It had been some time. A very, very long time. By human standards, of course! Natalia Gioccone had almost begun to miss the Asian woman with whom she had identified with. The Dragon Lady was no play-pretty of Natalia's, and she most certainly wasn't a part of her herd.

That's not to say, of course, that her fangs never tasted the demon's blood, either. Ooooh, what a savory, succulant taste that was!

When last she had seen Myllyanna Sliver, she was not only pregnant - she was very pregnant. Though, we have established, that was some length of time ago, and, for all she knew, the child could have been born already. Months had passed since Natalia walked down the sidewalk away from the Onyx Lotus after a midnight visit with dear, darling Myllyanna; months since she had felt the heat from the female's body rear up like a blazing furnance within. Myllyanna was not like any she had met before -- where she came from, she had never met a demon.

She was... a very spirited lover. Someone who fought back against the Rose with a test of wills, and strength, and the head-butting yearning for dominance over the other, as is only natural for these two women to each, independantly, strive for.

It actually excited her! Oh, she was still well and fully dead, no questions about it, and the finer points to sexual gratification would forever be lost, true, but it was the act itself that she enjoyed, and Myllyanna Sliver made that act quite enjoyable indeed.

But there was considerably more to it. More to the point, she simply enjoyed the Dragon Lady's company, if one could believe it or not. With many similiar aims and goals, these two 'devils of the night' had struck an odd accord one with the other, and it had been dark history every since.

Myllyanna was a woman of power. Subtle power, yes, but there was always that hellfire and the scent of brimstone somewhere just on the edge of her senses. A thing that made her wonder, if she ever really truly angered the Dragon Lady, if she could summon those fires of the abyss itself and consume her where she stood. Natalia Gioccone, much as the rest of her immortal kind, did not take risks lightely. But association and alliance with the Mistress of Shin'Ka was a risk she was, most certainly, willing and able -- and eager -- to take.

She had come alone to the far north-eastern side of the city, near the shore of the waterfronts. It was as far as she had ever gone in Rhy'Din City before, and the houses seemed... more opulant. Her apartment in WestEnd was hardly a beggar's nest, but the surrounding neighborhood had only been quelled after she had made quite a few examples from quite a few thugs and heathens or thought her nothing more than a poor, defenseless woman walking down the wrong back-alley in the deep places of the night.

Elegant black heels gave her a rather statuesque quality as she approached the massive front door of Shin'Ka. She had long ago been invited, but she was just now taking up that invitation. Buckled around her ankle, her legs were darkened considerably with the near-opaque shade of her stockings, themselves vanishing up into the folds of a long, recently-purchased red silk skirt with black rose embroideries up the left thigh.

Charna had called it fitting. Natalia agreed.

It was matched with a simple black top that gave balance to the entire outfit, yet none of it was seen. Draped across her shoulders was the mink fur-trimmed coat she had bought not three nights prior in the Marketplace. Felt made up the vast bulk and majority of the coat, though it did have a silk liner for ease of feel against her skin. Around the collar, though, and down the lapels in the front, was the slender bush of the soft, luxuriant-feeling fur.

She gazed upward at the wall of Shin'Ka, blinking in the dark, before raising her hand and -- knocking. It was neither the thunderous sound of fist-pounding, nor was it a none-too-subtle demand to be let in. She knocked upon the great and imposing gates like they were standard doors.

Somehow, she expected it to be enough.

For all of her dominating ways -- or so it was said -- Natalia Gioccone was not what one might call... typical. Not in that fashion, at least. She had seen slavegirls and slaveboys in Rhy'Din, of course, they littered the place like rats. Let the masters and mistresses of Rhy'Din punish their properties for moving their eyes anywhere but the floor; Natalia couldn't stand meat that did not look back. She wasn't ignorant - Natalia knew full well that the cattle the slavers used were not to be considered human, and that looking someone else in the eye was an affront, as if they were declaring themselves to be more than they were.

She also knew the relationship between Myllyanna and darling little Ami to be quite different than that. Ami averted her eyes out of respect for the guest. Still, it was more than a bit... well, not to her taste, shall we say?

Ami Sliver. Natalia had seen her many times before; whenever she visited with Myllyanna, this little slip of a girl was there. She was human, as near as the Rose's nose could tell, and so the heat from her body was not the hellfire that she felt in the Dragon Lady's own flesh. But she was human nontheless and, true, while she might be just a little, iddy-biddy touch on the young side...?

Well, that wouldn't stop a girl from dreaming of plunging fangs into her skin, would it? Sooner or later, she simply must ask Myllyanna's permission to taste her!

That would, most certainly, be the polite thing to do.

Ah, but as for now?

Ami's chin, so reminding her of a delicate and fragile porcelain doll, was taken up oh-so gently into the Rose's fingers, and Natalia lifted the girl's face. Eyes might have met, but they would not have for long -- the Italian leaned forward, brushing the cool skin of her cheek against the warmth of Myllyanna's servant-maid.

Honey-dripping and promising, every syllable was designed and shaped, carefully manufactured to tease the senses and give everything while, at the same time, nothing whatsoever. "You can look me in the eye, my darling little dear. I won't tell on you."

With a tender kiss brushed to the girl's cheek, Natalia Gioccone withdrew, righting her posture and rolling her shoulders back. "Take me to your Mistress."

And, just like that, she walked forward into the ancestral home of one Myllyanna Sliver.

The rug...

Leading, inconceivably plush, woven by hands from the southern plains, blood red, golden hued borders and weaves, drops, blooms, beads and tears a cascading waterfall of rich blues, heavy greens and true indigo spread it's tassel edges to the very corners of every nook and crannies as if it had been made just for this intended path.

Passing halls the Rose and maid, walls of blackened wood with rarely a picture. But instead held pictures of their own. Inlaid and lacquered, stones and pearl of the same dark hues symbolized scenes of old worlds, ancient arts long forgotten, legendary beasts, seasons that come and go and some to never be seen again. Their frame, only the running of crimson silk and the fragile leaves of exotic plants.

There was never a doubt in her mind She could have found her on her own, but to walk without Ami would have been a fault in Ami's duty. Every life form in the house could have been felt by the Italian, all but one, the protective masking of the heir.

Silver eyes caught the romantic form Natalia as she stood near the parlor's fireplace. An actual smile slipped onto her red painted lips. Her long white robes flickered with slivers of pearl as she walked closer, a glance at Ami to continue on.

As soon as Ami closed the doors, leaving them in the spacious room that seemed to be an even more extravagant version of the shop's.

"Please, make yourself at home. It has been long since we last took a moment to ourselves. I would not have you any other way then at home here. May I get you anything?"

The I was Ami and she was but an earshot away should they need a single thing.

Myllyanna brushed her cheek, leaving a kiss of her lips, along each of Natalia's. It was a quiet, pleasing moment to take in the expensive scent that blended so perfectly with the woman before her.

"Natalia, the Rose above all roses."

The Italian's voice was like music. It was a sound the Dragon Lady had not heard in what seemed like ages. But when you grew in years like one of her kind, time had no true meaning. You only marked days someone needed to complete a tasking.

The web like strands of pure black hair trailed along the superb weave of her suit as she took a step back to look at her friend. She took one of her cool hands on one of her own eternal warm ones and softly walked them towards stone archway on the opposite side of the parlor.

The smell of the open night sea and sweet burning wood floated towards them.

"It is a boy. The second ever to have been born within my bloodline." She meant even within the lines of her own daughters and their daughters? daughters that she has outlived.

"Natalia... Junbao. My heir."

On a tapestry rich rug that told a hundred stories in black and gold, sat a child just barely old enough to keep himself upright. Infant's bright eyes in the most curious colors of green, an obvious touch from the father though the sharpness could only be matched by Myllyanna's. But a few more things would hint the mix of blood. His plump skin carried a ton of ash grey, his face while round for now told the picture of the high cheekbones and sharp features to come, ears tiny, rounded yet with a point. But most of all was the snow white hair that made his skin seem almost a normal tone.

His attention had been drawn from the playmate and nanny that had been playing with a set of elaborate over sized blocks in innumerable shapes. Spinning their colorful sides .

"It has been indeed far too long. I am glad to see you when such interesting things have started happening."