Chapter 61

Chapter 61: Chapter 61

"Won’t you eat?" Kath’tan inquired, his tone of concern destroyed in the next moment. "Foolish Vampire."

Dulce scratched his head, he wasn’t hungry so he hadn’t thought of eating. But at Kath’tan’s reminder, he picked up the Queen’s discarded tray, loath to let food go to waste.

"Don’t eat that." Caedos said, closing the distance without warning. For a large Demon, he moved swiftly and silently, stuffing the entirety of the baked quail in his mouth. He spat out the silver knife like a bone, the silverware clattering on the tray.

Asael had been about to take a drink from his carafe but paused, his curiosity getting the better of him. "How old are you?"

Caedos had moved instinctively, so he couldn’t quite figure out how to return to the bed, standing unnaturally still in the center of the room. "A thousand years." He said plainly.

That only piqued Asael’s curiosity all the more. Shadow Demons didn’t peddle information, but it was a necessity regardless; information was crucial for survival, so they gathered it when they could.

Kath’tan scowled, displeased at being the youngest. He was certain that the HellHound was still young, perhaps he had only even just reached maturity. But before he could even bask in being wizened, his hopes were dashed to the ground.

"Tell me, are you royalty?" He asked bluntly. It was nothing but a rumor, but even captive Hellhounds knew of Earth and the creatures that inhabited it.

Caedos’ sharp gaze pinned the Demon down, unable to decipher if the unfamiliar Demon was a threat or not.

"Royalty?" Dulce frowned, worried that he had committed some transgression by summoning him. "Do you not need to return to your throne?"

Kath’tan turned away, self-conscious although he had never hunted down a Hellhound before. It had little to do with his moral stance and more to do with how lowly he was treated.

"The Deep Woods have been emptied out of Hellhounds into captivity." He spoke up.

Caedos turned to him, and between the moment his gaze settled on the Fiend and the next, he had Kath’tan pinned up against the wall by his throat. "By your kind." He completed the Demon’s words.

Kath’tan was calm despite the threat, unwilling to take the fall for Demons who saw him as lower than beasts of burden. "They would view that as an insult." He said blandly, used to being treated as an aberration.

The time spent away from Threnval had loosened the hold that his difference had on him. It mattered far less in the face of an elusive Shadow Demon, an Incubus whose existence proved the myth of Holy Demons, and a strange Vampire who couldn’t die.

Caedos studied the Fiend intently, his senses sharp. There was something wrong about this Demon, the divisive lines between Wrath and Chaos were blurred within him. That wasn’t the reason he stepped away, able to easily read intent.

As soon as he broke away from the vines, he had been plunged into a world of putrid greed. The hunters trying to capture him hadn’t viewed him as one of them. To them, he had been no more than the lesser creatures the Deep Woods provided for sustenance.

But to the strange Demons in this room, there were far more complex reactions at play, and they certainly saw him as one of them.

Dulce had already come over, ready to put himself in harm’s way. He didn’t fully understand the history between Hellhounds and Fiends, but he did understand Caedos’ right to hold grudges. And if he was truly Hellhound royalty and his people were in captivity, it meant that Caedos would need to leave.

Caedos was back to standing, his inability to walk upright momentarily overriden by the instinct to fight. "You’re sad." He sniffed out.

Dulce flinched, self-conscious at the attention the Hellhound’s words brought him. "I-I would simply prefer if no one was hurt." He scrambled to put together an explanation.

Asael, who had been the cause of the tense situation simply rose to his feet but it wasn’t to approach them, rather, he went over to Moira who was picking at her food and pretending to be a part of the furniture.

"The Queen’s secret is a worthless leverage." He said plainly to her, "Spying for her will cost you your life."

Ever conscious of Moira’s safety around the Demons, who he was convinced didn’t know their own strength, Dulce immediately hurried over to join the conversation. "Is something the matter?" He asked nervously, already slotting himself between Asael and Moira.

"Not at all." Moira shot to her feet, "I was just leaving." She said hastily, dashing out with her unfinished platter of food.

"Why are you just standing there?" Kath’tan scowled, he felt self-conscious about the systemic slavery of Hellhounds, but he had his own pride. Needing to look up slightly to hold the Hellhound’s gaze was doubly displeasing.

Caedos glanced down at his bare feet and then back up at the strange Fiend. "I don’t know how to walk."

"Huh?" Kath’tan exclaimed in surprise, "Are you not a thousand years old?"

"Essentially, he was just born." Asael tossed kindling into the fire.

"A baby?" Ruoxi chimed in, tickled at the idea.

Kath’tan looked over the Hellhound, who was centuries older than him, scoffing. "What’s so hard about walking?" He said flippantly, needing to walk past the Hellhound to get away from the wall. "You just put one foot in front of the other."

To his bewilderment, Caedos was watching him closely, those hungry eyes taking in every gesture and every step he took.

Caedos then attempted to mimic him, his legs tangling on the third step and sending him toppling over.

"Don’t fall on me." Kath’tan scowled, pushing the Hellhound to the side easily, an armchair crumbling under his weight.

Caedos got down on all fours for better balance, losing interest in walking upright after his first failure.

"Caedos? Are you hurt?" Dulce came over, frazzled. He had gotten too carried away by the two Demons getting along to react in time

Kath’tan crossed his arms, grumbling. "Shouldn’t you be asking the person who was almost crushed?"