“I GOT YOU SOME GIRLS!” Inks cried as the door to my room almost smashed its way open.

Herbal tea spurted from my nostrils, and I barely managed to divert it away from the thousand dollar book I was reading to my lap.

Inks had set me up with a fairly complicated book for me to read through on the theory of magic, and I’d had as much trouble reading it as a kid trying to read Shakespeare for the first time. I could read a new chapter over the course of a couple hours, but then I’d only be reading a chapter every couple of hours. And that’s assuming that I understand what any of it meant, which I definitely didn’t.

I brushed the herbal tea off my medieval clothes as best I could before I looked back up at the two girls that Inks guided in with both arms. Two Harpy Girls mind you.

They had dull autumnal cloaks over their shoulders, and their Mediterranean clothes that seemed like they had once had a minor level of status had gone through a lot of mud and saltwater.

They were human, for the most part, but they were also… Little Owls. Their faces were clear of feathers, but their hair was straight up feathers, with the younger’s plumage being a dull rock-brown compared to the older’s far more speckled and patterned brown and white. They still had hands and arms, but their pinky fingers had been strengthened and thickened to create a full wing in a similar way to a Pterosaur, with the pinky folded back behind itself most of the time.

“So which one do you want to suck?” Inks asked with absolutely no idea of how bad that sounded, “I got two so I can show you how it’s done.”

It wasn’t about which one I wanted. It was about which one I did not want Inks’ perverted ass to drink from. I looked at both of them.

The older girl anxiously frowned in my direction with large, off-yellow eyes, but it was a frown that even I knew could shatter and crumble like glass. The younger girl, though, just looked down. Down at the floor, down at anything that was far away from where they were now.

I had to choose the younger one.

I got up from my seat and closed in on her. It was like she knew that this was going to happen, and just kept looking off into the distance of the ground.

Then I knelt in front of her, but with how much taller I was, I still didn’t manage to be completely in her line of sight.

“You can stay here,” I said to her, “If you want. Inks, that's part of the Vampire bride code, right?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s pretty norm-”

The younger girl splayed her wings out in an instant, stunning me with how massive they truly were for such a small body. Then she wrapped them around my back and dragged herself into me. And there she stayed, softly sobbing.

I hesitated for a very long time before I returned her embrace, my hands slowly moving to support her head and back into me, patting her quietly as I felt her warm breath and tears against my clothes as the stress and fatigue welled out of her.

“Teia,” The older girl said to me, her concern gone as she realized that the two of them were in better hands, “Her name’s Teia. I am Diane. We’re Sisters who fled the Ornisopoli Fires.”

“Sisters?” Inks was taken aback for exactly one second before turning to me with a dumb smile, a thumbs up, and an excited whisper of ‘Sisters!’

I blinked and sighed at Inks before returning to Diane.

“Ornisopoli, that’s all the way in the Aegean- The Byalomar. Sorry.”

“Our Father told us to come up this way. He sailed us up the Ossam to find Vampires.”

“W-Why would he do something like that?”

“Because Owls are no longer welcomed in the Home of the Owls.” She stated, having long since abandoned any ability to reject the situation.

I could ask more, ask them everything. With a sobbing girl in my arms though, I knew that now was the wrong time.

“You want to drink from us, no? That’s the condition for us being allowed to stay here.”

“Pretty much,” Inks agreed with a shrug.

“I can go first. Teia… needs to be shown that it’s not dangerous.”

“Well I need to teach Ash how to do it in the first place. Could you go sit on the bed?”

Diane nodded and headed to the bed alongside Inks. Diane sat tensely on the bed, with the tall frame of Inks sitting and scooching slightly behind her, taking her Cloak off her shoulders in the process. Teia’s sobbing had stopped now, watching her Sister’s first time with a Vampire with morbid curiosity.

“Ash, here’s the biggest point of advice a Male Vampire will never give you.”

Inks brushed her albino finger along the back of Diane’s neck. Diane chirped, much to everyone else’s surprise.

“Okay, not that. Harpies love that, any Man who has slept with a Harpy knows.”

Inks slid Diane’s tunic off of her shoulders.

“There are two places a Vampire can drink from. First of all, the neck. Do it if you like the girl and neither of you have problems with being seen together.”

“T-The Usual?”

“Basically. The second place is the shoulder. Much tougher, slightly more work than the neck because you might need to rip a garment down in a pinch-”

“In a Pinch?!”

“Look, you’re a Vampire now. And Vampires mess around with girls in the middle of combat in order to keep their powers up. You are going to need to rip a girl’s shirt off at some point in order to save everyone’s life. Trust me.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Yeah… I doubt that.

“Aaaanyway, the main reason why I recommend the shoulder is because of its inconspicuousness. Also, if blood starts spurting everywhere- not likely but it’s possible- then at least you have something to bandage the wound with.”

“You’re very good at inspiring people, you know?”

“Oh, thanks! Now, just stay still Diane.” Inks said as she reached her arm around Diane to draw her closer. Diane tensed up as Inks loosened her top off of her shoulders.

“Now, the thing they don’t tell you is not to bite. Just getting your canines on her skin is enough. You are drinking from her with your teeth, not eating her as so many believe. The more you bite, the faster you drink, the faster you taste specific ‘flavors’ outside of, well, blood and skin. And these will get progressively more intense as you drink, and when you hit the liquor flavors, stop. That’s where girls get hurt, and Vampires go bad.” Inks explained.

And then she smiled a canine-filled smile. “But it’s also very fun.”

Inks latched her mouth onto Diane’s exposed shoulder. Teia snapped her head into me in fright as Diane grimaced, and for that moment I held Teia tight.

But then Diane’s grimace and tension vanished from her face as she listfully entered a sort of lover’s trance. She softly smiled, and her closed and squinted eyes opened half-way. A Droplet of blood streaked down Diane’s shoulder onto her clothes, but only droplets. Diane lethargically lifted one hand up to Inks’ head to hold and steady them both as Diane’s chest heaved with every breath.

Teia and I both watched on with morbid fascination for moments that felt like an age.

It was very, very lewd, and I wasn’t really sure if Teia should be watching any of this.

It took an entire minute of regular time for Inks to have her fill, slowly withdrawing her lips from Diane’s neck. Inks’ had barely pierced Diane’s skin, and there wasn’t much of a wound save for four canine-spaced dots that looked like the blood had passed up through the skin itself.

Inks slowly lowered the exhausted yet satisfied onto the bed to rest.

Then Inks looked towards us with the smuggest fucking grin in the history of smug fucking grins.

“Your turn now.”

Teia and I both looked into each other’s eyes.

I gulped.

She gulped.

But then she said it.

“I don’t mind. I-If it’s you, Sir Ash.”

Inks stuck both her thumbs up in my support. At that moment I knew that Inks, by a country mile, would be the most annoying person in my life.

But then I returned to Teia, and nodded.

We both made our way to the bed, where Teia and I sat down together like Inks and Diane had done. Teia gazed up at me, a nervous yet giddy smile on her face, and loosened her clothes enough to expose her shoulders to me.

“T-Tell me if it hurts.” I gulped.

Teia nodded, and I moved in. I latched onto her soft skin, my canines resting against her flesh.

For a moment, it was just that, an awkward Halloween joke that a drunk couple had come up with.

And then power crept up my canines. Teia jittered as the taste of blood trickled into my mouth. But there was another taste, a phantom taste on another tongue, a taste of… who Teia really was. It was as light as milk tea with a single sugar cube in there too. But it was getting denser, heavier, an almost stormy drink, with each moment alternating between the milk tea and something far stronger, more intense like straight black coffee…

I almost didn’t feel Teia fall away from me. I opened my eyes quickly, quickly catching her like a falling teapot. Teia was still there, but she had zoned out so much her fatigue had caught up with her for a moment.She smiled back up at me with a smile on her-

“INKS! WHY THE FUCK DID YOU TAKE TWO GIRLS-” A Soldier, a chiseled Human Veteran with a brown, off-ginger beard roared as he slammed his way through the door.

And he looked at us, at all four of us, and especially me.

The term ‘Panic’ couldn’t even begin to describe the thoughts that rattled in my mind.

The Veteran kept on looking at me, staring into my very soul, with Teia quickly getting unnerved at his gaze.

“Inks,” He said, looking the sweating, shifty-eyed Inks into her soul next, “Did you really Summon a new Quasyn as a replacement Boyfriend?”

Inks… had summoned me because she… had wanted a replacement Boyfriend?

“H-Horyz! L-Look, I know that it doesn’t look-”

“Inks. You took two Girls who had yet to take the Bridal Vows, only to hand them to a Quasyn who hasn’t even met Lord Vladimir yet. You fucking know what that means.”

“V-Vladimir was going to get pissed at me if I didn’t teach Ash here-”

“Ash? Why would he be called something like that?”

“U-Uh, i-if I may, I-I’m sorry if I did anything wrong-”

“You have two Brides attached to you now. You don’t know the rules, so let me state them. Brides must be validated to live in the Castle by correspondence with Lord Vladimir, and Lord Vladimir will determine whether a Bride and Vampire are fit to be together. Those are the laws, that is the Vampire de Jure! I suggest you learn them quick, boy, because Lady Seraien here isn’t going to teach you all you need to be allowed to live here.”

“Y-Y-Yes Sir! T-Thank you for telling m-me, Sir!” I stammered out.

“You don’t need to listen, you need to think, to understand. The last thing anyone can do is help anyone else understand.” Horyz spat, before snapping his attention to Inks.

“Lady Seraien.” Horyz sneered, “I am going to set up an audience for this Quasyn, so that ALL are free to judge his worth and determine whether or not he will be allowed to stay within the Castle walls.”

Horyz turned to swiftly leave, when suddenly Diane spoke up.

“S-Sir Horyz! May I ask what will become of me and my sister?”

Horyz looked back at the upright Diane, then at the frightened Teia who had sought shelter behind my back.

“That is for Lord Vladimir to decide. But, if you want my opinion, Owl, it’s that there are far too many girls just like you out there. I heavily suggest thinking of ways that you can make yourself useful to any potential Vampire, and not just this Gentile. And it isn’t Sir Horyz, it’s Captain Horyz. Get your titles right.”

Captain Horyz slammed the door behind him, and with him he took any levity and intimacy with him.

Now the four of us were stuck with nothing but panic and despair. Our minds all raced, trying to find a way to avoid losing the safest place we could be.

“I’m with you, Sir Ash.”

I looked down.

Teia hugged herself into me as tight as she could.

Her Sister, Diane, sighed.

“If Teia wants to be with you, Master Ash, then I will be there alongside her.”

Then the only one left was Inks.

“Yeah, I cocked up.” Inks admitted.