For Helen

Luciel was glaring at his friend who was afraid for his neck. 

"Hey, what are you doing!" Alex asked Luciel, struggling to grab his sword that was attached to his belt, thinking that Luciel had finally lost it, but right before he pulled his sword out, he heard Luciel speak. 

"Have you forgotten already?" He asked, growling at Alex. Luciel sure did sound angry. 

"Forgot what?" Alex had no idea what Luciel was talking about. Everything seemed fine so far. 

"Have you forgotten what has been drilled into our minds during training?" Luciel rephrased his question, pressing Alex against the door with his full strength. 

"Luciel… You are hurting me…" Alex complained, finally managing to take his sword out, but before he could get any chance to swing it, Luciel already grabbed the wrist of that arm. 

"Never trust a vampire." Luciel finally let go of Alex, "Not even those that used to be your friends." 

Luciel took a good look at Alex. He didn't show any signs of fear, but he could hear it, his heartbeat changing rhythm while there were tiny droplets of sweat on his forehead. 

"And what was with that bait?" He added while being at it, "That one is being used only in human-populated areas and while in a group, never alone." 

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down Luciel," Alex put away his sword and raised both of his hands in the air. He did not want this to escalate any further, it was making him feel uncomfortable at this point. 

"Calm down?" Luciel took a step forward, "How can I calm down when so many things could have gone wrong!" 

Luciel was breathing heavily, revealing his fangs. Alex was right, he should try and calm down and think this through rationally. There is no use in yelling at one of the two only living creatures on this planet who still cares about him. 

He took a few big breaths and stepped back, letting out a sigh and placing his fingers on top of his forehead. 

"Sorry about that…" Lucie cleared his throat. "Make yourself at home. I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick." 

Alex watched Luciel walk off, still carrying the black bag with him, hinting at what he was planning to do. 'Poor Luciel…' He thought before going to walk around the house a little to explore. 

Alex felt safe in the house for the most part because knowing Luciel, he probably checked every corner, right? 

In the meantime, Luciel was standing in the middle of the bathroom after closing the doors.

He opened the black bag and he could smell the sweet smell of blood, driving him in. Luciel felt a lump forming in his throat, feeling afraid and uncomfortable at what he was going to do.

He stared at the bag for what felt like an eternity, giving his all to resist his natural urges. He could only think about one thing, blood. 

Luciel groaned, placing his hand down on the sink, he didn't even notice that he unconsciously extended his claws out as predatory instinct settled in. 

"I can't…" He sobbed and finally raised his head up, lifting the bag to pour blood from it straight into his mouth. The feeling of hunger and thirst was too much. He just wanted it to stop. 

"Shit…" He said to himself after he drank everything to the last drop, not only that, he even licked his lips in satisfaction, not feeling even a little bit of regret.

He could feel that even with him holding back now, there would come a time when he wouldn't have problems drinking blood from any source. 

When he threw the bag on the floor, going to open the doors and placing his hand on the doorknob, he noticed his claws.

'When did they get out?' He asked himself, quickly retracting them before finally heading towards the living room. 

"That was quick." Alex glanced towards Luciel while lying down on the sofa, "So… Did you do it?" He asked, noticing that Luciel didn't carry the bag with him. 

Luciel did not answer and looked aside, avoiding eye contact. 

"So, you did it," Alex answered his own question, knowing well enough what this silence meant. 

"Just don't ask about it, okay?" Luciel waved his hand in the air before getting closer to Alex, sitting down opposite of him on the armchair. 

"I don't even know how much time I have left until I turn completely." Luciel placed his elbow on the armrest and put his head in the palm of his head. 

"Turn into what? What can be worse than this?" 

"A bloodhound of course. You know? Those crazy creatures humans slowly turn into after drinking vampire's blood." 

"Don't be ridiculous Luciel." Alex scoffed at this crazy answer, even if Luciel's worries were justifiable, "You know better than me what bloodhounds are. They can barely be called vampires since they are incomplete." 

Alex finally sat up, staring at Luciel, "You can do it, can't you? I see that you don't have your claws out anymore, so show me the rest." He demanded, "Bloodhounds can't hide their appearance like vampires can." 

Luciel sighed. To be honest, one part of him did want that he could just turn into a bloodhound and be put down. With no mind of its own and just chasing after the smell of blood sounded better than being aware of everything that was going on around him. 

"Yes, I can do it." Luciel finally answered and went to demonstrate. He closed his eyes and while he was opening them, Alex could see that something horizontal went across his eyes, almost like it's a third eyelid and Luciel's eyes were once again chocolate brown as they used to be. 

"See?" He opened his mouth slightly, showing that the fangs were no longer there, replaced with slightly different canines. 

Alex didn't reply just yet and picked up his sword, making a tiny cut on his wrist and moving it closer to Luciel. 

"If one didn't know any better, they would say that you are a natural born vampire." He commented, watching how Luciel's disguise fell in an instant as his eyes started to radiate with a soft red glow. 

"Besides," Alex continued, "if you really were turning into a bloodhound, you would already be trying to rip my throat, but you aren't even attempting to drink the blood that's right in front of you." Alex tried to reassure Luciel, showing him that he had more control than he thought he did. 

"But we really need to fix your behavior," Alex added, moving away his hand from Luciel so he could tap his own corner of the lips. 

"Alex, you don't understand…" Luciel sighed, whipping his mouth with his forearm before lowering his head. Alex's words did make him feel a little bit better, but it wasn't enough, it was like fixing a table while your whole house got destroyed. 

"I crave blood…" He started to admit, clenching both of his fists, "Even now images of me feasting on you are going through my head. With each passing second, I'm seeing you more and more as a food source than a friend." His hands shivered a little as he spoke those final words. 

"Luciel, start thinking rationally," Alex raised his hand and went to slap the vampire who looked like he was going to lose it at any moment. He couldn't believe how low his hero had fallen. 

"You are Luciel Ashford, vampire's bane, do you think that those pesky thoughts could defeat you? Not even a vampire king could! And he was one of the strongest!" Alex raised his voice at Luciel, finally having enough of this since he wanted to see his friend rise once again to his former glory. 

"I swear, did becoming a vampire turned you into a coward as well?" He mocked him, wanting to provoke anger. Alex knew that there was no cheering his friend up, after all, his world crumbled in one night, but falling in self pity meant giving up. He did not want to see his friend end up like that. 

Luciel looked up, glaring at his friend, "I advise you to take that back." He threatened, feeling a lump in his throat as he felt the urge to growl at his friend, he did it so many times already that he started to recognize the feeling of when he was about to do it. There must be a way to control this just like the rest of his features. 

"Or what?" Alex challenged. 

Luciel got up from his armchair, approaching Alex, bearing his fangs, "Or I might just slip up and rip your throat out." He threatened, but Alex didn't budge and instead went to push Luciel slightly away from him. 

"There we go, sorry about that." 

Luciel took a step back and raised his eyebrow, feeling confused at Alex's game. 

"What? You looked like you were ready to give up on life at any moment now. Glad to see that you still have some life in you. Just think about Helen, do you really think that she wouldn't feel happy to see her dear husband, with a strong mind of his own?" He asked, lying back down on the sofa. 

"You are right." Luciel agreed, finally regaining some of his composure. 

He walked towards the chair, finally putting on his clothes before going to sit down on his armchair. 

"Instead of worrying, I should be thinking what to do now." He bit his lower lip, already starting to think of some plans, but first things first, he should go and try to meet up with Helen and he can't do that with an empty stomach. 

'For Helen…' He sighed and glanced towards Alex, knowing what he had to do, otherwise, he would start attacking every human that gets close to him. Instead of running away, he should face it. 

"Now, do you maybe have more of those blood packs with you?" He asked, having a small grin escape his lips as he finally stopped holding himself back. 

"Thought you will never ask." Luciel smiled and went to reach towards the bag he was carrying over his shoulder, taking one more blood pack and tossing it towards Luciel. 

"Thanks." Luciel said as he stared at it, "Ever since I became this thing, it felt like I didn't eat or drink even once during my life." 

"Don't thank me, you will pay me back later," Alex replied, taking a note of what Luciel had said, his uncontrollable bloodlust did make sense now when he knew where it was coming from. He was simply starving and had a big stomach. 

'Looks like he'll have to drink consistently if he doesn't want to lose his mind.' Alex thought, not wanting to drop him with some bad news when it looked like Luciel finally got his resolve and he had a feeling that Luciel already knew about this fact. 

Thinking about it a bit more and having a chance to sit down and talk to one, it made sense why vampires act the way they do. 

"You can just do it here, no need to do it somewhere else," Alex watched when Luciel was about to get up. 

Luciel gave Alex a look, he could hear his heart skip a beat and he could understand why, after all, most of the hunters had a personal grudge against vampires, be it because of the horrors they saw vampires were capable of or they lost someone to them. 

'Disgusting, he's no better than the rest of those bloodsuckers.' Alex thought in his head, feeling guilty about having thoughts like this towards his friend, even if he didn't blame him.

Besides, he was the one that indirectly led him to this, he doubted that he would be willingly slurping blood down his throat if he didn't talk to him the way he did.

This might be selfish, and that's why he wanted Luciel to do the deed in front of him, it was a form of punishment of sorts, but no matter what happens, he will be here for him. 

"Here, have some more." Alex tossed him one more blood pack from his bag since he saw that Luciel was still preying on his neck. 

Seeing how Luciel still didn't have enough, he tossed him two more. The blood packs didn't contain lots of blood unfortunately and he brought all that he could fit in his medium sized bag. 

"Luciel, now when you are one of them, what do you think? Is it possible for vampires and humans to make peace and end this slaughter?"