Hector was deep thought as he walked down the halls of Styria Keep. He and his partner had just temporarily split paths for the morning, after Lenore had her first official meeting with Isaac and his ministers. It still hung in his mind, the way she slighted and snubbed her way to fulfill her agenda on finding a new method of supplying blood for her fellow vampires. Her methods still sometimes perturbed Hector. Even though he was no Christian, he wasn't sure how he felt about her deliberately taunting that Italian military advisor's faith until he embarrassed himself. But then again, it worked, and it had to be done one way or another. And perhaps, she was showing signs of growth. The old Lenore who put a slave ring on him would have probably forced those Hungarian prisoners to serve as livestock, lied about it and the villager incident to Isaac, and then gone down in political flames when Codintero brought the issue to a head at the meeting.
How was he, a forgemaster, even in a place to judge someone's morals? Oh well, whatever. Hector couldn't help but smile with self-deprecating bemusement.
He decided that he would arrange something special for her. A sort of celebration present for her de facto promotion from a prisoner to a minor agent to someone Isaac might actually listen to in the future. But how? In truth, he still knew embarrassingly little about vampire culture or "cuisine."
He made his way to the dining area. His stomach growled, but he decided he would take care of business first. He went into the room meant for kitchen staff. A chef, a burly vampire who had also survived Isaac's attack, turned around and said, "Staff only, human! If your name's not Isaac, then get the hell out."
"It's not, but I'll make it worth your while," Hector responded.
The vampire looked at him and recognized him as the forgemaster Lenore had taken as a pet. At least he was a pet back then. Supposedly, he was more wily than he looked. "Okay, what is it? Is this regarding Lenore?" He asked.
"Yes, it is. Lenore as you may have heard, managed to claw her way back from being a prisoner to being a part of King Isaac's court. As her…" Hector paused, as he always did when he had to describe the relationship to others, "Husband, I was hoping you could prepare something special for her."
The vampire chef rolled his eyes. He never thought particularly highly of his job – blood at its most basic required zero preparation – and now this. "How cute. Why do I have to be part of this date night or whatever?"
"You are the cook, and I said it would be worth your while." Hector pulled out some coins. "And if you aren't the type that likes this sort of exchange, I'm pleased to inform you that Lenore has both secured new supplies of human blood for the castle vampires, and will be drafting the plan to get Styria's vampires as a whole out of your food shortage." Hector's tone turned inquisitive. "You aren't a little grateful? Come on."
"Well… when you put it that way… fine. I'll prepare something special." The vampire took the coins. "Do you have a particular dish in mind?"
Hector suddenly fumbled. He had absolutely no idea what vampires ate beyond blood and generic human food. The chef picked up on this and sighed, "Don't bother. Carpathian Macaron it is. I'll make just two since they are big. Normally they use human blood, but that's in short supply now, so unless you're willing to drain yourself right now, one will have pig's blood in it,"
Hector had no idea what that was, but he nodded and exited the kitchen, waiting. His stomach growled again. Of all the days to skimp on breakfast, he chose this one. After what felt like an eternity, the chef wordlessly brought out two, saucer-sized pastries, one red and the other brown. Each one resembled two shallow domes affixed to one another by a pasty filling. To his surprise, they actually looked somewhat delicious.
Hector's hunger got the better of him. One of them was for him, after all. Recalling the chef saying that one had blood and the other didn't, he deduced that the red one was likely meant for Lenore and picked up the brown one. He opened his mouth and bit into –
Blech! Instead of a sweet or even an ordinary savory filling, Hector's mouth filled with a blood-like taste, as if someone had drained a pig's blood, left it to dry, ground it up, and mixed it into a batter. The coppery flavor caught him so off guard that he spat out mouthful back onto the plate.
As Hector gagged, he heard soft footsteps. Before he knew it, Lenore was right before him. "There you are! I couldn't – Oh. I see." Lenore saw the remaining one-and-a-half macarons. "Let me guess. You cajoled the chef into making these, but he didn't tell you that the blood filled ones usually comes out looking brown."
"No, he did not." Hector said as he regained his compute.
Lenore sat down. "What were you thinking anyway? This isn't the sort of dish a human would even know about."
Hector gave Lenore a sheepish look. "Well, I thought it would be good to arrange something special to celebrate your promotion back where you can really make a difference… But I was hungry. And I ate the one I thought was for me."
His vampiric partner suppressed a laugh that broke the typical calm of her mask-like expressions. "Hector, you're silly."
Hector huffed slightly. "Why would that chef give the one that was meant for me looking redder than the one meant for you?"
"It is a tradition. Morana may have known how it started, but I do not," Lenore shrugged, somewhat bemused by the whole situation. "In any case, the bloodless version is almost unheard of."
"Oh a Tradition to fool some unsuspecting human into eating blood?"
Lenore chuckled. "I guess some might take pleasure in that."
Hector sighed. "Vampires are ridiculous… Look, this was supposed to be a nice celebratory surprise."
Lenore put a gloved hand on her partner's shoulder. "It's okay Hector. I appreciate the thought."
Looking over at the intact pastry, Hector said "Well the one meant for a human is still here, if you want to try that."
Lenore nodded, picked it up, and took a bite out of it. She appeared somewhat torn, as she had eaten something mentally expecting one flavor, only to have another. "It is still quite good, actually…" she said after chewing. "Hector, you are sweet. Even if you are silly… and you revive dead souls into night creatures."
"Oh please Lenore," Hector scoffed. "Nobody said silliness was exclusive to humans who aren't forgemasters. Isaac did call my pet dog Cezar silly once, because that was useless in a fight."
"Whatever happened to Cezar?" Lenore asked. She had heard about Hector's penchant for reviving his old pets, but she had never gotten to see any for herself.
"I lost him when I escaped from Dracula's castle, he might be still alive but I doubt it. So what do you say? Shall we make this a tradition, two pieces of bloodless macarons for every time we have something to celebrate?"
Lenore chuckled. "Sounds good enough. Sorry I had to ruin it. We can make it up tonight if you want."
"Lenore!" Hector quietly admonished. "We're in a public area!" He looked around to see if anyone heard. The room was surprisingly empty, fortunately.
Lenore appeared unphased. "What is the problem? Blood, wine, and sex. It's what makes life worth living," she said in a half joking tone.
Hector looked into Lenore's crimson eyes and saw a twinge of sad reflection behind the humorous quip. Given what he knew, she may as well have been serious. "Oh come on, dear. Could you at least humor me and pretend for a moment that us being together is a good enough reason as well? You mean a lot to me."
Lenore sighed and then said with an almost natural smile, "I guess you're worth living for."
"Good enough."