She was seated casually and comfortably, looking out over the city through the expansive plate glass windows. Before her, just inside the window, stood four men—guards Giulio had insisted on to protect the woman he claimed was in danger from her own family.
She tolerated his little precautions, provided they didn't interfere with her assignments. Now, the men stood quivering in fear, uncertain of how they had arrived there. She sensed their confusion and fear.
"I've been told you were to guard a friend of Giulio's?" she inquired softly. One man glanced at his neighbor, then quickly refocused on her, remaining silent.
Giulio, to her left, was listening with clenched teeth. He had anticipated this moment since Tabi informed him of their failure to protect her and her growing suspicion of their motives. Beside him stood Laoisa, shivering in anticipation of Robin's next words. She had witnessed Robin's anger before—quiet but decisive and final.
The Tower penthouse and office servants lined the doorway, all too aware of what was to come.
"Yes... Ma'am," the previously silent man spoke up.
"I heard you were discussing your charge, and she was worried you weren't protecting her as instructed. Could you have been compromised?"
"No, ma'am," the man replied quickly, his voice and posture betraying his desperation as he felt the specter of death looming.
"I can't take that risk, you see?" She stood up. "I can always hire another guard..."
"Please, ma'am! We were only discussing another job."
"There should be no other job," she reminded him as she approached and lightly touched his shoulder. His words halted in his throat, as ice began to form, thickening the saliva until it spread throughout his body, leaving him as a statue.
The gasps from the man beside him were audible to all, as were the sounds of his feet pounding towards the door.
He never reached it; a sudden chill swept over him, and he was petrified into ice, shattering on the floor.
Giulio shut his eyes. Accustomed to dispatching vampires, this scene still proved difficult to stomach. The next two met the same fate, transformed into ice sculptures destined for Robin's gallery.
If only humans knew that what they admired as crystal sculptures were actually humans, fae, vampires frozen in time. They would flee in terror.
(he doesn't yet know she changed her name as he had not been told by her)
