Choosing to say out of the Alliance, the Cinders are isolated in their own conflicts, and when Helia Cinder reaches to the void for answers, she inadvertently draws a creature out. Expecting to be eaten alive, she is instead left with a man with no...
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Vice somehow ended up outside of Pyre's door, and he sighed as he thumped his head on the wall. Pain wrenched his heart as he slid his fingers over the carved wood, depictions of dunes and small men marching on their peaks lifting and dropping his hand. Monsters had borne him, and Vice had truly never felt comfortable as one of vampire kind, preferring to live invisible at Talamayas' side as much for his own comfort as his usefulness to his master. Vice no longer reviled himself for what he was, but hearing such harsh words from one he'd called friend picked open old wounds.
Standing outside Pyre's room would only attract attention to his presence if he didn't enter or leave. It was an old study that hadn't been used since before Talamayas' sire, Rivin's, time, tucked on the edges of the wing Talamayas has allotted for their human guests. The room wasn't luxury, nor did it have a bed, but the cushioned benches and chairs would offer Pyre some rest in a place no vampire wanted to go. The sheer amount of dust would make it misery for anyone to move around in, vampires included, but that had satisfied Pyre enough to slam the door in Kopje's face without a word of thanks. Pyre and Blaze's lines did not get along, no matter how distant they were.
Vice knew he shouldn't have come here, but he did not know anywhere else to go. In a room far from this wing, he lay in Talamayas' arms, his fangs sheathed in his master's neck to revitalize his weakened other half. Lost so long in the void, he needed Talamayas power to survive, but he also relished the closeness and touch, so he drank slowly. Dark magic rolled over his skin with the heat of Talamayas' body, the tightness of his arms near crushing him as he filled himself with his master. Vice wanted to join his other half, to enter that dark room and tuck himself against Talamayas' familiar magic and form, but then he would not be available if Helia needed him.
Vice had promised Talamayas that he'd watch the Cinders, so he made the decision for a slow and painful death as he opened the door and went into Pyre's room. Light magic flared the moment he set foot inside, and he found Pyre armed with a blade of light and crouching on the corner of his bench. On sight of Vice, he dropped it and sank back into the cushions with a grunt of displeasure.
"Do vampires not know how to knock?" Pyre asked, his gruff voice weaker and quieter than the man probably preferred. With Vice there, Pyre sat himself up on the bench, lifting his burning mahogany eyes to look him over before settling against the wall. All of his darker red hair cascaded down his shoulder over his shoulder and his arm sling until it pooled on his lap.
"Forgive me. I did not want to draw attention to my presence here." Vice made as poor an excuse as possible. No one was around these abandoned hallways, so knock or not, no one would have heard him. The real reason was that he'd been afraid Pyre would skewer him right through the door. "Would you mind if I... spoke with you for a small while. If it would be bothersome, I will leave."
Pyre narrowed his eyes, but he didn't utter cruel words as Horus had. "I don't have anything better to do, and you're marginally more appealing to look at than this Stone Age decor. I half expected to find a fire pit dug into the floor or a salted animal hide hung up." Pyre was likely making a joke, but by his stiff expression of displeasure, no one would ever know it.
