Chapter 58: Linking lives

 Lucius was good at sneaking around. It was the first thing he had learned how to do as a mortal, and it had helped him during his time as a vampire as well.

Getting in Thomas's room during the night, when everyone was either asleep or too busy with planning to pay him any attention, was easy. He stood before the siren's bed. Trying to spot a difference in the man he used to know.

Chubby, check. Dark-haired, check. If Thomas opened his feverish eyes, they would be the same brown shade Lucius remembered. He bent down and squinted at the face before him.

It was drenched with sweat. So was the tunic that Thomas wore. Lucius had seen this sickness before. It was never a pretty sight. He sighed, and rolled up his own sleeve. Taking a dagger from his belt, he cut a line across his own arm.

"Tommy, I need you to wake up for me," Lucius spoke softly. Their connection was such that, no matter how much Thomas tried not to share his dizziness with the vampire, he still ended up projecting some of it on him.

"Hm," was all Thomas managed to do. He was at death's door. If it hadn't been for the dungeon core, he would be dead by now.

"Fine, let me just," Lucius opened Thomas's mouth gently, and pressed his bleeding arm between the muse's lips. A bit of life returned to the sick man's limbs. He hastily grabbed at the arm, and began to suck out the blood.

Lucius placed a hand over Thomas's hair, and gave it a couple of pats.

"I don't even know if you can hear me now, what with how badly off you are, but you have to know I am doing this for myself," Lucius said. He didn't want for there to be any misunderstandings between them. "I have always wanted to bound someone to myself. This way, what we have will be a two-way street."

Lucius chuckled at his own wording. He leaned down, so he could whisper in Thomas's ear. His lips brushing the ear lobe. 

"When you lose the weight, I will make you regret Yima's and the deaths of the rest. I will hurt you, Tommy. More than you can imagine. Until then, I am your loyal servant. Your supportive mentor figure," Lucius kissed the earlobe and straightened up. He pressed two fingers on Thomas's nose so that the summoner would let go of his arm.

"What?" Thomas stared around wildly. His eyes were still feverish, but there was a clarity to them. Then, he noticed the taste of blood in his mouth. "What did you do to me, Lucius?"

"Nothing you didn't deserve," Lucius said with a shrug. "You will get better in two days. Provided I give you more blood."

"What is the price?" The dark-haired adventurer asked. Fearing the answer.

"You will see. I haven't made you into a vampire, don't you worry," Lucius leaned so that they were at eye-level and smirked. "It is worse than you think, I can assure you."

Thomas swallowed the last of the blood that was in his mouth. Lucius had not bound him to himself, had he? It took intent to do that.

"If I die, you die," The siren reminded him.

"You know, I have been thinking. You have a pretty voice. Sing for me," Lucius commanded. Thomas did not want to, but he was singing before he knew he opened his mouth. When he was finished, his chest was rattled by a row of coughing.

"See? You are not the only one who holds dominion, Tommy. I hold dominion over you as well," Lucius ran a hand over the sweat coated dark strands, and Thomas gulped again.

"I am sorry," was all the siren could say. Right now, this old magic Lucius had done to him trumped the contract that Thomas had tricked Lucius into accepting.

"Oh, you haven't begun to be sorry, boy. Not nearly, not yet," Lucius told him in a light-hearted tone. "You were out of it, when I made my pledge, but I promised you that you will truly regret."

"I..." Thomas wanted to repeat himself. To plead for mercy. He was way over his head. This was the Blood Bane. He was going to die, and Lucius would find a way to worm out of the contract and....

"Say you are sorry one more time, and I will punch you," Lucius's expression was rock hard. "You killed Yima and my friends. People you knew. All you needed to do was play along to my tune."

"Yaranhold has..." a hand was pressed on Thomas's mouth, silencing him.

"Spare me the eight hundred thousand children drivel. We wouldn't have killed them," Lucius was going to continue, when Thomas bit his hand, drawing blood.

"You were going to scatter them to the four winds. To die of starvation and in poverty," Thomas snapped. His indignation reaching a new high. "I did the right thing."

Lucius began to chuckle then. Before Thomas knew what was happening, he was on his back and Lucius was above him.

"I said I will wait until you lost your weight to hurt you. To make your achievement, the one you wished for the most, bitter ash in your mouth. But you can't be allowed to think yourself the hero, Tommy. Not when the cream of the guild is dead in a tunnel," Lucius leaned down in record time, and smashed his lips with the adventurer below him. He bit the summoner's lower lip and tugged it up until Thomas gasped. Then, he forced his tongue inside his mouth.

Teeth clamped around his tongue, promising to bite it off, but not doing so. Lucius's eyebrows rose in a challenge. He could always heal from the missing tip of his tongue. Thomas would be bedridden after the beating Lucius was going to give him, if he bit off his tongue.

"I can't allow for this to happen," Lucius heard the dungeon core say, and then felt electricity run down the length of his body.