“You’ve got to be kidding me” Kir stumbled up off the couch, not before rolling off onto the floor to wake himself up. Kir peered through the peep hole to find the source of his disturbance. His brow furrowed at the sight. Though the face was unfamiliar the figure was similar to that of the one in the hallway. Accounting for distortion it seemed the face of a young man, jet black combed hair, pale with sharp attractive features. Kir repeated himself with a sigh.

“You’ve got to be kidding me”. He had not yet redone the locks so he simply opened the door halfway. The figure spoke up.

“Hello, sorry, I just moved into the apartment down the hall, I lost my keys and my phone is dead, could I ring the landlord with your phone”. Kir opened the door wide and turned his back walking over to grab his phone from his bag.

“Yeah just a sec” he responded dismissively.

“May I come in?” The man's voice seemed oddly soothing to the ear.

“You may” he responded, as the man crossed the threshold an alarm went off within Kir’s mind that simply confirmed what he already guessed. Kir shook his head and pulled the phone out of his bag, he turned and handed the phone to the man while once again taking a rest on his couch. The man was looking about the room curiously but without prompting followed suit.

“Sorry could you unlock it” the man requested.

“Right my bad” Kir opened his eyes up and while grabbing for the phone he made eye contact with the man, though rather than averting his gaze like he normally might he found the man’s dark eyes briefly glow a deep crimson.

Kir stopped moving and kept eye contact. Forming a confident half smile the man gingerly angled his head towards Kir’s neck and began to wrap his arms around Kir, his mouth opening, two sharp fangs protruded in place of his canines. The man's teeth were centimeters away from Kir’s neck. But Kir easily spoke an incantation and the attacker froze. The mans eyes began to dart around wildly as saliva dripped from his open maw. Kir sighed and removed himself from the man's grip.

“Maybe make sure of who you’re feeding off of before doing it”. Kir accentuated this sentence by flicking his wrist slamming the door with all the locks shutting on their own. The attacker sat in that position, his eyes now dejected.

“I don’t make a habit of killing vampires, I was willing to help you but then you went and did that”. Kir walked into the other room and began searching the cabinets. From the other room he raised his voice

“You just sit tight there for a second”. The sound of rustling continued as the vampire began to struggle against the spell to no avail. Much to the vampires' surprise the sound of a faucet was heard as he became increasingly paranoid of the magician's intentions. The noise continued for a few seconds with before he returned from the kitchen a few seconds later, a mug of liquid in hand.

“Do you like tea? I don’t really like it but I keep some for when my friend comes over”. Kir shuffled his way over to the vampire and held the steaming mug out to the vampire, still stuck in the same position, his mouth now beginning to drool excessively.

“Oh right” a flash of blue as Kir muttered the incantation.

The man stayed in the same position despite the spell being dismissed. He glanced to the mug and then to Kir, then back to the mug and back to Kir. Confused, he carefully took the mug offered and sat back onto the couch. Kir kicked his shoes off then shuffled over to his desk chair and sat cross legged.

“It’s not poisoned I promise, It might be a little hot”. The man wiped the drool from his chin then looked at the tea, his eyes on Kir the man took a sip then brought the mug back down.

“So are you actually new to the building?” Kir asked emptying the contents of his bag onto the table. Though the man remained silent for a few seconds, stunned by the situation, he decided to just roll with it.

“Yeah I just moved in yesterday, I’m kind of new to the area, any recommendations?”

“I don’t really ”go outside” that often, I’m a bit of a stay in person”

“I can see that,” the man responded, gesturing to the enormous bookshelf facing him.

“Move for work, or do you like the city?” Kir asked.

The man stayed silent at the question.

“Family reasons”. Kir added nodding understandingly.

“I’m Damien by the way” the intruder offered after a moment of awkward sillence.

The man began to stand, sticking his arm out to shake but as he got up Kir’s eyes shone a brilliant blue and Damien's body was thrust back onto the couch with the tea spilling on his shirt. Kir stood, his eyes burning blue now, bright. Though his expression was calm, his attitude had obviously shifted.

“I don’t mind you living here, fuck, I don’t care if you feed on the neighbours, but never disturb me or waggle those fangs my direction again. Understand?” The man nodded, not fearfully but simply comprehending the situation. The pressure on Damien’s body released and he placed the mug down on the side table.

“What’s your name?” He asked, apparently unperturbed by the threat.

“Kir”.

“Nice to meet you, Your magic is frightening for your age, must be a powerful wizard”. Kir shrugged

As a point of fact The Council of Celestial Magi made a habit of ranking established and registered mages from 10th Genus to 1st. 2nd being the level of an Archmage and 1st that of legendary heroes in days of yore. The Council itself ran an academy for training potential spellcasters from 10th to 6th. Once a mage reaches the 6th Genus they’re required to register as a spellcaster with both the Council and The Order, often declaring their specialization at that point. Kir had no real interest in the politics and classifications of the Council so he had no grasp about where he fell on their arbitrary scale and still had no interest in restricting himself to one school. Thus remaining a Nebula, Though his guess stood at around 7th Genus.

“You know the adage about attacking wizards in their own home” Kir stated dismissively.

The man shook his head honestly.

“Nope”.

“Don’t”

“I can see why”.

Kir mage handed the cup back into the kitchen sink.

“The amount of runes and wards carved into this apartment make me doubt I’ll ever get my security deposit back”.

“Tell me about it, you think normal landlords turn a blind eye to the blood splatters I end up making. I try to stick to bagged stuff for the most part but sometimes, well, you know, no substitute for the real thing”.

“mm be careful around the landlord, he doesn't like you boys too much.” Kir responded.

“Really? I didn’t get that vibe from him”

“Had another a few floors down and after the mess got too inconvenient I never saw him again. though there was that suspicious pile of ash by the bins”

Damien was seemingly more relaxed, he had reclined onto the couch and put an arm up.

Kir now more keenly examined his figure. He had the handsome features expected of a vampire, good jawline, high cheekbones but once relaxed a seemingly kind face. With the dark clothing he did seem cartoonishly vampiric, almost as if out of a YA novel, but once they began to talk he was far less insufferable then a lot of the other vampires Kir had met.

“No shit, So where did you learn your stuff, do you go to the academy?”

Kir shook his head.

“No I used to live out in the sticks, learned the basics from my mum then when she died, I inherited a bunch of tomes I had no clue she owned”.

“I’m sorry to hear that”.

At this, Kir smirked slightly.

“Don’t be, she was a terrible person and an even worse mother, though I am thankful for the tomes” As Kir spoke his left hand absentmindedly waved and moved gently and gracefully, beautiful blue and green glowing flower drawings began to manifest in the air.

Slowly out from his hand it extended out widening and growing larger, an intricate tapestry of beautiful flowers and butterflies. He had forgotten that he was speaking and got caught up in the spellwork. He shook his head and the glowing drawing faded out of sight.

“How about you? Recently bitten or life long vamp?”

“My parents passed it down to me, I’m a pureblood”.

“Impressive, not many of you left ever since the purges”.

“You would be surprised”. Damien said with a mix of heartbreak and some other masked emotion. The sentence sent his eye-contact away from Kir.

“Anyway, I should go, gonna grab some bags and chill out.”

“Yeah no problem”. Kir made some quick somatic gestures and the stain in his shirt from the tea faded out.

“I actually did lose my keys, do you think you could unlock my door for me?”. Kir smiled and snapped his fingers, the subsequent noise of a turning lock could be heard from the hallway.

“Thank you”. Damien left and went to pull the door shut but doubled back for a moment.

"Best be careful around Hollowvale, things seem to be getting a bit more dicey".

Leaving before he could respond Kir shrugged his shoulders and flicked his wrist to redo the locks on his door. He stumbled to bed and tried for sleep, but each time he closed his eyes Damiens words echoed in his mind again. Kir was by no means a novice wizard but a battle-mage he was not. Of the spells he knew only one could be considered combat capable and even then it was for self defence, the remainder were merely quality of life improvements.

Frankly combat magic never occured to Kir, he appreciated the beauty in every discipline but combat magic always seemed so...volatile. Why shoot a fireball from your hands if its going to burn down your apartment. The more he thought about the more he realized how incapable he would be if engaged in any kind of combat. Given the choice he would never put himself in such a situation much less leave the building but by its nature one often wouldn't be offered such a luxury. There were of course those battle obsessed few who cared only about who could sling the cruelest spells but they often fell to their own hubris, trying to make a bigger fireball no doubt.

Kir tossed and turn for close to an hour and until his eyes snapped open and he rushed to his bookcase. Of the books before him it was easy to find the one he searched for. It was the one with the most gathered dust. This book though strangely worn held a very clear intent.

"How Not to Die in Duel". Though Kir grimaced at the title he opened the book eagerly and scanned the contents for spell he might be able to learn quickly. Of his mothers books this was the only one he had never bothered to actually read. After all why would I hermit need to defend themselves.

Kir initially began his study with great fervor but the exhaustion from social interactions overtook him as he fell into a restful sleep, no dreams, no interruptions, just a deep, black sleep.