Chapter 196: The Decade Feed
"Do you think that was a safe decision?" Lucius asked, his voice a low rumble, eyes gleaming with faint irritation.
Alaric met his gaze without hesitation. "Leaving you alone in this kingdom in your current state?" His tone was biting. "That would be the biggest mistake I could make."
Lucius’s lips curled into a smirk. "Fair enough. Let’s go hunt some prey, then."
For the first time that evening, Alaric’s expression softened into a smile. "I’ve never done this with a partner before."
Lucius’s grin widened, exposing the faint gleam of his sharpened teeth. "Perhaps neither have I." Without another word, the two of them vamp-sped into the night, their movements nothing more than dark blurs against the shadowy backdrop of the forest.
The inn stood at the edge of a quiet, worn-down village, its creaky sign swaying gently in the breeze.
The faint glow of lanterns inside spilled out through the grimy windows, illuminating the gravel path leading up to its entrance.
The moment Alaric and Lucius stepped inside, the air seemed to shift.
The innkeeper, a middle-aged woman with sharp features and graying hair, looked up from her counter—and immediately froze.
Her eyes widened in alarm as they locked onto Lucius, or more specifically, his bare chest.
"What kind of improper nonsense is this?" she snapped, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. Her gaze darted between the two men, lingering with suspicion on Lucius. "You come waltzing into my establishment half-naked like this? Have you no decency?"