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The pearly white eggshell reflected the light of the sputtering torch, the only source of light in the cave. Because of this light, it was plain to see that the eggshell was untouched. Pristine. 

The blade of a dagger gently touched the shell, applying light pressure, slowly and steadily, until the shell’s pristine perfection became marred by a thin crack that slowly spread, cleaving the shell in two. 

The egg suddenly rocked with movement. 

The dagger was snatched away. 

“It’s closer to hatching than we thought.” A man muttered. Usually, they remained perfectly still until the moment of removal. 

Another man grunted in frustration as the egg rocked again. Bits of the shell fell away, a slitted eye peered at them. 

More rocking. 

A low chirping sound began to come from the egg as the baby dragon inside slowly poked its head out. 

It was a beautiful thing- thin, dark green scales that gleamed like gemstones, striking, slitted green eyes. 

It chirped again, turning its head slowly on its long neck. 

What was it looking for? Its mother? Its father? 

Well, if that was the case, then it would never find them. 

“I wish we’d found it earlier.” Someone murmured. “Would’ve been easier that way.” 

“Sacrifices must be made.” Someone said coldly and numbly in response. 

The baby dragon chirped again. It stretched its neck out further, still searching. Its tiny needle-sharp claws broke the shell, and it fell out onto its belly, its jaw hitting the ground with a hard and horrible crack. 

It closed its eyes and let out a keening squeal of pain that reverberated through the cave, piercing the eardrums, and likely the hearts, of the men watching silently. 

“Shhhh.” One man rasped, reaching for the baby dragon at last. “Soon, it won’t hurt anymore. Shhh. Shhhh.” Using both hands, he roughly grabbed its sides, not seeming to care about its thin and fragile wings. 

It squealed in disagreement, beginning to thrash. 

The man opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it and gritted his teeth, exhaling sharply. 

He began to lift up the baby dragon. 

“Do you want your dagger?” 

“No. It’s moving too much. It’d keep thrashing-too much risk of excess spillage.” 

“I see.” 

“I’m going to have to do this the old fashioned way.” 

He lifted the still squealing creature until the curve of its back was to his face, its long, thin tail whipping against his chest. He then adjusted the thing until its swinging neck was to his lips. 

With surprising gentleness, he pressed his lips to its neck. 

Then he opened his jaw and bit down. 

The other men watched, silently counting the sips of dragon blood he took and waiting for their turn. Soon, it was their turn, and by the time they had all drunk their fill, there was nothing left to drink. The dragon had gone utterly motionless. 

There were footsteps, a rustling sound. 

“What are you doing?” The man who had bit the dragon asked. 

One of the men was rustling through the eggshells. 

“Looking for anything else.” 

“You’re going to drink the egg…fluids?” 

“It might be worth it.” 

“All right, meet us outside.” 

The men departed into the night, one holding the limp dragon corpse under one arm. 

The cave was completely silent, save for the sound of faint breathing, slurping, licking, and smacking lips.

Jane woke up in a cold sweat, heart in her throat. There was a bitter taste in her mouth, as if she was the one who had been drinking the baby dragon’s blood. She sat up and shook her head, trying to shake those images from her mind. 

She’d had her fair share of dragon-related dreams over the years, the byproduct of years of passion, but there had never been anything even close to this.

She resisted the urge to hide under the covers like a young child and got out of bed. It was just a dream. 

There wasn’t supposed to be anything unusual happening today, so Jane hoped that the familiarity would soothe her.

But tragically, she found the stress caused by the dream replaced by a new anxiety. 

As she trained with Sir Theodore, she found that his movements rapidly switched from being much slower and stiffer than usual to so quick and tense they were almost manic. 

He’s just simulating the feeling of fighting an unfamiliar foe on the battlefield. She told herself. He’s just pretending for the sake of training. 

But the strange look in his eyes was very real. 

The message he’d received from Haroldus about his impending arrival had made Theodore acutely aware of his worsening hunger. 

He’d been foolish. He’d thought he could push his limits once more, like he’d done all the time when he was younger. 

But his breaking point was getting lower and lower as he started to weaken with age. 

It had been too long since he’d last been fed.

Anyone in the castle was off-limits. Anything? Well, there was that pig, but even if he left it relatively unharmed in the feeding process, Smithy would notice right away if something was wrong. There were other animals he could try for, like the local cows. It would be a hassle, but he could do it. 

I really am getting soft. He bitterly chided himself. Feeding off of cows, a hassle? Back in the day I could drain a man of all the blood in his body as easily as breathing. 

Well, that was an exaggeration. Draining a human of all their blood at once was considered a last resort to prevent starvation after an extended period of desperation. He’d come close to that point more times than he wanted to admit, and the memory of trembling with that weakness and terror still cut deep. 

Soon. He told himself as he sparred with Jane. They made eye contact, briefly. His eyes involuntarily traveled to the veins on her hands, beginning to bulge from the physical activity. 

She would give you her blood if you asked. 

He swallowed hard, and wanted to turn his own sword on himself. He could never ask such a thing of her.

Why not? The unwanted thought continued, he was beginning to think of it as the voice of his hunger. 

Theodore had heard many stories of vampires over the years, and many of them described a vampire drinking the blood of a willing victim as something…sensual. In reality, this was not always the case. Anyone who loved a vampire in any capacity could willingly give them their blood. Human family members, friends, comrades. Theodore had drunk the blood of all of those people on multiple occasions, but they’d all been adults. Drinking the blood of his young apprentice would just feel wrong. The breaking of some unspoken boundary. 

They finished sparring, which came as a relief. He cleaned himself up, asked the king for permission to run an errand, then followed the sound of cows mooing as they grazed. 

“Jane?” Dragon asked, flying by her room like he usually did, landing in a way that was so graceless it felt graceful in its own strange way. 

“Yes, Dragon?” she asked, scratching his snout a little as he poked his head through her window. His scales were thick, not at all like the baby dragon’s. She repressed the memory. 

“You look terrible. Your face is all white.” Dragon continued bluntly. “Did you sleep well last night?” 

“Is that all you came to ask me about?” She asked, both annoyed and appreciating his concern. 

“Well, sort of, I had a really strange dream last night.” 

Jane’s heart plummeted. 

“So you had a strange dream too?” Of course he could tell she was trying to hide her unease, she could hardly hide it from anyone, let alone her best friend. 

“Uh, yes.” 

“What was it about?” Dragon’s yellow eyes bored into hers, she thought he could see her memory of the dead baby dragon. 

“What was your dream about?” she asked gently. Please, let it have been about something like a three-legged cow being discovered. 

“Well, there was a cow.” 

Oh, thank goodness-

“And it was hurt, in a way I’ve never seen before. I flew closer to try and get a better look at it, but as I watched it, a shortlife saw me, his mouth coated in cow blood. He got scared of me and started running. He was running towards the castle. I knew he had something to do with the hurt cow, so I flew after him. Then I hit the cave wall with my tail and woke up.” 

Jane nodded slowly. “That is a very alarming dream. But it is just a dream. Nothing to worry about.” She rubbed his snout reassuringly.

Dragon’s mouth twitched. “One of the strangest parts is, I remember the shortlife’s face very clearly. It was a man, one I’ve never seen in the waking world. I think- I think if I saw him again I would recognize him.” 

“What did he look like?” 

“He was youngish and tall, with very sharp teeth almost like a bat’s.” 

“Well, there are plenty of shortlife men who are youngish and tall, but batlike teeth? I think he was just a figment of your imagination.”

“What about you? What was your strange dream about?” 

Jane took a deep breath. “It was very scary. I saw-” 

There was a knock at the door. 

“Yes?” 

“It’s Sir Theodore.” Jester said, sounding uncharacteristically serious. “He came back from his errand with a stranger in tow. I’m not sure what’s…something is going on.”

“Are you mad at me?” Haroldus whispered as Theodore led him through the castle. To the dungeon. 

“No.” Theodore growled. 

“It’s not like you to tell lies, even little ones. You’re mad at me.” 

“All right, fine. I am frustrated with you, and this whole situation. For goodness’s sake, Haroldus, how could you have become so intolerant of sunlight that you need to stay in the dungeon while visiting the castle?” 

“I did not want this to happen! I was living in a cave up north when winter came. Next thing I knew, the world was all darkness all the time. I grew used to this lifestyle, enjoyed it, even. Then I needed to venture out in the world again, and found my sunlight tolerance had plummeted. I hate this too.” 

“Please just try to act like a prisoner so this is less awkward.” Theodore grumbled as he roughly shoved the younger vampire into the dungeon. The dungeon master would be coming soon, they had to finish this conversation quickly. 

“Do I look like a prisoner now?” Haroldus whispered. He had mussed up his hair,  was hanging his head and had a miserable grimacing expression on his face. 

“Yes, perfect, just stay like that until I come back for you after the dungeon master leaves.” 

“Theodore?” 

“Yes?” 

“Have you ever lost your sunlight tolerance?” Haroldus asked in a small voice.. 

“Not really.” Never to the extent that Haroldus had. 

“Will I get it back?” 

“I do not know,” Sir Theodore sighed heavily. Haroldus’s misery was not entirely an act, and it was starting to tug at his heartstrings. He’d grown fond of the younger vampire over the years, becoming especially close after they’d both met in a dungeon much like this one.

That dungeon. 

His pulse quickened at the memories. The stench in the air, the tiny puddles of disgusting water on the floor, the boy who played in them. The vial. 

That stint in a dungeon was one of the best and worst things to have ever happened to him. 

Footsteps were approaching. The dungeon master. 

“Haroldus, one last thing.” 

“Yes?” 

“Robert. Where is he, again?” 

“He should be waiting in the large cave.”

“Is he alone?” 

“I couldn’t convince him to let anyone else stay with him, even for emergency help.” Haroldus sounded strained. 

Theodore dragged a hand through his hair. “His cockiness is going to get him killed.” 

“That’s what I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen to me!”

Theodore sighed, his shoulders slumping. “I can only hope he doesn’t veer off the plan.” 

“The plan is the one thing in this world he won’t abandon.” Haroldus sighed. 

The plan was simple. 

Get dragon blood. 

Haroldus’s “arrest” (originally supposed to be a mere visit) would distract the castle residents. Theodore would do something to distract Jane. After a little while, Jane and Dragon would be lulled into a false sense of security. Jane would be occupied with her castle duties, and Dragon would return to his cave. 

Where Robert would be waiting for him. 

Robert wasn’t going to kill Dragon, just get him to trust him and drink his blood and harvest enough for Haroldus and Theodore to drink as well. And hopefully not get himself killed in the process. 

Originally, Theodore believed Robert was going to have at least one other vampire waiting with him, a friend, or somebody he paid off, it didn’t matter, but apparently he was so sure of himself he wanted to do this alone. 

Theodore ground his teeth, furious at both himself and Robert. 

I can’t blame him. 

He breathed in the dungeon air, remembering the smell of the one they’d all been trapped in all those years ago. 

He couldn’t stop the memories, even as he left the dungeon and executed his part of the plan in the castle. 

He’d been discovered as a vampire. 

He was numb as the human guards threw him into a cell with two other vampires, Haroldus and his good friend,  both already becoming desperate for blood. The human guards wanted this to happen, wanted them to either waste away or tear each other apart. Their wish seemed to be coming true. They’d already tried drinking each other’s blood, but it barely worked. Haroldus was becoming despondent and weepy. His friend had begun babbling, words Theodore initially wrote off as nonsense as he tried to silently trudge through his own misery. 

“How dare they do this to me? Do they even know who I am? Do you know who I am? I am the descendant of the priests who drank dragon blood! Dragon blood!” The other man proclaimed to the ceiling after the guards briefly left them alone. 

Theodore found himself laughing for reasons that didn’t make sense now that he was reflecting on the memory while sane. 

“Dragon blood?” He has asked, drawing out the syllables, turning it into a mocking song. “Dragon blood! Yes, it will solve all our problems! Dragon blood!” 

“Yes!” The other man said as he gripped the bars of the cell. Then he turned slowly and saw the look on Theodore’s face. “Oh. You don’t really understand. You’re mocking me.” 

Theodore giggled.

“No. Don’t mock me.” His fellow prisoner intoned, his face lit eerily by the light of the torch. “Dragon blood is the most powerful liquid in the world.” The other vampire sat slowly on the floor and began painting a picture of the beauty of dragon blood. It was hearty like soup. It left you feeling as full as if you’d drunk the blood of a thousand men. The scales added a unique and mouthwatering flavor to it. 

And best of all, he had a vial of it hidden away, and a plan to get it.

Theodore’s mouth was indeed watering by the time the guards came back. He eyed them, but his dragon-obsessed new best friend got their attention. 

“I think I may be dying.” He intoned. “Please,” he softened his voice. “Please, may I see my son?” 

The guards said nothing. 

Son? Theodore thought. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the guards relented. 

A young boy was allowed in with them. 

“Hello there,” Theodore rasped “what’s your name, little one?” 

“Robert.” The boy said.

“Hello Robert.” Haroldus ruffled his hair. “You look just like your father.”

Haroldus looked as if he wanted to talk more to Robert, but Robert’s father pulled him into a rib-crushing hug and whispered something to him. 

Then Robert played in a dirty puddle a little bit. Then he had to leave. His father cried as the guards walked him away. Theodore teared up too. 

Robert was allowed to see them again a month later. The only reason the vampires had made it that long was because Haroldus had discovered a rat’s nest. They’d been rationing the rats. 

“Did you find what I asked you to?” Robert’s father asked, eyes gleaming. 

Robert smiled and pulled a vial out of his pocket. 

The vial of dragon’s blood. 

“I found it all by myself!” Robert crowed as the vampires cheered loud enough to wake the dead.

Robert’s father took the first sip. 

“That’s my boy!” He scooped Robert up in his arms. Earlier he’d hardly been able to grip the rats they’d been drinking. 

Haroldus took a sip next. At once his despondent tears dried and he began laughing.

Theodore took the last sip. He grinned so wide he thought his face would crack in half. The stories were true. He felt his strength returning tenfold. 

Now happily fed, they found escaping easy. The guards were overpowered like they were hardly there. Sneaking away to their next destination under the cover of darkness felt like an adventure instead of a life-or-death mission. 

Robert had come with them, and no one had minded. Theodore found he liked having the little human boy around as they traveled more. 

Which is why it gutted him when Robert got caught in the crossfire when they were discovered again while hiding out in the woods. Theodore had long since learned in the military that the enemy will always seek out the weakest links. But he didn’t want it to be true when he saw how badly injured Robert was after Theodore had chased off the attackers. He didn’t want it to be true when he saw the state of Robert’s father, who was once again babbling incoherently, this time in a pool of his own blood. 

“Didn’t they know he’s human?” Haroldus screeched, trying to scoop Robert in his arms. “HUMAN, YOU MONSTERS!” He howled into the darkness. 

But he didn’t stay that way for long. 

 Robert’s father turned him into a vampire to save his life. It was the last thing the vampire man had ever done, as he died of his own injuries that morning.

Things started to fall apart after that. Robert was scarred and could think of nothing but his father’s sacrifice. They began to lash out at each other out of grief and rage. Their friendship never ended, but it was shaken deeply. Robert grew up, slowly, very slowly, vampirism slowed the process. Theodore secretly felt it slowed his mourning process, for Robert never seemed to stop mourning his father and fixating on the stories his father had told him of dragons, their priests, and their blood.

Haroldus and Theodore fixated on those stories too, and soon, all three found themselves following them. While Haroldus was content to try and find dragon blood, and Theodore was happy with the knowledge of dragons they gained, Robert wanted more. 

He wanted them to want more, too. 

So now they were all here. 

Theodore had come to Kippernia first, a scout of sorts. He’d joined the ranks of their castle, all while trying to think of ways he could get ahold of dragon blood. But it was extremely difficult, and soon he found himself getting swept up in the the life of a human rather than a vampire. Robert and Haroldus, in between Theodore’s increasingly sporadic messages, traveled more in search of dragons. 

Recently, Jane and Dragon had been researching the dragon-priests runes more and more, leading to Theodore to message his comrades again. He’d informed them that the dragon had bonded with a girl, and that he would be responsible for keeping the girl away so Robert could collect the blood with fewer issues. 

(Did he see the flaws in this plan? Yes. Did he wish he was the one making the plan instead of Robert? Of course. Did he feel he had a choice at this point? No.)

So now he was trying to hide his desperation as he ordered Jane to do more and more tasks, trying to keep her away from Dragon (and Robert, who was waiting) in any way he could. 

Jane and Robert had virtually nothing in common. This was why Theodore knew the two of them would loathe each other if they ever met. 

They did have one thing in common, though. 

Stubbornness. 

Theodore watched in silence as Jane flew away on Dragon’s back, presumably going to Dragon’s cave.

Jane sighed with relief at the feeling of the wind in her hair. After such an odd day, she was grateful for the freeing feeling of flying. Up here, there were no strange prisoners that Sir Theodore danced around questions about. Up here, there were no frightening dreams. Up here, life was perfect. 

They landed in Dragon’s cave in the usual spot. She dismounted with ease and walked further into the cave. 

And came face to face with a stranger. 

Well, rather face to shoulder with a stranger. 

They were so engrossed with reading the runes on the cave wall, tracing them with one finger, that they didn’t seem to register her coming until her sword was drawn and pointing at them. 

The stranger screamed and fell backwards. The sound brought dragon running, smoke beginning to trickle  from his nostrils.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Jane demanded, leveling the sword at the stranger’s throat now that they were on the ground. 

The stranger was a man, roughly in his twenties, with long black hair. It was difficult to make out other details in the dark, even with the sparks of dragon fire beginning to glow as dragon prepared to burn him to ash.

“The legends are true.” The man breathed in awe. “A dragon really does live here.” 

“The legends?” Dragon said, cocking his head to one side. 

The man looked like he might cry. 

“Ever since I was a child, my father told me tales of mighty dragons.” The man’s eyes never left Dragon’s face, they were glazing over with an adoration that started to make Jane uncomfortable in a way she couldn’t explain. “I’ve spent years searching for dragons and their runes, looking for any proof that he wasn’t mad and that-” his eyes flickered down, registering the blade at his throat for the first time. “Are those runes on your sword?” 

Jane and Dragon exchanged glances. 

“Yes.” Jane said slowly. 

The man looked even more starstruck. “It cannot be.” He breathed. He slowly reached for his belt. 

“Don’t- I’m not going to hurt you.” He said. “I’m just- look at this.” 

He had produced a dagger from his belt. He held it up to them almost like an offering. 

There were runes almost identical to hers carved on the hilt.

Two days later, Robert watched her shift the runes on her sword. The light of the evening sun seemed to be hurting his eyes, but he was clearly too hypnotized by the movement of the runes to care. 

“It’s so mesmerizing, when it does that.” He murmured. 

Jane nodded silently. 

In the two days since they’d met, they’d been talking almost nonstop. Robert’s father had given him the rune-carved dagger, and ignited his fascination for dragons. After his father had been killed in a bandit attack, Robert had dedicated himself to searching for dragons and dragon knowledge to honor his father. 

Jane was starting to like Robert. When he wasn’t starstruck by Dragon, he was actually a very confident and social man. He played with Lavinia, talked about animals and weaponry with Smithy, and even though he rarely ate, he always talked with Pepper when she served meals. She’d even seen him engaged in conversation with Sir Theodore.

Pepper had once remarked that it was odd how little Robert seemed to eat during the day. Jane didn’t think other people’s eating habits were any of her business, but she had to admit that he did seem to have a couple strange qualities. There were swathes of time when he went off to do his own business, no one seeming to know where he was. He often spent time in the shade when he could help it, and frequently shielded his eyes from the sun. When seeing this had prompted Jane to ask him just how much time he had spent in caves looking for dragons, he gave the nonanswer of “a long time, I suppose.”

“You must have been very dedicated.” She said. 

“I am.” He said with a smile. He smiled without showing his teeth. Then he excused himself and went to ask Sir Theodore a question. As he walked away, Jane noticed his dagger slipped out of his belt and fell.

“Robert! You dropped your dagger!” 

But he had already walked out of earshot. She picked up the dagger and jogged after him as he walked into the castle.

“How much longer?” Haroldus asked. “It’s been three days.” 

“Patience, my friend.” Theodore reminded him. “The best plans always take time.”

Haroldus sighed. “I  just hope I can get out of here soon, I miss fresh air.” 

I hate being reminded of the smell of the old dungeon. He didn’t say it, but he didn’t need to. The memories hung over them both like a storm cloud. 

Footsteps descended the dungeon stairs. 

“I was told I would find you both down here,” Robert said, his voice echoing. 

“Robert!” Haroldus cried. “How is- How are you?” 

“Everything is going smoothly…for the most part.” He added bitterly. He fixed Theodore with a firm stare. “You told me you would work on keeping the girl out of the way.” 

“The strength of her bond with Dragon makes that quite difficult.” 

Robert exhaled sharply. “Indeed it does. The dragon values her companionship above all else. Its ego is easily stoked, and all it seems to see me as is a blindly devoted disciple. The closest human in its life is that girl.” 

“What do you expect me to do about that?” 

“Stay out of the way as I get the girl on my side.”

Robert noticed Theodore’s grimace. “What?”

Theodore sighed. “It is no matter. We must do what must be done.” 

Robert raised an eyebrow. “You’re unhappy. Come now, what’s bothering you about the plan?” 

Theodore scowled. “I do not want her on your side. I do not want her involved at all.” 

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about that-” Robert said tensely. 

“Why not?” Haroldus interrupted, looking concerned. 

Theodore turned to Haroldus. “She is my apprentice. She’s-I…” 

Haroldus jerked his chin at him a little, urging him to continue. 

“I want her to stay safe. She doesn’t know I’m a vampire, and- we mean a lot to each other. She’s like family to me.” 

“How sweet,” Robert said flippantly. Haroldus shot him a deeply disapproving look.

“So,” Robert continued, annoyed. “Her presence disrupts the plan, meaning we must-” 

There was a sudden thudding footstep, like someone had briefly lost their balance on the dungeon stairs above them.  

They all instantly went silent. 

Robert turned slowly, his scowl exposing his fangs. 

Waiting on the stairs, hiding, was Jane, still holding Robert’s dagger. 

“Jane-” Theodore choked out. 

But she was already running, Robert’s dagger still in hand. 

Robert bellowed while Theodore started to cry.

“Don’t just stand there, follow her with me!” Robert snarled. 

“Sprinting through the castle will cause chaos and distress to everyone,” Theodore wiped his shocked tears and tried to steady his voice. 

“Why are you fretting about these humans so much?” Robert asked. “I thought they were just meat to you.”

Humans are meat. He’s killed enough on the battlefield and drunk enough blood to know that for all the cries about souls and spirits and internal sparks,  flesh is the only thing inside a human, flesh butchered as easily as any beast or farm animal.

So when a human comes along to make him feel something other than apathy or hunger, he’ll never let harm come to them. 

The castle residents are several such humans.

Robert huffed in frustration. 

Haroldus growled. “Enough, Robert. You have been constantly disrespecting us this whole time, even after we agreed to help with this plan-” 

“The plan, which I’m doing for all of us.”

“Yes, but it mostly centers around you.” Haroldus shot back. “I understood this from the beginning. And I let it. Even when you rejected my ideas and possible other help, I let it.” Haroldus looked him in the eyes, tearing up. “And do you know why?” 

“Why are we doing this right now? She could be-” 

“Do you know why I let this plan revolve around you?” 

“All right, fine, why?”

“Because I felt guilty about your father’s death!” The word death echoed through the dungeon, silencing everyone. 

“I indulged this plan, spoiled you rotten in other ways, because of my guilt.” Haroldus breathed. 

“It wasn’t your fault he died-” Robert started, but Haroldus wasn’t done. 

“And-and you became a vampire after he died, and drinking dragon blood was one of the only things that made you happy as a vampire for years, so I-I let you drink it, I let you create this self-centered plan…” 

Haroldus, babbling and crying in a dungeon again. Theodore’s skin prickled as he remembered the old dungeon that had started it all. 

Robert ran up the stairs and out of sight. 

“So, where are we going, exactly?” Dragon asked as they flew higher and higher. “I don’t know.” Jane gasped. “I just need to get out of the castle. Something is- I heard Robert calling you an it and talking about some strange plan and Sir Theodore said some eerie things and I don’t know what’s going on and-” she shook her head. “Just fly.” 

She breathed in, slowly and deeply, trying to soothe herself. She shifted her leg a little. 

“Ow!” Dragon yelped, his body spasming, making her cry out as well. 

“What is it?” She yelped. 

“Something poked me!” 

“Something-” she looked down. 

She’d slipped Robert’s dagger into her belt as she’d fled. 

It had poked Dragon’s skin. 

She wanted to scream, she felt so foolish. Of course Robert’s dagger could also cut dragon skin like her own sword. Why else would it have runes in it? How did she not realize this sooner? 

“How far away from the castle do you think we are?” She asked. 

Dragon looked around. “It’s nothing but wilderness and the mountains now. I don’t think there’s even another shortlife settlement around for a good distance.” 

“Perfect. If you’d like, we could land here.”

Dragon flew a little bit further, then landed on the side of a mountain, next to a cave. 

“I’ve been here before,” he offered conversationally. She guessed he was trying to calm her. “I heard some shortlives calling it The Rust Mountains.” 

“Why?” 

“I didn’t stay long enough to find out. Maybe you will.” 

“Maybe I will.” She said with a sigh, dismounting him and leaning against a wall. She closed her eyes. 

“Dragon?” 

“Yes?” 

“Do you know anything about…vampires?” 

“Vampires? No…why?”

She shrugged. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore. For all she knew she had misheard Sir Theodore when he was talking to Haroldus. 

Why had he been talking to a prisoner, anyway? 

What is going on?

“I was a coward to run.” She muttered. “Everyone at the castle is probably in hysterics right now, especially with Robert and Sir Theodore and Haroldus being so strange.” Panic, shame, and adrenaline combined into a terrible cocktail that churned in her stomach. “We should go back.” 

“No, not right now.” Dragon said firmly. “My wings are exhausted from all that flying. Your friends can handle themselves. I will rest.” 

Jane growled, low in her throat, an almost animalistic sound. 

And like an angry animal, she retreated into the darkness of a cave for comfort and familiarity. She sat down near the mouth of the cave and examined Robert’s dagger for the thousandth time. She and Robert had never been able to properly decipher the runes, and she certainly couldn’t solve them now. But there was comfort in the action, and she did it over and over again, stroking the dagger’s hilt and rolling it between her hands until her eyelids drooped and she curled up on the ground. Dragon lumbered in a few moments later, and soon they were both snoring.

Dragon’s rhythmic snores lulled her to sleep, so when they abruptly stopped, her eyes flickered open. She found Dragon still laying down, but his ears were up and his eyes open and searching. 

“What is it?”

“I heard something. Multiple somethings. A horse, and briefly something that was like a bat but not a bat.” He sat up, looking out of the mouth of the cave. “I think someone’s coming, Jane.” 

“What? Who? How?” Now she was on her feet, Robert’s dagger ready in one hand.

“It might not be an enemy,” Dragon cautioned. “I will try to get a closer look. He walked out of the cave. Jane watched the landscape below them herself, but her eyesight was nowhere near as sharp as Dragon’s. 

“I’m going to fly a little bit, see if I find anything that way. There is definitely something out there.” 

Dragon took off, began circling around. 

Now Jane could hear hoofbeats echoing,very rapidly getting closer. Please be a random traveler, or- 

“JANE!” Dragon bellowed. 

Her grip on the dagger tightening, she began to sweat. 

A rider on a dark horse was beginning to make their way up a rugged trail leading to the cave, headed straight for them. The horse was clearly struggling, but the rider seemed to struggle to care. That infuriated her more, and she stepped out of the cave with the dagger at the ready. If it could cut dragon scales, it could take care of a human enemy easily. 

The thought chilled her. She’d rarely thought something about even her own sword before.

“IT’S HIM!” Dragon shouted. 

Which ‘him’? Robert? Haroldus? Sir Theodore? 

It’s clearly not Sir Theodore, so that leaves- 

The rider was fast approaching. 

Dragon was visibly panicking. 

The world slowed down as he inhaled. 

Jane screamed. 

The horse and rider were nearly consumed by flames. The horse reared back, its whinny combining with its rider’s scream into a gut-twisting sound of pure pain and terror.

The rider awkwardly slid off the terrified horse’s back. He picked something up-a rock?-off the ground. 

Dragon let out a smaller burst of flames, making the horse buck back once more. 

The former rider plunged the rock into the horse’s back, then once more into one of its hind legs. As it slowly fell, the former rider got on his knees and pressed his mouth to one of the bleeding wounds. 

Jane’s whole body was shaking. 

Sir Theodore really was speaking of vampires. 

Please, don’t let that be Sir Theodore. 

It’s not. He would never do something so abhorrent. 

You don’t know that. You don’t know what he’s done to survive as a knight for so many years. 

It was the truth, but Jane wanted so badly for it to be a lie. 

The vampire stood, leaving the still-alive but clearly shaken and weakened horse. He walked away from it, towards her. 

She didn’t understand how he reached the cave so fast. Perhaps he drank the horse’s blood to gain its speed. 

“Hello, Jane,” Robert said, licking some of the blood off his lips. He smiled, it was pure teeth. No, not teeth. Fangs, slick and shiny with gore. 

Jane had been training for years for anything in combat. 

She’d never even dreamed she’d have to prepare for something like this. 

Dragon bellowed and dove for Robert. 

Dragon filled the cave with his fury, it was all snapping jaws and thrashing claws and plumes of smoke and flame. Jane hoped he killed Robert. 

But then she felt Robert’s arms around her half-carrying her, half dragging her away as she screamed. The world was pure darkness and smoke, and became somehow darker still as he shoved her through a crevasse in the wall with no light. 

Her dagger flailed, but it somehow never found skin.

Robert pinned her to the wall with one arm. He was terrifyingly strong. 

“I’ll be needing that, thank you very much.” His other hand roughly wrestled the dagger from her sweat-slick hand. 

“What do you need it for? Where are we? How did you know where to find us? I’ll kill you!” She howled, not caring if she made any sense.

“I need this dagger to drink dragon blood.” He said with infuriating calm. “We are currently in a smaller cavern in the mountain that can only be accessed through a passageway too small for Dragon to fit through. To answer your final question, I’m a vampire, Jane. When the sun is often your enemy, you spend countless hours away from it. That, combined with my search for dragons, means that I know every cave system in this land like the back of my hand. I knew this was the closest one, easily accessible by dragon flight and rarely visited by Kippernians. I just had to follow my hunch and the sound of wingbeats. And the smell of Dragon’s blood.” He added.  There was a burst of flame from Dragon in the other cavern, lighting his face eerily. She saw how hollow his eyes seemed, a small droplet of blood sliding off of the corner of his mouth, and those dreadful fangs.

She wrestled against his grip, but it was virtually no use. 

“You’ll want me alive if I’m to answer your questions.” 

She spat in his face.

“Please. The only question I want answered is how do I kill you as fast as possible?” 

He could have killed her right then and there. He really could have. Instead his grip merely tightened, cutting off the blood flow. There was another explosion of fire, this time with a plume of smoke that made her eyes water. 

“No, I think you want more answers than that. And I know you won’t get them from Sir Theodore. I know because I know him, I’ve known him far longer than you have.” 

She spat in his face again. He ignored it again. He was a vampire who drank the blood of animals who still lived, his face pressed against their dirty pelts and open wounds. He probably considered human saliva sanitary. 

“Well, since you are literally a captive audience right now…” the confidence she’d grown to know was back, only now it was bloated self-importance. 

Robert began to tell her his tale. As if she cared. 

Well, she did care a bit, but not about most of it. 

His mother was dead. His father, who had become a vampire a little after he was born, raised him for most of his youth. Both of them had been very loving people. Him and his father had loved each other so much that he had delivered dragon blood to his father in a dungeon, and, a while later, his father turned him into a vampire to save his life, losing his own in the process. 

“Sir Theodore and Haroldus, who had befriended my father while they were all imprisoned for being vampires-” he continued. That was all Jane processed for the rest of his speech. It actually stunned her into mild complacency for a few minutes, which Robert used to hurriedly explain his plan. 

“-and dragons became my one reason for living this torturous vampiric life. They were the only thing to bring me consistent joy and purpose in those long centuries. Can you even fathom it, Jane? Watching all the humans you love die? Avoiding the sun? Not being able to truly eat or enjoy solid food? Do you have any idea what that does to a person? This prolonged life is a curse, and my only idea of a blessing was dragon’s blood. Even better, there could be a dragon to bond with! Bond with, like my father’s ancestors! Bond with, like you. You take your friendship with your dragon for granted, Jane.” His grip tightened on her shoulders. “Your life is short. Never will you understand the weight of living for centuries like a dragon could. Vampires are the only creatures who could truly understand dragons, and vice versa.” 

Jane stopped squirming for a second, panting hard.

“You just want…a friend?” 

His grip loosened significantly. 

“I wouldn’t use the simple human term of friendship to describe it. In fact, I can hardly even describe it now. But once I make that dragon mine, I’ll finally have it!” 

“Oh, Robert…” Jane said softly and pityingly. She reached for his torso, gently pressed her fingers against it in a comforting gesture. 

“I’m so sorry…” she said, stroking his torso with one hand. She felt him become less tense. He leaned closer to her touch.

 Her other hand lunged for his belt. 

The dagger slid out, fit into her hand as if it had been hers all along.

She plunged it into Robert’s stomach. 

“But you’ll never have it!” 

Robert’s scream was deafening in the small cavern. She stabbed him again, then dragged his twitching form out to the larger cavern, where Dragon was waiting. 

He set him on fire until they were sure he was truly dead. 

She took a deep, shuddering breath full of smoke, feeling an odd sense of peace. 

Then her legs gave out. 

“I bring you news of two things.” Theodore said to Haroldus, who was trying to discreetly sip the blood of a rat. “One: Jane is still unconscious, but shows signs of waking very soon.” 

“That’s good,” Haroldus murmured. “Then she can tell us what happened to Robert.” 

Haroldus had heard the commotion even inside the dungeon. Jane, Dragon, and Robert, chasing each other. Dragon, returning many hours later with an unconscious Jane in tow and no sign of Robert. 

An unreadable but pained expression passed over Theodore’s face at the mention of Robert. Haroldus’s gut twisted. 

“I bring you news of three things.” He amended. “I wasn’t going to tell you this until later, but-Dragon has reported that Robert is dead. Burned to ash.” 

Haroldus fell to his knees. 

“Why aren’t you doing the same?” He demanded through tears. “What is wrong with you?” 

“It doesn’t feel real,” Theodore admitted. 

Haroldus screamed and beat the dungeon floor.

Theodore quietly left him.

“The prisoner is still erratic,” he reported to the king and queen. “We need to keep him down there for a bit longer, until he calms down.”

It took Haroldus four days to calm down. Then Theodore was able to deliver the news he meant to give him initially.

“You need to get out of here.” Theodore said, wasting no breath or pleasantries. 

“Why?” Haroldus asked. His eyes were still glassy, not with tears but something else. “I kind of like it down here. There’s no sun, and it brings back memories of happy times of Robert as a boy and his father-” 

“No. Stop. You have to leave. You are being ordered to leave by the knights of Kippernia.”

“Really?” 

“Yes. Really. Now come on. Get up. Let’s go.” 

Theodore personally escorted Haroldus out of the castle, and out of Kippernia itself. Haroldus noticed this. 

“Are you exiling me, Theodore?” 

“Not officially. It’s not safe for anyone if you are here, Haroldus.” 

Haroldus digested this information quietly. Theodore’s heart squirmed with guilt. 

“All right. I’ll go back to my old cave up north.” He took a shuddering breath. “You will send messages, yes?” 

“Yes, my friend.” He said gently. 

Haroldus hugged him. Theodore didn’t want to let him go, but he had to. 

“Haroldus?” 

“Yes?” 

“You’re very calm, so I need you to be honest with me. Are you planning revenge against Jane and Dragon?” 

“I still want to, a little. I think I always will. But I know what Robert was like. We both remember what he’d done- what I let him do- to humans over the years. He had something coming for him.” Haroldus’s voice cracked, he blinked back tears. 

Theodore hugged him again. They embraced for a lot longer that time, leaning into each other. 

“You will send messages?” Haroldus asked again. 

“Of course.” 

Theodore watched Haroldus creep off into the darkness of the evening, then he received a message of his own. 

Jane was fully awake and talking coherently. 

----

Jane stared at Sir Theodore. 

He stood a good distance away from her bed, a very calm expression on his face. As if he’d accepted whatever fate was about to throw at him. 

“You’re a vampire.” she deadpanned. There was no one else in the room to hear but she wasn’t sure she would’ve cared if there had been. 

“I am, indeed.” 

She watched his mouth as he spoke. Sure enough, his front teeth were fangs. 

“How have I never noticed your fangs before?” She asked quietly. 

“The mind tends to see what it wants to see. You had no reason to suspect I had them, so you never truly saw them.” 

She nodded.

“Have you ever drunk a person’s blood?” She asked quietly. 

“Of course I have. Many times. I had to survive somehow.” 

Neither of them looked at each other. 

“You…knew Robert, didn’t you?” 

“I did. Ever since he was a boy. A human boy.” 

“He said-before he died, he said he wanted a dragon who would understand the weight of living for centuries.” 

Her words weighed heavy in the ensuing silence. 

“But if he had you, and other vampires…” she sighed. “There are some things we can never understand.” 

“We can try,” he suggested gently. “You have just fully woken up, I’m sure a great many things don’t make sense to you right now.” 

“Do they make sense to you?” 

“No.” 

“Then we can figure them out, together.”