Florian gaped at Lucius as if not sure he heard him right, “are you mad?”

“I wish I am.” Lucius mumbled, “but I am not.”

“Why the hell do you need to do that? Are you trying to crucify them in their sleep or something?”

Lucius said: “no. I need to find a First Generation, and I need their blood. This is my best shot. Most of them are almost impossible to trace.”

“...And why do you need the blood?”

Lucius leered at him, “why do you have so many questions? All you need to decide is if you are going to help me.”

“This is suicidal.”

“Maybe, but this is important for all of us, and whether you come or not, I have to do it.“Lucius stared severely into Florian’s dark eyes, “but I need you to dig more information from other slaves in this house, especially those who have been here for a long time. I need to know when the ritual will take place, what’s the purpose of it, and which spell opens the door. You owe me this since I saved your life.”

Florian studied him with a slightly different expression, “you are not just here to marry the Crown Prince, are you?”

“You made the getting married part sound easy.“Lucius scoffed and turned back to the coming way.

The negotiation went on longer than everyone anticipated, and not much news came back from Aetherfort. Lucius could tell Lady Durchville began to be nervous about something, as they were only one week til the end of May.This is property © of .

“Time to get up,” Florian said as he pulled the curtain wide open, letting the bright sunlight splash over the sleeping figure on the bed.

Lucius groaned as he writhed underneath the cover and mumbled, “just five more minutes....”

“You told me to drag you out of bed by nine.”

Lucius answered by pulling the cover over his head and turning in the other direction. Florian sighed and peeled the comforter entirely off the bed, revealing Lucius in his nightshirt.

Lucius yelped and sat up grumpily, still rubbing his face, “you are such an insubordinate servant.”

“I am simply obeying your order from last night.” Florian opened the door to the washroom, “and we have much to cover about how to deal with hibernating vampires before the ritual, which will take place in two days.”

“Two days? Are you sure?”

“Yes. They took five slaves from the pen last night. The woman who had been here for more than ten years was sure they were selected for the ritual, and it usually takes two days to prepare them and ‘detox’ their blood.”

Five days after the ritual the door would be open with minimum security since no one in their right mind would get anywhere close to it. That was the best time for Lucius to get in.

And it didn’t make Lucius happy at all. Instead, a cold fear grabbed his heart.

For the past two days, Florian had imparted to him much valuable information, not only about the ritual but also experiences from years of hunting vampires before his country fell.

“A hibernating vampire is very different from a sleeping vampire. Hibernated ones often fall into it involuntarily. They appear to be dead in every way except not rotting. Given enough blood, their state can reverse with time, though it may take years to revive them. Therefore, it is the best chance to kill a neophyte or apostle when they are hibernating.

“The sleeping vampires mostly choose to stay in dreams for a long time. They can store their energy for up to three years without feeding, and they are much easier to wake up than the hibernated ones. However, if a vampire sleeps longer than three years without ingesting more fresh blood, their sleeping state can deteriorate into hibernation.”

Florian pointed at the two pictures of a sleeping vampire and a hibernating vampire on the webpage below the paragraphs and said, “without proper training, it is challenging to differentiate these two states from their look. No heartbeat, no breath, appearing dead but won’t rot. Many hunters got killed because they mistook a sleeping vampire for a hibernating one.”

They were browsing a hidden darknet website where vampire hunters often share information. Only certified hunters with unique verifying codes could enter.

“Are there still many vampire hunters?” Lucius browsed the long list of vampire names, ages, elder bloodlines, and gifts astonishingly, “I mean...wouldn’t there be too many vampires to hunt nowadays?”

“We only go after the dangerous ones outside Eternia. Including those higher-class vamps capable of massive destruction and monitoring the hibernating old vamps. But most of the time our targets are the out-of-control orge hordes infesting city sewage systems or underground infrastructures.“As Florian spoke, a tinge of sadness shadowed his mien, “Ultharia used to have the biggest hunter department in the human world, every agent was a well-trained hunter. But now, I don’t know if there is anyone who survived other than myself..”

“I’m sure there are. We can try to find them when my status is more solid.” Lucius said with firm resolution, and that earned some strange looks from Florian.

Lucius ignored those looks and continued, “so you suspect the Sleeping Ones, as the name suggests, are only sleeping, and are easy to wake up? Why send all the slaves into the chamber every three years? Are they trying to prevent some old vampire from hibernating? But how do they consume the meat if they are sleeping?”

Florian explained, “The sleeping vamps can sleepwalk. Their consciousness is still dormant, but their body can perform some simple, instinctual, and primal tasks, like sensing blood and attacking prey. They always cut the slaves on their arms before they send them into the chamber, it will easily trigger the predatory reaction.”

“So if I’m not cut in anyplace and quiet enough, is it possible that I can get past them without stirring anything?”

“Theoretically, yes.“Florian shrugged, “but even we hunters don’t want to risk waking up a full nest of old vampires, so no one tested it.”

“And...is it possible to collect blood from a vampire without waking them up?”

“It is difficult but possible. You need to ward yourself with spells and runes. The needle you use should also be warded and so sharp that if you use it to pierce your finger, you won’t feel a thing. You also need to move quickly and hide if the vampire stirs, and pray that they won’t fully wake up and smell your presence.”

Lucius leaned back into the chair, “what’s the chance of my survival if I’m doing it?”

“I can’t give you an exact number, but I’d say less than 50%.”

“That’s...very encouraging...“Lucius rubbed his face stressfully, “if they don’t want these ancestors to wake up, why don’t they just starve them and make them hibernate? Would have made this a lot easier for me.”

“Because vampires have a thing called bloodline. Unlike humans, each vampire is closely connected to their maker and ancestors, which all trace back to their Elders. The stronger their ancestors or elders are, the stronger they will be. And hibernation will put a big damper on their bloodline. I imagine the house of Durchville wouldn’t want to be weakened, so they kept feeding the Sleeping Ones’ a minimum amount of blood to keep them from hibernation.”

Lucius inhaled deeply, trying to stay calm. He stood up and strolled to the window, looking out into the sunlit garden and contemplating all the information.

Florian regarded him with mild bemusement, “you don’t have to do it, you know. There may be other chances to find a First Generation.”

“I know. But who knows when the next chance presents itself. We have the best place and timing right now, which is almost too good to be true.” Lucius muttered pensively, “I just want to get this over with.”

**********

One day before the ritual, Lucius was awakened by noises and commotion outside the window and in the hallway. People were running around and yelling something. He sat up grumpily and checked the clock. It was seven in the morning.

“Florian!” Lucius called impatiently, “what’s so loud!”

The bedroom door opened, and Florian poked his head in, “your husband is back.”

Lucius blinked. And the next moment, he jumped out of bed and rushed toward the door, not noticing he was only wearing a nightshirt.

Just as he was about to pull at the doorknob, the door opened by itself. Dorian stood before him with a mild surprise. In the fresh morning light, Lucius was in the white cotton nightshirt that was probably one or two sizes too big for him, red-tinged blonde hair all disheveled and unkempt. And Dorian found he looked exceptionally...cute.

The vampire prince didn’t even notice the delightfulness undulating in his chest. It all came fast and naturally. His surprise soon morphed into a gentle smile.

Lucius stared at him for a brief moment. He didn’t understand why his heart was pounding loudly in excitement. Dorian’s return would only impede their plan, yet all he felt was relief and joy as he laid eyes on the unharmed prince. He returned an artless smile.

They just stood at the door for a long while and stared at each other as if they had forgotten everything else’s existence until Florian emerged quietly from the bedroom and stood several steps behind Lucius. Doiran broke whatever was exchanged between them and studied the other man in the room.

“So the rumor is true.” Dorian frowned, “you accepted a sex slave.”

“Buck is just my servant. I couldn’t turn down Lady Durchville’s hospitality.“Lucius snapped out of the moment, mildly disappointed that the first thing Dorian said to him was a query about Florian.

Dorian wasn’t satisfied with the answer, but he decided not to show it in front of a stranger slave. He leaned in and pressed a quick kiss on Lucius’s cheek to brandish his affection toward his consort. Though it felt much less intimate than the staring contest they had a moment ago.

“How was the negotiation?” Lucius asked, “why did it take so long?”

“We reached an agreement. You probably will hear all about it in the news in the next few days.” Dorian said curtly and entered the room, letting the footman bring in his luggage. Lucius sensed the warmth in the prince’s eyes subsided since he had noticed Florian, replaced by a subtle offishness. And as Florian bowed to him, he didn’t even bother to nod back as he usually did.

Dorian was obviously not very happy about Florian’s presence. However, Lucius was sure it was not coming from jealousy, as the prince had made it very clear that he didn’t care if he found a lover sometime in the future. He was probably just worried that the rumor would distort the fact, and people would say his consort got a sex slave within six months of their marriage, which would not look good.

But Lucius needed someone like Florian for his mission. There was no way he could achieve the unattainable all by himself. He was mildly annoyed by Dorian’s attitude but decided not to let it show.

As the servants finished unpacking everything and left the suite, Dorian left a short “I’m going to take a shower” and disappeared into the washroom. As the door closed, Florian said quietly, “you know this will hinder the plan, right? How do you plan to sneak into the Sleeping Chamber without alarming your husband?”

Lucius pondered his options and said, “I’m sure there will be a dinner party with all the local notability after the ritual to celebrate the success of the negotiation. I will try to get him drunk.”

“Do you know how hard it is to get a vampire drunk? They can hold triple the amount of liquor than humans.”

“Then we will have to encourage Lady Durchville to host an exceptionally bacchanalian dinner party.” Lucius said resolutely, “and get every single vampire in this manor to pass out by six am.”