As a pacifist demon, Arkemoz is ostracized by his society. Wanting a fresh start, he comes to Earth. However, things go horribly wrong when he is captured by vampires who thirst for his demonic blood.
It seems his luck improves, however, when he is...
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For a moment all James could do was just stare at Nathan, too surprised at seeing him to say anything. He ran his eyes over the other vampire's crumpled up form and chained up hands, his torn and dirty suit, the bruises on his face.... Nathan looked downright pitiful like this, and James hated seeing it.
He wasn't sure what exactly he was feeling, then. Was that...pity? It was strange to associate that emotion with Nathan, though he was definitely deserving of it. As practically all vampires, Nathan was a murderer, but he'd never seemed to take as much pleasure in it as James had. In fact, James himself had pushed Nathan into killing people just because he'd noticed Nathan wasn't as interested in it.
He'd always loved making Nathan do things he didn't want to do, hadn't he? James grimaced as guilt made his stomach churn.
"You...smell different," Nathan croaked, his tired eyes regaining a spark. He sat up straighter, a grimace on his face. His former pals must have really roughened him up.
Great, here it was. Of course Nathan would be able to tell immediately that James had drank blood. He sighed when he saw hope light up the other vampire's face.
"Did you.... Have you come to rescue me?"
Had James ever done that? He supposed he did vaguely remember something like that, but it had definitely not been for Nathan's benefit. James' old self had simply found having Nathan around amusing, and convenient for sex whenever he'd wanted it. He'd never seen Nathan as anything other than a tool, and he absolutely despised the fact that he'd managed to convince Nathan otherwise so well.
"I didn't even know you were here," James replied with as neutral a tone as possible, pulling himself up to his feet. He didn't like how he was towering over Nathan like this, as it brought up some not so good memories, but he felt a sudden need to pace around. At least the cell they were stuck in was more than large enough for it.
"Oh, so you did drink blood," Nathan commented with delight when he caught a glimpse of the glowing bracelet. James sighed again. "Oh, darling, I've missed you."
James was about to shut him down, his hunger making him very irritable, but he stopped himself when he saw Nathan struggle to even get up on his knees, let alone stand up. The chains binding his wrists would have allowed that, so clearly the problem was something else.
"What's wrong with you?" James asked, realizing only a second later that that question had a lot of possible answers. But Nathan seemed to understand what he meant as he slumped back against the wall, closing his eyes. He was still smiling, though, which made James grit his teeth. Clearly, Nathan hadn't been listening last time.
"They...drained almost all of my blood," Nathan explained, huffing. "All because I wanted to help you." James decided not to point out that that probably wasn't the actual reason they'd locked him in here. "I'm glad someone else has."
"I'm not going back to being a murderer," James snapped at him. God, all this talk of blood was really not helping. "And you shouldn't want me to be that way, either. I was awful to you."
