“What does it matter if we bite each other on the neck?” Sebastian knew that Edwin knew next to nothing about vampires, despite being one, but to not feel a bond?

“I, well, it is a funny story, Eddy,” stumbled Hadrian.

“Then, why aren’t you laughing?” Sebastian managed to make his words even sound innocent. Which, to someone like him, wasn’t really hard.

“You keep out of this! Why are you here? I swear, if you are here to threaten anyone!” Sebastian thought that the attempt at changing the subject was cute, but the healer apparently wasn’t having it because he narrowed his eyes.

“He’ll rope you into a contract that way,” came the defeated admission finally. Edwin’s eyes grew wide as plates.

“But, you drank from my neck before, you… Why, Harry?” Hadrian was torn at this. If Edwin had said Hadrian instead of Harry, then there wouldn’t be any hurt attached. Just anger.

“I wanted a fail-safe in case you went on a killing spree,” Hadrian bowed his head and waited for the angry shouting, but the only thing he got was a snort. Then a chuckle and then, finally, Edwin burst out laughing.

“That is all? You forced a contract on me, your words, not mine because you didn’t trust me?” Even though Edwin kept on laughing, there was a cocktail of emotions mixed in his voice. Hurt, betrayal, bitterness. But the anger was absent. He found he couldn’t get angry at Harry. Not even now.

“Well, I suppose you meant well,” said Edwin with a shrug. Then he got up, patted Sebastian on the shoulder three times and threw a: “Nice try.”

“Had to try, no hard feelings?” Sebastian was grinning from ear to ear. Edwin shook his head and then went to his room. Was he so much of a loose cannon that he needed to be bound?

He collapsed in the bed and kicked off his slippers. Screaming in the pillow sounded like something a teenager would do, so he resisted the urge. Rolling on his back, he stared at the plain white ceiling.

Edwin was a healer first and foremost. Or, at least that is what he liked to believe. But he was also a necromancer and had a short fuse, once it becomes lit. Fortunately for himself, his fuse was difficult to light.

Now, he needed something to take his mind off the fact that Harry thought him unhinged and dangerous. That he considered being his stopping mechanism. And maybe that was what Edwin required. Someone to yank him back from the edge.

Would he relay on Harry? Should he? Possibly, no to the later question, but a definite yes to the former. If Harry took it upon himself to be his minder, then so be it. What Edwin could do was make it easier on him.

His trip to the Asylum of Blood was scheduled for tomorrow. Then it would be a month to there and another one back. But, potentially, he could do two things at once? Take Sebastian, a sire killer and thus someone who could walk in the daylight, and have him as backing on the trip? Heal his blood circulation then, if it was possible.

Edwin’s hand reached up to his heart, and the silence that met him was deafening. Vampires didn’t have a heartbeat, hence no blood circulation. The side effect was that they were cold to the touch, and yet their muscles didn’t become lax.

That was a medical mystery. If he could do an autopsy on a vampire, he could see their inner working. But vampires became dust after they died, so it would have to be done on a living vampire.

Would Sebastian agree to be cut open? Would Hadrian? Edwin would do the operation on himself, if he could. But who was going to be cutting him open? He didn’t trust the doctors of Wandermere. They might begin to experiment on him and then not let him go.

Once he woke from that. And he would wake up, he had no doubt in that, he would be furious, and then innocent people will get swept into his retribution. But, hadn’t Sebastian said something about a council?

What if this council gave Edwin a vampire prisoner? Were there any? What did a vampire had to do to be forced into bondage instead of killed? These questions swam in Edwin’s mind, and he closed his eyes.

He heard the door creak open, and he snapped his eyes open again. Hadrian was in the doorway, looking torn. Edwin patted the space next to him, and Hadrian quickly went to fill it up.

“I will never make you do something that is against your morals,” began Hadrian, and Edwin nodded. He knew that already. “And I don’t mind if you bind me to you too. It will make you stopping me from stealing all the easier.”

That weak attempt at a joke made Edwin crack a grin. He laid on the side to stare at Harry’s purple orbs. Then he reached out a finger and poked him on the nose.

“I don’t need an insurance that you will behave. Finding you with your hand in the cookie jar just adds to your charm,” Edwin pulled his finger away and pillowed his head on his arms. “You are my best friend, Harry. And you meant well.”

“Doesn’t excuse the fact that I tricked you,” said Harry, and he worried his bottom lip. “For all it is worth, I am sorry.”

“Now kiss!” Came a snicker from the doorway, and two sets of annoyed eyes turned to Sebastian, who was had a pot with pig blood sludge in his hands. “I made us snacks!”

“He will be as annoying as Daniel about this, won’t he?” Asked Edwin, standing up as Hadrian rolled his eyes.

“If you show them that the digs don’t bother you, they will stop,” Sebastian’s grin begged to differ. Moments later, the pig blood sludge went in the sink. The red head had put salt in it. And so, Edwin spent the next fifteen minutes lecturing Sebastian about the damage salty food could do to beings that couldn’t drink water.