Chapter 49: [49] My KIng

--Chapter 49--

Title: My KIng

With the scent blurring behind them, the duo of Lana and Takeshi did not speak for a while.

Allowing the silence settle between them as the capital moved around them in pieces.

Passing across a closed weapon shop front and a rat slipping along a drainage line. The distant laughter of the night spilling from another near-by drinking hole.

Takeshi kept his pace steady, even as Lana naturally did the same...neither running nor moving with the caution of people who were expecting pursuit.

The further they went, the more easier it was for Lana to match him in silence, her dark veil arranged properly over her face and her posture restored enough that a passing stranger might only see a beautiful woman in a maid uniform walking beside her master.

Inside that silence, however, Lana’s thoughts were anything but calm and quiet.

From the moment, she knew he had found her in that alley. She had been prepared for rejection.

She was reading for the ordinary human reaction. The moment when desire and usefulness came to an end and any man would remember they were supposed to fear creatures like her naturally.

Although sealed for so long, Lana had lived long enough to know that most people loved the idea of monsters more than the truth of them.

But this human from another world, This mortal that Eldratch called Hero. He had seen the truth.

Her...Truth!

And Yet...

He stayed.

Without making a fuss, or giving a speech to convince himself that standing with her made him noble.

Instead, he had simply moved to choose her, as though her mess belonged to him by default.

That was something she had never experienced in her centuries upon centuries of life.

Never once since her father that anyone had chosen her like this again.

Not when the blood was still warm and the body was still soft, and the easier path was to step back and call her a monster.

Instead, this human who called himself her master had dirtied his hands without a second thought.

It was at this moment that the mighty daughter of the Eternal night decided that she would give this human her place in eternity if he wished for it.

***

Time flew by quickly and by the time they reached a quieter stretch near the palace grounds where the Manor was, Lana stopped.

Takeshi immediately noticed it and turned toward her.

In the weak light, her crimson eyes were steady again, but it lacked its distinct spark.

Although her old composure had returned, but something beneath it had obviously changed.

"You stayed," she said simply. "Why did you stay?"

Takeshi wiped the last smear of blood from the edge of his thumb onto his trousers. And without any fuss, he spoke.

"You’re mine. Everything about you, including the ugly parts no one wants to see."

The words tickled the Vampire’s ears and stimulated her mind as she looked at him for a long moment.

Then she stepped closer, not seeking comfort, but more like a queen accepting a binding she had not planned to want. Or in this case... Need.

"No one has ever done that for me," she revealed wholly. "Not without wanting something from it afterward."

Takeshi’s silver eyes held her gaze. "Good thing...I have all of you."

"How prideful," Lana chuckled lowly. "I’m sorry I didn’t let you know how bad it was sooner."

Amidst everything that had happened, those words to Takeshi were the most genuine ones.

With a smile on his face, he brushed a strand of red hair around her face.

"Next time, stop managing things alone when they can fall on this house."

"I understand...My King!"

This time, there was no resistance or any witted or elegant deflection from her.

The woman who had only a night ago stood over his sleeping body and told herself he only had a short mortal life worth observing no longer felt that way.

Lana lowered her eyes briefly before raising them again, something closer to a vow than a matter of manners in her expression.

"I will not watch you from a safe distance after this. If I am yours, then my hunger, my battles, and my power are completely yours as well."

Takeshi nodded once. Noticing the complete and willing devotion now.

"I’ll put that in mind," he shrugged.

"As you wish, My King."

They walked the rest of the way back together. Truly together as Takeshi felt a growing warmth in his pact with the Vampire queen.

***

Behind them, the alley held its false story for the first people who would find it: two drunken guild men, one dead, one broken beside the other.

Ahead of them, the manor waited with Solaria’s worry and Nyxara’s impatience.

Takeshi walked beside Lana as they disappeared through the palace security in complete silence.

Something about the way she had spoken stayed with him.

He had seen her hunger before. He had seen the effort it took for her to control it.

But tonight had been different. He had finally seen what happened when that control slipped. If it was Nyxara, he would probably had burned down the whole tavern to hide the truth.

Anyways, with his plan set in motion, he wanted to see how the guild would handle the situation he set up.

Something else that made him curious was how much of her, he could have through Herogasm.

For Lana, the silence beside him carried a different weight.

She had spent centuries deciding what people were worth, what they wanted, and what they would eventually demand in return.

Takeshi had seen the ugliest part of her and asked for nothing. That was difficult to understand.

More difficult still was the fact that she no longer wanted to keep him at a safe distance.

She had called herself his maid. And accepted his orders just for the sake of it. But somewhere along the way, that role had stopped being merely convenient.

Lana glanced at him with a new softness in her eyes.

For once, she did not try to explain the feeling away. She simply continued walking beside him.

And with time, the Manor finally came into view.

The lights from the windows spilled onto the path, and the familiar sight of the building finally broke the tension that had followed them from the alley.

Takeshi slowed as they approached the entrance. Even as Lana remained beside him.

Neither said anything else even while staring at their home. But the silence between them no longer felt as uncomfortable as it had before.

Takeshi reached for the door. But just then Lana’s perfect hands rested on his and stopped him with a quiet movement.

"My King..."

He looked at her hands and then back to her crimson eyes that held his for a moment.

"Thank you."

Takeshi’s expression softened slightly. "You don’t have to thank me."

Lana lowered her gaze. "I know... but Thank you," she repeated for the second time ever in her life.

After that, she released his hand and Takeshi opened the door, even as the warm light of the manor fell across them both.

Neither of them noticed the faint trace of blood still hidden beneath the edge of Lana’s sleeve.

This night had changed something between them. That would grow into a force even fate would bend to eventually.

<End of Chapter>