Xaviers!

The night after spending time with Wanda Miriam makes her way to London at the crack of dusk. She's mostly kept it together for two days now, mostly for the sake of secrecy and Wanda not catching on, but internally she's screaming. She doesn't bother to pay the cab driver, she just stares him down and tells him to take her to Alessia's house. It's almost too easy. She's always been able to influence people, but now it feels like she barely has to try to simply command them. She doubts it'll work that well on Alessia, but that's not going to stop her from trying.

Stepping out of the cab she storms up the steps to the door and bangs her fist against it repeatedly.

Alessia's sister answers the door, looking Miriam up and down before stepping out of the way. "Third bedroom on the interior wall," she says, motioning up the stairs.

Miriam eyes the woman suspiciously but wordlessly storms past her and up the stairs towards Alessia's room. She doesn't knock before trying the doorknob to see if it's unlocked.

The door is unlocked. She can sense Alessia inside the room as a sluggish mental presence, but she can tell the woman's fully awake.

Miriam slams open the door. "What the bloody hell did you do to me!?" she demands as her eyes dart around the room, looking for Alessia.

Alessia looks up from her phone. She's sitting around in a silk robe and she seems singularly unconcerned by Miriam's outburst. "Good evening, Miriam."

"Don't you good evening me, Alessia!" Miriam snipes back as she stalks over to where she's sitting.

"Don't barge into my home as if you own the place," Alessia states crossly, standing as she does so. She scrutinizes Miriam, reaching out to attempt to lift her chin to study her eyes. "What happened?"

"I don't know. You tell me." she says, rudely shoving Alessia's hand aside.

Alessia makes a thoughtful noise and scrutinizes Miriam a bit more. "If you really want to turn your wrath on someone, I'd turn it on the person who killed you, not the person who saved your existence."

"So you admit that you did this to me?"

"Would you rather be dead?" Alessia raises an eyebrow. "I certainly did not arrange for your death. You are my friend."

"Answer the bloody question, Alessia!"

"I have answered your question! That you don't want to hear the answer is your problem, not mine. But since you insist on hearing the words, yes, I am the reason you are still with us and not in a morgue. There. Are you satisfied now?"

"Stop making it sound like you saved me! Unless you had something to do with what happened in the casino..." she suddenly realizes, narrowing her eyes at Alessia.

Alessia looks at her blankly, "Casino? What are you talking... No. I had nothing to do with your death." It's still hard to get a read on her, but her body language doesn't say guilty. If anything, she seems more exasperated at the moment. She reaches for Miriam's chin again, "When was the last time you ate?"

"Last night." she says, evading Alessia again, but this time just taking a small step back.

Alessia's hand drops back down, resting on her phone."You should probably eat again. You haven't killed anyone feeding yet, have you?" She's thumbing at something on her phone, not seeming to pay visual attention to Miriam.

The door opens behind Miriam and she can sense Alessia's 'sister' enter the room. "Is everything alright, Alessia?"

"I think so," Alessia says without looking up. "Miriam will be staying for dinner. Handle the arrangements if you would."

"Of course, Alessia," the young woman says with a hint of bitterness in her sense as she starts to back out the door.

"No I haven't and I'm fine, I don't need to 'feed'." she says. It's bit of a lie, but she'll be damned if she lets Alessia take charge of the situation. When Alessia's sister comes in her mind snaps towards her, seeking out her surface thoughts. She's clearly checking up on things and Miriam wants to know what's going on, especially when she hears the tone of her voice.

The young woman appears irritated in the way one would be irritated with a queue jumper. Apparently Miriam has taken the young woman's place in line... or something to that effect. At least grandfather will be ecstatic.

"Are you always this petulant?" Alessia asks, glowering at Miriam.

"I've had a rough couple days, so excuse me if I don't have my usual decorum when dealing with... this. You on the other hand don't seem at all surprised by this, so maybe you'd like to tell me why you thought this would be something I want?"

"Because this is what everyone *wants*, even if they wouldn't admit it openly. Immortality. The chance to follow your vision of what the world could be out beyond your own death. Or the ability to continue to properly enjoy life beyond death, whichever suits one's whims. Would I have wanted it to happen this way? No, of course not. We would have talked about it, discussed it, and when you were ready, I would have performed the rebirth myself. As it is, we will make the best of it. If you want Miriam to be dead, we can arrange for a new identity and you can go anywhere and be anyone you want to be. Or you can be the Miriam that I saw so much promise in, but now with all the time in the world."

"i'll stick with being who I am, thank you very much." she says although she's not entirely sure what she's going to do now. Can she really stay at the University like this? And if not, how can she still be there for Wanda? If only she had agreed to run away this would have been much simpler...

"Easy enough to do. In 20 or 30 years time, you might find it helpful to reinvent yourself, but we can deal with that when the time comes." She smiles, holding out her hands for Miriam, "Be happy. You have many good things to look forward to."

"Like your sister stabbing me in the back?"

Alessia's eyes briefly narrow, but she shakes her head, "She knows she'll never get what she wants if she does that. Even grandfather would frown on that." Alessia's sense tells Miriam that it's still not out of the realm of possibility, but at least she believes it to be unlikely.

The answer seems to mollify Miriam since slowly reaches out to take hold of Alessia's outstretched hands. Just before she does she hesitates. "You can have me. Under one condition. Wanda is off-limits..."

Alessia looks confused, "What could I possibly want with Wanda? Not that there isn't a certain appeal in preserving her for eternity as well, but..." She inclines her head to Miriam, "At your request, I will put those thoughts out of my mind."

"Not just you. All of you. They've been after her and it needs to stop."

"Who is 'they'? Who are you talking about?" Alessia takes Miriam's hands, gently moving her to a pair of chairs so they can sit.

"Vampires." she finally acknowledges what she's been trying to pretend isn't real. "Or one anyway. Italian. You're telling me that wasn't one of yours?"

"Italian vampires are not as rare as one would think," she says, looking concerned. "I can certainly ask around and if it is someone I know, put a stop to it. I'm not sure why they would be after Wanda, but we must protect her all the same."

"How many of you are there?"

"Three here, well four at the moment..." She smiles at Miriam, "Maybe half-a-dozen or so at Grandfather's house in Chelsea? We're very picky about who we choose to include."

"Oh, thanks." Miriam sighs, although she can't help to be somewhat flattered at least. "But none of them better get anywhere near Wanda. Don't think I couldn't push through their mental haze if I wanted to." she bluffs. She's fairly confident she could, at least.

"They only way they'd get close to Wanda is if you bring her here yourself," Alessia reassures her. There's a quiet knock at the door. "Ah, that will be our meals." She gets up to go open the door.

"Dare I even ask how you have this scheduled?"

"Oh, they're willing and breakfast is the most important meal of the day," she says, "Or so I've heard." Then she calls, "Come in."

Alessia's sister came in, followed by two dark-haired women who looked completely relaxed. Their mental sense was enough to tell Miriam that they were perfectly okay with being fed on, even looking forward to it. "Laura, Anna, this is Miriam," Alessia says by way of introduction. They both smile at Miriam and give her a slight wave.

Miriam smiles back politely. This would be awkward enough without her suspecting she enthralled these women somehow. And to prove her theory she probes Anna's mind, looking for the same kind of compelling haze she'd seen in Wanda's head.

"Pleasure to meet you..." she says, trying to split her attention to not make it obvious what she's doing.

Oddly enough, she can't find any immediate enthrallment in the two women. They both seem to be volunteering for this of their own free will. Maybe there's some hint of enthrallment from when they first met Alessia, but that was weeks ago and was just to smooth over those initial rough bumps that everyone had when meeting someone new, right?

"Guests first," Alessia says, gesturing Miriam forward, "Take your pick."