The Judgement Of Divinity (TMOE #2)

Chapter 35: A brand new look (pt 1)

He wasn't in The Entrails.

Lucius groaned quietly as he scoured the streets once again. He'd already looked for Ethan at Anthony's home and around the BBT manor, which were the only places aside from The Entrails he'd ever met the man.

It was the perfect time for a vampire to be out too. The sun had set long ago and most people had begun making their way home, so the streets were near empty the closer Lucius got to the centre of town.

Calling out for him seemed dumb too. What were the odds he was even nearby? And as far as Lucius knew, werewolves were the only supernatural creatures blessed with good ears.

A thought struck him, and while it felt like just as dumb of an idea as any, he brought out his knife to make a small cut in his arm. It was a shallow cut, and not enough to let too much blood out, but Lucius preferred it if it wouldn't leave a scar.

"Here, Ethan, Ethan, Ethan," he beckoned under his breath, only to chuckle to himself at the idea of Ethan coming running like a hungry cat.

Still nothing, and Lucius gave his knife an accusatory look.

"Are you feeling well?" a voice asked, and Lucius flinched before turning around to see... Well, no one, really.

"Uh..." He squinted to peer into the shadows of the alleyways. "... What?"

"Look up," the voice continued with an amused tone, and Lucius begrudgingly did so.

"Oh," he said with a relieved laugh as he spotted the red eyes barely glowing in the dim shine of the streetlight. "I was looking for you."

"Is that why you cut your arm?" Ethan asked, dangling his legs from the old, wooden gangway between two buildings. "Doesn't seem too wise, especially since you don't even look up when searching for things. What if other vampires had been around?"

"Are there a lot of vampires in South Kerilia?" Lucius rolled down his sleeve to hide his wound, realising he'd never asked about it. He'd assumed Ethan and that unnamed natbakka had been the only ones.

"Well... No, most supernatural beings stay away from this town." Ethan absentmindedly drummed his hands against the wooden boards beneath him. "I think we both know why."

Lucius' mood was torn in half. One sympathising with Ethan's unfortunate obsession with his family, while the other was overjoyed that the subject had come up so quickly.

Still, he didn't let his excitement show.

"So... I've been thinking..." He paused to get the gravity of what he was about to say across. "... Don't you think you've suffered enough from all this?"

He couldn't see Ethan's face well enough to read his expression, but the stillness from his body suggested that perhaps there wasn't much to read.

"What?"

"Damien is clearly hurting you, even when he's not around. You're torturing yourself by refusing to let go of him." Lucius wrung his hands to keep the increasingly cold weather away. "And he's doing nothing but making people miserable... Or dead."

Ethan didn't reply at first, letting Lucius stand there in awkward silence in the middle of the fortunately empty street.

"I suppose it sounds naive of me given what you've seen, but you don't know him like I do," he finally said. "He wasn't like this before, and I know he can go back to how he used to be."

Lucius had to clench his jaws not to blurt out what he'd just learned about Damien and how much Ethan didn't know. He wanted nothing more, but Anthony had asked him specifically not to.