Since the break-in at Day's home, several days had passed, more and more plagued by irrational thoughts. His nightmares were starting to encroach on his job, cutting him off from reality for a few seconds before his boss called him to order. He who had been blameless until then only made mistakes now, spending most of his time begging forgiveness for his slowness rather than working. Day's gaze was perpetually on the outside, observing every car that stood outside the pub a little too long for his liking, scrutinizing everyone who stopped in front. After several hours of overtime, the bartender would walk as far as possible from the trees when he got home. His knife was no longer under his jacket but stuck in his belt, ready to be unsheathed at the slightest touch. But since that night, no incident had occurred again. Yet the feeling of being perpetually watched continued and worse, even intensified.
"Day. Oh, Day! I'm talking to you!" his boss appeared behind him, arms crossed.
The young man who was lost in his thoughts again turned around, putting his cloth on his shoulder.
"Yes Boss ?" he asked in a distant tone that betrayed his fatigue.
"You can go home, you won't be working overtime tonight."
"Oh, but I can do them there is no problem!"
"Day, you spent the day thinking and making repeat customers. For several days you have seemed constantly worried, what is happening to you?"
"Nothing at all, I'm just sleeping badly lately."
"I think I'm making you work a little too much. Do you want to take your days off from tomorrow? "
"One will suffice."
"Okay. Take your things and go home, you need to sleep."
"Thank you, this is very generous of you. Are you going to be okay tomorrow?"
"Haha don't worry kid! I opened this pub on my own, so spending a day alone behind the bar will remind me of my beginnings."
The young man smiled at his boss and patted his shoulder in a friendly way before going to change clothes, pulling on his sweatshirt with slight relief. Coming home earlier would break his routine and maybe his stalker would be taken aback. Quickly he went back down to the room in civilian clothes, greeting his boss before going out and putting his hood over his headphones. With his hands in his pockets, his mind alert, Day took his usual course and - a little more relieved - allowed himself to relax his attention a little more.
Until a tire squeal has been heard in the distance as he was about to open his gate. Day scanned the surroundings, stopping on a motorbike coming towards him. It was all black and imposing and changed lanes to stop right in front of him.
"Are you lost?" Day asked, discreetly pulling out the knife hidden under his sweatshirt.
"On the contrary, I have just arrived at my destination."
Without thinking, the bartender raised his gun and lunged at the rider, pressing his blade to his throat and pulling up the visor of his helmet. Two glowing, menacing pupils appeared and Day could see chaos and hell through them.
"You are… a vampire too…" he stammered, panic and fear only growing inside him.
A little smile appeared on the man's face in front of him, revealing all his teeth including his longer than normal canines. The biker's arrogant look grew more pronounced as Day pressed the knife harder against his throat, slicing through the high collar of his sweater.
"I will bleed you if you try to make the slightest move." He threatened, pressing a little harder to make his threat more believable.
A few drops of blood ran against the pale skin of the motorcyclist but did not make him stop smiling.
"Come on, are you sure? You tremble like a scared child." the man in black chuckled, grabbing his wrist. "Go ahead, push a little harder, Day."
"How do you know my name first ?!"
"Just as you know slicing my carotid artery won't kill me. However, that would put me in a very bad mood."
"Who are you? I want to know your name, right away!"
"I'm Nyx, pleased to meet you Day Evennin."
"Nyx? The… The…"
"The god of night and death, pleased to meet you, once again."
"This stalker wasn't lying when he said he would come with other people to assassinate me. Where are the others, they'll come later after you tortured me, right? I won't let you do that and I don't care if you are a god! "
"I came alone and on my own, what's more. What are you talking about? Who is going to murder you?"
"Stop lying! You know what I'm talking about!"
The so-called Nyx grabbed his attacker's wrists and pressed against his bones, dropping the knife loudly.
"Your neighbours are going to wake up to the racket you are making eventually. Let's go home." He forced him, pushing him against the gate.
"Let go of me, please…"
"Cooperate with me then."
"You will have to re-enter your motorcycle, it will obstruct traffic."
"Sure, open the gate for that. I want to let you know, it'll take an hour or less and then I'll be gone."
"Promised?"
"Since I say so. I won't stay long in your sanctuary. That's how you think of your house, isn't it?"
Day nodded feverishly and opened his gate before letting the motorbike move into his driveway. Quiet, Nyx put it down at the foot of the outside staircase and went after the owner into the house. The first thing that struck him was the perfect storage, the absence of any visible speck of dust and the broken window in the living room. The clicks of the three locks on the front door startled him, causing him to turn around almost immediately.
"Why is the glass broken?" he asked stupidly, pointing at him.
"I was assaulted a few days ago by a vampire. He broke in." Day replied simply, stepping away from his forced guest.
"Why did he do that?"
"Like you, he just wanted to talk to me and then he threatened me with death. He added that he would come back with other vampires to kill me if I didn't choose their side. And he said I was living in denial. and that I couldn't escape my fate for long."
"Your destiny…"
"I won't take the title. I refuse the legacy. I refuse to see anyone who is not completely human. No magic, no elemental essence, no sharp canines ready to go. tear my throat."
"I have sharp canines, magic, and some elemental essence for information…"
"You forced my hand!"
"You could have left me alone and gone home."
"Yes, that's it."
"What ran through your veins could have defended you against that prowler, defended you against me and kept me at bay while you barricaded yourself, right?"
"Hmm?"
"I am stupid, sorry my fault...I forgot that someone here refused to use them."
"I don't."
"That's why you left the monastery you were at and refused to see your parents again, right? Rumours about you run fast, a lot of rumours."
"They abandoned me, left to my fate in an orphanage before my uncle picks me up."
"Now they want to see you again."
"They only want my name next to theirs mostly. They only want the protection I would give them. Nothing more, nothing less. What exactly are you talking to me about for having driven so many miles?"
"Your help."
"Get out."
"Your great help, your destiny in short. We need to find the light and you are the only one who can guide us."
"I told you I don't want to pick up the torch! I want to live ordinarily, nothing more."
"But you are not ordinary."
"I know, no need to remind me to thank you! I know that I know that for a fact…"
Day sat down on his couch and cradled his head, slowly massaging his temples with his fingertips. Silently Nyx came to sit beside him, uncomfortable and not knowing what to say or do.
"Excuse me, I didn't have to say that." the god of night and death tempted, shifting a few inches towards him.
"I know normal life is an illusion for people like us but damn, I was living well until they started to stalk me! It's been several weeks since this is going on. I'm going to go crazy. They are going to me make crazy."
"I'm going to help you not to turn crazy. Now that I'm here, things should calm down."
"Really?"
"Yes. You will be able to have a peaceful night."
"With the god of night and death? The god who lives reclusively with the other deities away from the modern world? Above all, you're going to set my kitchen on fire."
"I am the master of fire as a reminder, and I have a motorcycle so, I think your 'away from the modern world' is incorrect."
"Have the others also modernized?"
"Not really."
"So I was partly right. Anyway, do you plan to take off your helmet and all your gear or not? No, because the weather is good here, you are not going to freeze to death.
"Like I could, you moron."
Day smirked and turned a little more to Nyx to watch him remove all his gear. The perfectly black, shiny, flawless helmet was quickly removed and left the god's short hair in the open. Shaved at the sides, that brown hair was a real battlefield, wild as if a jar of the gel had fallen on his head.
"You like gel, don't you?" Day couldn't help but laugh as he put his hand on his hair. "You have to use a pot every day, hehe."
"It's better than having your hair straight and without volume." Nyx immediately defended himself by undoing his jacket. "Where can I put it?"
"On the chair, put it on the back. I didn't ask you, but how did you know where I lived? "
"I've been looking for you for a while. You know, I want your help, really! You may be forcing yourself to ignore what's going on, but the Night Beings are trying to throw the scales off balance. Humans, those unfamiliar with magic, will be defenceless prey. There will be carnage if we do nothing. "
"And who is this 'we' you are talking about?
"You and me, and the other gods. We have exceptional attitudes, but we are not the Mighty and we can only delay things and minimize them. You on the other hand, as a descendant of the Mighty One, can make a difference. The people of the night need a guide. "
"Why don't they elect one of their own? I mean, a vampire to guide vampires makes more sense, right? Why don't you take this vacant place? "
"I have pledged allegiance as the keeper of the Mighty One. He is the creator of the Earth, it is his task to guide living beings in his world."
"It is not him who created the vampiric embarrassment but the Evil in a pure and absolute state: Overlord Mallius. But as you know, he delegates a lot to his dear, his precious Lord Dest. You know, the son of the Mighty One and the god of destruction and chaos. It's up to him to lead these people, not me."
"What a funny way to talk about your father, to call him by name."
"He's not a father to me."
Nyx, who was struggling to fit his protective jacket properly onto the back of the chair, turned his head in Day's direction and nodded. When he owed respect to the Lord, he couldn't deny that his son was right about it.
"You know," he began, moving closer to him. "I know how to make croissants, the advantage of being born and raised in France."
"Is your mother a human too?"
"Yes, like the second parent of the other gods. We are all born from a cross between a human and a god. My father, the former god of night and death, met my mother at a masked ball. Small anecdote: he always liked big parties, especially if there is whiskey and blond people like you."
"Your mother is blonde, I guess."
"Exactly, he said he was a little disappointed that I wasn't born blond."
"Where does your vampiric gene come from then?"
"From the brother of the first god of night and death, the god of trickery and malice. He was "contaminated" with the gene while still in his mother's womb. My ascendant, born to the same mother but a few years later, received part of the gene that only develops in his two firsts children. I inherited it in my turn at the same time as my twin. It is our particularity. We are both vampires. "
"You have a twin ?"
"Yes, he inherited the uncle side so to speak. A true god of trickery! "
"You must have a special family too."
"Definitely! Believe me, the family meals are lively with the gods! Well, can I make us crepes? "
"Why not."
The god grinned, proud to show someone his talent for cooking and rushed into the kitchen. Without asking the slightest permission, he opened all the cupboards. He taking out a steel bowl belonging to the pastry robot and the necessary ingredients. Then the famous robot. Leaning against the glass roof of his kitchen, Day did not waste a crumb in the preparation of the mixture. He was extremely worried to see a god using an extremely modern electrical device. Much to his surprise - and relief - Nyx knew how to use it, remembering to put the lid on so there was no dough splashing. He didn't want to have to clean his kitchen. All the bartender wanted was to eat those famous crepes, take a shower and go to sleep. But Nyx, besides being an intimidating god, loved to talk, and Day quickly saw his whole tightly-tuned program change.