vampires he had made seized and burst into flame. He freed them from the curse…and burned the city to the ground. All of my people around me. He proved my threat had been nothing but childishness. I had also not been clever enough in my definition of the word ‘spare,’ it seemed. He freed them from his curse, and the humans from their lives. He made me as he. I stayed true to my word and have served him ever since.”
“I…I’m so sorry.”
“I am not.” He opened his eyes again and looked out at the city. “I have come to understand that what he did was indeed mercy. It is I who have suffered, not those villagers.”
“Then why do you not choose to die?”
“I made a vow to serve him. I will do so until he releases me. I am a man of my word. And he…” He paused, as if he had spoken too much. He sighed and continued. “He is in need of counsel. Left to his own devices, his wrath is far worse. He cannot be changed—his temperament is not capable of being mended. Some wounds never heal, and some blood shall never dry. But he can be tempered.”
“Is that advice or a warning, Walter?” She smiled. He was such a dour and curmudgeonly thing. “I shall take it to heart either way, I suppose.” She pulled the box of chocolates from her pocket and, lifting the lid, offered him one.
Looking down at her quizzically, he blinked. Carefully, as if he were afraid the box might bite him, he reached in and took one of the chocolates. He looked down at it in his hand as if he was utterly perplexed. “Thank you, Miss Parker.”
“You’re very welcome.”
He ate the chocolate, and she took another as well, and they stood there in silence for a long moment.
“Tell me something, Walter,” she began, unable to contain her curiosity. “Do you care for him? Do you love him?”
“Certainly not in the way you do.”
She laughed, not certain if that was intended as a joke. But she took it as one, regardless. “I suppose one must need specify when the likes of Zadok wander your ranks.”
“I am terribly sorry you were forced to spend two days in his company. The man is a cretin.”
“Yes, perhaps. But there is tragedy there that has made him what he is. Same as you. Same as all the rest. Same even as Dracula himself. Very few wake up in the morning and decide they are to be the villain of their own life stories. What cruelty we pay to others we have learned to dismiss. Save perhaps in the case of mental illness or in the deranged. But he is neither of those things.”
“You are a wise creature.”
“I have witnessed much of human life despite my few years.” She shrugged. “It is not by choice.”
“To answer your question—yes. I have come not only to respect him, but to call him my friend. He is the closest thing to family I fear I have ever had. I loathe the idea of a world without him. But perhaps he deserves his rest. Perhaps this suffering should come to an end once and for all.”
“Are you suggesting that I should destroy him?”
“No. I am merely saying I would understand it if you did. And I would not find it as loathsome a concept as perhaps the others have done in their bids to you.”
“Ah. You know of Elizabeth’s and Zadok’s treaties to such an effect?”
“It is hard not to know of their comings and goings, or indeed of quite literally anything that passes across their infantile minds. They speak loudly of it at all times. Pity me, if you will, Miss Parker. I have had to spend centuries with them.”
She laughed again, smiling up at the dour vampire. The one who seemed somehow even older than Dracula himself. Vlad had a shocking amount of life to him—no pun intended—in spite of his thousands of years. Walter looked and acted like the grave. “And you have my sympathy, Walter. Although it is an easy thing to come by.”
It was his turn to smile. “And you will have no shortage of those hungry for it. I fear you may become exhausted by the needs of monsters wishing for a tender hand and a gentle word.”
She sighed. “There are worse fates than to pay kindness to those in need of it.”
A hand settled on her shoulder, and she nearly jumped in