Nathan believed what David had told him about his sister, but he couldn't believe that his sister would do such a thing, at the same time. However, Nathan did see a noticeable difference between his sister before she became the undead and his sister as a vampire. 

What disturbed him, even more than the fact that she was a vampire, was that she, according to David, had found a new bloodlust for killing. Mary Drake would have never threatened anybody in the past, Nathan was sure of it. In fact, before they died, his family was known for being generous, kind, and attractive. The kind of people you would envy, or wish to hate, but can't possibly do so because of their kind personalities.

They would only kill with kindness- unless they were at war.

Yet, David said that his sister threatened both of them, which confused Nathan even more; Nathan was her brother. She was always an amazing big sister. What possibly could cause her to change into a raging, yet distant, stranger?

David said he was going to spy on her, just to make sure she wasn't a fake. There were, to David's knowledge at least, shapeshifters known by the name "skin-crawlers" who duplicate the body of a specific person. Perhaps a skin-crawler was pretending to be his sister?

But that theory had too many faults, such as: Why would a skin-crawler do such a thing? Why now? What affiliation did Nathan have with the supernatural before he met Jake and David? None- that was the answer to that question.

Which made Nathan question himself more. If there were multiple species of supernatural and multiple generations of humans, who all multiplied perhaps daily, how many humans were on the earth compared to supernatural species? Who among his staff or his subjects were bound by some foreign DNA to the supernatural races? If a human could become supernatural, like his sister, how many regular humans were left?

After all, Arnold seemed surprised at the Leshy fact, and Nathan hadn't told Reno yet. But everyone else who knew about David's species seemed like they have heard it all before.

Even his very own sister, which brought on even more questions. How did his sister know about the supernatural enough to be turned into one? How did she find out about other species of humanoids existing? Why had she chosen that specific route to take? Surely it wasn't her only option?

Nathan was starting to get a headache, asking all of these questions with no answers. He just wanted to question his sister, but David told him no- that he needed to be sure that confronting her was safe.

So, he patiently waited for his soulmate to return to their room.

Their room.

Now that's something he could let his mind peacefully ponder on: sharing a room that night with David in his sexy green suit.

~{()}~

Speaking of David, the leshy was on the move. He had silently shrunk to the size of a blade of grass- something he was very skilled at after years of protecting Jake (along with shifting into a wolf). That was one of the perks of being a leshy: you could be any size, but it has to be within the height range of grass to redwood; otherwise, freaky things would happen. There is only so much exertion that shape-shifting powers can take, and, being a leshy, David himself was already exerting a lot of power, especially being in his human form.

Unlike a werewolf, where their natural form is a human form, a leshy's natural form is the tree-monster (which can be any size, but David picked giant for the war). It took extra strength to keep his human form, but David liked to be human rather than leshy sometimes, and, unlike other leshiye, David had an easier time keeping his human form intact. He wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because he held a lot of natural human emotions- a very uncommon thing for leshiye, which was one of the reasons why David was picked on for being an emotional runt.

Runt, David hated thinking of the word since being in the forest with Philotes. It wasn't like he was ashamed- there was no shame in something you can't control. However, that didn't mean that David wasn't upset about the fact that he could be the weak link. That he was weaker than every other leshy and he couldn't even do anything about it.

Stop thinking about it, he told himself. Your soulmate loves you, and that's enough. He steeled himself. You don't need to be strong or big to be loved. Oh, but he knew he would be loved so much more if he were.

Suddenly, while roaming undetected in the hallways, the sound of soft footfalls broke his thoughts. He glanced around, seeing the exact person he was supposed to be spying on: Nathan's sister, Mary. 

He was determined to figure out what her problem was.

Therefore, he followed her, trying not to get so close to her that she heard his footsteps- she had good hearing after all, being a vampire- or so close to where he was able to look up her dress. Evil or not, David could not handle that.

David noticed the way she dressed was different than most princesses. Instead of long-lengthed dresses, Nathan's sister was wearing something that the humans would deem unmodest. It was a very short dress that stopped at her mid-thigh, swooped gracefully off her posterior and flattened in the front. A few guards, David noticed, stared at her thighs, and the leshy watched with a gag as their eyes traveled further north.

Nathan's sister would shoot them a wink, and wiggle her hips a little more. She would flip her dark-brown, almost black like her brother's, lengthy hair at them, exposing her pale neck for their eyes to see.

David was sure that her behavior was not how human princesses were supposed to act. 

Then again, David realized, Nathan had brought many people into his bed before meeting his soulmate. He probably acted flirtatious too with the guards before David came along.

The thought made David wrinkle his nose, but he reluctantly followed the princess and watched as she flirted with all of the guards.

Finally, they made it to Mary's quarters. She opened the door, and, before she shut it, the small leshy followed her inside.

Please, don't be changing clothes, David prayed. He didn't think his innocent eyes and mind could handle it. If he wanted to see anyone undress, it would be Nathan.

WOAH, he told his mind. He couldn't be thinking things like this, You have a mission to accomplish. 

David knew it wasn't exactly dirty to be thinking things like that about his destined love, but he felt surprised that his mind would think such a thing about Nathan. Yet, David started to get hot and bothered with his mind dwelling on the subject of Nathan undressing. And excitement for the future bubbled up in the leshy's chest, right before a big Crash! caused him to jolt out of his daydreaming.

Mary had just thrown something- it looked like a pen. Then another thing had hit the wall too- a jewelry box.

"Ugh!" David heard Mary exclaim. He risked a peek from his hiding place, which was the shadows underneath the desk of the dim-lighted room. Her sleek hair was now disheveled, as if she had roughed it up with her hands out of frustration.

It was like she was throwing a tantrum. She threw some more things; then, when finished, she groaned loudly as if she were in pain, and starting crying. 

Now, David was emotional, but this woman was emotionally unstable, he decided.

She laid in her bed, her body shaking, her chest heaving, and David heard uncontrollable sniffs from emotion. Real emotion. David knew it from experience. The crying she was experiencing was more authentic than her crying was when David first met her. She was in pain, and David was starting to feel bad for her, for spying on her emotional moment.

"I miss you," she whispered to herself, "But I'll promise you everything in the end. Just you wait."

David wondered who she was talking to; certainly not him or Nathan. She had just threatened both of their lives. No, she was talking to someone who wasn't there. Perhaps they were not even in the castle. David thought she was especially crazy, since she had not stopped talking after the first few sentences.

But upon further examination, David realized she was writing a letter. Then it began to make more sense.

"I hope a queen suits you better than a princess," Mary said aloud as she wrote, "Love, Mary"

David realized that maybe he was taking this whole thing the wrong way. What if the princess was just wanting...something...from someone... and the only way to gain it was by becoming queen? David was trying to piece the clues together to form a conclusion, but he wasn't sure of any answers.

But something he did know: it was safe to question Nathan's sister. Maybe the questions would be too personal, maybe they would set off Mary's unstable emotions. But David felt like it was something that at least Nathan had the right to ask.

He waited there for about an hour, avoiding her gaze, hiding in the shadows, observing how emotionally distraught she was, before she collected herself and exited the room, allowing David to exit the room as well. As soon as he was out, he dashed toward Nathan's room- a room that he had now had memorized due to his impeccable sense of direction. 

Thinking that Nathan wouldn't mind, David opened the door without knocking.

But then he nearly walked in on Nathan giving himself a handjob, and David quickly shut the door again. The sound of the door opening and shutting alarmed Nathan, who knew he had been caught. David, meanwhile, was breathing hard and leaning against the doors outside, his face as red as a tomato. Even his ears were red! His face felt hot, and all thoughts of Mary Drake left his mind momentarily to shyly replay what he saw in his mind.

Why was he doing that?! David couldn't help but wonder. Then it dawned on him: Nathan was used to sex. David was too shy for that right now. They weren't that close to each other yet. Was Nathan suffering because David was holding back?

The leshy suddenly felt bad.

Seconds later, Nathan popped his head out of the door, a little embarrassed that David had caught him. Not because he was ashamed of his body or was nervous about showing David things like that, but because he had planned on easing David into stuff like that- giving his innocent mind time to get used to it before David had cardiac arrest over the sight of another man's penis.

Too late, Nathan realized, because when he poked his head outside the door, he saw David, still in his sexy suit, with a hand over his mouth, eyes wide, and about as red as red can get. And, as much as Nathan felt guilty for exposing his innocent soulmate to sexual acts, he found his shocked, blushy state absolutely adorable.

"Sorry, love," Nathan apologized with a slight smirk, "I'm finished if you would like to come in now?"

David slowly covered his eyes with both hands, before nodding silently. He didn't move nor look at Nathan, so Nathan guided him into the bedroom while David continued to cover his eyes.

"Hey," Nathan said, once he had closed the doors. He gently lifted David's hands from his eyes and found that they were squeezed shut underneath. Nathan chuckled at David's cuteness, then continued. "You don't need to be embarrassed! It was going to happen one day anyway."

At Nathan's words, David quickly covered his eyes with his hands, and his blush flared up again. 

Okay, wrong choice of words, Nathan thought, then revised and tried again.

"Again, I'm sorry, love," Nathan tried, "I'll try to warn you next time, okay?"

"Next time?" David squeaked. 

"Yes, next time," Nathan chuckled, trying to remove David's hands again, "I'm a sexual man, what can I say? But I promise you don't have to do anything soon. You don't have to do anything ever, if you don't want to."

"Y-You're not disappointed?" David stuttered embarrassingly, giving a little peek behind his hands. 

"No, baby, no!" Nathan reassured, surprised by David's accusation, "I could never be disappointed with anything about you! I-I love you, and you being here for me is all I need. I was just...doing what I was doing...because I needed to get rid of some sexual tension. Otherwise, I would be jumping you every time I saw you."

That made David laugh a little, which reassured Nathan. David uncovered his face, and let out a deep breath. 

"Anyway," Nathan continued, trying to mix up the subject, "What did you get on my sister?"

"Well," David replied, "I think we need to question her."