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“Why should I concern myself with the death of your kind?” Marius questioned, bored as he laid back in his chair.
We were surrounded by shelves of books towering on either side of the room. I could have lost myself to the gilded lettering across the spines and the smell of the pages if I was not in such… unpredictable company. Fire glowed in the many hearths within the study; they had been lit before we had entered.
“Have you wondered what would happen to you when the last human is drained of the precious blood that keeps you… reanimated?”Faenir’s question was pointed and precise.
“That is not a matter that should concern you, elf.” Unseen wind lifted the brown curls from Jak’s forehead.
“Oh, but it does. Greatly, in fact.”
“Do go on,” Marius said, amused. “What holds your interest in whether or not humans survive the might of my kind?”
Faenir had not touched the wine that Marius had poured for him. The cork spun around within the dark liquid; even the bottle was covered in dust, the label unreadable in its age.
“To put it simply, my world will cease to exist.”
“And this concerns me?”Marius replied with a disinterested hum.
Shadows twisted from the corner of the room and gathered in a cloak around us. “It should. If pushed, I will do anything to ensure the human race does not perish.”
“Ah,” Marius breathed, pointing towards where I sat. “Yet if I read your subtle threat correctly, by destroying me you will not only remove the threat of my kind from this world but also yourfriendhere… he would turn to ash alongside us all.”
Faenir flinched at the term Marius used.Friend.
“If that ensures the human race survives…” I said, one brow raised in jest.
“Will you reduce yourself to drinking the blood of rats when you wipe us from existence?” Auriol glowered towards the Lord of Vampires. “And what will you do when you kill the last of those? When all creatures are drained, and you are left to starve? What then?”
“Finally, we reached the heart of this conversation.” Marius laughed.
“I’m not one to laugh at,” Auriol growled.
Marius studied her for a moment, a grin etched into his demonic yet handsome face. “You remind me of a human girl I once knew.”
“What became of her?” Auriol asked. I felt her fingers linger close to my belt and the stakes that waited upon it.
“She willingly gave herself to the death I could gift her. Perhaps I will introduce you to Katherine before you leave… I imagine she would admire your strength a lot. She has such a weak spot for women with spirit of steel.”
Jak slapped a hand down on the table, the many glasses chimed in response. “I’ve been betrayed before by my own blood. What makes you think we will trust you?Strangers.”
“What if I could promise you a cure? A way of keeping you satisfied,” Faenir murmured, drawing their attention back to him.
“You suggest we are in need of fixing?” Jak spat.
Faenir did not flinch at Marius’s shadows that joined our conversation suddenly. “Careful, my love, let us not ruin the evening just yet. I have interest in what this… elf has to say.”
“I do not mean to fix your curse,” Faenir said, leaning forward on the table. “That power is even beyond me. But what if I could provide you sustenance? Blood. An eternal source to keep you and your kind full and the humans untouched. Auriol is right. I do not imagine such powerful beings as yourselves drinking from the likes of vermin. Even I can see that you are above such desperation as that.”
It was a gamble coming to Darkmourn to bargain with demons. To play on a weakness that Auriol had brought to light. To pick out a pending concern of blood for the creatures that required it in order to prevent their own inevitable destruction if humans and animals became extinct.
It would seem Auriol was right. Marius and Jak shared a look that sang with concern. It gleamed through the cracks of their confidence and allure.
“Would you like for me to continue?” Faenir’s shoulders relaxed as he recognised the reaction before him.
“You have come all this way, elf. Do not stop on our behalf.”
“Good.” Faenir lifted a hand to his side and flicked his fingers with dramatic ease. The shadows peeled away, revealing another being we had brought with us.Both vampires reacted as though sunlight had burst through the night. “A gift,” Faenir looked towards Gildir, who stood rigid as the shadows melted away from him, “A peace offering between us, if you will.”
Jak and Marius hissed, nails scratching into the wood of the table. They had not felt, nor sensed, the extra presence and reacted as such.
