Wulfric

I had a bad feeling going into this meeting that Griffin wasn't ready to become immortal and maybe never would be. It could very well have turned out to be a waste of everyone's time if he ultimately decided against it. Not to mention, I would be much happier avoiding my father.

I should have canceled the meeting, or better yet, not scheduled it at all to begin with.

Now, things had turned out far worse than I even anticipated going in. I had a hard time focusing on what was happening around me, and had scarcely registered that Roderick had freed me from my crystal prison.

Griffin, oh God, Griffin. What had I done? How could this have happened? He had provided my sole nourishment ever since that first time we laid together.

The sickness he suffered afterward, the one that still plagued him sometimes... that had to be from me. From what I took from him without either of our knowledge and without his consent.

I felt sick.

Griffin's parents pulled him toward the door, and I watched in silent agony as he walked away from me. What must he be thinking? How would he cope with such revelations? I wanted to be there for him, but I was the wrong person to provide comfort at such a time. No, anything I did or said would only make him feel worse. It was, after all, my fault.

I should have asked more questions of my father. Should have bothered to do even the smallest amount of research during my long life instead of sitting back and accepting my father's words for the truth. Why hadn't I doubted him more? I always knew there were things he wasn't telling us; I just never imagined they could be so important.

Just before he would have disappeared from my sight, Griffin turned back and offered me a soft look, one of clemency. He didn't blame me, even though he should.

I stared at my hands, which had not changed in four hundred years. I always thought I knew the price. Watching my family die one by one, never going out in harsh sunlight, and having to prey on others to sustain myself had seemed a high enough price to pay. How much pain had I wrought without ever realizing it?

Four hundred years. I was personally responsible for robbing over four hundred years collectively from my victims.

Benedict, my uncle, was long dead. His children had been robbed of their father and my aunt robbed of her husband well before his time.

My mother had been isolated from the rest of the family, aging apart from us and dying so long ago I couldn't remember more than the most basic things about her.

My mother...

My mother.

"What have you done?" I demanded, stalking toward my father.

His eyes were hard and he turned away from me. It seemed his inclination to explain himself had run out. But I would not let this go, could not let this go. "My mother. You always said the spell would only work for your blood kin," I said.

"And as your friend here explained, that was no lie," Father said smugly.

"Because you designed the sigil as such. You could have chosen to place another symbol there, no?" I looked to Roderick for confirmation.

"Yes, there are ways of encompassing one's household instead of one's blood," he confirmed.

"Which means you chose to leave my mother, your wife, out of your curse. Why? Why did you do it? Why make monsters of us all, why let us drain people of their lives? And why not at least offer us the comfort of our mother?"

"You ask the wrong questions, son. Ask yourself instead, why would I have chosen the out-clause that I did? Why is the key to your humanity your soulmate?"

I couldn't think of a single rational explanation for that.

Edmund approached, and there was a strange look in his eyes. I might have almost thought it hope, if such an emotion weren't completely out of place here. "Is it so you would be reunited with her when your time came? If the spell requires your soulmate, then maybe she would be reincarnated or something-"

Father didn't let Edmund finish his theorizing before bursting out in derisive laughter. "If I wanted her by my side so badly, I would have included her in the spell to begin with. No, I chose soulmates because I wanted to ensure the spell would never lift from me, and there had to be an adequate consequence to not breaking the curse. When my time comes, if it ever does, I will have no trouble at all casting my soulmate aside. If I had done a better job with my children, none of you would have ever had to die, either. You're all too sentimental. It's been incredibly disappointing."

I was past the point of being surprised by anything my father could say, but Edmund was not. His little gasp told me just how much our father's words hurt him.

I pulled Edmund back and looked to Roderick. "What will you do with him?" I asked.

He glared at my father. "He tried to kill myself and my family. He will be locked away for the remainder of his life, and may it be a long one. By the time his unlucky soulmate stumbles on him in that prison, he'll be begging for mortality just to make it all stop," Roderick pronounced.

"Is there a place that can hold him?"

Roderick cut me a wry look. "Of course. There are bad people from all backgrounds, Wulfric. You should know that by now. When those people have access to powerful abilities, there is a special place they get locked away. I have already contacted the authorities, who will be arriving to collect him tomorrow. I'm only glad I don't have to send you along with him."

"Why aren't you?" I asked.

"You didn't know," Roderick said.

I wasn't sure how he knew that, but the confidence in his voice made me think he had more evidence than just my behavior when I found out the depths of my father's depravity. Perhaps there was some other magic at play here? Some kind of mind-reading spell? The thought made my skin crawl, and I felt violated without even though all I had were suspicions.

"Wulf?" Edmund said, his voice quivering.

"What is it?"

Edmund's hands shook and I took them in mine. "I'm hungry," he whispered, and he looked like he could cry.

My heart twisted. Anyone could see that the last thing Edmund wanted to do was feed from someone right now, but he wouldn't have much choice. If we denied our need for blood, eventually a madness would come over us, a frenzy, and we would attack the first blood source we encountered. I understood that now in a way I never had before. It was the spell, demanding its payment for our extended lives.

I only wished I had Edmund's problem. I wasn't hungry, not after feeding from Griffin earlier today.

The thought made me feel sick all over again, and I looked to my father for what I decided would be the last time. His deceit was unforgivable. When you added together all the extra time myself, my siblings, and my father had, we had stolen away thousands of years from our victims. Thousands. There were over twelve hundred years of stolen life in this room just from the three of us, without accounting for my other six siblings. It was hard to comprehend the magnitude of our sins.

Edmund hugged me tightly, and Arlo came over to pat his back while looking at me in sympathy. I hugged my brother back and wracked my brain for a solution.

Edmund needed to eat. He could probably last a couple of days before the cravings got too bad, and maybe a week if we were lucky before he attacked the first source of fresh human blood he encountered. It wasn't much time to come up with a solution.

"I can't do this right now," Edmund whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Why don't you go lay down in my room?" Arlo offered with uncharacteristic gentleness. Edmund nodded and fled down the hall.

"What now?" Arlo asked as soon as the door shut behind Edmund, as though my brother couldn't still hear us.

I shook my head. "We need to..." I hesitated, though I knew it had to be said, and had to be done if at all possible. My ears felt a funny pressure, and I wondered if that was a strange stress reaction. "We need to find a way to break the curse." Preferably without my death. I could end the curse for myself at any time, but Edmund's wouldn't until after I died. And I knew my brother; I knew he couldn't survive that long knowingly siphoning the life from people without losing himself to madness. I would sooner kill myself than inflict such a fate on him.

"Let's talk in private," Roderick suggested.

"Someone needs to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't try anything," I said, gesturing in my father's direction. "We would have to go much too far away not to be overheard."

Roderick smirked and pulled his wand from its holster around his waist. He used it to draw a rectangle around the sitting area and gestured for us to join him inside with Glenna and Safiya. Once we did, my ears felt like they needed to pop no matter how many times I tried. I looked to Roderick for an explanation and he said, "It's a sound shield. Sound gets in but not out. I can't hold one for long without tracing out a border, but we could talk in here for hours without being overheard."

"Neat trick," Arlo said admiringly.

"Indeed," I agreed.

Roderick waved off our praise. "I'm glad to hear that you want to remove the curse," he said. "With the consequences it has for others, I could never have allowed it to go on, whether against your will or not."

"But you said Grandpa over there was going to get locked up in a place so bad he'd be begging for mortality," Arlo said, confused. It set me off-balance to hear him refer to my father as Grandpa, even though that was technically the truth.

Roderick looked amused. "Yes, well, it wouldn't do to make him think we were planning to remove the curse, would it? So far, John has been docile. I don't imagine that'll last long, and he'll start fighting even harder if he thinks his immortality is in jeopardy."

I nodded. I clearly didn't know much about my father, but it was clear that his main motivation in life was to maintain his immortality at any cost.

"How will it work?" Safiya asked, leaning forward in interest. Glenna had finally stopped crying, though her arms were still wrapped around herself, and she offered me a small smile when our eyes met.

I wouldn't have had the slightest idea of where to begin if John hadn't given us the spell book," Roderick said. He was clearly amused. "Immortality isn't supposed to be possible, and I haven't been able to find any record of it being accomplished before. Now that I know precisely how it was cast, I can fabricate a new sigil to break the spell."

"Will there not be a cost?" I asked in trepidation. The original casting had killed Benedict, after all.

"Even with all of these countermeasures, a spell like this must have strained against the natural order of things," Glenna said softly. "Removing it will restore balance, and as such, should cost nothing but some expended power. Am I right?"

Roderick nodded, smiling at her like she was his star pupil. "Yes, exactly. Our magic has limits to how much we can expend in a given timeframe. It may take several of us, possibly aided by charged crystals, but nothing will happen that a few extra hours of sleep can't cure. It will be even easier if you remove the curse from yourself first."

I froze.

The idea had occurred to me, of course. I knew now that the curse was much more sinister than I had ever imagined, knew that I could no longer defend its continued existence. I even understood and accepted that Griffin would be elated to have me rid of it, while Edmund had to be desperate for an escape.

But knowing that something had to happen and actively doing it were very much not the same. And I wasn't ready. Would I ever be? I searched within myself, but I already knew the answer. I didn't want to be mortal. I didn't want to wither into dotage. I liked the security of my enhanced senses and durability. How many times had I watched humans going about their frail lives and marveled at how they could function without being terrified every moment of the day? How they could get into their vehicles without thinking about how dangerous they were and how they could die any second they were in one?

I couldn't live like that. But, somehow, I would have to.

I looked to Arlo for help, and he jumped in. "How long do you think it will take before you're ready to break the curse?"

Roderick looked to Glenna and Safiya. "What are your magic stores like?"

"Halfway?" Safiya said like a question.

"I need at least tomorrow to charge," Glenna answered.

Roderick looked deep in thought for a long moment, and then he slowly nodded. "We'll do it the day after tomorrow, then."