"Do you think that was a safe decision?" Lucius asked, his voice a low rumble, eyes gleaming with faint irritation.
Alaric met his gaze without hesitation. "Leaving you alone in this kingdom in your current state?" His tone was biting. "That would be the biggest mistake I could make."
Lucius's lips curled into a smirk. "Fair enough. Let's go hunt some prey, then."
For the first time that evening, Alaric's expression softened into a smile. "I've never done this with a partner before."
Lucius's grin widened, exposing the faint gleam of his sharpened teeth. "Perhaps neither have I." Without another word, the two of them vamp-sped into the night, their movements nothing more than dark blurs against the shadowy backdrop of the forest.
The inn stood at the edge of a quiet, worn-down village, its creaky sign swaying gently in the breeze.
