Nephthys’s POV

I woke up to the boy I had sworn to protect but had expected him to disappear after last night’s debacle. I had not been able to contain my own desires and as a result, I had gone and revealed myself to him. It was not that I wanted to hide who I was, but more that I was afraid of what he would do after he found out. I didn’t know how much he knew about the world, but vampires were infamous, especially in the human world, for being flesh eaters and blood-suckers. It was not uncommon for vampires to be shunned from society and I had experienced that many times from my previous owner - it was not something I wished to remember nor go through again in my life.

* * *

The pain I felt and the things I witnessed before being forced to work in the mines were still vivid in my mind. I had done my best to make that past disappear, but when I had been wounded by Sol, those memories came rushing back like a tidal wave that felt like it could kill me. At moments, it felt like those memories were more painful than the physical pain I was going through at the time. It only got worse when he tied me to the trunk of a tree - it was as if I had been sold by my parents again, only this time, I actually cared about the person who abandoned me. Tears began to well up in my eyes as I slowly regained control of my body and I could only see the cold face of Sol look back at me - as if I was just another beast. Many times during my time as a slave for sale I had cried out loudly, but that had long been beaten out of me and all I could do was silently let my tears fall from my eyes.

But it made me glad that Sol had not died due to my actions - although he looked on the verge of death. If I had been responsible for his death, I do not know if I would be able to live much longer with that guilt hanging around my neck - like a noose that only got tighter as my guilt got weightier. I was worried about his condition but also relieved that he lived. My act of sucking blood and nearly killing Sol had rightfully terrified him, but I was still extremely depressed that he looked at me like he was looking at rubbish. As these thoughts engulfed my mind, the tears that had been building up finally broke and rolled down my face as if there was an endless supply of water.

In the next moment, Sol was moving towards me. My eyes were watery but I assumed that, at last, he was going to finish me off. I regretted not being able to continue on our journey together, but I thought it would be much better for Sol to kill me than anyone else - he also was justified in doing so. This was not what I truly thought, but I was coping with the reality unfolding before me. I quietly continued to spill tears with no end in sight as Sol made his way over. My eyes squinted as my body naturally tensed to prepare for some kind of impact, but it never came - instead, I felt the vines loosen up around me; I opened my eyes to see that he had undone the rope around me. Staring at his dark eyes, it was obvious that he was still afraid of me - without even thinking twice, I embraced him tightly and let the tears continue to flow. After a few moments of crying and letting myself relax, I naturally started to fall asleep. It was not a very comfortable sleep because my stomach had been struck with magic - but it had already started to heal. My “parents” had always told me that we had an inhumane ability to heal so I decided to believe what they had taught me.

I fell asleep to Sol’s light embrace from his arm and the last thing I heard was Sol say goodnight to me. It was comforting to go to sleep embraced by Sol’s warmth and the words that my parents had never said to me as a child.

* * *

My body was shaken awake and I tiredly got up - my body felt extremely heavy. The sun entered my eyes and I noticed that Sol had been the one to wake me up. For a second, I stared at him because I had expected him to run away in the time I was asleep - I would not have been surprised. He asked me something, but I couldn’t hear him and blurted out a question instead, asking if he was really still here. It may have been a hallucination or my own delusional thoughts, but when he answered and I touched his arm, I knew that he was still here… by my side. Now that I was wide awake, I unintentionally smiled at the situation that had been presented before me - someone had decided on their own to stay near me even though they knew what I was. That morning, I was in a joyous mood.

After getting ready to leave, I realized how unstable I was - probably due to the loss of blood to heal my wound overnight. Trying my best to look ok, I sensed a direction we could travel in to head towards where other people were gathered - perhaps a town or, if we were lucky enough, a city. This was a rather trivial task with a vampire’s heightened senses; unfortunately, it was not always accurate. During our travels, Sol began to ask me about my past and what exactly I was. Although I didn’t want to tell him more than he already knew, I decided to tell him parts of me that I thought was safe for him to know - obviously leaving out aspects that would make him regain the negative image of me from last night; I never wanted to be looked at by Sol with those eyes ever again.

I told him about the race of vampires and the continent I had come from: my enslavement, parents, and experience were all laid out in front of the only companion I had ever had. My eyes constantly checked on how he was reacting to my past, although, I’m sure he noticed me looking at him several times. During the conversation, I purposely left out any details of me killing and drinking the blood of others because that was not something I was ready to tell him yet - he may already have an idea from last night anyways. Vampiric tendencies, impulses, heightened senses were a few things I explained to him, but he did not seem to understand them too well. Vampires could also heal extremely fast but at the cost of a large amount of blood supplied by other animals or beings. This ability was considered both a blessing and curse - my “parents” would often tell me stories of how mortally wounded vampires would run amok for a short period of time before eventually dying due to the loss of blood. This was also the reason why vampires had to drink more blood than they needed in their bodies - it is the main energy source that allows us to make use of abilities.

Wanting to quickly change subjects before I said something unnecessary, I asked Sol about where he had come from. He seemed to know less about the continent we were on than I did and I had come from a different continent; so I had guessed that he did not have an exciting childhood. Unfortunately, he did not talk about his past for too long and I was disappointed at that - after all, I wanted to know how he had lived his life pre-enslavement if I was going to be with him for an extended period of time. I had to know him best.

When he mentioned my daggers, my heart froze because I thought he had figured out what I had done, but it seemed that he wanted to learn how to use one. Being completely against this, I told him that I would be the one to always protect him, but he seemed to believe that there would be a time when I wasn’t around - simply impossible. However, because this was the first request he had ever asked of me, I reluctantly agreed and swore to myself that I would hold back to prevent him from questioning why I was so good with the dagger.

* * *

As we continued to walk, I realized that I was having a much harder time keeping up with Sol’s pace and even swaying around at times. I knew that I had lost a good amount of blood, but I had not expected it to affect me so severely - I would have to go hunting at night for beast blood… or even better, human blood. Putting these thoughts at the back of my head until later that night, I heard Sol say something unexpected - he asked if I wanted to drink his blood. I was both ecstatic and angry at Sol for saying such an outrageous statement. For one thing, he was already on the verge of death and had asked me if I would drink his blood - if I killed him as a result, I would simply follow right after. But I was also ecstatic that he had asked me such a thing because it meant that he was not completely afraid of me - at the very least, he dared to give a vampire his blood, something that would be impossible for others, and something I was happy about.

Vampires had a natural aura that scared people of any race, especially humans and werewolves, away from them. The reason Sol had been mostly unaffected was that he had never learned about the vampire race and as a result, he sees vampires no different than how he sees other human beings or beastmen for that matter. He did also have beastmen as “parents” during his time of enslavement. Our eyes had the natural ability to freeze prey on the spot so that it would be a simple act to slay them and drink their blood right away - anyone with blood was just food in our eyes when we were hungry… I was no exception. I would have to continue to be careful and ensure that what had happened once never happened again… at least not to Sol.

The sun was quickly setting and darkness was to rule the land once more. We had barely eaten anything all day and had only been lucky enough to find a source of semi-clean water - it had a weird, murky look to it, but we could not be picky at this point. The forest was tremendously large and the mountainous range made it hard to walk; at this point, our feet were growing something disgusting and it wouldn’t take long before it started to affect how we walked - Sol had already lost an arm, losing a leg would spell disaster for us. We would have to find some sort of town within a few days at most, else we would simply die without anyone knowing - although that didn’t sound too bad, as long as I died next to Sol. The priority for me that night was to look for a source of blood and some meat for Sol to eat.