“Why do they seem,” Balthazar waggled his fingers towards one of them, “real?”
“Souls are real,” Caemorn answered.
“No, that’s not what I meant! They’re bulky, monstrous things.” Balthazar shivered.
The creatures’ bodies were heavy and piled with muscle. They stood over eight feet tall though they slightly hunched over like gorillas as they walked on their knuckles and clawed feet. Some of them had extra heads, though theseextraswere all malformed in some way and many of them sprouted halfway down one of thefourmassive arms. One of them threw thosearms back and let out a massive roar before it took off down the street.
“He means they seem like they have material form,” Ryder translated the Eyros Vampire’s hints.
“Yes! Exactly! It’s like you read my mind, Ryder. And, Caemorn, youcanread my thoughts but pretended not to this time!” Balthazar said. “You knew what I meant! You did not need Ryder’s interpretation.”
“I did not pretend. For one who can delve into every mind and control those minds, you should be more precise in your verbiage,” Caemorn said.
Balthazar narrowed his eyes at Caemorn. “You want me to use mywordsmore precisely?”
“Master is most voluble in his use of words,” Elgar said.
“Yes, exactly! I am! Very–very voluble!” Balthazar claimed.
“Voluble does not mean precise. It only means you talk a lot, which I would agree with,” Caemorn said.
“You only care aboutprecisionwhen you feel out of control! And I warrant that all these monsters on the loose are causing you to feel that way,” Balthazar sniffed.
Caemorn’s lips writhed back from his teeth. “It is thewasteof power that offends me.”
“You’re worried about the waste of power?” Balthazar began, but at Caemorn’s wintery look, he held up his hands as if in defeat. “All right, all right! I see your point. The waste of power is shameful. Utterly shameful. Let’s hope it doesn’t lead to the waste oflives. But yes, the waste of power is the most important thing.”
“That and the reporters filming it,” Elgar offered.
“Oh, Elgar, you are being sohelpfulthis evening.” Balthazar squeezed the top of his nose. “But you are quite right again. Especially if those creatures beat someone to death, preferably a reporter with one of those cameras. You’re going to have toWhisper a hell of a lot. And we’re going to have to destroy quite a bit of evidence.”
“Can the Ecthrois be physically attacked?” Ryder asked.
A nod from Caemorn. “They are beings that can switch between material and immaterial states. Unlike us, their bodies and souls are one.”
“So any Vampire can go up against them then. That’s good,” Ryder said. “Demos! Siban! Come to me!”
The two Weryn loped over to his side. All three of them were naked, which all the other Vampires were studiously ignoring. Daemon had a habit of walking around naked as well and making people look away or looktowardshim. But though Vampires were jaded about a lot of things, many of them had come from times where the naked human form was shameful and desiring it in any way more so.
Caemorn was much older than Balthazar and didn’t have those hangups, though maybe a Kaly Vampire simply wouldn’t. He didn’t look away when they were naked, but Ryder thought that had more to do with Caemorn’s clinical nature about bodies over all. They were like clothing. They could be cast off. And Caemorn could touch the souls beneath those bodies. He looked away from nothing.
“Ryder!” Demos breathed. “Those bloody Zradum are dead!”
“If only they were bloody,” Siban said with their lips writhing back from their teeth as they rubbed their hands on their thighs. “The goop inside of them feels and tastes like rancid puss.”
“That’s quite a description, Siban.” Balthazar looked slightly green.
“I stopped biting into them after the first one,” Siban answered with a faint gag. “But I’m still coated with them.”
They wiped their hands together as if to get off the rancid puss. Ryder was actually in agreement with that
“Baths for everyone after we face off against our next enemy,” Ryder said as he swept a hand towards an Ecthrois. “Come, let us–”
But Caemorn put an arm up to stop Ryder and the others from leaving. “While Demos and Siban can go, you need to stay, Ryder.”
Demos bared his teeth. “If my brother wishes to go–”
“It’s okay, Demos. He’s… our friend,” Ryder said.
