It was bright when Nikola woke, and Wei Caihong was nowhere to be found. There was a servant in the room, though. Holding a bundle of clothes in his hands. Nikola rose, unashamed of his nakedness, and approached the man.

The man wasn’t looking at him, but rather handing him the clothing bundle. Nikola touched it and then he groaned. Silk. If he went back in this, everyone would know he was Wei Caihong’s lover now.

“Where are my former clothes?” He asked the servant, and the man lowered his head further.

“Master Wei threw them out, Master Nikola. He said that there was blood on them. This is the finest silk in the land. Brought from the capital when Master Wei moved here. The seamstress who has been making your other robes made these too.”

So at least everything would fit. Nikola looked around him. He wasn’t about to put on clean robes all sweaty and reeking of sex.

“Where is the house’s bathing room?” He asked, and the servant trembled. What was the man’s problem, anyway? Nikola knew for a fact he wasn’t that scary.

“Won’t you put on a robe at least for the walk to the bathing room? Master Wei would be displeased if someone saw you like this.”

Nikola sighed and reached out for the clothes, only for the servant to pull them away and to scurry off towards a dresser. Then pulled out a bright green silk robe from there and Nikola put it on. It fit him like a glove and left little to the imagination.

“Well? Lead the way, good man,” he prompted the servant and the man rushed out, and Nikola had to run slightly to keep up with him. He was soon in the bathing room, sitting on a bench and watching as servant after servant filled the cylindrical bathing wooden tub with hot water. None of them looked his way.

“Where is your master?” Asked Nikola at the last servant to reach out towards the door.

“In the dungeons. Inspecting the prisoners. He bid that you join him there after you are dressed and had your breakfast,” the woman was out of the door after that and Nikola climbed the small stairs to the bathing tub and got in.

He rubbed at his skin with a washing rag and thought on what Wei Caihong might want with him in the dungeons. Was the sunlight in the room too much for the vampire? Probably.

He splashed some water on his face and then got up, water dripping down his body. Getting out, he quickly dried and then rubbed his body with scented oils. Feeling more like himself, he dressed in the robes.

 Again, green with silver thread around the trims. He tightened the sash around his waist and got out, only to see the same servant that had been there waiting for him as he woke, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to another.

“Master Nikola, the dining hall is this way.”

Nikola followed him, and soon he was eating sweet rice and steamed buns. These were Nuo Nuying’s pork buns. He recognized them instantly. The vampire must really want to butter him up if he sent someone there to pick them up.

 He wondered what the old lady was going to do now that he wasn’t there to attract crowds. Then he shook his head. He had earned her a small fortune these past days. If she was frugal, and that was practically the woman’s middle name, it could last her for a year.

The dungeon was filled with moans and the sound of the whip. Nikola could hear forced confessions all around himself. He had never needed to deal with the prisoners himself.

There were overseers, and every nation had its general to oversee the more dangerous criminals. The stench of blood in the air made Nikola scrunch up his nose.

He would rather not think of just what he was stepping in. He would need new boots after today. Wei Caihong was in front of a particular cell and skinning a man alive. There were bites on the skin, and now Nikola knew why the servants were so skittish.

“Have you taken a leave of your senses?” He said instead of a greeting, and Wei Caihong turned towards him, hatred in his dark brown orbs. “You can’t let anyone find what you are. Now quit playing with him and kill him. You will need to burn the body to hide the marks.”

“They already saw,” the servant next to Nikola shrank into himself and turned his head, and Nikola saw that he too had a bite mark on his neck. “Word has spread to the village. I will have a mob on my hands soon.” The knife dug under the prisoner’s skin again, and the man screamed. Nikola moved briskly and took the knife from Wei Caihong’s hands.

“And how did that happen?” He asked, blood dripping from the knife into his fingers. The prisoner chose this time to empty his bladder, and Nikola stepped away from him in disgust.

“They saw me feeding from you,” said Wei Caihong, and Nikola raised an eyebrow. No one had come inside the bedroom as they fucked. “You were asleep, and I was so gentle, you didn’t wake.”

Nikola gripped his hand.

“I can do a mass forgetfulness ritual, but we barely have any time. You better pray that no word has left the village. How many have you bitten?” Wei Caihong nodded towards the prisoner and the servant and Nikola nodded.

Ropes appeared out of nowhere around the servant, and an invisible force brought him next to the prisoner. The man begun to sob in fear, but Nikola had no compassion for him.

“It’s a ritual that requires many sacrifices normally. But this place is steeped in so much death that two would suffice. We will need some herbs and spices. And we’ll also need to eat their hearts raw, so we don’t forget,” at that the servant screamed and begun to beg, but Nikola snapped his fingers and a gag appeared around his mouth. “Can you go upstairs or is it too bright for you?”

“I can barely stand being upstairs,” Nikola huffed and gave the knife back to Wei Caihong. “Wait for me as I gather everything. Don’t torture them. We need them alive.”

Nikola rushed up the stairs and into the kitchen, and he gathered everything. Black pepper and salt to cleanse the aura of the sacrifices. Green tea, still freshly cut, to be burned so that the magic could take hold.

And finally, saffron to stabilize the magic. He placed everything in a basket and then took a pot and placed it in the basket as well. He always hated eating raw meat for rituals.

Even more so when it was human flesh. It gave him the mother of all indigestion. But it had to be done. He would be attacked with Wei Caihong. He was a stranger in this land, and after he spends a night in the palace, their lord suddenly starts drinking blood? The villagers would be right to blame him.

He rushed back to the dungeon, and he reached Wei Caihong, who was looking at the two sacrifices with a calculating look. Nikola gave him the pot and then placed the green tea and salt and pepper inside.

He ignited it with a breath and when it had burned enough to give out smoke, he took it and begun to add the saffron inside while chanting. When he finished with:

 Take their spirits and let us fall into darkness.

He looked towards Wei Caihong.

“They need to eat all of this before we carve their hearts out. And it has to happen fast. It is normally done with willing sacrifices. I’ll overpower the servant, since he is still conscious, and you don’t know the chant. You ease half of this into the criminal. Make sure you massage his throat well, so he doesn’t choke.”

The servant was staring at them wildly and when the gag was removed, he screamed, high pitch and full of terror. Nikola touched the man’s temple and smiled.

“It’s just fine. You want to do this. A’nkai ros muras.”

The servant smiled and calmed down; his eyes half-closed. He opened his mouth obediently and begun to chew the ashen mix Nikola was feeding him. Wei Caihong repeated Nikola’s motions and then his words, and the criminal opened his eyes. Wei Caihong gave him some burned herbal mix, and the man swallowed obediently.

“You are a natural,” commented Nikola as he continued to scoop more and more of the mix.

“I just copied you. What does A’nkai ros muras mean?”

“In the Archangel’s will. It doesn’t work on me; in case you’ve been wondering,” Wei Caihong’s lips twitched and that was all the confirmation Nikola had needed to have to know he had indeed been considering enslaving him that way.

They both reached out into the pot at the same time and their fingers met. There were no more burned leaves left inside.

“It’s time,” said Nikola, and he picked up the knife from where it was resting on a side table, but Wei Caihong took it before he did.

“You’ll make a mess of your robes. Let me,” Nikola stepped back and let the noble take off the rags that were trying to pass for robes on the prisoner and dug his knife just above the man’s heart and begun to carve it out.

Blood dripped down and onto Wei Caihong’s black robes. He threw a chunk of flesh on the floor and the heart became uncovered.

“Should I take it out?” The vampire looked as if in a trance at the still beating organ. Nikola cleared his throat.

“No, do the same to the other one. We’ll take out the hearts at the same time and begin to eat them together. Otherwise, the ritual won’t take hold.”

The knife begun carving again and this time two chunks of flesh plopped on the floor. Nikola sidestepped them and moved towards the servant, hitching up his long, wide sleeves so that he wouldn’t dirty them.

“Now,” And they, one with limbs bolstered by magic and another by the curse he was in, tore out the still beating hearts and a bit down on them at the same time.

The two sacrifices finally died, and a light breeze blew in the dungeons as they swallowed. The two heartless men turned to ashes on the floor as Nikola swallowed the last bloody bite.

He had always liked this part of the ritual best. For what good was it if everyone forgot, is he still had a corpse to get rid of? The sounds of torture resumed around them, and Wei Caihong kneeled over, heaving.

“My stomach wants to tear itself apart,” complained the noble, and Nikola patted his abdomen.

“Cannibalism is taboo for a reason, my Ebony. Now up with you. You have to have a dark room that is not a shit-stained dungeon,” they passed by the cells and no one paid them any attention.

 Nikola was led back inside the bathing room, the corridors mercifully being windowless so that Wei Caihong could go through them. Servants rushed to fill the bath again, and they both were soon washing grime and blood off themselves.

“Were you always like this?” Asked Wei Caihong, and there was slight pity in his voice. Nikola splashed some water his way.

“Ready to murder at the drop of a hat, you mean?” He asked, and Wei Caihong wiped the water that got on his face.

“I am a cruel man, my Emerald. But you…there is gentleness in you. Yet, you bury it under detachment. How much did the angels hurt you for you to do so?”

“I was never physically abused,” and it was the truth. Instead, the angels used guilt and emotional pain to get their lessons through.

 These are your people. You have to protect them.

Azazel would say after he would lay him flat on his back on the sparring ring. They never used life steal, but Azazel always fought other people in front of him afterwards to show him how to hack life humans to pieces.

The Nephilim are your kin. Nadja died to bring her son into this world. She begged you to take care of him with her last breath.

Samyaza would insist when Nikola wanted to just send the Nephilim on a suicide mission instead of sending his human armies. But the cruelest of it all were Penemue’s words.

Don’t you love me?

He’d ask when the other angels would complain to him about Nikola’s lack of progress in the beginning days because he would rather not bleed or make someone else bleed for his rituals.

“But you were abused all the same,” Wei Caihong had gotten closer to him and was holding him as if he were afraid Nikola would break.

“I am not a victim, my Ebony. I used to rule the world and then when Pallas rouse to challenge me I defeated him.”

“I’ve made many a victim in my time,” said Wei Caihong, as if this empathy was foreign to him. “And you lost everything, in the end.”

Nikola barked a laugh and tried to get away, but Wei Caihong was holding him close to himself. So, he buried his face in Wei Caihong’s shoulder and returned the embrace instead.

“You are a weapon of mass destruction,” continued the noble, and his voice wavered. “But they couldn’t become your masters. If they were, then you wouldn’t have drowned their children. I don’t claim to know anything about you, but…perhaps that is why Penemue doesn’t want to get out of the Abyss. He must care for you, even if he passed you over to a bastard like me. The pain of both losing your lover of a millennium and your only child must be tearing him inside.”

“Do you think he flew into the Abyss himself?” Whispered his greatest fear, Nikola. Wei Caihong tightened his arms around him.

“It’s possible. Although of all the sins the angels committed, his was the greatest. He did give us writing, after all. And he ruled by your side,” Nikola’s stomach twisted uncomfortably, and he winced. Here came the indigestion. Wei Caihong finally released him, only to cup his face into his hands and stare in his eyes.

“Here we value broken things,” he began, and his fingers traced gentle patterns against Nikola’s skin. “We put them back together with molten gold, and they become more beautiful than they were when they were whole. Let me put you back together.”

“Let me guess? With time and love and all that crap?” Nikola knew he was being childish, but he just couldn’t help himself. Who was this stranger to presume that Nikola needed saving? That he needed to heal? What he required was Penemue’s arms wrapped securely around him. Nothing less and nothing more.

“Time passes even for you, my Emerald,” said Wei Caihong, and he leaned in so that he could kiss Nikola. Nikola pulled back at the last minute, and Wei Caihong looked at him with eyes full of pity again.

“But I think the problem lays with you. You have lived broken for so long, you have gotten used to it. You no longer miss being entire. Furthermore, you want the one who shattered your fine porcelain heart because you feel like you belong to him. But you don’t. If you could only realize your power, then you’ll see that the angels require you. You don’t need them. And least of all Penemue.”

“I will always love him,” said Nikola stubbornly as he got out of Wei Caihong’s arms. “And he will always love me.”

“Then why did he sure a child on one of your granddaughters?” Asked Wei Caihong, face calm and collected. Knowing full well that the question was like a dagger into Nikola’s heart.

“And you are the better alternative? You are cursed. I cursed you!” Nikola’s voice rouse at the last part, and Wei Caihong placed a finger on top of his lips to keep him quiet.

“I asked for it. I forgive you.”

Nikola laughed bitterly at that. Memories long buried swam to the front of his mind. He kept it all a secret, least his people rebelled against him once they found out. But now there was no one left to rebel. He had killed them all.

“And I prayed for the angels to come. There was a famine going on. Not enough soil on an island, you see? So, I prayed on my knees in front of a blood-soaked totem. I thought that I was praying to my God, Tangra, but Penemue came instead. He was the most beautiful being I have ever seen. He still is, even after a millennium. Soft features, flowing curly black hair. Shining sapphire eyes. He takes the form of a two-meter-high man. On anyone else, it would have looked awful. But he pulled it off with grace. Give me your heart and learn. He said, and I was in love from the first time I heard his melodic voice. It was hard, but then Araqiel came and taught us all about how to manage the land properly. Many still died, my father among them. But we survived the famine, and we entered an age of plenty. Everyone was so happy that even my rituals didn’t disturb them.”

“But they disturbed you,” said Wei Caihong, and Nikola huffed.

“You are like a dog with a bone, you know?”

“Woof,” Nikola giggled at that and exposed his neck to the noble.

“Drink here where no one can see. You can’t remain in the palace. There are far too many people in here.”

Cold hands were placed on Nikola’s h, and he shuddered.

“What do you propose?” Asked Wei Caihong instead of drinking from the man.

“You need to keep a low profile. Resign from being this village’s magistrate. You are fallen from grace anyway. Come move with me in my house. From the little I saw of it as I was buying it, here weren’t any windows inside.”

“You want me to move in with that steamed bun seller?” Asked Wei Caihong in disbelief, and Nikola lightly slapped him on the back.

“I have my house. Do you know of the pawn shop owner? Trader Hua? I keep forgetting his first name…” Trailed off Nikola. The house was modest compared to the palace, but it could become a home. And no one will question why the fallen from grace noble didn’t leave it. Too busy discussing the extravagances of his foreign host.

“I thought about buying it more than once for when I retire,” there was approval in Wei Caihong’s voice now. “But we will need to redecorate. I’ll have some furniture from my estate in the capital brought here.”

“I can buy anything you need!” Protested Nikola. What use was melting down his scepter if he had to wait on his lover to decorate their house? Then he stopped. Their house? This house was supposed to be his and Penemue’s. But Wei Caihong truly couldn’t stay here. And he couldn’t keep his job. What was he going to do during an official visit? Bring the magistrates in the dungeon?

“Not from here, you can’t. No one sells beds here. Or plush chairs. And if your discomfort with the pillow last evening was any indication, you miss such small comforts.”

“They scream Atlantis, especially in this land,” warned Nikola, but Wei Caihong simply smiled.

“Wei is a common last name, so you must not have noticed, but my family were the governors of all of China. I am a sympathizer of all things Atlantis, my Emerald,” then he kissed Nikola on the forehead and whispered. “And your most loyal servant.” 

The final piece of the puzzle clicked in place. Obviously, the angels wouldn’t pick just anyone to influence. Wei Caihong must have known a little magic beforehand, he certainly had the talent for it. It didn’t matter how careful Nikola was about not letting magical knowledge slip into the provinces.

 His more unruly grandchildren always traded morsels of knowledge with the governors and high-ranking nobles in exchange for influence in the region. He always turned a blind eye to this. None of his blood tried to usurp him or hurt one another, and so he let it play out.

“Just feed already. The magic must have drained you,” a kiss to the neck and then sharp fangs inside his flesh. Nikola held back a moan. Once one got past the pain, this was oddly arousing.