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Haven turned, and Cypress followed him through the deadened grove, breathing in the fresh air as Haven stood beneath his parasol. Not for the first time, he wondered at what the world must have been like before. Before all the death and despair. Before the sun was hidden and the plants and animals had died. Luckily, the green in the trees hadn’t faded completely. What few leaves remained provided a glimpse of the beauty that might once have been.
“I wish I’d known what it was like before it looked like this,” Cypress said as if reading his mind.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Haven admitted.
Cypress seemed almost surprised that he’d spoken at all. “So you…you were turned after the Extinction? You haven’t been a vampyre long?” There was something soft in Cypress’s expression now. Something strange Haven hadn’t seen before, and even despite the personal nature of the question, he felt compelled to answer.
“Only about fifty years or so.”
“Fifty years.” Cypress raised a brow. “You look good for your age.”
Haven’s cheeks blazed with heat. Cypress, too, looked stunned at his own admission. For a moment, they both stood there, not knowing what to say, how to proceed.
Haven broke the silence. “I thought you hated vampyres. Don’t you find me repulsive?”
“Of course I do.” Cypress smiled at him. A true, actual smile that settled in Haven’s gut.
When he smiled like that…
Haven turned away, his gaze once again falling to the landscape around them. He tugged on Cypress’s leash to make him move once more.
“I’m sure it was beautiful here once. Now, it’s just cold and sad,” the human muttered, kicking at a stone on the ground so it skipped and skidded out of sight.
“Humans did this. Not vampyres.”
Cypress nodded. “I know. We destroyed the world and opened the door for vampyres. We made it easy for them.”
“No one wanted this.” Haven gestured to the gray landscape. “Do you think the vampyres prefer this dead world over one alive and filled with color?”
“It’s a world where they can prey easily and without repercussions. There’s no challenge anymore, no fighting for survival. The world laid out before you is a vampyre’s paradise, isn’t it?”
“You really can’t fathom a world where humans aren’t the heroes, can you? Where vampyres aren’t the villains.”
“Humans aren’t innocent. But yes, the vampyresarethe villains.”
“So stubborn.” Haven shook his head. “All enemies are villains to the other side.”
“You’ve just told me you were a human yourself not too long ago.”
“And now I’m not,” Haven replied curtly.
“Are you happy?”
He stalled, stopping them both in their tracks. “Why do you care about that?”
“You were a human not so long ago. Is this life a better one than the one you had before?”
“Yes.” His voice came out a choked whisper.
Cypress watched him with a soft, discerning expression. “Do you mean that?”
Haven bristled. Why wouldn’t this damn human take him at his word? He was a vampyre slayer, wasn’t he? He claimed he was exceptional at killing them. So why did he care about whether or not Haven was happy? Wouldn’t he prefer that all of them suffer? “Why do you care?”
“What happened to you, Haven?”
Haven wanted to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of this. Of a human pet asking him something so personal, something so dangerous. If he were any other vampyre in any other situation, he might have thrown his parasol to the ground, burns be damned, and torn this human limb from limb.
“Where do you get the courage to be so bold? Aren’t you afraid of the consequences of asking me something so personal?”
