Chapter 436: Mythic Immortals 4
"Of course he is not your mate," the intruder chuckled, his frozen grin beginning to crack as his thoughts shifted. "As you correctly surmised by my surprising change in height and ability to alter other physical characteristics" he said, fluidly shifting his face back to its regular proportions as he did, "I am part fae."
"Congratulations," Nedra grimaced. "I always imagined fae being quite a bit nicer and more... pleasant to look at."
"I am not nice or pleasant to look at?" He asked, genuine surprise alighting on his now palatable features.
"You are horrifying," she said honestly, her face twisted in disgust.
"Hmmm. I suppose you would think so. For as much as you may wish to be, you are not fae are you?" He asked with a smug grin.
"How sad that you obviously know so little about your own kind," she replied, laughing softly at how he revealed himself in that last remark. "And yet you have such ego about it. You are so proud. I suppose, unlike here, your hybrid blood makes you quite the prize where you come from. Am I right?"
"I am one of a kind in Gray Vale," he confirmed. "I make the royal vampires very powerful."
"You are part fae, and so you pretend to know about them. Your ego will be your downfall," she tsked. "Have you ever tried to know about them? Tried to find them? Or do you assume that you are the only special one?"
"Trying to find the fae is equivalent to seeking your own death. No, I have not tried to find them. But I do not imagine it is as impossible as you say," he replied. "It cannot be. Others have found Gray Vale who are not of the vampiric race."
"I see," she replied, tucking her lips to prevent further arguments from slipping out.
It was truly impossible to find the fae as an outsider, and that continued to be the case even for those who were of mixed genes. This intruder was surely a unique anomaly, but did he not realize the extent of shared fae genetics in the world? Even humans had fae buried in their genes. It was not uncommon.
As far as Nedra knew, the only way to find the fae was to be invited—or kidnapped, as the lore preferred to characterize it—or to align so perfectly with their true nature, that you merged with their dimension. It was not as permeable as this portal that Nedra had created. The fae dimension was something else entirely.
"You are not understanding my importance," the intruder hissed, perturbed by how obvious it was that she either did not believe him or was not impressed with his true nature.
"I am not denying your importance. Clearly you are important. You are here. And you were sent here alone, I presume," she stated, seeking a confirmation or denial of this by stroking his ego. Goddess help them if he was not the only one here.
The male’s chin raised slightly, his jaw set proudly that she had at least realized that much, and Nedra nodded. Thankfully whoever sent him here held him in as high a regard as he held himself. Surprise was certainly on his side.
"Yes, you must be very powerful where you come from," she hummed.
"I am powerful everywhere," he corrected, the creepy grin back on his face. Nedra wanted to grin too at how predictable this reaction was. She was right. This intruder’s weakness was clearly his ego.
"Oh yes, of course you are," She nodded her agreement, allowing a coy smile to bloom on her face. "I bet you have a lot of important tasks that you do for the vampires."
"You have no idea," his grin grew wider. "I am the most powerful weapon in the vampiric race. I may as well be a royal myself."
"Is that so?" She asked. "What makes you a weapon more than any other vampire?"
"Vampires are not weapons against each other, dear one," he told her in a patronizing tone, "I am the only one with that status. It is in my blood."
Nedra’s face twisted in confusion. " Do they drink from you?"
The intruder’s grin quickly vanished. He was not impressed with her guess.
"No, they do not drink from me!" He exclaimed. "We have been able to harvest my blood and use it to create the most horrifying torture technique ever. Vampires cannot die. Everyone knows that. But they can suffer. They can suffer just as much as any other creature—even more so than any other creature, because their suffering can go on for eternity."
Nedra’s face paled. She had read a bit about this—the various ways that it was possible to torture a vampire. There was no information in her research about how to kill the creatures—aside from that one scribble in the margin of "The Mythic Immortals"—but there was plenty of information about how to torture them. And he was right. It was horrifying.
"I see that disturbs you," he chuckled, reading the sour expression on her face.
"I have read a bit about it," she swallowed.
"In here?" He asked, his eyebrows arching in question. "No, you have not read about this. Not anywhere. It is not written. It is so horrifying that it is kept from documented knowledge, for the royals do not wish for it to be known... lest they become the victims of it." His teeth snapped together in an audible click as he spoke the last word.
A shiver went down Nedra’s back as he pierced her with the blackest eyes she had ever seen. She did not want to know what he was thinking or imagining or remembering behind the hollow depths of those eyes, for it was clear that whatever it was was far worse than anything she could imagine.
"I wish to tell you about it," he offered, apparently desiring so badly to share his unique gift. "You will die anyway. Do you not deserve a treat before you die? Your treat will be knowing every detail about how your mate will suffer the most excruciating pain for the rest of eternity, unable to even hold space enough in his mind to remember the pain of losing you."
