[h3]The Morning After[/h3]

After bidding everyone a farewell and a late-ish night going to sleep, Lady Victoria Crest was up early that next morning. Not backing down from her resolve to find out what happened to her father and who killed him. She sat at her father;s desk in his study flicking through his journals, sketches and maps for any clues. 

“Hygrace, Hygrace…” That’s what she was searching for. Any clues as to Vail Hygrace, his father and any connections they had with her father. But as she flicked through the pages, her mind couldn’t help but wander back to last night and those moments she and Vail danced together. She could hear the music echoing in the recesses of her subconscious. She could still smell his cologne, the feel of his fingers holding hers. And his breath upon her neck. She shivered suddenly and snapped out of it. She went back to flicking through the pages. 


There she came across a piece of text…

[i][u]The Hygrace Clan[/u]
Once the most powerful vampire clan in London led by Lord Reginald Hygrace, he was known across the nation for offering protection to any vampires who needed sanctuary from The Order of the Saints. 

Around the year 1750, Lord Reginald Hygrace was kileld by Lord Elias Wynter and soon after bested them the Hygrace Clan went predominantly into hiding. 

Yet I met Lord Peter once in passing…he was not the cold bloodthirsty killer as I was led to believe all vampires were. I made a mutual truce not to hunt him or his family so long as they do not interfere with mine. 

[u]The Wynter Clan[/u]
They believed that as “superior beings,” they should fight back against humans instead of hiding from them in fear. They saw the Hygrace Clan as weak and cowardly, unfit to lead their kind, and thus started a rebellion. Peter Hygrace thwarted this rebellion and went on to take over as the leader of the Hygrace clan. Unfortunately, the Wynter family refused to give up after just one defeat and has continued to fight for power against the ruling dynasty ever since.

I have yet to come across any of the Wynter Clan but I feel it is only time. For whenever there is a Hygrace, there is a Wynter not far behind… [/i]

Victoria looked up from the book. “A Wynter is never far behind…” She thought back to her dance with Lord Spencer. He was the one who told her about the Hygrace’s. That they were pathological liars. Yet her father wrote nothing of the sort. They were protectors of their own kind and were now in hiding. That’s the reason why Vail had given her a false surname. She understood it now. And so how…did Lord Spencer know about the Hygrace family…? Was he in league with the Wynters? She pondered this in deep thought as she heard her drunkard of a mother crashing about the house. She had no taken her husband’s death well.