Chapter Text
The meeting in the library was frigid. Sunny entered with a piercing gaze, but Abbi simply received him with an impeccable bow, gesturing toward the chair across from her.
"Take a seat, Master Sunny. We have much to discuss."
Sunny sat, but he did not relax. His fingers drummed against the wood with an electric impatience.
"Speak already, Abbi. I don’t have time for games."
"Before I give you answers, I need a vital confirmation" she said, ignoring his tone with a gentle smile. "Tell me, have you been feeding well?"
Sunny let out a scoff of disbelief. "Seriously? You brought me here to act like a worried grandmother? Don’t waste my time with trivialities!"
"It is not a triviality," Abbi countered, and for the first time, her voice lost its warmth, turning heavy as lead. "It is a crucial question for your survival... and for Stranger's."
The name made Sunny tense. He took a deep breath, just as Mari had taught him to calm his predator’s pulse, and answered through gritted teeth: "Not much... but lately, I’ve improved."
"Frequency?" she inquired.
"Once... every two days. A small glass" Sunny said, lowering his voice, trying to be sincere even though the words felt heavy on his tongue.
Abbi’s face darkened. Her tentacles stirred slightly beneath her kimono, a sign of pure anxiety.
"That is not good news, Sunny. Your metabolism is in a state of latent starvation. And that is a problem, because what Stranger needs to recover isn't rest, or medicine... it is your Vitae."
“My blood!” Sunny thought. A chill ran down his spine. Is he dying because he refuses to take my blood?
Abbi leaned forward. On the table, her pale hand remained caught in the restrictive embrace of one of her own tentacles, as if she were trying to restrain herself.
"You see, Sunny... Stranger is a Ghoul. And in our hierarchy, there is no more tragic existence. A Ghoul is not a vampire, but they are not human either; they are a parasite tied by a thread of blood to their provider."
Abbi paused, measuring the horror in Sunny’s eyes.
"When you gave him your blood to drink as a mere child, you didn't just save his life. You created a Blood Bond. For a Ghoul, their master's Vitae is the most potent drug in existence. It grants them unique supernatural abilities, allows them to enjoy almost instantaneous regenerative skills, and halts their aging—but the price is absolute dependency. It is a hunger that gnaws at one's sanity. It isn't just sustenance, Sunny... it is an euphoria that clouds judgment, a fire that consumes the will."
Sunny felt the air leave his lungs. Had he imposed that addiction on Basil? Was that how he had "saved" him?
"It is a cruel condemnation" Abbi continued sadly. "Especially because it happened when you were both children. You likely didn't know back then that by giving him that drop of life, you were chaining him to a pact of servitude forever."
Sunny remained silent for a long minute, processing the guilt that threatened to drown him.
"But why...? Why didn't he tell me sooner?!" Sunny exploded, desperation tinting his voice. "I would have offered it without protest! In the mansion, I had ghoul servants... every month they drank from me, but they always seemed to resign and vanish overnight...Why did he turn something so vital into a secret?!"
"I don't know!" Abbi said, somewhat nervous and startled by the unexpected outburst. "I—I cannot speak for him, but most likely it wasn't convenient for him to tell you, much less now that you are in a state of malnutrition" Abbi said, returning to her professional but soft tone, trying to be firm. "But I cannot know with total certainty. Therefore, you should ask him yourself... if you are prepared for the answer."
Sunny pressed a hand to his mouth, trembling. "How do you know all this? How do you know so much about him?"
"Oh, of course. His care and training in the mansion's duties were entrusted to me and your butler, Mewo." Abbi looked toward the window, remembering a remote time. "It’s a curious thing... at first, he was so shy he would hide behind curtains or shelves if someone spoke to him. He was clumsy, always tripping over his own feet, and... he cried quite a lot."
Sunny turned pale. The puzzle pieces were fitting together in a painful way.
"And... what happened to him, Abbi?..." Sunny asked, a knot tightening in his throat.
Abbi winced in pain, as if the mere act of remembering burned her.
"Time is the worst enemy of identity, Master Sunny. He lived for more than half a century waiting for you to remember him. The only connection he had left was your Vitae—blood that, in your absence, distorted his mind month after month, eroding happy memories with the desperation of withdrawal."
Abbi turned slowly. Sunny was collapsing into the chair, eyes fixed on nothing, his breathing becoming erratic. He was reliving the guilt of decades past.
Worried, Abbi quickly approached and placed a soft but firm hand on his shoulder.
"Breathe, Master Sunny. With me... please" she said, using the calming technique he himself had used before. "Do not let guilt consume you now." Abbi waited for Sunny’s breathing to stabilize a bit, though his dark eyes still reflected decades of untold, painful stories.
"My apologies, perhaps I was too quick with my explanation—"
The mansion’s calm was shattered by the din of Meido running through the corridors—something unheard of for a vampire of her class. With a great slam, the library doors flew open.
"Young Master! I apologize for the interruption, but the West Wing has been invaded!" she exclaimed, the feather duster trembling in her hand. "Your butler woke up and started acting erratically when he didn't see you! We tried to explain you were here, but black, thorny vines sprouted from the room. I cannot cut them—my silver scissors break as if they were made of paper! It’s an aesthetic disaster and a danger! You should hide now!"
Sunny didn't need to hear more. He sprinted toward the West Wing, ignoring Meido’s shouts as she followed behind to protect him.
The hallway was unrecognizable. Walls and ceilings were covered in stalks as thick as trunks, bristling with dagger-sized thorns. The shadows seemed to have a life of their own; hundreds of white eyes blinked amidst the dark undergrowth, emitting a hissing sound like a hungry void trying to suck in everything within reach.
In the midst of the chaos, Uni fought to contain the advance. He was a wall of silent fury, his heavy boots cracking the floorboards as he trampled the smaller creepers trying to ensnare his ankles.
Sunny’s childhood protector, always mute, did something unheard of: he opened his mouth, tearing the threads that kept it sewn shut. His lips cracked, revealing ancient scars, and he spoke with a raspy voice, like the grinding of shifting tombstones.
"Sunny... do not take another step. It is dangerous."
Sunny froze. Hearing Uni speak was a sign that the situation was extreme.
"Step aside, Uni!" Sunny demanded, regaining his composure. "Those vines belong to Stranger. He needs help."
"That is exactly why!" Uni interrupted. With a violent movement, he caught a vine that lunged toward his neck like a black cobra. The sound of the struggle was terrifying; the shadows emitted a choking gurgle as Uni crushed them with his stone-like strength. "He has become unstable. As a ghoul, I know this nature is irremediable. I will dispose of him right now for your safety."
Sunny frowned, feeling a volcanic fury. "What are you saying?!"
"He is a danger to you. You do not know, Master, the atrocities that servant committed in the mansion." Uni continued impassively, tearing away another vine that tried to drag him into the darkness to impale him against thorns sharp as knives. "He got away with it for a long time, but I will not let you be another of his victims. He is weak now... this is the moment to end this."
SLAP!
The sound of the slap echoed through the hallway. Sunny’s hand struck Uni’s cheek with such force that the protector recoiled, stunned.
"You do not make decisions for me!" Sunny shouted, his eyes glowing an intense red that made the shadows retreat. "If something must be done with Stranger, I will handle it. He is not a monster... He is my man, and I will not allow anyone to lay a hand on him."
The silence that followed was absolute, but Uni did not lower his gaze. On the contrary, his eyes narrowed.
"What... 'Your man'?" Uni’s voice cracked, a rough sound denoting total disbelief.
His eyes scanned Sunny’s frantic face, searching for any trace of doubt, manipulation, or fear, but he found only fierce determination. In that instant, reality hit him harder than any slap: his Master was in love with that butler.
Uni, shocked by the words that had just left his master’s mouth and resigned, lowered his head; if that were the case, anything he said to make him see reason would be useless. Meido took the opportunity to tug a lock of Uni’s hair.
"Who gave you permission to speak, Uni? If you keep disobeying me, I won’t give you your Vitae ration this month, so think twice before speaking to a high-class vampire that way, you piece of a tombstone" Meido hissed into his ear, while she pulled a fresh spool of thread from the hidden fold of her sleeve.
Vitae! Right! Sunny remembered and wasted no time. He lunged toward the mass of black thorns. Meido screamed in horror, expecting to see her master torn to pieces, but something magical happened: the vines, which seconds before looked like spears ready to kill, began to part.
Upon contact with Sunny’s skin, the thorns retracted or turned soft as velvet. Stranger’s magic, even in its most delirious and hungry state, had an absolute order engraved in its essence: Do not hurt Sunny under any circumstance.
Sunny advanced through the tunnel of shadows the plants formed for him, until he was lost from Uni and Meido’s sight.