Arc 3: All That Glisters (Part 2)

Canus looks back at me as the door shuts behind Scintilla and Margaret. We both wait, tense as their footsteps fade into the distance. Out of pride more than anything else, I want Canus to go first, to explain himself to me. He’s calm, however, lounging back as if we didn’t start the evening off with me barging into his rooms to demand answers from him.

Eventually, I break. I start with something innocuous, but relevant enough, given how my wrist is still marred with a semicircle of drying blood stains. ‘Can you not drink from humans? Is that why you do this to us?’ I know the answer, of course, but I want to hear his excuses again.

Surviving on mortals weakens me, he’d said the first time I mustered up the courage to ask him this question. The curse of our bloodline burdens me more than most. His tone had left no room for further questioning.

His answer is different this time: ‘I could, for a time, but often not without killing them. As my newborn vigour left me, however, human blo