The little bit of blood Cain had drank seemed to be settling fine, though it still wasn't enough energy to really give his limbs the necessary strength to move around freely. Still, the fact that Damien's blood didn't lie heavy in his stomach like a stone, nor cause the unpleasant urge to expel it entirely was quite the relief. He had nearly drifted back to sleep by the time Damien returned, having rolled himself up in the blankets like a worm in a cocoon. His eyes were the only part of him not burrowed under the admittedly thin and slightly scratchy blanket. He was fully prepared to ignore Damien entirely and try to get some sleep, only to realize, to his dismay, that Damien had brought company with him.
Given how cramped the thrall quarters could be, trying to fit Damien and two more people in the space left the room with precious little open floor space, and Cain was in no mood to be accommodating enough to make room on the bed. He hoped Damien didn't plan on any of the visitors staying long, or he might lose what little patience of his that remained.
"I hope this will be private enough," Damien was saying as he walked in the door, addressing the people behind him, not even bothering to ask Cain if he was in the mood for visitors. Which he most certainly wasn't, and rather resented Damien for not even bothering to ask. Blearily cracking one eye open, Cain caught sight of Grace as she walked through the door, another figure behind her, and let his eye fall closed again, settling for just listening to the rustles of fabric as the three of them shuffled awkwardly into the narrow room.
"This should be fine," the third person said as she entered. Her voice sounded vaguely familiar to Cain, though he couldn't place it without opening his eyes, and he had no interest in doing so at the moment. "Or maybe I was too hasty. Damie, why did we take an occupied room?"
He felt the end of the mattress dip, and assumed Damien had taken a seat, as he doubted either Grace or the other guest would be so forward. "He's going to want to know about this, too," Damien said. "So I figured meeting here would be better, so he has the chance to contribute to the conversation."
"Ok, fine, but who is… ohhhhh," the unfamiliar woman's voice trailed off in an unnecessarily suggestive tone. "So you are an alpha, after all?"
Damien sounded confused as he said, "Not that it's any of your business, but no, actually. Why do you ask?"
The third woman laughed, and said, "Well, one of you is up and about and looking sprightly, and the other one is… curled up and looking miserable."
Cain felt his face heat despite himself, and valiantly resisted the urge to pull the blanket completely over his head. He knew what she was implying, and while it wasn't like he hadn't bottomed before, he didn't like hearing anyone speculate about his proclivities.
"Dezzy!" Damien hissed, apparently only now realizing what she had been attempting to imply with the alpha comment, and sounding utterly scandalized. "That's not why he's resting, he–"
Cain threw the blanket back to fix one of his most pointed glares on Damien. Clearly, he wasn't going to be allowed to nap anytime soon, and he wasn't about to let the idiot wolf walk around telling people that Cain was so drained from the bonding that he could barely move. A rumor like that was just begging for Crowe to start something, which would be the last thing he needed at a time like this!
"It's been a long week," Cain said, aiming for sounding smooth and in control but fairly certain he'd just landed more in the realm of exhausted. In any case, his movement and interruption managed to intercept whatever idiocy was about to come out of Damien's mouth. A small mercy, but a mercy nonetheless.
"Clearly," the woman said, her coal-black eyes roving up and down Cain's torso like she was cataloguing something. Her eyes paused briefly at the side of his throat, and for a moment Cain wasn't sure what she was looking at, until he remembered.
The bond mark.
"So you two really went through with it, huh?" she asked, turning to Damien, who was sitting on the end of the bed looking almost unbearably smug. Cain wasn't sure why; the werewolf hated him and had been very reluctant to pursue the bond until dire necessity had forced their hands. Maybe it was just the residual energy of the bond that had him in a better mood. Cain had gained no such energy on his side. In truth, the bond had very nearly destroyed him, and he wasn't sure there were any benefits to be had at all on his side.
"We didn't really have a choice," Damien admitted, glancing over to Cain with a less smug and more apologetic expression. "It was a bit… unusual, figuring everything out with someone who has no instinct for it."
Cain wanted to take offense at that, even though it was true, but he restrained himself. Instead, he shuffled backwards until he could lean against the headboard of the bed, and indicated Grace and the half-demon woman – Damien's sister, he now recalled, having only met her briefly in the past and therefore unable to recognize her by voice alone – could take a seat as well. "What's this all about?" he asked, hoping to derail the bonding conversation, as he was still reeling from the ordeal and had no desire to rehash the whole miserable experience.
"I came to see what you're planning for the full moon," the sister explained, scooting onto the bed beside her brother, tugging Grace down beside her. She turned from Cain, at the head of the bed, to Damien, seated at the foot, and then looked back up to him. "At first I thought Damien was still mate-sick, so I was worried…" she frowned, tapping her lips with one long, elegant finger tipped with a too-sharp nail. "But now we have another issue to consider."
"What might that be?" Cain asked, already dreading whatever new nonsense he was going to have to deal with.
"Well," the half-demoness said, "the last full moon, Damien was so sick that he couldn't even transform. I was operating under the assumption that he would still be that sick, and we'd just need to find a way to make him comfortable." She frowned at her brother, then. "But you're doing much better, now."
Damien grinned. "Yeah!" His eyes flicked over to Cain, and some of his energy seemed to dissipate, an apologetic look crossing his features as he said, "I mean. Yes. I am not mate-sick anymore."
"So we need to have a more solid plan for when the full moon comes," the sister said.
Damien frowned. "Why?"
Cain wasn't the only one who gave him an incredulous look at this, as both Grace and his sister turned to stare at him.
"You can't be serious," Cain snapped. "You're a werewolf. What, did you expect to just wander freely around the castle during the full moon?"
Damien frowned. "I mean, no, but…" He glanced between Cain, Grace, and his sister. "Mated werewolves are lucid during the full moon. I won't be feral, even if I won't have a fully human mind. It's why werewolves run in packs, the bonds they share keep them grounded during the full moon."
Cain did not like the sound of bonds keeping wolves grounded during the time of the month when they were most dangerous to themselves and others. "Not to be presumptive," Cain said, although in truth he very much intended to presume, "but are you saying you wish for your… mate… to be present for the duration of your transformation?"
Damien frowned slightly. "Isn't that obvious?" he asked.
Cain, Grace, and his sister all reacted simultaneously.
For his part, Cain said, "Of course it isn't, you little idiot!" Grace simply gasped, "No," while Damien's sister demanded, "Why would that be obvious?!"
Damien's confident expression wavered. "...what?" He didn't look at his sister or Grace at all, his gaze fixed intently on Cain.
Cain wasn't about to entertain this nonsense. "Damien. I'm going to say this again, because apparently it still hasn't penetrated your thick skull, but," he ignored the indignant look the sister threw his way at this point, and continued, "I. Am not. A Werewolf."
Damien frowned. "I know–"
"I am a vampire," Cain continued, not giving him the chance to extend the interruption. "I will not be affected by the full moon, and I will not turn into a wolf. I will be a normal vampire, vulnerable to claws and bites and whatever nonsense is liable to be seen as casual roughhousing between wolves. It would be truly idiotic of me to risk spending the full moon in the same room as you."
Beside Grace, Damien's sister stage whispered to the thrall, "At least he's not an alpha, or Cain might have to learn to take wolf c–"
Damien turned and punched his sister's shoulder so hard it cracked one of his knuckles and nearly threw her off the bed and into the wall. "Dezzy, shut up!" he snarled.
The girl straightened up, rubbing her shoulder with a mild look of annoyance. "How come you get to punch me but I can't punch you?"
"Because I'm not making comments about your bedroom life!" Damien snapped. "If I ever do that, you have my permission to punch me, all right?"
Cain was starting to develop a headache. He knew sleep wouldn't actually help him regain his energy, but at this point he would take it just to escape this conversation. "To clarify," he said, trying to move the discussion in a more productive direction, "No, Damien. I am not going to spend the full moon in the same room as a werewolf, mate-mark or not, it seems an incredibly foolhardy decision."
Damien looked deeply saddened by this news, but after several long seconds, he nodded. "I understand," he said softly. "I disagree with your decision, but I understand your hesitation." He pressed his palms to his face for a moment, taking a shuddering breath before asking, in a very small voice, "Could you be close to me, at least?"
Cain frowned. "How close?"
"If there was a window, or if we shared a wall or a doorway," Damien said, "So I could hear you, or at least smell you."
Cain considered the question. "If we use some of the cells in the dungeon area there are adjoining cells with shared ventilation windows." The windows were blocked off with metal bars, so he thought there was a low chance of a werewolf breaking through them, and even if Damien tried, Cain would likely have enough warning to get out of the cell before the wolf made it through the narrow space. It seemed the best option, if Damien really wanted to see Cain.
Damien looked deeply displeased by the idea of being locked in a dungeon, and Cain didn't begrudge him that – dungeons were unpleasant places by design. But it would only be for one night. Surely he could manage for one night.
"Ok, so I'll be locked in one cell, and you'll stay down there with me, just not in the same cell?" Damien asked, sounding uncomfortable with the suggestion, but willing to compromise.
"Correct," Cain said. "Is that amenable?"
"Better than being alone," Damien said, though he didn't sound happy about it. "I really think you'd be fine, even sharing a cell."
"Forgive me for not feeling particularly charitable towards bond magic in general at the moment," Cain drawled. "I'm not sure that it will work the same way for a vampire as another werewolf."
Damien grimaced. "Right. Fair enough." He seemed far less energetic, almost like he was pouting. Cain couldn't for the life of him figure out why the wolf had assumed Cain would willingly share a room with a transformed werewolf, but it was clear that he was disappointed to learn this wasn't going to be the case.
"So, do we have a plan?" Damien's sister asked, glancing between the two of them.
"It's a plan," Damien confirmed.
"Good," Cain said, "now all of you get out so I can have a nap." And rather than bother waiting for them to figure out the logistics, he pulled the blanket fully over his head and curled up again, ignoring the whispers and shuffling as the three of them rushed to exit the room.