Palm trees, wide pavements, tourists. These were Aidan's first impressions of Las Vegas as he made his way along The Strip while being bombarded by its unique sights and sounds. Without a speck of white in the sky, it was turning out to be a warm and sunny day.

At this time of year, Vegas was probably a vampire's vision of hell. Long hours of daily sunlight would force most of them underground for the better part of the day, or at least stuck in casinos, whittling away their fortunes in a city of perennially spinning dice. Unless of course, if they intended to walk about the strip dressed like they'd just completed an AMA superbike race.

With the midday sun beating down on his exposed skin, Aidan stood in the middle of the broad pedestrian walk path, feeling an odd disconnect between his past and present self that was threatening to overwhelm him. The part of him that feared the sun was internally howling in horror, awaiting the horrible moment where skin turns to ash. Ironically, the other part of him wanted to tilt his head backward and bask in the warm, damaging UV rays of the desert sun. The warring emotions were such antipodes that Aidan was left physically frozen in place as his brain tried to choose the correct option.

"Aidan?" Hearing his name being called snapped him out of his confusion long enough to focus his eyes on a very concerned Emilia. She snuck a slender hand into his own. "Are you alright, dear?"

"I'm not quite sure," was his honest reply. "My past and present aren't quite jiving over the sunny weather."

Emilia let go of his hand and began digging through her sling bag to fish out a pair of aviator sunglasses.

"Try this," she handed it to Aidan who promptly slid the fashionable item on. Oddly enough, the trick worked, as his anxiety levels immediately dropped to a low hum in the peripheral background of his mind. Now that he was finally able to focus, Aidan noticed that they were at a quieter part of the Strip and although there were still tourists, the crowds were noticeably thinner.

He turned back in search of his brother, curious to know if the other man had been to Vegas before, only to find Gavin walking hand in hand with Hailey, in their own world of inside jokes and giggles. Aidan couldn't help breaking into a smile of his own before turning away, not wanting to interrupt the new couple's private moment.

Everyone in the group had on some sort of headwear. Aidan readjusted the cap he was wearing, making sure it covered as much of his face as possible. Hailey on the other hand, chose a more fashionable wide brimmed straw hat instead of a cap but the reason for wearing it was the same. They both needed to hide from their ex-employer Robert Wallace. The man behind every decision at the Unified Research Centre was bound to be hunting them down and since he had the resources of the government behind him, they couldn't be too careful. Emilia's connections came in handy at sneaking them back into the country but Aidan doubted they could keep their presence a secret forever.

"I think we need to turn here," Brandon announced from ahead of them as he glanced at the directions on his phone's map app. The group headed down the side road and away from the main stretch, eventually arriving at a luxury apartment complex. The four wolves, two witches and two humans headed to the Vegas-glam styled lobby, where a young woman sat behind the reception desk.

"Uh, hi there," Aidan approached her and began, "I'm here to visit someone in apartment 789." The receptionist looked up and flashed him a bright smile. "You must be Mr Summers. Mr and Mrs Orlov are expecting you," she announced before handing him a key card. "You can take the private elevator on your left, and it will lead right to the apartment."

'Mr and Mrs Orlov?' Aidan recovered from his surprise and thanked her before the group headed up to the seventh floor. The first thing that caught their eye when they exited the elevator was the floor to ceiling blackout curtains that covered the entirety of the opposing windows. Aidan was certain the glass behind the drapes was also tinted black. Besides that, the second eye-catching thing there had to be the ginormous chandeliers hanging throughout the large living space, incandescent light reflecting off each glass piece like dancing sparks.

Footsteps echoed from down a hallway, a graceful yet hurried patter along the wood flooring, before Lannetta appeared, a radiant glow of joy enhancing her striking beauty. The four werewolves were struck dumb for a moment, never expecting the deposed queen of the vampires capable of looking so approachable. The vampire rushed to Aidan, completely ignoring the others in the group. Aidan grinned and trotted towards her with arms outstretched. She hugged him close for long moments before pulling apart. "Welcome back, baby brother!"

"It's good to be back, sister," the honey blond man replied in earnest, even as Gavin shifted his weight from one foot to the other, an awkward expression on his face. More footsteps sounded from the hallway and then Maxim was there, patting him on the back, a gentle smile breaking his normally stoic expression. Not far behind him were two of Lannetta's loyal followers: Flint, whom Aidan had once kicked in the balls, and Byron, the one with a weird sense of humour.

Once Lannetta grudgingly shifted focus away from Aidan, she turned slowly to face Emilia. In a much more reserved tone than before, she greeted, "Hello Emi. It's been a while."

Emilia gave a slow nod, "Yes it has, Netta." Awkward silence followed as the two females stared at each other. Aidan darted a questioning look at Maxim who only gave the slightest shake of the head in return.

Forced into action, Aidan tried to dispel the uncomfortable tenseness in the air, "So hey, I think introductions are necessary, uh, why don't we start with the wolves." He quickly introduced each werewolf in the group, which unexpectedly had the opposite effect of adding to the awkwardness when Lannetta realised Gavin was his brother.

In an instant, Aidan could feel a possessive sibling rivalry beginning to unfold as the wolf and vampire initiated an intense hypercritical staredown. Already on edge, he sped through introducing Samaira and Hailey, and then signalled to Maxim, who obliged by introducing the vampires. Flint gave a half-hearted wave, while Byron comically flicked his wrist about to mimic British royalty.

Polite greetings out of the way, Aidan's nerves were given a momentary reprieve when everyone headed to the spacious living room to take a seat. Aidan glanced around the place, noticing that somehow, the arrangement of the furniture in the room was a nostalgic throwback to the family living space at the Bloodreign castle in Riogven.

Although not identical, some of the pieces seemed to have been crafted to look like the ones back in the homeworld as well. At a glance, Aidan could tell that Lannetta was pretty well to do, which made him a little happier, knowing that although her life hadn't been easy of late, at least she still had enough creature comforts to live a comfortable life.

The group predictably had chosen to seat themselves according to supernatural race, all the while trying and failing at subtly gauging the other, but Aidan was already more than thrilled that they were even gathered under one roof in the first place. Charlie, ever the jokester, glanced around and smirked, "I feel like we're in a scene from The Lord of the Rings, except this isn't a council of elves, dwarves and hobbits.

"Hey, at least the humans are still a part of the fellowship," Byron chimed in before doing his best Sean Bean impersonation of 'one does not simply walk into Mordor.' Too bad Charlie seemed to be the only one who found it entertaining.

Flint and Byron sat on comfy recliners, flanking their leaders who took to the couch in the middle. Maxim lounged beside Lannetta, something he had done repeatedly over the centuries until it had become second nature. It never even occurred to the pale haired vampire that he should have offered the spot to her brother, and technically, his liege.

Aidan looked at the two of them, remembered the incident at the lobby and then blurted, "The receptionist said you were a married couple."

Lannetta chuckled, "You didn't actually think we got hitched, did you? We've been faking matrimony for the past hundred years or so. It just makes things so much easier. Besides, having a family name like Bloodreign raises eyebrows, you know."

She turned to smile playfully at Maxim but the pale-haired vampire averted his gaze, suddenly fascinated by a tiny speck of dust embedded on the sofa. Aidan couldn't help the look of pitying sympathy he shot at Maxim for having what was in high probability the longest case of friend-zoning in history.

It took less than a few seconds for everyone to settle in comfortably. After looking around, Aidan started the conversation. "So, what did I miss," he said half-jokingly.

"What didn't you miss?" Lannetta huffed, "the human uprising after the end of the Portal Wars and their subsequent memory wipe by the witches, the cold war between vampires and other supernaturals and my never-ending struggle to prevent an actual all out war, the inexplicably long wait for your return, and of course, let's not forget, me finally losing the power to rule." Lannetta ticked off each event with her fingers. "That's about it, in a nutshell."

Listening to just how much his sister had to deal with while he remained blissfully nonexistent had the young man's guiltometer rising. "Yeah, I did miss out on quite a bit didn't I? Well, I'm back, so hopefully things will take a turn for the better, fingers crossed."

Aidan looked from Maxim to Lannetta as he said, "I guess the first thing I really want to know is, who was the crazy nutjob who sent all those vampire foot soldiers after me on a suicide mission at wolf headquarters? One of them attacked me with a dagger marked with the insignia of the House of Havar. Was it one of Duke Brennus' men who usurped the throne?"

Now that his memories were back, Aidan knew that the family crest etched on the handle of the dagger that was used by the vampire during the attack on werewolf headquarters belonged to the Duke of Havar, one of his most loyal men.

Lannetta and Maxim exchanged sharp looks. "Not exactly," Maxim vaguely answered, giving Aidan a look the human couldn't decipher. All of a sudden, there was sinking dread in the pit of his stomach. Perhaps deep in the furthest depths of his subconscious, hidden behind a carefully constructed maze of denials, he already knew what his mind had refused to see, but now there was no running away from the truth.

Lannetta spoke in as soft a tone as she could, as she tried her best to break it to him gently, "I'm afraid the one in power now is Duke Orsan of Havar."

Aidan shot to his feet, a look of indescribable anguish plastered on his face.

Orsan. Only son of Duke Brennus.

The child he adored.

The world felt like it was spinning, Aidan's eyes forcibly squeezing shut as he clutched his head. Emilia's concerned cry of alarm rang out from beside him, but Aidan was disengaged from the present, sucked into memories from the past, of him holding a scared child in his arms as he confidently said, "A prince's job is to make sure that his people are safe and sound, and happy. I am the prince of all vampires, and my job is to protect all of you, so do not be afraid, Orsan, for I will make sure everything will be alright."

The memories disjointedly skipped to not long after, stopping at the moment he lay dying after closing the portals and his wavering gaze fell on the couple sprawled lifelessly in a pool of blood, arms wrapped around each other in an eternal embrace. Duke Brennus of Havar and his wife never made it through the portal, but Aidan had assumed their son Orsan succeeded in returning to the vampire homeworld.

The past melted away, leaving behind all its sorrow. Slowly, Aidan sank back in his seat while Emilia placed her hands comfortingly on his back, gently caressing his stiff muscles. To Aidan, it finally made sense now. The anger of the vampire foot soldier was a reflection of Orsan's own hatred for him.

He could easily imagine what Orsan must have told his followers; the prince of vampires, who promised to save them all, not only failed to do so, but he also inexplicably left them stranded on Earth. And on a more personal level, Mathias Bloodreign had failed to save Duke Brennus and his wife, making Orsan an orphan at the tender age of five, and forced to do whatever it took to survive in this violent and oftentimes cruel world.

Lannetta sighed, the sound a whisper of melancholy, before saying, "He is not the child you once knew, brother."

"You must not think of Orsan as the little five year old child you adored," Maxim was more direct, eyes narrowed as he did his best to sternly emphasise the point to Aidan, "but as a seasoned seven hundred year old leader who would sacrifice countless vampires without a hint of remorse. He is ruthless and heartless, and his obsessive need for revenge against his enemies is no secret. Many fear him, and none in their right mind would openly defy him."

Lannetta added, "He built his reputation very early on in his youth, most of which was spent fighting for dominance and survival during a time of great upheaval. He also uses his Talent ability to hold sway over the aristocracy here on Earth."

Aidan quietly listened. They may have been trying to harden his heart, but in the end all Aidan's conscience could register was guilt as he hopelessly said, "The man he's become is my fault because I failed him."