We were given a comfortably romantic room to wait in while Ville went to change. It was as you'd expect—Crystal chandelier, red velvet couches, a red leather ottoman with a glass tray placed upon it, wine bottles and glasses on the tray, and a whole bar against the back wall. Ricky hunched down in the corner of the couch with a stressed out expression plastered on his face. He looked like he was having an existential crisis, but why? The whole potential war deal hadn't broken him so far, and I doubt that's what it is. I'm just not sure why he seems worried to receive the answers he's been searching for.

He broke the stale silence by asking, "You haven't eaten since we left, have you?"

"No, I haven't." I responded. Four days wasn't a ridiculously long time to go without feeding. Vampires should feast once or twice a week. Stronger vampires like myself can push it if we need to, though it's not in my health's best interest to do so when it's not necessary.

Ricky pulled back his sleeve enough to expose his wrist. "Come here."

Well, I could go for human blood right now, but I suppose I can't complain. His has such a rich flavor that I only care for it when I'm in an indulgent mood. You'd think the sexualized design of the castle would lend itself to some deviant thoughts, but that was the last thing on my mind.

I sat down beside him, taking his arm into my hands. The veins in a wrist are far thinner than the arteries in a neck. It takes a certain amount of skill and precision to feed this way. I had to hold him as still as I could, as to not accidentally cut into a vein the wrong way. Unlike humans, I'm sure he could heal if I managed to make a mistake. I just don't want to cause him pain.

As I was drinking from Ricky, Ville entered the room. Ricky attempted to jerk his arm back from me but I forcefully held him in place. Though I know he doesn't want another demon lord seeing him in such a humiliating state, I'm sure he also wouldn't want my fangs tearing out of his veins and causing him to bleed all over the place. I retracted and let him go, despite not having fully filled my stomach.

Ville approached Ricky, grabbing his hand. He observed the puncture wounds as they grew closed. "You're not a young vampire, are you?"

"About 200 years. Earth years." I answered.

"Ah, that explains why your body survived a transition between realms. After a certain amount of time, vampires start to become... Something else. I never quite figured it out, but there was always something different about the older ones." He waltzed behind the bar and took down a bottle from the wall. "But, I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? Well, Chris, I'm afraid your tumble into this world was my fault."

"You seem to be at the center of all of my life's mishaps." Ricky said.

"I'm a mishap?" I asked.

"No-" He sighed, "I didn't mean it like that."

Ville laughed, "I wouldn't complain, Ricky. You two radiate a beautiful light." He brought himself over to a chair across from the couch, explaining, "As Ricky mentioned, I can sense broken hearts all around the world. A few centuries ago, I realized some of the hearts I was sensing didn't exist in our realm. When I'd try to visualize them, I'd only see blackness, fog, an endless void. I was determined to figure out what the Hell was going on, and after a lot of work, eventually I did.

"I discovered that there were in fact other realms, and what I was feeling was the broken hearts of Earth. There's these... Cosmic deities that keep shit all in balance. They're supposed to be the only ones that know about the other realms, and me finding out was a bit of a slip up on their part. So, they took me to their meeting hall, argued a bit over who was to blame, then I made a deal with them. I wouldn't tell anyone else if they gave me the ability to travel between the realms. Honestly, I didn't think they would say yes.

"You can probably fill in the blanks from there. I gave myself a new life on Earth, as a musician. It was the best way I could help the brokenhearted without giving myself away. An unfortunate side effect of popping between realms is I sometimes leave behind rifts between them. I'm afraid you were just unlucky and fell through one of these rifts. They usually close after someone does."

"One of my other servants, he made it back to Earth by discovering a portal. Or, a rift, I assume, but he was brought back here. Are you seriously telling me, that out of seven billion people, he was just so damn unlucky that he fell through your rifts twice?" Ricky questioned him.

Ville thought about it for a moment. He shrugged, "Yes. Well, there is always the chance that someone exposed to the rift's power could be attracted to other sources of it. That'd explain why so many Earthlings have ended up with you. You might have residual energy from the rifts on you from me. I can send them all back if you want."

Ricky fell quite. He wasn't happy. "That's up to them." He murmured.

The tone of the room changed. I wasn't sure exactly what upset him. It may have been facing the reality of losing any of us to our home world, but there was something else on my mind. Ricky has a tendency to take responsibility for our pain and our mistakes, even when either we or someone else is clearly culpable. I worry what's going through his head right now. Somehow, he'll find a way to blame himself for what's happened to us.

Ville stood from his chair, taking his glass with him. "I'll give you some time alone. If you need anything, feel free to come find me."

"Thank you." Ricky muttered.

Once we were alone, I grabbed him by his hips and pulled him into my lap. Though he whined about it, he didn't fight me. I guided his jacket off his shoulders, dropping it to the ground. I'm used to him having the rogue, disheveled look. This uptight, proper attire just isn't him. He carefully pulled down my hood to see my face.

"I can't speak for the others, but I've made up my mind. I'm staying here." I said.

He seemed surprised. "You are?"

"Of course I am." I replied, "My life had become so dull and meaningless on Earth. The same thing, over and over again. You've given me purpose again. I'm not going to give that up."

"Chris," He cooed, wrapping his arms around my neck and bringing his lips to mine. I placed my hands at the small of his back and held him dearly. The others, they have plenty of reason to go back. Ryan missed Angelo with all his heart, and Kuza would probably like to have his brain in one piece again. As for me, though, I didn't have much there I couldn't live without. A few friends, yeah, but that was about it.

As we parted ways, I looked up into those beautiful blue eyes. "Now," I smirked, "I think you need to tell me what exactly went on between you and Ville."

"What makes you think something happened between us?" He asked. It's so cute when he tries to lie because he's so bad at it.

"Ricky, c'mon. It's me."

He huffed like a pissed teenager getting caught. Ricky readjusted himself so his back laid against the arm of the couch and his legs rested across my lap. "Demon lords don't start off as demon lords. It's something you can transform into, kind of like vampires. A long, long time ago, before I was a demon lord, I was a servant... For Manson. He was unfeeling and deranged. Sometimes he'd kill a servant for looking at him wrong. Hell, there were times, he didn't even need that. We all lived in fear of our lives, everyday.

"I knew, someday, my number would be up. When one of the usual meetings was called, Manson decided to bring me and a few other servants with him. Him and Zombie got into it over something stupid, like they always do. He couldn't take his anger out on them, so he took it out on us. That's how this happened." Ricky placed his hand over the crook of his neck, indicating he was referring to his scar. "He left me on the ground to bleed out. I should've died that day, but Ville found me. He used a spell to place my body in a suspended state of animation to prevent me from losing anymore blood.

"That pool you saw earlier, it has incredible healing abilities. He brought me back here and put me in it. He saved my life. Later, he told me it was because he saw a great amount of potential in me and he encouraged me to pursue the dark arts. It's because of him that I discovered the secret to becoming a demon lord and became one myself. He did a lot more than that for me, though. Manson not only tried to kill me, he broke me sexually. Ville, he did what he was made to do. He helped me to learn to trust another person again, to learn what real love feels like, how unconditional and kind it's supposed to be."

"So, you were in a relationship with him?" I asked.

"No, not exactly. We slept together and I'll always be fond of the memories we have, but we always knew we weren't am item and we never would be. What we had, it was just apart of his job, his purpose. It's hard to explain."

I replied, "I understand, Baby. I'm grateful to him. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have ever gotten to meet you."

Ricky snickered, "Why are you so damn cheesy?"

Leaning over to him, I brushed his long hair back, cradling his jaw in my palm. "Because it makes you smile."

He became flustered because he realized I was right. As much as he liked to roll his eyes when I cracked my dumb jokes, they always made him happy. Ricky tried to act mad but failed. He resorted to feebly punching my arm like he always did. "You're so stupid."

"You love it." I teased, kissing his cheek.

"Y-Yeah, I do." He bit his lip and looked away. For a demon lord, he really acts like a teenage girl when he's trying his best to flirt. "Um... You didn't finish feeding earlier, did you?"

"No, but I'll be okay if you're not in the mood to be bitten again."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine." Ricky said, "I'm always in the mood for you."

Oh, my little blood whore. I knew a long time ago he'd become fixed on the feeling of my fangs. I climbed on top of him and hurried my head in his neck. Over the years, I've come to understand so much about my own species and my limitations, but I've never quite uncovered the reason why submissives can become addicted to being bitten. I've hypothesized it has to do with the pheromone we release when we feed. That explanation has never satisfied me, though. Perhaps there's something deeper, more mystic that I'm not meant to understand. While I have seen it happen to servants, it's more commonly seen in relationships that have a deeper meaning than just sex.

When we arrived here today, and even when he began to tell me the story, I didn't expect to learn about his scar. Funny how that works. I've gone months without a single clue as to how he got that scar or how I ended up here, yet I got both answers in the matter of minutes. All my questions have been answered, except one. It's one I'd rather not say out loud, because if the answer is no, I could be making the biggest mistake of my life by remaining here. I'll leave that answer to time.

What Ricky told me, it didn't change how I saw him. I think he feared telling me the truth because he didn't want me to know he once was a servant and that he cowered in fear from an abusive master. The fact that he once was that person doesn't mean he is now. And, to be clear, even if he still was that person deep down, I would've fallen for him just the same. His past, that scar, it doesn't make him damaged goods. I hope he doesn't feel that way. Just in case he does, I'll make sure he knows what a prize he actually is. He's absolutely beautiful. I've made stupid decisions for a beautiful boy in the past, but I don't regret them. I'll never regret the choices I make for love's sake.