Fantasy Under The Darkness of Night [closed]

[ZeeNathan]

spilledcoffee
Name: Lucas Dupont
Age (actual): 26
Age (when turned): 25
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Bisexual
Physical appearance: 5’10”, with dark eyes and dark brown unruly hair; naturally thin, lightly muscled, lanky
Personality: Relentlessly optimistic; energetic, excitable; naive, forgiving, far too trusting; a romantic, easily seduced
Backstory:

Spoiler

Prior to being turned, Luc had had a pretty easy life: rich, if absent parents; a large, if empty mansion; plentiful, if superficial friends. Luc had the money and enough smarts to breeze right through school and into university, where he studied English Literature with the intent of becoming a literary agent. With his easy charisma and nepotistic connections, he breezed into an assistant role at a high-end publishing house.

But Luc did not always make the best decisions, and eventually his run of good luck had to come to an end. Used to being loved by all and getting whatever he wanted, Luc was - and still is - too trusting and willing to see the good in others. All it took was one drunken night out, one conversation with the wrong man at a bar, one kiss turning into several, and soon he was lying in a pool of his own blood in a dark alleyway, a ravenous hunger clawing at his stomach.

Lost, alone and filled with bloodlust, Luc went on a feeding rampage which lasted for almost six months. By the time the local coven managed to catch up with him, a trail of dead bodies and newborn vampires were left in his wake. While the vampire who turned him is sought to enact justice, Luc has become the charge of an older, more seasoned vampire, tasked to teach him the ropes of how to survive as a creature of the night without drawing attention.

ZeeNathan
Name: Laviere Fontessle (Ayre)
Age (actual): should be around a hundred, if not more. He stopped aging at 25 years old and never bothered to count again after he reached 50.
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Bisexual
Physical appearance: 6'0”, has ear-length black hair and dark red eyes that would usually be hidden under brown-colored contact lenses. Long legs and a well-proportioned body with just enough muscle to make him neither too bulky nor too lanky
Personality: Overly silent; cold; unexpectedly easily distracted despite the always serious expression; gloomy; loner; closed-off; hates the crowds or noisy people.

Backstory:

Spoiler: It's very dark, be careful, please

Although he may not look like it, Ayre is one of the very few natural-born vampires; the pure-blood. Due to the very low fertility rate, it was said that vampires rarely have children of their own, making a naturally born vampires few and far in between. Most of them were already old enough to be relics in the museum and went into a deep slumber. Those who were still active decided to form a council of elders that presides over the vampire community, calling themselves the noble.

Ayre never knew how he was born, who his parents are, or why he was a natural-born vampire. At first, he didn't even know he was a vampire. He was adopted into a poor family in a small but happy village. Life was hard since he didn't have anything to eat on most days. But surrounded by caring and loving adopted parents as well as kind neighbors, Ayre couldn't ask for more. He cheerfully went about his days, helping his parents and playing with friends.

The only problem he had was that he often felt an unbearable craving for something, an extreme thirst, and hunger that never seem to go away. But because he was accustomed to eating once a day, sometimes even once every few days, he didn't think much of it at all.

That was until one day, when Ayre was around ten years old, the constant thirst and hunger that he always ignored started to feel very unbearable. He fell sick for days, unable to leave the bed. Worried about his condition, his parents did everything they could to provide him with medicine and food. But no matter how many foods he ate or how much water he drank, the feeling of hunger and thirst just continued to intensify. Then, at one point in time, Ayre lost control and... Blacked out.

When he came to, the small but beautiful village was already in ruin. Dried-up corpses with very familiar faces scattered around him, looking as if all of the moisture in their body has been sucked up. The beautiful village, the warm and kind villagers, his loving and caring adopted parents, everything was gone, leaving only him - fully covered in blood -standing in the middle of the now empty village.

From then on, the existence of the youngest natural-born vampire was officially recorded and the young, cheerful Ayre completely shut himself off from the world...

---

"How many times do I have to tell you? I won't do it. Go send someone else." Half shrouded in darkness, Ayre's low yet sharp voice cut through the overly quiet room. His tone was harsh and his whole body emitted a cold aura that could make one's spine shiver and shudder in goosebumps.

On the other side of the phone, a sigh came in. "Ayre, is that the tone you should use to talk to your elder? This is not a request. It's an order. If it was just me making the decision, I won't even consider sending you at all. But half of the council of elders has agreed to send you over. Now, even the special police department was involved. They suspect that you have something to do with the sudden appearance of many newborn vampires. If you continued to relentlessly refuse to do the job, you would give them a more justified reason to accuse you of conspiring against the human and make life even harder for you."

Ayre narrowed his eyes dangerously when he heard this. The temperature in the spacious and dark room continued to decrease with each passing second. But he refused to say anything more.

Hearing his silence, Oswald felt like he would go bald from worry. Alas, he had always known that Ayre is very stubborn. His collages might think that Ayre is a good candidate to monitor and guide the newborn. After all, despite being a relatively young pure-blood vampire, he had extremely good endurance against the thirst for blood. For the past hundred years or so, other than the time when he massacre a whole village back at the age of ten, not once has he ever been involved in any trouble. The few times where he showed his face in public left a good impression on the other vampires. 'The perfect example of a pureblooded vampire' is what they say about him. But that was only because they haven't known him personally. Only Oswald, who was in charge of guiding and monitoring him when he first made his appearance, knew just how awful he could be. If he had to describe Ayre in a few words, the most accurate description would be 'physically and mentally dead'. He's no different than a statue. Not only was he an abnormal vampire who hates blood, but he could also endure a full ten years of not drinking a single drop of blood when other vampires couldn't even last for a few days. And even now, Oswald was sure that Ayre only drank blood once a year at most, just to prevent himself from losing control again.

Oswald would understand this kind of irrational behavior if Ayre aspired to live as a human. After all, he did spend the first few years of his life living among the human. He might have a deep affection towards them, leading him to avoid drinking blood as much as he could. But no, Ayre didn't try to live as a human either. All he did was completely shut himself off from the rest of the world. Oswald really couldn't understand him at all.

Letting out another long sigh, Oswald tiredly persuades him once more. "Listen here, Ayre. This newborn that you would be in charge of is a special case. As soon as he became a vampire, he has gone into a feeding frenzy and killed many humans. Some newborns even appeared because of him. The special police department has tried its best to keep them in check. But if he was left alone any longer, the situation would go out of control sooner or later and more humans would die. Are you seriously going to watch that happen?"

Ayre didn't say anything. The silence lasted so long that Oswald had to check twice just to make sure that Ayre hasn't hung up yet. Just as he thought that Ayre would never answer and prepared to hang up in disappointment, Ayre's cold voice suddenly came from the phone. "I'll do it. Sent me his information." Just like that, before Oswald could doubt that he had a hearing problem, Ayre decisively hung up.

Oswald was very efficient. Maybe afraid that he would change his mind, not even a minute later, information regarding the newborn was sent to his phone. Ayre randomly chose one of them to open. A large and clear picture of a young man with messy dark brown hair and dark eyes were staring back at him with a huge smile on his face. Just looking at the picture alone made Ayre instantly regret his decision. And the more he read the brief description of this young newborn vampire, the more regretful he became. Lucas Dupont. Cheerful, overly optimistic, energetic, naive... Every one of those traits made his head ache just from imagining how awful it would be to deal with him. But now that he had agreed to do this job, Oswald would absolutely refuse to let him back away.

Ayre frowned in annoyance as he tossed the phone to the bed that was only present as a decoration. He stood up from the only chair in the room and walked towards the balcony. The curtain was drawn, showing the beautiful full moon that hung neatly in the vast and dark sky. From the information he just read, at this time, that newborn should be hunting around the outskirts of town. If he ran there right now, he should be able to find him before dawn. Thinking so, Ayre did a light stretch before jumping out of the balcony without a sound and blended perfectly into the darkness. In less than a few seconds, his shadows were already long gone from the vacinity of this isolated villa...

 

[spilledcoffee]

Since that one terrible night almost six months ago, all Lucas had been able to feel was a deep, gnawing hunger; and to call it a hunger for blood alone would diminish the intensity, the intoxicity of the feeling. Luc craved blood, yes, but he also had a lust for flesh, a desire for panicked breath escaping from tightened lungs, and the pink sheen that flushed cheeks from the exertion of fleeing. Everything about humans - the living ones, not the dead like him - teased at this new, animalistic instinct inside of him, driving him to near madness until all he could do was hunt.

When Luc had first woken up after being turned, it had felt like he was watching himself from a distance, his feelings and movements not seeming like his own. He had dragged himself up from the wet pavement, staggering on weak legs as he tried to flee the scene and return home. It had been about 4.30am when he regained consciousness, and the streets had almost been desserted aside from a handful of stragglers tripping home from bars and clubs. The early hour had been a blessing as well as a curse, for he could not stop himself from leaping on the first person he saw, pointed fangs latching on to the delicate skin of their throat. If it had been later in the day and busier, he surely would have been caught - and perhaps that would have been a good thing, considering the havoc he wrecked over the course of the following months. In his most vulnerable moments he wanted to hand himself in, but to which authority? Who would believe a half-crazed man claiming to be a vampire?

Instead Luc had continued to live life as normal, or as normally as he could given the circumstances. During the day he holed up in his penthouse apartment, satiated and just about able to continue his job with the ability to work from home. However, as afternoon crawled to evening turned to night, the desire to feed always returned stronger than ever, and after hours of scratching at his skin and slamming his head into walls, Luc always answered the call.

This evening had been no different. It was 2am, and Luc had only been on the prowl for an hour when he had stumbled upon his perfect first victim, a local woman about his age who had been unable to sleep and had subsequently gone for a late night walk. The pair had crossed paths on a woodland trail, and immediately Luc was drawn to the scent of her blood, which was surprisingly sweet, almost like honey. They had been bonding for an hour over their mutual love of books by the time Luc made his move.

"I know we've only just met and this is pretty forward of me, but...I don't know. I don't know if I've ever met anyone like you before, and I would absolutely kick myself if I didn't at least get your number." Luc's voice was low and soft, with a slight lilt of a French accent passed down to him from his mother. He smiled down at the woman - Clara, her name was Clara - full lips quirked in a grin. Luc watched as her eyes flickered down to his lips and back up again.

"I feel the same. I...." Clara paused mid-step, turned to face him. Her expression was a mixture of hope riddled with uncertainty. "I'd like to see you again. Soon. Today, maybe, when it's not -" She looked down at her watch, laughed. "-almost 4am. I'd like to see you at a normal person time of day." Clara's cheeks had turned progressively red during her speech, and Luc felt unable to stop himself stepping forward and bringing a hand up to stroke her soft flesh.

"We can make that happen." Luc's fangs dug into his bottom lip as saliva pooled under his tongue. He was ready to feast.

 

[ZeeNathan]

It didn't take long for Ayre to arrive on the outskirts of town. Now, he just had to find that newborn vampire. Ayre was confident that he would catch up to the other's trail in no time. But when he arrived around the area where Lucas was reported to often hunt, Ayre couldn't help but frown deeply.

Standing atop the roof of a tall building, Ayre overlooks the whole area around him.  It has changed...  he thought in annoyance. He used to be somewhat familiar with this particular area of the town. But he forgot how quickly humanity can change. He had only been away for a decade or two and now he couldn't even recognize most of the roads here.  This might take longer than I expected... 

Ayre sighed. He didn't want to spend the rest of the night running around like a headless chicken, blindly trying to locate Lucas. Left with no choice, Ayre tried to focus on his sense of smell. If Luc was really hunting right now, he just need to find the sweetest and most fragrant smell of blood around the area. Assuming that he had started his feast, the overwhelming smell of blood would also help him find his target.

Ayre actually hates using his sense of smell the most. Most of the time, he would purposely avoid breathing just so he won't smell anything. As soon as he started to use his sense of smell, the rush of many mixes of smells almost overwhelmed him. He quickly tried to focus from one smell to another, trying to differentiate them between the smell of human blood and other smells.

Before long, he really smelled a faint but sweet smell of blood. For many vampires, smelling this type of blood would make their throats parched with thirst. The temptation of the sweet-smelling blood of a human could make them go crazy with hunger. But Ayre's expression didn't change at all. He jumped down from the building and began to walk in the direction of the sweet smell. Sure enough, when he drew closer to the source of the smell, he found two figures standing very close to each other. The man was caressing the woman's cheek, looking intimate and romantic. If Ayre didn't know any better, they would look just like two couples going out on a late-night date.

Unfortunately, that man wasn't human. It seems like he arrived just in time. Lucas hasn't started his feast yet. Almost in an instant, Ayre left the shadow of the woods and arrived behind the dark-brown-haired newborn vampire and grabbed the back of Lucas's collar to yank him away from the innocent woman. He did it in a very rough and rude manner, without even making any sound. Throughout the whole action, his face remains expressionless.

Ignoring the probably alarmed woman who saw his sudden appearance, Ayre slowly spoke in a low and clear voice. "Lucas Dupont, you're under arrest for... Unauthorized hunting and indiscriminate murder of humans. You're coming with me." The last few words were spoken in a very quiet voice, but still loud enough for the woman to hear. 'murder, just that word alone should be enough to shoo her away, right?

 

[spilledcoffee]

Luc leaned forward, hearing a soft intake of breath from Clara as his lips grazed her neck. He barely had time to reveal his fangs before being forcefully yanked backwards, collar choking him in a way that might have been dangerous if he still had the need for air. A startled sound escaped him, something between a growl of frustration and a bewildered cry.

The sudden movement had the intended impact, however; Luc was snapped out of his frenzy, what he had come to think of as an alternate personality - as Other Luc, if you will - and was bodily returned to his senses, his humanity. And what he saw before him was everything that plagued his daylight hours: his victim’s face the moment before they were devoured, before they realised the true extent of his monstrosity and what was about to befall them. Clara looked at him with uncertainty, eyes flickering between his own and the man who clung on to his clothing. Remorse pooled thickly in Luc’s stomach.

“Run,” From the look on Clara’s face, it was clear she didn’t understand, perhaps didn’t want to. Luc cleared his throat, tried again with more feeling. “Run, Clara, before I hurt you. I’m sorry.” That seemed to be enough. With a final backward glance, Clara ran from the woodland, the sound of her pounding feet and panting gasps the only thing to be heard. When Luc could no longer see her, he turned his attention to his assailant.

“Under arrest? I’m pretty sure if I was being arrested for multiple murders by the police, they’d have a - I don’t know, a hit squad with them?” Luc’s voice was laced with humour, despite the distinct lack of anything being remotely funny about the situation - but he was at a loss of what else to do or say.

 

[ZeeNathan]

Ayre expressionlessly watched as Lucas - who seemed to have come back to his senses - warned the woman to run away. It seems that he hasn't completely lost his humanity after being turned into a vampire. This honestly made him a little impressed. Above all, Lucas taking the initiative to shoo the woman away made his job so much easier. At least he didn't have to deal with a frightened woman who screamed at the top of her lungs or a self-righteous person who didn't know any better. Thinking so, his initial bad mood from being forced into dealing with this troublesome job lightened a little.

As soon as Ayre was sure the woman was gone, he turned his attention back to the newborn vampire. This lad doesn't seem to realize what kind of trouble he had gotten into as he still had the mood to joke around. But he could somewhat understand why he said that. Ayre might be a senior vampire, but he sure as hell has no experience in capturing a newborn and being in charge of them. If he was being honest, he didn't even know what to do after this. Should he just drag this newborn vampire back to his villa, locked him up in there for a few months or years, then let him go back to the wild? He wasn't too sure why he found that thought a little wrong somehow. But he was really at a loss. He was rushing to this place and searching for Lucas while thinking that if he had to be in charge of him, the first thing he should do was to meet him first. But he has no idea whatsoever about what to do next. How was he supposed to educate him? Should he tell the other about the history of vampires or something? Ah, that doesn't seem too useful. Then, what about a lesson about how to survive as a vampire? He should also tell him about the rules of being a vampire...

Ayre's face reminded cold and serious as if he doesn't have any other expression except from those two. But in fact, his train of thought was already flying to the moon and soaring across the galaxy. He was so deep in thought that he ended up staying silent for a full two minutes, leaving the two of them standing there in full silence. He didn't even let go of the other's clothes and just stood there while scrutinizing the other. His blood-red eyes hid a sharp light, not at all like the eyes of a person whose thoughts were wandering far into the galaxy. It was only when the situation was getting very awkward and uncomfortable did he came back from his deep thoughts and reply slowly, "You should be grateful that I was the one who came instead of the police. In fact, it was a miracle that you haven't been caught by them by now."

While what he said might sound arrogant and annoying, Ayre was actually just stating the truth. Most humans were still unaware of the existence of supernatural beings. But those in the know never dropped their guards against these mysterious existences that could bring harm to their kind. This was especially true for the leading figures of the country. Despite the friendship agreement between them, heresies in species exist, after all. Because of this, departments that specialized in dealing with the supernaturals were made so that they could guard against them. One of them is a special unit department that defends and deals with supernaturals that were out of control. They are especially hostile to vampires since they prey on human blood. There are many cases where newborn vampires who got caught by them after indiscriminately preying on humans ended up dying without an intact bodies after months of torture. On the contrary, Ayre's main job is to guide Lucas as a vampire so that he could adapt to his new identity and survive as a vampire without hurting the human. Of course, to do this, he would need to 'arrest' him first. But apart from being under surveillance 24/7 and temporarily losing his freedom to act on his own, Ayre won't do anything to actually harm him. He was even obligated to provide him with his basic necessities to live as a vampire.

"I'm the vampire that will be in charge of you from now on. You can call me Ayre. You'll live with me and stay under my watch until you fully learned the way to live as a vampire. Any question?" This is probably the first time after many decades that he had said so many words in one day. In fact, on normal times, he wouldn't even bother explaining anything to Lucas and straight up dragging him back to his house. What to do next could be think of later. This showed on the way Ayre still haven't let go of the other's clothes, ready to drag him away as soon as the other said 'no question'.

 

[spilledcoffee]

The few minutes of the stranger’s silence was enough for two things to happen.

One, Luc managed to turn around to face him. The awkward manoeuvre put strain on the collar of his shirt, and the gentle hiss of ripping thread echoed in the silence of the night. The gamble paid off, however, and Luc found himself facing a man only a few inches taller than himself and broader across the chest, with similarly dark hair and blood red eyes. Luc used the silence to take the man in, aware of the handsomeness of his features despite being coupled with a cool, impassive stare. I’m the vampire that will be in charge of you. The revelation of Luc’s deepest fears sent a chill up his spine.

And yet, this was not enough to truly distract Luc from the task at hand. Two: the bloodlust rapidly returned. That single moment of lucidity, of humanity, disappeared along with the trail of Clara’s sweet scent. The anger he felt from his prey having escaped - and in that moment, that was all Clara was - bubbled up inside of him, clawing at his parched throat. Luc felt like he was suffocating. His eyes - a dark red, darker than Ayre’s and almost black from hunger - narrowed and his teeth bared in a twisted sneer.

Distantly, Luc recognised that this wasn’t who he was. He had always been a very laidback person, easy to converse with and quick to laugh. He was kind, helpful where he could be, the sort of person who would turn up at a friend’s house in the middle of the night after a break-up with a pizza, tub of ice cream, and bad film. His glass was incessantly, borderline obnoxiously, half-full, with a strong belief that even the most dire of situations would work out in the end. If that Luc had been there, he would have apologised for his behaviour and suggested the pair get a drink to talk it out, with flushed cheeks and an embarrassed smile. Alas, that was not to be the case.

“Get your hands off me,” Luc hissed, scrabbling at Ayre’s vice-like grip to release himself. When the man’s hold didn’t give, Luc forcefully ripped himself away, the sound of the collar fully tearing from his shirt almost violent in its volume. Lucas took five steps backwards, body instinctively positioning him in a crouch, ready for a fight.

“Ayre.” Luc’s tongue curled around the name and spat it out like a curse. “You expect gratitude, after you lost me my meal? After you swan in here, acting like you are doing me a favour when it has been six months. I have been like this for six. Fucking. Months. So stop acting like you’re some noble saviour - the police catching me probably would have been a blessing.”

 

[ZeeNathan]

When Ayre heard the sound of ripping clothes and saw the newborn vampire hissing at him, fully ready to fight, he didn't react right away and only shifted his eyes from the ripped part of the clothes in his hand to the angry vampire. His expression was still as cold and impassive as ever, as if he didn't take the other as a threat. But what came across his mind was 'Is a newborn always this strong? Is it because he drank a lot of blood or am I just getting too old?'. In short, his mind had started to run off again, leaving the body behind.

Thankfully though, Ayre quickly came back to his senses this time. Slowly retracting his hand to the side of his body, Ayre quietly stood there while watching Luc glaring at him in anger. His dark red eyes, close to being completely black, showed the extreme hunger he probably experience right now. It might seem like his anger came from being disturbed in the middle of his hunt, making his prey escape. But as Ayre gaze at the young vampire who shouted at him with a hint of hatred and said that it would be a blessing for the police to catch him instead, Ayre seem to see another figure in Lucas. Just a little boy around the age of ten with blood smearing his mouth and body. The look in that boy's eyes and Lucas's eyes slowly overlapped...

Ayre lowered his gaze to hide the flash of emotions in his eyes. Rather than positioning himself to welcome Lucas's attack or get ready to catch him again, Ayre just stood there in silence as if this turn of events didn't concern him at all. "You can go and find another prey if you want. That Clara girl must've not gone too far. You'll catch up to her in no time." His voice was cold and emotionless like he was not talking about the possible death of an innocent woman. But when he stared right into the young vampire again, the pair of blood-red eyes shone with a sliver of unknown meaning. For a split second, there was a hint of sadness and detachment. Like a pair of soulless, empty eyes. "I won't stop you from going back to how you've lived for the past six months, falling further into endless madness and bloodlust until someone finally comes to end your life. Go on and piled even more bodies. Do whatever you want." With each word, Ayre's tone grew more detached and distant. Then, like a final blow, he slowly asked. "Is that what you want?"

 

[spilledcoffee]

"What?" Luc had been ready for a fight or some kind of backlash at least when he tore himself free from the other vampire's hold; the lack of any reaction was equal parts unexpected and unnerving, and set Luc on edge. The way Ayre spoke to him, face hardened, tone impassive, truly made it sound like he did not care what Luc decided. Who was this man, and why had he been sent after him?

Luc took another step back, this time in the vague direction of Clara's flight, almost experimentally. When the movement failed to goad Aye into action, Luc's posture lost some of its coiled up tension and he straightened up, even though the call to hunt was still rippling through him. His head was a swirling concoction of emotions: desire and fear, relief and anger, excitement and regret. It was not yet clear at this point which one would win out.

"What do you mean, 'is that what I want'? You think I wanted this, any of this?! I was normal, and then this guy-" In Luc's minds eye, he could only conjure up a hazy figure of a man, indistinct and blurred at the edges. Perhaps there was a snatch of blonde hair, an expanse of pale skin, red eyes which Luc had assumed were contacts but now knew better - but there was little else. Luc hadn't even known the man's name.

"This guy comes and he makes me into this-this-this creature, prowling the streets in the dead of night, barely able to concentrate for want of blood, an ever-growing mound of bodies in my wake. Does that sound like something anyone would want?" Luc was keeping control, but just barely. Ignoring his hunger had never been an option, and already he felt the way it was starting to crawl across his skin, making him want to scratch his skin raw. He resisted the urge, but his fingers twitched with desire to obey. Luc took a deep, unnecessary breath in, and leveled his gaze with Ayre's.

"I need blood. I need it now and I need it fast."

 

[ZeeNathan]

As a matter of fact, Ayre wasn't pretending that he didn't care about Lucas's decision. He truly didn't care. He had stopped caring about a lot of things as far as several decades ago. If Ayre knew Oswald has described him as no different than a statue, instead of being offended, Ayre would agree instead. For so long now, he had always been standing still, watching quietly as the scenery around him change with time and everything moved forward in an unstoppable momentum. On the other hand, he was not moving, not affected by the changes or the flow of time.

Despite living no different from being dead, he was, in a sense, still alive after all. As someone who still has his consciousness, there are still a few things that he still cares about, something he couldn't let go of.

Ayre was like an immovable mountain. He didn't move a single inch even when Lucas goaded him or showed signs of planning to escape. He just quietly took in the look in the young vampire's eyes. Hunger, anger, fear, regret, guilt...

Even as Lucas almost lost control of his emotion, Ayre showed no reaction. But in the depth of his eyes, the sharpness and coldness receded a little as bits of dusty memories emerged in his mind. "Getting turned into a vampire was not your choice nor was it your fault. But..." Ayre shifted his gaze towards the woods. He was remembering the words that Oswald had said to him back when he first met him. "Learning to accept your identity and make use of it rather than being controlled by it  is an option. The question is whether you'd make that choice or not."

Ayre was not a teacher, nor was he a person with the emotional capability to console others and made them change their way. But those words that Oswald had said to him were what made him decide to 'live' instead of embracing real death after he was aware of what he had done back then. Until now, he still couldn't fully comprehend the meaning of those words. He just knew that they made him realize that he couldn't die yet. At least not without suffering for a long time.

Ayre lowered his eyes and reached into his pocket. His movement imperceptibly stilled for a split second before he proceed to naturally take out a little crimson-colored pill. Then, he tossed it toward Lucas. There was a crack on his cold and impassive face that he tried to hide with a cough. "Deal your hunger with that first." Because I forgot to prepare any blood pack... Did I store any in the villa? It couldn't have gone bad, right? A blood pill is enough for me but for the newborn vampire... This is why I refused to be in charge of newborn vampires.

Luther's expression cracked even more as his thoughts started to wander again. But like an illusion, it quickly went back to the usual cold and impassive face. "Will you come with me or not? The choice is yours."

 

[spilledcoffee]

Getting turned into a vampire was not your choice nor was it your fault. Ayre’s words were not much in the way of consolation, but it was enough for that moment - enough, at least, for Lucas to be willing to stay put and listen to what else the man had to say.

With vampire-quick reflexes, Luc lurched forward to snatch the little red pill out of the air, pale fingers clasped tightly around it. Even through the dissolvable plastic casing, Luc could smell the blood within; unlike Clara’s, which had been fresh, sweet and oh-so-tantalising, the pill smelled somewhat stale and bland, like a slice of bread free from condiments. Luc knew it would still taste fine, would still curb some of his hunger, but it was nowhere near as appetising as his most recent meals. It would have to do for now. Luc tossed the pill into his mouth, fangs grazing the capsule to pop it open and let the liquid spill into his mouth. Almost immediately, he felt some of the itching recede.

“Thanks,” Luc’s voice was quiet, almost apologetic now that the frustration had started to settle. A hand is lifted to his torn collar, fingertips pulling absently at the frayed edges. “I’ll come with you. I…where will you take me? Is there a…” Luc’s mind wandered back to books he’d read, all works of fiction; surely one of them had some truth to it, if this was all real? “Is there a group? Am I going to be punished?”

 

[ZeeNathan]

Ayre didn't respond to Lucas' thanks. He was still thinking about whether he had blood packs on his house or not. What if there isn't any blood pack and Lucas lost control of his hunger again? If that really happens, Ayre was confident that he could swiftly knock him unconscious with a smack on the back of his head. But he still had to solve the food problem asap.

When he heard that Lucas agreed to come with him, Ayre almost immediately wanted to turn around and started going back to his villa, forgetting any explanation. Well, he really was not planning to explain in the first place, wanting to take him back to the villa right away. But when Lucas asked about a group or community of vampires and whether he would bring him there to be punished or not, Ayre hesitated. He wasn't sure of the normal procedure when taking in the newborn vampire and being in charge of them. Does he need to report to the council of elders first and let Lucas meet them? The faces of those ever-handsome 'elders' with their cunning looks and annoying sense of superiority emerged in Ayre's face, making him frown deeply. Regardless of the rules, he didn't want to see those elder vampires at all.

"We're going to my place. Just follow me." Then, without providing any more explanation, Ayre started to walk away, not even turning his head back to make sure that Lucas was really following him. His every step was steady and calm, even looking a little slow. But in fact, he was already 20 yards away in just a few seconds, showing the abnormal ability of a vampire.

Ayre was leading Lucas deeper into the woods on the outskirts of town. With the scarce amount of sunlight that filtered through the densely packed trees, Ayre navigated his way through the dark woods with ease. Darkness was never a problem for vampires, the creature of the night, after all.

Before long, Ayre could see a silhouette of an old villa that was fully surrounded by the forest. From the distance, this villa looked no different than a spooky hunted house due to the black and dark brown colors that dominated the villa. A 20-feet-high smooth black wall encircled the area, preventing any unwanted guests from coming in. Despite there being a large front gate somewhere along the black wall that act as an entrance, Ayre didn't bother taking the roundabout ways and straightforwardly jumping over the wall to enter his house. With the special physique of a vampire, he only needs a light tap of his feet to arrive at the other side of the wall.

Contrary to how it looked from the distance, there was a surprisingly well-maintained garden inside. There were no colorful flowers or exotic plants, just ordinary bushes and some willow trees, making it look a little barren and bland. But it was very clean with a neat layout, encircling the small fountain in the center of the garden.

The villa was not very large. It has two floors with the upper floor that was much smaller than the first one. It was built in an ancient European style, looking very historical. But the inside was very minimalistic, if not empty. The area that was meant to be a kitchen was completely empty. There are no paintings or sculptures that decorated the entire house. The living area only has two couches and a single undecorated coffee table, nothing else. The only room that can be considered quite 'normal' was the study room which has several bookshelves filled to the brim with books. This was only the layout of the first floor. The second floor where the bedrooms were located was even more barren. If not because there wasn't a single speck of dust anywhere, people could easily think that no one was living in this house. The whole interior was cold and gloomy, very depressing.

But of course, Ayre did not care. This was how he had lived for several decades. Apart from frequenting the study room, he would be sitting in his bedroom, staring into the scenery outside his windows for hours, even days. It was not a joke to say that he's no different than a statue. Ayre gave Lucas a quick tour of the house. "You'll be staying in the room next to mine. You can do whatever you want, but don't get out of the villa without permission. I'll know right away as soon as you stepped out of this place's vicinity, so don't even try to run off without a word. Any question?" Like an old professor, Luther explained in a cold and impassive voice.

 

[spilledcoffee]

With his hunger partially sated, Luc finally had the headspace to focus on the situation before him. Although Ayre had first appeared like a man of minimal emotion, Luc was now able to observe the distant look in his eyes, the slight hesitation when he inquired after the rest of their kind. So there was someone behind the mask. But what would draw him out? Luc had always had a talent for reading people, for gradually coaxing individuals out from behind their mental walls, but Aye seemed like he would be a tough nut to crack.

“You’ve done this before, haven’t you? I’m not your first.” Luc positioned it as a statement, not a question, even though he was inclined to believe the opposite. If Ayre had supported - mentored? - newborn vampires before, surely he would not have hesitated. Could Ayre be equally as lost as Lucas? Luc couldn’t decide if the thought was comforting or alarming.

Although Ayre moved quickly, Luc’s eyes were just as fast, each of his senses now honed to a sharp point. Luc kept up with the older vampire easily, falling into a casual half-step behind him, and before long they entered the man’s villa, Luc copying Ayre’s vault over the dark wall.

The tour was brutally efficient, with Luc barely having enough time to glance into each room before they moved on. The villa was the opposite of Luc’s penthouse apartment, which was all sleek modern furnishings with his possessions haphazardly strewn throughout. The lack of any decoration, of any sense of Ayre’s villa resembling a home, had a disquieting effect on the newborn.

“Aye aye, Captain,” Luc murmured in response to Ayre’s instructions, standing awkwardly outside the room that had been designated his. He had plenty of questions - so many, in fact, that he didn’t know where to start. In the end, all he asked was, “I’m still hungry. Do you have any more of those pills, or…?” Or a human casually hanging around your place who voluntarily wants to be devoured?