Obsession is the height of passion, but what does one do when they find themselves enthralled with their enemy. Talamayas Sol loses his mother when he stumbles upon a mage in the deserts of his territory, and he is plunged into a despair he's never...
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Years passed with his new students, and they all grew. Neil never fully got past his sadness over killing the humans on his change, and because of that, he got easily frustrated when humans were frightened of him. Most of the nomads were tame, but on occasion one of them would see the way he lost it to hunger and their blood would pump harder. It was more difficult for Neil to stop drinking when the blood was flooded with adrenaline and flowing with so much pressure. They had to calm him down and find someone else when that happened, but they'd learned who to use over the years.
It all didn't matter now that he was now handing him back to Vincent. Neil's father would pay no mind to the humans he did or didn't kill, so Tala just hoped that he'd done the best he could for the boy. Now he could stand on his own, had sharpened his senses so that he was functional, but being a vampire took decades to really master. All Tala'd done was cobble a walkway for Neil to use, but he was responsible for staying on it himself.
Tala leaned down and embraced Neil in his throne room, lifting the damn shorty right off the ground into a hug that squeezed his breath and a laugh out of him. When Tala set him down, Neil straightened out his shirt and smiled up to him.
"Remember what I said to you the day we met?" Tala asked, touching his face gently as he knelt.
"Wear the mask," Neil said with a shaky smile.
"Your father will make life hard for you, but you're strong. Vincent may tell you otherwise, but you never let a word of it break through your mask and bury itself in who you are. You will rise, Neil. With time, you will be your own man, no matter what your father wants from you. Stature is nothing if you heart is big enough to bear through pain and survive unscathed."
"I'll do my best," Neil didn't seem encouraged despite all he'd tried. There was really no way to make him returning to his father better, but Tala had no choice by vampire law.
"If you ever need anything, come to me, Neil. I will always be here for you, be it two days from now, a year, or ten. Our kind live long lives, and don't think for a moment I will forget our bond. We're kin, even if your father stole the blood bond that I wanted to form with you. Understand?"
Tears lined the boy's eyes, and Tala wiped them away.
"None of that. Your father will be here in moments. Be strong when in his presence." Tala stood back from him just as Shan came in with the piece of shit that was Vincent Arc.
The man barely said anything to him, just thanked him for stabilizing his son, took him away, and Neil did as he was told. Everything in the boy must have been crying for him to look back for one final glance, but Neil kept his eyes on his father. Anything else would lead to him being punished, so Tala's last look at the boy was his white hair fluttering in the air as the doors closed behind them.
Vice slid in closer to him, and touched his arm on either side to show their presence, and Tala smiled as they looked to him for assessment of their progress. Vincent hadn't noticed them at all and they'd been told to run circles around him. Under Tala's tutelage, they would learn to do more than walk, and perhaps in some years' time, he could use Vice to slit Vincent's throat. That was all that kept him going as he took his slow steps down to the dungeons.
