Ryder stared at Caemorn who was looking at the corpse with consternation.
“It will not obey… oh, no… no… no!”Caemorn gasped as his silver eyes went wide.He grasped Ryder’s shoulders.“We have to keep the students away!We need to keep them–”
The students poured out of the one street, eyes bright with excitement and a sort of vacantness, as they ran towards the tomb.Out of the corner of his eye, Ryder saw the cloak around the corpse start to move.But it wasn’t from the corpse rising off the altar, but instead the corpse was… bloating.Expanding.It grew larger and larger and larger.
And then itpopped.
Things–chittering and many-legged-burst from the exploded corpse and started to stream out of the tomb towards the students while the students–smiling and gleeful–ran right towards them.
“Gold!Gold!Look at all the coins!”A woman shrieked.
Roan is a Kaly Vampire.Oh, no…
Too Easy?
Balthazar rose in one graceful movement from his haunches in front of Grayson to his feet in front of his eldest fledgling.Elgar waslookingat him.Elgar was looking athim.Elgar was–
“Master, Legion… I remember now.They tricked me,” Elgar explained, which was not much of an explanation.How could anyone trick the Whisperer?
Elgar’s gaze started to drop to the skull.Balthazar reached out and put a finger beneath his chin so that Elgar had to keep looking at him.Elgar’s silver eyes flickered all over the place, but finally locked upon him again.
I’m right here, Elgar.I’m not dead.I’m right here.Stay with me,he pleaded.
Elgar did not answer over their bond.He rarely did.There was only a flash of warmth and then like a cat tucking its head beneath its body, all was silent and dark again, and he had no sense of Elgar’s mind.Balthazar strove not to feel disappointed or frustrated.
Burrowing in the earth with his dead form for who knew however long after the terrible War was probably theleastof what Elgar had suffered.He must be patient and kind.He felt Christian’s support in this and it was like a wall he could lean against to keep himself on the correct path.There was no forcing Elgar to get well.And if he were to never get well, Balthazar would have to accept this and love him all the same.Love him perhaps more tenderly for all that Elgar had lost.
Damn the War and damn my role in it and not stopping it,Balthazar thought.
“I should have known that they were lying,” Elgar explained. “Not at first.At first, they wished to find Kaly and end the War.They believed it would make them Weryn’s favorite.Prove they were the–”
“Childe of his Heart?”Balthazar let out a bitter laugh.“A Master who doesn’t want you is a Master that will never value you.There is no changing it no matter how clever you are or skilled or cheerful even.None of it will change anything if they are set against you from the very beginning.”
Elgar blinked.“Master–”
“I don’t mean you, Elgar!Good grief!Never.I meant… it doesn’t matter,” Balthazar said, annoyed at himself for causing his very damaged eldest fledgling the least bit of hurt.He was speaking of himself, of course.He always did.In this moment, he realized just how annoying that could be.Christian was his teacher in this.Firm, but gentle.The world was not all about him.Just mostly about him.Yes, mostly.He continued, “I just meant that Weryn would never allow himself to see Legion’s merit.”
“Legion is a monster.”Elgar’s lips writhed back from sharp white teeth.
His fangs were out as he spoke of the Weryn Vampire.“In appearance.In shape.”He passed one of his long fingered hands over his face as if to turn his lovely visage into a monstrous one.It could not be done, of course.All black hair and pale skin with those silver flashing eyes.His eldest fledgling was a mixture of stark colors, but soft lines.
He’d turned many heads.Not that he noticed.Or if he ever did, he shied away from that attention.He put every single human he fed from into a deep sleep before he would touch them and then he would only allow his lips to barely brush their skin as he delicately drank their blood.
Besides himself, Elgar spent time only with Julian and Christian voluntarily.Though he did seem piqued by the “naughty kitty” as he’d called Demos.But the Weryn Vampire was able to be still and patient with Elgar as if he were a frightened, wild animal.
“Legion wears what they are on the inside on the outside.”Elgar’s lips trembled with disgust, not fear.
“What do you mean?”Grayson asked.
Grayson looked like death warmed over.His normally golden skin looked gray.There were dark circles around his eyes.And he was slightly clenching his jaw as if he were in constant pain.He was.A headache that pounded through him.
I could take that pain away,Balthazar thought.
Do not,it was Daemon.
Why?You don’t want him to suffer!Balthazar cried.
Of course, not,Daemon said lovingly.My General is precious to me as you all are precious to me.But the pain is warning him from doing anything more.He will kill himself at this rate.
