MY SUGAR MUMMY IS A BEAUTIFUL VAMPIRE

The atmosphere hung thick with tension, the air practically crackling with unspoken implications. Rose stared at Damien, her heart pounding a staccato rhythm against her ribcage as his words echoed in the charged silence.

"Two heartbeats?" She affected a look of innocent confusion, one delicate brow arching in a practiced display. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."

Damien regarded her through narrowed eyes, his expression unreadable. For a long moment, neither of them moved, a silent battle of wills playing out across the dimly lit space between them.

Then, without warning, Damien took a deliberate step backwards, putting a sliver of distance between their bodies. His gaze raked over her from head to toe, assessing, scrutinizing.

"You've changed since last we met," he murmured at last, a rumble of contemplation in his deep voice. "I had assumed, at first, that it was merely the passing of weeks that altered your form so..."

One corner of his mouth quirked upwards in a sardonic half-smile. "But now I'm not so certain. You seem... overweight, for lack of a better word. And there's something different about your scent, something I can't quite put my finger on."

Rose felt her cheeks flush hot with indignant anger, her perfectly practiced mask slipping for just an instant. How dare he insinuate... How dare he make such crass observations about her body, her personal affairs!

Lifting her chin in a gesture of utmost disdain, Rose turned away from him, effectively presenting her profile. "I don't have to explain myself to you, Damien. This is my home, and I won't be spoken to in such a way. Leave, or I'll have security escort you out."

His soft chuckle seemed to reverberate in her very bones, raising the fine hairs at her nape on end. "Your home? Your security?" Rose tensed as Damien's looming figure appeared in her periphery, so close she could smell the sandalwood and leather of his cologne. "You are my wife, Rose. You do not give the orders here."

She opened her mouth, a blistering retort rising like bile in her throat, about to deny such claimed from the arrogant original vampire behind her but Damien cut her off with a look of such glacial disdain that the words withered on her tongue.

"Whose is it, Rose?" His tone was low, dangerous, sending a frisson of trepidation shivering down her spine. "This... thing growing inside you? Because we both know it's not mine."

Rose blinked rapidly, her false look of bewilderment never wavering as she stared back at him with studied vacancy. "I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Don't play coy with me!" In a blur of preternatural speed, Damien moved until his face was mere inches from her own. His lips peeled back, baring elongated fangs in a display of feral aggression as his dark eyes bored into hers with undisguised threat.

"Perhaps, a demonstration is in order, hmm? How about I shove my hands into your pretty little guts and find out for myself? I'm sure you'd heal in a minute or two if there's nothing there."

Rose recoiled, her own temper flaring hot and bright as her fear in the face of such violence. "Don't you dare touch me," she hissed, low and vehement. "Or so help me, Damien, you'll regret it."

For an endless, charged heartbeat, they glared at one another, two titans locked in silent combat. Then, the door to the suite burst open with a thunderous bang, the heavy wood rebounding off the wall.

"M'lady!" Reggie stormed into the room, his eyes blazing crimson and his fangs bared in a feral snarl as he took in the scene before him. "Get away from her, bastard!!"

Damien threw his head back with a deep, rumbling laugh of pure derision. "And what, pray tell, do you think you can do to stop me, dog?"

Reggie stalked forward, his powerful form trembling with barely leashed rage, but Damien held up one hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Don't flatter yourself, mutt," he sneered. "You're not even at full strength yet. And even if you were at your peak, you couldn't hope to stop me."

He was right. Although Reggie was plenty strong, he still hadn't fully recovered from the attack that had Blake missing. It was no ordinary attack and had left him still weak and a shadow of his former self.

Yet, deep within the recesses of the main man's mind, he knew Damien was a whole different ball game. An original vampire born out of sin and pure calamity. Hoping to stand toe to toe with him would be tantamount to suicide. But, he wasn't the main man for no reason. He was going to go through with it either way.

A cruel smile curved Damien's lips as Randall and Gunther appeared in the doorway, their own eyes glowing red in the dimness. "Three mangy curs don't concern me."

"Him alone, maybe not," Randall growled in his deep baritone. "But all three of us together? We can certainly give you one hell of a fight."

For a beat, the only sound was the vicious snarling of Rose's protectors as Damien met each of their furious gazes in turn. Then, a dark chuckle rumbled up from his chest - cold, mocking, devoid of any mirth.

The air around him seemed to shimmer and distort, rippling outwards in waves of pure, barely restrained power. Rose gasped as an invisible force slammed into her, staggering her backwards until she fetched up hard against the wall.

Her three men weren't faring much better - Reggie, Randall and Gunther had all been driven to their knees, their faces contorted in a rictus of agony as they struggled against the immense psychic onslaught.

Damien was unleashing his aura in its purest form. This was it, the strenght of an original. Not even moving a muscle yet he had all four dominant vampires in their own right gravelling before him.

"Enough!" The shout tore itself from Rose's lips before she could reconsider the impulse.

All eyes swiveled towards her, the pressure in the room easing slightly as Damien's full focus shifted to her once more.

"We're done here," Rose continued, her voice becoming steadier even as she fought past the constriction in her lungs. "I'll come see you tomorrow evening, Damien. We can... discuss things further then."

Damien held her gaze for an endless, taut moment, as if weighing her words for any trace of deception. Then, a serpentine smile stretched his lips in a grotesque parody of amusement.

"Very well, my dear. I shall expect your presence at my manor tomorrow at sunset." His dark eyes glittered with the promise of untold menace. He gazed once more at Rose in a condescending manner and for a fleeting second, Rose saw disgust in the original's eyes.

"We have much to... discuss," With a curt nod, he turned on his heel and strode from the room, the nimbus of power around him vanishing as if it had never existed at all.

In the ensuing silence, Rose became aware of her own ragged breathing, the harsh pants tearing free of her throat as if she had just run for miles. Her men were in similar states of dishevelment, their chests heaving, eyes still glowing faintly as they struggled to regain their composure.

Tomorrow, Rose realized with dawning trepidation, her path would lead her directly into the viper's nest. And Damien, damn his smug arrogance, knew it.

Only one question remained - would she emerge unscathed? Or would the viper strike, sinking its venomous fangs into the jugular of her existence once and for all?