Finally after all the planning that had taken place, Derek was finally in London and ready to settle his family’s affairs. The responsibility of it was overwhelming. They had been in their town home now for 3 days and he was ready to throttle Edward, who obviously was bored and had decided to annoy both him and Claude in order to amuse himself. Claude did not seem bothered by Edward, but Derek had come close to losing his temper a few times already.
Edward followed Derek inside the house from the stables.
- “So, it has been 3 days and you have yet to answer my question”, Edward complained.
- “Which question is it today?” Derek said, “you seem to have an infinite supply of them”
- “Ha, funny – you know you are funnier now than when you were alive – you have never really had a sense of humor” Edward snapped, “my question was, what are we going to do about me? How are we going to explain me” Edward sighed, “or am I to never leave the house again? I am really bored, I am not sure I can just stay here indefinitely.”
They moved inside the house past the kitchen, the great hall and into the library finally. Derek was silent and Edward followed him awaiting his reply.
- “Well?” Edward asked as Derek walked into the room and sat down at his father’s desk. Edward stood in front of the desk looking at Derek intently.
Derek’s plan of ignoring Edward hoping that he would stop bothering him had not worked, which had annoyed Derek even more. This plan had worked in the past, where Edward would eventually get bored and go find something else to amuse himself with. However, now that was very little else to draw his attention away and Derek was stuck having to deal with thing he did not wish to deal with.
Edward waved his hand in front of Derek’s eyes, “Hello? Can you hear me or are you off in your own little world again?” He asked. Derek looked up at Edward, looking quite annoyed but said nothing. Edward looked like he was not about to be put off by Derek’s annoyed look, “Derek?”
- “I DO NOT KNOW!!” He finally yelled at Edward, “MUST YOU CONTINUE TO PRESS ME ON THIS? And why must I be the one to decide what YOU should do? Can you not decide that for yourself?”
Edward looked surprised at the response he got from his friend, “Well first of all, you don’t need to yell – I am standing right here” he said, “second” he continued, “you seem to be the one with all the plans – all ‘do this’ and ‘we’re doing that’ and all that crap. If you don’t want me around then fine – I will go and do my own thing then. Bye. ” Edward turned around and started to walk out of the room.
Derek felt first a wave of guilt for letting his temper get the better of him, and second a wave of panic, for he knew that Edward’s judgement was questionable at the most – even in the best of circumstances.
- “Wait, Edward”, Derek stood up and stepped around from behind the large oak desk, “I should not have snapped at you, I apologize.” he said, “I do not wish you to go.”
Edward stopped at the door and turned around to look at his friend, “God you’re moody – you didn’t used to be this bad – what happened to you?”
- “I haven’t been locked in a house with you for this long – ever”
- “What?” Edward looked back in surprise, “You came to visit me many times and stayed much longer than 3 days – I remember you brooding at times but never this bad”
Derek smiled, “I am sorry” he said. What he really wanted to tell Edward was to go away and stop asking all of these questions that Derek had no answer to yet, but he knew that if he truly wanted Edward to leave him alone, he needed to come up with something else for him to focus on, so he decided against saying anything of the sort to Edward, “I am in a bad mood because I am not looking forward to dealing with my father’s affairs” he said, “I do not even know where to go to present myself at the house of Lords”
- “Well,” Edward replied, “If you would actually ASK someone, instead just walking around pouting, someone like , say… oh … ME… – maybe I could help you?” He continued, “I am the prince after all – I know where all that palace crap is.” he said
- “You are not the prince anymore.” Derek replied, “they crowned your cousin” Derek said with a smirk.
- “I know,” Edward said, “I even went to the palace to see – it’s like some long lost dutch relative I didn’t even know I had – its crazy” he said, “but it’s for the best, you know I didn’t want to be king anyway”
- “I know”
- “Ok so I can go with you the day after tomorrow to the House of Lords – they will be in session again”
- “How can you go – will they not recognize you?”
- I will go disguised as your servant” Edward replied and as he saw Derek start to smile he quickly corrected himself, “I am not REALLY your servant – it’s just pretend” he said as Derek continued to smile, “No, don’t smile like that – It’s just make believe” Derek started to laugh and walked out of the room, “Wait – no – Derek – why are you smiling – you don’t smile – you never smile – and you REALLY don’t laugh – now you are scaring me – this is just pretend you know that right…”
As they walked down the hall, all that could be heard was Derek’s laughter and Edward’s pleas. Claude who was in the other room had to step out to see for himself what was happening. He had never heard Derek laugh until now, not since all of the time he had known the boy – he did not believe that it was even possible. If he had not seen it with own eyes, he would never have believed that it had actually happened.
—————————————————————————————————-
Edward now seemed to have a purpose which suited Derek just fine. He spent most of the day brooding in his father’s library and Edward was off somewhere doing whatever he did on his spare time which was great so long as he was away from Derek. He sat in his father’s chair, looking out of the window for most of the night, thinking about what to do. He began to realize that perhaps it would have been a good idea to pay attention when his father had asked him to. Unfortunately, business and politics rarely interested him and he never imagined that he would have to deal with both at the same time and with both this soon.
He heard Claude walk into the room behind him – and he didn’t bother to turn around and kept looking out of the window – at the carriages that passed by, at the people walking down the street and going about their normal lives – at all of the normal things that people did – things that he had taken for granted for so long – things that he longed for now.
- “You need to feed” he heard Claude say behind him, “it has been almost 5 nights since we have been in the city and you have yet to feed.”
Derek knew this – yet another thing he had been dreading over the last couple of days. There were no animals to feed on here, unless they rode out of town and that would take a while. Up until last night it he had not even thought about it – but when he rose tonight, he knew that if he did not find food over the next couple of days, things would become dangerous.
- “I know” he said
- “You need to feed before you go to see the others – you will need to be at your full strength or they will see the weakness within you.” Claude said
Derek closed his eyes, he dreaded this – but he knew that this day would come. He had decided to stop fighting Claude on all things Kindred and just do what he needed to do to learn how to survive. He got up from the chair and turned around to face Claude.
- “Very well,” he said, “where do I go – what do I do?”
Claude had braced himself for an argument even before he entered the library. The response the child presented him now was the last thing he expected to hear and it caught him off-guard.
- “Erm, ok? You mean you will go without argument?” Claude asked.
- “Yes”, Derek said, “do not sound so surprised – I told you I would do what I needed to do and I know I must do this. So let us do it.”
- “Do what?” Edward said from the doorway, “What are you both going to do?”
- “Feed”, Claude replied turning around to look at Edward who was leaning against the doorway with the same smirk he always had on his face.
- “Great!” Edward said, “I’m hungry – let’s go!”
- “Wait” Derek said, “why are you so happy about this?”
Edward looked at Claude and then turned around to see if anyone was standing behind him – because in his mind Derek couldn’t possibly be asking him that stupid question, “Uhm – who you talking to? Me?”
- “Yes, you” Derek said.
- “You want to know why I am happy not to starve to death since its been almost a week since I ate?” Edward asked as he walked into the room, “Is it me or is that like a dumb question?”
- “It is not a dumb question,” Derek said in an aggravated tone, “you do understand that for us to feed someone else will have to be harmed in the process? Why are you happy about that?”
Edward looked confused and walked up to the two men and looked at Claude, “Did he by chance fall down and hit his head in the way into town? Because I don’t recall him being this much of a whiner.” Claude smiled and looked at Derek with an eyebrow raised.
- “Derek,” Edward continued, “I do not recall you complaining for the life of the deer, or chicken or cow in the past before you ate their meat? Ok, so we eat people now – its no different – the key, my friend – is to pick those people who deserve to die.” he said proudly with a smile on his face.
- “Deserve to die?” Derek said angrily, “No one deserves to die, Edward – no matter what they did – it is not our place to pass judgment on anyone.”
- “Well good, because we’re not” Edward said, “last I checked, we were eating not putting on magister’s robes and handing down sentences,” he continued, “look you can feel all guilty if you want – but bottom line – its either us or them – either we starve and kill some innocent bystander when the hunger takes over, or we pick who we are going to kill and make sure its at least someone who deserves it in some way.” he looked at Derek in the eye, “you can feel all guilty if you want, Derek – but I won’t. I didn’t pick this – I didn’t choose to be like this – it happened – it was forced on me – and I refuse to punish myself for the rest of my life for something that is out of my control. So instead, I will just deal with it and try to do best I can with it. You can sit here all wracked with guilt if you want – but by the end of the night you will still have an empty belly.”
- “Boys,” Claude said, “if I may” he said as he walked up to the two boys who looked like they were about to start arguing, “no one needs to die.”
Both Edward and Derek looked back at Claude with a puzzled look, “I won’t eat rats” Edward said finally, “so if that is your plan you can forget it.”
- “We can survive on rats?” Derek asked in a hopeful tone.
- “No” Claude said with a chuckle, “no rats” he turned to Derek, “You may be able to survive on rats, but trust me you will need dozens and dozens of rats every night – so if you wish to spend all of your time hunting rats you MAY be able to survive on that alone.”
- “First they are disgusting,” Edward said as he looked at Derek, “trust me, I have eaten rats and its gross and they hardly have any blood at all” he said as he looked back at Claude, “sorry to interrupt but I just saw that ‘Oh I want to eat rats’ look in his eye.” he said pointing to Derek.
- “As I was saying,” Claude continued, “it is possible to feed on humans without killing them,” Claude said, “you just have to be careful and not take too much blood as to cause them to die.” he said.
- “Ok genius – so then what – they bleed to death after?” Edward said sarcastically looking at Claude.
- “Did your sire not teach you how to feed in the city?” Claude asked Edward.
- “First I don’t know what a Sire is, and second, I have been feeding in the city for the last 6 months so I know how to feed here thank you.” Edward said to Claude in an annoyed tone.
- “If you lick the wound once you are done feeding, it will close so long as the human is still alive,” Claude explained.
Both Derek and Edward gasped – although the idea seemed ludicrous to Derek he had decided to stop questioning insane notions until he actually tried them.
- “Lick the wound,” Derek asked, “you are sure this will work?”
- “Wait,” Edward said, “that sounds too stupid to work …”
Claude sighed – the last thing he needed now that Derek was finally being cooperative was to take on another child to question everything he said. He ignored Edward for a moment and looked back at Derek, “yes it will work,” he said, “you can use your power of the mind to have them come to you, drink a little, then close the wound and make them forget you even did anything.” he said.
- “That sounds simple enough,” Derek said
- “The difficult part will be stopping after a just a little bit so you do not kill them,” Claude said, “I will not lie to you – you may end up killing your prey the first few times, but eventually with practice you can do it.” he said.
- “That is a risk I am willing to take, if it means I will not have to kill every time I feed for the rest of eternity” Derek said, “we must try this tonight then.” he said grinning back at Claude.
- “Wait,” Edward said, “what mind powers?” he asked, “I don’t have any mind powers…” he said looking at Claude and then turned to look at Derek, “and eternity – could you be more dramatic?”
- “You cannot control the thoughts of others?” Derek asked Edward with a puzzled look, “I thought this was something all vampires could do.” he continued, “And I am not being dramatic – you do know we live forever right?”
- “I told you Derek,” Claude interrupted, “Each kindred will have different gifts. I am sure Edward’s gifts are different than yours,” he said as he looked at Edward, “what have you been able to master so far, Edward?”
- “Yeah, I have gifts,” he said looking annoyed at Derek, “lots of cool things I can do,” Edward said looking back at Claude, “I am fast, I can hear stuff far away and see in complete darkness, and I sometimes can see where things have been or what happened to them when I touch them” he said, “but I didn’t know mind control was part of the whole vampire thing.”
- “The gifts we each have are based on you and your bloodline.” Claude said, “the one who made you,” he continued as he looked at Edward, “did he or she tell you what your bloodline or clan is?”
- “She didn’t tell me anything,” Edward said, “but hey – I can adjust – are you sure this licking thing will work?” he said changing the subject.
- “Yes” Claude said, “quite sure.”
- “So how fast are you?” Derek asked Edward.
Edward looked back at Derek and grinned, “really fast” he said and disappeared from the room before Derek could even reply. Derek was sure that Edward had moved even faster than even he thought Claude could move. He looked back at Claude who was grinning back at him, “Impressive,” Claude said, “and he is faster than you – perhaps you can learn from him.”
- “Great”, Derek said with a sigh, “bloody lovely.”
—————————————————————————-
As they debated where to go, they decided that the best place would be one of the higher quality taverns in the city. Most of the taverns of ill-repute in the city would most likely recognize Edward right off the bat. Although Claude did not believe this was the best of plans, he did not really see many alternatives if Edward was to come along.
They arrived at the Fleur-de-lis, a Tavern well known as a good meeting place for some of the Nobles in the city when they were not at parties. As they came in, they asked for a table in the corner, away from the rest of the guests.
- “Great, now what?”, Edward asked.
- “Find your prey,” Claude replied
- “Well shouldn’t we get a room or something in case things go bad? You said it would be bad at the start,” Edward noted.
- “That is probably a good idea,” Claude said, “Derek you should go and request a room.”
Derek got up and spoke to one of the tavern maidens who directed him to a man in the back. He spoke to this man for a bit and then came back to his table with a key.
- “Alright,” he said, “we have a room – what do we do now?”
Edward looked at Derek, “have you not been to any Inns lately? We go to the room, go upstairs and ask them to send a bar maiden upstairs to bring us ’something’ then we go from there – at least I would assume so? I mean, if this licking thing will work?” he told Derek.
Derek looked at Claude for confirmation. Suddenly it occurred to him that he was taking advice from Edward – there was something terribly wrong with this picture. Claude looked back at him in agreement and they all made their way upstairs to the room. On the way up, Derek stopped and spoke to the man and asked to have his dinner brought up – and the Innkeeper agreed.
The three of them were sitting in this room, trying very hard not to stare at one another. This entire situation made Derek uncomfortable – right now, the idea of hunting down dozens of rats did not appear that bad.
- “Alright,” Edward said, “who goes first?”
Edward and Derek looked at each other for a moment and then both looked at Claude. Before Claude could reply, there was a knock on the door.
- “So?” Edward asked in a whisper, “who goes first?”
- “You go first,” Derek whispered back and opened the door.
The bar maiden smiled at bowed at Derek. She entered the room and put the plate of food on the table for them. Once she saw the three men in the same room, she looked concerned.
- “My lord, I apologize, they did not tell me you had guests” she said, “I will bring meals for your guests as well, I am very sorry, My Lord,” she said bowing to Derek.
- “That is alright,” Derek said and looked up at Edward waiting for him to do something, “they are not hungry” he said.
- “Yes, My Lord” she said and started towards the door. Derek looked at Edward and motioned for him to do something. Edward just stood there staring back at Derek wondering what he could possibly do to stop the girl from leaving.
- “Wait,” Edward said and she stopped at the door. He walked up to her, and took her hand. She looked back at the three men and gave them a very nervous smile.
- “Would you like me to bring you something, My Lord? ” she asked Edward.
He smiled back at her, and without even thinking, his fangs came out, “you already did” he said. She looked horrified to see and looked like she was about to scream. As she opened her mouth to scream, within the blink of an eye, Edward moved behind her and grabbed her putting his hand over her mouth. She started to cry and struggle against him. He looked at Derek and Claude, a bit confused, “A little help here?” he asked.
Claude stood up and walked up to him and the girl. He looked at her and smiled, and as soon as he did, she stopped struggling. He pulled Edward’s hand away from her mouth as she continued to stare at him. He gently took her by the arm, and brought her to the bed, “Sit down” he said to her and she did, “good girl, now lay down and close your eyes, my dear” he continued, and she did.
Edward was stunned at what he saw – he had never seen a vampire do anything like that – not that he had met that many vampires to begin with – but still it was very impressive.
- “Since you cannot dominate, it would probably be a good idea not to scare your prey before you feed” Claude said to Edward.
- “Sorry,” Edward said, “I didn’t mean to do that – it was an accident.”
- “You need to control yourself better” Claude said, “accidents like this would have resulted in you killing your prey if you were alone, which is what I thought we were trying to avoid?”
- “I know,” Edward said, “Like I said, I am sorry – I am not used to this – I have hunted… differently,” he said sounding a bit annoyed, “how long will she stay that way?” he asked Claude.
- “As long as I wish it,” Claude said, “but there is no need to dawdle, so go ahead” he said to Edward.
Edward nodded and sat on the bed next to the girl. It would be a relief to know that he could feed and not kill someone. He felt his teeth come out and he bent down at the girl, trying to be gentle. As he got close, the smell of her blood was intoxicating, and he could feel the hunger taking over. The struggle for control was so difficult that he backed off for a moment. He took a deep breath to clear his head and tried again. He bent down and bit into the girl’s neck. The taste of her blood was sweet and innocent. He was used to the very palpable taste of fear in his prey’s blood and immediately he knew that he liked this better – a lot better. As he began to drink, more and more, the taste drew him in and the rest of the world seem to fall away. He heard Claude’s voice in the background, telling him to stop, but it seemed so far away, like he was yelling at him across a field in a rainy day. He could hear something being said, but he could not make out the words.
He felt a strong hand on his shoulder, pull him back and jerk him away from the intoxicating blood that was so freely flowing into his mouth. He turned around to hiss, but the further he got from the girl, the more of himself he was able to recognize and get back. Claude’s words were finally making sense and he blinked at Claude for a moment and then looked down at the girl. He saw the small bite marks on her neck, and he was surprised at how little blood was pouring out of the wounds.
- “Is she still alive?” Edward asked Claude.
- “Yes” Claude said, “now seal the wound”
Edward suddenly remembered the licking thing which sounded so stupid to him. He bent down towards the girl, but the closer he got he once again felt the smell of her blood trying to pull him in. He pulled back and looked back at Claude, “I cannot” he said under his breath, “I may kill her.”
- “You will not,” Claude said, “Now close the wound before she starts to bleed out onto her gown”
Edward bent down again, steeled his mind and decided to do it fast. He quickly leaned in licked the wound and pulled back. He stood up looking at her and there, before his very eyes, he saw the wound close.
- “I’ll be dammed,” he said.
- “Now,” Claude said to Edward, “clean yourself up” he said as he threw a cloth at him. Edward wiped his mouth down, and his neck. He looked in the mirror to make sure he didn’t miss anything. He handed the cloth back to Claude who wiped the girl’s neck down with it as well.
- “Ok now what?” Edward asked.
Claude walked over to the table and knocked the food that she had brought in to the floor. He then approached the girl, and sat down on the bed next to her. He gently grabbed her shoulders and whispered something in her ear. She opened her eyes and slowly sat up on the bed.
- “My dear, are you alright?” He said, “you just fainted.”
- “Oh” she said looking at the three men in the room nervously. Then she looked to the left and saw the food on the floor and started to blush, “I am so sorry, My Lord, I am not sure what came over me.” She got up from the bed and tried to quickly run over to the mess on the floor, but lost her footing as she stood up. Claude grabbed her and helped to steady her.
- “You are still weak child,” he said, “leave that, and have the Innkeeper send someone else up – you are not well, you need to rest” Claude said to her with a smile, “perhaps you have been working too hard.” he said.
She smiled nervously back at him, her face was now bright red with embarrassment, “I am so sorry, sir, truly,” she said, “thank you for your kindness, My Lord”.
- “It’s alright”, Claude said, “I will help you downstairs so you do not fall” he said.
- “No, I am alright, My Lord” she said nervously, “I have inconvenienced you enough for tonight” she said as she tried to pull away.
- “I will not take no for an answer,” he said to her, “wait here, My Lord” he said to Derek, “I shall return shortly, I will just help her downstairs” he said.
Derek did not say anything, he just looked at her and at Claude – the entire situation began to sink in to him and he realized that once he got the hang of things, this would not be so bad. He would be easily able to do that, and there would be no need to harm anyone. A wave a relief washed over him. Soon Claude was out of the room and the door closed again, and Derek sighed with relief.
- “That was bloody brilliant!” Edward said and walked up to Derek with a broad smile, “I guess since I do not have mind tricks, I will have to use my charm instead” he said, “It is a good thing you can dominate – because if you had to rely on your charms you would be in trouble.”
Derek smiled back at Edward. He was so relived with the whole situation that even Edward’s annoying and sarcastic comments were not about to ruin his enjoyment of this realization. It took about 10 minutes for Claude to return to the room – he walked in slowly and closed the door behind him.
- “The Innkeeper is sending someone else up, to clean this mess,” Claude said to Derek, “I hope you have seen enough to understand what you are supposed to do since it is your turn now” .
- “Yes, I believe so.” he said with a smile just when there was a knock on the door.