Chapter 11: The Vampire's Desire.

"What?" Lyra asked, surprised.

"Wait here." Ruby responded before venturing into the darkness of the cave.

A few moments later, Ruby's figure reappeared, dragging along the corpse of a frost salamander. 

"The others were all crushed to bits. I killed this one myself so I made sure not to ruin the flesh." 

"..." 

A serious look crossed Lyra's face as she stared at it. 

"Is something wrong?"

After looking at the corpse, Ruby examined it, checking to see if there was something wrong with it.

' I can't see any wounds. She was able to kill it without injuring it….' Lyra thought to herself. 'Just how strong is she…?'

"Nope, nothing. It's just my first time seeing a frost salamander. I was wondering whether it would be poisonous and trying to figure out how we would cook it. Got any ideas?" She asked as she glanced at Ruby.

Ruby crossed her hands and stared at the frost salamander whilst making a trouble expression. 

"Nope, none. My meal's were all prepared by my maids back in Ingram. I wasn't allowed to cook so I never learnt how." 

"Ah- right, you were a princess. It makes sense that they wouldn't have allowed you to cook… alright, I can figure something out. Want to help?" 

She nodded with sparkling eyes.

"Alright then, we'll start by cutting it's throat and collecting it's blood in a container. Then we skin it, gut it and butcher it." 

-

-

-

"Gaaaah!" Julius shouted as he suddenly shot up from the ground, almost hitting his head on the cave's wall.

He looked around, breathing heavily as he tried to get a sense of his surroundings. 

The moment he saw Ruby and Lyra staring at him by the campfire, with Ava laying beside them, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Lowering his head, his eyes began to water up.

"That was just a Nightmare… thank g-'

Suddenly, something crashed into Julius, embracing him tightly as they fell to the ground.

"...!?" 

It was Lyra, she hugged his chest tightly as the two laid on the floor.

"Lyra…?"

Tightening her embrace, her eyes began to tear up.

"..Can we stay like this for a bit…?" Lyra asked, her voice trembling.

"...Sure." Julius responded before wrapping his arm around her back.

Ruby who had been watching from afar averted her eyes and returned to grilling the meat strips over the campfire. 

'...Must be nice, having someone that cares about you that much…' She thought to herself as she watched the meat grill. 

Silence filled the air as only the crackling of the campfire could be heard. 

"..Alright. I feel better now." Lyra muttered as she let go of Julius and slowly got up. "I've gotta get back to help Ruby grill the meat..." 

"What are you grilling?" Julius asked as he watched the strips grill over the campfire. He couldn't tell what type of meat it was but it looked delicious.

"Hmm… a surprise." She smiled before walking over to Ruby's side. 

Julius frowned at her response, he was starving. His eyes then flickered from Ava who was fast asleep by their side of the campfire to Ruby who was focused on grilling the meat.

'Ruby managed to bring her to the cave just like I'd asked… Judging by the dark flames she's probably the one who prepared the campfire too...'

He stared out at the snowy covered forest through the cave's entrance. 

'I'm guessing she's also the one who went to pick me up before I froze to death in the snow. If it weren't for her, I'd be dead by now. Lyra and Ava wouldn't be here without her elixir either.' 

Julius glanced in her direction once more and the two quickly made eye contact before Ruby averted her eyes. 

Seeing this, he slowly got up. 

"Lyra, is it alright if I borrow Ruby for a second? I need to talk to her." 

"Hm? Sure, leave the grilling to me." She grabbed her waist and puffed her chest proudly.

Julius gestured at Ruby to follow him and so she did, with a puzzled look. 

The two ventured deeper into the cave, leaving Lyra behind. 

- 

The insides of the cave were dark, he could barely see where he was going even with his eyes adjusted to the darkness. 

'Damn… I didn't know it was going to be this dark or ran this deep… I should've brought a torch.' He thought to himself.

Even so, he kept moving forward, it was too late to turn back.

'How much further is he planning to go?' Ruby wondered as she followed after him.

Eventually, he found it, just straight ahead, a source of light. 

Upon reaching the light, they stopped, their eyes growing wide.

A plethora of blue, shiny crystals glowed around, lighting up the surroundings. The sight was stunning. 

"Alright, this seems like a good spot to talk." Said Julius before turning to her.

When he did however, for a moment, his heart skipped a beat. Her dazzling figure, illuminated by the glowing crystals as she stared at them with excitement… it had caught him off guard.

"It's beautiful…" She muttered. 

"...Yeah." He responded.

"What?" She asked, slowly turning to him after noticing his gaze. "Is there something on my face?" 

Julius shook his head.

"It's nothing."

"Then tell me, what did you want to talk about?" She asked with a smile. 

It was the same smile she always wore, but something about it was starting to look like a façade. Julius, who was a whole head taller than her, stared straight into her eyes.

"Why have you helped us?"

"Isn't it a bit too late to start being wary?" She asked, still smiling. 

"No, I'm not asking because I'm wary. You not only saved Lyra and Ava's life, you saved mine too. If you wanted to do us harm, you would've by now."

"..."

"It's because I'm not wary that I'm asking. Why did you help us? If there's something you want, I'll give it to you. If I don't have it on me now, I'll get it one way or another…"

Julius stared straight at her, his eyes determined. 

"...It's fine. You don't have to feel like you owe me, I only helped you out of simple curiosity." 

He took a step closer. 

"Even still, I want to make it up to you somehow. I hate being in other people's debts. So just tell me already, what do you want?" 

Ruby slowly averted her eyes, unable to bear the eye contact.

"...I can ask for anything?" 

"Anything reasonable." Julius responded as he smiled nervously. 

"Fine then… If you want to give me something that badly, then this is what I want."

She pointed at Julius. 

Julius was confused by her response, but before he could question it-

"I… ran away from home… life inside that castle was suffocating… right now I have nowhere to go… If you let me stay with you guys for a bit, until I figure out how to get by on my own then that'll be enough."

Julius's brows rose up in surprise.

"...That's it…?"

Ruby nodded before looking him right in the eyes.

"That's all…"