This chapter is a bit of a filler/setting some things up. I came up with the idea for it on vacation. Sorry that it is short, but that was intentional for a few reasons I will put at the end of the chapter.


It took longer to clean up than Daniela thought it would. What moroaică were left were easy to force back into captivity and those that were dead could just be tossed into a pile to be dealt with later. As Daniela cleaned up pieces of moroaică, she couldn't stop thinking of Ethan. The way he changed, both physically and mentally, was unnerving. She saw how his eyes changed and the way he carried himself shift. He had gone from a scared little manthing to a bloodthirsty predator. The worst part was; he was able to match her strength. While Daniela knew she and her sisters were not nearly strong as the other Lords, they were far stronger than any human.

So the fact he was able to toss her around like a rag-doll was a worrying development, to say the least.

'If he changed further, who knows what strength he is capable of. He might even be able to give mother a sweat…' Shaking her head, she drives the thought away. 'Mother is the strongest person I know. There's no way the manthing would be a challenge for her! Speaking of mother, I need to inform her of this...'

Looking around at the now clean environment, Daniela walked over to where Ethan lay. He was covered in a thin layer of sweat, but the color had returned to him finally. Daniela bent down with a sigh and picked up him. He felt warm. Too warm. He must've developed a fever.

'I will need to inform Adina so that she can treat him accordingly.'

Stepping out of the dungeon, Daniela's heart sank. Mother was walking down the hall directly towards her. For a moment she thought about fleeing with Ethan. However, mother spotted her instantly. She gave a gentle smile that quickly fell into a frown when she took the condition of her daughter in. Daniela knew there was no way out now, she just had to speak carefully.

As mother closed the distance, she went down to her knee to check over her daughter. "Daniela sweety, what happened? Why are you scuffed up like that? What is wrong with the manthing?"

"That… is something I will explain later, mother. I wish to clean up first and get Eth- the manthing to Adina first if that is alright?" Daniela awkwardly as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

Mother didn't like the idea, that much was evident, but she relented to her daughter's request. "Yes, dear. That is alright. Please hurry, though. I will be in my chambers."

"Yes, mother. Thank you." With that, the two women went their separate ways. As Daniela walked, she looked down at Ethan again. He was starting to sweat through his clothes and through hers. Her face contorted into a disgusted grimace at the feeling of her damp gown sticking to her skin. Wanting to get the wet body off her, she increased her speed.

Daniela made her way to the infirmary after a moment and knocked on the door. She heard Adina scoot her chair out and walk to the door.

"Oh, good day Lady Daniela!" Taking note of her disheveled and slightly bleeding face, she looked at Ethan. He was obviously in a worse condition. "Come in, come in. Place him on a bed!"

Without hesitating, Daniela walked through the threshold of the door and placed him on an empty bed. Adina dawned on a pair of rubber gloves and pulled her chair next to him. As she began to inspect him, she asked Daniela questions.

"What happened to you both?"

"I took him down to the dungeon to fight moroaică." After a moment of pause, Adina looked up with a quirked brow as if to say 'and?'. "...he may have accidentally swallowed some of their blood."

At this, Adina shot to her feet and raced to a cabinet. "Sweet fucking Jesus! Lady Daniela, next time please lead with that!" If this were any other servant, Daniela would've sliced them neck to naval. However, Adina held a special position in the castle as the sole healthcare provider. She was allowed to be annoyed with the stupidity of others' decisions. "Does he still have the blood in his stomach?"

"He vomited a lot of it up, but he still might have some of it in his system."

Stopping for a moment to collect her thoughts, Adina flew to another cabinet to gather some equipment. "I'm going have to pump his stomach. What about you, Lady Daniela? You don't look in perfect condition, either…"

Daniela felt a bit embarrassed, but for Ethan's sake, she felt she must tell the truth. "When he consumed that blood, he started to… change. His skin became dull as well as his eyes. He began acting differently and his strength increased a little." Adina looked to Daniela with a small smirk on her lips.

"OK! His strength increased a lot! Happy!?"

Laughing a bit at Daniela's embarrassment, Adina went back to gathering supplies. "What kind of treatment do you require Lady Daniela?"

"Oh me? None. I can clean myself up."

Adina nodded her head as she cleaned a strange-looking tube. "If that is all, Lady Daniela, then I suggest you leave. Stomach pumping is… not a pretty sight."

Daniela headed for the door. "I will take your word for it, Adina. Good day."

"Good day to you as well."

Hearing the door click behind her, Daniela let her shoulders slump. This was proving to be a larger headache than she expected. She got Ethan to Adina and into her care. Now she has to clean herself off and then speak to mother. She was dreading that.

Forming into her flies, Daniela zipped down the halls to her room. Closing the door behind her, she grabbed a washcloth and went to her bathroom to clean her face and fix her hair. She didn't have time to fully wash herself or change, sadly. Looking into the mirror, she sucked in a breath. There was some blood from her flies around her nose and around the corners of her mouth. Visible scuff marks and dirt smudges dotted her exposed skin as well. The most visible and disgusting aspect, however, was the blood of the moroaică coated on her lips that Ethan decided to share with her.

Daniela quickly washed the offending marks and putrid fluid off. Grabbing a hairbrush, she quickly ran it through her rat's nest. After a few minutes, she deemed herself in an acceptable state given the previous events. Going out of her room, she formed again and flew to her mother's room.

Rapping three knocks on mother's door in quick succession, she stepped back and waited for her mother's acknowledgment.

"Enter"

Without hesitating, Daniela opened the large- even for her- doors and walked in. Her mother was sat at her desk, smoking a cigarette, and shuffling paperwork around. "Daniela, good. I was beginning to wonder what was taking you so long…"

"I had to inform Adina of the manthings condition and then cleaned myself up a bit."

Mother finished filling out some paperwork before finally turning to face her. "Please, dear, sit. Tell me what happened to Ethan and you."

"Well…" Daniela found it difficult to start. Mother was for sure going to be annoyed at her recklessness with Ethan, but she had to bite that bullet. "I brought the manthing sown to the dungeon to… fight moroaică with me. I wanted to see what he learned with Cass." Sighing, mother pinched the bridge of her nose. "I was with him, mother! I wouldn't let anything happen to him! …he had lost his weapon when one surprised him. I was ready to jump to save him, just in case. He had killed one with his bare hands then, but some of their blood spilled onto his face and into his mouth. He began to choke on it. That's when I jumped in to save him."

"Are you telling me some petty moroaică did that number to you?"

"Uhh… n-no, mother. See, when Ethan got some of that blood in his mouth, he had… swallowed it." This seemed to pique mother's interest. No one ever ingested the blood of the moroaică before. "Well, this somehow brought about a massive change in the manthing. His skin and eyes became grayish. His personality completely flipped. He became very aggressive, and began verbally accosting me."

"The damn filthy manthing-!"

"But the most shocking was his strength. He easily overpowered me and threw me around with ease." This stunned mother silent. Daniela continued. "This wasn't like him beating Cass, mother. He fully overpowered me and was as fast if not faster than me as well. As I also said, his behavior completely changed. He… bit into me in revenge for feeding from him."

"Didn't you change into you flies to avoid his strikes, darling?" Mother asked dumbfounded.

"At first, yes, but for some reason, my swarm stopped responding for a moment. He also… ate some of them. My flies, I mean. I had shifted when he bit into me, but he just… chewed the flies and ate them."

This horrified mother. The idea that the manthing beat her daughter and then ate a piece was appalling. She was about to go on a rant about the manthing and how he took advantage of their kindness and the like before Daniela cut her off. "Mother. This wasn't the manthing. Something else took control of him. As I said, his entire personality changed. I'm sure you know how I like to tease the maids. I would tease Ethan too and it would fluster him a good deal, but after he took in that blood… he said some crass things. I think the blood did something to his mind."

Mother stood up and began to pace while clutching her chin, deep in thought. Her furrowed brows indicated her anger, but her deep breathing told Daniela she was trying to keep her cool and think things through rationally.

"If what you're saying is true and the manthing truly lost themself and even began to physically change, we need to find out why. This isn't something we can just shrug our shoulders at, this is serious. Something must be in moroaică blood to cause this change, but what?"

Daniela began to wrack her brain as well. Bela was the more scientific one of the sisters, but Daniela would occasionally read her mother's experiment notes, so she had some second-hand knowledge of this subject. "What about the mold? It's how we create more moroaică, after all. There is mold in their blood."

This got mother thinking for a moment, only to wave it off. "No, that's extremely unlikely. The mold inside them is extremely weak and can't spread on its own, or else the entire staff would've become infected by now. No, whatever triggered their change would…" Mother trailed off, a look of realization spread across her face. "I need to call Mother Miranda. Please leave me, Daniela."

Knowing that mother was very serious at the moment, she nodded her head. "Of course, mother." With that she was out of the door and in the hall. Running her hands over her face and through her hair, she let out an exhausted sigh. Her first instinct was to go and tell Cass about the event, but she stopped herself.

'She might actually kill him if she found out what he did…'

Her next idea was to tell Bela. Bela was the most rational. Heck, she might even have some theories as to what happened as well. Deciding that this was her next course of action, she changed forms and flew to Bela's room. In a flash, she was at the door and knocked on it.

"You may enter."

Throwing open the door, Daniela walked right in. Bela tossed her a quick glance before returning to the paperwork she had at her desk. She was very much like mother. "Good day, Dani. You look a little disheveled; ambush a maid in a closet and come to tell me about it? If so, please don't. I don't care for your sexual exploits as much as Cass does."

Deciding to try and get back at her sister a bit, Daniela spoke in the most casual voice possible. "No Bela. I fought the manthing and he beat my ass."

Without raising her head, Bela replied, "Well, he did beat Cass. Even though she had only underestimated him and fought sloppily."

"No Bela, we honestly fought and he won."

It took a moment for this to absorb fully, but when it did, Bela damn near fell out of her seat she spun around so hard. "Wait what!? You mean that-!?" Finally taking in Daniela's appearance in full detail, she can tell where her sister had been struck. The last time Dani looked like that was when she tried to steal one of Cass's prey. The fight was vicious but one-sided, leaving Dani bloody and beaten. Bela shot to her feet, causing the chair to slide and fall back. "He beat you? Like… physically overpowered and put you into submission?"

Walking toward her sister, Daniela nodded. "Yes. His punches were extremely powerful. He was able to even catch my punches- which I did not pull."

Shaking her head in confusion, Bela clutched her forehead and began to pace. She was already handling it better than mother. "Wait wait wait. Let's make sure we are on the same page-"

"One of his punches had broken my nose and I am fairly certain one of my ribs had been cracked."

"How did he get that strong? What happened, Daniela? And what do you mean you were injured? Why did you use your flies, silly woman!"

"I am unsure exactly what happened, but all I know is the cause. He had accidentally ingested some moroaică blood-" this made Bela gag, "-and he began to change. He became very aggressive and incredibly strong."

Bela tried to wrap her mind around this. Sitting on her bed, she began to contemplate. "That doesn't make sense. What else happened; any physical changes?"

"Oh yes. The veins in his body began to bulge and darken. As if the blood of the moroaică was going through them. Along with that, his skin and eyes lost their color."

After a moment of thinking, Bela walked over to her desk and began to go through some drawers. "Some time ago, with mother's permission, I ran a few experiments on my own with some of the staff and some basic mold spores from the local grounds. If I am not mistaken… Aha! There they are!" Pulling out a fat folder, Bela sat at her desk and poured over the notes. "A few of the maids exhibited similar traits as you said. However, their cognitive functions had severely declined. They essentially became like the moroaică. Let me go over my notes and I might have a theory. Also, what about your swarm, Dani? They should've reacted without your commands, even."

"That's something else that has been making me uneasy. At first, I could swarm like normal, but after Ethan hit me a few times, the flies stopped responding. They wouldn't move to my will anymore. I thought that it was just because he hit me so hard but… now that I think about it, that doesn't make sense, right?"

Bela thought this over this intensely. She leaned back in her chair and thought. The sisters were completely made of flies, so how could one lose control of them is confusing. "You are right, sister, that does not make sense. One problem at a time though; the manthing. It will take time to go over these notes." Daniela took the hint and headed for the door.

"I am curious as to what you think happened, Bela. Please tell me as soon as you think of something."

"Wait-" This stopped Daniela from leaving. Turning back around, Daniela saw Bela turning to look over her shoulder. "Tell me when he wakes up."

Nodding, Daniela left into the hallway and flew back to her room. Quickly deciding that a bath would be amazing right now, she walked into the bathroom and opened the faucet above her large tub. She took her time to collect the necessary soaps and oils and lit some candles.

After adding her oils to the bath, she slipped her gown off and climbed in. The hot water felt amazing to her. For a long time, the Dimitrescu family didn't know if the sisters could submerge themselves in water, being made of flies and all. After some experimentation and slow exposure, they learned that they could, much to their delight. It seemed their body was able to take in enough air via the lungs and exposed skin. If Daniela dunked her head underwater and waited a few seconds, however, she could feel her swarm grow uncomfortable and eventually panic. The largest downside to bathing, however, was they couldn't fly as fast while wet. The extra weight of the water on the wings would slow them down.

As Daniela began to relax and slowly sunk deeper into the water in comfort, she heard a knock.

'Damn it! I can't get a moment to myself!'

Rising out of the water to call out, Daniela yelled. "Whoever it is, you better have a good reason for disturbing me! Get in here!" She heard the door open and someone hastily walk in, shutting the door behind them.

"Lady Daniela? I have an update on our guest, Ethan."

This grabbed Daniela's attention. "In here, maid. Come in." At first, the servant woman poked her head in, only to see Daniela naked in the bath. She pulled her head back out the door and began to apologize, but Daniela cut the woman off. "Hush. Get in here and tell me about him." The awkward woman stepped into the room and tried her best to avoid eye contact. This activated Daniela's instincts to tease.

Putting on an annoyed facade, Daniela spoke with authority in her voice. "Look me in the eye when you speak to me." With saying that, she also draped her arms outside the edge of the tub to put her chest on display. It had the desired effect; the maid's face exploded in a furious blush and her eyes went wide.

"Y-yes, my lady."

"Good girl. Now, you said you have news about the manthing?"

"Miss Adina has said that after she evacuated Ethan's stomach, his fever had subsided further and color had returned completely. Adina also said Ethan should awake either later today or tomorrow morning."

For a moment, Daniela dropped her act and was visibly relieved, but quickly readjusted and just nodded Idly. "Good. Tell Adina to notify me once the manthing awakens. If that is all, then you may go… unless you wish to join me." She asked with a sultry voice and smirk that was filled with sexual energy.

The poor maid quickly shook her head 'no' and left the bathroom. Daniela had to spend all her willpower not to immediately burst out laughing. The moment she heard the door click shut the floodgates opened. Daniela cackled full force and struggled to reign it in. Teasing the help was so joyous. There had been a few spitfire maids in the past few years that would return the teasing and Daniela loved it. They had such a fire that most women around the castle didn't have. The only servant that Daniela could think of at the current time that had a bit of snap was Adina, but she was a special case.

After spending some time soaking, Daniela decided it was time to get out and get dressed. She had things that needed her attention in the kitchen. Donning a new gown, she went to the kitchen. All the workers stiffened to some degree when her presence was known. The more experienced folk had just gotten more serious and ceased chit-chatting, while the newcomers began to visibly shake. Daniela scuffed at this. Her reputation of being unstable still gets around, even though she had somewhat recovered from her insanity. She was self-aware of her sadistic streak. Kind of hard not to when stories of her maulings spread like wildfire. What she didn't let others know, however, is she never really remembered slipping into her episodes. They would be fuzzy and seem far away. Almost like looking out into the village from one of the castle towers.

Daniela looked around at the cooking stations. Most of them were exceptionally clean and well organized. A few could be further cleaned but she secretly gave the new cooks some slack. She would make a big scene, throw something, make them clean it, put in a few threats for good measure, and that would be enough. If any of the experienced cooking staff left a mess, she might throw them instead.

Heading over to the newest member, Daniela inspected her station. "What is your name?"

The panicking woman replied as quietly as a mouse. "M- Mara." Daniela decided to haze poor Mara a little more.

"Speak up! Or I make you scream your name until your voice grows hoarse."

"Mara, my lady! My name is Mara!"

Allowing a smirk to slip onto her face, Daniela inspected Mara's station more, even getting closer to the surface to really sell the act. She didn't need to do this. In fact, Mara's station was one of the cleanest.

Standing straight up and glaring at Mara with mock anger, Daniela spoke with a low growl. "Mara." This made the poor girl shake. A tear even forced its way out and down the girl's face. "You set the bar too high for yourself. I will now be expecting this out of you all the time." Daniela then walked away to inspect the other stations. Those that were clean didn't get spoken to and those who could use more work she let them know.

"Alright then. It is time to start prepping for dinner! Has mother or any of my sisters made a request for tonight?" The cooks looked amongst themselves for an answer but none came up. "No request? Ok then. Mara! Pick something out for dinner for us tonight. Someone help her, too. Keep the kitchen clean, don't burn the castle down, and don't make us vomit. Follow those simple things and you will survive." Daniela moved to leave the kitchen but stopped. She turned back and looked at Mara. "Mara, see me outside for a moment."

Daniela only had to spend a moment waiting for the new girl to step out of the kitchen and into the hall. "My lady?" In a blink of an eye, Daniela firmly grasped the woman's jaw and grabbed her shoulder with the other hand. Mara's eyes widened in fear and she attempted to flee. Daniela spoke softly in her ear. "Relax. It won't hurt as much." Mara decided to just follow her lady's advice and let Daniela control her.

Daniela sunk her teeth into the girl's neck. She squirmed in pain and let out a stifled squeak, but stayed in her spot. Daniela liked the taste of new blood, it was fatty and had adrenaline. Gave the blood a certain smooth consistency with a kick. Daniela pulled back sooner than Mara expected though, and gave the wound a healing lick. Daniela didn't want the poor girl to be half-conscious and bleeding all over the kitchen, after all. "Perfect~ I will be seeing you, Mara." She said in an overly sweet tone. Mara a weird mix of terrified but also aroused, fled back into the kitchen.

Rounding the corner, Daniela ran into a maid. "Watch it, damn you! What reason do you have for running in the hall!?"

The maid picked herself off the floor. She spoke with a tremble from the fear. "E-Ethan, my lady. He is awake. I was rushing to find you…" Daniela had to concede that, in this case, the maid had a valid reason for rushing and running into her. "Very well, maid. I will go there immediately. Inform Bela. Oh and mother as well."

"Oh uh, Lady Dimitrescu is already there… I ran into her first. She demanded to know my reason as well. I told her and she left to see him immediately. I will go inform Bela now."

A bit of fear crept into Daniela. She was a bit nervous that Ethan was now alone with mother. She quickly swarmed and flew to the infirmary. Throwing open the door, Daniela rushed in.

"Oh, Daniela! Good day, dear. I was just inviting our guest here to dine with us tonight." Mother spoke, hunched over slightly. Daniela quickly looked at Ethan. Sure enough, he was awake and looked so much better. Except he was terrified now. The sweat on his face now wasn't from the blood anymore, that much was clear.

"He will… be dining with us? Tonight? At the table?"

"Why, where else would they eat? I've been a terrible host so far; been here for around a week and have yet to even dine with the ladies of the castle? How uncivilized. Unless, Ethan here refuses the invitation, which I highly recommend he does not."

Taking the hint, Ethan spoke. "Y-yes! Of course, why wouldn't I accept such an invitation?"

"Good! Daniela, help Ethan back to his room and prepare him for dinner. Good day to you both. I will see you at dinner." With that, mother passed through the door and out to the hall.

Both Daniela and Ethan looked at each other with panicked expressions. Daniela let out a sigh and spoke,

"Well, fuck…"


This chapter was purposely short because;

A) It's filler

B) I didn't want to push myself so hard after not even writing for a week

C) I hit a bit of writer's block

I thought writing a little bit of meaningless text would give me a little mental break as well (it did), but I also thought it would be a breath of fresh air to not write Ethan for a week. I honestly liked switching to another person for a moment.

Thanks for reading!