Fireflies in Moonlight [boyxboy]

Chapter IV

~Friday 28th October 2011~           -Kija-

Kija's mouth opened yet no sound came out. Words crossed his mind; whole languages, insults dead beyond their years, screeching cries of sorrow and desperation. But the vampire was silent. Speechless. Tension brewed the longer the quiet remained. Kija could see Tarian assessing risk, imagining how disastrous the wrath of the vampire might be. Surprisingly, violence wasn't the first thought to outshine the storm rushing through Kija's mind. That wasn't to say he couldn't have slaughtered Tarian right there where he stood, he merely put that option aside for later use.

"Catatonic? When..." Kija swallowed, trying to collect the mismatch of thoughts jumbling through his mind, "when did this happen?" Kija imagined the worst. Vampires rarely slipped into catatonia and, with those who did, waking was even less common. Even now, locked away in the Deadlands, there were two vampires ailing from the same condition. In their cases, Kija knew the cause. One had lost their mate and chosen to live on without them. The other had been separated from their love, a wolf of which Kija knew very little about. Both had slipped away peacefully, cared for dearly by members of their coven despite the grisly outcome they were so aware of.

Strictly, vampires were monogamists. That wasn't to say they were prudes, in fact they were rather the opposite. In search of their mates, vampires could be particularly promiscuous, trying out all kinds of beings before they would find their one true pairing. But once that person was discovered, once their love flourished and that instinct drew them close to their other half; that vampire would become viciously protective over their mate. Similar to claiming ceremonies in wolves, vampires had their blood binding. The merging of what little souls they retained, the promise of unyielding faith to their love, the sharing of their blood. Mates fed exclusively from one another, the very love they took sustaining their eternity together.

The problem was, blood came with addiction. Just as adoring one being more than anyone else was so compelling, consuming their very life essence was too. The venom was the cause, a drug in it's own right. Hence, if one mate were to perish, the other typically took their life too. Living without the other half of one's heart, it was unbearable. And living without their blood, some fell into insanity. Withdrawal was vicious and the recovery worse. Those who survived, some continued on as normal, even taking new mates in their later lives once the grieving had dulled to a quiet ache. Others, their bodies gave up. The loneliness was too much, the heartache agonising. So they slipped away, body at rest and mind somewhere nicer - Kija hoped that was the case for them anyway.

"About a hundred years after we took him prisoner. I visited him one morning to take him his feed and he was just laying there on the floor. He's completely unresponsive," with no breath in their lungs and no beat to their heart, vampires resembled corpses even in their form of life. When catatonic, they were deathly still, easily mistaken for having passed on. Kija imagined his king so still, eyes closed and lips sealed shut. Two hundred years he had been like that. Whilst Kija saw scenes of torture, of grievous torment for the ruler of his people, his reality had been... Peaceful. It was jarring, to say the least.

"I want to see him," the demand was firm and forceful, without question of Kija's intentions. Tarian appeared unmoved by the request. He folded his arms over his chest, the movement drawing attention to black ink set against his dark skin. In the low light of the room Kija couldn't make out the image there, nor did he care to try. It was hardly important in that moment.

"One of my doctors checks on him daily, he's perfectly healthy," Kija rolled his eyes with a scoff. A wolven doctor seeking to care for a vampire, after a hundred years of their banishment no less. Even Tarian had to see how foolish that was. Vampires weren't simple creatures, no matter the similar autonomy that they shared with their wolf counterparts. Their DNA might have mirrored in fundamentals, however, the nature of their existence couldn't have been further apart.