Edwin had nearly drunk Sebastian dry. His blood was too good. As the man twitched beneath him, he managed to show some self-restrain at the last minute and pull away.
He stared at the still twitching and still smoking vampire and attempted to lay next to him, only to get nicked in glass. Lightning, right. He heard chuckles and Sebastian finally stopped twitching.
“Until eternity and beyond,” Sebastian’s raspy voice unnerved Edwin. He hadn’t meant to kill the man. Had he brought him to the end? He touched his hand to the elf’s naked chest and then remembered that because he ate soul saturated dirt and made shadows, his mana was now positively acidic.
“The bond will filter your mana, don’t worry,” rasped Sebastian. That was just what Edwin needed to begin a scan. He didn’t seem to have eye damage, although that would become apparent in the coming days.
Edwin didn’t care if Sebastian suddenly became a eunuch. It would amuse him, if nothing else. But there was something wrong. He could hear a heartbeat. It pumped steadily, like raindrops from a downpour on a window.
“Well, healer, will I live?” Blood poured out of Sebastian’s mouth as he said that. Edwin went to scan for further internal damage. There were the scars on the outside, the ones caused by the lightning, and what seemed to be both damaged and healed was the heart.
“Don’t speak. I'll heal your heart,” Edwin began to pump mana inside. Normally, he wouldn’t have even dreamed of it. But Sebastian didn’t seem to be showing any signs of pain from the mana poured inside him. So, Edwin continued to mend every tear he could feel.
“I think you solved my mana problem, Eddy. I can feel it moving around. Do you suppose that Harry got hit by lightning some time before he met you?” Sebastian made an intricate sign in the air and the sky became cloudy.
“Stop that. It is cold enough in here,” snapped Edwin and, to his surprise, the sky became clear again. “What just happen?”
“You gave me a direct command,” the vampire said between gritted teeth. “And once one is bound, they can’t disobey a direct command.”
Edwin thought back at all his conversations with Hadrian. Never did the vampire say anything that could be mistaken for a direct command. He smiled softly. Sebastian was not a threat anymore.
“I command you to tell me everything you know about the vampire council,” Edwin needed to know with what he was dealing with.
“Well, that will take a while, but here goes: It is made from the oldest vampire there are. One of the members is Paul, your grandsire. The rest are Jackal Edwards, Elina Mills and Helgor Asinov. Helgor wanted Fernand dead, by the way.”
“That is all? Just four members?” Edwin couldn’t believe that four people could cause so much trouble. Or that they had so much sway over Sebastian.
“They have survived the 431 vampire-known world war and fought until the world accepted us. Don’t underestimate them, Eddy,” Edwin had finished with fixing Sebastian’s heart and was now checking his skin for burns.
There were third-degree burns around his neck from where there had been a medallion. The chain had melted and it had fallen. Edwin looked around and found it among the glass.
He picked it up and handed it to Sebastian without a word. The red-haired vampire took it and frowned when he saw that the opening mechanism was melted.
“I keep a picture of my mother inside. We will need to get it opened as soon as possible. Her soul won’t rest otherwise,” Sebastian looked torn when he said that, and Edwin placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“After the Asylum of Blood, we will get your locket opened,” it was bordering insane that Edwin would comfort his enemy like this, but he still felt the need to do so.
“Yes, anyway, the council. Right, so the council has its assassins and merchants that work under them. I am an assassin, but I started off as a merchant,” that intrigued Edwin. Sebastian didn’t look the type to be counting coins.
“You will need monetary backing if you want a bloodless revolution. And even then, things can still spiral out of control,” Edwin knew all that. But he had no idea how to approach merchants and their ilk. He voiced that fact, and Sebastian grinned at him.
“You may not know how, but I do. I still have my connections with the merchant families. And you will have to dip your toes in trading too, if you want to make any connections of your own. Besides, you have Elidys,” Edwin didn’t like that train of thought, so he interjected.
“Elidys has, and will never have, anything to do with my plans,” he stated calmly. The boy was like another son to him, no different from Ben, Rael or Luciano. He was not going to use him.
“You will be in a good light, with people knowing you might end up a regent and that you might become a councilman in Elidys’ court one day. But it is the high of foolishness to not use the boy’s name. You have to start the revolution in Duria, you must know that?”
Edwin gave it time to think. Yes, Duria had to be the start of change. It was a stable country with high prosperity index. If the healers prove they were not satisfied with even the loose restrictions Duria placed on them, then the other healers will follow suit.
“I agree with you that Duria has to be the core of the change. I know numerous healers there from the academy and can talk them into organizing protests. But Elidys stays out of this,” Edwin was certain that the boy will die if the nobles saw him getting used.
Elidys was a bastard, not a full royal. Legitimized out of necessity. But Edwin knew that king Valyr would rather the third in line sit the throne than Elidys or Edwin, if Edwin used the boy.
“Your view on things is colored false by your love of the boy, but your love for others is one of your better qualities,” and then the skies became cloudy again. Edwin's sight and let Sebastian soak them both to the bone. The smile on the red haired vampire was more than worth the discomfort.
