He wasn't in The Entrails.

Lucius groaned quietly as he scoured the streets once again. He'd already looked for Ethan at Anthony's home and around the BBT manor, which were the only places aside from The Entrails he'd ever met the man.

It was the perfect time for a vampire to be out too. The sun had set long ago and most people had begun making their way home, so the streets were near empty the closer Lucius got to the centre of town.

Calling out for him seemed dumb too. What were the odds he was even nearby? And as far as Lucius knew, werewolves were the only supernatural creatures blessed with good ears.

A thought struck him, and while it felt like just as dumb of an idea as any, he brought out his knife to make a small cut in his arm. It was a shallow cut, and not enough to let too much blood out, but Lucius preferred it if it wouldn't leave a scar.

"Here, Ethan, Ethan, Ethan," he beckoned under his breath, only to chuckle to himself at the idea of Ethan coming running like a hungry cat.

Still nothing, and Lucius gave his knife an accusatory look.

"Are you feeling well?" a voice asked, and Lucius flinched before turning around to see... Well, no one, really.

"Uh..." He squinted to peer into the shadows of the alleyways, eventually having spun around entirely. "... What?"

"You forgot one direction," the voice continued with an amused tone, and at that point Lucius lifted his gaze to look skywards.

"Oh," he said with a relieved laugh as he spotted the red eyes barely glowing in the dim shine of the streetlight. "I was looking for you."

"Is that why you cut your arm?" Ethan asked, dangling his legs from the old, wooden gangway between two buildings. "Doesn't seem too wise, especially since you don't even look up when searching for things. What if other vampires had been around?"

"Are there a lot of vampires in South Kerilia?" Lucius rolled down his sleeve to hide his wound, realising he'd never asked about it. He'd assumed Ethan and that unnamed natbakka had been the only ones.

"Well... No, most supernatural beings stay away from this town." Ethan absentmindedly drummed his hands against the wooden boards beneath him. "I think we both know why."

Lucius' mood was torn in half. One sympathising with Ethan's unfortunate obsession with his family, while the other was overjoyed that the subject had come up so quickly.

Still, he didn't let his excitement show.

"So... I've been thinking..." He paused to get the gravity of what he was about to say across. "... Don't you think you've suffered enough from all this?"

He couldn't see Ethan's face well enough to read his expression, but the stillness from his body suggested that perhaps there wasn't much to read.

"What?"

"Damien is clearly hurting you, even when he's not around. You're torturing yourself by refusing to let go of him." Lucius wrung his hands to keep the increasingly cold weather away. "And he's doing nothing but making people miserable... Or dead."

Ethan didn't reply at first, letting Lucius stand there in awkward silence in the middle of the fortunately empty street.

"I suppose it sounds naive of me given what you've seen, but you don't know him like I do," he finally said. "He wasn't like this before, and I know he can go back to how he used to be."

Lucius had to clench his jaws not to blurt out what he'd just learned about Damien and how much Ethan didn't know. He wanted nothing more, but Anthony had asked him specifically not to.

"You know... Sometimes people can't go back," he said instead. "There's a point beyond redemption, and once you've gone there, your old self is dead. Maybe... You need to realise that the old Damien— Your father— isn't around anymore?"

Another pause, and this time Ethan's voice returned with a colder tone, very similar to his aforementioned father.

"Were you looking for me just to make me feel bad?"

"No, I— I want the opposite," Lucius argued, holding up his hands in defence. "I care about you, and about Anthony, and it seems like both of you are willingly ignorant to how much he's hurting you, so... I just— I just think that we need to do something about it, you know?"

A surge went through the air, and Lucius yelped as Ethan was suddenly standing right in front of him with smoke quickly escaping the surrounding area.

"What would we do about it?" he asked, face certainly trying to remain friendly, but his Damien-voice and strained expression betrayed him.

It made Lucius hesitate. He had no desire to anger a vampire, but in the end he cared more about his future in South Kerilia, and his future with Anthony.

"I mean... Can't we both agree that Damien's too far gone? You have to know that, even if you don't want to acknowledge it." Lucius grimaced. "For everyone's sake, even Damien's... Isn't it best to let him go before he gets even worse?"

Ethan stared, eyes darting around Lucius' face to see if he'd understood it right.

"You mean... Kill him?"

"I know it sounds bad, but—"

"No," Ethan said, face scrunching up in pain and he shook his head. "No, I can't. Even if it was possible, I could never do that."

"It is possible though, isn't it?" Lucius pushed. "Those paintings contain their souls, so if his is destroyed he would be as well."

"Listen, I—" Ethan looked down. "I know he's still in there. He's still our father, and while he still won't realise it's me, he loves us and—"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Lucius flared up. "What is it with you two and denial? Damien's a monster! He's made you both miserable and you won't even admit it!"

"No, he loves both of us," Ethan insisted. "He just doesn't believe I'm still me, but I know that can change, and he's not hurting Anthony—"

"Of course he is!" Lucius threw all promises aside. He couldn't let Damien get away with everything just to spare some of Ethan's feelings. "It's just that Anthony never told you because you're so set on finding good in him!"

Ethan's brow furrowed in confusion, but just as he opened his mouth to speak his eyes flickered to the side.

"Wait—"

He couldn't utter more. His body was already on the ground by the time Lucius could process the gunshot infecting the air.

At last, he managed a trembling breath of despair as he watched dark blood spill out from the hole in Ethan's forehead and down past lifeless eyes. His body stood paralyzed at the horrific sight while his mind knew oh too well that he had to run. He had to get out of there immediately.

"It really is just one disappointment after the other with you."

It was the last voice Lucius wanted to hear, and an excruciating terror squeezed his heart as he slowly turned his head.

"No..."

"Don't get me wrong, your hostile attitude is endearing," Derek said as he lowered his gun with a reproachful shake of his head. "But it's turned out to be a tiresome inconvenience, and it needs to stop."

Was there even any point in running? There was no doubt Derek had more than one gun on his person, and Lucius was beginning to believe what Ethan had said about his inhuman knack for slaughter.

He clenched his teeth. So what? Was he just going to stand there and accept his death? Not a chance. If Derek wanted to end him, he'd at least have to deal with a moving target.

So with a last glare of defiance, Lucius turned on his heels to escape into the nearest alley. Say what they will about the man, he'd at least need to see him to shoot him.

He flinched as another gunshot sounded through the air, and to his horror a sharp pang above him revealed that the bullet had entered the alley along with him. While he'd heard of ricocheting he'd never seen it in action before, but he figured someone so supposedly proficient in firearms could pull it off without problem.

At least it didn't hit me.

Things were still bad. His knees were about to crumble underneath him, his mouth had dried out, and his pounding heartbeat was drowning out all other sounds, but he still had to move. So he staggered forward, cautiously throwing a glance behind him to plan an escape route before focusing back on the threat who could appear in the alleyway at any second.

It seemed pointless, but he still readied his knife as he backed away to escape behind another corner, almost praying for Dyris to make sure Derek wouldn't take another route to surprise him. There wasn't much else he could do. He was an easy target as long as he stayed in that narrow space. All Derek would have to do was point his gun.

A creaking sound reached his ears, but despite looking in both directions Lucius couldn't spot anyone. It wasn't until it was too late that he noticed the two boards from the gangway above him swinging down to slam him into the stone wall.

All air escaped his lungs, and he coughed as he reluctantly fell to his knees with the boards still pressed against him. Debris and splinters had torn the fabric of his coat and some reached deep enough to pierce his skin. The next breath he managed to draw was a hissing one through his teeth, and he dared to look up at the severed ropes that had secured the gangway before.

Apparently the bullet had reached its target after all, it just hadn't been Lucius.

"Honestly, didn't Eeth point out that forgotten direction just minutes ago?"

Lucius had no chance in the world to escape as Derek tossed one of the boards aside and effortlessly grabbed his hand to stop any stabbing attempts. "I'd remember his advice if I were you."

"What do you want?" Lucius tried to squirm his way out of Derek's grip with humiliating futility. "You could have killed me already if you'd wanted to, and I know that's what Damien wants."

"It was, at first." Derek tilted his head with a cheerful smile. "But it seems like you've really gotten on his nerves all of a sudden, so I guess death is too good for you."

"Well I'd ask what else you have in mind, but..." Lucius used the strength he had left in his shoulder to shove the remaining plank forward, tipping it towards Derek instead. "... I think I'll pass."

As predicted, Derek let go of Lucius' hand to dodge the threat, and Lucius shot forward to finally have the upper hand.

He hadn't predicted that Derek would be strong enough to stop the board mid-fall however, and the knife that was aimed at his throat ended up scraping against wood.

"Why do you even bother?" Derek asked as he lowered the board, only to slam it against Lucius' face a moment later, and the stabbing pain in his face suggested a nosebleed was imminent. "Even someone with your stubbornness should know when there's no use in fighting back."

"Well what are my options?" Lucius growled, grimacing through the throbbing pain of his bloodied nose. "It's either this or being tortured anyway, if you're not gonna kill me. Might as well make things harder for you."

Derek blinked, giving Lucius a concerned look before his mouth curved into a pitying smile.

"Aw," he said before punching Lucius' across his face, sending him toppling to the ground. "You think you're making things hard."

Before Lucius could recover from the punch, Derek kicked his stomach to roll him over on his back.

"You know, after you survived both a garm and a natbakka I really got my hopes up about you." He grabbed Lucius' throat and forced him to sit up again. "But it turns out you're no fun at all. You have no idea what you're doing."

"I—" Lucius' voice was partly blocked by the blood filled nose, and his head spun. Black spots danced before his eyes and the pulsating pain from multiple places on his body refused to let him breathe properly. "I'm not a brawler, but— But I've survived death threats to last a lifetime. That's not something to scoff at.

Derek scoffed.

"So it's all been luck." He let go of Lucius' throat to clasp his hands together above his head. "As if you weren't disappointing enough already."

Then he plunged his hands down, and Lucius' pain was replaced with darkness.