Blood struggled down the side of the mountain. He was descending down an almost vertical edge, using the giant stones as footholds, praying none of them would collapse under his pressure.
Standing twenty feet away, safe on the flat plate, Emile watched Blood struggle to get down. He slowly took another step and gently placed his foot on a rock.
The rock wobbled for just a second and then buckled under the weight. Blood reached around, trying his best to latch onto anything that would save him, but with only one arm he wasn't able to hold on.
Blood rolled down the steep hill and richoteted between stones like a pinball machine. He finally hit the bottom, an out of place flat bed of rock and groaned as he rolled over.
"You okay?" Emile called out.
"Shut up!" Blood snapped back.
He pulled himself to the edge of the flat space and crawled underneath a protruding stone roof where he knocked repeatedly on a hidden glass hidden window.
A couple moments later, Jumper appeared behind Emile. They were currently at the very start of their journey, where Jumper spit them out the first time. Blood struggled down the mountain to get to one of the hidden windows so they could be let back in.
"Doing well, Spright?" Jumper greeted him.
"Better than him." Emile pointed below.
A gentle chuckle escaped from Jumper's lips, "I'm not sure if that's much of an accomplishment."
Jumper portaled Emile inside and a few moments later Blood arrived as well. Rushing over to Emile, Blood waited to be healed after slamming into multiple rocks on his fall down.
Taking a seat on the velvety red couch in the living room, Emile and Blood released a sigh of relief.
"I'll go fetch Collector." Jumper stepped away.
"Remember what I said?" Blood subtly asked.
"Yeah. Don't worry, I got it." Emile replied.
"Hey, I heard the new guy was here!" A roar erupted from the hallway leading to the kitchen.
Turning his attention to the voice, Emile looked down the hall and saw two people approaching him, a man and a woman. The man walked in front.
He was tall, probably six-foot-three, and extremely well built. Broad shoulders, huge biceps, he even wore a skin tight shirt that highlighted the grooves of his abs. He had short black spiky hair, a clean shaven face, and bright red-orange eyes.
A step behind him a girl followed. She seemed about the same age as him, early twenties, and was tall for a woman—Emile estimated she was five-foot-ten or eleven.
She had long dark brown hair, brown eyes, and olive skin that contrasted greatly with the man's pale skin. The highlight of her appearance, however, was her vibrant red lipstick.
"You must be Spright," the man squatted down and met eyes with Emile, "I heard you were a real healer." A disgusting grin quickly formed on his face, "Mind if I test that?"
Before Emile could reply, a spark of essence ignited in the man's palm and his fingers began to burn a radiant glow. He reached over and grabbed Blood's wrist and immediately an audible searing could be heard.
Smoke squeezed between his fingers as the smell of burnt hair and flesh filled the air. Snapping back to reality, Emile grabbed the man's forearm and struggled to pull it off Blood.
"Are you crazy?!" Emile yelled, "What are you doing?!"
The man pulled his hand back and the glow faded away. He raised his arms in the air like he was in trouble, but the grin still on his face said it all.
Remembering Blood, Emile checked on the boy. His face was bright red, sweat trickled on his brow, and his eyes were bloodshot.
Looking at his wrist, he had third degree burns. His skin melted down and melded together, a clear imprint of a hand permanently branded on his body.
Emile gently placed his fingers on Blood's arm and circulated Breath of Essence. In a matter of moments, all four people watched Blood's skin deconstruct. It unraveled and pulled apart.
The smooth, rubbery texture grew soft again and the bright red color returned to Blood's normal vampiric complexion.
"Are you okay?" Emile asked.
"Yeah—" Blood grit his teeth, "I'm fine."
"Wow!" The man commented, "That is some serious healing! I'm Blaze by the way and this is Quake." He gestured to the woman behind him.
"Alright, alright! Stop bothering them!" The Collector said while ascending the stairs. "Spright, Blood, come down here will you?"
Emile launched off the couch, ready to get away from the psychopath in front of him.
"It was nice meeting you two, but we've gotta go." Emile kindly bid farewell as he walked towards the staircase, Blood just behind him.
The trio walked down the stairs and took their respective seats in the meeting room. Before the Collector started, however, Emile spoke up first.
"What the hell was that?!" Emile exploded, "What if I couldn't heal Blood?!"
"But you were able to heal Blood." The Collector replied.
"But what if I couldn't?! He's just allowed to go around torturing people for fun?! I thought we couldn't hurt each other! I thought that was part of the agreement!" Emile argued.
"Well—" The Collector paused and overtly glanced at Blood.
Blood sighed and turned to face Emile, "Blaze is my brother." He said dejectedly, "Our relationship goes above the contract."
"What?! That douchebag is your brother!"
"Unfortunately… and since we're family The Collector technically can't stop us from fighting. He just can't kill me." Blood sighed.
Emile looked between Blood and the Collector unsure of what to say. It clearly wasn't fair. Blood was being bullied, even more than that he was being tortured.
"You can't let him do that!" Emile took it to the Collector.
"The contract prevents the Graves from meddling with family affairs. As long as Blood is able to fulfill his role without issue I can't intervene." The Collector said.
"You can't intervene?!" Emile raised his voice even more, "I thought you made all the contracts!"
"While it's true I made all the contracts with you guys, I am bound to someone else. There's really nothing I could do. I'm sorry." The Collector lowered her head in silence for a few moments then looked back up, "Now shall we get you two up to speed?"
Emile was in shock. The Collector continued to speak, but Emile didn't hear any of it. He was just starting to like Blood too so to find out he was being abused so blatantly was enraging.
'I need to get stronger'
'Healing isn't enough'