I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 101 - Quality Blood

Hagor twisted and tied the thin cord he had quickly woven with his fingers, securely binding it to the end of the bright red feather. Satisfied with his work, he leaned up to the driver's seat that Evangeline had reclaimed after their encounter with the harpies.

"What's this?" Evangeline asked, as he quickly braided a thin strand of her hair, working the cord end of the feather into the braid.

"Your trophy, little chipmunk," he said, his large fingers moving deftly as he worked her hair. "There. It suits you."

Grinning, Evangeline looked down at the end of the bright red feather, now hanging along her dark brown hair. If it wasn't for the extreme crimson color, it looked much like a normal feather. They had actually acquired four of them from the harpy leader. Pride warmed her chest at it along with a dash of badassery at the sight of the best one now tied in her hair.

"That was really impressive, you basically took down that enormous harpy on yourself," Harrowheart agreed, giving the back of Evangeline's shoulder a small punch.

Rubbing her shoulder out of habit, Evangeline beamed. "It wasn't by myself. The thorns did a lot of the heavy lifting," she said, giving Hagor's shoulder a friendly squeeze.

He then captured her fingers to squeeze them back and her heart skipped a beat.

"Yeah, never mind the guy who suffered a sunburn to save all your asses from getting flatfooted," Valerian grumbled from under his sheet, the vague head of the sheet moving to "look" at them all.

"Yes, thank you, Val," Evangline said, unable to keep the veneer of exasperation out of her voice at his whining petulance. If she was honest with herself, she was getting a little fed up with his childish need for praise and acknowledgement.

"How did you know to fire that arrow in the first place?" Sigismund asked, her tone had the more familiar harshness they were all used to. "You couldn't see anything and I certainly didn't see anything!"

"I smelled it, when the wind picked up," he said, soberly.

That sent a pang of guilt through Evangeline and she turned in her seat toward their sulking, canvas covered lump.

"Sigismund, could you check him for burns... I mean radiant damage?" she asked gently.

The cleric rolled her eyes, but her duty of care vow kept her from ignoring him. Squatting down beside him, she looked under the canvas sheet like she was looking for a five year old playing hide and seek.

"I'm fine," the response to the compassion came back.

Instead of losing her temper, Sigismund spoke softly, leaving the canvas resting on her head so she could use her hands. After a few exchanges, blob figure offered what had to be his arm to the other blob.

Evangeline kept watching, even though she couldn't see much, until Sigismund reappeared. She removed something from her bag, some small container, then disappeared once more under the sheet. Finally, when she reappeared for the final time, their gazes touched and then the cleric gave her a glum look.

"What is it?" Evangeline asked softly.

Sigismund tucked away her small container, stood, and navigated to the driver's seat, with Hagor assisting with an offered steadying hand, until she could speak to Evangeline quietly. "I can't heal him. He's a vampire."

Evangeline furrowed her eyebrows at that. "He's still a member of our party."

Waving a hand, Sigismund shook her head. "No, that isn't what I mean. He's a vampire again, and without that amulet of his to do whatever it does to... normalize him, if I heal him with my god-given power, it will hurt him further instead of help him. At least, him and I are both pretty sure it will and I don't think it's worth the risk. I can't do it in good conscience because he is, as you said, he is a part of our party."

"Oh," Evangeline said, then nodded. "I'm sorry. I misunderstood."

The cleric waved that away as well. "Don't be. I may not be his biggest fan..." She huffed. "I can understand why that would leave you with the impression that I wouldn't help him. But I'm a healer first. It's just that, right now, our best course of action is to get him some blood and let him heal on his own. I did use some salve I had in my healer's kit on the worst of the radiation burns. It has eased his pain somewhat."

"There should be a butcher's shop in the Green," Harrowheart added. "Wouldn't be a strange thing to go there and get him a couple bottles of the red stuff. People do it all the time for gravy's and sausage and... I might be getting hungry. I could murder a beef sandwich right now."

"Good idea," Evangeline said, nodding, then added a bit louder, "Is that alright, Valerian?"

The covered head turned her direction. "As long as the blood only a half an hour old, I should be alright."

"Freshness matters?" Harrowheart asked, cocking a single eyebrow.

Valerian shifted his shoulders, like he wanted to jump out of the cart and run away from this discussion, but instead he added, "Yes, freshness matters. The components in blood we find nutritious only last thirty minutes to possibly 4 hours, but that is really pushing it. Otherwise, it's just blood." He shifted again, his voice deeper and his words more deliberate as he spoke, "There are places, in vampire strongholds, where we store blood in very cold caches. Then the blood can last much longer, but we are no where near any of those. That I know of."

The rest of the party exchanged glances with each other.

This must be really hard for him, Evangeline thought. Now seeing his childish petulance in a new light.

"He's feeling vulnerable and dependent on us to survive. That can't be easy," Hagor said softly, echoing Evangeline's thoughts.

She nodded, knowing Valerian could and was listening to them. "We're almost there. One problem at a time."