Twisted Tales: Vampire Bites By Midnight (Malleus x Reader)

Fang 25: The Crux of the Matter

"Not joining?!"  Sebek shot up like a rocket as he looked mortified.

Silver however briefly paused from eating his risotto and kept quiet.

"Sit down, Sebek," Lilia shot him a look, to which Sebek obeyed.

The short vampire paused before continuing.

"I am aware of your disappointment but for personal reasons, the young Lord has decided not to join tonight. In his place, I shall administer the reason behind our human guest here."

He sent a knowing smile your way, which made your stomach turn.

The feeling of various eyes upon you made it worse.

Lilia cleared his throat.

"Now that I have your attention, I must announce that our Honored Guest is a Child of Eden. As you all know, the Children of Eden have very potent blood, so potent that it can even grant wishes! The wish we desire to be granted in particular being the revival of our vampiric lineage."

You felt yourself grow cold from his words. You didn't like where this was going.

He turned his back towards you as he continued.

"As I'm sure you're aware that vampires slowly lose their strength and vigor every 100 years. To combat this, we must have a person of blessed blood such as this one to wed our Lord and strengthen us to our former glory!"

He turned back around, his smile holding a dark undertone.

"Now eat, drink, and be merry, my brothers and sisters! We will soon laugh as our lessers fall to the pit as we rise above and make our claim to the surface-our birthright that had been denied to us by the treacherous Red Queen!!"

A cheer erupted around you and you watched as each vampire gladly filled themselves with food, though you couldn't eat.

You couldn't bring yourself to eat after hearing what you had heard.

The sounds just melted together as your mind went blank.

*******

Third Person POV:

"Gwendolyn was--?!" Trey put his hands to his mouth before he could finish his sentence.

He, Cater, Jack, Ace, and Deuce was in the basement of Clover's Bakery and Goods (Trey's family bakery) as Jack was getting his wounds treated.

The store was empty and only they were inside, as it was almost evening and time for closing.

Trey shakily sat down on a box as the news about Gwen's passing marinated, horror and sadness mixed in his features.

"Ace, Jack," Deuce said without looking up, "you never explained what happened to you guys to end up like that."

Ace swallowed while Jack stayed silent.

"Um," Ace began, his head down, "I went with Y/n to look for their friend, and, well, the guy after them did this to me..."

"I was tracking those same guys a few weeks before and ended up as their plaything for the time being," Jack added right after. "I couldn't...I couldn't stop them..."

There was a long, stale silence before Deuce spoke again.

"Ace, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you what you did was stupid," he paused to see if Ace would respond, but he didn't.

Ace was too overcome with the tiredness of his injuries and embarrassment to dish out a witty comeback.

"And Jack, I know you must have your own reasons for being out there like you did, but it would have been fine if you had reached out to us before either of you did anything."

A heavy, exhausted sigh came from the both of them.

"It's not exactly like I didn't want to," Jack explained, "but they took away my phone. It's definitely in pieces now."

"What happened?" Trey broke in, "What did these people want with Y/n and Grim and why did...why did they do that to Gwendolyn?" His voice broke on the last sentence and he turned away.

Jack was about to answer but Ace went instead.

"They ain't people, Trey. There's nothing normal about them. Jack tried to tell me about 'em, but well, that's what lead to this mess, so..."

"Hey," Jack went and scooted next to him, his wounds already healing.

"Don't beat yourself up over this-"

"Oh, c'mon man, don't give me that!" Ace brushed him off, and the panic in his voice was evident.

"If it weren't for me Y/n and Grim would still be here!"

He put his head in his lap.

"Everyone was traumatized, I almost died, hell, I was willing to leave you there!"

His breaths quickened.

The other three just watched with somber eyes, not sure what to say.

"Ace-kun," Cater breathed weakly.

Jack stood up, which made everyone look his way.

"You think you messed up? I thought tangoing with a High Elder on my own was a good idea. Those are a particularly powerful kind of vampire, by the way. Not only that, but I may have been the reason Gwendolyn's life was cut short."

He turned towards Deuce.

"If any of you need to be angry at someone, it should be with me. If I had communicated with you among others more frequently, this crisis could have been averted."

It went quiet again before Trey breathed heavily.

"Cater," he jumped at the sound of his name, "did you ever get into contact with Riddle since graduation?"

He shook his head.

"Nope. He's been super duper busy atm. Last I heard he had joined the police force."

Trey put a hand to his face, clearly distraught.

"There's so much going on right now-how do we even begin to help Y/n? And how do we know what to expect?"

"Yeah," Deuce agreed, "we need to know there's a chance they're still alive."

Jack frowned for a second.

"I have a hunch that Y/n will be fine since they're a 'Child of Eden'. Grim, not so sure."

"Child of Eden?" Deuce asked.

"...I don't have the full details on it since I'm still learning about it myself, though you'll get a better understanding from my brethren."

Cater shared Deuce's confusion.

"Brethren?"

"The Beastmen."