"The figure was a slender woman, dressed in breeches, a tunic, a vest, a cravat, and low boots of black with deep red accents, and carried a walking-stick topped with a sphere filled with an unsettlingly-mixing red and black substance.

She settled into the chair, and her face became visible in the light. The hair was a dark blonde, and the eyes a deep black. The lips were rouged in blood-red and stretched into an almost unnatural grin."

vampire

i would want her to do unspeakable things to me and assume she was perfectly happy to do them whether i wanted her to do it or not. also that she's probably some sort of witch, noblewoman, or vampire - or, plausibly, all three

yeah, vampire or a dabbler of forbidden magic

Oh yeah. She's bad news.

Excellent. That's the kind of impression I want her to give.

That's Dutchess Haelisera Nerala, who is secretly the Right Hand of the Tyrant. She doesn't dabble in forbidden magic, she's one of the most powerful practitioners of certain illegal practices of magic in Taeliana. Everyone thinks she's a fluff-headed nobody. The truth is she's a sociopathic narcissist who feels that the best ruler is an autocrat.

And she's the best suited to be that autocrat.

polite cough 'Duchess', unless you have the Low Countries included in your world.