[Title] Nuestro Pasado
[Author] jadedsilk (Mara D.)
[Series] Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
[Pairing] HectorxIssac (Not yet, but it will be.)
 

Hector stalked down the hallway cautiously in the dusk light. Something was wrong, he could feel it, and he wasted no time summoning Deera to his side. He had come, hearing screaming all the way from his rooms. Of course, Isaac was asleep, and would probably remain so for some time. He had been meeting with The Lord for most of the night, learning spells that he eventually taught to Hector. The Lord was arming them well to protect themselves. Or at least, he wanted to believe that, and so he did.

 There was the hot metallic stink of freshly spilled blood in the corridor, and that meant danger, it drew Hector sharply from his thoughts. He had his hand on the hilt of his sword as he crept forward, eyes narrowed.

 The sound of the water fountains against the walls was deceptively soothing, as was the elegant marble tile. Once it would have been peaceful, but with the changes the castle had undergone, even in the last several months…it was only really dismal and heavy now. There was an air of anticipated violence surrounding the very turrets, extending even to the depths of the moat. 

The Lord’s displeasure poisoned the very air his servants breathed, and darkened the waters surrounding the castle like blood. Vile things had been appearing within the halls themselves, hungry and frightening monsters that the two Forgemasters had been instructed to leave be. They were for defense…The Lord had said. 

It was of course, unsurprising that violence erupted, and so when Hector stumbled over the corpse of a servant, he was not terribly stunned, though he was very nearly sick. Cruelty was something Hector was used to seeing, but the raw brutality of the killing was beyond words.

 Her throat had been torn out, and her innards decorated the walls and stone floor, screaming crimson against the pale marble.

 /Go, find Isaac!/ Hector ordered his familiar mentally as he turned that head to the side with the back of his hand. As he had suspected, where the head was still held on by strips of skin and cords of tendon, there were sharp fang marks along the jugular. 

He sighed and glowered at the corpse as if it would yield up clues leading to its murderer. A vampire would drink…but it would not eat flesh. The woman had obviously had large chunks of muscle pulled from the bone, and there were tooth marks in the bones themselves where multiple canines had scrambled and gnawed.

 Hector did not have to wait long for Isaac.  

Isaac appeared beside Hector, using his recently learned apparition spell of his newest familiar. With him came Otto, and of course, the devil in question.

 Isaac looked cranky that he had been woken, and absolutely unsurprised by the dead woman in front of them both, but he did regard her with a low sigh.

 Hector’s gaze was drawn to Otto a few moments later, as Isaac was giving him a dispassionate glance. The beasts muzzle was smeared with blood.

 “Isaac?” Hector asked, real horror dawning in his tone.

 Isaac smirked at him silently.

 “Isaac…did you do this?” 

Isaac snorted and rolled his eyes, cocking a hip in an obvious show of attitude.

 “I knew of it…he killed her, and Otto just made sure she didn’t completely go to waste.”

 Hector found tears in the corners of his eyes, tears for this dead woman.

 “How could you?” Hector asked, his voice shaking as the narrow rope of trust he had twined with Isaac tore, and he found himself trembling.

 “She was human, she would have killed us all had she her way.”

 Hector’s mouth felt dry.

 “Isaac…you are human too,” Hector said lowly. “Would you wish to be murdered thus?”

 “Hector, you are being a woman. I will clean up the mess. Go have a cup of tea.”

 “You are…a monster,” Hector whispered, his hands shaking. “How can you be so casual about this?!”

 “And you are blameless? Hector, your blade joined mine in that village, you have no room to cast stones.”

 It was like someone had slammed a fist into Hector’s gut, and he grunted in pain and horror at the words. He might as well have done this himself…

 “You…” He thought of the most horrible truth he could give Isaac in exchange for this personal disgust he had given Hector. He glanced at the claw marks on Isaac’s cheek, now scars. “You are a scarred monster! I might be a murderer, but you are a beast of such unfailing cruelty that it /horrifies/ me to look at you!” Hector spat.

 For a moment, Isaac’s eyes held shocked pain, betrayal, and a hand came up to trace his cheek, over the scars there unsteadily.

 Oh good, they were even now.

 What he was not suspecting was for Isaac to spin on him, throwing knife seeming to materialize as if from thin air, and slam into his shoulder.

 Hector staggered backwards, and knelt in a puddle of cold blood, Isaac’s laugh following him to his knees. He grasped the hilt of the blade in shock, fingers trembling as they tried to clasp over the hilt where scarlet was welling quickly.

 “Killing is a natural instinct, I pity you Hector. You feel sorrow and sympathy for those that would murder you. You will thank me when you survive,” Isaac smiled almost a bit sadly, another knife in his hand.

 Deera was in front of him now, lips ruffling in an angry snarl. Hector gasped as he struggled to his feet.

 /Get me out of here!/ he pleaded to her, and he felt the sing of a blade past his other shoulder as her claws closed around his belt, lifting him up and flying him right out the open gallery window above them and into the dawn blizzard.

 Isaac’s mad laughing and cries of “coward!” Followed his flight out into the snows, and Hector did not even have time to marvel at such a joy as flight.

 When Deera set him down, she did so in a snowdrift.  

Hector shivered, staggering towards the nearby base of a cliff face. He leaned into the shelter of the stone, shaking as he slid to his knees and Deera stood in front of him, wings spread to block the chill wind, her scales still hackled as she glanced around suspiciously. 

He grasped at the hilt of the knife, and pulled before gasping in pain. The blade had to be serrated with spines on the top that pointed backwards. Isaac’s normal throwing weapon of choice. Blood dripped out onto the snow, crimson and hot. He could not even pull the blade…

 He was shocked. Terrified. He had trusted Isaac, and now…this…now this.  

He leaned back against an ice and snow covered rock, and willed himself away. Tried to will the pain away. And for a moment, he succeeded. That was, until Deera’s warm tongue was lapping roughly at the wound, her teeth worrying at the handle of the blade. Hector cried out lowly in pain.

 “Leave it,” he commanded. “Leave me!”

And then he was alone in the snow.  

~*~

“Hector.”

 “Hector.”

 “Hector, this is going to hurt.”

 Hector opened one eye, or at least tried to, but his eyelashes were frozen together, and his whole body felt unyielding, stiff. He managed to observe the world around haloed slits. 

A strong hand clasped around the pain in his shoulder, and simply pulled.

 He cried out lowly, more in protest for being moved than for whatever had just been done. He stared at the scarlet that had splattered along the perfect white, following the blade as it had been ripped free. And then there was warmth, a strong pair of arms around him. For so long it seemed, the only warmth there was was the leaking of that red from his shoulder.

 Now he was buried in the familiar spice of warm flesh, being caressed by tangled, snow flake covered silver hair that fell in long and silky pools around him.

 “Oh Hector…you are so cold,” That low and soothing voice murmured against him and he held tighter reflexively.  

Yes. Yes he was. He almost wanted to object to this heat because he hated the thought of thawing.

 There were the motions of a finger and claw, slipping past his lips, and then the sound of flesh giving.

 Hector blinked in surprise as something hot trickled over his mouth.

 “Drink.”

 It was one word, a command, and he found his body willingly obeying it. Tapered fingers cradled the back of his skull as he sealed his mouth over the wound and swallowed because he had been told to. Because he could do nothing else. Each mouthful burned all the way down, like whiskey consumed too quickly, and as he drank, the pain began to ease. This was blood…Adrian’s blood, but it didn’t taste like copper…it was like liquid sunlight, and he was pulling hard at the wound for more.

 They were moving, and Hector clung close, pressing his eyes tightly shut as he felt Adrian’s strong arms hold him tight and sure. When they were out of the wind, when they were someplace safe, Adrian’s wound was closed, and Hector was reflexively nuzzling for more to drink.

 He heard Adrian laugh, low and soft.

 “A bit intoxicating…isn’t it?”

 The warmth of a fire…and sure hands tugging his clothes off, there was the rough rub of dry towel against his skin. Against his face.

 He could open his eyes then, and when he did, Adrian’s face swam into focus. There was a wolf fur rug under the bare skin of his back, and the fire was dancing across his frozen body nearly painfully.

 A hot and wet cloth touched his shoulder, and he arched his back in pained protest.

 “Come here,” Adrian whispered, lifting him with ease to the soft cloth of only an undertunic. The snow damp armor and cloak had been removed, and Hector whimpered against the heat of that chest. Even the slightly-cool-by-human-standards skin of the half-breed felt like heaven.

 Bare fingers pushed the tangles of hair away from the side of Adrian’s neck, and the pale young man tilted his head, again reaching up to pierce his throat with a claw tip.

“Drink.”

 And this time, Hector worked his way to the wound, lapping the skin as he went. Adrian was his friend, this was a gift…a gift of life and healing, and he would be careful, respectful. When he closed his mouth over the puncture and drew at the wound, Adrian shivered.

 He must have felt Hector’s hesitation, because his fingers stroked Hector’s back reassuringly.

 “It does not hurt.” Adrian soothed. “Show me…show me what happened?”

 Hector closed his eyes then, and yielded.

 ~*~ 

When he woke, he was in Adrian’s bed, hand curled fitfully around the younger man’s fingers, clinging close even in sleep, and The Lord was leaning over him, eyes looking surprisingly worried.

 “Hector?” the Vampire Lord asked as he touched Hector’s forehead with a broad palm.

 Hector would have panicked, but that touch was too primal, too familiar from a time when he remembered little else but this man’s kindness. Whether that had changed or not, did not matter.  

“My Lord?” he rasped quietly in answer. 

“Your wounds have healed, though you need to eat, drink, regain your strength,” he murmured.  

Adrian was perched on the edge of the bed as well, and his hand squeezed Hector’s reassuringly.  

“Forgive me,” Hector whispered lowly. “…for troubling my Lord in these times of trial…and please My Lord…do not blame…don’t blame Isaac….I deserved his ire.” Hector said lowly. 

“Isaac has been punished according to his actions,” The Lord murmured.

 “My lord I…”

 “Hush Hector, rest here. I will have a servant bring up food for you both shortly…and…in case you care,” He murmured. “The woman in question was planning to kill me in my sleep. Do not be so quick to judge, though I can hardly blame you considering the circumstances surrounding her death.”

The man tugged his fingers through Hector’s still wet hair, and he felt part of his heart melt.

 How could he have doubted his Lord? His sins must be forgiven now, the vampire did not seem angry, and his touch felt sincere.

 Hector felt his eyes drifting closed against his will, and when that silky and cool hand left his wind burned face, he slept again.

 There was a moment of argument, a few harsh whispers between father and son that Hector heard as he slipped into the embracing darkness behind his eyelids, but he could not concentrate on words.

 ~*~

 /Hector/

 /Hector/

 He was floating again, floating in the darkness, but he was not afraid. A sensation of deep peace washed over him, and he was sitting up into a sudden brightness, staring down at the body of a child. Of course…he must have been sleeping, and what horrible dreams he had had!

 /Hector/

 A broad and calloused hand tousled his hair, and he was looking down into a face so much like his own adult one that he blinked in sleepy surprise.

 /You fell asleep out here talking to the butterflies?/

 /Yes Father./ 

/Your mother has been worried about you!/

 /I’m sorry/

 That broad hand folded over his much smaller one, and he glanced up into those worried gray eyes apologetically.

 /Tell us before you wander off Son, that is all I ask. Parents become afraid when they cannot find their children. It is our worst fear, to lose something as precious as you./ 

/You won’t lose me, I always come home./

 /There are dangers the world has to offer that you cannot even imagine yet, and that is a good thing Son. Stay close to us, so that we might protect you as long as we can. / 

/Hector/ 

/Hector/ 

“Hector! Hector! Its morning, come get dressed would you?” 

Hector sat up with a gasp. He was back in his room, and Isaac was glowering down at him. He was naked, and his first reflex was to pull the blankets up around his shoulders, and try to remember his dream more fully. It was something he wanted to hold on to desperately.

 “Oh I’ve seen the whole show before, there is no need to be so modest,” Isaac said, yanking the blanket away and exposing Hector to the flames of a roaring fire.

 Hector blinked dazedly. The last thing he remembered was having stew in Adrian’s room, and warm wolf furs covering his shoulders and now…he was…here?”

 “I drew a bath for you…come on…there is much I need to teach you today,” Isaac grumbled.

 Hector blinked, and then reached over, his fingers reflexively touching the scar on his shoulder. It was smooth and thick and still bright pink…yesterday…the snow, the blade…the murdered woman…

 “Isaac I…” Hector began haltingly.

 “I would be kicking your ass for getting me in so much trouble, but Adrian said you defended me in front of the Lord. I owe you for that, so I am forgetting the words between us,” Isaac said softly, though narrowed blue eyes promised that it wasn’t free from it being use as blackmail material.

 Hector blinked as his eyes focused, and he found himself staring at something strange on Isaac’s face. Where the scars had been, there were tattoos, slightly darker over the marks, but it was barely noticeable, there was a shine to the skin there that gave away the fact that the tattoos were indeed new, and healing.

“Isaac…what have you done?” Hector asked as he slowly slid out of bed, standing on unsteady legs.

 Isaac did not move away, and even let Hector touch his face.

 “You said they were ugly…so I covered them up,” Isaac said, something mildly vulnerable in his gaze.

 Hector swallowed hard.

 The Lord had been right. He had been proud and assuming, willful even. He had overreacted and not listened to what Isaac was telling him. He had simply assumed.

 “I am…so sorry,” Hector said humbly, reaching up to touch Isaac’s face on the unmarked side, brushing a strand of thick crimson back tenderly as he usually did after their lovemaking.

 “More than you will ever know, Hector, you are such a woman,” Isaac said, backing out from under that touch and dragging Hector towards the bathroom and the hot water that Hector could already feel against his skin just by fantasizing.

 ~*~

 The magic was strong, sinuous, and it wrapped around Hector’s forearms like a serpent. Isaac stood behind him, strong hands over Hector’s heart.

 “Concentrate…” Isaac whispered as he felt Hector shift nervously. “Think about where you want to go…picture it in your minds eye, and then command your devil to take you there.”

 He could feel the new devil he had summoned wrapping around him fully now, like a cloak. He felt light, and he couldn’t feel himself breathing, though he knew he wasn’t dead. He focused on the rosebush on the far side of the gardens.  

/Take me there/ He commanded mentally.

 When he arrived at his destination, he blinked in shock, and his devil danced around him in glee. 

He blinked at Isaac, who was standing with a smug and slightly proud expression on his face on the far side of the gardens as Hector reached up to tickle the hovering creature’s chin gently. 

“Do you understand now?” the red-head asked haughtily.

 Hector grinned back at him.

 “Yes, I do,” he replied levelly.

 “Then catch me if you ca?” Isaac said as he raised his hands into the air, and disappeared, his devil going with him.

 Hector laughed quietly to himself before sending Otto to go locate Isaac while his new companion, ‘Belial’ danced around him in barely contained glee. Even devils liked to play games. Especially devils.

 They tagged each other around the castle, Isaac stalking Hector, and Hector stalking Isaac. It lead to many strange locations, and a few jeering and playful taunts each time. The game finally ended in Isaac’s room, in front of the fireplace where both Hector and Isaac collapsed, panting for air on the rug.  

Hector eventually sat up, putting another log on the fire and stirring the ashes until the flames caught.

 “I do believe, that you are getting much faster and more confident Hector,” Isaac said as he shooed a joyous Otto from the room.

 “No Isaac, you are just getting old and slow,” Hector teased.

 Isaac was looking at him from under heavily lidded eyes as he rolled over onto his side, arching his hips up against Hector’s thigh.

 “Does this feel old and slow to you?” Isaac asked as he locked eyes with Hector.

 Hector stiffened for a moment, a host of emotions running through him that had everything to do with fear, distrust, and embarrassment for yesterday’s actions. 

He rolled over hesitantly, until he was on top of Isaac. 

Isaac reached up, touching Hector’s sweat-damp waves, tugging his fingers through them until the ribbon pulled out, fluttering to the floor. Isaac’s gaze was trying to tell Hector something, something important.  

“What?” Hector whispered.

 Isaac just smiled, his expression strangely soft, as he let his hands slide from Hector’s hair to his shoulders. When Isaac caressed the scar he had made through the fabric Hector flinched in memory.

 “I’m sorry,” Isaac murmured, eyes deeply sincere.

 “No,” Hector breathed. “I deserved it. Now we are both scarred.”

 “You had scars already Hector.” 

“So did you.” 

“I had no right…” 

“Neither did I…” 

And then their lips met, and Hector was drowning in the human heat of Isaac’s mouth, his fingers stroking down sides that he knew from experience were ticklish if his touch was too light. When they broke apart, a fear came to Hector’s soul, suddenly and violently. 

“The Lord said he punished you,” Hector whispered, his eyes traveling Isaac’s still clothed form, as if afraid to know what he would find.

 “In a sense.”

 “Isaac…what did he do to you?”

 “Nothing so dastardly as you might imagine. He simply shouted at me, and then forced me to clean the hallway with a toothbrush and a cup of water.” 

“That must have…taken forever,” Hector sighed in relief, while still feeling sympathy for his lover.

 “I told you I would clean it up,” Isaac said, laughing quietly.

 “I guess you did.” Hector said, rolling his hips gently against Isaac’s.

 “The worst part was the intes…mph!”

 Hector’s mouth cut Isaac’s sentence off.

 “Shut up Isaac.” Hector murmured as he pressed kisses down that lean and enticingly arched throat.

 “Bed,” Isaac whispered. “I want you to take me on the bed!” Isaac murmured, eyes dark with that wild look they always had when Hector took the initiative. There was already a vial of oil on the nightstand. Hector knew that.

“As you wish,” Hector breathed, rolling to his hip and taking Isaac with him, until he stood under the other man’s weight and Isaac slid his legs around Hector’s waist, clinging tight. 

Hector carried him over to the bed, and laid him down sideways. Isaac kept his legs wrapped around Hector’s waist, even as clever fingers found the tie of the red-head’s shirt and began to unlace it, pressing kisses to every inch of slowly revealed skin. What Hector could not reach with his fingers, he reached by nuzzling under the fabric.  

When Isaac did a sit up, using Hector for leverage and lifting his arms, Hector gratefully dragged Isaac’s vest and shirt off. He watched those muscles ripple as Isaac stayed in the position he was in without so much as a tremble, his deft fingers unbuckling chain and helping Hector shed his clothing as well. Those warm and silky lips pressed to the underside of Hector’s jaw before he sank back to the mattress.

 He watched more lean muscles flex as Isaac laid back down, giving him a look of intentional acquiescence, a she-wolf submitting to her mate, even though she could deny him violently if she so wished.

 Hector acknowledged that with a low growl of desire, dropping to his elbows for a moment to worship that perfect chest, nuzzling to reassure himself that Isaac was whole, unharmed by his Lord. Isaac made a sultry and throaty sound as Hector lapped at the sweat beading on Isaac’s chest, snarling lowly in feral pleasure. Isaac was his…and he would protect him, taste him, hold him close because he trusted Hector and that was more than anyone had ever given him before in his life. 

“How do you want it?” Hector murmured, his voice oddly deep to his own ears with his desire.

 Isaac rolled onto his side, returning Hector’s growl with one of his own.

 Hector smiled and reached for the oil, dipping his fingers into the container as he unbuttoned his pants, and Isaac wriggled his way out of his, undoing the top buckles and letting the leather fall away from his muscular thighs, flanks and legs with a sigh of relaxing leather.

 Isaac kicked them away onto the floor, and Hector coated his member with sure fingers.

 He dipped his fingers back in for a moment, before removing then, dripping with oil. He leaned down, nipping at Isaac’s ribs encouragingly. Isaac parted his legs further, and lifted one leg closer to his chest. Hector captured that knee, hooking it into the crook of his elbow before resting his head in the dip just above Isaac’s ribs, and he circled his finger gently at Isaac’s opening.

 Isaac braced himself with a pillow that he tugged under his chest and an elbow he was leaning on even as he reached down and began to pull at his weeping erection.  

Hector murmured Isaac’s name quietly as a warning before he slipped one finger inside.

 Isaac grunted, and as Hector carefully searched inside his lover, finally arched his neck back as he dropped his head to the mattress submissively, eyes closed in concentration.  

There it was.

 When he slipped a second finger inside, Isaac was relaxed around his fingers, even going so far as to press back into Hector’s hand with tiny moans.

 Hector scissored his fingers once before he was pulling them out, and reaching for his need.

 He slid lower on the bed, until his hip was nearly off the mattress. He pulled Isaac’s leg up higher, giving himself easier access as he lined up.

 “D…do it!” Isaac hissed hungrily through clenched teeth, his hand still working at his erection slowly.

 Hector smiled and then with a gentle kiss to Isaac’s back, he slid inside, one slow and smooth motion.  

“Hell!” Isaac gasped, arching.  

Hector just smiled and slid a steadying arm under the small gap between Isaac’s hip and the mattress.  

His first thrust was slow and carefully, and Isaac swore again, arching his neck back far enough that he could make eye contact with Hector.

There was a wild animal’s desperation in that gaze, one that told Hector that all was well. 

Isaac was whole and fine and didn’t hate him and was tight around him, holding him with his body. 

“My Hector…what is it that you do to me?” Isaac gasped between the slow rocking thrusts of Hector’s hips, sweat beading his brow and running down his strong jaw line. 

Hector’s reply was kiss to the back of Isaac’s shoulder, and a stronger squeeze of that arm curled under that lean waist. 

“Only what you ask.” Hector breathed as he snapped dead on into that place for Isaac that made him mewl hungrily, made his hands stroke harder at his need. 

As the pace increased, Isaac was moving back against him, calling out quietly, and Hector couldn’t even reply anymore, just move back against the gesture wearily. It had been a long day and his body was desperate for him to slow down even though his body was telling him to speed up, to press deeper.  

Isaac was grunting with each thrust, and there was only the crackling fire and the sound of frantic breathing, the slap of skin on skin, and the slick sound of Hector sliding in and out of Isaac. Isaac unsurprisingly came before Hector, trembling and arching his back, and it was enough to pull Hector over as well. 

~*~ 

“Do you truly forgive me?” Isaac whispered into the still of the room where they were curled up under a quilt, fresh from a mutual bath. 

Hector nuzzled the nape of Isaac’s neck, parting the damp crimson hair there. 

Isaac sighed, snuggling deeper into the blankets and tangling his legs backwards with Hectors. 

~*~ 

Hector looked up from the book he was reading as Adrian padded into the library. 

“Your little game of chase was amusing yesterday,” Adrian said, sitting at the table. “Going a bit stir-crazy with the snow?” 

The Dampier asked as he rested his hand on a closed fist, his hair, unbound today, whispered onto the heavy black walnut tabletop. Hector’s breath caught in his throat. Adrian was becoming a very beautiful and elegant young man. He mentally slapped himself for thinking that way about his best friend.  

“What is it?” Adrian finally asked. “You may speak freely around me.” 

Hector sighed. 

“I miss the woods,” he said honestly, using that truth to cover up his darker carnal thoughts as he set his book down. 

Adrian nodded and sighed, his expression dour. 

“As do I my friend…looking for you the other day was the closest to freedom I have been in some time. I crave the woods, even in the snow. I wish I did not have to await my father’s orders to go out.” 

Hector smiled as he enjoyed a stray and impulsive thought. 

Adrian must have read it in his eyes. But then again, Hector was certain that Adrian had come looking for him for this very purpose.

 “As long as we are back by nightfall?” Hector said, smiling down at Adrian conspiratorially.

 “Wonderful! Get your coat!” Adrian cheered. 

~*~ 

Hector followed Adrian, slogging through the snow towards the woods. He was enjoying the comfortable stretching of long disused leg muscles and apparently, despite the sun, so was Adrian. This lead to a very manly snowball fight at one point, and once they reached the woods, a few pranks that involved bumping pine branches with sword hilts.  

They had reached the village road, when a young woman stumbled out onto the path, looking around fearfully. 

She spotted Hector and Adrian, and immediately began sobbing for their help. 

Hector was at her side in a moment. 

“I tried to deliver the truce to the Lord, but the monsters…the darkness comes, and they rise from the very earth, the come and they kill us all!” she cried, grasping Hector’s arms, shaking him as she sobbed. “Do not go to that cursed town!” she whimpered, pointing down the path behind herself. 

She obviously thought that Hector and Adrian were travelers. 

“My lady…explain your woes to us…we may be able to be of service.” Adrian said quietly. “Is my lady wounded?” Adrian continued. 

She sank to her knees, and Hector winced as she coughed blood onto the snow.  

“Death and death and death…The Lord of the castle has placed a curse on us all…plague ravages Cordova Town by day, and death stalks the outskirts at night…the monsters!” She sobbed, just before she collapsed.  

Hector dove to catch her, but Adrian rested a troubled hand on Hector’s shoulder. 

“She is gone,” he said softly. 

Hector laid her down on the path, his eyes troubled.

 “Has your father really laid a curse?” 

Adrian closed pained, ice blue eyes. 

“My sire is a stranger to me now more than ever,” Adrian said, his gloved hand pinching the bridge of his nose.  

“Should we go to the town?” 

“Only close enough to see. They will remember us there, and I am not prepared for war.” 

~*~

 Adrian and Hector crouched on the same limb of the ancient elm that overhung the cliffs just outside of town. He and Hector both surveyed what they saw.

Guards were everywhere, and the towns gates were drawn up tight. The walls were being reinforced, made taller even as they observed.  

There was a pyre in the center of town, and the bodies of the dead were being tossed in by a man with rags tied over his mouth and nose. There were piles in carts beside the pyre, waiting to be burned. 

“So this was the smoke I have been seeing!” Hector said lowly. 

“Indeed,” Adrian said softly. “They do not even bury their dead anymore…they simply burn them.” 

“According to their laws…” 

“According to their laws, the dead must be buried…only criminals would be treated as such but…” 

“But their graveyard must be full, and the hard frost is on…they cannot simply leave the bodies to freeze until the ground warms enough.”

 “They would be buried in bodies,” Hector said softly.

 “This is desperate…” Adrian said, his eyes troubled. 

“Adrian, you are torn, I know…we don’t have to do anything…” Hector said quietly. 

“There is nothing we can do,” Adrian said lowly. “I will not kill them, but I choose not to save them from themselves either…this evil was brought about by their own foolishness.” 

“I…understand,” Hector said softly, turning his back on the town as he shivered at the stink of burning flesh. “But is this plague…your father’s doing?”

 “I don’t know, and I don’t care to know,” Adrian said coldly. “Let us go, the sun is setting.”

 ~*~

 Isaac greeted them at the door, smirking unpleasantly.

 “Where the hell have you been Hector?”

 Hector blinked at Isaac.

 “Out, why?”

 “You reek of burning flesh,” Isaac said lowly as he studied both younger men. “You disobeyed The Lord, didn’t you?!”

 “And we would appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell,” Adrian said, giving Isaac a surprisingly sinister look. 

“I know nothing of your disadvantageous behavior,” Isaac said, feigning disdain. “Though if you want answers to your questions, I would start in the top tower library room,” Isaac said, stretching and yawning.  

“Isaac, you knew?!” Adrian asked, staring aghast at his lover.  

“No sooner than you did,” Isaac replied coolly, holding his arm out for a small creature with one large and staring eye. It detached itself from where it had obviously just zipped inside the door before it was shut against the snow and the coming night. 

“You spied on us?!” Hector hissed. 

“Only to be sure you were safe, no more than that. I wish to keep My Lord’s favor, and so I follow his rules.

 ~*~

 “I thought you didn’t care.” Hector said as he yawned wearily and stretched in the doorway. He had come to investigate the strange light from the tower window. Question answered. Adrian was surrounded by stacks of books, blue eyes tracing each the most recent one’s lines from start to finish a bit desperately.  

“Something…is wrong. If it were simply the plague my mother was treating, it would probably not gotten this out of hand…I am trying to find some sort of curse that might affect humans thusly…and as for the monsters, I can do nothing about them unless we go out at night sometime and determine what they are like…and he would surely catch us if we left during the dark hours…” 

“Unless we had an excuse,” Hector said softly. 

“Unless we had an excuse,” Adrian echoed. 

“I’ll tell you what…you find out what kind of curse it is, if it is a curse, and find a way to cure it. If you can come up with that much, I will find a suitable excuse to get us out of here in the darkness, although I am not eager to meet these monsters that woman was so frightened of.”

 “I like a challenge,” Adrian said, glancing up from his book, face ethereal in the candle light. 

“You can regenerate when monsters rip your limbs off,” Hector said drolly. 

“Ah…good point.” Adrian said, sounding more than a little amused. 

~*~ 

~*~

Coming soon