Dawn bled into the early morning as Sebastian prepared to head out, donning his coat after finalizing their inventory. Gray shadows clung to the sky and snow flurries blew in the gale. Castor followed close behind him, clad in his black cloak with the pendant of Nevermourn adorning his breast pocket.

“Do you plan to visit Lucien today?” Sebastian asked as he adjusted his hood, willing it would protect his ears in the bitter cold. Last winter, he’d almost had his left one freeze off his head.

“Yep.” Castor beamed. “I promised to take him out for a breakfast date, even if I can’t enjoy the food.” His smile withered like a rose kissed by winter. “I’m just glad we get to see each other.”

“Hope you guys have a good time.” Sebastian forced a half smile.

Guilt weighed heavily in his heart. It was his fault that Castor turned into a vampire. As a doctor, it was his job to save people and vampires, but despite how much he told himself that, he knew he saved Castor because he didn’t want to lose his best friend.

“We always do.” Castor stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Um, there was something else I wanted to ask. It’s kinda personal.”

Sebastian furrowed his brows. “Sure, what is it?”

“I want to know more about vampire weddings.”

“Oh.” Sebastian pursed his lips, awkwardly glancing toward the mullioned windows at the falling snow. “Wizards can’t turn into vampires, you know? Your case was an exception. I broke the law. I’m lucky we weren’t both executed by your council.”

“Lucien’s trying to find legal loopholes around it,” Castor replied. “Those rules don’t apply in Valorath either. If we married, then migrated over there, our council couldn’t do shit about it.”

“There’s no way Lucien could legally cross over there.”

“He already has a fake passport that’s technically legit,” Castor admitted. “But I’m completely in the dark when it comes to understanding how it works. We’ve talked about it. Lucien wants to go through with it. Told me he doesn’t want to wait until he’s too old and looks like a creep with me.” He laughed.

“You have to kill him,” Sebastian said. “Can you do that?”

“As long as he comes back, sure.”

“There’s no guarantee that the transformation will work,” Sebastian explained. “It’s a risk we both took and survived. What if Lucien dies? Can you live with yourself if that happened?”

Castor’s downtrodden expression gave him the answer he needed. However, Sebastian didn’t want him to lose hope. It was possible Lucien could survive, but did he really desire that? Sebastian remembered how he turned like it was yesterday, how his dear wife Mave poisoned him with his own coffee. Gods, he loved her and missed her every day.

“We’ll think more about it.” Castor hesitated in responding. “I should tell Lucien about this, and if we’re still on board, will you help? I mean, when the time comes.”

Sebastian smiled, keeping his doubts to himself. “Of course.”

The moment they stepped outside, a blustering wind greeted them along with a frozen dead body. Someone tied a red ribbon around his neck, like a present. His rigid expression gaped up at the heavens, as if screaming to the Gods for help. A stake protruding from his chest drew Sebastian’s attention, who crouched closer to examine the pitifully dead vampire who’d been left at his doorstep.