Colton’s doctor arrived at the manor in less than an hour. Their car, a nondescript white van with no identifiable customisations to speak of, parked in the manor gates and let out a single beep to announce its presence. It looked exactly like something a kidnapper trying to blend in would drive, though considering Kumo’s circumstances, Valen supposed that this technically did count as kidnapping.

Seeing the van from a ground floor window, Enid opened the gates for it with an app on her phone. 

The van rounded the overgrown courtyard to park in front of the manor doorsteps, after which a pointy-eared woman stepped out of the driver’s seat carrying a leather briefcase. She wore a long white lab coat that contrasted with her deep brown skin and her tousled green hair had tiny pink flowers either decorating it or growing out of it. 

Valen frowned and opened the door for her with Enid and Louise by his sides.

“Can we help you, miss?” he asked.

“Colton sent me,” the woman said plainly. “My name’s Doctor Dimitra.”

“Name checks out,” said Enid. “Her van’s licence plate matches what Colton said it’d be too.”

The doctor stared blankly at Valen. “Were you expecting a man?”

“Ah. Well. Um.” Valen couldn’t think of a way to say ‘yes’ without coming off as sexist and so kept his mouth shut.

“We thought the Society didn’t let women join,” said Louise without hesitation. “How come they’re sending you?”

“I’m not a member,” said Doctor Dimitra. “I just work freelance with them and don’t ask any more questions than is needed.”

“Well, thank you for coming, doctor.” Valen stepped to the side to let her in. “Please, come in.”

Doctor Dimitra stepped into the manor and Valen closed the door behind her.

Louise wrinkled her nose and sniffed the air. “Are those flowers in your hair real?”

“It’s a dryad thing,” said Doctor Dimitra without further elaboration.

“The patient’s in the dining room.” Enid motioned for the doctor to follow her. “Come along.”

Kumo had already fallen asleep by the time Enid and Valen finished their respective phone calls and was still out cold but breathing when Doctor Dimitra entered the room to check in on him.

Without missing a beat, she got to work prodding Kumo’s body with the drum of her stethoscope while Valen, Enid, and Louise watched on from the dining room entrance.

“Hmm. He’s out cold from exhaustion but otherwise stable.” Doctor Dimitra draped her stethoscope around her neck and turned to them. “Which one of you did the chest tube?”

Valen immediately stiffened up. A sinking feeling gnawed at his stomach.

“That would be me,” he said with a gulp. “Did I make a mistake?”

“No,” Doctor Dimitra said bluntly. “Actually, considering what you had to work with, this is pretty damn impressive. You even knew to use tube thoracostomy instead of needle thoracostomy to account for his healing factor regenerating over the incision. Well done.”

“Ah, yes,” said Valen, pretending that it was intentional. “Of course. Thank you.”

“I would’ve used some cheaper whiskey for the bottle though,” she added. “This looks like a waste of a good vintage.”

Louise threw her arms in the air. “That’s what I bloody said!” 

Enid elbowed her on the shoulder. “That’s not even your booze, Snowball.”

Valen cleared his throat. “I’m assuming that he’ll be needing surgery?”

“To repair his lungs, yes.” Doctor Dimitra put her stethoscope back inside her briefcase. “You’re going to have to help carry him into my van.”

“Do you have a stretcher on hand?”

“No.”

Valen ended up having to carry Kumo out bridal style while Enid helped hold the whiskey bottle which Louise kept eying longfully all the way out.

Doctor Dimitra opened the back of the van, which had almost nothing but a thin mattress on the floor.

“Do we have to worry about the bottle falling over during transit?” Valen asked as he laid Kumo’s unconscious body on the mattress.

“Nope.” Doctor Dimitra took out a roll of duct tape from her briefcase which she promptly used to tape the whiskey bottle to the wall of the van to keep it in place.

“I didn’t know duct tape was so useful,” Louise mumbled under her breath.

“It’s one of mankind’s greatest inventions.” Doctor Dimitra closed the back of the van. “I’ll be in contact with you later about his condition.”

“Hope you don’t mind treating a killer,” said Louise, earning a soft elbow jab from Valen. “There’s a man dying in a hospital because of this guy.”

“If I cared about morals then I wouldn’t be working for the Society.” Doctor Dimitra pulled open the driver’s seat of her blatantly innocuous van and got inside. “I’ll call Colton as soon as I’ve fixed this guy’s lung and he’ll probably call you so try not to get into trouble until then.”

And with that, Doctor Dimitra drove off and Enid closed the electronic gates behind her.

“Strange lady,” said Enid once they re-entered the manor, handing her blue trench coat on a rack beside the door.

“Dunno, I kind of like her,” said Louise.

Valen hung his coat next to Enid’s and neatly placed his shoes beside the door before locking it behind them. “Enid, are you certain it’ll be safe for us to stay here?”

“Colton assured me that he’d have his people scrub any links I have to this place from the internet at once,” said Enid. “And it doesn’t seem like Kumo told the Primordial Church about this place before he defected so we should be good.”

“Is that a risk we can take?”

“I’ve checked the entire manor,” she assured him. “Other than Kumo picking the front door, there’s no sign of forced entry. If they didn’t find out about his place when I first moved in they probably won’t anytime soon now. We can stay.”

“Running out of mansions, Thunder Tits?” asked Louise.

“I have a few more and a lot of hotels we could crash in but I’d rather we not run around like headless chickens if we can help it.” Enid plopped down on a long velvet couch with an antique aesthetic that clashed with the giant wide screen tv in front of it.

“On the bright side,” Valen sat down on the couch beside her and allowed her to rest her head on his shoulder while she channel surfed, “I don’t think the Primordial Church is going to try anything quite as bold as the bomb anytime soon.”

“Speaking of which,” Louise sat down on Valen’s other side, resting an elbow on her shoulder. “When are we meeting Clarence?”

“Keiko said that I could come by late tomorrow night,” said Valen. “Clara’s going to be there too.”

“We can relax for now then.” Enid turned the television to a mediaeval drama that Valen knew was popular but had never watched before. “Hey, I remember this episode.”

“Man, I used to love this show,” said Louise. “Too bad about how it ended.”

“Is it any good?” Valen asked, earning blank stares from both his best friends. “...What?”

“You’ve never heard of The Royal Ploy?” asked Enid.

“Well I’ve heard about it but never watched it,” said Valen. “Why?”

Enid turned off the TV and bolted from her seat up the stairs before Valen could say anything.

“Okay, seriously.” Louise tugged the sleeve of his dress shirt. “You’ve never watched The Royal Ploy before? Not even a spoiler?”

“I was busy studying when it got really big,” said Valen. “Is it really that good?”

Enid raced back down the stairs with a blu-ray that had a cover showing an impractically spiky throne with no one in it.

“I have the complete series right here,” said Enid. “Screw everything else, we’re bingeing this thing right now.”

“Except for Season 8,” said Louise.

Enid nodded. “Except for Season 8.”

“What’s wrong with Season 8?” Valen asked.

“We don’t talk about Season 8,” said both women in unison.

Valen blinked at them. “Oookay?”

Enid walked over to her blu-ray player and inserted the disc.

“This is one of those shows you ought to watch before you die,” she said. “And since we could die any day now, you’re watching this with us right now.”

And so they did.

But while Enid and Louise were totally engrossed in the show, Valen couldn’t help but feel nervous. He’d been physically close to both women before, going so far as to actually sleep with one of them. But for some reason, having both of them be so close to him at the same time made it feel different from usual. He stole glances at the two of them while they watched the show despite himself. 

Louise was adorable. She had a sort of cute, perky face that made you want to pinch her in the cheeks but also a plump chest and wide hips that her now unzipped hoodie had done a damn good job at hiding.

Enid was outright gorgeous. Her delicate face looked sculpted to perfection, to say nothing of her buxom figure that was already clearly visible when she had her trench coat on but was now impossible to miss with only her black jumper to cover it.

The show itself was actually pretty good. Valen could see why it was so popular and tried to focus on it to distract himself from the weird feelings he was suddenly having around his best friends. At least, until the sex scenes came on and he felt his soul leave his body while sitting still as a statue.

They managed to finish the entirety of Season 1 before going to bed with the promise of more snacks for their next binge. 

Valen’s eyes were watery by the time he finally went to bed, but he was still grateful for the change of pace. After all the shit the three of them had been through, a nice movie night where they could just kick back and relax made it feel as though a heavy fog had been cleared from their stressed out minds.

They slept through the following day and woke up in the early hours of evening. The average human would probably find the sleep schedule rather odd, but for Valen and Louise it came naturally as part of their nocturnal instincts. In Enid’s case, she was just the type to sleep wherever the hell she wanted, which usually meant during the day.

Valen brushed himself up in the guest room’s personal loo, combed the clumps out of his long black hair, and tied it in a lengthy ponytail that he draped over one shoulder.

Once that was done he quickly got dressed with some fresh clothes. Enid had brought over all his stuff from her other mansion, though that wouldn’t do much to change his appearance. Most of his wardrobe was filled with the same three colours: black, white, and red, with red bulk-bought waistcoats being particularly prevalent.

There was a reason why he dressed in the same three colours every day. One that he’d never told anyone before. Not even Enid or Louise. As far as they knew it was just his taste in fashion.

In vampire tradition, black, red, and white were mourning colours, and more specifically for the death of family members. 

Black to symbolise the darkness of night taking back their deceased loved one’s soul, red to remind mourners of the familial blood that binds them, white to promise a fresh new start in the afterlife.

Not many vampire families still recognised the significance of those colours but his was a highly traditional one, his mother having hailed from their homeland of Necropolis.

He and his older sister Vivian had been wearing those colours almost every day since his mother’s death. Valerie too, if the red cape she wore when last they met was any indication. There was a time when he wore the mourning colours for her too, but that time ended the moment she revealed what she became to him.

Valen dressed in more or less the same outfit as the one he’d been wearing for the past several nights. White dress shirt, red waistcoat, and black trousers. The black gloves he ruined back at the nightclub he replaced with a pair of dark red ones. His black overcoat would be waiting for him in the coat rack downstairs.

He opened his bedroom door and was surprised to smell…something similar to a sweaty foot wafting from the kitchen downstairs. He headed straight there and found both Enid and Louise huddled around something on the kitchen counter.

“Is that supposed to be green?” said Louise.

“I’m…not sure,” said Enid. 

“Is everything alright?” Valen asked.

“Thunder Tits tried to make a sandwich,” said Louise. “Key word being try.”

“It’s salvageable,” said Enid. “Probably.”

“Well it can’t be that bad.” said Valen before looking over their heads to find that it was, in fact, that bad.

Enid had apparently tried to use the sandwich press without adequately oiling it, if she even oiled it at all. The burnt bread, which had been too big for the sandwich press to begin with, was oozing out the contents it was supposed to encase, mainly half-cooked egg and greenish bluish stuff that Valen could only guess was blue cheese.

Valen ended up making them some proper club sandwiches before they left for Long Night Hospital in the Nocturnal District, the lifesaving antivenin tucked and hidden in Valen’s overcoat.

Following the instructions Keiko had given, Valen headed straight to the front desk and asked the nurse operating it to meet with Clarence Chambers.

The nurse’s eyes lit up with recognition and she smiled as she typed into her computer.

“We’ve been expecting you, Mister Vasilis. Mister Chambers’ in room 140, eighth floor,” she told him. “His sister is there too.”

“I look forward to meeting her,” Valen lied. “Is it alright if my two friends here come with me?”

The nurse blinked at him.

“Friends?” She looked between Enid and Louise, the former of which was holding his hand. Her eyes lingered on Louise for a moment. “Well, it’s leaning on the room’s visitor limit but you should be fine.”

Valen suspected that she thought it would be fine because of how small Louise was but said nothing. The last thing they needed now was Louise picking a fight with the nursing staff.

“Thank you, miss,” said Valen. “I’ll head to his room right away.”

“Lifts are to your left,” said the nurse. “Take care, Mister Vasilis.”

During the lift ride up to the eighth floor, Valen texted Keiko on his phone telling her that he was heading to Clarence’s room. Her reply came in a matter of seconds.

‘Be careful with Clara, she’s been through a lot.’

‘Duly noted,’ he texted back, ‘Thanks again for making this possible.’

‘Don’t thank me yet. Save it for when we grab coffee ;)’

Enid leaned over his shoulder to look at the text.

“She really fancies you, doesn’t she?”

“I can’t imagine why,” said Valen.

Louise lightly punched him on the shoulder.

“Don’t sell yourself short, mate,” she told him. “You’re a catch. I wouldn’t have let you pluck my flower otherwise.”

Valen’s face flushed red. Enid raised an eyebrow.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Enid.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older, Thunder Tits.”

The lift doors mercifully parted and Valen stepped out into the eighth floor, where rows of patient rooms lined either side of a narrow dimly lit hallway.

Upon finding room 140, Valen politely rapped his knuckles on the door while Enid and Louise waited on either side of him.

“Excuse me.” He eased the door open and poked his head inside. “May I come in?”

Clarence Chambers laid comatose on the hospital bed, hooked up to an IV tube with a tracheostomy tube still sticking out of his swollen neck. Dark purple bruises and red rashes that he couldn’t possibly have gotten from lying on the bed.

A young drow woman with messy long white hair sat in a wheelchair next to the bed. ‘DarkDamsel’ looked a lot more worn out in real life than her recent social media posts would suggest. Her pale grey face had dark bags hanging under violet eyes that didn’t look nearly as piercing as in the photos without professional lighting but noticeably lit up when she saw Valen’s head poking into the room.

“Please, come in!” she said, rolling her wheelchair towards him.

“Oh, please don’t trouble yourself!” Valen hurried inside the room to greet her. “Clara Chambers, I presume?”

“That’s me alright!” she said. “And you’re Valen Vasilis?”

“I am.” Valen glanced behind him, pretending to look at Enid and Louise still standing in the hallway while actually checking for security cameras. “I brought some friends along. I hope that’s alright with you. They were with me during the incident as well.”

“Hey, any friend of yours is a friend of mine too!” She leaned to one side to look around him. “Come on in!”

Enid and Louise stepped into the patient room, Louise looking uncomfortable while Enid regarded the situation with the same nonchalance she approached most things.

“Hey,” said Louise. “I’m Louise.”

“And I’m Enid Flamel,” said Enid.

“Flamel?” Clara furrowed her brow. “Like Flamel Corp.”

“That’s my father’s company.” 

Clara’s eyes widened in surprise and turned to Valen.

“You’re dating a Flamel?!”

“Miss Chambers,” Enid continued, taking her attention away from Valen. “I want to say how much I appreciate your role in getting Valen out of prison.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, Miss Flamel!” said Clara, looking up at Enid in quiet awe. “It’s the least I could do after he saved my brother.”

“I’d still like to reward you in some way, though,” said Enid. “Would it be alright if I sponsored you for a few streams?”

“That’d be amazing!” Clara immediately perked up. “It’d help Clarence get better care too.”

“Speaking of which,” said Valen, “I hope you don’t mind if I go check up on him while you two talk about sponsorship. Maybe hearing my voice could help jog something in his mind.”

“I don’t mind at all!” said Clara before turning her attention back to Enid. “Is there a product you’d like me to promote?”

“As a matter of fact, one of my companies has recently released a new energy drink…”

Valen skulked over to Clarence’s bedside while Clara was distracted by Enid’s business proposal.

Louise continued to scan the room for cameras under the guise of casually looking around. When she found none she gestured a thumbs up at Valen, who proceeded to take out the case of antivenin Kumo had given him.

“I’m going to shove my foot up Kumo’s arse if he was lying about this,” he thought to himself as carefully opened the case as quietly as possible. 

He and Clara had their backs to each other, and Clara was already distracted with Enid. Even if she were to turn around she'd only see his back and not the needle. And if she did, Valen was certain he’d hear the sound of her wheelchair turning.

It was a good thing that Clarence was a werebeast. The fur covering his arm would make it nigh impossible to detect an extra needle mark like the one Valen was about to make.

Valen squeezed his way down Clarence’s left arm until he felt the pulse of a major vein. He took the injection syringe out of the case, tapped it free of any air bubbles, and slowly pierced the needle into the vein. The lifesaving antivenin shot into Clarence’s arm and Valen quickly hid the syringe back inside his coat, and not a second too soon.

The sound of Clara’s creaky wheelchair made Valen turn around.

Clara was smiling at him, her violet eyes moist with uncried tears.

“You really are a lifesaver, Mister Vasilis,” she said. “Truly, I can’t thank you and Miss Flamel enough.”

“It’s nothing,” said Valen. “I’m just glad to be of help.”

“You’re more help than you can imagine.” Clara wiped her eyes. “This new sponsorship’s really going to keep me going now. It’s been a rough few nights online for me.”

“You mean with the weird shippers and simps?” Louise asked bluntly, earning her a disapproving look from Valen.

“I’m used to those by now,” said Clara with a dismissive wave. “It’s about Clarence. I…I didn’t know about his work before he got admitted.”

“Ah.” Valen felt his heart fall out of sympathy. “I’m sorry that you had to find out that way.”

“You got involved with him trying to stop a deal, right?” said Clara. “Is that why you roughed him up before?”

“Um, yes.” Valen rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” said Clara. “I’m sure he had it coming.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” said Louise.

“But he’s still my brother.” Clara looked sadly at Clarence's sleeping form. “We may not be blood related, but he was the one who took care of me every day after I became paralysed.”

“How did you-ow!”

Louise rubbed her shoulder where Valen had pinched her to shut her up.

“Regardless of who he is,” said Valen, “he’s lucky to have as good a sister as you.”

Clara let out a mirthless chuckle and looked up at him with a sad smile.

“Thank you, Valen,” she said. “I wish I could’ve done more for-”

A loud, hoarse gasp cut her off.

Clarence’s eyes shot awake and his mouth started unsuccessfully gulping air down his opened throat like a fish out of water.

“Clarence?!” Clara cried. “You’re awake!”

Valen immediately reached for the nurse call button and pressed it.

Nurses arrived in less than a minute to respond to Clarence’s sudden recovery. Valen, Enid, and Louise were asked to leave while they checked on Clarence’s condition, allowing only Clara to stay in the room.

“I’ll be contacting you later, Miss Chambers,” said Enid before they left.

“Y-yes, please do so!” Clara called out after Enid on her way out. “And thank you again! For everything!”