Archive of Our Own

The young lord who lived on top of the hill was always accompanied by rain.

Well, perhaps that wasn’t entirely true, but it may as well have been the case with how often stormy weather seems to follow in her footsteps. There were, of course, rare occasions when Coco would catch a glimpse of the young man passing by a window or standing in the entrance to the Arklaum manor while the sky was calm and bright, but it felt as if every time the young sir set foot outside his home, he would bring with him the steady sounds of rain. She stared out the window across the fields, as if hoping to catch another glimpse of the mysterious boy.

“Coco,” her mother gently called out to her from across the room. “Go outside and make sure the sheep get back into their pen, would you? My hands are tied here.”

The young girl quickly snapped out of her daydream and turned over her shoulder, smiling warmly at her mother before dusting off her skirt and grabbing her crook from where it leaned by the door, then slipping on her shoes. “Okay, Mom! I love you!”

The grass was soft underfoot as she ventured out across the pasture. The sheep had been left out to graze for a good while now, and surely would need to be herded back into their own before dark. It was usually a task her mother accompanied her on given the chance, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle on her own.

“Come on.” Coco prodded gently as she began gathering the first two sheep she’d come across. She nudged one of the animals with the edge of her crook ever so delicately to ease them back towards the fences not far across the field.

A gentle breeze caused her skirt to billow around her ever so slightly as she pushed her hair back away from her face. The heat of the summer months was only bearable thanks to the occasional gust of wind that came around to cool her off. Coco smiled to herself as she continued padding through a worn-down path in the grass, one of her favorite sheep trotting along happily beside her. It was only as she had reached the latch at the fence gate that she looked up.

Just as she had hoped, Agott Arklaum stood in the window of the manor.

The shepherd's daughter was always accompanied by sunlight.

It didn’t matter if the skies remained clear and bright or if clouds hung overcast— the young lady standing in the pasture radiated a kind, gentle warmth that persisted through the coldest days. Even the steps she took were light and airy as if the grass around her swayed with her movements.

It would be wise to keep her at a distance.

“Not so close to the window,” Adina Arklaum reminded Agott with a gentle hand to her shoulder as she passed. “You’d do well not to allow yourself to burn.”

“The windows are treated, are they not?” Agott protested lightly as her gaze lingered on the girl in the pasture. Her gaze only broke when the aforementioned girl looked up towards the window herself.

Agott continued to descend the staircase alongside her mother, fighting back a wave of fatigue as she struggled to keep her posture straight. Adina, observant as ever, only sighed. “When was the last time you fed? You aren’t usually quite so irritable.”

“I’m hardly irritable.” The young vampire bristled. Even so, the heaviness in her extremities was undeniable— she was growing weak after neglecting to feed. “I can’t say for certain.”

Adina raised an eyebrow. "Why is that? Have you not been keeping your vials replenished?"

When her daughter neglected to answer, Adina sighed irritably. “You’d best take care of your needs tonight then. I won’t have my daughter collapsing from something so trivial.” She shook her head as they reached the final step. "Just ensure-“

“-I’m not seen, yes, I’m aware.”

By the time night had rolled around, the sky was once again thick with cloud cover. Coco was lying in her bed as she tried to get comfortable enough to sleep.

The sheep were safe in their pen, and most everyone should have gone to bed by this hour. Barely a sliver of moonlight remained; not that it mattered much. What was there to see at this hour?

Just as she was about to drift off, Coco's ears perked up to the sound of bleating. How strange…the flock she tended to was a relatively quiet one. It was unlike them to bleat unless they were hungry or a predator was nearby, and she'd heard no howling in the distance that would indicate any wolves were around. Even so, she just couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

A gut feeling wasn't a particularly good reason to leave her home in the middle of the night, especially without any other indicators that something was amiss. Coco tried to close her eyes and ignore it.

Softly, almost so much so that she didn't hear it, the sound of a latch clicked.

The sheep's pen was well maintained, but she was yet to have that old latch repaired. It was heavy (to ensure no animals could undo it) and rusted to the point that it made a distinct sound.

Coco sat up in bed and peered out the window towards the pen, but the darkness was too thick. She bit her lip and slid on a pair of slippers before lighting the lantern at her bedside. Just a quick check, then back to bed.

It was only once Coco had made her way outside that she could smell it—the distinct scent of rain soon to come. She held her coat closed with one hand and held the lantern up in front of her with the other. The young shepherd brushed past the small cottage she and her mother lived in and towards the pen directly behind.

Arriving at the edge of the fence, Coco narrowed her eyes only to discover that the rusted latch was indeed still in place. She had been so certian she had heard it come undone, and if it had somehow come loose, how did it fix itself? A shake of her head helped clear her confusion. Right, it was late. Maybe her mind was somehow playing a trick on her?

Coco fought back her fatigue as she slowly counted the sheep under the glow of the lanterns. Two, four, six…twenty, twenty-one…?

Twenty-one sheep in a flock of twenty-two.

Her heart sank. A miscount, or a missing ewe? She counted again: twenty-one.

Even as careful as she was, accidents did happen. It would reflect badly on both her and her mother to lose even a single ewe from such a small flock. Best to have a look around in case the missing animal was still grazing nearby.

Coco whistled as she searched through the pasture, trying to coax the missing sheep back towards her if they were within a reasonable distance. She bit her thumb anxiously the longer she searched. With such a thick patch of woods nearby, who knew what sorts of predators would be waiting to snatch up an easy meal like a ewe straying from its flock?

The funny thing about sheep is that they don't often bleat when they're attacked. Making noise only draws out more predators, and they have a tendency to freeze up when they're scared. If something had hunted them down, she wouldn't know until she found them.

She was close to giving up when the sound of a crunch caught her attention. Not the bleat of a sheep, but more like a twig giving way under weight. Coco carefully moved towards the shallow woods where the sound had come from. It could have been anything, but she simply couldn't risk leaving an animal in her care behind if there was even the slightest chance they were out here.

For a moment, her breath caught. It was a poor idea to go into the woods alone at such an hour. What if the sound was a wolf after all? She had nothing on her person except her lantern. Even still, there was definitely something— or someone— just beyond the trees. The closer she got, the clearer she heard it. It was a sound she couldn't easily describe on her own. It was almost wet in its quality, and gutturally animalistic. Nothing like the snarls or howls of a wolf.

She whistled again in an attempt to coax out the sheep as she crept closer, a twig snapping under her foot as she crossed the edge of the pasture and into the forest. The sound she had heard seemed to abruptly stop, and Coco paused in her tracks. Whatever it was sounded as though it was coming from just ahead.

Despite her instincts still screaming at her to turn around, she slowly forced her way forward, lantern extended in front of her. Her eyes narrowed as she struggled to make sense of her surroundings in the darkness. Then, on the path ahead, she spotted it.

A dark streak of red leading into a nearby patch of brush. Her heart sank at the realization that perhaps a predator had been responsible for the missing ewe after all. The closer she got to the path, the more distinct the metallic scent of blood became. It hung around her like a bad omen, and despite this not being the first time Coco would happen upon a dead animal, that didn't make it any less unsettling.

Even so, there was a distinct lack of rotting in the air that set her somewhat on edge. A recent kill could mean the culprit is still lurking somewhere nearby. Coco tightened her grip on the lanterns and tensed herself up should she suddenly need to run.

The trail unmistakably led just behind a bush ahead. She swallowed back her fear as the distance began to close with each hesitant step she took. It was fine, right? She didn't hear any animals around. Just a quick peek to confirm what had happened so she could properly report it to their employers in the morning.

Coco found herself standing two steps away from the bush as she gathered her nerve. One little peek. Not so bad. Not so scary. She only needed to…

In an instant, she pulled back the leaves and poked her head around, eyes squeezed tightly shut before hesitantly opening as she held out her lantern. There, under the faint glow of firelight, was the boy from the Arklaum manor— bloodied and huddled in the darkness as they clung to the carcass of a sheep.

If Agott's heart could still beat, that very well may have been the moment it would stop. Her pupils dilated as she curled protectively inwards on herself, as if shrinking away could somehow turn back time before she had been discovered.

The evidence was undeniable: blood staining her hands and face, as well as dampening the fabric of her clothes. Her hands trembled with bloodlust, and her breathing remained heavy from the rush of feeding. Finally, the most incriminating detail of all— her fangs were yet to retract.

Damn it!

The girl that stood before her seemed to glow under the light of the lantern, almost ethereal despite the situation at hand. She looked more like a ghost than the shepherd she had so often seen working out in the fields, her eyes wide with shock and braced to flee at any moment.

Agott's mind struggled to form any sort of plan as the desire for blood rushed through her veins. Killing her was out of the question, and there was little influence she could use to silence her. None of it would matter if the girl chose to make a run for it. If she fled, she'd have to be kept quiet at any cost. The vampire swallowed thickly and tried to slowly piece together a believable excuse, but was quickly interrupted.

"Are you ok?!"

Agott blinked in surprise as the other girl hurriedly knelt down into the dirt, her brows knit together with worry. She took one of Agott's arms and began to inspect her bloodied sleeves. "Are you hurt? That's a lot of blood…is any of it yours?"

"I... no, it's not." Agott stammered as her other arm was thoroughly inspected, and her sleeves rolled back. Coco placed the lantern down beside them as she checked her over thoroughly. "You're not frightened?"

Coco shook her head and untied the apron around her waist before trying to wipe away some of the blood on Agott's face. "I'm far more worried about you, Lord Arklaum. Whatever are you doing so far from the manor at this hour? I came out to look for my sheep but-" She paused as her mind caught up with her actions. That voice… it wasn't at all what she'd expected. In fact, it was unmistakably the voice of a lady.

Her gaze flickered away for only a moment as she grabbed the lantern once more, holding it up to better see the details of their face. It was unmistakable in the light; Agott Arklaum was a girl, and a remarkably handsome one at that.

"I'm so sorry, my lady." Coco quickly stammered as she blushed and resumed her attempts to clean off the blood from her cheek. "This is our first time meeting so personally, and being relatively new, I suppose I was unaware. I do hope I haven't offended you by using the wrong…title…"

Coco froze once more as she calmed down enough to regain her awareness. Through parted lips, she caught a glimpse of the sharp fangs that Agott had so desperately hoped she wouldn't see. Pieces of the puzzle slowly began falling into place.

A bloodied sheep, a secluded location in the dead of night, and two glistening fangs.

Lady Agott Arklaum was a vampire.

Before she could react, Agott's hand shot out to grab her wrist. "Please, don't run. Don't make this any more difficult for yourself than it has to be." She stared back at Coco through the darkness, eyes glinting against the lantern's glow as she tried to keep her expression hardened, concealing her fear as best she could. "Here's what's going to happen. You will forget everything you say, and return to your lodgings calmly. Tomorrow morning, when you hear a knock on your door-"

"Can you bite me?"

…

…..

Agott's expression twisted in deep confusion as her mouth hung open. Contrastingly, Coco didn't appear frightened in the slightest. If anything, she looked curious, if a little excited.

"I beg your pardon?"

Coco leaned forward to get a closer look at her fangs as she spoke before quickly becoming flustered and pulling back. "I'm sorry, that's probably not ok to ask! It's just…I didn't think vampires existed, and I've always kinda wondered what that must be like. I especially never considered that you could be a vampire."

"…Surely you're not serious." Agott's shock was enough to sober her out of her feeding instincts. Her fangs began to retract, as did her nails. "Perhaps you're in a state of shock…"

Shock or not, the eagerness in the other girl's expression was undeniable. Well, it was far preferable to having to chase down a terrified civilian. Agott sighed and ran a hand through her hair as she stood, pushing the sheep's carcass to the side. "As I was saying, I'll escort you home. You are to tell no one what you saw tonight, and someone will come for you in the morning. Should you let your tongue slip, be afraid the consequences for both you and your family will be quite severe. Are we at an understanding?"

Coco blinked before nodding hurriedly. "Oh, yes! Of course, I won't tell a soul! You have my word."

Agott's face remained contorted with disbelief as she gathered her bearings. "Right…" As she began to guide Coco back towards the fields, she glanced back at the remnants of her meal and cleared her throat. "I'm…terribly sorry about your sheep. I hope you can forgive me."

The shepherd shook her head and waved her hands frantically. "Please, don't apologize! You need blood, right? That's a lot better than feasting on a person. Besides, it's the circle of life! DO you, uh, need to finish it..?

The vampire shook her head and gestured for Coco to follow. "No, I seem to have lost my appetite."

As the pair emerged from the woods, a steady rain began to fall.