Blue Flames

Chapter 17

"What?"

"Your hand," he said.

"Wait a second. What will I have to do when I swear my allegiance to you? I won't do anything that I feel is wrong."

"I know," Arthur said, "if you ever feel like an order I gave is wrong, tell me. We'll discuss it. I'm not a tyrant."

I narrowed my eyes. He sighed. "If I wanted blind obedience, I'd get a pack of dogs. You'll be working for me, you will not be a slave."

It was crazy, but I did believe him. Ever since I met him, he hadn't once acted like what I imagined an immortal of his age would. He treated the people around him with respect, and he actually cared about human lives to a certain extent. I could work with that.

Besides, Amanda was loyal to him, and I doubted she would be okay with it if he truly was a tyrant.

"Alright," I held out my hand. The bandaging covered half my palm. Arthur pulled a small dagger from the back of his pants and swiftly cut the bandage open enough to expose my life line.

As was the custom in the immortal world, the ritual of pledging loyalty by blood consisted of cutting across the life line; the line in the palm that stretched from between the thumb and forefinger down towards the inner wrist. A bloody handshake mixes the blood of both participating parties for a short moment as they speak the words of the pact.

Different situations require different words. Uncle Robert had made sure I knew all kinds of blood oaths and their pact words.

"Do you know the pact words?" he asked. I nodded. The pact words are established words in one language; the First Tongue. It had been the very first language spoken in our realm by the immortals. Some say it was a mix of demon and human tongue at the time.

Many immortals don't know the meaning of the pact words, they simply repeat them whenever they make a blood oath for one reason or another.

Given the truth of my blood, speaking the First Tongue came as naturally to me as breathing. It was an intrinseque knowledge that immortals of blood similar to mine were born with. I could speak it even before I learned English from uncle Robert.

Blood of my life, life of my blood. I swear my allegiance to you. To follow and respect you, to bear you and yours no harm and to observe your honor in presence and absence.

These were the traditional pact words. The ones I should speak.

Of course, I would make a few tweaks. There was no way I would give him so much power over me, but he didn't need to know that now.

Arthur's nails elongated to sharp claws, he made a small puncture in his palm then cut across mine.

"Would it be enough?" I asked him, the cut on his palm was substantially smaller than mine. The little droplets of blood coming out of it looked meager.

"It is." he replied as his big, warm hand swallowed mine in a handshake that mixed our bloods together.

Arthur's blood was blazing heat against mine, so much power. Power that made me want to snatch my hand back. It surrounded me like a heavy coat, pushing down on my lungs, making my vision hazy.

My goodness. If just a few droplets of his blood overwhelmed my senses this way, what would his full potential feel like? How could one live with so much power?

For a moment, I was too disoriented to speak, then I got myself together and uttered the pact words in the First Tongue.

"Blood of my life, life of my blood. I swear my allegiance to you so long as it doesn't harm me or mine, so long as it doesn't stand opposed to my own morality. "