"What the hell are you doing, Theo? We were supposed to go to the vampires together! What the hell are you doing with a vampire in your underwear anyway? Are you using blood magic with a vampire?!"
Theo immediately pulled away from Jesse to face his accuser.
"Adam? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in bed, waiting for our mission? Are you following me?"
Theo hastily gathered his clothes and pulled them on, while Jesse did the same beside him.
"I'm not following you!" Adam shouted. "All I had to do is think of the stupidest thing I could think of doing and I knew I'd find you. Why did you leave without me? Why are you using blood magic with someone else? You don't even know this guy! This could be a trap!"
Theo rolled his eyes at this, only making Adam angrier.
"That's exactly what you said about Sebastian," Theo snapped. "Everyone is evil if they're interested in me, right? Even when Sebastian turned out to be the victim of his father, not the villain you imagined! We're not together, Adam! We're just casually hooking up and I can't deal with your insane jealousy whenever anyone else looks my way! You just can't seem to understand that I don't want a relationship right now, and you keep twisting-"
"I'm not twisting anything! We've all seen your dreams where you imagine us married! You want me back, but you're too afraid to admit it!"
Theo groaned, and shot an apologetic look to Jesse.
"I can't deal with you anymore! Even if I did want you back, I'm sick of dealing with your jealousy! Jesse and I are helping to break Xexys' curse, and yes, I'm using blood magic with someone else. Lukas told us that I need to work with someone undead, and you're just jealous that that doesn't mean working with you! I am trained to use blood magic, and my powers are stable, so I can do something good. It's not my fault that I wasn't directed to work with someone with crystal magic instead!"
"And the vampires were so quick to agree to help!" Adam shouted. "We don't know what their motives are. They could be helping Xexys for all we know. Aren't they supposed to be at war with werewolves? I'm sure blood magic could help them win that!"
"Goodbye, Adam. You're ruining our relationship with our new allies," Theo said, gesturing to his ex-boyfriend that he was free to leave the backyard at any time. "I'm not going to stand here and listen to your absurd, jealous theories. I'll report to Helle about my progress, and you can find something else to do that doesn't involve following me. I'm going to find a way to wake up everyone cursed with the plague, whether you like what I'm doing or not!"
"Fine! Go play the hero, and sleep with vampires "to save people". I don't care anymore, Theo! You're a selfish jackass who only thinks about what you want! It doesn't matter how many people you hurt or rules you break, as long as you're happy! Have fun explaining this to Helle, while I do something that's actually important!"
Adam stormed off, too angry to even be able to focus on teleporting. Theo's eyes followed him as he left. He was torn between rushing after him to apologize and screaming something hurtful while Adam could still hear.
It was a relief to finally be able to shout his many grievances with Adam. Theo was sick of walking on eggshells or avoiding Adam and now things were finally out in the open. Adam's jealousy was suffocating, and it was going to offend the vampires, just as it had offended Sebastian.
Sebastian....
Theo needed to work out whatever magic or cure he could in order to wake up Sebastian, just as he'd promised. Let Adam simmer in his jealousy, while Theo actually did something about their problems.
"Come on, I think we were on to something," Theo said, reaching for Jesse.
The vampire looked hesitant after watching Theo blow up at his ex, but slowly wrapped himself the demon hybrid once more.
"Are you sure that you don't want to go after him?" Jesse asked. "You could always come back later.'
Theo shook his head adamantly.
"No, let's get back to work."
For the next few nights, Theo stayed with the vampires to work on how his magic could be combined with theirs. Chinh had pulled out some dusty old books on blood magic that Theo had devoured. The library in Pleasantview's collection of blood magic books paled in comparison to Chinh's collection. Of course, there were laws and policies regarding blood magic literature in Pleasantview, while Jubilant Accosts and its vampire population had no rules on the subject at all.
Theo didn't even get so much as a text from Adam, which gave him feelings he didn't want to process. Adam was angry with him, obviously, but he was angry at Adam too. It was nice not having to avoid Adam's clingy behaviour, but Theo still found himself missing Adam. Helle had said that Adam was spending time with his cousin, but she hadn't included any other information. He tried not to let this bother him.
At least Helle was impressed with his easy relationship with the vampires. She didn't want them as a part of her kingdom if they didn't want to join her, and she would gratefully accept them as allies either way. If Theo did somehow find a way to hurt Xexys by working with the vampires, then Helle would be ecstatic.
She was less ecstatic when she would walk out of a meeting with Chinh, only to find Theo and Jesse tangled up together in the room next door.
At least those two were actually getting somewhere with their blood magic casting. The secretive magic of the vampires did align closely with Theo's blood magic and the last time that Helle walked in on them, they had produced a cloud like wisp of energy that hovered in the air. As long as Theo could keep his concentration, the cloud could billow out, filling the room. Anyone who had been in the room observing the process and had the cloud brush against them, had been unable to sleep for two days, which everyone took as a positive sign of its potency. If they could engulf all of Jubilant Accosts or Pleasantview with their wispy spell, it could pierce through the dream sickness, and wake Xexys' victims.
The victory over Xexys was all that mattered to Helle, though she was getting tired of Theo and Adam's drama. It would be worth listening to all the bickering if they could end the plague, otherwise, Helle was going to murder the two boys. Theo was acting out, and Adam refused to go anywhere near the vampire coven so he could continue to avoid Theo. It was like dealing with children, which wasn't making her campaign to become queen any easier when two of her strongest allies couldn't be relied on to be mature. Theo was basically creating a weapon large enough to impact entire countries, and if that backfired because Theo was pissed off at his ex, real lives could be in danger. Whenever she had time, Helle was going to have to talk with those two.
A toddler wandered the yard of a house that Theo had been sent to spy on. The house looked innocent enough, but supposedly, it was home to one of the vampire populations that warred outside of the True Jacobean's walls. Helle needed information on the people outside of the walls, and where their loyalties lay. If she was going to overthrow the office of the Proxy, she wanted assurances that those the Proxy once kept out could be trusted not to invade.
The information had to be wrong though. This area didn't look like a battleground. There was even a toddler wandering around unsupervised!
To Theo's surprise, a bat swooped in, changing into a human form in an instant. Now that was a vampire! Theo had studied enough about them in school, and that was a clear vampiric trait. The woman looked pale as well, with deep red eyes.
If she noticed Theo, she made no obvious move to acknowledge he was there. All she cared about was playing with the toddler.
This was strange. According to their intel, the vampires were at war with the werewolves, and possibly even against other vampires. This place didn't seem to have any security to defend against intruders, let alone an army of werewolves. He was supposed to have taken Adam with him on this mission, but Theo figured that he could handle this on his own. Adam hadn't given Theo much space since their "casual" hookup, and Theo just needed a break from all the confusing feelings sleeping with Adam had dragged up. He would take any mission alone if it meant that he was spared having to talk about his feelings.
Potentially valuable intel had arrived in the dreams of Lukas, which they had passed on for the mortals to investigate. The man who wrote Despina's textbook on dream magic had insisted that the angels had cryptically warned that Theo might be able to weaken the plague in some way. With both his magic and that of the undead, there was a chance to cripple the illness, even if they couldn't defeat it completely.
There were no zombies in Jubilant Accosts, and the new reaper team hovered somewhere between undead and a proper servant of Death. They could try to combine their magic with Theo's, but neither Alphaeus or Trysten had proper control over their new form of magic or their unstable bodies.
Brion was the one to suggest the vampires as an option. He'd seen enough of Phuong's family to guess that they might be sympathetic, if they weren't currently battling the other supernaturals, that was. Theo had jumped at the chance to see an actual vampire, not just a hybrid like Bronwyn, and of course, Adam had volunteered to come as well. They were supposed to leave the next morning when the vampires might be asleep or tired, giving the warlocks the advantage, but Theo couldn't wait that long. He needed to see the vampires as they were during the night, and to sneak out before Adam followed him.
It wasn't that he didn't have feelings for Adam, especially after spending the night with him for his birthday. The feelings he felt were overwhelming and confusing, and hard to process. Maybe he did still love Adam, and maybe the idea of him kissing someone else out of desperation didn't bother him as much as he had always thought it would, but Adam had been relentless pursuing Theo since their night together. The guy had clearly never heard of a casual relationship, despite his twin sister having several of them over the years and whatever he'd had with that guy in Pleasantview. He was now openly pining for Theo, staring at him with love struck eyes, and trying to hold his hand whenever they walked together. Despina was nearly at her breaking point with her cousin, and Theo found himself feeling the same way. Maybe he could have a conversation with Adam, if Adam would stop assuming they were back together. Theo might have an answer for Adam about his feelings, if he didn't have to spend so much time avoiding Adam.
"Bleh!"
Theo jumped out of his skin, completely lost in his thoughts about his ex-boyfriend. While he had been distracted, a vampire lunged at him, fangs exposed.
"Oh, shit!" Theo tried his best to dodge the vampire's attack, slipping into his dark form as quickly as possible.
"I'm not afraid of you!" he shouted. "I'm an incredibly strong demon and I can protect myself! I just came here to talk!"
To Theo's frustration, the vampire didn't begin trembling in fear upon seeing his dark form. If anything, he looked amused. His fangs weren't even visible behind his smirk which should have been a relief, but somehow Theo was disappointed. The vampire winked at him playfully, making Theo's heart skip a beat. This wasn't how his grand reveal to the vampires was supposed to go.
"Well, what did you want to talk about?" the vampire asked. His eyes followed Theo's demonic horns with a look that was more than curiosity. "I'm Jesse by the way. What's your name?"
"Uh, Theo. My name is Theo Bellamy. I've been sent here by Helle Seavey Dean, future queen of Yacothia. She wants to extend an invitation to meet with her to discuss the future of this realm. I'm sure that you've seen the dream sickness that's spreading, and she might have information that could help us end it, with your help, of course."
Theo tried to smile diplomatically, just like Adrian had taught him to before entering the royal court. He was already doing better presenting Helle's message than he ever had interacting with customers at his father's restaurant. When he finally came home, Theo was going to blow everyone away with his diplomacy skills.
"Ah, we'd heard rumours of that cult crumbling," Jesse replied. His eyes seemed to linger on Theo in a way that reminded him of Adam, but without the messy knot of feelings attached to him. "I'll introduce you to Chinh. He's our leader. I'm sure that he'll be interested in hearing what this so called queen has to say."
"Welcome to our home," Jesse announced. "It's been in the Doan family for centuries. Before the schism, the Doan siblings lived here together in peace. Now, the family is divided, and Chinh leads our faction. We won possession of the home, while Hwa's faction lives with the demonspawn by the ruins."
"Demonspawn?" Theo repeated. "What demonspawn? Like Xexys type demons or demons like me?"
"I've never seen a demon like you before," Jesse admitted. "Your horns are like nothing I've seen, and they can appear out of nowhere!"
"That's called a dark form, just like some vampires can have. The demons beyond our realm mimic us vampires, and conceal themselves from the dangers of exposing their true selves. The outside world can be quite cruel to those who are different."
Theo tried not to gasp as another vampire entered the room. This vampire looked ancient, much older than even Grandma Elaine.
"Have you seen the outside world?" Theo asked. His voice was unsteady as he watched the much older vampire look him over. Theo must look as strange to Chinh as Chinh did to him. Theo couldn't name a single vampire in Pleasantview aside from Bronwen, who was only half vampire. Chinh probably couldn't name a single non-dream demon in Jubilant Accosts. Sure, Shadowvale had a demon curriculum and Alys Hooper in their staff, but outside of the True Jacobean's walls, Theo hadn't seen a single demon who looked like himself.
"I am a very old vampire, child. I have seen many things, and traveled to many places. There are ways to leave this realm if you know where to look. I have seen many of your kind, though not quite the same as you. You...you remind me of a class of demons long thought extinct."
"I'm a blood demon hybrid," Theo explained. "I studied at Shadowvale, though Pleasantview is where my normal school is. There's no other blood demon hybrids that I know of. It's been suggested by important people that I might be able to help control the Demon of Nightmares' plague if I had some assistance from the undead."
"I have no doubt that you could," Chinh said smoothly. "Have you seen a single vampire struck by this illness? The dream demon has very little power over us; being undead has its privileges. You share a common strength with us, demon: we both use blood to make ourselves strong. The Nightmare Demon is afraid of that power."
"You mean, I can do blood magic with a vampire and help break Xexys' spell? That's it?"
"In a very simple way, yes," Chinh replied. "It's much more complicated in practice. It takes practice and control and a firm knowledge of blood magic."
"I'm the only one studying blood magic in Pleasantview," Theo bragged. "I mean, my ex-boyfriends have helped a bit, but they don't practice it. I officiated my parents' demonic wedding, so I have experience with a wide range of blood magic. I can definitely work with vampires. Do you have a spell already or would I have to make my own?"
"Bleh!"
Theo was interrupted by a child vampire running past the table, shouting as he went.
"Excuse James, he's new to our coven and still learning our ways. Children are always hectic, but vampire children are especially chaotic."
"James?" Theo repeated, staring at the child now bouncing on the couch in astonishment. "James Pryor?"
Chinh nodded solemnly.
"Yes, we found him outside the Jacobean walls, completely alone. We feared that his family was killed by Xexys' attack and took him in. He asked to become one of us and we accepted him."
"His siblings are looking for him," Theo revealed excitedly. "They survived, and their parents died, but now they're reapers! I mean, Helena is in another realm too, but I'm sure she'll come visit when it's safe. And Abercius is engaged to the future queen, James will probably want to go to their wedding someday or see the castle."
"I'm afraid that James is a member of our family now," Chinh replied. "It doesn't sound like his biological family is stable enough to raise him even if he wasn't. His family is welcome to visit, but he is a child of the night now. We are his family."
Theo smiled his best polite smile, trying not to offend the ancient vampire. His own fathers would slay any vampire who stood between them and their son, but Chinh did have a good point about the Pryor family. The new reaper creations were still finding their way in their new existence, and no one had even seen Damiana since her resurrection. Trysten and Alphaeus were also juggling a newborn, while Helena was doing the same in another realm. Abercius and Brion were focused on creating Helle's new kingdom and helping end the dream plague. Finding James hadn't been in any of their priorities, but Theo couldn't really blame them. These weren't ordinary circumstances, and James had already decided to become a vampire instead of returning home. Brion had mentioned that James had disappeared before the rest of his siblings left for Pleasantview, so running away had clearly been James' solution to his parents' illness. The Pryor family was currently a giant trash fire that Theo wasn't capable of solving.
"I'll be sure to tell his family that he's safe," Theo said. "I'm sure that they'll want to visit. Thank you for taking him in."
"I can help you work on a way to stop Xexys' plague," Jesse said, changing the awkward subject of James' custody. "I've been a vampire for most of my life, so I know what I'm doing. You aren't afraid of being bitten, are you? I wouldn't be turning you into a vampire; just extracting your demonic blood for the spell."
Theo tried to picture returning to his family and seeing his parents react to him being a vampire. His dad would have a heart attack in his thirties. Still, the idea of being bitten was intriguing. He'd seen the sharp points of Bronwen's small fangs and always wondered what they felt like. There wasn't really any other vampires in his life and they'd always seemed like such a mysterious people.
"Yeah, I'm not afraid of being bitten, especially if it can help other people."
"Good," Chinh said approvingly. "I'll see if I can find some books on using blood magic to help you two. I know I have some around here from my travels. Why don't you try to practice combining your abilities in the yard while I search? I have every confidence that you will create a solution eventually, but it will take some practice."
"This is a pretty nice yard for people who don't go outside during the day," Theo remarked. "What do you use the pool for if you can't go out in the sun?"
Jesse gave the demon hybrid a strange look.
"For night swimming or when it's cloudy out. Some of us can walk in the sun, like Chinh. He's so old, his skin has built up a tolerance to sunlight. He's a pretty good leader too. One day I hope to grow as old and powerful as he is."
"He sounds like a great guy," Theo replied, again trying to be as polite and diplomatic as possible.
"So, uh, you mentioned that your ex-boyfriends helped you with magic. Are you seeing anyone right now?"
The vampire blushed furiously, leading to many questions about blood and blood flow in Theo's mind.
"No, not technically," he answered. He felt a small stab of guilt, thinking about how desperately Adam was pursuing him, but he had agreed to a casual relationship and Theo was technically free to see who he wanted. "I hook up with my ex some times, but we're casual. I don't really want a relationship right now."
"Great!" Jesse exclaimed, grabbing Theo's hands in excitement. "I'm not seeing anyone either. I had someone a long time ago, but his cult sacri-it doesn't matter. It's really hard to meet people in a place as small as this, and Chinh doesn't like us dating within the coven to avoid drama. I was just thinking that it might be easier to work with blood magic, if our blood was pumping a little faster. I like you, Theo."
"You don't even know me," Theo pointed out, though he couldn't deny his interest in Jesse. A vampire was interested in him, and Adam had agreed to be casual, even if he was also being incredibly annoying about it. A million warnings went off in his head at the suggestion of using any kind of passion with blood magic, but his magic was stable now. A god had told him that directly, so Evren's warnings were outdated. Theo could handle doing blood magic with a very attractive vampire without worry. "I like you too though. Plus, you might be onto something. My stepdad always says that blood magic is stronger with things like sex or feasts or whatever, so maybe it might be good to work with stronger blood magic. It might be strong enough to do real damage to Xexys."
"That makes sense," Jesse agreed. He wasn't going to argue if Theo agreed with him. Chinh and the older vampires were finding new mates and having little baby vampires in the wake of the Xexys crisis, and Jesse was lonely. He might never see Theo again or Theo might be a large presence in his life going forward. Either way, he had to shoot his shot now.
Luckily for Jesse, Theo was finished discussing his proposition and was busy making plans of his own.
"So this won't hurt, or at least I think it won't. It's been a while since I've bitten someone. Chinh usually has bags of donated blood for us. He doesn't want us to hunt like unsophisticated werewolves, so let me know if you think something's wrong."
"Okay. Just make sure that I'm not going to be changed in the process. My dads will kill me if I come home as a vampire."
Theo could feel a slight pressure on his neck, but he focused his attention on maintaining his dark form instead. They needed a blood demon hybrid to interact with Jesse's abilities, and Theo couldn't let his nervousness weaken his focus on blood magic. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing, but he assumed that his body would figure it out. Casting blood magic with Adam had always been a struggle at first, until Theo's natural call to energy had taken over.
"Am I supposed to be gathering energy or doing something with the blood itself?" Theo asked nervously. "How will this disrupt Xexys' plans? Do we need to inject magically infused blood into the victims or is it magic that I process? Do vampires have magic? My half-vampire friend never knew her mother, so she doesn't know."
"I'm going to guess that it'll be magic we both process. I can't really say a lot about vampire abilities, but I definitely have some tricks up my sleeve. This will still take some trial and error though. I don't think that even Chinh has seen a blood demon in centuries, so we'll have to experiment with what you can do."
Adam snuck a nervous look around the corner, hoping to find Theo safe. When he found Theo missing, he immediately worried that Theo had rushed into their dangerous mission by himself. It was such a Theo thing to do, after all. Why wait for backup when you could rush into the unknown completely alone?
Theo was definitely intertwined with a vampire, though he didn't seem to be frightened. Adam could hear them whisper talking, though he couldn't quite make out what they were saying.
"I can feel something getting stronger, can you? This has to be on the right track."
"Can you use life magic directly or is it something you can't control? The blood doesn't taste right, something has changed."
"Kiss me, and maybe it will fix itself. Whatever energy you're trying to attach to the magic is weakening."
Adam couldn't believe what he was hearing. Theo was willingly in a vampire's arms, clearly practicing blood magic for some purpose. Not only that, but practicing blood magic half naked, and kissing someone, in clear defiance of all of Evren's warnings about casting blood magic safely.
How the hell had Theo ended up in this situation, when he was just supposed to be investigating a potential vampire alliance? How easily had he just fallen into someone else's arms after sleeping with Adam? Adam needed answers, and he was going to get them now, no matter what Theo was in the middle of.
