Corrupted blood lord

Teclos found the enchanter before noon.

Her shop was hidden behind a clockmaker’s workshop near the western market. A narrow stairwell led down from the alley, carrying the smell of lamp oil and heated metal. There was no sign above the door, only a brass knocker shaped like a closed eye.

He knocked twice.

A slot opened. One dark eye looked him over.

"We’re closed."

"I need a blood-bound enchantment repaired."

"Who sent you?"

"Maela."

The slot shut. Several locks moved before the door opened a hand’s width.

An elderly woman stood on the other side. Thin silver tools had been pushed through her gray hair, and the leather apron around her waist was stained with ink and ash.

"Maela still owes me money."

"I’ll cover it."

"You don’t know how much she owes."

Teclos held up a gold coin.

The door opened wider.

"Come inside before someone sees you waving that around."

Orena cleared a space on the nearest table.

"Let me see it."

Teclos placed the broken amulet in front of her.

She studied the snapped chain and the fine crack running through the black stone.

"Where did you get this?"

"It belongs to someone I know."

"That wasn’t what I asked."

"I didn’t steal it."

Orena looked up. "People usually say that when the owner is too dangerous to name."

"She’s dangerous enough."

"She?"

Teclos said nothing.

Orena gave a small grunt and lifted the pendant with silver tongs. Faint red veins appeared inside the stone.

"This is old work," she said. "The chain is easy. The stone was tied to the owner’s blood when it was made. If I seal the crack without that connection, the disguise may fail the first time she uses it."

"How much blood?"

"One fresh drop. Bring it in glass and keep it out of sunlight."

"You don’t need to see her?"

"No. Judging by your face, I’d rather not."

Teclos picked up the amulet.

"How long once I bring it?"

"Several hours. Perhaps more if the stone rejects the repair."

He turned toward the door.

Orena tapped the table.

"We haven’t discussed payment."

"I gave you gold."

"That covered Maela’s debt and got you through the door."

Orena pocketed both.

"Now we’ve discussed it."

—

The vampire was standing outside the hunting lodge when Teclos returned.

Her hood hid most of her face, though a loose strand of dark hair moved across her cheek in the wind.

"You were supposed to stay inside," he said.

"I stepped out for air."

"You don’t need air."

"I still prefer it to that room."

Teclos looked at the sagging roof and crooked shutter.

"That’s fair."

She glanced at his hands. "Did you find someone?"

"She can repair it. She needs one drop of your blood."

Her expression hardened.

"No."

Teclos walked past her and opened the lodge door.

"Then you keep the cloak."

She followed him inside.

The lodge held a rough table, two chairs, a cold fireplace, and a bed with several rotten boards. Teclos placed a glass vial on the table.

"She doesn’t need to meet you. I take the blood to her, she repairs the stone, and I bring it back."

"I don’t know this woman."

"You don’t know anyone here."

"I know enough about you to be cautious."

"That’s probably wise."

She looked at the vial but did not touch it.

Teclos waited.

"If you thought I planned to use your blood against you, you would have killed me before I reached the door."

"That assumes you understand what my blood can do."

"I don’t. That’s why I’m asking for one drop."

Some of the tension left her shoulders.

She picked up the glass. A nail lengthened into a dark claw, and she pressed it against one fingertip. A bead of blood welled there, almost black until it caught the light.

The drop fell into the vial.

When Teclos reached for it, she kept hold of the glass.

"If the enchanter touches it with bare skin or keeps any of it, I’ll know."

"I’ll stay while she works."

She released the vial.

Their fingers brushed.

Her skin was cold. Teclos had expected that, but the sensation lingered after he pulled his hand away.

She noticed him looking.

"What?"

"I was checking whether the claw was gone."

She flexed her fingers. The nail had already returned to normal.

"It’s gone."

Teclos sealed the vial and placed it in his storage ring.

A folded report lay near the edge of the table. The vampire picked it up.

"This is from Veyron?"

"Yes."

She opened it.

"Livestock found drained. Two shepherds missing. A patrol failed to return." Her gaze lifted. "You thought this was me."

"The attacks began before you entered the city."

"That still isn’t a denial."

"For a moment, I wondered whether you hunted outside the walls first."

"I don’t feed on livestock."

"Why?"

"They taste foul."

Teclos sat in the other chair.

"What does Veyron think caused it?" she asked.

"He doesn’t know. That’s why he sent the report to me."

"And you accepted without knowing what you’re hunting?"

"That is usually how these contracts work."

She placed the report down. "You enjoy them."

"The count pays well."

"That isn’t what I meant."

Teclos looked toward the shuttered window.

"No. It isn’t."

Her eyes remained on him.

"You absorb mana from what you kill."

He turned back. "You felt that when you examined the pact?"

"There were traces of different creatures inside you. Some human, some not. They haven’t settled evenly."

"What does that mean?"

"You’re taking in power faster than your body can properly adapt to it. It may not matter today, but eventually your control will suffer."

"It has worked so far."

"So far is not very long."

"Are you warning me?"

"I’m telling you what I found. Do what you like with it."

Teclos stood.

"I need to take the blood to Orena."

The vampire’s head tilted. "You gave me her name."

"You would find her eventually if you wanted to."

"That isn’t trust."

"No. It saves time."

—

Orena accepted the blood without touching it. She let the drop fall into a shallow crystal dish and covered it with a lid carved in tiny runes.

"Come back tomorrow morning."

"You said several hours."

"I hadn’t seen the blood then."

"What changed?"

"The owner comes from an old line. The stone was made to reject outside interference." Orena glanced at him. "I can repair it, but I won’t rush it."

Teclos pointed to a chair. "I’m staying."

"Then stay out of my way."

He did.

The repair took most of the afternoon. Orena used silver needles to draw thin threads of blood through the crack while runes glowed beneath the stone. Teclos watched every movement. By sunset, only a faint line remained.

"It needs to rest overnight," she said, placing the amulet inside an iron case. "If the enchantment is stable by morning, it should hold."

—

The vampire was not inside the lodge when Teclos returned.

He found her behind the building, standing near the trees. She had removed the cloak. Her dark hair fell freely down her back, moving softly in the evening wind.

She heard him approach but did not turn.

"Did the enchanter survive?"

"Yes."

"And the amulet?"

"Morning."

Her attention remained on the forest.

Teclos followed her gaze but saw nothing beyond the trees.

"We may not have that long," she said.

"Why?"

She tilted her head slightly, listening to something he could not hear.

"There’s blood south of here. A fair amount of it."

Teclos expanded Dark Sense through the forest. Roots, stones, birds, and small animals appeared within his awareness. Farther south, something disturbed the edge of his perception, but he could not make out its shape.

"How far?"

"Several miles."

"You can smell blood from several miles away?"

"With the wind coming from the south, yes."

"And you know it’s human?"

"Human blood has a very distinct scent. It is unmistakable once you know it."

"You say that as though I should already understand."

"You spent months serving a vampire."

"Luther didn’t explain much while he was ordering me around."

That finally drew her attention.

"No. I doubt he would."

There was something in the way she said it. Not familiarity, but contempt sharpened by knowledge.

"You’ve dealt with him before?"

"With his house."

"That wasn’t what I asked."

"It’s the answer I’m giving you."

Teclos studied her, then turned toward the lodge.

"Fine. Keep your secrets. I’m going to find out what’s bleeding."

"You’ll walk straight into whatever caused it."

"That was the plan."

"A poor one."

Teclos collected his coat and returned with a spare hood.

"You can stay here."

She looked south again, then took the hood from him.

"I didn’t say I was staying."

"It belonged to a bandit."

She smelled the cloth and frowned.

"I can tell."

"It’s that or the blanket."

She put it on. "The bandit will do."

Teclos opened a rift in the shadows, and she stepped through before him.

—

The southern farms were silent when they arrived.

A farmhouse stood beside a wheat field, its front door hanging open. Supper remained on the table inside. One chair had fallen backward, and a dark stain spread across the floor beside it.

The vampire crouched near the blood.

"A few hours old."

Long grooves crossed the yard outside, as though something heavy had been dragged through the mud. They led past a broken fence and into the wheat.

Teclos sensed movement ahead.

The vampire raised one hand.

"Wait."

A low clicking sound moved through the field. Another answered farther to the left.

Teclos spread his darkness beneath the wheat. Thin bodies moved close to the ground.

"More than ten."

"Blood crawlers," she said.

"You know them?"

"They nest near old battlefields and feed on corpses. They shouldn’t be hunting this far from one."

The first creature burst from the wheat.

It had six jointed legs, a swollen gray body, and a narrow head that split open into a circular mouth lined with teeth.

Teclos drove a tendril through it.

The others attacked at once.

The vampire vanished into the field. Bodies struck the ground around him. One crawler flew above the wheat with half its legs gone. Another collapsed without its head.

Teclos caught three in darkness and crushed them together.

Two disappeared below the soil.

"Under us."

She moved aside as Teclos drove both hands down.

Darkness plunged into the earth.

The ground burst open, tearing several crawlers from their tunnels along with clusters of pale sacs wrapped around something much larger.

The broodmother rose from the nest. Thick feeding tubes hung from its mouth, wet with blood. Human arms and pieces of torn uniform had been pressed into the mud around it.

The missing patrol.

Teclos formed a dark blade.

The vampire caught his shoulder.

"Don’t kill it yet. If it dies before the sacs, the young will scatter."

Teclos saw the shapes twisting inside them.

"I’ll close the tunnels. Deal with anything that gets out."

She released him. "Do it."

Darkness spread beneath the nest, sealing every exit and tightening around the sacs. The vampire crossed the chamber in a blur, killing crawlers as they tore free.

One leaped toward her back.

Teclos caught it in a tendril and crushed it against the ground.

She glanced over her shoulder.

"I saw it."

"Then stop looking at me."

The broodmother tore itself free before she could answer.

Teclos wrapped its legs and pulled them apart, forcing the creature down into the ruined nest. The vampire ran up its back and drove one hand through the thick hide. Her arm disappeared nearly to the elbow.

She tore out a pulsing black organ.

The broodmother collapsed.

Teclos crushed the remaining sacs, and silence returned to the field.

Blood covered the vampire’s hand and sleeve.

Teclos looked at the mess.

She noticed. "What?"

"You said animals tasted foul."

"I’m not drinking it."

"You look comfortable wearing it."

She wiped her hand on the grass and walked past him.

Near the nest, they found the two shepherds and four soldiers. All were alive, though weak and half-drained.

The vampire checked one soldier’s pulse.

"They’ll survive if we move them now."

Teclos opened a rift toward the nearest farm road and lifted four bodies with his tendrils.

She looked at him. "You don’t have to carry most of them."

"I have tendrils. You don’t."

"That isn’t what I meant."

"Take the other two."

She stared at him for a moment, then lifted the remaining soldiers without effort.

As she passed, one man’s arm slipped from her shoulder. Teclos caught his wrist and placed it back across her.

Their hands touched briefly.

Neither mentioned it.

They left the survivors beside a patrol post and disappeared before the guards arrived.

—

Orena had the amulet ready by morning.

The crack remained visible as a faint line through the black stone, but the enchantment moved through it without interruption.

The vampire fastened the chain around her neck.

Her shape blurred.

The dark-haired woman disappeared, replaced by the unremarkable man in the brown coat.

Orena walked around her once.

"Move your arms."

The disguised vampire did so.

"Speak."

"This had better be finished."

The male voice had returned.

Orena nodded. "It’s finished."

Teclos paid the final fee.

Outside the shop, the disguised vampire adjusted the collar of the coat.

Teclos looked at the borrowed face. He had become accustomed to the real one faster than expected.

She noticed.

"Is something wrong?"

"The disguise looked better yesterday."

"It fooled you yesterday."

"You broke three of my ribs before I noticed anything."

"Four."

Teclos frowned. "Four?"

"I heard the last one break when you hit the back wall."

He looked at her for a moment, then continued walking.

Near the market, Teclos stopped.

"You still owe me an answer."

"The amulet works. I remember the agreement."

"Your name."

"That wasn’t one of the questions."

"It is the one I’m asking."

She looked toward the morning crowd. Merchants were raising shutters, servants carried baskets between stalls, and no one paid attention to the two men near the alley.

At last, she said, "Serenna."

"Is that your real name?"

"It is the name you may use."

"Serenna," Teclos repeated.

Her gaze shifted back to him. Something softened in her expression, subtle enough that the borrowed face nearly hid it.

"You seem pleased with yourself."

"I got an answer."

"You got a name."

"For now."

She turned and continued into the market.

Teclos followed a few steps behind.

He still did not trust her. She certainly did not trust him. Yet when the crowd thickened and Serenna slowed enough for him to walk beside her, he noticed.

He said nothing.