"What happened?" Ori ran out after Fili into the back yard.
"Your brother just enraged a vampire and ran off." Fili gave him the short version.
Ori looked worried to the first floor.
"Don't worry Kili is there and he's calming him down." Fili told him, omitting the part that Kili was using their bond as leverage to help him deal with it all. "If Nori comes back make sure he won't enter the house." Fili told the younger wolf. "I can't guarantee his safety otherwise."
"Where are you going?" Ori asked clearly lost and hesitant.
"I need to talk to Dwalin." Fili went into the direction of the ground floor bathroom.
"So little wolfy played with fire?" Dwalin smirked.
"You knew it would happen." Fili dryly noticed.
"I knew the reason for the tension, but I had no idea it would end in such a drama…" Dwalin told the wolf. "You should keep this wolf away for now, Bofur will need time to calm down."
"That's what I'm planning to do." Fili replied. "I'm not here for advice."
"You're here to force me to promise I'll keep him out of trouble." Dwalin replied. "Yeah I know. Go and deal with the wolf problem."
When Fili came back Ori was sitting on the back steps, but there was no trace of Nori.
"I called Dori to come take his watch." Ori told him looking at the forest. "Do you think we should go after him?"
"No." Fili told him sitting down on the steps. "He needs to calm down first."
"I'm sorry for him." Ori shyly told them.
"It's not your fault Nori is like that." Fili noticed. "He's always been the most difficult of your three."
"Do you mind if I go back to work?" Ori gently asked him, Fili had a feeling some solid work would take the wolf's mind off the last events.
"Nah, I'll wait for him here." Fili told the wolf gently. He was calm on the outside, but Kili was radiating so much sadness and despair that he had problems separating where Kili's mind ended and where Bofur's started. The way Kili was using him as a filter to stabilize Bofur was amazing, and Fili did not mind it one bit. It was as if their special connection found one more function, one more purpose. And Fili knew it made calming down Bofur much easier than it would be for him or Kili alone.
Just because you're there it's like I have a reality check… Kili told him. When I would do this in the past I sometimes lost myself in the mind of the person I was reading. With you it's much easier.
I'm glad I can be of some use to you… Fili sniggered to him.
You're very useful… Kili replied. I can sense he's coming back…
I'll wait for him here, and I'll talk to him before we face you two. Fili told him.
There is no way he can face Bofur now, I barely managed to stabilize him, he was on the verge of attacking anyone in sight… Kili responded quickly.
I'll force him to go for a walk with me and talk it over away from here. Fili immediately saw the only option.
He saw Nori slowly coming out of the woods still in his wolf form. His breath was ragged clearly he ran a longer distance in attempt to calm down. He slowly walked up to Fili, and Fili pointed to his clothes. With a deep gasp the wolf slowly shifted to his human form and slowly put on the clothes. He was keeping his eyes away, as if sacred to face Fili.
"We need to talk, walk with me." Fili told him.
"But my watch…" Nori gasped, but his voice was unusually dull and hollow.
"Dori will arrive any minute now." Fili informed him. "You and me need to talk now, alone." He grabbed the wolf by the arm and guided him back into the woods.
Nori was looking down to the ground, Fili had never seem him so reserved and withdrawn. They walked for several minutes when Nori finally gathered the courage to ask "What did the vampire tell you?"
"He didn't tell me anything. Kili showed me what happened." Fili tried to speak without any emotion in his voice. "You have no idea in what kind of danger you were… You still are…"
"If you don't want this guard duty tell me, I'll convince Frerin to change you with someone else." Fili informed the wolf. "After what happened I'm not sure you should come back tomorrow, or as long as my guests are here."
Nori didn't answer anything, and he was still avoiding looking at Fili, clearly he was very embarrassed, and Fili felt the mixture of emotions flowing from the wolf, anxiety, worry, fear, shame…
"I admire Bofur for withholding from actually hurting you, a vampire when enraged like that is almost invincible. No wolf is that strong to deal with a vampire like that one on one. The bloodlust and starvation making the vampire even more dangerous. I saw Kili like that only twice." Fili told him. "And both times he was enraged to protect me from danger and it was never directed towards me."
"I don't understand why he reacted that way…" Nori finally gasped. "I'm a little shit, ain't I?" He finally said in a bitter voice.
"You know little of vampires, you've heard stories about what they are, you've seen the wild ones passing our land, but Kili and his coven are different. They live according to rules, they try to live full normal lives in the limits of their capabilities. They don't go around killing or changing people, they work, they have hobbies, they have friends even among humans. They drink human blood, but only as much as they need to survive. Most of it donor blood, which is repulsive for them, as Kili says barely edible. From time to time they hunt, but not for typical prey, but for someone from who they can drink just a bit of blood to quench the starvation. Kili says it's the warm blood, the smell of it, the feeling of the beating pulse. So basically donor blood is like drinking sewers, and fresh blood like crystal clean mineral water. They drink it only because they chose to live peaceful lives." Fili slowly explained to Nori.
They kept on walking, and Fili could tell Nori was still emotionally fragile.
"I met Kili when he was hunting. He said my smell drove him crazy, and despite the strict rules of not keeping slaves or human pets, he just had to search me out again. For weeks on end he would drop by for sex and for my blood. You can't even imagine how frustrating it was for me, but the lost of blood became something I was craving myself." Fili slowly began explaining.
"What do you mean?" Nori asked in a timid voice.
"You forbid him to bite you, and by that you limited all that was between you two to your own sexual release. To a human release. For a vampire biting during sex is like climaxing, without it they don't feel the pleasure of sex, and I can honestly say I'll never feel the pleasure of sex without the biting." Fili hesitantly admitted. "I'm addicted to it, it's like a thousand volts of electricity going in your head. When we connected mentally Kili said what I experience when he bites me, that it's even more thrilling that what he normally felt."
"So you mean by saying he can't bite, it's as if I rejected him?" Nori was dumb folded.
"That's exactly what you did." Fili admitted. "And now he's going to be dangerous for you. You must understand they live according to rules, they strive to live normal lives. What you did, you stirred the vampire in him, you brought out the rage, the sadness of what he is, the fear he might lose control and become a monster."
Nori glanced at the ground, and Fili could feel the huge waves of sadness emanate from him. Nori has always been different, disturbed, uneasy and violent. But Fili always had a feeling it was due to his childhood, to the stress of their family situation, to lack of parental guidance and help, that made Nori so spiteful. Nori had always been more complicated than other people around him, and under the firm layers of spite and confidence, was a person striving for acceptance and a person trying to find happiness within the sadness surrounding him.
"I'm the real monster…" Nori admitted in a shaky voice.
"I wouldn't dare call it that. It's more like you're confused with what you want." Fili told him gently brushing Nori's mind. "That particular vampire is as complicated as you. And today you really hurt him, so unless you plan to make it up to him, I would advise avoiding him at all cost."
"What would Frerin say if I just abandoned my duty?" Nori was clearly worried.
"I'd deal with that." Fili reassured him firmly. "It's about what you want, and I won't think less of you no matter what you decide."
"If what you say is true, if I approach him and try to reconcile, it would mean an obligation…" Nori dully noticed. "It would mean becoming his food, as well as becoming addicted to him."
"That's as serious as any relationship goes." Fili did not sway him. "But with every day, ever since Kili appeared in my life, I feel happy. I feel alive, it's as if I finally have something real to live for. The idea that we'll be together an eternity, the idea we're connected in our heads, should be terrifying, but now it's soothing. He's my everything." Fili admitted. "There is only one thing that worries us both…"
"What is that?" Nori asked with a worried face.
"We have no idea how the wolf in me will react to Kili, and Kili is dead scared my wolf will reject him." Fili hesitantly admitted. "Kili is scared I'll change because of the wolf in me, and it would all be over."
"The first change does change a lot of things." Nori glanced at Fili with a serious glare. "But there is a chance your wolf will love your vampire as much as you do."
"I need a drink…" Nori suddenly mumbled.
"Let's go to Dancing Wolf." Fili guided them back towards the village.