Kita ends up avoiding Alexis the rest of their wedding—which sounds dramatic, but whatever. It's true.

It's honestly not even Kita's fault. Alexis is the one who made everything weird. If he'd have just acted natural and treated it all like
a normal occurrence, Kita wouldn't have felt awkward about the whole thing.

However, he did. Alexis had a staring problem the rest of the time, and Kita was fidgeting, and they didn't talk. Also, the thing with Evander was bothering him. So, as soon as he could, Kita ditched the wedding and headed to the market.

It's dark by the time he gets there, and he finds himself thankful that the castle is closer to this place than his house was. It's approaching 11 PM when Kita finally spots Evander, by himself this time, sitting on a crate. He's leaning forward, elbows on his knees, and his glowing eyes are unmoving from Kita.

Nothing's even happened yet, and Kita's already irritated. Once Kita is within earshot, which is still far away due to their heightened senses, he speaks. "What do you want?"

Evander quirks an eyebrow at him. "I'd like to have a conversation."

"And it couldn't wait? You just had to crash my wedding?"

"That's dramatic," Evander says blandly, and Kita squints at him. No, that's not dramatic, because Evander didn't have an invitation. Kita knows everyone who was there, saw every name on every invitation. Evander's would've stuck out like a sore thumb.

Kita sighs, stopping a few feet in front of Evander's seated form. He crosses his arms, eyes narrowed at the vampire. "What do you need to talk to me about?"

They should make this quick. Kita doesn't want to be missing too long, he might raise suspicion.

"Since you're officially married to him," Evander says, and Kita just stares at him blankly. He does not want to be doing this right now. He was actually just hoping Evander would have more blood for him or something, but clearly that wouldn't be urgent enough to crash Kita's wedding. "We need to work out the next steps in the plan."

Kita frowns. Huh? "What plan?"

Evander stares at him for a long moment, and Kita begins to wonder if he's missing something. He just doesn't understand, because the plan that included turning Kita into a vampire was supposed to play itself out. Alexis would, one day, figure it out, and then he was supposedly going to change his mind about... something. The way he feels about vampires? Amarath's laws against them? Kita doesn't know.

Kita was under the impression he didn't have to do anything, so this is not pleasant news.

"You know I can't stay in Amarath forever, right?"

This does not help Kita's confusion at all. What? He can't stay in Amarath? Why not? Does he not... "Do you not live here?"

Evander is still staring at him, looking intrigued. Kita probably should've expected this, actually. How could this guy live in Amarath yet also be a vampire? The security and restrictions when it comes to monsters around here are absolutely insane. It would be unbelievably difficult to slip past their parameters like that.

"No, Kita," the guy says, tone almost condescending. Kita narrows his eyes. "I don't. I need to go back to Vanhallam."

Oh, right. That is where most vampires live. It's the safest place for them. It's just... not exactly close to here. Most people don't travel that far in their entire lives, they just don't have the money or resources.

Kita's only worried about one thing, at that news, however. "Then how am I gonna get blood?"

"It's not that hard, once you get the hang of it," is Evander's dismissive reply. It doesn't help Kita's mood. What? What the hell? Kita didn't even want this! He was roped into all this bullshit completely against his will!

"I didn't want this," Kita tells him, fists clenched. "You people are the ones that did this to me, I never signed up for it, so don't force me to be responsible for—"

"For what?" Evander asks, raising an eyebrow. "Taking care of yourself?"

Kita takes a step forward. Seriously? Taking care of himself? Kita knows exactly how to fucking take care of himself. Or at least, he did when he was human. This is all new territory for him, and he does not appreciate all this responsibility being dumped on him.

"Dealing with it," Kita corrects. Evander purses his lips. A beat of silence goes by before the guy speaks again, voice quieter.

"Tell me your last name."

Kita frowns at the dumb question. He's about to respond with the name of his father, which he's had his entire life: Daelle. However, then the events of the day catch up with him. Holy shit, it didn't really set in before. He never thought about it, about how official everything now is. He no longer is legally a part of that family, Daelle is not his name anymore.

Nikita Sinclair.

"...Sinclair," Kita says hesitantly, and it doesn't feel... wrong. He doesn't dislike it, which is somehow worse. The only negative emotion that name causes within himself is guilt.

"Sorry to ruin your life," Evander says, standing up, "but you're our best shot at Vanhallam finally being allied with Amarath."

Allied? Vanhallam? Since when does that empire care about being on good terms with anybody? They've always been so secluded and independent. Kita has never heard any news about them pursuing peace.

Kita stares at Evander for a long moment, something clicking. Who is this guy?

"Who are you?"

Nothing about Evander changes, but his eyes seem to glow a bit brighter. Kita has noticed that with his own, has noticed that usually his eyes only change when it's dark or he's feeding. However, heightened emotions can make the glow more intense. He's spent a lot of time standing in front of mirrors and wanting to shatter the glass, so he's learned the vampiric version of himself quite well.

"Evander Carlton."

"Who are you to Vanhallam?" Kita specifies, beginning to grow suspicious. There's only one way this man would have more clearance, in the way of politics, than Kita. He knows too much. He's got to be close with the royal family, there.

"An associate," Evander replies simply, but Kita doesn't buy it for a second. He must be more important than that, Kita's sure. Not to mention how vague such an answer is. An associate? Really? There's far more to it.

"As soon as possible," Evander continues, before Kita can interrogate him further. It's so obvious what he's doing, trying to divert the conversation so Kita won't ask more questions about that. Unfortunately, it actually works. "I'd like to bring you there with me."

Kita's eyebrows shoot up in shock, wondering if he heard that wrong. Huh? "To Vanhallam?"

Evander nods, and Kita just stares at him like he's lost his mind. "How?"

"That can be worked out another time," Evander says, but Kita's not done.

"Why?"

"So you can meet the coven."

"Coven?" Kita snaps, wondering if he's just having a nightmare or something at this point. Everything is going so wrong so fast, that has got to be it. "What are you talking about?"

This guy is out of his mind. How on earth is Kita supposed to travel to the vampire empire while also co-ruling the vampire hating empire? Alexis is too smart for that, he will figure it out. Kita needs to be so unbelievably careful about everything.

"Vanhallam is in dire need of an ally, beyond the smaller empires we have peace treaties with. We need a global superpower, which Amarath is. The citizens are suffering, we've lost so many resources. We need trade and protection, and I will do anything to ensure it. I'm sorry you got caught in the crossfire, but I do not regret a single thing I've done, and you don't have much of a choice. Will you cooperate or not?"

Kita processes everything just said to him, trying to find a flaw. Any sort of loophole, a way to get out of this. A way to not feel like he's betraying his home and family. He comes up empty.

"I will do the bare minimum," Kita replies simply, not elaborating. That seems to be enough to pacify Evander, at least for now. The conversation ends after that, Evander giving Kita one last blood jar before basically disappearing. Then, in the dead of night, Kita begins making his way back.

At first, he's heading to his house–above the pub. He doesn't know why, since he's lived at the castle for a week now. Shouldn't he be used to it? It may be because he's so tired, so he didn't put much thought into it all. Either way, about halfway there, he's forced to turn around, making himself later. It doesn't help that tomorrow's papers have already been set out. As soon as Kita lays his eyes on the headline, he loses all hope of ending the day with any sort of positive attitude.

Royal Trouble on the Altar?

No way. Kita frowns, walking towards the display so he can read the sub heading and part of the body. Sure enough, there's a picture of he and Alexis, on the altar, during their wedding. It's after Alexis pulled away, before Kita pulled him back. Ugh, they need to have a talk about this.

The whole article is over analyzing the 'hesitation' behind the wedding kiss. Kita wonders if maybe Alexis didn't actually care that much about his comfort, maybe there was a different reason he pulled away so soon. Could he be changing his mind?

It was Kita's idea in the first place. Alexis just went with it, preferring Kita to someone random. Maybe it was more than he expected, though? Was Kita in the wrong? Should he not have initiated the second kiss? It seems as though it was pointless, anyway, since the press has latched on entirely to Alexis.

Kita clenches his jaw, and he's really good at jumping to the worst possible conclusions and assuming similar outcomes. So, the entire way back to the castle, Kita is preparing to handle a fucking divorce. He doesn't know why Alexis would marry him if he wasn't 100% sure about it, but whatever.

Kita is expecting to have this conversation tomorrow, expecting for Alexis to be asleep in his own bedroom when he gets back. This is why he freezes when, upon arrival to the wing the royal bedrooms are on, Kita is met with the sight of Alexis. In the corridor. Leaned against Kita's bedroom door.