The Vampire King's Possession
Chapter 775. Bridge The Gap

Chapter 775: 775. Bridge The Gap

Malcolm watched his half-sister with concerned eyes. Other than the streaks of white in her hair, there was barely any resemblance between the two of them. Malcolm hated that his father had married her off without telling him. He would have done his best to stop it. Maybe he should have tried his hardest to stop her from coming back here after she finally came back to Greenham because, right now, she was staring at his torn shirt with so much concentration while mumbling words he couldn’t hear.

Malcolm looked around. None of the vampires acted as though she was doing anything strange. Why did they humor her to this extent? Was it because she had lived around only vampires for such a long time? If he couldn’t help her then, he would certainly do so now.

Malcolm opened his mouth to put an end to this when the piece of cloth suddenly lit up. The fire burst out, and Mauve yelped, dropping the shirt. Jael acted quickly, kicking the piece of cloth straight into the fireplace before it even touched the ground. Mauve turned to look at Jael with a smile on her face, while Jael wore a smug look.

"I’ve told you to be careful," he said and pulled her closer.

Malcolm sat upright as he took in what just happened. "What was that?" he asked. He had seen it clearly, but he couldn’t help but ask.

They all turned to look at him. "Magic," Mauve replied. "This is the magic fire I was telling you about."

"I hear your words, but it doesn’t make much sense to me. That shouldn’t be possible." Malcolm glanced at the fireplace, the sleeve was already burnt to ashes.

Mauve nodded. "I understand how you feel. That’s how I felt too when Louis told me about it. At least you saw a demonstration. All I had were his words."

There was silence, and several emotions passed across Malcolm’s face. "And this can kill Palers," he finally said.

"As fast as the cloth burned," Mauve announced proudly.

"Wow," Malcolm simply said. His disbelief was still as clear as day. "Is fire the only thing?"

Mauve shook her head. "The spells are a bit hard to learn. This is really the only thing I’ve been able to pick up. I’ve been trying to learn healing magic, but it’s hard without a test subject." Mauve paused as Malcolm gave her a puzzling look. "I know what that sounds like, but you get what I mean."

Malcolm paused again, not saying anything for the longest time, then he suddenly blurted, "If vampires already have their answer, what do they need humans for?" Vampires were already a force to reckon with; Malcolm didn’t want to imagine the horror of having to deal with vampires with this sort of power.

He couldn’t understand Mauve’s excitement. Neither could he figure out why he was here. Vampires weren’t nice. He could see Mauve thought they were; she had completely blended in. He still found them to be nothing more than monsters who would attack humans on a whim. That hadn’t happened since the treaty, but a leopard didn’t change its spots. It was still very much possible, and humans couldn’t stop vampires even if they tried.

Mauve swallowed. "Vampires can’t use magic."

Malcolm sighed in relief. He closed his eyes, but they flew open immediately as he realized why he was here. Malcolm’s eyes darkened. "So they need us to do their dirty work for them?" he snapped.

"Not dirty work," Mauve said softly. Malcolm’s outburst zapped all the enthusiasm from her.

Malcolm laughed sadly. "Is that why you called me here?"

"I’m afraid it is," Mauve stated.

Malcolm laughed some more. "What did you think was going to happen? That I would just say yes, humans would kill your Palers?"

"Not exactly," Mauve whispered. "I was hoping we would come to some kind of agreement."

"Like what?" Malcolm asked darkly. He wasn’t angry at Mauve, even though it looked like he was. This was exactly what she was like; there was no reason to be disappointed.

"That’s why I called on you to discuss it," Mauve said, twisting her fingers together as she scooted closer to Jael, while Louis wore a knowing look on his face.

"And you just thought I would agree with it?" Malcolm asked.

"I didn’t think just that. Magic would be beneficial to us and..."

"And it’s completely fine being pawns to vampires." They were already pawns, but Malcolm had no intention of making this any worse.

"No one is going to be anyone’s pawn," Jael said, and Malcolm shrank. "We are not trying to take advantage; we simply want a situation where each party can benefit from the situation."

Malcolm tilted his head. "Benefit?" he asked with a laugh. "How? You bleed us on a weekly basis, and we dare not miss a batch. Tell me, vampire king, how does that benefit us?"

"Unfortunately, vampires need human blood. There is absolutely nothing we can do about that."

"Sure there is, you have magic now. Figure it out." Malcolm’s eyes narrowed as they landed on Mauve.

She winced. She had gotten complacent. Staying with vampires, she forgot just how much they were hated and feared. Malcolm had no reason to help vampires with Palers, and Mauve knew he thought it was best he didn’t, but they couldn’t remain like this. She was sure there was some way they could see eye to eye.

"What if we bought the blood?" Mauve blurted.

"What?" they all yelled simultaneously.

Mauve’s eyes widened as she realized she had said her thought out loud, but she was already speaking; might as well get it all out. "Vampires need blood, and they take blood from us humans because of that. Regardless of the situation, they would still need blood. They have taken lots of humans simply because of this, but right now we give them blood, though we don’t have much choice in the matter. Would you consider it more fair if they paid for it?"

"I’d rather not give blood at all."

"That’s not possible. They would die," Mauve cried.

Good. Malcolm didn’t say it out loud, but everyone could clearly hear what he was thinking. "That’s not my problem."

Mauve closed her eyes. They weren’t getting anywhere. She had never seen this side of her brother, but she couldn’t blame him. He didn’t know vampires, and to him, they were no more than creatures who wanted to drink them dry. Unfortunately that didn’t change even though she knew vampires, she knew that most of them wanted to drink humans dry.

It was a good thing Malcolm was cautious. However, she had been too worried about vampires to see how this didn’t benefit humans, but she was part of both sides, and she wanted the best for each. She wasn’t going to give up so easily. She was sure there was some way to convince her brother without making vampires give up drinking blood. Her child might need blood too.

"I know," Mauve mumbled. "But it’s mine." She touched her stomach. They were still far apart, she knew, but surely there must be a way to bridge the gap.