A Human stood before Auriel, stake to his throat.
Elder Leon growled, walked beside them and smacked the stake away. “We won’t solve anything if we kill him first!” he argued.
Auriel fell back before Siyith. “Damn right you won’t,” he said, arm shielding the man. “So what shall you be doing then, eh?! Tell me now and you’ll live to see tomorrow!” He grinned and bore every fang.
Elder Leon and the Human army backed away. He shivered, brushed several locks of hair behind his ears and pointed to Siyith with a trembling finger. “You…” he growled. “You’re the reason we’re at war.”
“War?” asked Siyith. “When did you declare war?”
“WE!” Elder Leon spat. He stomped forth and threw a stake into the ground, doubled over with shoulders hunched and breaths heavy and back hot while glaring directly into Siyith’s eyes. “When did WE declare war! You’re one of US, Siyith Rudd! A Human! Who gave our secrets away and let us die because he allowed himself to be fooled by a fiend!!! A demon!!!!!”
Siyith snarled, jolting outward. “I wasn’t fooled! You’re all brainwashed!”
Auriel pressed the arm against him further, attempting to get Siyith behind himself entirely. Don’t die, don’t die, just please don’t die, Siyith, he silently begged.
Elder Leon shifted his gaze to follow Siyith, landing upon Auriel yet seemingly staring directly through him as though he did not exist. “You’re his thrall, Siyith! Don’t you realize it?!” he said. “He fooled you! He seduced you and then you gave him our secrets and he’s still seducing you now!! You’re starstruck with love and with lies blinded with false hope! You’re killing your own people!!!”
Siyith growled. “It’s because the Vampires never did anything wrong. And you’ve all been killing them in vain. So here I am defending them to make up for all the mistakes made by our kind over thousands of years: one man rectifying every man’s mistake.”
“You’re wrong! We’ve made no mistakes, Siyith!” Elder Leon ran toward the Vampires, close yet not enough for attacking. “Only you have, for there’s never once been a traitor to Damlien in history!!” Elder Leon dropped every weapon and opened his arms, then began slowly creeping closer with each word. “Siyith, we’ve all seen the plight of the Vampires. They’re taking our people, and they’re taking our land. You’re the first to befallen to them, and soon the rest of us will do the same--become thralls just as you have. It starts with you, then it will spread, and soon every Human will be their slaves. So step away! Come back to us! Join the war on the right side and save your people, not ruin them! Please…” Elder Leon squatted down into a lazy bow.
Siyith snarled to the Elder and closed his eyes. “I’ve already saved my people,” he said. He thrust Auriel’s arm down and stomped forward.
“SIYITH!! DON’T!!” Auriel cried. His eyes widened.
Siyith situated himself before the Vampire king, back to the Humans, and pressed one knee into the ground, the other up against his chest with an arm across it and head bowed low. “I give myself to you, milord, King Auriel. Take me away on the currents of blood and fill my soul with moon’s own light through wisdom and guidance from your words, for I shall heed none other than those which come from your lips.”
Auriel’s shoulders went rigid.
Elder Leon hissed. He stepped forth, pulled a stake from the ground, face forming a scowl, shoulders rising. He screamed and charged forth toward Siyith, rose the stake into the sky.
Auriel dove in front of Siyith. But it was too late.
Elder Leon’s scream drowned out the despairing sound of jamming the stake through Siyith’s left shoulder deep through the heart and just out the other side. He jumped away as the man’s body fell silently--limply--to the ground with wide eyes and not so much as a single word, and he heaved on all fours for air with gross sobbing.
Auriel fell to his knees, Siyith’s corpse in his lap and jaw open wide. He looked to the corpse, arms not in contact with it, and spoke fragmented words yet none completed, and shook his head slowly. Tears streaked themselves down his face. “No…” he whispered shakily. “NO!!!”
“He swore himself to you,” hissed Elder Leon. “So he died your people’s death. You should be honored…” He stood upright.
Siyith looked up, thrust the corpse aside and gripped a knife, teleported forth and jammed it into Elder Leon’s stomach where an artery lie.
“AURIEL!!!” a Vampire screamed.
Elder Leon screeched and fell to his knees, gripping the knife tightly. “GET ME HOME!!!” he barked with a red face. “I--I’LL DIE IF I PULL THIS THING OUT!!!”
Hunters rushed forth and lifted him away.
“AURIEL!!!!” the Vampire screamed again. “STAKES DON’T KILL HUMANS BUT BLOOD LOSS DOES!! PULL THE STAKE AND TURN HIM!!! YOU’LL SAVE HIS LIFE IF YOU DO!!!”
“DON’T!!” screamed Elder Leon. He coughed and blood spurted from his mouth.
Auriel’s eyes widened and he turned around.
The Vampire sat with Siyith’s corpse in her arms, desperate gaze directed to the king as she gripped the stake in her hand. “Please, milord!! If you pull it and turn him he’ll live!!”
“But he’ll never go back…”
“It’s his Humanity or his life!! One he can live without and you’re his only chance!!!”
Elder Leon grabbed several feathers of Auriel’s left wing and tore them off.
The king teleported away as blood dotted across the bear patch on his wing and he scooped Siyith’s corpse into his arms. He shook his head. “I--I can’t do this…”
“THEN I’LL DO IT!!” the Vampire declared.
“NO!!” Auriel barked. “SIYITH IS A HUMAN!!! HE--HE CAN’T LOSE THAT!!!!! IT’S ALL HE HAS LEFT!!!!!”
“ALL HE HAS LEFT IS YOU!!!! HE DIED FOR YOU!!!!! ARE YOU GOING TO TRULY LET HIM REMAIN IN DEATH FOREVER?!”
Auriel’s tears dripped onto Siyith’s armor, and he looked away with a tight gulp, air suffocating his throat. He grasped the stake in his left hand while falling to his knees. “Why does it have to be this way…” he whispered. “Why did you have to do this, Siyith? Why couldn’t you have just gone back with them…? We’d be ok. We know the truth--how to fight Hunters. So we’d have come and rescued you… and then you’d be alive…..” He clenched both eyes shut tightly and gripped the stake tighter. “DAMNIT, SIYITH, I HATE YOU!!! WHY DID YOU DO THIS??!! DAMN YOU!! DAMN YOU!!! DAMN YOU!!!!!!!” He tore the stake away and thrust it into the night then pressed his mouth down against the right of Siyith’s neck and dug both fangs into the artery harshly while blood poured from the shoulder wound. He sipped the warm blood and let his own flow free, grasping the wound shut for several moments in utter silence until the seconds turned into over a minute.
“MILORD!!” the female Vampire screamed. “THAT’S ENOUGH!!! YOU NEEDN’T GIVE HIM ANY MORE OF YOUR BLOOD!!!”
Auriel hissed and kept the fangs tight into the vein, sipping away the mortal blood while flowing all he could of his Vampiric blood in return. Take the mortality, give the immortality. And he did not stop for several more seconds until he clenched both eyes shut and screeched, retracting the fangs and thrusting Siyith away as he fell onto his back with bloodshot eyes and flush body while panting. His mouth formed a grin but both eyes retained the pain and he looked to Siyith. “Heh… Hehhhhh….. You’re good, m--my--my love. You won’t suffer--suffer the mania now…” he whispered. He looked to the moon and let out a hysterical cackle.
“AURIEL!!!!!” Elder Leon screamed. His eyes closed as the Humans lifted him up.
Auriel did not cease the cackling.
Siyith’s ears formed points. Fangs peered over his lips and his skin grew pale with veins turning black and then fading as black wings with white tips sprouted across his back and the bloody stab wound began to close.
The female Vampire dove toward the king and grasped him within her arms. “GET SIYITH TO SAFETY!!! I HAVE THE KING!!!” she demanded, cupping her ear from the cackling.
Vampires lifted Siyith and Auriel and dragged the two away from the battlefield. Clouds rolled overhead and covered the moon, field turning black without a trace of either side in sight. Upon moving at long last, blood covered the field, but not a single corpse either Human or Vampire.
Auriel awoke with ringing in both ears and light a sore sight for his eyes. His heart pounded, every movement within the room caused his muscles to tighten further, and he gripped soft fabric between every finger while clenching every tooth and fang.
“Milord? Milord!” one Vampire called. A nurse.
The nurse grasped Auriel’s hands and pressed them down.
Auriel screeched and shot upright, wriggling and thrashing about rampantly.
“GET HIM SOME BLOOD!!!” the nurse demanded.
Another rushed over with a cup full of pig’s blood and passed it off to the nurse who forced his mouth open and poured the blood inside.
Auriel coughed and choked, winced while swallowing hesitantly and shaking his head. But instantly the muscles grew tired, and his thrashing ceased, and he fell against the soft fabric of what could now be recognized as his coffin in silence with mere ringing in his ears, but no sensation of anger or fear.
“He’s alright now. He has the blood he needs, and he won’t be mad much longer,” the nurse said to others inside the room. “Milord? Can you hear me?” They looked down to Auriel with a soft smile. “Siyith’s alive and he’s right next to you. He’s been sleeping peacefully, and there haven’t been any bouts or signs of mania from him, not even one. He’s just been resting for the days, rolling over and occasionally touching the wound.”
Auriel looked right and sat upright to peer above the coffin walls.
Lying in an ebony coffin with white, silk-lined walls and under a fluffy blue blanket, Siyith lay curled with knees against his stomach and arms against his chest while breathing peacefully and steadily, wings wrapped around himself for warmth. He groaned and rolled onto his left side, turning to Auriel but not opening his eyes.
Auriel’s shoulders fell lax and upon his face appeared a soft smile. He nodded once, leaned back inside his coffin, closed both eyes, and fell asleep once more.
Siyith blinked slowly and groaned, rubbing his eyes. He sighed and looked up, moon and stars and night-lit world more defined than ever as though in perfect daylight. Pain fired through his left shoulder, however, and he opened his mouth to yell but out came somewhat of an otherworldly, inhuman yelp which echoed through the room and forced all to silence and cover their ears. Siyith raised an eyebrow.
“MY LOVE!!” a familiar voice screamed.
Instantly someone tackled him back down in a tight hug--a tall, blond-haired figure with red eyes.
“M--milord!” Siyith said. “What’s going on? Am I dead?!”
“You cried,” said Auriel. “Oh, my dear, please tell me you’re alright! What did you cry for?”
“I--I--cried…?” Siyith asked. “Like a--” He looked down to himself, lying inside the coffin with pale skin and felt something poking at his lips. He gasped, and turned to Auriel. “By the gods… You saved me…..”
Auriel tightened his embrace and nodded. “Oh, my love… I’m so happy to see you alive…” Tears rolled down his cheeks once more and he sobbed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry…” He stroked the bite marks along Siyith’s neck.
Siyith lifted his arms around the king and closed his eyes. A soft, sincere smile appearing upon his face he nodded and said, “It’s alright, milord. I understand. It’s alright.” He pressed his head against Auriel’s shoulder. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you…”
“But there’s no going back…”
“Who said I wanted to?” Siyith looked Auriel in the eyes and leaned in close. Softly he pressed his lips against the king’s, and sighed deeply moving in close against him for several moments, then shifted back and smiled once more.
Auriel’s cheeks turned bright red. He looked away with a smile, shoulders tense and wings ruffled awkwardly. “I--I think I love you more than ever.”
“As do I feel the same,” said Siyith.
