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When Doctor Legundo found himself in back in Oakhurst after nearly six hundred years, he wasn't sure why. Often, he wandered the world in search of humans who wished to have the gift of being a vampire (or in search of the scum of the earth to bring what he would consider a mercy compared to what they had done, to give them insatiable hunger but keep them contained and stupid so they could not do anything about it) but he hadn't a need to come back to Oakhurst for a very long time.
It had been a home, for a while, perhaps, but enough time had passed that he wouldn't dare to say he felt a connection to it. But maybe he had been drawn to it to check on its inhabitants.
When he arrived, however, there was no inhabitants to be seen. Everything was in complete shambles and Legundo couldn't help but sneer in disapproval at the mess. He had reclaimed the town for his own many centuries ago and gave it new life, to no longer have a noble run the town to the ground but to have a mayor rise it from the ashes. Clearly that hadn't worked out long term.
As he stared at the mess, he wondered if he should have come back sooner. Legundo inspected the ruins of Oakhurst for a bit longer before turning to the north.
The castle could no longer be seen from the town. In fact, Oakhurst had once stretched all the way to the castle with one long road connecting everything together, but he could see now that the woods had mainly reclaimed everything except for this scrap of the ruins.
And beneath the castle, he knew there lay a coffin within. Legundo did his best to not roll his eyes as he transformed into a bat and headed towards the castle.
If there was nobody left here, then he would have to be the one to make sure the monster had not been let out of its cage.
.𖥔 ݁ ˖
When he entered the crypt that held his coffin, it was silent. The coffin lid was closed and while Legundo did not feel relief, he could be rest assured that whatever had happened in Oakhurst was not of his doing.
It was more surprising that it somehow hadn't been.
Legundo lifted up the coffin ever so slightly and saw cyan hair and closed eyes and felt satisfied. While he had not been the one to cause Scott Goldsmith's end of an era, he had not stopped it, either.
Some violent dogs just needed to be put down.
(He himself knew he was a violent dog, not too dissimilar from the man who laid in front of him. But while he was certainly a dog that bit and clawed and snarled, he still had a sense of pity for humans who didn't understand that this was the way forward. That if they wanted to cheat death, there had to be costs. That if they wanted to keep fighting, there was hard choices they would have to make. While he was not particularly excited about immortality, he knew it had given him a power that would keep him useful.
Scott Goldsmith was a violent dog that had been bred to know nothing but fortune and wealth. Those were the most dangerous kinds of dogs. A kind of violent dog who would bite other dogs just to see if they could cry.)
Still, vampires were immortal. Legundo knew that one day the universe would be blessed with Scott's lovely presence yet again, but there was no surefire way to tell when that day would come. He was not familiar with the witches' magic that had taken him down in the first place and for the most part, he did not care to learn. If Scott was asleep, then he was asleep and the magic had not decayed yet. That was all that needed to be known. That was all that was logical.
Scott continued sleeping, not even twitching as he closed the coffin again. Everything was well, then, and he could go on his way to wherever he wandered off to next.
Holiness ached in his chest and Legundo bent down, clutching it like it would somehow help. There was poisonous holy magic in the air, a kind of magic that he had not felt for centuries. Gritting his teeth, he transformed and flew off to find out where it had come from.
If it wasn't eliminated, it was going to be a problem.
.𖥔 ݁ ˖
It had been a long time since he had had to hide from humans. Most of them never suspected anything of him, due to the fact he had been turned so late in his human life. In fact, most of them assumed he was a tired veteran, and while they weren't entirely wrong, they were certainly not right. It helped, sometimes.
Absentmindedly, he adjusted the eyepatch that hid the holy water burn that had eaten his eye out (the enemies had learned about him being a vampire soldier far quicker than they had expected and had hit back hard, but he didn't need to think about that now, not of his time being a soldier nor a commander, he was a doctor now and nothing more) as he watched about a dozen humans enter Oakhurst for what was probably the first time in at least a hundred years. All of them stood out, never approaching from the same direction and clearly came from different walks of life. From a fellow soldier to an arrogant rich boy, it was certainly a wide range of personalities.
It was out of the ordinary. It was intriguing. And very infrequently often did Legs find himself intrigued.
Legundo watched as they crowded around a strange beacon in the middle of town-he had missed the presence of it earlier, but then again, there had been no humans at the time and perhaps they were connected to it-and the ache of holy magic grew stronger in his chest. They all startled and panicked and cheered, clearly disorganized, as the beacon began to glow buttery-yellow.
As he watched them scatter around town, a deeper ache rang out in his chest. It was not from holy magic but from vampiric instinct. Legundo cursed as he scrambled off of the tree he had hid in and flew back to the castle.
Scott was waking up. And the worst part about it was that Legundo almost felt as if a missing puzzle piece had been slotted back into his chest.
.𖥔 ݁ ˖
"The first thing you want to do after waking up is play chess?" Legundo asked as he set up Scott's refined chess board on the large stump in the woods. They had both agreed the castle ruins were far too open now, what with the lack of walls or floors or anything remotely looking like shelter. They had dragged two smaller stumps to sit on and both had to bend over slightly to reach the board. Scott had one leg crossed over the other while Legundo sat perfectly compact.
"It's important to keep one's mind sharp after so many years asleep, dear commander." Scott delicately picked up the black pieces (he always chose black and Legundo wondered if he thought himself funny) and set them into their respective positions on his side of the board.
"Doctor," Legundo corrected as he set his own pieces up. "I no longer…serve."
"Yet you still wear your uniform? Isn't it getting worn out?" Legundo simply looked down at Scott's outfit, the garments still being the same thing he fell asleep in. Scott rolled his eyes as he caught his gaze. "My situation is different. I still need to see if my closet is still intact after all of this time." Legundo moved his pawn one space up.
White always went first.
Scott followed it up with moving his own pawn. "So, tell me. What's happened to the town now?"
"Well, for one, it's in utter ruins. It likely got left up for grabs after the war and was completely left for the human equivalent of vultures." Legundo sent another pawn forward. Scott hovered over his rook and his pawn, thinking and observing. Evaluating which one mattered less. Which one could be sacrificed.
A natural instinct for the both of them.
"I'm not surprised."
"But there's new humans. Humans that clearly don't belong here. They arrived at the same time I did and by sheer coincidence, you've also just woken up." Legundo's eye tracked Scott's hand as he pushed his rook forward. "Not to mention, there's new magic. Beacons. And the humans can use them to turn the energy here holy."
"Certainly not optimal. I'm going to guess they're trying to settle down. How rude, considering I was here first, after all. Oakhurst is mine." Legundo paused in the act of reaching for his chess piece.
"No. I snatched Oakhurst out of your little claws after you fell asleep. I gave it laws, balance and a mayor. Oakhurst is mine." Legundo moved a pawn and scowled as it was immediately captured by Scott.
"What good that's done. It's falling apart now."
"There's only so much we can control in six hundred years." Legundo frowned as he observed the chess board, having to rethink his strategy after his blunder. Naturally, Scott noticed.
"What? Getting too old and decrepit that you can't play properly anymore?" Scott smirked. Legundo bit his tongue to keep himself from reminding the other man that he was the older one, because he knew it would boost his ego far too much in their first conversation after all of this time. They had played this game many times during Scott's rule of Oakhurst, when he was a commander with not much to do and he was a noble with far too much time on his hands. It was back then when Legundo had learned just how long the world had dealt with Scott. Far too many centuries, in his personal opinion.
"We're both rusty." He moved another piece.
"A good point." Scott twirled his bishop with two fingers before setting it down. "But it seems we've come to an impasse. Oakhurst cannot both be ours."
"At least that's something we can agree on." Legundo picked up the pace, setting down chess pieces as fast as he could. As always, Scott matched him stride for stride. "So what do you propose we do?" He asked, because he knew Scott already had a plan.
"This is what I'm thinking." Scott pushed his queen out into the board, a way to tease him. "If the humans can turn beacons holy, then the only thing we need to do to deter them is to make them unholy." He smiled with all of his fangs as Legundo focused on the game. For every one chess piece he could capture, Scott would move his own pieces into perfect traps. Sometimes Legs could evade them, sometimes he could not.
A push and pull.
A cat and mouse.
This was their eternal way of life.
"And where is this going?"
"Whoever sires the most vampires gets to keep Oakhurst and whoever's left inside of it. A game between the two of us." He captured another of the doctor's pieces. "We have to have a few rules to keep it fun, of course. For example, we should play human until the time is right. No killing the other vampire's choices, only turning. Only sabotage if it's good."
Legundo bit his lip slightly. He couldn't allow Scott to be in charge of the humans.
There had been many a good reason to put the vampire to sleep for so long, after all. He would not weep for a man who had never known misfortune.
He would not trust a man who spoke every word with a knife behind his back.
"I don't like games, Mr. Goldsmith."
Scott captured his queen in one fell swoop, taking it off the board with grace.
"But you always play them when I'm the opponent. Here's to your one thousandth, four hundred and eighty-ninth defeat, doctor. Maybe you'll win against me next time." Legundo's frown grew deeper.
"Fine. I'll play." He would have to take advantage of Scott being weak while he could-not that he was particularly strong at the moment, either, but still. Scott would only get better from here. "Now, what do you want from me for losing?"
One never lost to Scott Goldsmith without him gaining something in return. Scott looked pleased with himself that he still remembered. "I'm hungry." His mouth twitched so easily into a smile and he said nothing more.
Read between the lines. Nothing was ever straightforward with him, Legs had quickly learned. It was as infuriating as it was vexing. A equation that begged to be solved but never stayed the same long enough for the dim-witted to catch up with it.
Scott Goldsmith was always a challenge, and even after all of this time, he was the still only one who could stay on such equal footing with Legundo.
Silently, he held out a wrist and never broke eye contact with Scott. Looking away would be admitting shame. Scott leaned over and sank his fangs into his wrist.
A quiet way to get a trophy.
Scott drank for less time than he would've anticipated, wiping his lips as he watched the wound close up. "Shame those marks don't stay for long." Scott got up from his seat and crossed his arms behind his back. A bait. A tease.
Legundo did not rise to it. Instead, he packed up the game board and handed it to Scott without fanfare. Scott took it with nothing less than a conniving grin, the expression that always meant more beneath the surface. "Just as boring as always, dear doctor. I'll see you in town. May the best sire win, hm?"
May the best commander win.
Come and outsmart me, Legs. I know you care more about this than you try to make it out to be.
With a blink, he was gone.