Chapter 27 - Another covenant
Seeing her have a much calmer reaction than Emma did, Erik smiled; this woman was truly a fighter. "This is covenant magic. Think of it as a magic contract. We both agree to the terms, and the magic ensures we keep our end of the bargain."
When the magic reached his wrist, he grabbed Seraphina's hand, as she didn't have the power to lift it currently, and said,
"The deal is this:" he began, "I will help you recover and meet with the Ashcroft sisters, and in exchange, you will truthfully answer all my questions to the best of your ability, so long as they don't reveal anything that could put you in danger."
Then he added a little something that he and Elora put at the end of most of their covenants, "Furthermore, you are not allowed to reveal anything about me to your council or anyone else besides what all these people around us already know."
Seraphina looked at the dark green energy with concern as she had never heard of this covenant magic. Still, since she wanted this deal and didn't hear anything wrong with it, she nodded her head, "Agreed."
After the covenant was formed, they both gained the symbol of a wolf's head with two fairy wings on the back of their hands, with Erik having two now, although Seraphina couldn't see this yet.
Seeing how the deal was made, Erik nodded, "Good!" and then suddenly bit his finger, causing blood to flow before he moved it towards Seraphina's mouth with a dominant smirk.
As the finger approached, Seraphina seemed a bit panicked, stammering, "W-Wait, I—" However, it was too late; Erik pushed his finger into her mouth, and she instantly experienced the most heavenly taste of blood she ever had.
Erik had discussed this with Elora earlier. Due to his powerful bloodlines, Elora suspected Erik's blood might be both delicious and very beneficial for vampires. That wasn't enough, though, as she had also purposefully introduced a somewhat addicting element to Erik's blood after discussing it with him.
While Erik generally tried to be Elora's moral compass, he could also see the benefit of making a high-ranking council subordinate a little dependent on him.
After all, after he had gotten his revenge on Edda, there were still plenty of other things to do on Earth, and having someone like Seraphina on his side would only be beneficial.
Having Erik's finger in her mouth, Seraphina found herself unable to stop drinking his blood. It not only tasted heavenly, but she could also feel the power brimming inside, as it filled her body from head to toe.
While this made Erik lose blood relatively fast, his body could recover it at similar speeds, especially with Elora helping out.
Meanwhile, Erik felt both his lust and his sense of domination rise as he looked at Seraphina sucking on his finger with desperation. At moments like these, he realised how much of a corrupting effect Elora had on him.
But he didn't mind so much. After all, he did genuinely love Elora, personality and all. Besides, lust and a desire to dominate were hardly the worst qualities he could have, so long as he could hold fast to his core moral beliefs.
Not to mention that it felt good.
His eyes were drawn towards the vampire's rapidly healing wounds. He knew their regeneration was always faster while they were drinking blood, but this speed was much higher than even that, likely due to the power in Erik's blood.
When Seraphina's wounds had healed, Erik pulled his finger out of her mouth, causing Seraphina to try and follow it with a greedy look in her eyes, but Erik quickly pushed her back down until the wound on his finger had healed.
Seraphina growled as she tried to use her fangs to bite him, her eyes lost in feral hunger, but she found herself unable to escape from Erik's strength.
It took her a few moments to calm down before she sagged back onto the ground and panted, "W- What are you?! Your blood… and your physical ability! You are no normal human!"
While she had somewhat realised his weirdly powerful physical body during their fight, his overall strangeness only really began to sink in now that she had also tasted his blood, and her mind wasn't so damn exhausted anymore.
Erik smirked at her realisation, "That's true, but it doesn't really matter anymore, does it? The covenant will prevent you from talking about it to anyone."
Still smirking, he extended his hand to her, "Need some help getting up?"
But Seraphina snorted and ignored his hand as she stood up with inborn grace, "We'll see how strong this magic of yours is and whether it will actually prevent me from talking to anyone about you. But regardless, I can still try to satisfy my own curiosity."
After standing and dusting of her body, she continued, "Anyway, since your so-called covenant is supposed to compel you to let me meet Emily and Emma, why don't we get to it?"
But Erik smiled mischievously at her, "Actually, the wording of these covenants is crucial, you know? Since no time period was set for meeting the two of them, I can basically do it whenever I like."
Seraphina's eyes flared with anger as she reached for her sword, "You…!"
Erik laughed at her useless anger, "What are you going to do with that sword? We already know how that story ends. And I didn't even use my full power during our battle."
Her hand paused as she looked at him suspiciously. "You're lying."
But Erik smirked confidently, "No, I'm not. And you have already tasted the proof. I know the amazing taste must have overwhelmed you a little, but surely you could still taste the difference between a human… and a shapeshifter?"
Erik didn't mind revealing this now. He had complete confidence in Elora's covenants, plus this would create more interest towards him from Seraphina as she tried to figure him out.
Seraphina fell into stunned silence as she slowly examined the heavenly taste from earlier and discovered that, indeed, he was telling the truth.
Continuing with her stunned silence, she just stared at Erik with a mixture of anger, curiosity and wariness.
Seeing he had awakened sufficient interest in her mind, Erik decided to move on, "Anyway, how about you get the trash off my lawn and get Liam here? I'll also have all the slaves released from their bonds, so you'll probably have to deal with that as well. Afterwards, I will let you meet the sisters as promised."
Seraphina looked at him with surprise. "I thought you were going to make me wait?"
Erik shook his head with a smile, "Why would I do that? I will only stay here for a few more days at most, and I have no interest in having a covenant tied to me for much longer than that."
Erik and Elora were always careful to make covenant effects on them last as briefly as possible.
For example, their covenant with Emma would lose its effect on them after they had cured Emily, but Emma would be forever affected.
After all, part of the deal was for her to never talk about Erik and Elora with anyone without their permission, causing her to be forever connected to them.
The same now counted for Seraphina. Elora and Erik would be freed from the conditions as soon as they had shown her the two Ashcroft sisters.
At the same time, Seraphina would not only be forever restricted from revealing information about Erik and Elora but also be forced to answer their questions.
That is, unless either of them gains the power to overwhelm Elora's covenant, but they would need to be at least fourth-rankers for that.
Seraphina felt relieved at Erik's intention not to make her wait. She even felt a bit of gratitude build inside her.
Yet, another problem remained: "What about my clothes? It's hard to make people obey you when you're half naked."
Erik's lips curled up in a lustful grin, "That depends on the person you're trying to command. I find a lot of women become much more agreeable when I'm naked."
Seeing Seraphina was not amused, he rolled his eyes at her lack of humour before he snapped his finger, and Seraphina's torn clothes suddenly stitched themselves back together under her astonished gaze.
Naturally, it was Elora doing this, as the uses of Seidr magic were truly varied.
Seraphina looked at him with more wariness and confusion, but Erik just shrugged and shooed her with his hand while smirking a little, clearly not intending to answer her questions.
She quickly walked away to do as Erik had asked of her, without even realising she was already following his orders as if it were normal.
Perhaps part of the problem was that she couldn't get the taste of his blood out of her mind as she unconsciously kept rolling her tongue around her mouth to try and find any remaining drops.