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"Percy, why didn't you tell us?" Keyleth says with a concerned frown, and Vex'ahlia thinks her own expression must match hers. Percy has just told them that creepy couple murdered his entire family like he was talking about the weather. Well, not exactly the weather, since his growing rage could be felt from a mile away this whole evening.
"I've tried to tell many over the years, no one's ever believed me," Percy admits with a sigh, with his gaze glued to the ground. The sight is surely heartbreaking, Vex thinks to herself, while they all stand on the main hall of the castle. Well, everyone's there except for–
"Wait, Vax is up there," Pike points out, beating Vex to it, "what if he needs help?"
"Plus, he's got the squirts!" Grog cries out then, bringing his hands up to cover his mouth in worry.
Before either of them can move towards the door to go check on Vax, he appears next to them – practically materializes on the spot – like a ghost. "Brother," Vex breathes out a sigh of relief, going to greet her brother. "How did it go? Find anything useful?"
"Nothing," Vax tells her, with an unreadable expression in his face. He doesn't even seem disturbed with whatever he found upstairs. His look is just... blank.
"I think it's time for us to leave," Vex decides, instead of diggin any further into it – which she will do, but once they're back home, safe and sound – and earns nods and hums of agreement.
"Who's got the ticket?" Pike asks the group when they approach the exit of the castle, where they've left all the weapons. The guy keeping them gave them a ticket, but, apparently, no one paid attention to where it was. "Don't tell me we lost the ticket!" Pike scoffs, before he turns to– "Grog!"
"Come here, fuckstick," Grog launches himself against the weapon-keeper and grabs him the collar of the shirt, throwing him to the opposite side of the room.
"Sylas! Delilah!" Percy shouts in rage, making Vex's head snap to see the source of his anger: the creepy couple's exiting the castle, with a short elf carrying all their bags. Percy starts shooting his pepperbox gun, which soon gets stuck – for the first time in all the time Vex has known him.
"Goodbye, dear," Delilah, that bitch, waves at him with a smile, making Vex want to wipe it off her face. "It's great to see you're still kicking, my dearest pup!"
Vex, while she's picking her bow to shoot at Delilah, sees everyone chase after Sylas and Delilah. Once again, it's everyone except–
"Vax-?" Vex turns to her brother but, all of a sudden, has to duck away from a knife coming for her face. "Fuck!" Vex cries out when she realizes it's her own brother trying to stab her in the face!
"Vax?" Keyleth seems to catch up with what's happening and comes to help, while Vex is using her bow to keep Vax's knife from stabbing her. "What's wrong with him?" She says, casting vines that try and fail to catch Vax and keep him in place.
"Hells if I know!" Vex shouts back, before Vax jumps and launches himself against her– luckily, she manages to get herself on the ground, before Vax can make her fall, and gives him a kick on the stomach that sends him flying to the opposite side of the room.
"Don't make me hurt you!" Vex warns her brother, while she's readying an arrow in his direction. Like a mindless beast, Vax starts sprinting towards her as soon as he recovers from the fall.
Before he can get any closer, however, Vex shoot him on the leg, and the shot hurts her more than it hurts him. Perhaps, almost as it hurts him, Vex thinks, watching Vax abruptly fall to the ground and curl around his injured leg.
"Don't shoot..." Vax suddenly mutters, raising his hands, which are wet with his own blood, on surrender. The sight of him being normal again is enough to make both Vex and Keyleth sigh in relief– yes, the rest of their group is still fighting Sylas and Delilah behind them but at least Vax is himself again.
"Vax!" Keyleth goes to hug him, and Vex follows right after her, but in a slower pace; she's taking the time to get a better look on her brother. This way, she finds out about the twin puncture wounds on his neck – from a vampire, obviously –, which have already grown dried and bruised. It must've been Sylas' work to get him mind-controlled, Vex concludes in her mind, in case there was any doubt.
"Wow, what happened?" Pike comes to check on them, quickly making her way towards Vax.
"News flash, Pickle, we can get mind-controlled now," Vax says, before a hiss of pain escapes his lips as Keyleth helps him sit down on the ground.
"Nice," Pike huffs, kneeling beside Vax and Keyleth. "Please, Everlight, hear my prayer," she mutters, holding her necklace in both of her hands and closing her eyes.
Deeming his brother's in good hands, Vex starts jogging towards the exit of the castle, to get to the real fight and help both Percy and Grog.
"Kiki," Vax calls her name with a smile when Keyleth approaches him. It's been a hell of a night. First that fucking vampire bites his neck and sucks his blood and it feels like Vax is going to die and then he can't control his body– stop it, Vax tells himself, taking a deep breath. It's all over now, while they're prisioners in their own home, the Keep.
"How are you feeling?" Keyleth asks him, placing herself next to him in the empty kitchen.
"My leg's doing great after Pike's healing," Vax tries to see the good side, blantantly ignoring all the rest. "A good night's rest will have it as good as new by tomorrow morning," he says, but it's been gods know how long since they've all had dinner and he has yet to head to his bed.
Keyleth, apparently, won't let him ignore the rest of his answer, and looks at him with a concerned look. "I also meant..."
"The other part?" Vax finally turns his head to look at her, and he knows his expression must betray how bad he feels. "I think sleeping it off is the best answer for that too," he tells her anyway.
"I can't imagine how awful that must've been," Keyleth softly says, with her hand reaching for his own. When their hands meet, Keyleth holds his in her own and gives it a gentle squeeze.
At her careful touch, Vax feels like the dam within him breaks, and he starts finally opening up about the fucking mess he endured earlier. "I could see everything... but it wasn't my own body. It was like it was someone else's," he says with a humorless chuckle, and his eyes start to burn.
Soon enough, Vax grows aware of the uncomfortable silence spreading between them – that must actually be an encouraging silence from Keyleth's part, with him being the asshole making it uncomfortable. –, so he decides to lift the mood the tiniest bit:
"That and the fact I'll probably turn into a vampire," he whispers, tilting his head to the side so Keyleth can catch a glimpse of the bite marks over his neck.
"Ouch," Keyleth says with a chuckle, running the hand that isn't holding his over the marks, that after Pike's healing must be just merely-visible scars.
"Yep, nasty work," Vax comments with a hum, feeling more relieved now that everything's passed. They've still got to defeat that fucking couple, Sylas and Delilah, and have practically everyone thinking they're the enemy, but all that can wait until tomorrow.
"I would let you drink my blood if you needed it," Keyleth then says, out of the blue, before she appears to process her own words and goes red. "I mean-!"
"It's fine, Kiki, I know what you meant," Vax says, warmly smiling at her as he moves his other hand to hold hers, just like she held his.
"Are you good to go to bed?" Keyleth asks, before a yawn escapes her, making her hand move to cover her mouth.
"I think I am now," Vax slowly nods in agreement, feeling all the exhaustion from the day fall on top of him, now that he's safe again.