He wondered if the warmth he could feel from her through his glove was real, or a figment of his imagination.

He retracted his hand once it was done and severed the contact between them. Her hand flew to her chest as she cupped where his claw had cut into her skin.

“The protection ward is complete. Let us leave,” he demanded with a sense of mild urgency.

He strode forward to be behind her so she would begin to walk towards the gates, unwilling to remain in this human town any longer than necessary.

“Is that why you did that?” she whispered up to him as he pushed his hand on the small of her back when her feet seemed stuck to the dirt.

She stumbled forward before she began to move, Orpheus following with his palm remaining over her back and waist.

“Yes. Blood must be paid, and I cannot use my own.”

Gilford quickly rushed forward to walk beside them with a slight distance as Orpheus steered the confused woman between his ethereal companions.

“Thank you, oh great Duskwalker, for your protection. We hope you will be satisfied with your decision and bless us again in the future.”

It is hardly a blessing. His ward would disappear in ten years, and when he created a new one in a different town, the Demons from the new protected village would rush to this one when it was weakened to feed. Chaos would ensue.

Orpheus turned his face towards him, staring with annoyance hidden behind the fact he couldn’t make a single expression. He disliked the overly courteous way the

humans spoke to him since he knew it was a façade to appease him. Like that would be enough to stop him from ruining the town with claw and fang.

If I did not desire this void to be filled, then I surely would have.

They were afraid of him, hated him. They were disgusted by him, and he had no intention of building any form of trust when he very much may one day decide to become a malevolent spirit against them.

Ten years between each human did little to satisfy his hunger, and as the years grew and he got older, living on mind-numbingly endlessly, the more tired he was becoming of it.

How much longer will it be? An ongoing question without a matching answer. How much longer would it be before he found a human who wanted to be his companion?

Once he left the village, he finally dug out the hardened mud from his nose hole so he could be more comfortable and smell properly.

He turned his bony skull to the top of the blonde-headed woman in front of him. Perhaps this one will be different. If not, Orpheus would be back on the surface world to hunt for a new ‘bride’.

He rarely had confidence in his stolen humans.

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Reia ran after the Duskwalker as they made their way outside the village gates, which were promptly closed behind them with a definitive thud.

She paused, turning to face the wooden gates that had kept her trapped inside the town for years, feeling a sense of foreboding and yet... freedom. Well, a kind of freedom. It was more like she’d traded one prison for another. Just how tightly will he hold the chains of my metaphorical shackle?

For now, she needed to come up with a plan to get away.

As she stared at the gates, she wondered what she should do now.

“Hey!” she yelled when one of the wolves gave a terrifying, heart-sputtering bark at her ankles.

Her skin crawled at the harrowing sound. It sounded like the final crying bark of a dying animal, and vaguely like the mixture of a bear and dog at the same time.

“Get away from me!” she yelped at the other one when it snapped its jaws at her other ankle. She attempted to shoo it away by kicking her leg out.

It jumped back before the side of her poorly dressed foot could hit in the face.

“Unless you want them to bite, I would follow,” the Duskwalker said calmly, his cloak hem flapping in the

distance.

It opened into an arch around his legs when the wind caught it from his long strides.

With a groan, Reia shuffled after him, surprised by how far he’d gotten in such a short amount of time. He had already reached the forest on the other side of the large, mostly snow-covered clearing that separated the town from the woodlands that surrounded it.

The bells hanging from her headpiece jingled wildly as she moved.

“We are leaving, just like that?” Catching up to him, her neck twisted so she could look over her shoulder.

The trees were already beginning to shield her vision of the town, each step taking her further and further away from it. Despite how much she hated it there, it had been Reia’s home for twenty years. She felt a sense of loss at seeing it disappearing from her life – most likely forever.

Her warm breaths came out in quick huffing bursts of fog against the cold, chilly air with how much energy she’d used in sprinting.

“Why should we have remained?” She noted his voice seemed further away than right next to her, and she turned her head forward to find he was metres ahead of her. Once more, she quickly ran after him. “There is nothing there for either of us. It is no longer your home, and I despise being near the humans.”

She turned her head back when she was next to him to find the village was gone. Her shoulders slumped when she looked away completely, knowing there was no point in checking over her shoulder anymore.

He was ahead of her again!

Fuck! He’s so freaking fast.

“You didn’t even allow me to collect my things.”

Not that she really had any.

All she had on her was her clothes and a satchel of food they’d given her so she had something to eat along her

travels with him. It wasn’t much, only a few days’ worth, and she imagined it would only last her until she made it to the Veil.

Then she would be at the mercy of the Duskwalker to feed her, if he ever did.

“If you wanted to bring anything, you should have brought it with you when you greeted me.” He turned his head down to side to look at her. She guessed he was peering, but it was hard to tell with his lack of real eyes. “Was there something you left behind?”

“No, but no one told me to bring anything, so I didn’t really have the chance to think about it.”

Now that she wasn’t looking over her shoulder, she realised just how difficult it was to stay next to him with his long, yet unhurried, strides. He was much taller than her, towering over her by nearly two feet. Her shorter legs just couldn’t seem to stay with him without sprinting between certain steps.

It didn’t help that she kept eyeing the branches above, worried that a Demon would drop upon them. It’s not safe, even in the daytime. The shade, thicker in certain places, was enough to protect the Demons from the sun, and they could fall upon her at any time.