The two of them sat like that for a while, trying to catch their breath. Eryk felt dazed as his mind reeled. He shifted his weight and dug his face deeper into the werewolf's neck, feeling Kyle's pulse beat rapidly against his lips. The steady rhythm felt hypnotising, and it was all Eryk could do to not bite into the warm inviting flesh again.

Is this what it always feels like when vampires feed? Eryk wondered, I want more, so much more than just his blood.

“Hey,” Kyle said, “Do you feel any different?”

“Yeah,” Eryk nodded, his soft hair tickling Kyle's nose, “My body is on fire, all my senses are tingling, and there's this loud, persistent voice in my head telling me to devour you whole.”

Kyle gulped, Gods that is not what I was asking.

“Do you feel any stronger now?” Kyle cleared his throat, “Think you could break these chains?”

Eryk shot upright, blushing. “Oh, that's what you meant. Wait, let me try.”

He shifted slightly, still straddling Kyle's lap and grabbed hold of the silver chain. He took a deep breath and pulled hard; the chain bending ever so slightly but still holding strong. He let go and tried the shackle around Kyle's wrist, using all his strength and pulling even harder but still, the silver held strong, barely even twisting. He repeated this a few times before giving up, feeling hopeless as the strengthened metal barely budged at all. Although Kyle's blood coursed through his whole body, filling him with a newfound energy, it didn't seem to be nearly enough.

Eryk felt his heart drop as he slumped down, still holding tight onto the chain. He felt overwhelmed with guilt, as the werewolf's efforts proved to be in vain. His promise to free Kyle played over in Eryk's mind, mocking him as he sat there defeated.

He let me drink from him all for nothing, Eryk thought, disappointed.

“I'm sorry.” Eryk whispered, as he buried his face in his hands, “I am so so sorry.”

“It's okay.” Kyle said, gently stroking the top of the vampire's head. “We can try again tomorrow.”

“No, no it'll be useless.” Eryk's light voice dragged down with sadness and hopelessness.

What's the point when I am unable to do anything to help, perhaps Father was right and I will never be anything but weak, Eryk thought, not wanting the werewolf to sacrifice his blood again when there was no guarantee that it would work.

“We still need to try.” Kyle said, determined.

He grabbed hold of Eryk's hands and moved them away from his face, forcing the vampire to meet his gaze. The vampire's eyes held a sadness within them that Kyle knew was not just due to their failure today. It was as if the depths of Eryk's eyes held a burden within that the werewolf would never be able to comprehend. He wanted nothing more than to understand it all, and felt like he could get lost forever in the vampire's warm maroon eyes.

“We need to try.” Kyle repeated. 

There was just way too much at stake for Kyle to just give up after just one failure. He needed to save his pack even if that meant constantly giving his blood in a vain hope that it could help him escape. Even as he thought this, Kyle knew that with the large amount of blood he had lost from the dagger wound on his side, that he could hardly keep this up for much longer. The silver the dagger was made of would make it so that his werewolf healing was negated, and coupled with the silver shackles his body could barely replenish all the blood he had lost.

“Maybe you just need more blood,” Kyle reasoned, trying to convince himself as much as the vampire, “If you drink some over a few days we can try again and see if it makes a difference.”

Even as he said the words Kyle felt that it wasn't enough. His pack didn't have a few days. They needed him. Now.

Eryk sat leaning against the wall and watched as Kyle slept. The werewolf was so dangerously handsome, his tan skin complemented by the inky black hair that softly flowed around his head. He had a strong jaw and thick lashes and eyebrows that framed his honey brown eyes, that Eryk thought were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He liked how they just seemed to emit warmth, as if he would be safe forever so long as he stayed within that warm embrace.

As he slept, the werewolf's massive chest rose slowly with each breath, and Eryk resisted the urge to run his fingers down the contours of his abs, wanting to touch every single part of his warm, soft skin. He quickly looked away as a blush took over his face, glad to be the only one awake.

If only Kyle knew what I was thinking about when I looked at him, he wouldn't dare let his guard down like this around me, Eryk thought guiltily.

After a long discussion, the two of them had eventually decided that they would try again over the next few days, with Eryk drinking from Kyle just enough so that he didn't pass out. They both hoped to succeed in as few days as possible, but if needed they would try as many times as it took.

Even though Eryk knew he shouldn't, he couldn't help but hope that they would be able to escape this place together, although he hadn't mentioned it to Kyle. He felt fascinated by the pack from Kyle's stories, about the family bond and the closeness they shared that was so palpable to even an outsider like himself.

They are just so different from us, Eryk thought, we're actually related by blood but we don't have even a fraction of that bond.

He thought of his father as he sat in the frigid dungeon. The cold, controlling Elder who had locked up his only son with a captive werewolf, in the hopes that his son would finally kill someone. Eryk knew that he shouldn't, but he couldn't help but hate Heinrich. 

Even though every other vampire in the swarm was envious of his status as the son of an Elder, Eryk hated the way his father controlled him and abused his power over the swarm. Like every other Elder in existence, Heinrich had been a vampire since the beginning, when vampirism had first appeared in the world four centuries ago. No one knows where the original Vampir had come from, the stories of the otherworldly being's glowing veins and massive wings being passed down for generations, along with the way the Vampir had given each of the Elders a piece of its heart and made them into the vampires that they now were. 

The Elders had gained such an enormous amount of power that they were able to create other vampires with just a bit of their blood, spreading the vampirism sickness throughout the world. This method had been used over the centuries and with each new generation of vampires turned, the power of the original Vampir had become diluted. 

Having been the only recipients of the actual Vampir heart, the twelve Elders had powers that were on a completely different level from the low tier vampires that spawned like rats with each passing year. It was actually due to this rampant turning of humans into vampires that had made the existence of non-humans be perceived as a threat to humanity. If only the vampires had practiced caution with their insatiable thirst for blood, then the Final War might have been prevented.

Heinrich was a bit different from the other Elders with his obsession with vampire experimentation, and where other Elders just focued on growing their swarms, he had become driven by the need to make new vampires who could be as strong as or even stronger than the original Vampir. And Eryk was a product of this, all of Heinrich's effort culminating with the birth of his son. 

Eryk knew that he was nothing more than a means to an end to the Elder, and because of the way in which he was created, Eryk possessed a humanity that Heinrich despised. Despite the fact that his birth as a vampire was a wonder that had never been seen before, Eryk's lack of powers and unwillingness to make his first kill had Heinrich feeling like his son was nothing but a failure. Pain tore through Eryk's chest, at knowing that his father had never once actually thought of him as his son.

Even though Eryk hadn't been completely made aware of the circumstances surrounding his birth, he knew that he was somehow born from a human mother. He didn't understand how it was possible, or what exactly the Elder had done to make a human give birth to a vampire. For his own good, Eryk thought that he would be better off not knowing the cruel methods his father used.

Although Heinrich had somehow succeeded with the birth of Eryk, he had still continued with his vampire experiments within the manor. He would not be satisfied until he had found a way to emulate or obtain the magnificent power of the Vampir. Eryk had grown accustomed to the constant influx of human and vampire captives that his father brought down to the basement above the dungeon, where he had set up his lab. 

All Eryk had ever known was his room in the manor, and the cold static smell of the lab. Having always lived his life as nothing more than a captive within his own home.

Even earlier today, when he had been rudely called down here by Arran, he had expected that it had something to do with Heinrich's experiments. The Elder often summoned him down to the lab to draw his blood and run various tests on him. The entire vampire swarm knew him as the Elder's son who was nothing more than another piece of lab equipment.

Which is why Eryk had been so surprised to find that there was a werewolf trapped in the dungeon. His father's obsessive experiments surrounded vampires alone, and Eryk had never once in his life seen any other non-human before. 

Kyle, the werewolf, was his first introduction to the world that existed outside of the founding family he belonged to. It made Eryk wonder about the world out there. He felt himself drifting off to sleep, and moved to lay down across from Kyle. The heat from the werewolf's body seemed to completely cancel out the cold of the dungeon, and Eryk had to hold himself back from slipping into Kyle's arms and relishing in that warmth. The vampire thought of the world outside the manor gates as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

More than anything Eryk wanted to see and experience what was out there.

He wanted to escape.

With Kyle.