MY SUGAR MUMMY IS A BEAUTIFUL VAMPIRE

Back inside the dimly lit halls of Damien's manor, the standoff between the vampire knights and their host reached a tense impasse. Reggie and his brothers remained poised for battle.

"We know why we're here," Reggie stated in a low, controlled voice. "No need to play games."

A slight smirk played across Damien's lips as he emerged from the shadows. "Is that so?" he replied casually. "Well, do enlighten me then. Because breaking into my home at this unholy hour doesn't seem like ideal guest behavior."

His smile stretched wider, taking on an almost mocking quality. "In fact, one could say such unannounced...intrusions...tend to be quite unforgivable where I come from."

There was an unmistakable undercurrent of threat in Damien's words, despite his light tone. The knights instinctively tensed further, preparing for potential violence to erupt. Reggie was not dissuaded, however.

"You lied to us," he growled, eyes glittering dangerously. "You told us Rose's child was dead."

Damien's gaze flicked momentarily towards them before he threw back his head and barked a short laugh, devoid of any real mirth.

"And this news concerns you how exactly?" He ran an appraisingly look over the knights as if assessing potential threats. "A half-breed bastard spawned by tainted bloodlines – why would the fate of such a...diminutive life be of any interest to noble warriors such as yourselves?"

Randall spoke up then in a gruff tone, evidently bristling at Damien's flippant dismissal. "It's Rose's child we're talking about. That's reason enough for us."

Another mocking chuckle slipped from between Damien's lips. "How...sentimental of you all. But really, your emotions seem dreadfully muddled on this matter."

He began slowly circling the knights in a predatory manner, assessing them with the air of a lupine circling its prey. "Just look at you now – braced for battle, expecting some grand clash to occur." Damien tsked lightly. "I'm afraid your assumptions are somewhat...misguided."

Turning more directly towards Reggie, the vampire lord adopted an expression of feigned innocence. "Surely you don't actually believe my intentions here are to engage you all in unseemly combat? That would be supremely beneath me, I can assure you."

Gunther flexed his powerful hands. "Then why bring us here at all, hmm?" he rumbled in a bass tone. "You had Dr. Martina lure us right into this trap."

"A trap?" Damien echoed the words as if considering their meaning. After a moment's pause, he waved a hand negligently. "I suppose one could interpret it as such, though I prefer to think of it more as...an elaborate means to an end."

He refocused his piercing gaze on the vampires facing him, mouth curving in a thin smile. "The good doctor did her part splendidly in arranging this little reunion. Though I must admit, your dogged determination to locate Rose's unfortunate offspring was...unexpected."

Randall cut in then with a biting tone. "If you knew we were coming for the child, then I'll ask just one time – what's your endgame here, Damien? Because you can't expect us to trust a single word out of your forked tongue."

The shadows seemed to lengthen and twist as Damien regarded the knight with unbrisking stare. "My 'endgame,' as you put it?" He chuckled darkly. "Such deliciously ironic phrasing."

Pivoting on his heel, Damien stepped forward. He moved to properly face the knights with an unsettling grace, his chiseled jawline seeming to shimmer and fluctuate in the guttering candlelight.

"You're right, of course – you have no reason to trust me," Damien continued smoothly. "Which is why I feel it's time I... enlightened you all more fully to the situation at hand." He dipped his hands into his pockets, his heterochromic eyes gleaming with a sinister light.

Reggie tensed further, entire body becoming a tightly coiled line of menace as he eyed Damien distrustfully. "And just what sort of 'enlightenment' are you proposing?" he bit out through gritted fangs.

Damien answered, however.

"Merely that I feel a more...eyes-on approach is required here." His smile broadened to reveal a glimpse of inhumanly sharp teeth. "You came seeking answers about Rose's offspring?"

He paused, letting the weighted silence stretch unbearably before continuing in a silken tone.

"Then allow me to show you exactly what you've been searching for. If you'll follow me..."

The knights eyed Damien warily as he made his unsettling pronouncement about showing them exactly what they had been searching for. Reggie's jaw clenched tightly, still deeply distrustful of the vampire lord's motives.

"We're not following you anywhere until you start giving us some damn answers," Gunther rumbled in a low, dangerous tone.

Damien seemed to be distorted for a moment, his form flickering like a mirage. Damien simply arched one dark brow, appearing more bemused than threatened.

"I'm not asking you to follow," he replied in a deceptively mild tone. "I'm telling you that if you know what's best – for yourselves and for Rose – you'll do so immediately."

The emphasis he placed on Rose's name caused the knights to trade uneasy looks with one another. Damien's thin smile stretched wider at their obvious discomfort and confusion.

"Well? I haven't got all night to be playing these . Are you coming along...or not?" There was an undisguised thread of menace laced through his words now.

After a tense moment where it looked as if combat might erupt, Reggie gave a short, curt nod. "Lead the way then," he ground out. "But I warn you – any more of your deceptions and you'll regret it deeply."

Damien seemed utterly unimpressed by the threat, simply shrugging one shoulder in an indolent manner before pivoting and striding away down the corridor once more. With obvious reluctance, the knights fell into step behind him, tense hands never straying far from their weapons.

They navigated a dizzying, maze-like series of passageways and antechambers, each more foreboding than the last. The already oppressive atmosphere grew heavier with dread the deeper they delved into the manor's bowels.

At last, Damien paused before an arched doorway, half-shrouded in gloom. A palpable chill seemed to emanate from the room beyond in shuddering waves, causing the knights' breaths to puff frostily despite their undead states.

Without preamble, Damien gripped the iron handle and pulled the heavy door inwards with a protesting groan of ancient hinges. Immediately, a noxious billow of bone-chilling air rushed outwards, crystallizing in plumes of ice along the doorframe.

Heedless of the biting cold, Damien strode through the entrance. Exchanging apprehensive looks, the knights followed with more trepidation, their undead constitutions largely immune to temperature extremes but still registering a primal unease.

They emerged into a vast, open chamber with ceilings so lofty they were lost in inky shadows far overhead. The stone walls, floors and pillars supporting the vaulted roof were sheathed in a thick mantle of ice that glittered with a sickly, bluish luminescence.

Jagged stalactites of frozen crystal hung suspended like fanged maws, their tips dripping constant moisture to plink in a steady cadence against the rime-slick floor. The air hung thick with frigid mist that rolled and swirled in hypnotic eddies like harbingers of the bitter chill leaching through their immortal bodies.

But it was the sight awaiting them in the chamber's center that caused the knights to completely lose their unnatural composures. A ragged sound of dismay and rage tore from Reggie's throat as he took in the horrific scene.

There, frozen in a grotesque travesty against a towering, icy cross, was the unmistakable form of their beloved master – Rose. The ice had already crept along the lower half of her body in a sheath of crystal, preserving her form in disturbing detail.