- Where are you filthy pigs going?! - The guard loomed over a couple of peasants, "Can't you see the nobles are coming?
The last was for Valentine and his companion. They went through the gates and paid the necessary toll, without being detained or checked with silver, and disappeared into the streets of Nayru. Lida didn't know the city well, so she had to wander through the central avenues where the merchant's daughter usually spent her time.
The vampire quickly got bored of it, and a good old-fashioned reconnaissance, as always, yielded the desired result. The third citizen, who had already received the snout, knew most of the city well, and in his memory there was a place that was perfect for Valentine and Lida. A hotel with a pretension to chicness, but not very expensive, because it had a very significant disadvantage: one of the city's many poor neighborhoods began on the next street.
The neighborhood, which could kill any business right on the root, suited the couple, because it was the poor quarters of the city that were to become their feeding ground. At least for the initial period of time for sure.
Lida needed a lot of blood, and although the girl controlled herself well, she couldn't eat as little as her beau. She also couldn't not kill. To stop herself and stop consuming blood was beyond her strength. Therefore, the result of an attack on a human was always a corpse. Another difference between Lida and Valentine, was her relationship with Mur. The light of her companion was sweetly pleasant and even somewhat nourishing to her.
Knowing the special relationship of converts with silver and the luminary, the renegades were especially careful to instruct their charges to avoid the reflected light of the planet's natural satellite. The girl who had accidentally fallen under the rays of the Mur was not burned, as one might expect, but on the contrary received a very positive sensation.
Valentine tasted the blood of his ward and compared her feelings with his own, and came to the conclusion that the earthlings and the locals who had come here were two different species, and the most important thing was that it was not the light of Demur that was dangerous to vampires, but only some part of it. The realization that the girl was some other kind of vampire, or a variation of one, was unpleasant to the man. He'd grown attached to her, and perhaps even fond of her.
The first hunt had been spent together. The vampire didn't dare to let Lida go to a poor neighborhood alone, even realizing that there was no rival who could compete with his companion. The second night everything was the same. And on the third night, the girl went hunting alone. And it wasn't even a matter of trusting her companion.
Just at dinner a man came to their table and breathing alcoholic fumes, asked to spend the evening in their company. He was saved from death by the mage's emblem, the same one Lida and Valentine had been wearing ever since they'd checked into the hotel. After all, seeing such a sign, the desire to do its owner nasty things immediately disappears. As it turned out, this rule worked both ways, and the vampires didn't dare to touch the impudent magician.
- Allow a fellow craftsman to dine with you. I'm paying! - The seated man spoke in an extremely friendly manner, - I hate to eat alone, but it's hard to find decent company in this place.
The man's rich clothes screamed of his wealth and status, so Valentine, instead of punching him in the face, pointed invitingly to the chair where the unexpected guest was already seated.
- Relius, the overseer of the general archives," the man introduced himself, calling to the servant at the same time.
- Valentine, battle mage. Lida, alchemist," the vampire introduced himself.
I've got more interesting stuff on patreon
patreon.com/Chill76