"Leaving again?" whined Waltz.

Zaire didn't look as disappointed as usual when I hugged his hips and cuddled in his arms. He was excited for his birthday coming up and we had a date for that day.

"Yep! Sorry, Alt. Rose needs me." I said, saluting him with a grin.

Waltz hugged my shoulders and kissed my head, his gossamer wings sparkling behind him. "Okay, Annie. Stay safe. I love you!"

"I love you too, Alt. Don't make too much trouble for Dee and Angel while I'm gone for the next few days." I reminded, and he giggled.

"I promise!" he exclaimed softly, then pecked my lips.

Gavin ruffled my hair and kissed me, too. "I should have a new melody line made by the time you come back. I'll be requiring your help with lyrics—perhaps in bed?" he whispered with a smirk, and I blushed and pecked his lips.

"Sure, Gav."

He chuckled and let me say goodbye to his cousin. I had already said goodbye to Angel since he was busy with his work. Dian was doing something important today too, according to Waltz, so I asked Waltz to say goodbye to him for me. He eagerly agreed.

Matteo made sure we snuggled a bit and had kissed a few times a little while ago, and Blaine and Damon were nowhere to be seen. I asked Daddy if they were okay and he said they had left yesterday to go on a trip. Daddy said that it was a bonding trip of sorts and that I shouldn't worry, but he would keep me posted on their well-being. I was relieved about that.

Briar, on the other hand, was busy this evening. He had apparently made dinner plans with a friend a couple weeks back, so we made sure to cuddle earlier today. I thought I gave him plenty of smooches to last him a long while, but he'd disagreed. I giggled to myself, almost feeling the little kisses he pressed all over my face and hands.

But Ambrose looked nervous as he approached Daddy and me by the rear entrance of the house. It was twilight, a time he was most comfortable. I did ask Ambrose if he couldn't handle the sun's rays, but he was clearly reluctant to answer and I wasn't about to force him.

After Zaire and Waltz had left, Daddy leaned in the doorway of the common room as Ambrose reached my side. "You can trust Anwyll, Ambrose." he murmured quietly.

Ambrose's silver eyes flashed to crimson. "I do," he responded with a hint of a smile. "However, that is not the mountain I must overcome."

Daddy cast his gaze away, incredibly troubled by whatever Ambrose was hinting at. "Rely on my son, Ambrose, and perhaps this will end well." he said, as honey-gold eyes met with bright silver. "He's stronger in more ways than us—stronger than you and me. He's far stronger than my father."

Ambrose's hand began to tremble on my head. My tail flicked with unease. I was relieved that no one else was around.

Russet had already been given the farewell from me since he was sleeping off his exhaustion from his inability to sleep from the night before. He was so happy and excited from his date with Walter yesterday, which was a good thing.

"Is he that powerful?" whispered Ambrose. "Perhaps they will see him as a threat."

"They only see you as a threat, Ambrose. They won't see my baby as one until he unleashes his other form and mows them down with his strength and, if all goes well, his benevolence."

Much to my surprise, Ambrose chuckled. It had been a long time since I heard his quiet laughter. I leaned into his side with a happy smile, curling my tail around his legs. Ambrose gently petted my ears and I looked up at him with a curious expression.

"Yes, Rose?"

Ambrose closed his eyes and sighed softly, then looked at my daddy. "I will do what I am able and all I can hope is that the immortal warrior will not be defeated."

Daddy dipped his head. "Farewell, Ambrose."

Ambrose opened the door and I grasped his hand, a sudden worry that he might disappear forever if I let go for even a second. His silver eyes flashed crimson and I was suddenly in his arms. I hugged his neck and gently bit down, then his hand cupped the back of my head as he tucked my form into his side.

Daddy stepped up to the doorway that led outside and stared sadly at his friend's back, then his honey-gold eyes met my violet orbs filled to the brim with concern.

"Be careful, baby. Take care of my friend for me."

I nodded and he smiled warmly. As Ambrose tensed his muscles, I whispered to my daddy, "I love you."

"I love you, too." responded Daddy, then waved his hand just as Ambrose leaped forward.

I hung onto Ambrose as he began running so fast that my vision became blurry. I tucked my head down and buried my face in his shoulder, listening to and feeling his gentle heartbeat under my fingertips. Apparently this speed was no more than easy walking for my vampire.

I could have just teleported us, but that would have required me to know where we were going. From the secrecy, it was clear Ambrose wanted to make the trek on his own but have me as his support creature. I was perfectly happy to be of service to him.

"Anwyll," he rumbled, and my ears perked up as he began to speak again. "I know I have been unwilling to share my true history with you."

"Mm," I mumbled into his shoulder. "But that's okay, Rose."

"Yes, I am perfectly aware of your patience, however, you must know my past as we traverse across the continent."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"We are heading north, little wolf, to what is currently known as northern Canada, where my enemies have lived and thrived for several millennia."

I hugged clutched tighter onto him and he hugged my form even closer. Ambrose sighed softly. "Unlike the popular myth about vampires, we all have heartbeats. Were you startled when you roused me from my stasis?"

I nodded. "A bit, yeah."

"Vampires are not undead like lichs but rather reborn from a near-death state with great strength, longevity, and ridiculous speed as innate abilities. We were created with blood-bonding, which is equal to the vampire mythology that says an elder vampire drains the blood of the human he or she wishes to turn, then their blood is given to recreate the human into a vampire. Thus, blood is necessary to vampires as food is to you."

I hummed. "That makes sense, but what created the first vampire?"

Ambrose chuckled. "Ah, you have already asked a difficult question to answer."

"Then I guess the answer is unknown?"

"Yes, by my own self. However, an elder scholar would be able to share that knowledge with you."

I blinked. "Were you a warrior, Rose?"

Ambrose exhaled through his nose. "Yes, I served under the royal coven leader as a faithful soldier for many years—created to be a slave under the dirty hands of nobility. Many creatures were slain by my blades and my body always carried the stench of death from the continuous battles caused by the die casts for mere games of the kingdom's elite. I had no right to disobey—no sense of worth, no voice, nor any guilt or remorse. I was a slave—maybe a powerful toy—and nothing else."

A little earlier, I had kissed his neck and closed my eyes to listen to Ambrose speak without my thoughts getting in the way. His jaw was clenched and his body was tense. His voice was filled with a fire I had never heard from him before. Ambrose was apoplectic, so I did what I could to calm him down. Ambrose was able to breathe deeply of my scent and calm himself enough to speak again.

"That was the case...until I met him." he said in a cracked voice. "He was the most beautiful creature I had ever laid eyes on. Until that point, I had no sense that I could feel more than just the grips of my swords in my hands, the blood on my skin, and the pain from the wounds I had been given. So to feel something like curiosity was strange and unwelcoming—a burden to my duty." murmured Ambrose, petting my hair.

"He was a fox shifter, captured by foreign mercenaries to give to the king as a peace offering and to form a truce. The king was overwhelmed by the shifter's beauty and immediately agreed, then kept the shifter as his most prized possession."

He stopped talking just as we slowed down and neared a large city. The light from the city made it impossible to see the stars. We had been traveling for at least three hours at an extremely high speed, which no car could have endured for so long without needing to slow down and or get gas.

Ambrose was panting lightly as he took a seat against a fence post, keeping me cuddled in his arms. This time I was on my back with my left cheek resting on his chest and my right hand clutched onto his shirt. Ambrose smiled warmly and stroked my cheeks with one finger, which made me giggle and wiggle my tail. His silver eyes were illuminated by the light of the city and the luminescent moon.

"Did that make you upset?" I asked, and Ambrose shook his head.

"No such emotion developed inside me from that one day when I met him. However, I caught sight of him staring up at the sky in the royal garden when I passed by the entrance on my way to my slave quarters. Our eyes met by chance and, eventually, it wasn't just our eyes."

I tilted my head. "Was that forbidden?"

Ambrose clenched his eyes shut and breathed out through his nose. "Of course, to touch any of the king's possessions without permission was a crime worth putting a person to death. However, although I was a slave, I was not unnecessary. The king knew that if he let me die, his bets on the war games would be worthless. Even as a pawn of the kingdom, I held still held value as a warrior."

I gently rubbed his chest. "Why did you touch the fox shifter if you didn't feel anything for him?"

Silver eyes appeared again and burned fiercely, but Ambrose wasn't glaring at me. He explained, "Something was strange that night. Normally we would greet each other, speak a bit now and then like simple friends or close acquaintances and all would be well, but there was an oddly sweet scent rolling off him. His ruby-red eyes were beckoning me to climb the gate and take him in my arms. It was as though my body was not my own and it was a night that caused all of my misfortunes to come."

Ambrose was gripping my form tightly now, his form trembling. His eyes quickly flashed between silver and crimson for a few seconds.

"Let me speak it on my own, Daviel!" he grunted, then the crimson left.

My vampire panted and pressed his nose in my hair, his breath brushing my wolf ears. I flicked them against his face and suddenly Ambrose was much calmer than before.

He exhaled harshly. "To explain, the king set a trap for me. He ordered the fox shifter to seduce me, but I felt no lust, desire, need, or anything due to my life as a warrior slave. My drive was to be on the battlefield, but it was for no particular reason other than for the comforting breath of war away from the miasma of deception in the kingdom. And so, because of that, the king ordered a concoction to be made to enhance sexual arousal. The sweet scent of the vampire-made pheromones for the fox shifter drew me in and I unwillingly took the shifter."

"Oh, Rose..." I breathed, reaching for his hand and holding onto his wrist.

Ambrose looked away. "Do not pity me, little wolf. I had no free will in that place. The king won his bet against the other nobles, but he had to punish me for my actions—whether of free will or not—and he enjoyed every second of it." he whispered, tilting his head back. "You have never seen my true self, Anwyll. I always hid it to save the pitying gazes for another more worthy."

I sat up a bit and reached for his face, gently cupping his jaw. He tilted his head forward and I met his lips. His silver eyes brightened ever so slightly and his gentle smile warmed my heart as I settled back down.

"Thank you, little wolf." he said, then cocked his head to the side and rested it against the wooden post again. "I was left in the wilderness for four days in the sun with wounds that would have killed any other vampire. When I limped my way back to the kingdom, the king was pleased. His useful tool had survived."

I clicked my tongue. "I hate that king."

Ambrose hummed with a pleased smirk playing on his lips. "Of course. Any sane creature would. However, the kingdom was madly in love with their deceptive king. Any and all praise for each 'war' won was given to his prized son, a laze-about with no experience under his belt. While the royalty and other nobility sung the praises of the useless, the useful were treated as worthless. And, with the crime of touching the king's treasured concubine, I was on my last leg. If I 'betrayed' the king once more, my life was forfeit."

His heart pounded underneath my hand. "The nobles that lost the bet with their king baited the fox shifter to their side with the promise of aiding in his freedom from the king. He played the victim well in his eagerness to be freed. He got closer to me through the guise of a friendly relationship, then it finally happened. The nobles' soldiers dragged me out of the garden by my collar after the fox shifter called for help when I tried to help him after he'd fallen down.

"Again I had been betrayed. I had known innately not to trust the fox, not only because of the cleverness of the creature but because it was a gut instinct. My craving for being needed by someone for something other than bloodshed was stronger than my desire to be careful. I was a fool and I almost paid the price, but I had grown tired of being a pawn for the kingdom.

"The fury formed and exacerbated by the fox shifter aided me in the slaughter of half the castle's forces and a thousand more of the military that day. I relished the shifter's fear before I slammed my blade down onto his neck and savored the feeling of watching the brightness of life drain from his eyes. The king was terrified of my rampage and ordered my execution, and that any vampire that could kill me would receive a reward worth more than the Siren Queen's crown, which was valued at one hundred million gold coins at the time."

My eyes were wide throughout his story. Ambrose finally looked at me and bit his bottom lip, barely audible laughter slipping from his mouth. I relaxed and contemplated what he said, then eyed my tired vampire.

"Why do you have to return to that place, Rose? They might kill you!"

Ambrose couldn't meet my eyes. "There was a summons for all vampires of the kingdom—criminals and innocents—to return to the place we were reborn. If any were to ignore the summons, there was to be the immediate capture and kill of friends, family, and others close to the vampires. I signed my name on the document to say I would attend and sent it back with the messenger, and thus here we are, halfway to our destination."

I swallowed thickly. "I can now understand why Daddy told me to protect his friend."

Ambrose merely smiled. I set up a barrier around us and told my vampire what I'd done, then made a comfy mattress appear with a couple blankets. Ambrose looked to be quite stunned, but he crawled onto it and laid down with a couple pillows. I snuggled into his chest and felt his left arm curl around my waist.

"Thank you for sharing your past with me, Rose." I whispered, gently kissing his collarbones. "I know that probably wasn't all of it, but I am ready for it whenever you are."

"Perhaps tomorrow, my little wolf. Sweet dreams, Anwyll."

"You too, Rose. Goodnight, love you."

Ambrose curled tighter around me and said his response in a barely audible voice, "Goodnight, and I love you as well."

My cheeks warmed, but I was quick to fall asleep.