I had taken the letter to the docks and had bribed the captain with enough pounds to make a guinea and a shilling, which was enough to guarantee the safety of L's letter and a delivery as quick as possible. L had been quite wealthy. Like humans, vampires had a social statuses according how wealthy they were and because of how L lived for the last two thousand years, he had accumulated enough wealth to live off of for the next two thousand years. He needed little that monetary exchange could give him. He paid for the cattle blood he consumed and he had given me access to the rest for me to purchase anything I needed.
I was quite shocked that not L had referred me as his human but also that he was going to take me with him when he paid his acquaintances a visit once the sun had gone down. I had not been out in public with L since the first day that we had met and that was only because I had approached him. I was quite lucky that L beat to the sound of his own drum as it were, he was well aware of the law that punished those convicted of being in a homosexual relationship and yet he must have known as I did that because he were not theologically speaking human we could not be convicted of such a crime. Even though it would have been impossible for anyone in the legal system to know that we would be having an emotional and physical relationship, I was sure that he would have protected me should such an unlikely event occur.
I made my way to the center of town to the usual stores that I had visited. I collected recently baked bread, freshly pulled vegetables and meat. To be butcher was an intelligent job, everyone, even the poor ate meat. Those not so wealthy would eat bacon and sausages and the wealthy, chicken and wild fowl like pheasant and wild duck. I did quite enjoy food in general but I had never indulged myself in sweets, even though I had the means too. Not only was I not blessed with a sweet tooth I knew that L was quite fond of sugary treats when he was still human. Even back then when L was still human they would cover fruits in seeds and nuts to bring out the sweetness they even had the use of honey long before sugar was even discovered and because of this I never bought sweets knowing it would torture him.
Once I had got the groceries that I required I started my trek back home. L had horses in stables but I had never used them I quite liked walking even though it had taken me a little over an hour each way it was a time for me to give thought to L's proposition. I had so desperately wanted to be with him and although I hadn't ever given much thought about becoming vampire myself over the last six years if it meant I could have the man I desired for the rest of eternity then I wanted to become a creature of the night, regardless of what I had to sacrifice in my human life.
"Master Light!" I heard a voice come from behind me and the sound of heavy breathing
I turned to see who had addressed me. A man, dressed in riding clothes minus the traditional riding helmet.
"Yes?" I responded
"You need to come quickly there has been another death, just this morning" He said still panting
"Where? Show me now" I demanded
He nodded and he started to run in the direction I had just been walking from. I followed closely behind him and we continued running for quite some time until we reached a nearby middle class village where I presumed he was from. He had led me to a cemetery where he had pointed down to a blackened skull. I placed my hands over it and it still felt slightly warm the skull was defiantly that of a vampire. I pressed my finger against the distinct elongated incisors to ensure it was not a trick pulled by some youngsters and once I was sure that it was not a practical joke I stood back up to address the man who had shown me
"Did anyone witness what had happened?" I asked him
"I personally hadn't sir but my twelve year old lad had said that he seen something" The man replied to me
"I wish to speak with him then" I replied
The man nodded his head and disappeared to collect the boy. This was going to greatly frustrate L but I had no intention in keeping it from him. I had never kept anything secret from my vampire. I trusted him above anyone else and since I was dedicated solely to him then it was by my own choice that I would not hide anything from him.
The man quickly returned with his son, hair a flaming orange, pale light green eyes and a round cherub like face adorned with small dark orange and tan freckles, defiantly an odd look for someone English.
"Hello child, it's a pleasure to meet you" I said extending my hand
He shook it. It was simply the thought in my head that if I remained polite and calm that I would get more of an answer from him then if I was aggressive about finding out what happened to the vampire
"It's a pleasure to meet you too sir, my family is loyal to your Master L" he replied
I greeted his reply with a smile
"Do you know what happened to this vampire?" I had asked him as I pointed down to the skull
"It was very early this morning, I had woken up much too early. The sun had not risen but I had gone out into the streets so that I could watch it rise into the morning sky. It was still very dark but I had noticed a dark figure on a horse throw down a body which was rather limp and lifeless onto the dirt and watched as he set it alight. I could smell kerosene but had not seen the figure drop any at the time. I hid behind the wall and continued to watch. I couldn't make out the figure but he was dressed heavily and he had a sword hanging from his hip that was covered in blood. I heard him say something but it was in another language. I do not know which one. He waited a short time and collected the other bones and placed them in a bag of some kind and he smelled heavily of Brandy. I had waited until my father was awake before I told him what I had seen he was on the way to your mansion to inform you" The boy told me calmly
"Do you remember the words he spoke or something close to them?"
"It sounded like amber dean now" the boy had said
"Amber dean now?" I asked
He nodded his head. I reached into my pocket and handed the boy a couple of pounds
"Thank you for your assistance child" I replied
He rushed to his father and showed him the money I had given him
"Sir?" I called to the man
He came back to me
"Would it be too much trouble if I could ask to borrow one of your horses? I must get back to the mansion rather quickly" I asked him
"Yes of course Master Light, we are grateful to both you and your Master for the safety you have bestowed upon us" He said
He disappeared again and I retrieved the skull from off the ground, I placed it under my arm and the man returned with a horse, a black beauty with a thick mane and tail, dark gentle eyes, very beautiful and very well looked after. It reminded me of my vampire. I mounted the horse and held the groceries in the woven basket in the same arm as the skull.
"Thank you, you are welcome to retrieve your horse whenever you wish. The stables are off to the side of the mansion but I ask you do not come to the house, L doesn't like to be disturbed" I said to the man
"Of course Master Light, thank you and the best to you and your Master" The man replied
I gently kicked the sides of the horse and it quickly started to gallop. The closer we got to the mansion the faster I encouraged the beast to travel. I had taken him to the stables, loosely tied the reins to a wooden post and placed down a bale of hay and moved a barrel of water to the black beauty. I glided my hand down its nose and said thank you. I made my way indoors. The moment the doors were closed and the sunlight was barricaded out I placed the groceries on the table and searched for L. I didn't typically call out for him as I didn't want to make him jump to the sudden sound of voice in case he was writing. I had found him in the library where I had left him that morning. I knocked on the door and he drew his attention up and looked at me
"There has been another murder" I said to him
I placed the blackened and burnt skull down onto the table in front of him and proceeded to tell him exactly word for word what the boy had told me
"Amber dean now?" He questioned
"Yes Lawliet that is what the child told me I was hoping perhaps you might have known what it meant" I said to him
He rested his thumb against his lips for a moment
"I drink again" he said looking at me
"Pardon?" I asked curiously
He pulled out a piece of parchment from the drawer and grasped a quill between his thumb and index finger and glided it across the paper and wrote down
Am bea din nou
He shifted the paper to my gaze and I looked down
"German?" I questioned
"No you are very close though, it is Romanian. Am bea din nou is Romanian for I drink again" He replied
I frowned and looked back into his eyes. I could tell he was frustrated if not angry with another death
"And the boy said he wore several layers of clothing and carried a sword?" L asked me
"Yes and he said he had seen blood on the sword the rider carried"
"This is excoriatingly frustrating. I am not amused by these games that are being played. My kind is being sacrificed like lambs to the slaughterhouse and yet I sit here unable to do next to nothing. I have no answers only theories without any proof and I am slowly losing my patience for this" He growled
It had been the first time in our time together that I had heard him become angry. I didn't know what to say to calm his temper, because I had never seen him become angry I didn't know what to do to comfort him.
"Thank you for investigating this Light. I am sorry I could not have been with you to offer the answers there and then" He suddenly said, his voice cooling to the typical deep monotone purr
"You don't need to thank me Lawliet I was just doing what I could to try an alleviate some of your tension" I replied
"I really do not want to say this but I am starting to believe that the words spoken by the intoxicated peasant may not have been babble after all"
"I am tending to agree" I replied
"I can understand the statement I drink again could be taken several ways but my thoughts are that this man on the horse was in fact a hired killer. If he were taking as if he was going to consume the blood of the vampire then he would have not left the blood on his sword. There are those who are aware of properties that our blood contains, including the euphoric high that can last quite some time. Even though we are in abundance there have never been any reports of vampires being drained and only very rarely have vampires turned up deceased in the past. That then leads me to think he quite literally meant I drink again, as in alcohol. If he was a paid killer then he would have received his payment and he could very well been talking about spending his pay at an inn" L continued
"It would make sense; especially in the statement itself I drink again which suggests it would be another that followed a previous night of the consumption of alcohol. It would also explain why he smelled of Brandy. It could mean that whoever he is will be at one of the local inns tonight. Most of them do not resume business until hours after dusk has settled in. It may be a long shot but perhaps he could be located in one of the four inns"
L's eyes seemed to widen and a very faint smile pulled from his lips.
"You are correct it is quite a chance to take, but one I am willing to go with. However how could we identify a man when we have no knowledge of his appearance?" He asked me
I smiled back at my vampire
"There are two things that inns are good for drowning sorrows and confessing your sins. If our assassin intends on drinking I would stake my soul that he like a majority of intoxicated men will tell his tales of his so called triumphs. Each man has a story to tell in those kinds of places and all men want to appear superior. He will tell his story if he is the vampire killer, I will guarantee it, it is likely that the drunk you had overheard was talking about a story straight from the man himself and was merely verbally memorizing what was said" I replied
"I trust your judgment and your theories make sense. We will visit with the men that I had originally planned for us to meet with; I will offer them money in exchange for their assistance. We will divide into four individual groups and each of us will visit one of the four inns. If you are correct then one of us is bound to overhear the pitiful boasting" He replied
I was slightly concerned. L was not exactly easily able to blend in with a crowd; he was easily identifiable and even though very few had set their sights on him people would recognize him by description. But as I always had I trusted L and I assumed that he would have a plan to counteract such a problem.
"Lawliet, as I haven't met these men before is there anything I should know about them that I should be wary of?" I asked him
"No, they are not exactly the closed book kind. They are very straight forward and you do not have to concern yourself with if they will betray me because I do not have any reason to think that myself. If there was something that I was concerned about you know very well I would share it with you, there has never been secrets between you and I apart from my history but as I have said you will know soon enough. Whilst I do not trust them entirely the amount I am planning on paying them will guarantee their co-operation with us, they also happened to have quite the grudge against the Royals and I am sure that they would have been the ones to organize the killings, my theories about them have not vanished"
"Very well, is there anything you need in preparation for tonight?" I asked him
"Would you still have in your possession any clothing from your peasant days?" He asked me
"No I am sorry Lawliet, I disposed of them quite some years ago"
I hated being reminded of my life before L. I had disposed of everything that had reminded me of those times, it wasn't because it was a depressing time for but once I had made residence in Lawliet's mansion and began to serve him nothing had made me happier and I saw my life before him as nothing more than time filler for my true destiny
"There is no need to apologize, it is not important. I don't believe there is anything more that need for tonight"
I stood up to take my leave and allow Lawliet to continue his work.
"Light?" He called out my name as I stood up
"Yes Lawliet?"
"Would you care to play a game of chess with me? I require an interruption from writing and would much like it if you were to remain in my company"
I smiled and sat back down. Lawliet exited the room to retrieve the chess board that we had played on many times and both the black and white pieces.
We continued to play for quite some hours before I grew hungry. My stomach growled fiercely which was met with L's eyes looking at mine
"I crave for the day where hunger is no longer an issue for me" I said more to myself then to him
"All creatures feel hunger Light, you will never rid yourself of it. Even a vampire becomes hungry even those like I who only feast on the blood of cattle have hunger but not for food or for nutrients but hungry for something more…primal" he replied
"You mean to tell me that you actually hunger for things that I have never heard you speak word of?" I asked him
He smiled only very slightly and the grimace soon disappeared
"I don't know why you seemed so shocked, just because I do not discuss certain things does not by any means I do not crave for them. Sex, love and passion are things all creatures, animal, human and vampire hunger for. Why else after two thousand years do you suppose I put forward my proposition to you, aside of trust and loyalty and the fact that I know you have always loved me, why else would I have spoken with you about it? I hunger for you just as much as you do for me and it is only because I think so highly of you that I have given you time to consider what was said and also an option. I may be very well contained but I am still a vampire and I could have simply taken what I wanted without your thoughts in consideration. Two thousand years is a long time to suppress hunger Light and it is not because you are simply here that makes me crave you, I do admire you and like previously mentioned I do care for you very deeply and after six years of you being with me I simply would not want anyone else and I never have and never will" He said to me.
I could see something in his eyes, the hunger he was describing as the words rolled off his tongue and penetrated me so deeply. Was he confessing that he had love for me? I wasn't entirely sure but I wasn't sure if I going to be able to contain myself any longer. I had wanted to last the month to continue to respect his wishes but in that moment with those words he had made me want to tell him to shove his waiting rule and just to take me there and then. But I would have never spoken to him like that no matter what our relationship statues was in the present and what it was to be in the future.
"Does it bother you that I love you?" I asked him after a few moments with my own thoughts
"Not at all, you are the first person to do so and I do believe that you do genuinely love me. Your love, as I imagine, has many layers and depths to it. I assume that you don't simply claim love because you crave me so desperately that you are in fact in love with me which is why you are having a hard time trying to sustain our agreement that you would thoroughly consider what you were to give up if you were to choose me and eternal life. I already know your answer; I am not unwise I can see how you think and what you feel in those warm amber eyes of yours. I know the only reason why you haven't come to me with your answer is because you want to respect my wishes. I do feel guilt for putting you through despair and anguish because you yourself know in your heart what you want to say to me but I have my reasons for wanting you to wait to give me your answer. But perhaps I can offer you something that might help you understand why I am asking you to wait" He replied
I wasn't sure what that something was but I didn't care. I wanted him, I needed him. I wanted him to bury his fangs into me and take my life. I wanted him to touch me, to kiss me, to fuck me I wanted him to give himself to me entirely and I wanted to give myself to him in return. I was his and his alone I always had been and I wanted him for myself. I wanted the eternal love and I wanted the eternal life. I wanted to be the only man, the only being he needed and I never wanted to lose him. I was the sole thing he desired for two millenniums and I craved him so urgently.