

The woman and the guy exchange glances. Kita's getting about sick of that. What, are they communicating telepathically or something? Can vampires even do that? Maybe Kita should've done a bit more research. In his defense, he needs to be really careful about this.

"You'll be surrounded by humans." The lady says simply, "one feeding from them will keep you full for a month."

"I'm not killing anyone," Kita writes it off immediately. The lady rolls her eyes, which does not help his irritation. Evander, thankfully, actually gives him a response.

"You don't have to kill someone in order to feed. Just don't go overboard."

Kita gives him a deadpanned look. Don't go overboard? How the hell would Kita even know what overboard is? He has been a vampire for a total of, what, four days? Maybe?

"You people did this to me," Kita says, glaring at him. Usually he doesn't lose his patience this fast, usually he doesn't treat people like this, but he's really hitting his limit. These people ruined his fucking life, on purpose, and now they're trying to make him deal with it alone? Oh no, Kita is making this everyone's fucking problem.

"You're supplying the blood or I'm just not going to eat. Have fun ending the war when I'm dead."

"Not feeding won't kill you," the lady says in exasperation. Kita wants her to shut the hell up. "It'll just drive you crazy."

"Well have fun ending the war when I'm crazy."

"Fine," Evander says, face unreadable. Kita crosses his arms, wishing that being a vampire gave him time travel abilities. Then he'd go back in time and stay right where he fucking was. In Alexis' room. Safe. "Just meet us here when you need more."

Then, Evander is handing him another jar. This one is smaller than the last one, and Kita wonders if it'll even be enough. He will take anything at this point, though. He screws the lid off and drinks the entire contents of the jar in seconds, not even caring if it's rude.

It must be blood from an animal. No way this is human blood, he's sure of it. It's enough to make him feel better for the time being, despite not tasting as good as its potential.

Kita wipes his mouth and screws the lid back on, handing the jar back to Evander, who takes it reluctantly. Kita doesn't even care, he just wants to go home now. He got what he came for, and it will hopefully suffice for the time being. "I'll need more before the wedding."

Evander studies him, glowing eyes sizing Kita up. Kita is starting to get really impatient, and he's ready to go, but there is something else he wants to know.

"We'll be in contact," Evander says, appearing as though he's about to turn around and go back to his spooky alleyway. Kita stops him by talking again.

"I'm not telling Alexis," Kita says, and Evander pauses in his tracks. "He's not going to find out as long as I can help it. How the hell am I supposed to end a war?"

"You don't have to do anything," Evander says simply. Kita frowns in confusion, and the guy says one last thing before disappearing. "When he inevitably figures it out, the war will no longer be physical."

Then he's gone, and it takes Kita several minutes—already on his way home—to figure out what that even means. No longer physical. That must've been his way of saying that the external war will end in Alexis' confliction. His internal battle of loyalty will overtake it all.

Kita doesn't want that. He doesn't want to put his best friend through such turmoil. Assuming Alexis doesn't kill him on the spot, were he to find out, having to choose between a generations-long revenge and Kita is just not something he wants for the guy.

This just gives Kita all the more reason to keep it a secret, no matter the cost.