Chapter Text
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Callum let his legs swing over the edge of the roof and looked out over the city nightscape for the hundredth time. The soft orange glows of fire and candlelight had winked out in windows and streetlamps until only the all-nighters were left. The full-ish moon cast the night in its silvery blue glow.
He thumbed the rim of the full tankard and sighed. Why couldn’t he just sleep?
“What’ve you got there?”
The sudden voice startled him, and he sloshed a bit of ale while jerking away from the open air. He attempted to twist around, but the speaker dropped next to him and threw their legs out to mirror his.
They’d wrapped themselves in a dark cloak with a large hood- from the side, Callum could only catch glimpses of their nose, and their mouth moving when they spoke.
“Oh, alcohol, nice. But you don’t look eighteen.”
A woman, and a foreigner. He’d never heard the accent at court.
“I am!” His defiance wilted. “Soon, anyways.”
Callum sighed in defeat and started to pour the drink out to the ground below, but the stranger’s hand darted out to grab his wrist. “Woah there! I’m not gonna report you or somethin’. No need to waste it. First drink?”
“I’ve had wine. Just a bit here and there.” Where was the harm in honesty? Maybe she could help. “I just can’t sleep, that’s all. And everyone-” he gestured to encompass the city “-suggests I drink for it.”
“Ah.” She kicked her legs idly, letting her heels knock gently against the wall of the building they sat atop. “ Personally I'd say you’re not exercisin' enough. Gotta wear yourself out to sleep well!”
Callum leaned forward to try and see into her hood, but she turned away. “What are you still doing up, then?”
“Working!” That sounded a bit forced. “Night watch and all.” She faked a cough. A terrible liar.
“Yeah, I don’t think so. I’ve lived here all my life and the night watch doesn’t wear that .”
“Ugh, fine! I’m bored and saw you up here, so I got curious.” At least that was believable.
“Satisfied? Just a lone weirdo who can’t sleep, and a drink he won’t drink.”
“A bit, but no. If you’re not drinking then pass it here, then I’ll be satisfied.”
He turned the tankard in his hand and offered it over handle-first.
“Oh, really? Thanks!” Her hand looked a little small for an adult as she took the drink, but he could only watch in awe as she quaffed the entirety in one go, tossing the empty vessel over her shoulder to clatter on the roof.
“Pwah! Lousy stuff, really, but gives me all the right tingles.” She sighed happily.
“It didn’t smell very good… is alcohol really that great?”
“Eh, it’s different for everyone. Loosens me up a little- I’m uh, usually really... uptight. Wouldn’t even think of coming up here normally.” So she was already drunk before she climbed up to him. It probably wasn’t safe for her to be on the roof, much less dangling her legs over a two-story drop.
He felt a little responsible for luring her into potential danger. “Hey, what do you say we get down from here, huh?”
His companion faced him, then, and the unnatural combination of light purple eyes and dark facial tattoos startled him, but she didn’t seem to notice. She was young. Close to his age, maybe?
Those strange eyes narrowed. “Hmm. You’re rather forward, aren’t you?”
Having been quite dense towards this kind of talk for too long, Callum now knew to blush while correcting her. “No!” He coughed to cover his outburst. “I mean, no, that’s not what I meant, I just don’t want you to fall.”
He stood and offered her a hand up, which she quickly accepted, gripping his wrist. “Yeah! If you’re trying to get worn out and sleep, we should have a little fun!”
That didn’t sound safe, either.
“Um, I’m actually feeling a bit tired after our talk, so thanks for that, but I should really be getting back, sorry.”
“Ah well, that’s great if you think you can rest, though, right?”
Callum could only shrug.
“I’ll walk you home, then!”
“Uh, that’s really not necessar-”
“No, no, I insist! Need to stretch m’legs anyways.”
This might get awkward. “Well, I won’t stop you…”
“Perfect! Lead on!”
Callum didn’t question how she beat him down to ground level- the cloaked girl seemed to know her way around the city better than he did. She hummed happily and traipsed along next to him on the dark streets until the castle bridge came into view… with its lowered portcullis. He could certainly get in, but not without alerting the watch, and thus his family, to his nighttime escapades.
“Oh no…”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s too late, I uh…” He probably shouldn’t be telling a stranger of his royal status. “I can’t go home, now. I’ll have to find somewhere else to sleep.” That shouldn’t be too much of a problem- Callum always kept a bit of pocket money when he went out- or not, he found, patting his empty pockets.
“Eh, really? That’s rough. I didn’t think hu- er, Katolins were so strict.”
“You really aren’t from anywhere nearby, are you?”
She raised an eyebrow and put one hand on a hip, revealing a bit of green and black leather armor beneath the cloak. “What gave me away?”
Alright, that was fair.
“Thought so. A bit low on cash? You can sleep at my place, then. Come on.”
“What do y- woah!” She’d taken his hand and was dragging him away at a brisk pace.
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☽
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Poor guy. She couldn’t help but take pity and give him a place to sleep, if he could manage to.
This had absolutely nothing to do with his naive aura of easy prey, or the strangely alluring scent he was giving off.
Nothing at all.
Since Rayla had arrived in the capital, she’d run into a few humans that were particularly… appetizing... one way or the other, and as her literal deadline approached, that extra stimulus only grew stronger. So she hid herself away, lapsing into the natural moonshadow cycle of primarily nighttime activity. Less risk of an incident that way.
But then she’d seen him, and a spur-of-the-moment decision to talk to another person had led to this. Not that she was complaining, she’d just… give him somewhere to sleep and send him on his way in the morning.
Yeah.
That was all.
“Hey, slow down! Come on!”
Woops! “Sure, sure, we’re almost there.”
“Is this really okay?”
“Of course! Got the place to m’self.”
Rayla fumbled for the iron key in her pocket before pushing the door open and drawing the stranger inside her tiny apartment. “It’s not much, but uh, make…” How did they say it here? Right! “...yourself at home!”
The human’s eyes flicked around the sparse main room before, miraculously, he yawned. “Okay. Thanks for this, by the way.”
“Nooo problem! You can sleep in here.” She led him to the bedroom, thankfully freshly cleaned earlier that day. “The bed’s a little rough, but plenty big, right?” It was definitely large enough for the both of them, set near a window where she soaked moonlight during her earliest nights in the city, spent hiding away in her rooms. The apartment had been a lucky find- her human impression combined with a compassionate landlord got her a nice-enough spot to wait out her days.
“Uh, yeah.” He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his boots and socks off. “Are you going back out?”
Rayla blinked, unfocusing from the skin he bared by removing his jacket.
“Nope, no worries. Let’s just sleep.”
He stared, his almost startling green eyes wide. “Uh…”
“Go on, scoot!”
Rayla took his spot to remove her boots as he laid along the further side of the bed.
“Wait, you want to-”
“Share? Yeah, dummy, I’ve only got the one bed.”
“Er…”
“Oh calm down, I’m not afraid of you- just sleep.” She threw herself back with a sigh and closed her eyes.
“That’s not what-”
“Sleep.”
“Aren’t you going to take off-”
“Sleep.”
“Do you do this often?”
“No! And sleep!”
He gave up. Hearing him rustle around, she peeked over at the human and immediately regretted it. He’d turned on his side, pushing his head into the lumpy pillow, but…
His neck. His shoulder slumped back and left his neck exposed.
Rayla swallowed and forced her eyes back up to the ceiling.
No. No, no, no! It had been two cycles! Two! And the third was ending soon enough. She just had to hold out for a few more days, and… this wouldn’t be anyone’s problem anymore.
Right.
She just needed a distraction.
“Hey.”
Nothing. The creak of an overhead beam.
“Are you seriously asleep already?”
Silence.
Rayla unclasped her cloak and propped herself up on an elbow, turning towards him.
“H-” her mouth slammed shut to keep the instinctive salivation from spilling down her chin. The clouds had parted, letting shafts of moonlight stream down and reflect on his vulnerable, tempting… tasty -looking…
She blinked, unconsciously having leaned towards the sleeping human. Wait... this wasn’t...
Her body had other ideas, urging her forward with every thread of instinct. No more waiting. Rayla sat up fully and crept forwards, letting her jaw relax to bare her fangs…
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☽
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This was definitely the weirdest night Callum could remember. What a strange person, just inviting him to stay so easily, then insisting they sleep in the same bed… he just didn’t want to be rude. Facing the wall all night should be fine.
It was weird, but… he could feel her presence next to him, another person in close quarters. It was... calming, in a way, and he felt himself starting to finally doze off. Was this soothing sensation how it felt to sleep next to someone? Maybe this was a good kind of weird night...
Yeah.
“Hey.”
But he reeeally didn’t want it to get any more weird… maybe she would just leave him alone if he pretended to sleep?
“Are you seriously asleep already?”
Callum focused on keeping his breathing even, and she did stop. Maybe he’d actually get some rest? Her cloak shuffled, and the moon broke through the cloud cover outside, shimmering prettily in the sky. The open shutters swayed gently.
“ Hah… ” the mood in the room shifted. Was that her breath? It was so... Ragged. Heavy.
He forced himself to keep still as the dense bedding shifted under her movement, and his eyes slammed shut when she drew close. He sensed one hand pressed between him and the wall as she leaned over his body, and hot breath washed over his neck.
“Last chance…” she whispered in a husky, almost strained voice.
Last chance for what? To be awake for whatever she wanted to talk about?
Something dripped onto his skin, but before he could open his eyes, her mouth- or more precisely her teeth -closed on the side of his neck. Callum was stunned beyond the tiny pricks of pain by the sudden, alien, almost… sensual sensation of her lips pressing against his neck.
But when a distinctly wrong draining feeling tugged at his instincts, he thrashed with a small yelp, sitting up and turning in one movement. He lurched on the edge of the windowsill, balancing just barely.
“AH! Oh. You’re… awake.”
They stared at each other, her strangely shimmering eyes and face framed by unnaturally white hair, and horns rising from it- an elf! -but more importantly, the smudge of red along her lower lip. Her heavy breathing hadn’t eased at all, and the fingertips of one four-fingered hand played along her teeth, as if feeling them for the first time.
Haltingly, Callum brought a hand to his neck, where her gaze lingered even now, and glanced down at his red-tipped fingers. Blood.
“Y-you’re…”
Her shining lavender eyes snapped up to his, reflecting the moonlight.
“Rayla. And you’re delicious. ”
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The next day...
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Callum traced his finger down the spines of each book and shifted the scarf higher around his neck for the hundredth time.
Elves: Enemies of Humanity
Xadian species and their common uses
A study of Elven biology
That one might work… everything else was skewed history and dark magic.
“Callum? Claudia said you were looking for me?”
He took the solitary book and turned to his oldest friend.
“Soren. Thanks for finding me- yeah, I’ve got some questions about something you talked about before.”
The crownguard crossed his arms and leaned against a shelf, raising an eyebrow.
“Finally getting there, huh? Well if you want to get with Claudia it’s kind of weird to ask-”
Despite himself, Callum felt a blush rise in his cheeks. “No, no! Soren, we talked about this. Claudia and I aren’t like that.”
“Yeah, yeah, alright.” Soren straightened. “So who, then? Find a nice girl in town?”
“Well, sort o- wait! Soren…” Callum sighed and pushed by his friend to officially enter his borrowing of the book. “It’s not about girls. Or guys!”
Soren lowered his raised finger in confusion. “The heck do you want to talk to me about then? Guard duty?”
Callum raised the book. “Elves.”
“Uh… Callum, I’ve only seen like, one elf. From a long ways away, too.”
“You know a lot about them, though, right?” Over the years, Callum had overheard his friend discussing elves with the other guards, but Soren still looked uncertain. “Moonshadow elves, specifically.”
That earned a reaction. “Oooh those are nasty. Maybe the worst kind.”
“Yeah! That’s what I want to know.” One particular detail was already on his mind. “They drink blood, right?”
Soren chuckled and put a hand on Callum’s shoulder. “Oh, buddy, that’s the least of it.”
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☽
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The sun had set long ago, so the book waited idly in his hands while he sat on the same rooftop as before.
Would she come again? Was it too soon, the day after? Callum shivered a bit in the night breeze. He’d carefully washed the spots of blood out of his scarf, but the dense accessory didn’t dry easily, so he was bare-necked again tonight.
...Maybe that was a mistake. He unconsciously covered the tiny wounds with his hand.
“Hey.”
She’d come! “Hey, Rayla!”
“I uh… didn’t think I’d see you again, after last night.”
After his stuttering revelation, Callum had lost his balance and fallen backwards through her window, then taken off into the night in a barefooted panic. There had been plenty of time to calm down and think before sunrise, but he’d not been able to retrace his steps to her room, and cobblestone was unkind to unshod feet, so he waited out his re-entrance to the castle grounds with the excuse of early exercise.
“...but thanks for not having me run out of the city.”
Callum blinked. “Sure?”
Rayla wasn’t sitting, so he stood. Her cloak was a mass of shadow, but the lavender of her eyes faintly glowed in the darkness, focusing on his neck, and Callum stiffened, taking a half-step back before he realized what he was doing.
She looked away. “Sorry. This is all new to me- I don’t… last night wasn’t supposed to happen.” Small Elven hands offered over his left-behind clothing. “I brought your stuff, since I saw you up here.”
Callum gratefully donned the jacket and dropped the boots for now, their laces tied together, his socks stuffed inside. “Wait... elves don’t normally drink blood?”
Narrowed eyes returned to his. “What? No! Wh- …okay, I can see why you’d think that.”
Maybe it wouldn’t be the best idea, but… he did have the book already, so he offered it over. “Um. I was a little worried after last night, so I tried to read about… this-” he pointed between her and his neck “-to see if I was going to grow horns or lose my pinkies or something. But there was nothing, so I figured I’d ask someone who’d know...”
Rayla snorted softly and took the book. “No, your pinkers are safe. I think.”
“Pinkies.”
“Whatever.” She’d flipped through a number of pages, and he could see her eyes tracking back and forth across the words. Apparently she could read Human Common.
Callum couldn’t keep the wonder out of his voice. “You really can see in the dark.”
The glowing pools glanced up. “Duh? How do you think I saw you to begin with?”
That… was a good point.
“Okay, some of this is crazy. Laying eggs? Seriously? And we don’t drink blood-” She caught him staring, and his incredulity must have been plain on his face. Rayla snapped the book shut and pushed it back into his hands, so he dropped it back into his bag.
“Look, I’m an… exception. Not the rule.”
Her pale eyes wandered back to the pinpricks on his neck. “I’m… cursed. But they didn’t tell me it would be like this. I don’t…” she looked away again. “I don’t know what’s been happening to me any more than you do.”
“Can I help?” The words came out before he thought them, but Callum didn’t try to take them back. If she was confused, maybe they could figure things out together.
She glanced up at him, but only for a moment. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“Just tell me what you need- I can get it!”
“I’m... hungry.”
“Is that all?” Callum picked up his boots and started to head for the way back down. “Even this late we can probably get you-”
“No!” Rayla’s hand came down on his shoulder, so he turned back to face her. A fingertip traced down his neck, over the tiny wounds, agitating them. “I’m hungry .”
Oh. The boots hit the floor again.
His mouth didn’t do much better. “Uh.”
The wariness was plain in her eyes, and she pulled back. “If you’re not okay with it, I won’t. I can stop. I’d never... Like I said, last night, that wasn’t-” she shifted, looking away “-that wasn’t supposed to happen, and I can’t take it back, but…”
Callum huffed a breath. Apparently a real apology wasn’t forthcoming, but that didn’t really matter. This was bigger than a little blood- she was… scared. Even if she didn’t realize it herself.
“What does it feel like?”
She blinked. “What?”
“What does that feel like? To be… bloodthirsty? Is it like needing water, or...”
Rayla flinched at the word ‘bloodthirsty,’ but her eyes narrowed in a way that let him imagine her brow furrowing. “I… it’s like…” Her hands came up, literally grasping for the words.
“I hadn’t... done it before last night. Not ever. I kind of 'wanted' to, but it was sort of like an ache…” she ended up covering her face with both hands. “It’s like being hungry, and thirsty, and turned on, all at the same time.”
Callum’s mouth opened. Then shut. Then opened again. Heat bloomed across his cheeks.
“That’s… not what I... expected.”
A sliver of shining lavender appeared between her fingers, then disappeared just as quickly. “Hey, don’t blush! That makes it worse!”
That was blood, wasn’t it?
“Sorry, sorry!” He turned away, hiding his own face.
“No, no, I… I don’t know why I can sense it like that. That’s not normal. ” She really did sound confused.
“It’s okay! I’ll uh… try to be careful.” Deep breaths. “So this isn’t going to make me sick or something?”
“Beyond losing a little blood? No. Probably. No, no! Definitely no.” Desperation was plain in her voice.
Callum turned back around. “Okay.”
Her eyes visibly widened between her fingers. The combined eagerness and relief in her voice was almost comical. “Really? Seriously?” One tentative step towards him, and another when he didn’t retreat.
He smiled, since she could see it in the dark, and tried for a joke to lighten the mood. “Yeah, just don’t take it all? Please? I’m pretty sure I need to keep a bit.”
Rayla lowered her hood with a chuckle, and again he was struck by her exotic looks in the soft moonlight- white hair, elegant horns, large eyes and dark marking beneath them. A light blush powdered her pale cheeks, and when she threw the rest of her cloak back, he got a full view of her form-fitting armor, a clearly foreign style.
“I’ll try. I feel like it isn’t going to be much blood, though . It’s... partly the act itself. Like I just need to do it and be done, just like…” she trailed off and chuckled nervously, glancing down instead of finishing her sentence.
Callum fought to keep from blushing with her. “Uh, yeah, I get it.”
“Thank you. For not making me say it. So... it’s okay?” He nodded, and she stepped close to put her hands on his shoulders. It felt like she was going to kiss him when she leaned in, wrapping her arms around him to pull their bodies together, but she tilted her head towards his neck.
She was soft against him, and smelled of her armor and… something sweetly floral. His arms instinctively came up to hug her closer, and she startled at his touch, gasping against his neck.
“Ah!”
“Sorry, I can-”
“No! That’s… good. It’s better like that.”
“O-okay.” He settled his hands on her upper and lower back as she sank her teeth into his neck for the second time.
Expecting it lessened the pain somewhat, but his hands still fisted in her cloak at the foreign draining sensation, clutching at some hidden tool or weapon. Rayla hummed- or groaned? -against his neck in satisfaction, and he struggled to not swallow nervously as her body relaxed into his.
In that brief moment, he felt almost… connected to her. Feeling her breathing, somehow sensing her pulse. The tension melting away from her allowed him relax as well, and his hands drifted along her back-
But the spell broke, and she lifted away, unwinding her arms from around him, again lifting a hand to her mouth, unsure of herself. She blinked rapidly, looking between his eyes and neck. “Oh, wow. You’re…” a thin line of his blood ran down from the corner of her mouth as she trailed off.
“Callum. That’s my name.” He smiled, dabbing his neck with a clean handkerchief. “Not ‘delicious.’”
Rayla froze, then laughed aloud, throaty and full. Callum felt his smile widening at her mirth until an awoken townsperson shouted at her to ‘shut it.’
She steadied herself on his shoulder, sighing out the last of her laughter and wiping at her eyes, then her chin. “You’re going to have to take my word for it, but your blood is... really good.”
Strangely, that felt nice to know. He couldn’t suppress a yawn, and Rayla raised an eyebrow, still smiling.
“Oh? Ready to rest tonight?”
Callum knew when to admit defeat. “Ugh, yeah. Maybe it’s the blood loss? Or just not really sleeping yesterday.” He sighed, annoyed with his limits. “Could we… talk again sometime?”
Rayla’s smile crooked into a smirk. “Sure, sleepyhead. Same place tomorrow?”
He hesitated the barest moment. "It's a date?" This yawn was so strong it squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, she was gone.