A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

When Erik arrived by Elora's side, she scoffed at him, "Finally done dealing with the kids while you left me to keep this asshole alive?"

Erik chuckled and took Elora in his arms before kissing her deeply despite the mutilated vampire at their feet. Elora tried to continue acting mad but quickly giggled and responded in kind.

She greedily drank Erik's saliva, which she had personally made as delicious as she could while making it only a little bit addictive.

When they separated, lust burned in her eyes, and she grinned, "How dare you use my own work against me. You know I can't stay mad when you kiss me like that."

Erik grinned back and caressed Elora's crimson hair, "Don't pretend you're actually angry, my wicked little ember. We both know you heard what I said to Emily. If I check a certain part of your body, I'm willing to bet it's dripping in anticipation of punishing her and teaching her some discipline."

Elora gasped, exaggeratingly, "My love! How dare you suggest such an absolutely true thing!"

"Because I know what you like," he chuckled in response.

Despite their equal partnership, Elora loved giving up control to Erik in the bedroom. But she also loved reminding other women that she was second-in-command.

So she grinned with lust in her eyes, "Of course you do. If you didn't, that would have meant I chose poorly seven years ago. And I don't do anything poorly.

Anyway, before this gets any further, let's just see what this vampire has to say. I can't keep him alive forever."

Erik nodded, and with a last quick peck on Elora's lips, he crouched down and turned his attention back to the vampire, his demeanour shifting from tender to resolute as he looked at the empty-eyed vampire, still controlled by Emily's spell.

"First question," he started. "Have you heard of or seen a human woman by the name of Edda? About 1.8m tall, blond hair, blue eyes, freckles, athletic, yet voluptuous?"

The man mechanically shook his head and spoke in a strained voice. Clearly, his wounds still affected him, even while enslaved. "The only humans left in Lord Sigurd's territory are part of his personal blood bank or harem, depending on their gender and appearance. No such woman is among them."

Erik sighed. 'I didn't think it would be that easy, but it would have been nice,' he thought. His eyes flared, 'I just hope the awakening or something else hasn't robbed me of the chance to get my revenge.'

He didn't like to think about it, but he knew that, technically, it was possible Edda simply died during or after the awakening, and his revenge was already impossible.

Luckily, he had only just arrived, and even if he couldn't find Edda here, he still had a lead from that mysterious voice in his dream telling him to find Edda in Africa.

He turned his attention back to the vampire. Despite seven years having passed and not even really being sure what he expected to hear, his next question made him a little anxious. "What do you know of the village of Frostvik?"

Elora noticed his slight distress and looked down at the bloody stump she had been treating. She had pretty much done what she could at this point. The man would soon die, and whatever few seconds she could still extend his life by continuing to use her magic was not worth the emotional support she could be providing Erik instead.

So, Elora shrunk down and took place on his shoulder while caressing his cheek. If anyone who only knew of Elora's uncaring and mischievous side saw this gesture, they would likely spit blood.

The vampire seemed to think for a moment, increasing Erik's anxiousness, but eventually answered, "Frostvik was one of the villages wiped out in the pre-awakening cullings. It hasn't been significant since."

Erik closed his eyes. The cold, matter-of-fact tone of the vampire's voice offered no solace. Each word was a stark reminder of the brutal reality of what had happened to Frostvik.

Somehow, he had still hoped to hear of some survivors. But he knew he shouldn't have expected anything. He sighed and hardened his heart. But before he could start on more general questions, Elora frowned, "What do you mean, one of the villages? Are you saying this happened in multiple places?"

Erik blinked. Preoccupied as he was, he hadn't even noticed that detail. He perked up his ears, waiting for the answer.

The man nodded, "Many villages, both vampire and shapeshifter, were targeted simultaneously that night, all betrayed from within, all by humans who were originally adopted as babies."

Despite his otherwise emotionless behaviour, the man scoffed with hatred in an almost instinctual reaction, "That is why humans were mostly wiped out in revenge after the awakening."

After learning this new information, Erik fell silent while Elora mumbled, "Sounds like a coordinated and simultaneous strike that had been years in the making".

Still, when they noticed the vampire man's consciousness slowly sinking away, they quickly decided to think more about the consequences of that revelation later and began asking more general questions.

After a few more mechanically voiced answers, Erika and Elora got a clearer image of what they were dealing with.

Sigurd Blackthorn was a third-rank vampire and ruled a territory he referred to as the Nocturne Dominion. A grandiose name for a relatively minor power that barely stretched beyond the county of Finnmark.

Minor, that is, compared to a significant power like the council. Locally, the ND was the strongest organised power and was still slowly expanding its borders. The only thing impeding their growth was a faction of shapeshifters calling themselves the Silver Enclave, led by a third-rank werewolf named Frostfang.

When he heard the faction name, Erik smiled sadly. Silver was a nickname from his youth, based on his silver-grey hair and fur. But, naturally, this silver enclave would have a different reason for that name.

Until a few months ago, the enclave and dominion were equal in power and in a Cold War state, where they both tried to overpower the other before going into total war.

But everything changed when the vampires gained a second third-rank vampire. Yet, not because of the reasons one might suspect.

This second vampire was Sigurd Blackthorn, who immediately betrayed his former lord instead of using the new power imbalance to crush the enclave.

Exactly how this went down was unknown, even to Erik's captive vampire. Still, the fact was, one day, Sigurd Blackthorn became the new lord, and the old one disappeared. No one dared ask questions because no one had the power to survive the new lord's wrath.

But the moment Sigurd took over marked a dark turn for both the enclave and the dominion. Apparently, Sigurd had been trying to convince the former lord of some rather extreme methods but always failed to do so.

Yet, now that he was lord, he had all the freedom in the world. It was at his orders that many first-rank vampires were to be starved into becoming ghouls.

The dominion had always had more vampires than the enclave had shapeshifters, but the vampires were never at their strongest because there simply wasn't enough blood for everyone.

Sigurd changed all that. With many of them suddenly becoming ghouls, the remaining vampires had all the blood they needed to remain in peak condition, while the ghouls didn't need blood to be powerful, just their reason and critical thinking.

As for how the ghouls were controlled, no one was entirely sure. Sigurd had a small number of confidants who took care of this, but Erik and Elora's captive was not one of them.

Though, from what the man did know, Elora quickly deduced that Sigurd was likely using some sort of sigil, created to control the minds of beasts, which a ghoul, essentially, was.

Sigurd's cruel methods not only led to a vastly more powerful Dominion but also to much more stability in his territory as all people living in the Dominion were now either imprisoned in blood farms, mind-controlled ghouls, or terrified/complicit vampires.

It took a little while to create enough ghouls, but eventually, Sigurd's new soldiers and their controllers took to the fields and quickly began defeating the Enclave at every turn, driving them deeper and deeper into desperation. According to the enslaved vampire, the Enclave was barely holding on and would soon be finished off.

Erik and Elora listened to all this to better understand their surroundings, but they didn't particularly care. Erik may be a shapeshifter, but he had no interest in going up against a third-rank, and who knew how many second-ranks just because of that.

He had other things to focus on.

According to the vampire, the Enclave was even more brutal towards humans than the dominion and simply killed them all on sight, so the chance that Edda was still alive somewhere in this region had just dropped to near zero.

With that in mind, the only thing left to do in Finnmark was to head for the ruins of Frostvik, pay respects and erect a few fake graves for his parents and other people he cared about.

The question was, would it be that simple?