Captain is finally asleep...
Bin slowly pushed himself up, feeling his body ache as it continued to heal. His vampiric body had never been the best, as it didn't process blood well while stressed, but it did try its best to handle the damage it often sustained.
Another day or two and I should be able to manage... unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to get another hour, let alone a day.
He could already sense Karalius nearby and had caught glimpses of his miasmic form earlier during their situation with captain Moral. The man was persistent, he would give him that. Not the best at hiding that he was tracking someone, but quite exemplary in the actual tracking.
He'd probably run off to the ship the moment Ilio chased him away.
Bin's eyes suddenly widened as he quickly jumped out of bed and ran for his door!
Why the hell would I think that it was just his miasma here?
He hurried up the stairs to the deck a moment later, then stopped at the threshold as rain hammered down in a rage just beyond his bare toes.
Kara...
Karalius stood beneath the downpour, his miasma diminished and fracturing constantly in the pouring rain. A pair of dark, silk-thin wings, much like a bat's, pressed against his back every now and then, but they were mostly battered and blown about by the windy storm around him.
What are you doing out there? Aren't you here to try and kill me again?
He'd been resting for quite some time.
Plenty of time for a demon to sneak into his room.
As he continued to consider the situation, Karalius finally seemed to notice him and began drifting in his direction.
Alright, stay calm. He hasn't tried to attack yet, so there must be a reason.
He waited patiently until Karalius was finally standing before him, their feet nearly boot to toe.
Wait a second...
Bin slowly took a step back, then down one step. He waited there for a full minute before a disbelieving smile slid across his dry lips.
You won't enter without permission this time, too, huh?
He couldn't believe that such simple words from many years past still could hold back such a powerful being.
If Inkani knew what was keeping you at bay he would be on the floor laughing for hours.
Of course, he wasn't going to taunt the man before him because of his oversight, though. He appreciated not being assaulted long enough to get some decent rest.
"Are... are you able to talk right now?" he asked, curious to see if the man's mind was lucid enough for conversation.
Karalius tilted his head slowly one way, then the other as his left eye began to form within the miasma.
Bin felt his heart lift the slightest fraction in hope as the man before him truly began to materialize. He never seemed able to rid himself of the darkness wisping up from his flesh, but he managed to restrain it enough to allow the majority of his true body to be seen.
There you are.
Karalius finally lifted his gaze to meet Bin's, his dark eyes seeming surprisingly exhausted.
"Master Binan..."
His words were deep and gruff, proving that he was, somehow, quite tired.
I can't exactly bring him downstairs with me, though, and it's pouring outside. Bringing a bed up to get soaked through wouldn't help, either.
He wanted to ask why the man was there, but he knew that he would just get the same answer as always.
The heir was simply following its sire.
"I'm sorry that I left you. That I'm not strong enough to be your master, but I'm not going to let you kill me. I have a place in this world now, and you need to go find yours... without me."
He noticed the man's eyes narrow immediately as a myriad of emotions swam across his face. When he finally settled on a calm expression, Bin was more than a bit wary.
"I am not trying to kill master Binan," Karalius eventually said, startling Bin enough to nearly make him step right off the stair he was currently settled on!
Not trying to kill me? What else could you have been possibly trying to do with your hands around my neck before, then?!
Forcing his disbelief to the back of his mind, Bin cleared his throat, then clasped his hands behind his back as he looked at those dark eyes still glued to him.
"If you aren't trying to kill me, then what, per se, were you trying to do the last few times we've met?"
Karalius only waited a few moments before responding steadily.
"I am going to change you into what I have become."
Change me... into that?
"By killing me?" he asked after a few seconds of nervous hesitation.
He definitely didn't want to become a demon.
Karalius slowly shook his head, the tendrils of miasma still suffused throughout his dark hair drifting in the air with the movement.
"I have never tried to remove your heart, master."
Bin quickly thought back to all of their previous altercations, but he couldn't discern a single time where the man had truly gone for a killing blow.
"I don't want to become what you are. I'm sorry that it happened. I should have been watching you, but my father had called me away while you were resting. I didn't think that you'd get attacked by anyone, let alone so quickly," Bin said, reiterating the words he'd spoken many times already.
He really did feel terrible for what had happened, especially because it was his own fault that he'd had to change the young man in the first place, but he was only so strong. How could he eve hope to support an erratic demon when his own body and mind were already so damaged that he had to rely on Inkani whenever he couldn't handle things?
Memories of his past tortured him nearly every night, and his body, having already been damaged while still human, hadn't taken well to being changed, either.
What could he possibly do for Karalius besides let him try to find something better?
The man before him took several minutes to process his words this time, and, unfortunately, during that interval that miasma around him returned to covering a good portion of his right side, splitting his face nearly down the middle as it shaded one side in billowing darkness.
I really wish I could do something for you after all of the pain I caused you in our past, but I don't know what else I can do.
"Little Nana..."
Bin felt a tear involuntarily slip from his eye at hearing the old nickname Karalius had given him when they were younger.
They had been inseparable growing up, even though Kara had been raised in comfort while he'd been stuck in his father's hobble of a hut.
They'd spend days on end together, and he eventually was invited over to the young master's home to play since Kara's health began to decline.
No one was sure what was causing the illness, but he managed to convince him not to seek medical help because the black plague was currently ravaging the country and several of his symptoms were in line with the illness.
Even his parents had hesitated in seeking help after their private doctor was unable to figure out what was wrong.
Waiting had been the worst thing to do in the end. Kara's health began to rapidly decline after a little more than a month. He was soon bedridden, but during the last week of his human life, Bin ended up in his own predicament. He did end up getting the black plague, and with his body already not being the healthiest, it nearly took his life in his father's empty shack.
Desperate for water to cool his raging fever, he'd blindly crawled from that run-down hobble until his aching, dirty knuckles bumped against a shoe.
That was how he'd met his captain, and the man that had saved his life without a second thought.
Truthfully, Inkani had sired many other vampires, as he didn't care about human rules concerning only changing one person, but he was the only one that Inkani refused to allow to wander off on their own. He honestly treated him like his true heir and looked after him like one would a son.
I can't look after you, though. Every time I try to at least be nice, you attack me.
He'd returned to Karalius's bedside the moment he'd been able handle his new vampiric side, but by that time his best friend was cold and lifeless.
No one could bare to be in the room any longer, but what the humans had missed, his newly improved hearing managed to catch.
He'd still been still alive, but the dying process had already begun.
He'd had no idea about the intricacies of changing others besides what he'd remembered Inkani doing to him. So, with that simple bit of information he'd picked up Karalius and brought him back to his empty, dirty home.
There, he'd changed him as he held his lifeless body in his arms...
Not soon after he'd settled his friend on his dirty straw cot to rest, his father had come calling, needing help with chopping firewood for the restaurant's stoves.
In the short amount of time he was gone, a group of aggressive young men, who were honestly looking for the pirate lord, ended up barging into his home and attacking Karalius, who had likely just awoken as a new vampire.
The memory made him sick to his stomach, especially now that he was staring at the same man he'd failed all those years ago.
"Will you..."
Bin licked his lips nervously.
"Will you attack me if I let you come in to dry off?"
Silence was his answer.
Bin sighed as he felt his body begin to signal that he needed to go back and rest soon. Everything was starting to ache.
"Master Binan..."
He blinked, then glanced down at the icy-pale hand being held out to him.
Furrowing his brow, he considered his options, but before he could even decide on what to do, his hand was already settling against Karalius's frigid one.
"Master is very warm."
Vampires weren't nearly as warm as humans and were often considered to be quite cold, but he couldn't deny that Karalius's skin felt like touching ice.
"You're just too cold, Kara," he whispered quietly, unable to lift his eyes away from their hands as Karalius slowly moved his thumb over his damp skin.
When the man began to lift his hand upward, Bin finally managed to snap out of his daze and look up.
Those...
Karalius had his double set of fangs extended, the foremost teeth looking quite lethal as they glinted a deadly white in the darkness.
He'd expected the man to pull him forward as soon as they'd touched in order to try and hurt him again, but he didn't expect this. That was probably why, when he the first bite came, he didn't pull away like he knew he should have.
Bin winced as the man's front fangs finally slid into the palm of his hand like a blade cutting through butter.
He could feel the pull against his skin as Karalius began to drink not a moment later, making his own tired heart speed up in his chest, pumping the blood faster for its heir.
He honestly began to feel a bit strange as he continued to stare, and likely would have let the man simply drain him without saying a word, but then he felt a sudden stabbing pain in his hand that he hadn't anticipated!
He's using both sets of fangs?!
With the cloudiness in his mind quickly clearing, Bin tried to pull away, but Karalius's grip was like a vise and his body, which was still partially concealed by miasma, seemed fastened to the planks. He didn't budge no matter how hard Bin tried to get away!
"Kara, please stop," he rasped out as he truly felt his strength begin to drain away.
He really didn't want to have to wake Inkani, but he was reaching his limit.
Shaking his head to try and clear it, Bin did his best to pull his hand free again, but it didn't budge at all.
"Kara, I caâhuh?"
Karalius had retracted his fangs.
Straightening back up on shaking legs, Bin fought with himself not to pass out as he panted hard, needing to get oxygen back into what little blood he had remaining.
He didn't have lungs to aerate his body any longer, so he needed to pull in as much as he could, as fast as he could, and hope that enough of it entered his bloodstream.
Dizzy...
"Master Binan?"
His body slowly fell forward as his legs finally gave out, no longer able to hold his weight.
Cold hands easily caught him, then lifted him up against a damp chest.
"Master?"
He couldn't spare a single breath to respond, and he couldn't even be bothered to flinch as he felt Kara's cold hand press against his cheek, then gently tug at his hair.
"Master Binan, wake up," Karalius said as Bin felt the man sit down against something, then adjust him a bit in his lap.
He wasn't technically asleep yet, but he might as well have been with how much control he had over his body right then.
In fact, his consciousness was quickly beginning to pull him under when he suddenly smelled something shocking sweet. When that scent got closer and he felt something press into his mouth, Bin bit down instinctually.
He also gave out a tiny growl in response, too, but it was so quiet that its sound was likely whisked away by the wind before it could even meet Karalius's ears.
"Take it back."
Bin would have likely been incredibly confused and contemplating their situation thoroughly right then if his mind wasn't throbbing with the worst headache of his life.
"He's going to need more than that."
Bin groaned and tried to open his eyes as he heard his captain's voice, but he just didn't have the strength.
He could also hear Karalius return Inkani's words with a snarl of his own, but as he drifted in and out of lucidity, Bin caught little bits and pieces of their miniscule conversation until, finally, Kara withdrew his cold hand, and something soft and warm settled against his mouth in its place.
The new smell of fresh, hot blood was impossible to resist, and within seconds his fangs had pierced skin. He knew who it was, too, and while Kara was outright growling, was clearly not happy with the wolf taking his place feeding him, he was thankfully allowing it to happen.
Thank you, sweet Ilio. I will repay you tenfold when I am well again.