Zyphre rolled off the recently deceased woman, casting the bloodless husk aside as he had no further use of her.

"She's still warm if you want a turn," he snickered, fixing his pants as he turned to his second in command.

"In light of my position, that would be ill-advised, I think, my lord," said Draesen calmly. "Katrine would have my head."

"You were more entertaining before she came into the picture if you ask me," said Zyphre.

"She has always been in the picture since you met me, my lord."

Zyphre ignored Draesen, turning the drained body over with his foot. He thought he heard something and pricked his ears for the sound again, holding his hand up to keep Draesen from talking. He heard the noise again: an unmistakable whimper coming from the hut behind him.

With untraceable speed, he darted into the house. There was a crash and a shrill scream before Zyphre walked calmly out, holding a small girl no older than six by the collar. The child was ghostly pale and had the mark of a vampire bite on her neck. She started to cry as she saw the moonlight glinting off Zyphre's razor-sharp fangs, clearly visible in his manic grin.

"Draesen, what's this?" he asked.

"It would appear to be a human child, sir," said Draesen.

"This, smartass, is a survivor," he said with a grin. "A survivor who's been bitten. This must be yours. I've killed all my prey tonight."

"She's just a child," said Draesen. "Forgive me for sparing her life."

"Hmm…" Zyphre pretended to appear thoughtful. "Well, maybe I could forgive y – no. No, I'm afraid not. Because, you see, when I say 'Let's go feat on an entire village,' I mean the entire village."

"Of course, my lord," said Draesen with a mock bow. "How could I forget the no survivors rule?"

"Please let me go," sobbed the little girl. "I'm so scared. I want my mommy and daddy."

Zyphre gasped mockingly. "You hear that, Drae? She's scared and wants her mommy and daddy. We should be good citizens of Faerûn and return her to them!"

Draesen, knowing full well where the girl's parents were, turned his face away. Zyphre dug his black, clawlike nails into the child's throat, tearing it completely out and dropping her as he did so. She was dead before she hit the ground. Zyphre shook flesh and sinew from under his claws, licking up the blood on his fingers.

"Next time, kill your food," said Zyphre casually. "It saves it a lot of pain and me the trouble of doing that. And what a waste of perfectly good blood…" He kicked the corpse over to reveal a growing puddle of the ruby liquid.

"Yes, my lord," said Draesen. "I will remember next time. Forgive me for still holding some pity for the mortals."

"You've been one of us for going on three thousand years," said Zyphre. "You shouldn't see mortals as anything anymore."

"My apologies," said Draesen, mock bowing again. "It will be dawn within the hour, my lord. Shall we head back?"

"Yeah," said Zyphre. "Are you coming with me or going back to your tower?"

"My tower, I think," he said. "Katrine will be expecting me. And you are going back to Nerull's castle?"

"Course. That's where I live now."

An odd expression crossed Draesen's face. "Are you sure it was…wise…to ally us with that man?"

"Of course it was wise," said Zyphre. "I mean, sure, Nerull is the biggest asshat I've ever met and I hate living in that suffocatingly huge castle, but the vampires have never been stronger. We can feed to our hearts content, and if anyone has a problem, we have a god who doesn't give a fuck what we do on our side. It would have been really risky to slaughter this village before I allied with Nerull, but now? Heheh. Who cares?"

Draesen sighed. "Whatever you say, my lord. Until tomorrow evening."

"See ya, Drae," said Zyphre as Draesen transformed into a wolf and disappeared into the trees.

"Hey, Nerull," Zyphre greeted his host, entering the castle shortly after dawn.

"Zyphre," Nerull said. "From the number of souls coming in, it seems you and your lackey were successful in your hunt?"

"Draesen is my right hand, not some lowly lackey. I have plenty of those," said Zyphre. "But yeah. Draesen only left one alive, and I took care of her. We fed very well."

Nerull waved his hand dismissively. "Enough. I wish to tell you that I have finally chosen the woman who will be the harbinger or death, my bride."

"Oh, cool, who is she?" asked Zyphre.

"Lydia Liadon is her name," said Nerull.

"Liadon?" said Zyphre in surprise. "Isn't that one of the elf lords?"

"Yes," said Nerull. "Lydia is the family's youngest daughter."

"Is she hot?"

"…Hot?"

"Attractive. Sexy. The kind of girl you look at and say to yourself 'Damn. I'd tap that.'"

"She's…kind of pretty, I guess. But I have no interest in 'tapping' anything. She practices flame sorcery."

"A different kind of hot. It's a start, pretty is a start. How old is she?"

"She is still considered a child by the elves."

Zyphre gave him a rather shocked and disgusted look, replacing it almost instantly with his previous mischievous smirk. "Okay. Okay, if you roll that way… Does she know at least? Because if you have to kidnap someone to get laid I will laugh for days."

When Nerull remained silent, glaring, realization crossed Zyphre's face. "Oh my gods, you're going to kidnap her. That's hilarious. I can't believe it." And he started to laugh.

When Nerull grew tired of Zyphre's cackling, he snapped, "You do realize I could kill you with a thought, correct?"

"Yes," laughed Zyphre. "But that is neither relevant to the conversation nor making it any less funny."

And with that, he walked back to his chamber, still laughing to himself, leaving a glaring Nerull in the hallway.