Going back to the forest with the survivors of Ilvedia, Sangfroid could be seen awaiting the new sunrise outside his tent, eyes dark and heavy from having no sleep. Vladstin had kept him awake and did not allow him to rest.
It was all because of that parchment. Last night, this was how their encounter ensued:
"Nuh-uh!" Vladstin wagged his finger at him. "What makes you think I will give this to you so easily? I want a deal, haha!"
Sangfroid was about to grab the parchment, when this reminded him of his real purpose for wanting to talk to Vladstin. "A deal? I also want to make a deal with you—"
"No way, I don't trust you enough to agree to any of your deals, Hunter. I don't even want to hear it. I'm here for my own amusement." Vladstin grinned.
Sangfroid grabbed his shoulders and tried to tell him about the Hermit. "Listen, Vladstin. What if I have a way to turn you back to—"
"Blah, blah, blah! Can't hear you, too much earwax." Vladstin put his index fingers on both his ears. "Your way of speaking is too boring too, Hunter. Show some emotion, please. You're like a talking statue."
Sangfroid shook him. "Vladstin, I'm serious! I want to help you, to help all of us! If you just could—"
"Great, that's precisely what I wanted! An arrangement that's beneficial for the both of us. " Vladstin stepped meters away faster than Sangfroid could see, already by the exit of the tent. "I'm pretty hungry these days but I wanted to play all of you longer! I can't drink from that snake prince anymore or he'd really turn into a mindless corpse puppet. I could easily kill all of you survivors in a single night, but it's fun watching your day-to-day drama and suffering!"
"You've been watching us? For how long?" Sangfroid asked, stepping forward, but Vladstin dodged him.
"Since the very start, Hunter! I mostly watch over you, I basically know the time you wake up and the time you succumb to sleep." Vladstin was now at his bed, which was just a couple of blankets and sheets on the ground. "At an average, you close your eyes for only three hours and spend most of your nights staring off to space and rubbing your head. It was really pitiful."
Sangfroid did not feel comfortable at the fact that Vladstin was stalking him and observing his every move all this time. Where could he have hidden? Was he lurking in the shadows? Hanging upside down from the top of the tent? Was he.... just watching over him by the side of his bed this entire time?
"Look at your face! What kind of horrendous things were you thinking about me?" Vladstin tilted his head and sneered. "I watched from the partition of your tent, I didn't go any further until tonight. The smell of your blood is surprisingly more tempting than an average human but I behaved myself. At this kind of hunger, I could have easily sucked you dry."
"If you could easily kill me, why didn't you? What is it that you want, and what does that parchment have to do with the circumstances of my birth?" Sangfroid asked, now showing signs of desperation.
"If you take my agreement, then all your questions will be answered soon." Vladstin laid on Sangfroid's bed, hands behind the back of his head. "Like I said, I am extremely ravenous. I want blood. So let's do some exchange. Every night, I'll visit your tent. You give me a pint of human blood, anyone's would do, in exchange for one sentence on the parchment. There are 15 sentences in total. That means 15 more days for you!"
"Fifteen more days for what?" Sangfroid clenched his fist.
Vladstin didn't even seem to leave the bed yet he was already at Sangfroid's face, his finger raising the Chief Huntsman's chin. "Fifteen more days to prepare for an attack, of course."
Sangfroid's eyes widened. "You.... are going to attack us again...."
"Of course. I plan to leave no one alive. You think you can go to some kingdom for protection? I know these woods like the back of my hand, I roamed in here on my first two years of being a vampire." Vladstin said. "You will never reach any of the remaining eleven kingdom's gates within fifteen days."
Sangfroid wanted to argue. "That is not our plan at all. We wanted to go the Libitinus Mountains to search for—"
"Pfft, you plan to settle on the Libitinus Mountains?" Vladstin chuckled, seeming to have no interest to listen to him seriously. "Good luck at keeping even half of the people alive at the foot of that perilous mountain. That is also a thirty-day travel, you won't make it."
"Vladstin, you must listen to me." Sangfroid said sincerely. "I will—"
"So, do we have a deal?" Vladstin waved the parchment in front of his face mockingly. "This parchment would reveal a secret that you absolutely must know before you die, I guarantee it!"
Sangfroid finally accepted that there was no way to reason with Vladstin right now, and he came up with another solution. "Alright. I will take your offer."
"Splendid! I wonder how you will be able to supply me the blood, I'm most curious to see it!" Vladstin said. "I'll be going for some night walk with the wolves, see you tomorrow, Hunter!"
He gave a small, cheeky salute, and went to the entrance.
"Wait!" Sangfroid grabbed his arm. "At least tell me how Leron is doing! What does he eat? Is he alright?"
Vladstin grinned. "He's going to die soon, why does it matter if he eats or not?"
"So you never feed him." Sangfroid assumed. "Then please, send him some food and drink for me and I will double the pint of blood that you ask."
"So you do know how to make convincing requests after all!" Vladstin grinned, bemused. "Well then, that's more blood for me, so how could I say no? But I want another condition to this deal that you added."
"What is it?" Sangfroid knitted his brows.
"I want you to give me one pint of your blood tomorrow. The rest could be from anybody else, as long as it's not animal blood. I hate those things, they barely taste anything." At this, a raven flew at Vladstin's shoulder. Vladstin stroke its dull feathers. "And it pains me to hurt these creatures anyway. My dear Elenore is long dead, that's why I managed to digest his blood."
Sangfroid felt like he had seen this raven before, and if he did, it now makes sense. "I agree to your terms. You will have a pint of my blood tomorrow and two pints of human blood daily in exchange for a sentence from the parchment and necessities for His Highness. Should this agreement be broken, what shall happen to us?"
"If you break your part of the agreement, I will attack you with my army right away." Vladstin and the raven's eyes sparkled at Sangfroid, reflecting the pale moonlight outside. "If I break my part of the agreement.... Hmm, what shall my punishment be? Oh, I know. Nothing! Because I control everything, haha!"
Sangfroid gritted his teeth. That made him trust this vampire even less. Still, there really was nothing he could do, he was too powerful. "Understood."
"Aw, poor Hunter. You look so indignant, like I had just bullied you." Vladstin pooh-poohed. "I was just kidding. This time, I would not be 'cheating' you. Tomorrow, when you give me my first supply, I will hand you a shard of a mirror that could show you whatever you desire using a drop of my blood. That way, you could check on your beloved Leron and see if I'm feeding him well like you asked me to."
Sangfroid felt relieved at this new extension to their agreement.
"Any more complaints?" Vladstin said. " Questions? Violent reactions? Final threats against the evil forces? They usually do that in theatrical dramas."
"I have no more questions." Sangfroid answered dryly.
"Then off we go, Elenore." Vladstin turned with a swish of his cape. "May you have sweet little dreams, hunter. You only have fifteen nights left to have your fill of them after all."
And so, here Sangfroid was now. He did not have any sweet little dreams last night, and he tossed and turned, staying alert in case Vladstin changed his mind and came back. He thought about many things, connecting sequences of events in his mind and forming out strategies. His migraine never left nor subsided for the rest of that sleepless night.
"How will I tell the others about this...." Sangfroid said. "I must ask Rothfir first."
During their morning hunt for meat and other food, Sangfroid approached Rothfir with a somber expression. "Rothfir, I...."
"What have you gotten us into, Sangfroid?" Rothfir sighed.
Sangfroid blinked. "Did you all know—"
"We heard. Vladstin is pretty loud for someone who doesn't have a breath." Asver joined them. "We've been talking about it after we shifted patrols. You could have easily asked us to surround him at all sides and just shoot him until he stops moving or chattering anymore."
Sangfroid shook his head. "It's not possible. He had been toying with us by not showing the full extent of his powers until now. If we attacked him last night, it would have been all over for us."
"We know that you would make the right decision and consider your people first. We trust your judgment, that's why we did not strike without a command in the first place." Rothfir patted his back. "But we worry about you, and we fear that you're shouldering too much of this alone. Why did you have to offer a whole pint of your blood? It's dangerous, this means Vladstin might have some hold over you now. Like you said, he was always hiding his full capabilities."
"I haven't been infected by vampirism yet, and he will not drink the blood through bites, so that means I will not be infected. The highest possibility is that he can see through my eyes, but he cannot take control of me." Sangfroid concluded. "Though I don't know what is the purpose of that, since he was already observing us through his raven."
"Vladstin is a crazy, troublesome vampire. His reason was probably 'for fun'. " Asver rolled his eyes. "Anyway, we made a plan to ask everyone to donate at least an ounce of their blood in batches for the next 15 days. That way, everyone can contribute to this agreement."
That was exactly what Sangfroid was thinking of doing, but he didn't know how to voice it out in a way to convince everyone. "You two will help me tell everyone about it?"
"Not just us. You should remember that you have a whole battalion of Noble Huntsmen behind your back, Chief." Rothfir ruffled his hair. "Why are you stubbornly taking all these responsibilities alone and going sleepless at night? Look at you, you look more dead than those vampire corpses! Let us take care of it when you can't handle it."
Sangfroid didn't know how to express his gratitude, so he gave a small nod with his ears tinged red. "Thank you. I appreciate all you have done for me."
"Don't thank us yet. You still haven't assured us that we will live through this agreement after the 15 day period had passed." Asver crossed his arms. "We can't continue traveling to the Libitinus Mountain now, and Vladstin has no interest in listening to you. How will you convince him to turn back to human if he's going to have a great vampire feast on us survivors after you learned the oh-so-big secret of the parchment?"
Sangfroid narrowed his eyes, expression being grim. "Does anyone know how far the travel is from here to the Crescentian Palace?"
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