By the time Alfred had made it back to Arthur's abode with the warlock in his arms and the older man's loyal dog in tow Arthur had started developing a low grade fever. Alfred laid Arthur down on his bed, draping a blanket over him as he started to shiver softly. Alfred placed his hand over Arthur's forehead, his golden bangs tickling the vampire's skin, and pressed his lips together. It was getting worse. "This can't be good Reggie… I've never heard of biting someone and giving them a fever…" Reginald looked up at Alfred ad blinked his dark eyes slowly. "Don't look at me like that! I didn't know, I… I've never been like that before…" He had never before felt such an intense thirst. Quite frankly such an experience brought fear to the vampire's mind.

He shuffled to the other side of the room, plopping down into a small chair sitting in the corner. He sighed heavily, fisting locks of his dark blonde hair in his large paled hands. What was he supposed to do? Arthur's home was in such a remote place. He couldn't go to town and get medicine and leave Arthur here sick and defenseless all on his own. Reginald padded from where he sat over to Alfred in the chair, whining softly. Alfred sighed again, bringing his gaze up to meet Reginald's. "I don't know what to do Reggie… I can't go and get medicine for him. I mean he's got all those herb thingies in the garden, but I don't know what ones to use…" Alfred gave a small humorless laugh. "No offense Reg, but I can't believe I'm talking to a dog and acting like it'll answer me back. Of course you can't answer my questions." Alfred gently ruffled the dog's ears.

There was a moment of silence. "I suppose this would be a bad time to tell you I can talk…"

Alfred stared at Reginald, blue eyes wide. He stayed like that for several moments I complete silence before he laughed nervously. "Ahaha… man, that weirdo magic blood must make me hallucinate or something. Dogs can't talk. I must be crazy."

"You aren't crazy… well I believe you're crazy, but just not in this sense." He was talking. Reginald was talking. He was speaking and Alfred could understand him. The young vampire continued to stare at the dog with complete disbelief, blue eyes wide. Reginald continued, "I could talk this whole time, but the only person I ever converse with is my master. Actually this morning we were having a lovely conversation in the garden together, but then you showed up and I had to be quiet again." There was silence. Reginald's eyes shifted back and forth, feeling uncomfortable in the awkward atmosphere. "Well in the matter of my master's care I-!" Alfred cut him off.

"You're talking."

"Yes, yes I am. Now onto more important matters I-!"

"You're talking and I understand you."

"Yes, lovely observation. You understand English, hooray for you. Now I really think we should try and take care of-!"

"You're a talking dog."

"Yes!" He barked in annoyance. "Yes, I am a talking dog! My master is a warlock, he gave me the skill now will you shut your bloody trap and listen to me!" Alfred remained silent, a little weirded out by the fact he had just been scolded by a dog. "Good boy, now there are books in my master's library that should have information as to what herbs you need to make a proper medication for him. If you'll kindly stop gawking at me and pointing out how I can talk I'll gladly take you to the room."

"… You're talk-!"

"Shut up! Good god, no wonder master thinks you're so annoying." The dog sighed giving his head a little shake.

"He thinks I'm annoying?" Alfred asked.

"Yes, very." Alfred was hurt. Well actually a lot of people thought he was annoying, but that still didn't mean it didn't hurt. Reginald must've seen the wounded look on Alfred's face, "Well… he thinks that about a lot of people. As you can tell my master isn't a very sociable character."

"You can say that again." The warlock was practically a hermit.

Reginald tossed him a disapproving look, "Yes well… I'm actually very surprised as to how much he's taken to you. He never lets anyone come back to the cottage, ever. The notion came as a bit of a shock to me."

A pregnant pause hung on the air. Alfred pressed his lips together and stared down at the patch of hardwood floor he could see between his legs. "Why… why did he help me? If he's so secretive and unsociable why would he bring me back here?"

Reginald seemed hesitant to answer. "Master has… he's had a difficult past and I'll leave it at that. I just think he saw something in you that he saw in himself once and he sympathized."

Alfred remembered Arthur outburst earlier that morning. He had shouted to Alfred that he hadn't been accepted by anyone, not even other humans. Arthur's past probably went much further back than Alfred had initially thought. "Well apart from that we should do something about his fever. It's most likely all the magic he's been using over these past couple of days added with the feeding has left him extremely weakened." Reginald explained as he padded back over to Arthur's bedside.

Alfred felt guilty about the way things had played out, but there was nothing he could do about it now. "Okay well what should we do then? What about that library you were telling me about?"

"We'll get to that, for now just get a cool cloth for his head…. I'd do it, but I lack a pair of thumbs." If a dog could smile Reginald would have been. Alfred obeyed the dog's command- a very strange and ironic turn of the tables, and retrieved a cool cloth. He placed it on Arthur's warm forehead just under his golden bangs. "Very good, now we can go to the library." Reginald padded out of the room to the other room in the hallway Alfred hadn't been in. He reared back on his back legs, leaning up against the door on his front paws. He said something in a language Alfred didn't understand before the lock clicked and the door swung open. The room was pitch black on the inside, not a thing was visible. "Well come on then." Reginald padded inside, his black and white body vanishing in the darkness of the room. Alfred hesitated for a moment before he followed Reginald in and was swallowed by darkness.

Alfred was walking blindly through darkness for what seemed like a long time. The room just seemed to keep going and going and there was no end in sight. Well… it was dark in there so no end could be sighted even if there was one. Suddenly light exploded into Alfred's vision, hurting his most sensitive eyes. He groaned for a few moments before he opened his eyes and gazed upon the room. This had to be another one of those vortex things because this room was definitely bigger than Arthur's house, most likely larger than his property.

It was simply a large square room with a lower level and an upper ring around it and a pair of intricate stairs that led up to it. Every ornately decorated wall was adorned with a tall bookshelf and every bookshelf was filled with books, carefully labeled drawers filled with ingredients, or vials filled with potions of every color. A few walls were adorned with intricate paintings that had to be dozens of years old. In one section of the room had a desk covered in neatly organized papers and pens of various sizes. There was a large fireplace as well by the desk that was now slowly burning in the presence of life. "Damn…" Alfred breathed out as he gazed about the stunning room. "Arthur sure knows how to live."

Alfred spotted Reginald crossing the large room to the stair case leading to the upper level. "Hey Reggie?" Alfred called as he followed after the dog, still gazing around at the magnificent room. "If Arthur can make these cool vortex things why doesn't he just do it with his entire house? Then he wouldn't have those cramped little bedrooms and stuff."

"Master prefers things smaller and cozier, but there are certain places where vortexes are necessary like here and the garden. You don't think he could fit all those plants and books in the allotted spaces do you?"

It made sense. There was no way all these books could've fit into a room as small as it should've been. Hell that fireplace alone would've taken up an entire wall. "Follow me; I know where the Herbology books are located." Reginald started padding up the stairs, his claws making a small clack on their hardwood surface.

"Did Arthur collect all these books?" Alfred inquired as he moved up the stairs.

"Some of them, but most of them were collected by the late master." Late master? Alfred remembered earlier that morning. The man that Alfred had seen in the picture sitting in Arthur's living room, could that have been him?

"What happened to the late master? How'd he die?" Alfred asked curiously.

"Natural causes. He was sick often and his weakness finally got to him." Reginald seemed reluctant to reveal anything else about the so called late master so Alfred didn't ask anything else.

In silence Reginald lead Alfred to the correct section of books. On the top of the bookshelf engraved on a shining gold plate was the word 'Herbology'. Talk about organization. "It should be located on the third shelf from the top under the author Kingston." Reginald explained, motioning with his muzzle to the ladder that rolled back and forth on the trolley system along the top of the shelves.

Alfred nodded as he pulled over the ladder and started climbing up its wooden pegs. He made it up to the correct shelf and began searching for the author Reginald had pointed out to him. After a bit of looking he came across the correct one, "Kingston's Guide to Medicinal herbs?" Alfred inquired.

"That's the one, now bring it down." Alfred climbed back down the ladder to Reginald. "Now come on to the garden." Alfred held the book against his side as he followed the dog back to what he assumed was the exit of the library. As he passed by a shelf labeled 'Supernatural Fighting' he noticed a book. Its spine was elegantly winding in silver vines that shone against the light of the room. A long the spin in big bold letters was the title and author. It read 'The Art of Slaying Vampires' and Alfred's blood chilled in his veins. It only grew worse when he read the read the author's name… "Father Braginski…" He spoke softly, his throat clenching.

"What was that?" Reginald asked tossing a look back towards Alfred.

"N-Nothing… just talking to myself…" The skin of Alfred's back burned at the name and he

swiftly pulled ahead of Reginald to the exit. He suddenly didn't want to be in that room anymore. "Let's just hurry and get Arthur all better." He excused his actions as he let the darkness swallow him up once more and take him away from the memory.

Alfred studied the books and with Reginald's guidance was able to retrieve all the proper herbs and plants he needed to make a proper medicine. When Alfred had finished brewing all the leaves into a steaming hot tea and retreated back to Arthur's bedroom only to find that the wizard was awake and sitting up in bed, shirt sitting in a heap on the floor.

He looked up at Alfred with a tiered yet taken aback gaze in his green eye. His cheeks were still red from the fever and the fringe of his bangs was plastered to his forehead with the dampness of his skin. His pale, milky skin over his slender sculpted was glistening in a thin layer of sweat, no doubt a result of the fever. What was more so though was he looked, dare he say, hot sitting there and Alfred didn't mean it because of the fever. Arthur reacted, "B-bloody hell! Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" He shouted as he grabbed the sheets and attempted to cover himself.

"Relax man; I just came to bring you tea…" Alfred felt his own cheeks blush a little as he walked in and put the tea cup on the table next to Arthur's bed. The wizard watched Alfred with wary eyes as he crossed the room and put the tea cup down with a light clink. "I mixed some of those plants with the tea leaves; it should bring down your fever…"

One of Arthur's thick brows rose, "Since when do you know how to brew medicine?" He inquired skeptically.

"Reginald helped me." Alfred said, gazing over Arthur for a brief second. His neck… it had a ring of small letter like tattoos around it, letters Alfred had never seen before. The same went for his upper arms, the black rings of unknown letter circling just below both shoulder joints.

"R-Reginald?" Arthur looked over at the dog sitting in the door way, reluctant to enter out of fear of his master being angry with him.

"I'm sorry master… but I felt it was necessary with the condition you're in…" The dog hung his head a bit, uncomfortable under his master's stern green eyes.

Arthur was quiet for a few moments, his mouth a hard line, "Come here Reginald," He commanded. The dog hesitantly padded over to his master's bedside, head hung, tail drooping. Arthur stared sternly down at the dog for awhile longer, but soon a small smile broke over his lips. "Such a loyal companion you are Reginald, I don't know what I'd do without you." Arthur said softly, fondly giving the dogs ears a ruffle. Reginald instantly perked up, pressing his head against Arthur's touch and giving the wizard's hand an affectionate lick.

As Arthur leaned forward in his bed Alfred caught a brief glimpse of the older man's bare back and he was astonished at what he found. The near entirety of Arthur's back was covered in the same letter like symbols around his neck and arms. There they stood stark against his creamy white skin black as the night itself. Alfred couldn't help, but make a sound at the sight, "Whoa…" He gasped softly.

Arthur's eyes shifted in his head over to Alfred, noticing where the vampire was looking. "Wasn't it you last night who said it wasn't polite to stare?" He scoffed at the younger man.

Alfred snapped out of his trance, "W-what? Oh I… I'm sorry I just… I've never seen something… like that before." He felt hypocritical.

The wizard glanced over Alfred with those deeply intense emerald eyes. He gave a small sigh before he turned more so that his exposed back faced Alfred. "Do you know what this is, Alfred?" The blonde inquired.

Alfred shook his head, stupidly forgetting Arthur wasn't looking at him. "Ah… I mean… no I don't." He said, catching himself.

"If you don't even know what this is then how can you expect to learn magic?"

The vampire shrugged his shoulders slightly, "I dunno I guess I just…"

"You just what?" Arthur voice was harshly stern, taking Alfred aback. The room was painfully silent for several moments, the sense atmosphere making Alfred's skin crawl. "… This is exactly why I said I wouldn't teach you magic. You do not take it seriously. So many people think that reading a few spell books and waving a magic wand automatically makes you a master. It is the exact opposite. Magic takes persistence, dedication, and intense study. It is not something you can learn in a month, it takes years…." Arthur fisted the sheets of the bed in his hands, his shoulder trembling. "You and so many other people do not understand what it takes! Magic can make you more powerful in a way that you could never even comprehend, but if not handled correctly it will not hesitate to break you!"

Alfred just stood there, head hung. He felt like a child being scolded for misbehavior. Arthur's shoulders trembled and a few strangled whimpers broke from his throat. Something had happened to Arthur, something that was much darker than Alfred had originally thought. Much, much darker, but it still wouldn't be awhile until the fullness of the story was revealed to Alfred.