“By the way Seth, you rather
deftly avoided my implied question a while ago.” Rikard said as he watched the
young vampyre finish feeding.
Once he’d sealed the bite
wounds and erased the donor’s memory of what had happened, Seth smiled. “And
just what question was that?”
“If you find Kemp
interesting?”
“Of course I do. He’s the
first dhampir I’ve met. Well him and Trevor. I find that quite fascinating. They’re not at all what I expected.”
“I’m sure they’re not. They
don’t have horns and claws and long spiked tails.”
Seth gave Rikard a ‘duh’
look. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. But I did expect a great deal
of hostility, even hatred, and they don’t seem to have that at all. Well,
towards us at least.”
“Believe me, according to
the stories I’ve heard, that’s exactly how Trevor was until fairly recently. He
killed us without a thought. Now he makes it a practice to slay only those of
us who are killers or brutal towards our donors. Kemp’s story is different but
the results are the same.”
“Kemp’s going to be a force
to reckon with in time I think, given who his father is.”
“Indeed. He and his brother,
who as you now know is Rian’s Child. You also will have powers beyond your
years. In fact I suspect you do already. You just need to be taught to use
them.”
“I suppose, if my abilities
would let me deal with rogues the way you did with Hakim. I just don’t want to
become like him, or Khalid.”
“What you become, how you
act, has nothing to do with the fact that you’re a vampyre. The concern you
showed Kemp should prove that to you.”
“And you managed to bring
the conversation back around to him again,” Seth said, smiling in amusement.
Rikard chuckled. “I’m clever
that way. Seriously, however, you could do worse than to become his friend.
He’s a good young man, and I truly think he needs to be around someone his own
age who understands him. Emphasis on ‘his own age’. And before you protest,
Seth, you may be older than him in reality but I think up here,” Rikard tapped
his forehead, “you’re still twenty-four in a great many ways.”
“I’ll…take that under
advisement. However, before I do anything else I do have to find a job and a
place of my own. I appreciate the offer to live with you and I’m not turning it
down. I just have to be my own person. Something I haven’t really been since I
first met Khalid. Those two years with Mark were the closest I ever came to
that.”
“I understand. Feel free to
be my guest until you get on your feet. And afterward, well as cliché as it may
sound, think of me as a father, or maybe an uncle—willing to give you advice
when you ask for it, and to have you over for the holidays, especially
Christmas. I do love having someone to give presents to.”
“Now that, sir, is an offer
I most certainly cannot refuse.”
That is truly an offer I would not refuse either! On to the next one!
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