people want my power
&& they want my station

       

but they couldn't take it

There was something about everything that Samantha had gone through over the past several years that left her not fearful of her supposed stalker, but instead annoyed with the whole situation. Hadn't she been through enough? She'd been kidnapped as a human. Tortured. Slaughtered. She'd been left alone to come to terms with the creature she was supposed to be. She'd fallen in love only to have it so horrifically wrenched from her. She deserved, if anything, the ability to live out her days in some sort of peace. But she knew that she would never get that kind of peace. Dark Hunters alone seemed determined to disrupt it (though admittedly, it had been awhile since Sam had been bothered by any wayward hunters). And now, this so-called Monarch had made it his mission within the last few days to track her.

Despite her internal annoyance, Samantha showed no outward indication of her feelings. Instead, she played with the rose gold phone in her hand, tapping lightly on a game, though her focus was entirely on the other man who wanted to be so close to her. At least he was finally making himself known to her. There was only so long the girl could handle being followed. If Samantha was bothered by the way his emotions had flickered out around her, she didn't let it show on her features. No, her painted red lips held nothing but that tiny smirk as she leaned into his space. Samantha didn't truly think that motion alone would be enough to rattle him, and her guess proved right as he simply smiled at her, shrugging off her words as though she'd said that he had pet a kitten on the way here.

"Rumors have a way of being unreliable," Samantha replied easily, showing no reaction to the things she'd heard of the man. The girls at the burlesque, though loyal to her, were often as intelligent as a brick wall. Their intentions had been good to let their former queen know of him, and yet Samantha had taken those threats with a grain of salt. She didn't doubt that the creature with the cold smile before her could be cruel, though she equally didn't doubt that she could hold her own if necessary. Still, he gave her little time to dwell on the subject of what he would do in dungeons. He seemed more interested in his little jab regarding her abandonment of Sacrosanct and the Monarchy she'd called her own. He wasn't wrong. She had left them to fend for themselves, and yet they'd all certainly done well on their own, hadn't they?

"Of course you wouldn't be afraid of me," Samantha said, her voice even and yet the tension in her words remained clear. She didn't enjoy being played with, nor mocked, as Andras seemed keen to do. Samantha's gaze remained steady on him as he continued his speech. He was... he seriously thought she might be a threat? Dark faeries? She knew of them. Hell, she was turned by them. Two years ago, her heart would have raced at the very thought of these dark fae and her mind would have leapt to the three girls that had previously haunted her nightmares. And how disappointing it had been to Samantha when she'd fled to New York City and hunted them down, only for them to... not remember her. They had haunted her with their memory for years and she wasn't even a blip on their radar.

Samantha pulled herself out of this line of thinking, focusing on the rest of his words. She could understand exactly why he would seek her out. She would have done the same had the roles been reversed, and that alone was enough to make her nod. "You're right, any monarch would. But I can assure you, I'm not in the business of harming anyone." She said, though she wasn't quite sure how to address the rest of his question. Exactly why she had returned to the city was still a mystery to herself. How could she explain her travels to a complete stranger? And why would she even want to? Fortunately, she was spared from contemplating how she would answer by the sound of one name she never wanted to hear on another Fae's lips.

Dorian.

Dorian had told him of her? For a moment, Samantha's heart lurched. Had Dorian betrayed her to someone who could harm her? But no, that didn't make sense either. Dorian was the most tender, loving person she'd ever met. He would have never intentionally put Samantha in any sort of danger. And given the intense security that Samantha herself had had to leap through to visit Dorian, she highly doubted that he was in any sort of danger himself from Andras. That left... had Dorian joined Andras? It was the only thing that made sense, and yet Dorian would have never joined anyone who harmed others. It was that alone that made Samantha consider actually... trusting this man. Almost. Despite Dorian, Samantha wasn't likely to blindly trust anyone. Not anymore.

"For Dorian," Samantha said after a moment, surprised by the truthful tone to her voice. "I returned to the city for Dorian. He was..." She cut herself off, refusing to give away exactly how much she cared for the Italian King, though Samantha was sure she'd given that away already. "Look, I assure you that I am no danger to your people. I assume if you know things about me from Dorian, you know that I was turned by some of those dark faeries. I would never become them, or stand by anyone who did."

       

try to pull my status but they couldn't fake it

       

Samantha Cassidy