As she continues to aimlessly peruse through her wardrobe, while still keeping her back to Countess Ardelean...
"Well then, if that's the case, Esme', would one of those things that you'd love to do to me right now happen to be telling me what exactly it is that you think I'm behind? Since you requested that I be honest with you, then quite frankly, you've disrupted my feeding and now you're continuing to go on and on with this inanely droll..."
Princess Vodrak turns momentary to look at Dragmire and Andreas, whom since upon entering the chamber had decided it would be best just to stay out of the two 'alpha vampires' way by remaining totally silent and stand by the doors, blending into the background.
"I'd call it a 'tete-a-tete' if it weren't for those two dullards of yours lingering over there..."
The princess turns back around and resumes aimlessly perusing her wardrobe...
"And again, if I must be honest, I always find that whenever I happen to have the misfortune of being in your company, I find that time to be an insipidly pointless waste of my time that could have been better spent on something more agreeable, which would be anything else in my opinion."
"Trust me, the feeling's totally mutual." Countess Ardelean gets straight to the point, while speaking in a suddenly more gravely resolute tone, "I want to know ... did you send anyone after Katarina, or not?"
A devious smirk gradually emerges upon the princess's blood-stained lips as it hits her like an epiphany how to begin the goading. Princess Vodrak realizes that nothing else would get a rise out of the countess more than unabashedly disparaging her precious grandniece. She starts by temporary feigning ignorance...
"Katarina? Hmm, let me think; Katarina ... Katarina ... nope, the name doesn't ring a bell."
Instantly irked by this thinly veiled stall-tactic, the countess snaps...
"Cut the crap, Ana' ... you may be a lot of things, but dumb isn't one of them; so, stop acting like you don't know who I'm talking about! ... Now, tell me, did you send anyone after Katarina?"
The devious smirk grows even larger...
"Oh yes, Katarina; that grandniece of yours that mysteriously disappeared about four years ago, right? ... Oddly enough around the same time that the Luna of the Shadow Hunter Pack's daughter also went missing, if I'm not mistaken? ... And, as it so happened, that worthless former dampyr chambermaid of mine went missing at that time, as well. Hmm; quite a striking coincidence, wouldn't you say?"
That previously devious smirk transforms into a more wickedly sinister one. Princess Vodrak closes the armoire's doors, then walks over to the other corner of her chamber and sits down on an antique Elizabethan-style chaise lounge. She's ready to 'pounce like a puma upon its prey'...
"Now it's your turn to be honest, Esme'; you wouldn't have happened to steal Irena right from under my nose to tag along with Katarina as some sort of babysitter or personal nanny, did you?"
"Believe me when I tell you, Ana'; no one had to 'steal' that poor girl away from you ... Irena happily left under her own volition to get out from under that sadistically tyrannical thumb of yours. I mean it's really no wonder why she left, considering the deplorable way you treat your chambermaids. Just look at how abusive you just were with Magdelin when she merely spoke up to keep you from killing that male you were overfeeding on."
The princess scoffingly laughs...
"'How abusive I just was with Magdelin'? ... 'The deplorable way I treat my chambermaids'? Oh, come now, Esme', please; who would give a damn about how I treat my chambermaids, or how abusive I am with them? They're merely just lowly, pitiful dampyrs ... an abomination of our most noble pureblood race, tainted with inferior breeds."
She further adds...
"Honestly, I really don't see the point of this so-called 'avant-garde' way of thinking among you later generation vampires. If you ask me, this whole practice of procreating hybrids is nothing less than a sacrilege to the entire vampire species."
And now, the connivingly cunning, maliciously sadistic princess attempts to really 'get under the skin' and provoke the countess...
"Oh, I'm so sorry, my dearest Esme', it totally slipped my mind ... isn't that grandniece of yours one of those lowly, pitiful dampyrs that I was just referring to?"
Her wickedly sinister smirk expands across her blood-stained lips...
"That must be quite the embarrassment; no? Our very own beloved Countess Ardelean ... the esteemed Matriarch of the Clan of the Old Order ... grant it maybe not from one of the original, but still from one of the earlier, generations of families with pure royal vampire blood flowing through her veins ... reduced to being the great aunt of a pathetic dampyr. My, my, my; how the once mighty have fallen."
The wickedly sinister smirk grows even wider...
"I suppose when you think about it, it was quite fortunate that your grandniece suddenly 'disappeared' back then. I mean, not long after her disappearance all that negative attention your family was receiving over her being a dampyr slowly began to fade away. ... What is it they say, 'out of sight, out of mind'? ... Talk about a stroke of luck, huh?"
Princess Vodrak mockingly cups her hands over her mercilessly ruthless, blackened heart and audaciously feigns 'empathy' as she continues taunting...
"My heart truly does ache for you, Esme'; after all, I'm quite aware that your intention was to produce an heir with magical abilities to help in the fight against the demons. Done for the good of the clan in mind, right ... could anyone be any more selfless and giving ... good for you."
The princess pushes that proverbial 'knife in the back' even deeper, then shamelessly twists it for her own self-amusement of trying to 'push the countess over the edge'...
"Too bad for you, you forgot to take into consideration the fact that sometimes ... actually more frequently than with other hybrid combinations ... these crossbreeding attempts fail miserably with witches, and no magic is passed onto the child."
Countess Ardelean, who's ire has been exponentially rising with every unsavory comment Princess Vodrak has been spewing out of her vile mouth, abruptly interjects...
"There's still hope ... I mean, it isn't an uncertainty yet. There's a chance that she does possess magic; that it's just latent for now and will emerge when she's older."
Princess Vodrak snickers as she condescendingly taunts...
"Really now; and who spoon-fed you that wishful spiel ... a witch no doubt? Please, let's return to the world of reality; shall we? Face it, my dear Countess; you were hoping for a Royal Court Magician but instead wound of with nothing more than a future chambermaid of mine."
Princess Vodrak has successfully pissed off Countess Ardelean.