CHAPTER 69: Vladslavia

CHAPTER 69: Vladslavia

The waiter had already taken their order and left. On the table, a small candle flickered elegantly. Enid took a sip of white wine, her gaze still fixed on Phoenix, who was trying to regain his composure.

She gently rested her elbows on the linen tablecloth.

"Look, Phoenix... we are lycans. We are immortals. We have time to make mistakes, rebuild ourselves, and break again if we have to. But the one thing we cannot afford is to live stuck in the past."

He looked down, thoughtful.

"I understand it hurts. Believe me. But... I also know what it's like to look back and find nothing to embrace you," Enid added, her voice different, warmer, more confessional. "For years I pretended I didn't care, that I lacked nothing... but it's not true."

Phoenix looked up. He wasn't used to hearing Enid talk like this.

She continued:
"My family was complete, yes. But my parents were bourgeois to the core. Obsessed with appearances, business, diplomatic meetings. I was... just another accessory in their organized lives. They loved me, of course. In their own way. But they never paid me much attention."

She paused and sighed, lowering her gaze to her glass for a moment.

"It was my older sister who really raised me. She was the one who read to me at night, the one who taught me how to fight, how to choose, how to be wary. To survive. The good, the bad, the harsh... I learned it all from her. Not from Mom and Dad."

Phoenix watched her in silence. He had never heard so much about her childhood. Somehow, he felt that the elegant and powerful woman in front of him also carried her own void.

"And what happened to her?" he asked, not wanting to push.

Enid gave a small smile, though it was more bitter than sweet.

"Family problems."

Phoenix frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just say it ended in a little family tragedy."

She held his gaze firmly.

Phoenix didn't say anything immediately. But something in his chest loosened. It wasn't cheap consolation. It was truth. Raw and beautiful.

"Thank you for telling me that," he finally murmured. "I didn't know you carried so much inside."

Enid smiled, this time with some real tenderness.

"I don't usually share it. But with you... with you I always can."

The music changed to a soft adagio of strings. The food began to arrive, and for a while, they let the present take center stage. Because in that moment, there, among glasses and warm lights, the future seemed less distant. And the past... a little less heavy.

May 15, 2000 – Floor 42, Main Conference Room, Enid Corp

Sunlight filtered through the huge glass windows of the 42nd floor, casting golden reflections on the polished obsidian table that dominated the center of the room. The holographic screens were still off, and the silence was broken only by the distant sound of Berlin traffic filtering up from the heights.

Everyone was present.

Phoenix, standing by the wall, arms crossed, gaze focused. Lucian, sitting with his typical look of indifference, fiddling with a pen. Marcus, leaning back in his chair. Vanessa, punctual as ever, holding a folder with a skeptical expression. And, of course, Enid, standing at the front, impeccable as always, setting the pace for everything just by being present.

When the main screen lit up, everyone looked up.

"Thank you for being punctual," Enid said in a firm tone. "This will be brief, but important."

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. Whenever Enid said "brief but important," what followed was rarely good.

"Vladslavia," she pronounced clearly, making the name appear in red letters on the screen. "A small country that emerged about ten years ago, after a territorial dispute between autonomous regions located between French Guiana and Brazil. A power vacuum allowed a new government to arise, and since then they have remained independent... and very discreet."

Lucian stopped twirling the pen.

"And what does that have to do with us?" he asked, not bothering to hide his boredom.

"Vladslavia has had a protection contract signed with Enid Corp for five years," she explained, without taking her eyes off the group. "And this week the president of Vladslavia, a certain César Halberg, has organized an international charity event. They have summoned us. Personally."

"Charity event?" Marcus snorted. "What are we going to do there? Cut ribbons and applaud speeches?"

"We're not going to do anything," Enid clarified. "We are going to make an appearance. Because it's a matter of diplomatic representation. The contract includes presence at official acts. It's non-negotiable."

Vanessa closed her folder with an audible sigh.

"And we all have to go? Can't the legal department just handle it?"

"The president specifically requested that the operations team attend. All of you," Enid replied, her tone dry.

Lucian raised his hands.

"Look, with all due respect... I'll pass on dinners with corrupt politicians in the middle of the jungle. Isn't there anyone else on staff who can cover that?"

"Do you really expect me to talk to corrupt politicians?" Marcus grumbled. "That's the worst thing you could ask me to do."

"I pass," said Vanessa. "I'm in the middle of a report on the Baltic labs. This seems like a waste of time to me."

Phoenix said nothing, but his expression spoke for him. A charity event in a tropical country didn't sound particularly appealing.

Enid let them talk. She watched their protests without changing her expression, and when they had all finished their respective complaints, she simply crossed her arms and looked at each one of them.

"Are you finished?"

Silence.

"Very well," she continued calmly. "Unfortunately for you, you don't get a vote. I decide. And we're going. All of you. So pack your things. The plane leaves in forty-eight hours."