#vampirewedding

The light lingered defiantly. To hunt and plot and walk in the day like he did in the night.

He stopped at the barrier, unmarked by anything other than a simple change in air and longer grass. She bumped into his back and decided not to back up, but to cling to his clothes and peer around his frame. Almost as if she was being cautious.

The glade rested at the invisible edge between two forests, two territories invisible to mortal eyes. At the far end, ancient spruce spilled their branches over the tall grass, shielding it from the night. He gestured for her in that direction, and both vampires steeled their nerves at the sight of two glowing eyes opening into the shadows. The eyes blinked, then leapt forward.

“Visitors, hm? Why don’t you step closer?” His eyebrow twitched at the creature, and he held out an arm to stop Maddie, merely because one couldn’t be too careful around fairies. If their songs decided to beckon you over the edge, most people could barely do anything to resist. That included vampires as weak as Maddie.

The creature was half-submerged in the tall grass, moving closer without a single sound. To eyes untrained for nights, she would’ve been invisible, and even to Rasalhague she seemed almost like a trick of the light.

“We’ve come to request your services. Try anything funny and I’ll take my business elsewhere. As well as your head.”

There was a sound, like a dog breathing out heavily, that a human might associate with a sigh. And then she stepped out from the glade and her form became solid and full. Like most fairies, she presented with an assortment of feathers and soft fur covering an almost human body, but unlike most fairies, almost a third of her body was covered in a stark red plague, dissolving some of her soft wings and crawling up the feather buds on her neck. The redness twisted around one cat-like eye, without yet touching it. A crooked fairy, that indulged in life and death she wasn’t permitted, and now couldn’t quite get enough of.

The fairy measured him, grinning, and then eyed Maddie as well and raised a long eyebrow.

“Would you two lovebirds like to get married? Have you come here to bargain for your happiness?”

Rasalhague levelled her with an unimpressed look and the fairy quickly lost her interest. Before they could cast any more suspicion at her, she took their hands and pulled them towards the glade. Without force – besides being weak, she was quite shorter than Maddie – no, it was more of a friendly suggestion for them to follow her.

Past that edge, the real glade emerged before their eyes, unveiled like a present from the surrounding darkness. A well-groomed flower garden, illuminated by dense clumps of fireflies. At its centre was a pool, the depth of which was impossible to determine. The surface moved slightly in the wind, twisting the form of the moon’s slender scythe. The moon wasn’t even up in the sky yet.

The fairy settled at the edge of the pond, soaking her feet in the ice-cold water. Perfectly clear too.

He settled across, in a standing position, and had the feeling that Maddie wasn’t going to come out from hiding. Having kept his attention on the fairy, he didn’t catch when she latched onto his arm again. Her eyes narrowed, and then turned towards his face. Two little moons, starkly blue in a dark sea, the mark of a nymph bloodline, from far overseas. Discomfort lodged itself in his throat like a stubborn growth. Many times he had looked into her and couldn’t help himself from wondering how many lives had to twist in how many ways for Maddie to be there at all.

“I don’t like the way she’s looking at you like you’re a piece of dinner,” Maddie whispered, forcing her way under his arm. His mouth twisted. Every time she did something like that a wave of anger washed over his body, hot like all the emotions he hadn’t had to wrestle with in literal centuries. Her presence alone, that long smile, spread thin over her cheeks, taut over her little fangs, was enough to arouse that boiling anger. Why was she so loud even when not saying anything? Just by staring longingly and following closely, close enough that he could feel her breathing, her presence shouted at him. Begged for his attention.

He wasn’t going to give it, though. Not without a fight, at least. He grabbed her head and pushed her away.

“She knows who I am.”

“Hmmm...” Maddie squinted over towards the fairy. That annoyed, almost jealous expression on her face was a little funny, though. Getting her ticked off, hard as it was, was pretty worth it.

“That’s right. Rasalhague is quite the celebrity in our circles. Quite so very, very few vampires make it to his age. And even fewer have the headcount that he has, especially in regards to fairies he’s hunted, caught, killed and ate.” She looked up from the pool, grinning from ear to ear. “If you ask me, that was quite the oversight from whoever designed this curse.”

Maddie leaned her head back towards him and seemed to regard him again, in light of the information presented. Which she knew beforehand. If he had to guess, it was probably some kind of exciting for Maddie to be reminded of the exact type of monster he was. Some kind.

He found himself chewing on his lip.

“And now you know why I wouldn’t, even in my wildest dreams, think of crossing you.”

“Do fairies dream?” Maddie weighted her head, brushing her long ears against her shoulders.

“Dreams are just fairies playing with your memories. We know better than to fuck with others of our kind. It’s usually mortals that come out bad when two fairies fight, though. Then let me ask you, do you dream, Miss? Do you even sleep?”

Rasalhague’s patience was stretched thin at this point, increasingly so as he thought about an incoming and unavoidable discussion they were all going to have. He was ready to snap at the fairy, but his eyes caught on to Maddie’s face and stayed there.

Her eyes glinted with the playfulness she once had when turning over the cards, when she caught on to the shapes and colours and they whispered in her long and pointed ears. To him that much was obvious, her mind grew up playing with the future as it was a toy, and giving that up so many years ago had finally taken its toll. She was running out of things to play with and he dreaded knowing what she was up to when he left for weeks. And he most certainly wasn’t looking forward to the day when it was his turn to be played with.

“Though my blood runs and my body moves, there is little, if any, life in me that wasn’t stolen. When the sun draws near, a weight pulls me to the ground and I, hm, simply put, I think that I die. I go back to being dead. There’s no soul left to my person, so I dream of no afterlife, no realm of lost spirits. I die, and I am forcefully resurrected at each sunset. Does that answer your curiosity, fairy?”

Maddie had turned to face the fairy entirely, and she had no way of seeing the eyes glued to the back of her head. The time he had spent being alive was insignificant, a couple of days in a life, compared to his existence afterwards. And each sunset in continued all the same, chasing the next prey, the next meal, the next unfortunate fairy, in hopes that the resolution drew ever near. Perhaps there was a point, and perhaps was more than enough for his bored, uncaring mind.

To hear a girl who had been turned for less than half of her existence, who still remembered fearing death and feeling the warmth of the sun, saying that she died every time she laid down to sleep was... disconcerting. She refused to turn and face him, most likely on purpose.

On purpose because, obviously, she had freely offered her life to live alongside him. He had been coerced, bullied even into turning her. Into taking her life as well as her unique gift, the one most dear to her. She chose that for herself, unable to know what it meant, and he reluctantly accepted to help, knowing full well.

Why did he go along with it, anyway?

There was a difference between killing for food and torturing someone for the rest of their existence out of boredom.

“Tell us about the ceremony.” The fairy recoiled instantly at his cold tone, her feathers ruffled in futile defence. She smoothed them back into place and looked up at the vampire.

“Your union is meant to make you both stronger. But the strength you may wish for will surely come with an equal price. I am a mere fairy after all. We’ll discuss the terms now, until all parties are sufficiently satisfied. You two have until the next new moon to fulfil your part of the bargain, and then you shall sign a contract with me, and with each other. The marriage, for mortal, vampire or fairy, is a union greater than the sum of its parts. There are power and strength in your combined efforts, dedication, loyalty, and, yes, especially emotions. It shall make the deal much more favourable to you, than if you were to ask the same thing on your own. Thus, if the union is broken, so is the contract, and whoosh goes the wish. Be mindful of that when choosing. The rest is up to you! I’ve officiated many weddings and I’ll gladly help you plan, though your mortal background might make you choose a specific ceremony. All I’m interested in is signing the deal.”

Rasalhague considered the light of the moon scythe as it tainted the dark pool.

“Maddie used to be a perfectly accurate fortune teller when alive. We’d like for her to have that ability again.”

She turned to him, once again with that look of unease. Her power alone was much too useful, and there was something he became immensely curious about when remembering it.

Where did fate want him to go? What was it planning for his continued existence? He would’ve liked to know again, and to be able to choose whether he followed its will of not. Though brief, the certainty her readings brought him was entirely novel to the life of a vampire. It was a selfish desire he was thrusting onto her, without allowing her the right to make her wishes known as well.

She had the audacity to ask him what he wanted! As if he wasn’t doing whatever he pleased anyway, regardless of her presence or existence.

Rasalhague sighed. His mind was loud with too many thoughts to even begin sorting through them. She had no say in the matter, and by the gods had she made it abundantly clear that he was free to do that. Disregard her opinions, her wishes, her presence even and just demand what he wanted. Just as long as she got to be there, to be his.

“You really shouldn’t,” she said, in the smallest of voices. “You could wish for so many things. I want to make this sacrifice for you, and maybe then you’ll want me even more. Won’t you let me do that?”

Ah, how she made him want to scream and rip out her throat.

“No.”

The fairy’s smile was very tense at that point. But once they made up their minds, she licked her lips and started considering her own wish from them.

“That’s both very difficult, and quite easy as well. Here’s what I’m thinking of. I’ve become fed up with mortals, and even more so animals. Our deal will keep me feed for a good while, but until then I’m woefully weak, starving. In turn, your vampire lady’s fortune telling was most likely a result of fairy blood in her family. So… do you know of a fairy named Aides?”

Rasalhague felt a sheet of ice settle over the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions boiling in him. The name froze the features of his face into a mask and Maddie seemed similarly tense. Their history with Aides was best kept a secret.

“I’ve heard of him.”

“Then you surely heard that he is responsible for the curse of the vampires. He knows it best. I won’t ask for the moon. But bring me a hefty dose of his blood and I’ll be more than happy. Sadly, I don’t know where he is or how he may be found. Let that be your test, your sacrifice, or whatever.”

It was doable. Just then he realised that he had been somewhat tense that she’d ask for something stupid and much too annoying to get. But this one there seemed less interested in sacrifice itself and more into getting her hands on her next fix. Fair enough.

“I’ll get that for you. But I can choose where I want my wedding to be held, right?”

The fairy raised an eyebrow at his smile, her whiskers arching upwards.

“Sure.”

He seized Maddie’s shoulders, and peered down until the woman turned to look for his. Her attention was captured first by the odd gesture, and then by the twinkle in his eyes.

“Maddie, would Mistvale be alright as a place to hold our wedding?”

Her smile nearly betrayed her, but she immediately schooled herself into genuine glee. “Yes! Of course!”

The fireflies and the moon both turned to darkness as they left the glade, headed on their journey. The next new moon wasn’t that far away, but they had a feeling they’d manage.

“You always manage to surprise me somehow,” she said when they were sufficiently far away from the glade. She grabbed onto his hand, but with none of that overt clinginess she usually had. Despite the loud thoughts twisting in his head again and that dreadful feeling rising in his stomach, he decided against pushing her away this one time. Plus, he was feeling quite good about his little scheme too.

Madeleine’s ears twitched at the change in wind and she hid the deck under her long sleeves. Her eyes didn’t move from the sky when a presence practically appeared on a branch somewhere above her.

“Out hunting?”

She could tell his sights were set somewhere lower, to the dying lights of the village below. The answer was no, but she considered for a moment how unexpected it was that he came looking for her. Her attention shifted upwards and she watched him unfurl on the branch like a very long cat. His chin firmly set in his palm, he mindlessly played with the surrounding leaves while watching her back.

“It’s too nice a night to spoil it with blood.” And she was too young a vampire to find any pleasure in that. It was good that she remembered to answer. Her lips parted to continue, but the bigger, stronger, meaner vampire scoffed loudly at a leaf.

“I could do that for you.”

Madeleine’s ears fell back nearly to her shoulders, as if she was preparing to hiss at another cat. “Where have you been?”

Rasalhague wasn’t looking at her anymore, but lying on his back on the branch, hands tucked under his head. He wasn’t going to answer.

“Why didn’t you take me with you?” she pouted. “I’ve been waiting all week to hear from you and thought that maybe you had... abandoned me...” She hid behind her knees to plan her moves for a second. As a result, she simply hadn’t felt him come down next to her. A simple sense of dread punched through her body. Schooling her expression, Madeleine raised her head to see him casually staring at her from under those very long, very annoying lashes. In response, the woman scooted closer, like she normally would even when something was amiss. “Fine, you never tell me anything… that’s fine with me. As long as you allow me even a bit of your time.”

She was glued to his arm now, clinging to his body as if she wouldn’t be just fine if she fell right out of that tree. Very tall one, too, she was looking for a good vantage point over the valley. Something of that unmoving stare of his finally tangled up all the words in her mouth and she pressed her lips together.

“Do you want to get married?”

Her grip faltered and he threw his arm around her shoulders before she even started falling. Or, escaping. Her mind played with that word for a split second.

“D-do you mean that? Really? Are you sure?” It was the rare moment when her facade faltered, and she threw him quite the incredulous look she hadn’t meant to expose.

“Fine, this is what I’ve doing these past few weeks. I looked for fairies that would officiate a wedding between vampires. How much do you know about... the customs surrounding that?”

Her cheeks tingled and the skin stretched and tightened across her face, why as if her blood still ran hot and she could blush and fluster over this cold vampire boyfriend that made a habit of getting as far away from her as possible.

“I...” she turned her head towards the dark night, retreated between her shoulders, mind trying to race ahead of itself. “I don’t know anything about it really.”

Rasalhague was generally very unreadable, and rarely displayed anything but sheer annoyance at her. But whatever it was, it had to be an extreme – such as the extreme neediness with which he was squishing her against his chest. And she knew not to take anything he did and said at face value. The man seemingly hated her guts, yet they had been together for nearly twenty years, and he made her a vampire quite specifically so they’d be together. Uncertainty displeased Madeleine.

What she’d give to be able to ask again, to turn over the cards and play with the future to her liking.

“There are lots of crooked fairies who turned their backs on any particular faction. Most of them are weaklings I wouldn’t even bother with, but they’d be fairly easy pray for younger vampires looking to strengthen themselves. So, they’re making a name for themselves as allies. And most vampires were mortal once.”

“Most?”

“And they have mortal hearts and mortal desires. Sometimes even mortal feelings.”

“They want to get married to their beloved, I reckon. Possibly because they feel love for each other.” Madeleine looked away as if she hadn’t said anything.

“Yes. And the crooked fairies offer them the luxury of officiating their weddings. And of doing what fairies do best - offering a deal. Grating them one wish, in exchange for a suitable sacrifice.”

“Oh.” Her mind calmed down all at once. He was goading her into doing something for his own benefit, then. The touchy-feely was probably part of it too. She snuggled into his lap and threw her arms around his neck, lips stretched into a thin smile. “Then let’s do it. I want to be yours forever, and grant any one wish you have as well.”

That part of the conversation, she quite liked. She felt as if she’d wrestled quite a lot of power back into her hands. In control, playing her cards again, as if she had any anymore. What she didn’t like, at all, was the glimmer in those shifty fox eyes gazing at her much like they gazed at incredibly appealing prey.

“Then how would you like to be able to do fortune telling again?”

One part of Maddie’s brain remained calm and composed, and picked out that this would be a great benefit to him, and wouldn’t come with as high a price as many other things. Using her like that was how she had wormed her way into his heart after all. Unfortunately, this was not the part that also controlled her face. Her expression fell quietly apart, unravelled before him. And Rasalhague grinned back, fangs showing between his lips, glinting in absent moonlight. Never before had she been afraid of them, not even when she was a mortal goading him into basically killing her.

She settled her hands on his shoulders.

“That’s very generous but... What do you want? Really?”

He seemed displeased, judging solely from how his grip on her waist tightened. It would’ve seriously hurt a mortal. Her cards were safe, though. A normal person would’ve questioned why a needy girlfriend like her would turn down the finger she was handed instead of taking the whole arm. She was confident enough that Ras wasn’t a normal person by any measure of the word.

“I mean it,” she said to his silence. “I really want to know what you want, given the possibility of any one wish. And for what end goal. Is it wealth, power beyond what you have? Wouldn’t you like to walk and plot and hunt in the daylight like you do in the night? Wouldn’t you prefer to see the future for yourself? Or to surpass this stage and become a fairy, a leader of them? To defeat Akerra and claim his bounty? That’s what you were after when we met and still the time draws near until the expiration date. For a while I even thought... that you would like to take his place.”

He grabbed her jaw and she steeled her nerves expertly. Why, she was much more used to dealing with that side of him.

“Hunting Akerra was for sport. One of the few worthy challenges left to me. If anything, I’d love get rid of my daughter. I’m certain she’ll come to kill some day and I have a strong feeling she might even accomplish that. But I wouldn’t say that’s on a high priority list. For now, I’m just looking for ways to pass the time.”

Madeleine puffed out her cheeks, despite the iron grip still digging into her face. “So, am I just your way of ‘passing time’ as well?”

If she wasn’t so conflicted, she would’ve burst out laughing at the look of sheer disgust that crossed his face. He pushed her face away and crossed his arms.

“I did make you a vampire, didn’t I?” He stood up, eyeing the village again. She clung back to his arm and pretended not to notice his attempt at shoving her away like a fly.

“Does that mean that you wanted us to pass the time together? Is your wish only that we get married?” She felt like not the rug, but the entire floor had been pulled from under her feet. Why, of course, he cared for her. Either that or he was the worst masochist in the world to keep her around.

But the admission of it, it made her want to scream. She hated it, she despised how being wanted made her feel so pleased. The only good things in her life came from hardship, from struggle, not pleasure.

So, she retaliated by openly mocking him. “This is truly the happiest day of my life and un-life, you might as well have told me that you love me. Of course I’ll get married to you! Any time, any place, for any sacrifice you ask of me. That’s how much I love you.”

Rasalhague gripped a handful of her hair and pulled her harshly, just short of scalping her. “Watch. Your. Mouth.”

Her mouth split into a smile, then extended into a full laughter. The surprise of it all, it made her mind race and her undead hearth dance. That night, one person’s twisted expression of love was truly genuine, while the other’s ‘I love you’ was completely untrue. His hand still pulling her hair and her grin still unravelling, the two pulled closer and kissed.