To have my beauty asleep in my arms, it was pure bliss. I listened to him breathe as his head laid on my chest, nothing but the silence of the night surrounding us. Only the occasional rattle of the wind against the windows disturbed our peace. Laying here, comfortable, safe, it made the last few weeks nothing more than a tired memory. When the time is right, we'll drown in our desires, but sex was the furthest thing from my mind right now. As I'm sure you can assume, that'd be why I remained awake while my love was sound asleep.

His worries had nearly come to an end. Sure, we still have a castle to reclaim, but that'll be child's play for two demon lords. Ricky had his power back, he had me back, and the others were safe. He had nothing else to worry about, but I did. That supernatural pager Asher gave me for one. Then, there was the matter of Ville's pain. After all he's done for us, I almost feel like I owe it to him. I don't care about all his "reason for existing" bullshit. He didn't have to save our asses the way he did. There's thoughts swimming in my head, little ideas that I should silence for Ricky's sake. But, damn it, I have to go and give a shit about other people. At least it's Ville. At least it's the one person I know my love would be willing to do something batshit insane for.

The next morning, I paid Angelo a visit. I thought he'd be with Ryan. They'd been apart long enough. However, I found him in his room alone; his legs pulled up to his chest and sketchbook laid across his thighs. "You're not dead." He softly said.

"I'm not dead." I replied, "Well, depends on your definition of dead. I'm certainly... Changed. For the better, I hope." My eyes glanced Ryan's jewelry on the bedside table. "Should I ask?"

He kept drawing. "Prefer if you didn't."

"Then I won't." A death moth. I swore he'd drawn a thousand, yet he never gets sick of it. "There's something else I needed to ask about, though. Atlas."

"You don't mean the vampire?"

"The very one." I said, "You knew him?"

Angelo sighed, "Why are you asking? We never even talked about it on Earth."

"Please, Ange. It's important."

He glanced over his page at me briefly. "No, I didn't know him. No one did." He said, "He wouldn't be much of an urban legend if people knew him." If Angelo didn't want to talk about something, he didn't talk about it. We went around in circles for awhile until I gave up. All my questions were met with the same dismissive excuse; It's a myth, an old wives' tale, an urban legend.

Perhaps it was Angelo's age getting the better of him. He'd lived this life far longer, seen things in the old days that I couldn't imagine. He wanted to leave the vampire boogie man behind on Earth. I understood. I didn't like it, but I understood.

As I made my way through the palace in search of Ville, my precious shadow tried to sneak up on me. He had to have known I'd see him coming a mile away, but he didn't care. Ricky wrapped his arm around mine and continued along my side. I was happy to see him well rested. It was rare, even before all of this happened.

"I can't believe you made me wake up alone." He pouted.

"I'm sorry, my love." I responded, "There's some loose ends I needed to take care of."

Ricky raised his eyebrow, the cutest smirk playing at his lips. "Is there a particular reason I can't help with those loose ends?"

"Uh- Of course not. I just- nevermind." I smiled, "I was just going to talk to Ville about something important. I'll warn you, though, I think I'm really opening Pandora's box with this one."

"...Pandora's box?"

"Oh, right. No Greek mythology here. No Greeks for that matter. It's an Earth phrase. It basically means... We're about to walk into a shit storm. Are you sure you want jump into the deep end right after getting your powers back?"

"I don't really care, Chris. As long as we get to stay together. We've been apart for way, way too fucking long." Understatement of the century. I had the pleasure of being comatose for a good majority of my absence, but he was awake for it all. He suffered through each day, walking the halls of a place that wasn't his home, in a body that didn't feel like his own. And all he could do, and all anyone else could tell him to do, was wait on me.

As we walked, Ricky commented we should mention the destiny bond to Ville. Something tells me he'll notice before we can say anything. It's not that obvious under our uniforms, unless you were looking for it, but it's Ville. He'll know. He always knows. Of course, he knew we were walking to meet him. Unlike Ricky, he doesn't creepily open doors telekinetically.

We found him in his study, which is more of a library by the size. He picked Calypso up off his lap, telling her her lessons could be done for the day. She scurried past us and out the door. Ville's attention fell upon us, the kindest smile on his face. "Well, isn't that a beautiful sight." He turned his head towards the second floor balcony, calling out, "Ripper! Please take Rune and Anix to play. They've worked enough today."

My favorite pink fairy's face suddenly popped up between the bars of the banister. He giggled shyly and gave me a small wave. Ripper then appeared behind him, another youngling on his hip, and offered his hand. Once the aid had shown them out, I couldn't help myself from asking, "How many kids do you have?"

"Hm," He grinned, "I wish I could afford the time for more. A broken heart on an adult is one thing, but a child... They're the ones who make my job difficult. But you two, times like this, makes it all worth it." Ville gathered up the books he'd been teaching from. "I'm surprised you're even bothering to see me. I'd think you'd be off to Mayotta already."

"Johannes has kept it safe this long. We can trust him to keep it that way a little longer." Ricky responded. I felt his eyes looking up at me, pushing me to continue.

Great. "I think it's time we talk. About Atlas."

That name struck through Ville's entire body. He stiffened before forcing himself to regain his composure. Clearing his throat, he placed one last stray book on a shelf. "So, you figured out my little secret, then. I must admit, I wasn't expecting you to include Ricky in this conversation."

"...Why?" Ricky glanced me, "Chris, what's going on here? Who's Atlas?"

"Always the paranoiac. Don't worry. It's nothing that could hurt you. Please understand, I prefer to leave my Earth life on Earth. Chris appears to be much better at marrying the two than I ever was." Ville lowered himself into his desk chair. He motioned towards two opposite himself. "I can't imagine you think as highly of me as you once did, and I can't blame you for it."

"C'mon. The heart wants what it wants. I shouldn't have to tell you that. And, honestly, I could never form an opinion on Atlas one way or the other. It wasn't as black and white of an issue to me like it was the others."

Ricky interjected, "Can you please backup a little here and explain? Who's Atlas? I mean, who is he to you two."

I lingered on Ville. "I don't know. He... Might've been a vampire. Some people say he was something else. I think... It's possible, Ville's the only one to ever get close enough to him to know."

"Hm," Ville smirked, "We tried to kill each other the first time we met."

I glanced at Ricky out of the corner of my eye, resisting making any comments. He narrowed his eyes at me just for the look. "And let me guess; This vampire arrogantly thought he was the most powerful thing in the world and was severely humbled by a demon lord's power."

"Yes, actually- Oh. Well, that honesty makes a lot of sense considering the way you two are with each other."

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Ricky responded.

"Let's not get off track, shall we?" He continued, "Atlas is in fact a vampire. What we call the 'vampire virus' is actually more of a parasite that alters the body. Atlas has the ability to absorb the parasite out of another's body. Sometimes people survive it, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they want to be human again, and sometimes... they don't. With the way he attacked me the first time we met, I always knew that he did what he did without consent."

"He was committing genocide on his own species?"

"Yeah." I murmured, "But who he Hell could blame him? Each vampire he took down, he saved hundreds- thousands of lives. And the vampires that were turned against their will, he saved them too."

"I'm afraid not everyone could be as compassionate and understanding as Chris. Most masters and higher ups wanted him dead, so he made himself a ghost story. Never got attached to anyone, stuck to the shadows, kept moving. But that's no life to live, even for someone like him. Sometimes the obsession became too tiring. He needed a break. It was the late '90s. '97, I was in London. It's the most romantic city, especially at night, and especially when it rains. I stopped through this little back alley pub to get a drink and he was there, singing. His music was so beautiful, his voice, and he- He was magnificent.

"I remember him singing, and he looked up at me. I'd never had someone look straight through me like that. I didn't realize at the time, he was noticing all the little things that made me inhuman. Those small details that separate a demon lord from a human, he read them as vampiric. He was sizing me up, making his plan to take me. If you could've seen the way he watched me... I knew he wanted to take me, I just didn't think it was going to be in a fight. I stayed awhile longer to listen to the music, but the ones that came on after him just weren't the same, so I decided to head back to my hotel. I knew he was following me, waiting for a moment when it was just he and I alone on the street.

"Well, you know how that went. He'd never seen someone like me, but in truth, I'd known vampires, and I'd never seen one quite like him either. He demanded to know what I was. I liked his company," Ville grinned, "So, I invited him back to my hotel. I can't explain it, but there was something about him that made me trust him with my secret. He had so many questions and I told him everything. A man I'd just met. We talked until an hour before sunrise, when he had no choice but to leave.

"When I asked him to return so that we could talk more, he said 'I don't keep company.' 'Any?' I asked. 'Any' he said. 'We didn't have a chance to talk about music. Couldn't you spare one more night?' He looked at me with those eyes again, then walked out the door. Vanished instantly. I didn't think I'd see him again, but the next evening, I returned to my hotel room to find him waiting on me. 'One more night.' he said. He was so firm about it, too. He didn't want a single liability in his life, but I was stronger than any vampire. I was something his enemies couldn't touch, and he was someone I could trust my secrets to. He had no one to tell, nor would he. But our love wasn't one of codependency like you'd think. Had we been anyone else, we would've fallen in love just the same. I'm certain of that. I've had many great romances in my life, but none were like him.

"That second night, when he'd come back to talk about the music, I'd had a few drinks. I'd teased him that he couldn't get drunk like me, and he looked at me, dead serious, and told me he could get drunk off of my blood. I don't know why I did it. I really don't, but I let him come to me. I let him drink from me, and when our chests were pressed against each other like that, and his arms wrapped around me, something beyond logic took over. From then on, every night was 'one more night.' Even I didn't know it was possibly to fall that deeply in love with someone.

"But, the strain of maintaining a life in two worlds was beginning to catch up with me and I feared both my homes were suffering because of it. Even back then, I knew a vampire couldn't survive the rift. Moreover, I knew he'd never abandon his mission. It was his purpose, just as mending broken hearts was mine. We both knew that someday, the two worlds would come between us. He wanted to give me a piece of him that I could keep; A child. Calypso. He even broke his own rules to give me her. He swore to never get close to anyone. However, there was an ex-vampire whom considered herself indebted to him. She was willing to carry a child for him. I've always raised her as my own, as ours."

"Does she know all of this?" I asked.

"She knows she's adopted. That's all. She thinks I took her in like I did with Rune and all the others."

"What about your other kids?" Ricky sneered.

"You have other kids?"

Ville scoffed, "I've been the God of Love for centuries, of course I have other children! But no, they don't know either."

"Exactly how long has it been? Since you last saw him." Ricky replied.

Ville paused, eyes wandering off as he contemplated a good answer. The realization hit me like a fucking train. "You've seen him recently, haven't you?"

"What, no-" Ricky stammered, "That would mean you've been back to Earth recently and you said you stopped doing that. You stopped doing that, right?"

"I said I quite making music on Earth. I never said I stopped going there."

"You know how many times you've blown me off, blown everyone off, because you said you were 'too busy'?! But you've got time for that?"

I grabbed my love's hand, "Ricky, sit back down. Please." He flickered my hand away angrily, but respected my request. "How often do you see Atlas?"

"Not very." Ville responded, "Every twelve months, we spend a night together. We always say next time we're going to talk first, catch up, but it never ends up that way." He smiled in reflection. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Ricky. I have a lot of responsibilities, and that's exactly why I need the time away. You can call me selfish if you want. You wouldn't be wrong."

"It's not selfish. I just-" He bit his tongue. Ricky reclined into his seat, his familiar scowl settling upon his features. Though I'd prefer to never see him upset, it was nice to see his old self returning. His voice fell upon my ear, "Why'd you even want to talk to him about this in the first place?"

"That's a good question." I guided his hand away from where it rested against his jaw and intertwined our fingers. His skin, though rough, felt so gentle against mine. "I thought, since I'm stronger now, I could use my power to bring Atlas here for Ville. But I failed to consider there might be a different reason they're separated. I should've known, if it was just the rift, Ville probably would've found a way to fix it a lot time ago." I turned his hand slightly, examining the tattoo-like markings I'd supposedly caused him. "And, I guess, I had a bit of a morbid curiosity with it; A demon lord, falling in love with a vampire."

Ricky stared at me a moment, then scoffed. "I hate you." He said with a smile, "So fucking cheesy."

I reached across our chairs and planted a kiss on his cheek. He tried to push me away, laughing all the while. The two of us rose from our seats and I placed a much gentler kiss upon his forehead. "If things ever change," I told Ville, "I'll be there to help. I owe you that much."

He dismissed me once again with rehearsed lines about his job. At this point, all I could do is roll my eyes and smile. We began our goodbyes, when something distant pulled away my attention. I'd become too enraptured in Ville's story, I wasn't paying much mind to the rest of the palace. It was a vaguely familiar voice at the opposite end, entangled with our family's. "Chris?" Ricky spoke, "What's wrong?"

"Follow me." Without hesitation, he dropped into the shadow dimension beside me. Our two shadows raced alongside each other, traveling rapidly throughout the palace until landing in the parlor. As I ejected myself from the shadow dimension, I leaped at our unwanted guest and pinned him to the floor. He attempted to activate one of his rings, only for Ricky's heel to crush his hand.

It's kinda sexy the way he didn't even question my judgement call and went along with everything. I'm liking this partners in crime thing already. "Friend of yours?" Ricky asked.

"Well, the last time we saw each other, I was chained to a wall in a torture chamber." I responded. Thankfully, no, it wasn't Asher—It was the bounty hunter who'd placed me in Asher's possession. As I recall, he was somewhat of a friend to our local guide.

"Hey, I did you a favor." Spencer sneered, "Anyone else would've killed you all on sight."

"It really doesn't feel like you did us a favor." Ryan deadpanned from the corner of the room.

Spencer glared back at him, "Whose side are you on?!"

"Chris, it's fine." Justin said, "He's not here to fight. He just came to say goodbye."

Goodbye? That isn't fucking cryptic at all. Justin appeared sincere. He hasn't given me a reason to distrust his word either. I hesitantly allowed Spencer freedom. The two old friends stepped aside to continue the conversation I'd interrupted.

Ryan explained, "Apparently they're sick of his escaping. They took the "alive" part out of 'wanted dead or alive.'"

"He can't go back to Khar'Zul ever again. Not unless things change." Vinny added, far more pathetic in tone than Ryan. That kid's bleeding heart's gonna be the death of him someday.

I called over to our previous entrapper, "Why are you going back then? I thought you two were friends."

Spencer sighed, "We are, but he's not the only one there that needed me. Undermining an oppressive system isn't exactly a little gig, you know."

I can't exactly argue with that, can I? I might hold a little prejudice against him for kidnapping my team and imprisoning me with a sadist, but in his own way, he is a good guy. It takes a lot of guts to do what he does. Justin told Spencer he'd help see him out. The two left the room, and left Ricky and I with several eyes on us. Great. Great.

"Well, how do you feel about adding a shitty dragon to our collection of strays?"

My love glanced up to me. "I'd say we're going to need a bigger castle at this rate."

Vinny and Moony both jumped up with excitement. "Shitty dragon can stay?!"

Ricky and I exchanged a knowing look. He sighed, "Yeah. Shitty dragon can stay." Vin cheered in excitement. He and Moony ran off immediately to find Justin and tell him the news. "You wanna enlighten me on the shitty dragon part?"

I snaked my arm around his waist, his head instinctively falling upon my shoulder. "It's a long way home. We'll have plenty of time to catch up on everything."