“She knows what I am!” Lude exclaimed as he burst back into June’s room. “Stop pretending to sleep, this is urgent.”

He shifted to her bed, crossing the room in half an instant. Before he’d had the time to shake her by the shoulders, June lazily opened her eyes, and propped herself up on her elbows.

“And so what?” She asked.

The smirk on her lips showed how little she cared.

“What do you mean so what?” Lude struggled to contain his outrage. “What if she goes out there and tell everyone I’m a vampire? People will freak out! Your plan-”

“Listen,” June fell back into her bed, “Either she pulled that out of her ass, or she meant it and doesn’t care.”

Lude still wasn’t sure how to handle this. It had been one of his best-kept secrets that even his and June's co-conspirator Cedar didn’t know about. He also struggled to figure out, or even stipulate bout how Naomi could have known. She had no magic affinity, so she couldn’t have sensed it, and he had never used his powers in front of anyone other than June.

“Lude,” The woman pretending to be a duchess spoke again, “This is not the kind of information people keep to themselves.”

“You did.” He dryly noted.

“Yeah, but we’d known each other for a while, and I trusted you. More importantly, we were on the same crew.”

“Right. So this means she could reveal it anytime! How are you so relaxed about it?” Lude gave June’s bed a light kick, more to indicate his state of mind about the situation rather than to do anything to her.

She sat up with a sigh, and looked up at him before speaking:

“Think about it for a second. I know you’re upset and all, but she couldn’t have found out today. You’ve spent a grand total of what, 20 minutes together, doing gods know what in the boiler room, before loitering in my bedroom all afternoon. Yesterday you barely spoke to her, and the day before that too. She must have known for a while. The real question is, what prompted her to bring it up now?”

June gave Lude a soft, knowing smile, causing the man to turn away to hide his blush.

“You like her!” June pointed a finger at him, like an overjoyed 5-year-old. “You’ve been putting up this whole act about how she’s suspicious and a spy, but in reality, you’ve simply been enjoying watching her,” June trailed off, as his words caught up to her. “Guess she won’t be calling me ‘my lady’ for much longer.” She softly, almost regretfully, added.

They remained there in silence for a while.

“It’s not like that.” Lude finally spoke with a sigh.

Perhaps it was, on some level, as having a woman who knew about his true nature and still accepted him for it, was something he occasionally thought about. But he would have been a blind liar if he denied knowing about the way June and Naomi exchanged glances when they thought the other one wasn’t looking. June liked the attention, Naomi liked June’s bosom. But it couldn’t have been just that. Lude had seen over those few weeks how June changed, embracing the company of a woman she barely knew. And if Naomi was just into looks, she wouldn’t have stayed for more than a few days, past a point where she must have realised that June did not like her in that same way.

“That’s very noble of you.” June spoke, having gotten back into bed.

“Oh please, I’m only doing it because I have no interest in the girl beyond,” Lude paused. He wasn’t often at a loss for words, but in this particular moment he struggled to find a euphemism for ‘spying that borders on stalking’. “I’m going to get some air.” He finally spoke.

The curtains that covered the open window fluttered, and he was gone.

June lay in bed, and deep in thought.

As much as she’d put up a light-hearted façade before, this was a serious matter. She’d been willing to overlook most of Lude’s remarks so far because she knew there was nothing Naomi could do to offset her plans. And she’d talked to the girl, extensively and carefully, because she did have a tendency to burst into tears or look at June with puppy eyes.

So June figured she had a firm enough understanding of the woman who’d invited herself into her life. That was until Naomi’s knowledge about Lude surfaced up. She wondered where that had come from. She hadn’t lied when she said it wasn’t really an issue, for those reasons described before, but the presence of that knowledge itself was concerning.

Naomi wasn’t Basil’s spy. She was oblivious, clumsy, and too cute to work for a man like him. Perhaps she or someone in her family had been a technomage, and had thus passed down some knowledge, or artefact to her.

No, the concerning part was that Naomi could also hold information about June herself. And that could compromise June’s chances of flirting with the other woman. Of course, the same logic she’d outlined to Ludwig could apply to her. But there was one big difference between the two. Lude had not chosen to be a vampire, June had made more than one life-altering decision during her time as a mercenary. Very few of those had been forced upon her.

June let out a sigh, as she kicked her blanket once before finding a comfortable position again.

That was something she’d have to probe for tomorrow.