Chapter Text
Fun.
Their journey was supposed to be an adventure, a pleasant vacation to spend a few weeks, something that had not even been a consideration in their mortal lives. They were going to leave their home to travel for the first time, and it was supposed to be fun.
Copia sighed internally.
He’d been devastated when his sire told him he wanted to send him away. It was only learning Eliza was going as well that allowed him to accept it, though he would never be happy about it.
It was far too easy to second guess himself, his worth, and his relationship with the most beautiful creature, inside and out, that he’d ever met. He still struggled to believe someone like him could ever be enough for his monster. Primo and Eliza, however, were practically soulmates. They were so deeply in love that Copia always felt like he was intruding whenever he was in a room with them. If Primo was sending away Eliza, it was because he wanted to keep her safe. He wanted to protect her.
Just as Terzo wanted to protect him.
Unwilling to strain against his sire’s wishes any longer, he acquiesced. Terzo knew what was best. The worst thing to ever happen to Copia was a direct result of him disregarding Terzo’s warnings and attempts to protect him. He never wanted to put Terzo through anything like that again, so he agreed to go.
Before they left, Primo gave Eliza several maps detailing all of the safe houses and established communities of their people they may come across, and they’d both been laden with more money than they’d ever need. Their assignment, as that was essentially what the trip was, was to travel between those places and meet more of their kind, exploring the world without their lovers.
Without their sires.
The life Copia now lived, the one gifted to him by Terzo, was unlike anything he could have ever imagined. The earliest days were fuzzy, mostly sensations with a blurry image here and there. It was strange coming out of that. They had warned him he wouldn’t be in control of himself, wouldn’t return to who he was for some time, and that the sudden change could be very jarring.
What they hadn’t talked about was how, even though he didn’t remember most of it, he retained the experience. It wasn’t like he was mortal and then blinked and was something entirely new. He had been a monster for a while and was only then becoming aware of it. The sharpened senses felt natural. He’d already figured out how to adjust his gait to account for the new lightness in his limbs, though he could not remember doing so. The hunger and feeding process were as easy to manage as they had been in his mortal life. He awoke to a new existence while still wrapped in the comfort of familiarity. He was made new in the place he most belonged.
The most significant change, which was also the greatest comfort, was having a sire.
Copia understood now why losing the connection with Nihil had been such a blow to Terzo. He’d initially assumed it had been a mixture of heartbreak and betrayal and that the memory still stung.
It wasn’t that at all.
Copia belonged to Terzo. He was a part of him. Terzo’s blood ran through his veins. His monster did away with his mortality and carefully guided himself into its place. He wasn’t just Copia’s reason to live. Terzo was his very life itself: the lungs that breathed for him, the eyes that took in the world around him, the heart that pumped his blood throughout his body.
The thought of that being torn away was incomprehensible. Having his core ripped from his being because Terzo wasn’t interested anymore was something he refused to imagine to protect his sanity. He didn’t know how Terzo or anyone else survived it. Copia was certain he would not, even if that meant he’d have to make the choice to end the tattered remnants of the existence he’d been left with himself.
A life without his sire was simply no life at all.
The idea that keeping him away from his sire for a few weeks would somehow dampen the truth of that statement, that he would need Terzo any less desperately than he had all this time, was absurd. Instead, he would wallow in misery until it was time for him to go home.
At least he wasn’t alone.
Glancing across the room to where Eliza sat with her legs drawn up on an armchair, he watched her play with the hem of her dress for a while before softly calling to her. It took a long moment before she lifted her head. When she did, she gave him a tight smile.
“What is it, doll?” she asked, her words lacking their usual cheerful bounce.
“How did you and Primo meet?”
He’d wondered for a while, and now seemed as good a time to ask as any.
Elize returned her gaze to her hands as she continued playing with her dress.
“He saved me,” she said softly.
“From what?”
“From the cruelties of this world.”
There was a weight to her words, a pain she must have held for some time. Copia wanted to ask more, but he didn’t want to push her to talk about something negative when they were both already so miserable.
It turned out he didn’t have to ask as, after a period of silence, she told him everything.
“My story is not unique,” she said, releasing her dress to drape over her folded legs. “Countless others have experienced the same, and countless more will go through it in the future. It should probably bring me some comfort to know it wasn’t just me, but it does not.”
Sighing, she wrapped her arm around her legs and slumped her shoulders.
“I was a burden on my family, and they made sure I knew that. They hated me, and I hated them. I don’t know how old I was when I left. Not very.” She huffed. “I don’t even know how old I am now, not that it matters anymore. All I knew was that living on the streets had to be better than living there. I ended up being right, but barely.
“That life is hard, Copia,” she told him, her expression going blank in a way he’d often seen when people confided their worst traumas in him. “You see things no one should ever have to see, and you just have to get on with your life. You experience things no one should ever be subjected to, and you have no choice but to wake up the next day and go through it all again. It steals something from you. It makes you hard and shallow, a husk of what you once were.” She smiled bleakly. “That was me.”
Copia lowered his gaze, wanting to give her some semblance of privacy as she recalled the horrors of her mortal life.
Eliza sighed and continued.
“It was colder than usual, and I was trying to find somewhere to bundle myself up for the night. I hadn’t eaten in a few days, and I wasn’t totally lucid. I was just stumbling about, and I wandered farther than I should have. Before I knew what was happening, I was in an alley between three men who were far too close and smelled strongly of alcohol. One of them pinned my hands behind my back while the other two laughed and pulled at my hair and clothes. I knew what was going to happen. Of course I did. Just as I knew there was nothing I could do to fight them off. I just closed my eyes and cringed away from their rancid breath, flinching under the feeling of their hands, and prayed that they’d at least have the decency to make this quick.
“Then, as quickly as they had taken me from the street, I was snatched away from their grasping hands.”
She let out a shaky breath, and Copia felt an ache in his chest at the thought of how afraid she must have been.
“I don’t remember much after that. Some harsh sounds, gusts of wind, and the sensation of being carried to heaven’s knew where. When I came to, I was in a bed for the first time in years. I had no idea how I’d gotten there or what the price would be for my comfort, but I was willing to pay whatever it was with whatever was asked of me.
“Gwen came to see me first. She guessed I would be more comfortable with a woman, and she was right. She told me that the owner of their establishment had found me with a group of unsavory individuals.” Eliza breathed a laugh and shook her head. “Those were the exact words she used, and she said them with such venom that it was obvious how she felt about the situation. It was nice to have that disgust directed at someone else for a change.
“She took care of me for a few days, making sure I was bathed and fed and more content than I could ever remember being. Each day, I asked what the owner wanted, and each day, I got the same answer: “To give you a chance to live.” It sounded like bullshit, but I wasn’t going to make a fuss and ruin things.
“One day, about a week in, my door opened and it was not Gwen.” She smiled softly, and it was the first real one he’d seen since before they left The Abbey. “He was gentle and soft-spoken, but he didn’t seem weak. I could tell he was capable of being much harsher, but he decided not to be. He chose to be kind to me, and that was something I had never experienced from a man before. I thanked him for all he’d given me, but he brushed it away. When I asked why he saved me, he told me he would have done the same for any other. I didn’t believe him, but I also didn’t want to make him angry, so I accepted the answer. After that, we just… talked. We talked about all kinds of things, and we were both disappointed when Gwen shooed him out so I could get some rest.
“He came to me every day, staying longer and longer each time. I was comfortable with him in a way I’d never been with anyone before. I loved listening to him talk, and I loved the way he looked at me when I was the one speaking. When he told me I could stay there indefinitely if I wanted to, I didn’t hesitate. I’d never wanted anything more. I didn’t want something for nothing, though, so I asked for a job. I would do whatever he asked. I didn’t want to feel like a burden anymore. Primo refused at first. I hadn’t seen any part of The Abbey apart from my room and had no idea what was going on. I didn’t even know what he and Gwen were. But I wouldn’t stop insisting he give me work, and he ended up sitting me down and explaining what The Abbey was. To this day, I have never seen him as nervous as he was then. I think he was afraid I was going to leave.”
“But you didn’t,” Copia said softly.
“No, I did not,” Eliza agreed with a wistful expression. “It was the first time in my life I had ever felt wanted. The world held nothing but torment and hopelessness, and The Abbey offered me everything I’d ever wanted. Now, I help Primo take care of our home.”
Her wistful expression fell away, and she lowered her gaze to the floor as she picked at the hem of her coat.
“When he turned me, I knew that he would do anything to keep me. And now, I’m not even allowed to go home.”
Copia closed his eyes, fighting back the emotions that threatened to choke him.
“They love us,” he said, trying to remind them both. “They just want us to be safe.”
“Well, they have a funny way of showing it.”
Copia snorted.
“Yeah. Our sires are fucking idiots.”
That startled a laugh out of Eliza, and Copia’s shoulders relaxed just a little.
A short while later, as they felt the sun begin to rise (which was still such a strange feeling), they wandered to one of the inner rooms and found a bed to curl up on together. Eliza rested her head on Copia’s chest, and he absently stroked her soft, messy hair.
“We’ll be home soon,” he murmured into the dark room. “Our sires will be waiting for us, and so will the rest of our family.”
Eliza didn’t respond, but there was a quiet sniffle. Copia wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her close. He was grateful he had her. He didn’t know how he’d have managed this alone.
He tried to remind himself that he would never be alone again.
Closing his eyes, he brought the connection with his sire to the forefront of his mind. It was always there like background noise, and he got so accustomed to it that he stopped noticing it until he focused on it and it drew him right back in.
He could feel Terzo. He didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. He wasn’t experiencing any strong emotions, so Copia didn’t know how he felt. But he knew he was alive and safe and that he was probably at The Abbey waiting for him.
With that knowledge to comfort him, his body relaxed against the sheets. Eliza’s breaths began to even out, and Copia matched his breathing to hers until he finally drifted off to sleep.
“It’s quiet without our little sweethearts,” Gwen noted, effectively ruining Terzo’s attempts to forget how miserable he was.
They were all lounging in The Abbey’s parlor, Gwen sitting on the arm of Secondo’s chair while Primo leaned against a bookshelf and Terzo slumped on the couch. The room was bright with cream-colored walls and ivory furniture, a welcome reprieve from the darkness of the ballroom. The couch Terzo was on was a deep blue that had drawn Copia’s attention the first time he saw it, turning yet another thing in Terzo’s life into something he could no longer look at without thinking about his love.
Terzo’s little bird had flown away from the nest, and he felt bereft in his absence. They had never been apart for more than a day, and even such short times as those had been tormenting. Now, it would be over a month until he got to see his creation again, and he hated it.
It was hard to tell if Primo had been struggling like he was, but he had definitely been smiling less. They both longed for their lovers to come home. It was painful to have them so far away. Terzo could feel Copia, but he could not reach him. Every step his creation took that led him farther away made Terzo’s chest feel like a canyon.
He missed him so much.
“They took most of the fun with them,” Secondo agreed.
“Most?” Gwen asked with an amused look.
Secondo’s lips quirked up, and Terzo frowned.
“Could you two please refrain from flirting around the rest of us?”
Gwen gave him an unimpressed look.
“Why? Just because you’re miserable doesn’t mean the rest of us have to b—”
Her words cut off suddenly, and everyone looked at her, startled. Her eyes had gone wide, her mouth slightly open.
“Gwen?” Secondo asked, worry heavy in his voice as he put a hand on her thigh. “What’s wrong?”
She was silent for a moment before inhaling sharply.
Then she was gone, flying out of the room at top speed.
“Gwen!”
Secondo ran after her, and Terzo and Primo followed a moment later.
They followed her through the halls into the entryway, where she practically ripped the doors off their hinges and ran out onto the stairs before freezing. Secondo just managed to avoid crashing into her, and Terzo and Primo ran to their sides to see what she was looking at.
There, in the middle of the street, stood a man gazing back at them.
He was tall with long, curly blonde hair that looked almost white in the moonlight. He was dressed simply yet elegantly in black pants, a loose, crimson shirt, and a black waistcoat. As he stared back at Gwen, his lips slowly curved into a gentle smile.
“Hello, Gwendolyn.”
Gwen made a strangled noise before quickly moving down the steps. Secondo grabbed her arm, but she pulled out of his grip without sparing him a glance. The three of them watched, tense, as she made her way up to the strange man.
Then, to the shock of them all, she sank to her knees before him and bowed her head.
“My sire,” she whispered shakily.
Terzo inhaled sharply. He glanced at Secondo, who looked just as stunned as he was, before looking back at the scene.
Terzo had never seen Gwen kneel for anyone. He was confident she had never and would never do so for Secondo. And yet, there she was.
The man, apparently her sire, smiled down at her for a moment before lowering himself and taking her face in his hands.
“I’ve missed you, flower petal.”
Terzo fully expected Gwen to reel back and punch him in the face for calling her that.
Instead, she let out what might have been a sob and threw her arms around his shoulders, burying her face in his neck. Her sire wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her close, kissing her head firmly.
Under the moon and stars, they looked like two silvery angels embracing, as if they were the only two creatures in existence.
“Let’s give them some space,” Primo murmured, tugging at Terzo’s arm.
Unmoving, he watched Secondo, waiting to see what he would do.
After a moment, Secondo turned and walked silently back into The Abbey.