Chapter Text
“It’s not about who’s a vampire and who’s a human, it is about us-!”
“No I- I am saying that so we can protect them, so they don’t get hunted down by Owen or anyone else.”
“Them?”
—
The tree trunk shattered hard enough to leave a branching web of wooden lightning across its front. Abolish kept moving.
He was out in the dead woods, far, far away from Oakhurst and those people that would not listen, would not comprehend what he was saying. With every step forward he tried to take for them, they all grouped together to drag them all back. A herd of sheep they were, listening to their calling bell and following, and not thinking. Even when Legundo, a doctor, a self proclaimed vampire, someone who was trying his hardest to understand the gap between supernatural and humanity, even when he spoke they all stumbled over it, mixing and muddling until nothing coherent remained.
Which had never boded well for the role Abolish was trying to play. Quiet, reserved, unknowing, but now he really did need to know, needed to share his knowledge with the herd before they trampled themselves into another trap. And he couldn’t. Not without severe risk to his mission and his identity. And god, god, he’d been trying so hard to lead them on without giving too much away; he outright stated facts and opinions and anything that would try and get them to see that not all the vampires were bad people, that it was a case by case matter. Just as not all people are good people either.
With the way they acted, that much was perfectly clear. A dried and flaking limb snapped and flew across the ground.
They were so hell bent in their morals it would’ve been impressive in any other way. And yes, Abolish had had trouble shifting views in the past, but he’d done it. Out of necessity and on a much smaller time scale. And with a much bigger reason to stay in his old ways. Seeing a vampire for the first time in years since your parents were laid dead and bleeding across the floor should have been enough to have sent him flying back to a rougher mindset. Every supernatural thing is evil and out to get you. And yet. Here he was. Walking through vampire territory with two of them trailing him.
They’d picked up his scent somewhere after he’d crossed the river, and since then the parts of the trees he’d been harassing in anger had been aimed in their directions. So much for changing world views, but he digressed. They dodged the worst of it. Two light walkers, trailing. What they wanted, Abolish did not know, but he was not keen on having a conversation at this point. Unfortunately, the vampires did not feel the same.
“Well. Someone’s angry.”
Abolish did not slow his trail, instead listening to the quiet huff of annoyance as Scott’s heels picked up their pace.
“Not much of a talker are you? It’s interesting…you’re different in Oakhurst versus… whatever this is.” He could hear the disdain as Scott picked his way around the forest. “I’m intrigued though, as to what they did to make you so mad. Or is this a common occurrence I wasn’t aware of?”
“I didn’t know he could be like this. Are you okay, Abolish?”
Shelby. So that’s who the other one was. Abolish hadn’t been around her enough while she was invisible to pick up the sound of her unheeled shoes; he’d guessed it might’ve been Owen. A single thread of tension was snipped. He slowed a bit. Opened his mouth. Closed it. Considered an offending tree branch to his right before breaking it clean off the trunk.
“That seems like a no,” Shelby whispered, not so quietly to Scott.
Abolish resisted the urge to sigh. He was not about to lay bare the town’s complications in front of their enemies, much less his own problems and worries; those were for his head alone. Plus, talking so negatively of Oakhurst would only promote the idea the vampires had that they were falling apart. Mainly because they were. But he didnt need to be hinting towards it as well. The militia did it well enough themselves.
“Let’s see,” Scott drawled, and he sounded too close to be comfortable. Abolish still hadn’t turned around but he could see both of their weak shadows tailing his own, could smell the scent of Scott’s perfume on the wind. “You’re unhappy with the town because.. they make you work too hard.” Abolish paid him no heed and kept moving. “They’re too jumpy,” Scott continued, not actually trying to guess but simply throwing things to the wind. “They think you’re a vampire. They smell bad.”
“They do smell really bad,” Shelby interjected, and in another situation Abolish would’ve laughed at her disgusted whisper. “They should take turns in Avid’s bathtub.”
Scott made a noise of acknowledgement, turned his head so the wind would carry his voice away. “Well he won’t need it anymore if he chooses to follow you.” Abolish’s head twitched. Scott noticed it too, the moment he’d forgotten Abolish was there and had heard and, well, isn’t that ironic, that the people actively talking to Abolish had forgotten he was there. At least nobody complained that he was bad at his job.
Scott hummed and Shelby had stopped walking for a moment before speeding back up to the elder’s side.
“I’m honestly not surprised that Avid lied.” Abolish shocked himself with the sound of his own voice. Rougher than usual. He was letting everything get a hold on him and he had to stop.
“You didn’t know that before?” Scott phrased it like a question but barely failed to hide the intrigue in his tone. Probably internally cursing himself for revealing that, even though Avid had seemed very against the castle and unlikely to be a useful asset to them. Abolish’s lips quirked upwards anyway for a moment, then fell back into nothing.
Shelby sounded as if she were worrying with the edge of her cloak, claws running along the stitching in a soothing pattern. “He has a tendency to do that. To lie about things.”
“As do you, my dear.”
“But he usually has a pretty good reason,” she continued before letting out a little half gasp half laugh. “Okay! Well… I was scared. And I had a reason too!
Abolish cleared a mass of a fallen tree, teetering over his words before they escaped him as the silence grew. “He was scared. Avid, I mean. Cleo threatened to out him as soon as he was turned.”
Scott laughed. “You do know she knows that he’s a vampire too right?”
A little less focus went into the placement of his feet and more into relaying the conversation in the town. “…That would make sense that she was so angry.”
“Oh she must’ve been pissed,” Shelby breathed. “She already… doesn’t really like him which- I don’t get, but it’s probably just cause he doesn’t like vampires and she got caught on him saying that.”
Abolish snorted. “He just lied to the entire town of course she’d be pissed.”
The wind whistled. Scott’s voice dropped a bit in the near silence. “Lied how, exactly?”
Why couldn’t these two leave him alone and come back at a time where he wasn’t considering holing himself up in a hill side and letting everyone else fight it out until he could go home. Home. He almost slumped at the thought of it. Of something soft to lay upon that didn’t smell of lanolin and memories. He wanted to go home. But in order to do that he had to deal with the remaining idiots here, and the first step was to get these two away from him.
“Will you leave me alone if I tell you.”
He still hadn’t turned around and by now there was an annoyance leaching into Scott’s voice as the elder was forced to keep step with his brisk pace. “That depends.”
“Yes.”
There was a moment of silence as fledging and sire looked at one another. A silence that Abolish used to discreetly verify the placement of the dagger in his sleeve.
“Shelby.” Said with the same amused warning tone of a parent to a small child. Compared to Scott’s relations to his other fledglings, the word was barely a whisper of a threat.
“What?” Shelby answered with all the innocence of a child with a hand in a cookie jar. “You said we… y’know.”
Abolish turned on his heel to face the two and Shelby nearly collided straight into him. She stumbled back blinking, then slowly slunk back to Scott’s side.
He’d stalled for long enough.
“Said y’all would what.”
Scott’s eyes flickered down to Abolish’s stance then back to his face, his own face twitching when Abolish stayed firm under the look. The elder drew himself up, and drawled, “We have a proposition for you.”
Abolish didn’t blink. “If you’re asking me to help your side then you came at the wrong time.” His tone left no room for debate, though unfortunately it seemed to fly over Shelby’s head.
“But aren’t you unhappy with the town?” She stepped into his line of sight, looking directly at Abolish as if they actually cared. Which they might’ve. Abolish also wouldn’t put it past them to be able to hold an act with Scott’s influence, but the thought that they were truly worried was nice in a way. The deep furrow between their brows seemed convincing enough. “You still never said what they did to make you so upset.”
Abolish took a stiff step back as she tried to step forwards.
“Here’s what’s going to happen.” Scott stepped delicately around his fledgling, though Abolish pointedly kept his gaze neutral and on Shelby. “You’re going to tell us what happened in town. I think we deserve to know since all the humans seem so keen to be up in our business at all times. Plus, I’m sure you already know that half of those townsfolk you protect are of our kind. What’s so different between the vampires in town and us?“
At Abolish’s unflinching stare, Scott added on hastily, “We’ll tell you our deal once you’ve told us what we need to know.”
“Why should I.” It was a good question, and one that these two would not take seriously at all. Unfortunate. For them, not for Abolish, who was close to relishing the idea of making mainly the elder think twice before telling him what to do. The longer he had to bite his tongue during this conversation, the higher the likelihood that that would happen. “That is the entirely a lose-lose situation for me.”
“Well we don’t have to offer this.” Trying to make it seem like it was a limited deal. Classic. “We could part ways now and be done with it.”
“I would greatly prefer that option.”
Scott barely faltered at the pointed venom starting to leech into Abolish’s tone, but he wasn’t entirely unaffected. Shelby on the other hand, had been staring at the exchange like she was watching a bomb’s timer tick down.
“Scott maybe we should just…”
“But I want to know what brought you out here,” Scott interrupted them, sliding himself into their space. “If not for me, then for poor Shelby’s bleeding heart.”
Shelby looked far from a bleeding heart. Maybe she meant well, maybe she didn’t and was purely funding Scott’s attempts to drag Abolish back into the fight. She’d found her way in the coven, she shouldn’t care about his inner turmoils. As Abolish turned what he knew to be not-so-nice of a gaze towards her, her eyes widened but she stayed firm.
Abolish wanted to go home. He wanted to stake Scott right here and now but the elder was waiting for it and would be ready if he came swinging. Would probably use Shelby as a shield too, which, Abolish wouldn’t be happy about staking her but the point of that would be useless so it shouldn’t have to happen anyway. He also wouldn’t care to stop himself if it did. Killing Scott would be a good step to getting out of here, but not a catch-all; Owen and Pyro were still prowling and the question of whether the cure would actually work was still up in the air, so ultimately getting himself hurt on the prospect of trying to kill Scott would only harm everyone in the long run.
How could he get out of this conversation without being attacked?
He wouldn’t start running, that would be stupid, although Scott and Shelby didn’t seem intrigued enough to chase him down. They could always do it for fun though, which was not a nice proposition.
Abolish couldn’t run, but talking his way out felt about as impossible as leaving this godforsaken town. The easier way would be to give them what they want and then leave, but that might only serve to wrap him up tighter in whatever they were trying to pull out of him. The likelihood that they would trail him back to the town, or stop him before he got there if he refused or lied about the answer was a glaring possibility as well.
…Next mission he would request a full check that there was nobody, human or vampire, in the next ten mile radius of the area. He’d forgotten how annoying it was to talk to people.
People like Scott. People like the militia. People who he let run around like chickens with their heads cut off, until they ran directly into his own path and dragged him along with them.
…So why was he defending them?
Yes, they’d harbored him, but very meagerly; he’d gathered most of his own resources, kept himself up and running, and stayed out of unnecessary fights. Dragged others out of unnecessary fights by the scruff when they wouldn’t listen. Gave them all his own resources, the armor off his back at times. Protected them for what? Because it was ‘good’?
Not all people are ‘good’.
Maybe this whole time when he’d been talking, he’d should’ve been showing them instead. Maybe that would finally get an idea of good and evil through their heads.
At this point he’d done his part, he’d helped them farther than they could ever help him. And he was done.
“The town had a meeting.” Both vampires turned to look at him in surprise. “Avid lied that he was human, Cleo threatened to out him as vampire when he “eventually got turned”, which I guess was her threatening that she knew. Nobody else caught on. Then they claimed ya’ll are evil and need to be put down and they all talked over me when I tried to say otherwise.”
Shelby blinked owlishly. “Whoa. That’s.. a lot, okay, so, wait. They don’t know that Avid’s a vampire?”
“No. At least.. nobody said anything otherwise, but Cleo hinted at it.”
Shelby made a worried noise in the back of their throat. “Not enough that someone would, like, assume that he was one though, right?”
“No.”
“Evil and needs to be put down,” Scott muttered to himself and Shelby was momentarily knocked out of her concern, distractedly scrunching her nose at the words. “Definitely not the worst thing I’ve been called.”
She pointed a lopsided grin in Scott’s direction. “You should put that on your resume.”
“…On my what?”
“On your-,” they huffed, then waved their hand dismissively. “I’ll tell you later. But why was Cleo saying that about my fledgling? I feel like he’s gotten a little bit better as a vampire right?”
Scott hummed, unconvinced.
Shelby elbowed him hard in the side.
“Hey! Am I wrong?”
“No,” Shelby replied, in the same drawling offense. “He’s… he’s… working through some stuff I don’t know, but still! I’m talking to Cleo next time they show up.”
They swiftly balled their fists as they crossed their arms. Hiding the slightest shake. Hmm.
Interesting. None of Abolish’s business.
“Can I leave now?”
Both vampires snapped their heads to look at him as if he’d smacked them and then ran away. They cast a glance between them, fleeting.
“If it’s a no then just say it.”
“No,” Shelby spoke, offering a wavering and nervous smile after the fact. “Sorry we do kinda need to talk to you about this. You- you were saying something?”
“The town wouldn’t listen when you said otherwise about vampires.”
Shelby’s mouth opened to little ‘o’ shape. “I understand the tree attacking now.”
“Instead of attacking them,” Scott muttered over her understanding, sinking his eyes into Abolish’s skull as if that would give him a clearer answer.
“I don’t want to hurt them,” Abolish lied. He did very much want to snap some sense into them, and usually he’d fall to words to fix that. This group, however, seemed it fit to ignore his warnings whenever he tried that, so maybe he did need to start taking a.. stronger approach.
“I think that oak back there says otherwise,” Scott muttered. He’d seen right through the lie by the expression on his face, although Abolish wasn’t about to give him that credit seeing as he hadn’t tried very hard to conceal the lie in the first place. The elder looked amused either way.
Abolish did not acknowledge the aforementioned tree in ruins on the ground. Just kept his gaze and pulse steady. And the anger in his chest that kept threatening to spill into his words.
Not that he cared whether Scott was offended or not, but dealing with an elder vampire that wants something of you, compared to one that you offend, are very different things. For safety he was barely holding his tongue. And for Shelby, since she seemed so hell bent on actually figuring out his emotional landscape. Something the organization hadn’t tried in years, and for good reason.
It was almost foreign to have someone try to care in that way, even knowing it was most likely forced. They looked caring. Scott’s shadow over them did not. They moved towards Abolish with too much concern, with the look of a kind dog catcher trying to wrangle a poor stray. He stepped backwards out of any type of reach.
“What do you want.”
Shelby’s face dropped and he quickly looked at Scott instead, a singular pang of regret running through him. She was really trying and he had to commend her for that at least. The feeling faded as soon as it came though, leaving room for the sharpness in his words. “I gave you your info. It’s your turn.”
Scott brought a claw against his chin, tapping it idly. As if he had to consider his next move, when in reality Abolish could practically see it sitting behind his eyes.
“I think that’s fair.” Scott paid Shelby no heed, even as she spoke against his ear, back at his side.
“I’m sure there’s more to your… anger,” he mused aloud, and it took so much of Abolish’s willpower to resist the urge to just get his eyes off of him. “More than just talking.”
“I mean it could just be the talking,” Shelby started, seemingly thinking aloud towards her own feet before tentatively looking towards Abolish again. Pitying. God, could they both just leave. “I know I’d be so mad if I knew what I was saying was important and nobody listened to me. That’s kinda why I went with Scott and Owen and Pyro cause… I mean Avid also believed in me at that point, but the town probably thought I was as crazy as he was. But now he’s a vampire too so that all works out! That’s why I went with Scott, cause he’s my roommate, and now the castle listens to me!”
Scott moved to place a hand on Shelby’s shoulder, his smile just a bit too sharp to be kind. It wasn’t directed at Shelby though, it was the kind of self satisfied smile a hunter gives as they watch their prey walk right into the snare. Abolish took back his comment about being pitied earlier; he pitied Shelby cupped in Scott’s serrated hands. Then Scott’s eyes turned to Abolish. Ah.
He suddenly knew exactly what the elder was about to say.
“Shelby’s right. You obviously take… issue. With some of the militia’s ways, yes?”
Abolish did not answer, just waited for the rest of Scott’s delicate and suffocating plan to unfurl before him. He did not answer, because Scott would go on without him either way. He did not answer because if he did, he wasn’t sure he could trust his words to carry him to the right answer. Foregoing the details of Scott’s plan, he could infer the gist, and he did not like where his mind was trying to settle in its answer.
The vampires however, saw the lengthy silence how they wanted.
“That seems like-“
“Yeah I’ll take that as a yes.”
Upon no further comment the elder clapped his hands together, face suddenly brandishing more emotion than the entire rest of the conversation put together. “So! How about you join our side, we turn you...” Scott waited for a reaction, which he really needed to stop doing. “Then you’re free to knock some sense into the town! Or, well, we wouldn’t stop you from pulling what Owen did a couple centuries ago either, if that’s what you want.”
“Hey! That wasn’t part of the plan!”
“Okay, but do you want to be stuck here forever?” At Scott’s words, Shelby’s indignation fizzled out a bit. “With Martyn, and Ren, and Apo.”
The fledgling’s bowed head shot back up again, determined. “Okay, Apo’s not that bad.”
“She literally has tried to kill you multiple times.”
“But she didn’t!” The indignation was back, fervent in Shelby’s face and posture. It seemed they’d had this conversation before, judging by the silent battle happening between crimson eyes. Scott didn’t look as troubled, more disappointed then gradually resigned as he reached a hand out to soften Shelby’s defensive stance. They leaned into it, barely, then more fully as Scott didn’t move, just standing there in a strangely comforting way. Shelby eventually looked at their feet. “She just… doesn’t get what we have.”
“Exaaaactly,” Scott drawled, his smug but now softer tone hidden at the crown of Shelby’s head. He turned slowly to acknowledge Abolish again, and he couldnt decide whether this version of Scott was more or less offputting. “And you, Abolish,” the elder said in that same soft inviting tone. “You could have that too. People who listen. People who obey. Hell, you could take one of the militia in as a pet so they’d have to listen to you, I do not care.”
It had been halfway through that spiel that Abolish had noticed his posture drooping.
“That doesn’t seem right,” Shelby replied, muffled into Scott’s cravat.
He chuckled at that but again, paid her no heed. “My point is that, as a vampire, you can do whatever you want.” And oh, had Abolish heard this before. A hundred nights of crimson eyes promising him unlimited power. “You want revenge, take it. You want to make them listen, make them. We can give you the power to do that.”
Countless vampires promising power, deathlessness, community. Only one of those offers had ever intrigued Abolish and he’d seen way too many fledglings take it, run with it, and trip face first immediately after. Power was a shaky thing to grab onto, and a delicate structure to fabricate, relying on those underneath to do the heavy lifting. If Scott was offering Abolish power, it was a thin sliver compared to the amount Abolish would be handing back over to him.
The prospect of vampirism in itself was infuriatingly intriguing at this point however; it was much easier to turn people into vampires than to turn them back, and by now Oakhurst had a majority of the supernatural in their midst. They’d only been here for over a month.
Scott’s gaze hadn’t left his face. Now Shelby’s eyes were turned too, hopeful, way too hopeful at this offer as if it should be easy, to abandon those he’d fought beside, those he’d helped, those he’d lived amongst during the longest time period of human connection he’d had besides living with Morcant.
But on the other hand there were those that didn’t listen. Those that ran into battle specifically after Abolish had told them not to. Those that wheedled around and asked him for silver, surprised that they needed it despite the fact that they’d practically been at war for a month now. Except it wasn’t a war, because the weakest armies would put both sides to shame. Scott was powerful and a leader but he didn’t care enough to actually get much done. He could’ve killed them all the second they walked into Oakhurst, yet he’d stayed around for amusement or something of the sort. Now he slunk in the shadows, building his own castle and corralling loose fledglings like butterflies. Abolish would be damned if he coalesced to that, subjected himself to more agony of people unwilling to get things done.
He looked evenly at Scott, the perfect edge of all of him and the way he held himself, leaned forwards a bit. As if, when his words failed, he was trying to convince Abolish with simply his eyes. It was a part of him that was intriguingly unfamiliar. And Abolish laughed. An awfully short and bitter thing.
“I’ve never heard you sound desperate before, Scott.”
After a long, full second, an almost manic smile broke unevenly across the elder’s face. “This isn’t something I take lightly, Abolish.”
“Neither do I.”
If he thought longer about it, which he did, Abolish would also be damned with the humans, whose time was running out.
So there was his answer. He should’ve found it earlier, much earlier for it was often the answer to most of his issues. He sighed wearily. The answer was that he was going to have to do all the work himself.
This was the only way out.
Abolish met Scott’s thinning patience with his own pointed words. “You want my help because y’all are too weak to take them on your own? Fine. But I’m not staying. I’m not coalescing to your coven, I’m not.. taking in a pet. I’m going home.”
Not all vampires are bad. Not all people are good.
Abolish never wondered too hard about his own morality. Good and bad were case by case bases, and people changed. People changed. He’d changed. Forcibly. Once. Then again, half of his own volition and half of a desire for… for what? Vengeance for the life of his parents? A determination to survive? …Helping others?
Would his parents be disappointed if he turned into something so close to the thing that had killed them?
But that was the case. He was not what killed them. He would never be. They would be more disappointed if he stayed trapped in this town forever, undecided, and unwilling to make a move. They wouldn’t want him trapped here forever because he had wanted to mourn them.
They would understand.
And Morcant needed him alive. Or, not alive, if this was the option he was considering, but… existing. Present. The organization needed him present.
Scott looked vaguely unphased at Abolish’s answer, but there was a subtle satisfaction to his features. “Perfect. Like I said I don’t care what my fledglings do-“
“That too.” Abolish took a step forward and there was the hint of a flinch in both their eyes. “I will not be your fledgling.”
Scott seemed to mentally dust himself off, but his tightened grip around Shelby’s shoulders did not loosen. His tone was deceivingly even. “Hm. Picky. Then who exactly would you have perform the turning?”
That was a good question. One Abolish hadn’t considered before he’d agreed and while it shouldn’t be too much of an issue, it was still an important thing of note at least in terms of vampire culture. Here’s where he had to start treading lightly, although with what he’d said already he was pretty sure Scott and Shelby weren’t going to try anything now. They would let him consider or he would leave and they couldn’t stop him.
Firstly, he had to consider the effects of the cure, whether it could work and whether he’d want it to. The most logical plan from this point was to turn the humans and leave as vampires but that didn’t mean once they all left that he couldn’t try and turn back. On the off chance that he could try to be cured he wouldn’t want to pick anyone he’d feel remorse over killing or curing.
Then again, the organization might not be all too welcome to him being turned then cured and unable to become a vampire again. If that aspect of the cure was true, well, it’s not as if it was required, but it was heavily expected that those that worked well in the organization stayed working. So maybe their ability to be killed or cured wasn’t as much of a factor then.
He wasn’t going to think about how his associates who’d been turned had had at least ten years on him when they’d done it. This was a necessary means to an end.
That left the effects of a sire bond. Scott and Pyro were out immediately, the control those two harbored over every single living breathing thing was hard to rival. Out of desperation or amusement, it didn’t matter; they would follow Abolish out of Oakhurst whether he wanted them to or not. Avid and Drift were too new, as were Apo and Cleo. Too young to be holding that kind of responsibility, although Abolish was certain he could exist without a competent sire anyway. Shelby was also very close to that point, and was also held very tightly under Scott’s thumb as much as she ignored the sense of it.
Owen, however…
As far as Abolish knew, Owen’s sire was missing or dead. There was little upper management then, seeing as whenever Scott even grazed the man he hissed loud enough to scare the closest flock of birds away.
And Legs seemed to trust him. Abolish did not.. trust Legs, explicitly, but he was one of the more sane. If the doctor hadn’t been killed yet while meeting almost one on one with Owen, then that had to mean something.
Owen didn’t have any fledglings that Abolish knew of either. Of course there was the possibility that that would rend the bond useless or a liability, but it also might make it easier to slip out of. And he didn’t seem like the protective type.
He stalked their walls to seem scary but the most he did was watch, on occasion give a few good slashes. They’d never fought one on one, didn’t have the back and forth that the man and Pearl had, or the weird tension that he and Pyro had gained.
Out of a limited number of options he seemed like the best choice.
Thankfully Scott had gotten a hint of the memo that Abolish did not have the patience for him, and had been beautifully quiet while Abolish had been weighing his options.
“Where’s Owen.”
The beautiful silence broke as Scott laughed. Even Shelby looked bewildered by his sudden amusement. “Not what I was expecting, you want him?”
“Yes.”
“What’s wrong with Owen?”
“Nothing dear,” Scott purred, flipping his hair over his shoulder. “Just that there are much better looking options.”
Then Shelby shoved his shoulder playfully and sent him unpreparedly back a few steps. “Well I think he’s very pretty.”
“And I never said he wasn’t, it’s just personality wise…”
Abolish let out a short chuff of air at the antics in lieu of a full sigh. “Did I ask your opinion or did I ask where he was.”
The two froze in their movements, both sets of eyes slowly turning to look at him. There was a long silence and Abolish’s fingers twitched.
“…Wow. Remind me not to get on his bad side” Annoyingly amused. As always.
“I didn’t know he could sound that mean.” Intrigued and whispered. As always.
They were of no more use to him.
“W-where are you going?”
To finish the job.
Abolish was halfway down the hill and away from them when their voices carried to his ears.
“Owen’s at the castle.”
Abolish stopped.
“That’s the other direction in case you were wondering.”
It took all of Abolish’s willpower to not revoke the things he had just said right then and there. He could deal with a prissy noble. He would deal with a prissy noble.
What was he getting himself into-
Finish the job.
Abolish leveled his gaze on the two vampires as he returned, crested the hill, watched their smiles in the cold light.
“Just be grateful we’re going to be allies, Goldsmith.”
“Oh believe me, I am. I’ve been waiting for this.”