“No, you can't go.” Sylvie says as she prepares breakfast for the family. “You had your fun. Now it's my turn. My sister is taking me for an expedition. It's the territory of an old dead witch; we're hoping to find something interesting. Probably cleaned out by now though.” Sylvie says, cracking a few eggs.

**SIZZLE**

**SIZZLE**

“Can't you postpone it? It will still be there after I'm done with my thing.” Taylor says, his tone pleading.

“You've been off playing vampire hunter for the last week. You barely called back and you've been ignoring your son since you got here.” Sylvie says, pushing her point.

“I am not ignoring him. There's just a few other things I have on my mind. I have to filter my cultivation energy, I have to figure out the fourth stage of the Flame Fist Resolution, and I have to tend to the peach trees and the other plants. I'm a very busy guy.” Taylor says, weakly trying to defend himself.

“And how many of those things are necessary? In comparison to caring for your child? How ‘bout you cultivate your son, huh? To be someone not as dense as his father?” Sylvie says as she flips the eggs, her questions like daggers stabbing into Taylor's heart.

After a pang of pain, Taylor becomes frustrated. “I am the man of the house, Sylvie. I need to be able to protect my family. I'm cultivating for all of us.” Taylor says forcefully, barely believing his own words.

“Hmph! Please. I could take you with one hand tied to my back.” Sylvie says, not impressed.

“Oh, I'm sure you could.” Taylor says with a smile, quietly forgetting why he was arguing. “In fact, I've seen it done.” Taylor says, recalling some fun memories.

Sylvie lets out an exasperated groan. “You know what I mean.” She says, cracking a few more eggs into a bowl. “You're not going. You're going to spend some quality time with your son, like a good boy. Understood?” Sylvie says before asking for confirmation.

“Yes, mom.” Taylor says with a sigh.

…

…

“Come babysit? Why the fuck would I want to do that? Should you really be leaving your kid with a gang leader, Taylor? Kind of seems like it goes against common sense, doesn't it?” Daryl says over the phone.

“Man, just do me this favor. I'll only be away for a few days.” Taylor says, pleading once again.

“Sorry bro. I got other shit to take care of. I'm a busy dude, y'know.” Daryl says, refusing the request.

“Ah, fine. Maybe I'll fly over to Richie's place and leave him there.” Taylor says, pondering his options out loud.

“Man, don't be a bitch, Taylor. Richie’s living a peaceful life with his wife and kids. He doesn't need you to make a mess of it. Be a man; take care of your own kid.” Daryl admonishes. Richie was not involved with a lot of the things that Daryl or Taylor had to worry about. It would be better for everyone if their lives was as separate as possible.

“Fuck, alright.” Taylor says, giving in. Spending time with my kid wouldn't be so bad, I guess… He thinks in defeat. “By the way, have you considered their offer?” Taylor asks, moving on to another discussion.

“Yeah. I've thought about it. You said that they weren't bad for vampires, didn't you? ‘Cause I've heard about some of that Mountain Climber shit. I'd rather end myself right now if my life moved in that direction.” Daryl says, his tone becoming serious.

“Yeah. They aren't bad. For vampires, I guess. The Demon Heart Family is all about passion. You know, live for the moment, die for love, or something like that. To be honest, it's kind of similar to what I'm doing. Nope, never mind. I'd actually rather not consider that.” Taylor says, saying the first things that came to mind.

“What do you mean?” Daryl asks, his interest piqued. He knew that Taylor was a cultivator but he wasn't quite sure what he meant by the similarities with him and the Demon Heart Family.

“Fuck…” Taylor says, somewhat annoyed. He didn't really want to consider the similarities between him and a vampire. But the idea isn't wrong, so an explanation wouldn’t hurt… Taylor thinks before speaking. “So ugh… It's basically an honesty thing. In my case it's like ‘be sure of the person you are,’ and for this vampire family, it's kind of like ‘do what you want, when you want'. But it’s similar on a fundamental level. If I were to speak frankly, I think they probably have more fun than I do. I'm kind of jealous, to be honest.” Taylor explains as best as he could.

“Fuck, that sounds kind of awesome. But does that kind of work on the negative side too? Like, I don't want to hurt a child, so I won't? Like, no one can make me do the things I don't want to?” Daryl asks, seriously curious about the details.

“Yeah, it works that way too. As a Demon Heart Vampire you'll definitely defend your beliefs, because that’s what you feel is right and it’s in your vampire blood at that point. But if it ever comes to that, it would be about who's fist is the strongest. The family probably has their own rules about consent, but whether you'll find that outside of the family depends.” Taylor says, trying to be helpful.

“What? So can I at least be sneaky about it? I can still lie, right?” Daryl asks. This would be a serious consideration if he couldn't lie. Being honest 100% all the time didn't sound that great.

“I'm sure some of the higher level vampires in the family could do it. But if you take this on you'll be a young blood and emotions are a dominant part of that family. I mean, you could try to lie, but I kind of feel like you'll be out of control for a while. So if there's any dirty secrets you want to get out, you should just say them now that you're sober.” Taylor suggests, explaining the matter honestly.

“Fuck, are you serious? But it gets better right? And the emotions must be hot, right?” Daryl asks, still tempted.

“Man, like I said. I'm pretty fucking jealous of those guys. I'm pretty sure the emotions are really hot. And yeah, the young blood stage doesn't tend to last long for vampires; growth becomes slower as you move up though.” Taylor continues to explain.

“Ah, okay. I think I'm going to go through with it. Also, I've masturbated to Sylvie a decent amount of times.” Daryl says quickly before hanging up.

Taylor looked at his phone in disbelief for a moment before saying, “Fuck, I would too. My wife is hot as fuck.”