I let my eyes harden as I look at the vampires, who had once been my favorite creations and longtime companions. The majority of them knew well enough to flinch or step back at the sight of my glare. The only ones who remained were those in front, Nikolai, and Borya who held Kieran. Nikolai matched my gaze while Borya simply tightened his grasp, causing pain to flit across Kieran's face. Once that passed, the only emotion on Kieran's face as he looked at me was what can only be understood as awe. Why awe? He should be horrified. Terrified, even! At the very least frightened.
Nikolai noticed my attention was off of him and chuckled. "How invested you seem in this pet, my lord.. It'd be-"
Cutting off Nikolai's pending monologue, Kieran had turned his head to look at Nikolai. "I'm not a pet." Even Borya looked at Kieran incredulously at his gall as he met Nikolai's gaze with his own.
"W-What?!" Nikolai sputtered, face reddening.
Kieran blushed lightly, as he was wont to do after he did something unexpected. At least I know he isn't entirely out of his mind. He is scared. Good. Fear is healthy. "I'm sorry. Did you not hear me, you parasitical, hedonistic nesferatu? I said I'm not a pet." I had to fight a grin. Nikolai looked furious while Kieran seemed like Nikolai was just an annoying salesperson on his doorstep. He seemed more scared of his brother which is ridiculous. Nikolai could kill him easily. Not that I'd let him.
"How verbose. You must be quite the reader, yes?" Nikolai scowled at him and Kieran glanced over to me quickly. Right. Danger. I should stop this.
I growled and the sound rolled like thunder over the crowd. The same vampires who had flinched or backed away at my glare clearly prepared to run. Even Nikolai wasn't unfazed. "Enough. Let him go. This isn't a game." Nikolai and Borya exchanged glances. They have five seconds to let him go before I start fucking shit up. Apparently the threat was clear in my eyes and Nikolai nodded, causing Borya to release Kieran. Kieran didn't walk back to me as I'd expected. No, he simply walked to the side and left the space between me and the coven empty.
Nikolai laughed and Borya smirked. "He is clever. He too recognizes the threat you've become."
"The only ones to whom I may pose a threat to are you and yours. Begone from my sight before the threats tempt themselves into becoming reality." I snarled, tail thrashing dangerously.
Nikolai simply grinned and bowed his head. "Yes, my lord." He gestured widely and his coven shifted into their wolf forms, a strange look for the middle of a street surrounded by buildings with no trees in sight. He turned to Kieran and nodded his head. "We'll be seeing much of each other, I'm sure. Until we meet again." Kieran didn't seem pleased by the prospect but nodded back. Nikolai then shifted himself and, howling, ran off with his coven. I turned back to my human form as soon as I was sure they were gone. Kieran had his eyes closed and seemed to be muttering silently to himself, leaning against the wall of the building a few feet away.
I approached them hesitantly, as one would a scared animal. I made sure to not be too quiet or too loud but I'm sure I didn't actually succeed. "Kieran?" I asked.
His eyes opened and looked at me. "What. The fuck." His voice gave away the disbelief his eyes didn't.
With that, I quickly changed my tactics. "Are you okay? You went all woozy there." If I can just make him believe he imagined it all, hopefully he'll be safe long enough for me to deal with Nikolai.
"Woozy? What do you mean?" He asked.
"You don't remember? We were walking to the coffee shop, you were telling me about your research topic, and you got dizzy so we stopped for a moment." I lied smoothly, giving him a worried look. He seemed to believe me at first but then his eyes narrowed.
"Simon. Are you lying to me?" He asked. I opened my mouth to respond but he continued. "Because if you are, then let me make this quite clear. You will have one chance to tell me the truth." He sounded firm. Well, shit.