Dmitri had been back at the masquerade for a while and he was trying to find Euthalia. It was true that if she didn't want to be found, you wouldn't be able to find her, she truly was a vampire in her league of her own, even different from the other coven leaders, well in his opinion. Of course he had only met her once, so he didn't know her all that well, but he had heard quite a lot about her.

He was also waiting for Brandy. That was the reason why he was looking for Euthalia. Brandy was thinking of joining the Tarepha and to join a coven, you needed to find a leader. Hopefully both women would appear eventually.

"Looking for me?"

Brandy was smiling, but the smile was almost hidden by the semitransparent veil that now covered her face. She'd replaced the mask once more, of course, and 'acquired' the necessary merchandise. It was now hidden in her home, and she'd fed on a mortal just for the fun of it and because she was feeling kind of hungry after the adrenaline rush of the theft. Now she'd returned and was standing just a short distance from where Dmitri was making a path through the partiers.

"No sign of Euthalia, then?"

She had her handbag with her, too, of course, and she stood there looking as though she'd only just arrived to a school dance or something. Her dress was as straight and beautiful as ever, unruffled by her night's fun.

Dmitri had heard her coming from a bit back, she wasn't that quiet despite the movement of all the other vampires. She wasn't a true vampire yet but that would come with time. "Miss you? Now why would i miss you? You're barely a friend and not even quite that, besides I knew that you were going to be back, you had to come."

He glanced around the room again and he frowned. Euthalia had to be around somewhere, this was a party that she was hosting, she had to be here. No coven leader was going to miss the party that they were hosting. It was an honor to host the party and a place where all covens were not at odds for one.

"No, but I know that she's around here somewhere. I saw a flash of her earlier tonight, she is here somewhere, but if she doesn't want to be found, we won't find her."

It wasn’t preternatural ability that clued Euthalia in that someone was talking about her. No, after centuries – millennia – of standing in the shadows, carefully observing, careful never to be heard and rarely seen, she had perfected the art of watching. There was a great difference in looking and watching. Watching meant you saw things that people didn’t even necessarily know that they did. Like a predator on the African veldt, she could usually tell where one’s weakness lay.

The fact that it was the rather rude woman from before didn’t make Euthalia inclined to go meet and greet her and her… acquaintance. She could control herself as well as anyone, but there came a point when she simply wanted to inflict pain. While not at that point yet – thankfully, for it wasn’t something she wanted the Amman holding over her head – the urge lay nestled inside her bosom, ready to break free.

Still, she was hostess, and that required certain things of her.

Her smile was large, and it almost reached her eyes when she came forward, moving more like a woman in a small body. “Welcome, Dmitri,” she said kindly, almost too kindly. Her eyes moved to the woman and cooled considerably. “Who’s your friend?”

Brandy rolled her eyes.

"It was figure of speech. Anyway, I hope she's not still mad at me for that remark I made earlier. I was kinda rude to her...didn't mean to be, it just slipped. I wonder if she'll even say yes once we do manage to find her. How old is she, anyway? I mean, really. She looks like a six year old, but she's supposedly an ancient. I wonder how old she really is."

Brandy turned around, seeking her out, but saw nothing just yet. Then she popped up out of nowhere. Why did that freak her out, even as slightly as it did? She sighed inwardly.

"Hello, Euthalia. I...I'm really sorry. You know, about earlier. I didn't mean anything by it. I said it before I had time to finish the thought...I'm usually not that mean. Really."

Dmitri had glared at the younger vampire. The look clearly said what had she done. Dmitri had warned her, but obviously she hadn't remembered, this could put her life on the line. He wanted to smack her, but by doing that he would probably rip her head off her head.

He bowed his head to the head of his coven. "Mistress, this is BRandy, she wants to join the Tarepha coven. She is young and not quite experienced in the vampire world just yet, obviously her sire missed the finer points of the vampire life."

Euthalia looked at Brandy like she was livestock to be appraised. From the feet upwards, there was judgement written all over that small face. “So it would seem,” she said, in regards to the statement about the sire. “When creating a new vampire, you should really ensure their education. If not… you might find your childe’s lifespan is severely limited.”

Her expression was almost surprised, her mouth in a soft ‘o’. “Does she now? And she calls me by my first name too. My, my, what lack of manners this one has. You want to join the Tarepha? But I thought I was only a… what were the words you used? A kid? Why would you want anything from me, since you are obviously the more adult?” Her voice grew sharp, like a knife that threatened to do harm. “What can you offer me except tactless words? Hm?”

She glanced at Dmitri, but he could not help her here. She cleared her throat slightly, trying to be polite. Hell, she even tried to curtsey - even though she couldn't really do so in the dress she was wearing.

"I beg your pardon, but I didn't know your last name. I had heard of you only as Euthalia. When I made the statement, I had forgotten for a very brief moment that my own sire was child-like in appearance, though he is in fact three thousand years old.

"I don't know what I can bring that you do not already have, for I don't know what you do have. But I can tell you that I have the powers my sire, Hale, gave to me. I can become a fine mist very easily, and I'm a powerful telepath. I need to feed every night, but I can blend into the shadows as well as anyone else and I'm faster than even some of the vampires I've met thus far.

"The Tarepha are said to be brutal and violent, but I see power as being the ultimate ally. I've come to discover in my short time as a vampire that the older you are, the more powerful you are - and that the more powerful your friends, the less likely you are to be killed. I'd prefer to live as long as possible so I can learn everything I can about the vampire world."

She hesitated, and then tried another curtsy. She loved this dress, but right then she felt like tearing it off just so she could show some respect to an obviously powerful vampire.

Dmitri was ready to simply sit back and watch. There was nothing he could do to help so he took a step back and let both women duke it out. He didn't think that it would come to actual fighting, but then the Tarepha were unpredictable and the coven leader more so. No one could tell what she was thinking.

Dmitri didn't know if Brandy would be able to remedy the situation, but the knowledge that an older vampire was her sire, could maybe play in her favor, then again Brandy didn't seem to get along with him. He simply wanted to see what was going to happen.

"And had you been born even a hundred years ago, doing such a thing would have resulted in you being cast out from polite society. Surely you must know that such a thing - coupled with your words earlier - is completely outside the rules of etiquette, or are such things beyond you?"

Euthalia was making no effort to be nice, and she certainly wasn't about to back down when her pride had been insulted. She would wittle away at this cane until all that remained was a sliver, small and easily broken.

"If you could forget something like that, I wonder how you would do in my domain, where any word at any given time might mean death." Amid the frilly pillows and gently clad porcelain dolls of her room, there lay a pair of shackles with a distinct stain underneath them. People in her coven had already learned - some more than others - that Euthalia will accept opinions, but she wants nothing less than respect.

Failure to do so results in your intestines in a heap upon the floor.

With Brandy's words about power, Euthalia's face (if possible) became even more blank. Any more still, and she would cease to be anything resembling human. "Are you implying that you seek my coven merely because you wish for protection? Your sire certainly seems old enough to do that for you, if your claims of his age are correct. Why the Tarepha?"

She thought it was a perfectly acceptable question, and was looking for an equally perfect response.

She couldn't bull-shit this woman. She knew that now. Euthalia had seen right through it. Hale could protect her, and would if something happened that wasn't her fault in the first place. She sighed inwardly. So it wasn't just about power, then. That's what had been implied to her, and so that is what she had believed. But now, it seemed, she had to come clean about her real reason for joining the Tarepha - well, the main reason anyway.

"From what I've seen tonight, which is no doubt but a taste of the Tarepha lifestyle and decor, I find the Tarepha appealing. I find that the more comfortable I get with my new lifestyle, and my new powers, the less I seem to care about the mortals and the more I seem to see them as servants or wonder how much blood they have in them. Perhaps I acquired a bit of Hale's personality along with his powers. I'm not really sure how that whole thing works. But I do know that from what little I've heard of the Tarepha, and from what I've seen tonight, they are apparently the coven that I would feel most at home with. The music isn't really my style, but I almost immediately recognized many of the decorations here tonight as art - which, I'm sure, isn't something most people do. And appealing art, at that. Plus..."

She hesitated.

"Well, it's something Hale said - and something I've been pondering myself. When I feed, I...well...I like it. I mean, not just the feeding. I really seem to like the killing. It's almost as good a high as the blood," she finished. She really didn't know what else to say. That about summed it up for her. Yes, she'd already found a home in the sewers, but she'd already been thinking of joining the Tarepha before she'd asked Dmitri about the place. She wasn't quite sure just yet if the place she'd found was just another reason for her to join, or if keeping the place was really more of a benefit of joining them.