Barmond stared at Hugo, and Hugo was looking at the painting on the wall again. The fire in the chimney was cracking softly, its smoke rising towards the surface. In some other room, finally noticeable now that it was quiet, a clock was ticking.

Hugo turned around and stared right back at Barmond. He seemed quite serious.

"You're mad at me," he stated.

"No," Barmond lied. "I'm not."

"Barmond, you're bad at hiding when you are. Just say it. Did you want to keep it a secret? You wanted me to say nothing? I'm working for him, Barmond. As he said, my loyalty goes to him, first and foremost."

Barmond diverted his eyes, even if that was a show of his doubt and weakness. Said like that, it did sound a bit selfish of him to be mad at Hugo. But that did not change his feeling or the fact that he felt betrayed.

"What did you want me to do, Barmond?" Hugo asked. He was not angry, his tone was very calm, but a little cold.

"Keep it for yourself. Maybe." Barmond rubbed his feet together, realised that he had done so, and stopped. "I was thinking... you know that if any other vampire knew that I had done that, that I would be sentenced to death, right?"

"Ranphoros is not another vampire."

"I don't feed on Ranphoros," answered Barmond immediately. "Ranphoros is one person too many that knows, now."

"That doesn't change my position on the matter. I still must tell him."

"You did not have to. I'm not... I am not dangerous. I can control myself. Besides, you're the one that's suppose to handle me, right? I'm not under your orders?"

And, in everyone's eyes, Barmond belonged to Hugo. He had been given to him. The thought, intrusive, came into Barmond's mind and Barmond couldn't quite chase it. And Hugo was saying nothing, he seemed like he was thinking about what to say to Barmond.

Eventually, he sighed and came to sit next to Barmond, on Ranphoros' seat. Hands on his thighs, he stared out in the emptiness for a moment, then looked at Barmond again.

"I didn't think you viewed thing that way," Hugo said. "You should have told me."

Barmond hesitated before answering.

"I should have." He rubbed his face. "I should have thought about it. We're not... we're not isolated."

"What do you mean?"

"We're still living together in this nest. Even if we're... a bit more..." Barmond made some vague gestures with his hands. "Closer. I'd say."

"You'd say?"

Barmond did not need to look at Hugo to hear the smile in his voice.

"A bit," Barmond added.

"Closer. Yeah. That's a word that you can use if you want."

Barmond had to chuckle a little. He knew that it was an understatement and, yet, as he was sitting in Ranphoros' reception room, he couldn't bring himself to say anything more specific. It was like bringing it outside of Hugo's room, even when they were alone, might somehow break the tenuous connection they had.

"I did not mean to drive you in a corner with Ranphoros," Hugo said. "I was just wondering when you would say it and was surprised when you didn't because it seemed important. Besides, knowing Ranphoros, I also knew that he would be furious if he discovered that on his own and would have taken it as an active betrayal. It wouldn't have been fair to him."

Barmond nodded but did not answer. He was thinking.

"And I guess," he said, after a while, "that it's not fair of me to put all the blame on you."

"How come?"

"I..." Barmond rubbed his face. "It's frustrating. Everything about this is frustrating. That they don't trust me."

"Heh." Barmond did not have the impression that Hugo was laughing at him, for once. "You got to give it time. Trust can't be just given like this. You know, Ranphoros got a nest to protect."

"It's more than that," Barmond said. "It's... It's personal."

"Oh?"

"When I was a vampire hunter... well, I hated vampires. I did not hunt all of them, because that would take so much time, but I saw what some of them did and I really, really hated them. I thought that they were the scourge of this Earth, especially when I was young. And, well, you know... now, I am one. And I hate them even more now because now I know what many of them could have done not to get in situations where they were forced to do what they did. Sure... the instincts can be difficult to deal with. But there is no reason, if you know what you are doing, to trigger them. Especially when you are supposed to stick with your sire as long as you don't have full control of yourself."

"Do you hate yourself?"

"Do... Do I hate myself?" Barmond considered it. "Maybe. I don't know. But the others do. Rosa does, like I'm a killer. Like she knows that I did something really bad." Barmond turned to Hugo, looking at him in the face. "But I never killed a human."

Hugo raised a brow but did not comment.

"That was something I had promised myself before I was turned. That I was going to become a vampire, yes, but that I would never kill anyone. I told myself that I knew what happened to the vampires that started to indulge in murder. I've taken care of them all my life, after all. And, let me tell you, some of those deaths... those were brutal. Not to get in the details."

"And you managed to hold on without ever killing someone? Without getting close?"

"I... well, there was a few times I might have gotten really, really close to killing someone, especially at the start. But, in the end, it wasn't the idea of death that scared me. It was knowing that they did not deserve to end like that, killed by some undead creature in a dark alleyway. No matter what they did in life... that is not an end anyone deserves."

There were ten seconds of full silence. Barmond was lost in images of the past, the feeling of loss and despair he had felt back then. But he had never killed.

"Otto wanted me to kill at least once," Barmond added after a while.

"Really?"

"Well, he never said he did. But he knew I was a former hunter. He knew that it would go against everything I had stood for. Maybe he even knew that it would break me a little. I knew it would. But I never did."

"I mean, not doing something that sounds almost impossible out of sheer spite sounds like you."

Barmond squinted at Hugo and the latter chuckled at the look. What was that supposed to mean? Barmond was not that spiteful.

Well, there had been that one time where he had fended off the shutting down of his body due to blood lack just to land a single scratch on Hugo, but that had been one time.

"Come on," Hugo said. "You know it's true."

"Say what you will."

Hugo chuckled again. Barmond steered the subject back on track.

"I also considered that it might be easier for me because I am a half-blood. The instincts are less strong."

"That could be possible as well."

"Regardless of what it might be, I don't want to be treated as a killer. And that's what everyone seems to default to."

"Not everyone."

"Everyone save you and Yoven. And Maggie. Maybe." He did not really know what Maggie thought of him except that she wanted to fuck him for the novelty of fucking a vampire. It's not like they had spoken about anything else.

But Hugo made a face when Barmond mentioned Maggie, as he had bitten in something sour.

"Something the matter?" Barmond asked almost immediately.

"About that," said Hugo. "I meant to tell you something important. Do you know how the mother of Maggie, the wife of Ranphoros, died? Her name was Coralia."

"Ranphoros married?" Barmond asked. He was aware, from having overheard Rosa and Maggie talk about it. He had not been aware that incubus and succubus practices monogamy.

Hugo took it well and smiled. "He did. He was very in love with her, and so was she. Of course, they still fed outside the couple, but they actually married. Like humans. Said... they own versions of their vows. As you can imagine, they were a lot more raunchy than the traditional ones."

"Spare me."

"I don't remember then in detail anyway, but I was supposed to be Ranphoros' best man. They bonded shortly before Maggie was born. Everything seemed so perfect."

"How did she die?"

Hugo stared at Barmond, and Barmond realised that it was easy to guess.

"She was killed by a vampire."

"Precisely."

Barmond took it in. That explained many things. The ban on the city. The inherent wariness. The assumption that Barmond couldn't control himself.

"Wait," said Barmond. "Why... how did it happen?"

"Vampires were Coralia's favourite food, specifically when they were feeding. There was this young vampire that had just set out into the world visiting the town. Coralia went to join him and never came back. She was found dead by the envoy sent out to find her in the vampire's inn room. As for the vampire, he had vanished."

"Did you ever find him again? The vampire, that is."

"Not us. Ranphoros went into a rage and exerted the full extent of his powers to threaten several nearby vampire clans. As a response, they sent us their hunter to help."

"Their... hunter?"

"He presented himself as a master vampire hunter, but he was a vampire himself. He was suddenly... there. No one had seen him coming. Presented himself to Ranphoros. Said that he was going to bring the culprit back if they let him see Coralia's corpse. And then, under Coralia's nails, he found the smallest drop of dried blood. He licked it. Left. And a single week after, he was back with the vampire that had killed her. As promised, Ranphoros withdrew his threat."

"A week?" Barmond laughed, nervously. "That's impossible. That vampire might be young, but he had a clan that was most likely willing to hide them... a hiding place. Something. He could have been anywhere."

"I saw that hunter with my own two eyes. A pale, tall man with long black hair. He wore a cape that made him look like he was gliding above the ground and he did not need to raise his voice to be heard. I did not see a single change of expression on his face the whole time of his visit, and I sure watched him. He looked like the sort of person that would have been capable of such a feat."

"That sounds like a powerful vampire."

"I imagine that he must have been quite powerful. Probably quite old too."

Barmond wondered if that hunter would be the one that was sent after him if his crime was discovered. Surely they wouldn't bother someone as scary as the hunter for someone as puny and insignificant as him.

There was still something he wanted to know.

"But, then, if her mother was killed by a vampire... Why is Maggie so adamant about sleeping with me? She followed me to Lamare."

"Isn't it obvious?" Hugo replied. "She wants to know what was that taste that was so good that her mother was willing to risk her life for it."

That was a lot to take in. It was... sinister. Morbid, even. Barmond wouldn't have believed Maggie capable of such thoughts, not bubbly, dramatic, youthful Maggie. But Hugo had known her since she was born.

"She has nightmares about dying from a vampire bite," Hugo said. "She fears it, and yet she's obsessed with it. Neither Rosa, Ranphoros or I... really know what to do about it."

Barmond nodded. He had nothing to say about it. The silence went on.

"I hope this explains why everyone has been a bit cold to you," Hugo said. "It's nothing personal. Don't let it bum you, and just... be yourself."

Barmond laughed bitterly. "I never was the most popular guy."

"You'd be surprised. Hey, just the fact that you're serious and dedicated will win you a lot of points. It's not like you need to be everyone's friend."

Perhaps... perhaps that was possible, then. If Barmond did not need to make friends, he could maybe do it.

"There is one thing I want to ask you," Barmond said. "While we're telling each other... stuff." Deep, emotional stuff. Barmond wasn't used to that.

"Go ahead."

"I know you vouchered for me, to keep me alive. What would have happened if you hadn't?"

Hugo did not respond right away. Barmond knew, then, what he was about to say.

"You would have been killed the moment of your capture," Hugo said. "I had you have you kept by my own pack to make sure no one tried anything crazy, and even that wasn't enough in the end."

Barmond had a flash of understanding. "Does... Does Anselm know what happened to Coralia?"

"Anselm? He did. You know, he was rejected by his group because he bounded with armour instead of a statue, by accident. Coralia was the one that took him in initially and taught him sign language so that he might communicate with us. She was persuaded that gargoyles had a level of intelligence similar to other humanoids... Even though they are so different. She was right in the end. Anselm knows what killed her."

So that was why he was so adamant about killing Barmond on that night. That was why Barmond had felt as if Anselm would even enjoy it.

"Why do you ask?" Hugo said. "Did Anselm do something?"

"Don't you know? He passed his hand right through me and tried to tear my head off."

"He did what?"

Barmond blinked a few times. "He didn't tell you? Maggie didn't tell you?"

"No, they haven't." Hugo seemed mad. "And I think that I need to make sure that Anselm knows you aren't to be killed on sight."

"I don't have any other question."

They both got up at the same time.

"We could consider this conversation finished," Barmond said.

"That's cold," Hugo said. He took a step closer. "And abrupt."

"What else do you want? A kiss?"

It took saying to realise that, yes, that was most likely exactly what Hugo wanted. And Hugo was just standing there, smiling at him smugly.

"Really?" Barmond asked, his voice a lot softer.

"I'd like to get one if you're not mad with me anymore."

Barmond hesitated. Rubbed his hands together. Hugo waited, waited that Barmond reached for him and grabbed him by his clothes, around his collar. But he did lean down the moment he did to peck his lips.

And lingered to pull on them. A little Barmond let him do. And he let him do when he pried his mouth open. Well, considering that he responded by making their tongues meet, Barmond did a bit more than being passive. But that was a secret between Hugo and him.

"Well then, that's enough," said Barmond as he abruptly pulled away. "We both got things to do, can't be kissing all night."

Hugo didn't take it poorly. In fact, as Barmond was turning around and escaping the room, practically running away with his face red as a tomato, he was chuckling to himself.