Valen circled Elias like a storm circling calm.
There was no rush. Predators never chased when they could lure. And Elias was still damp from the night, still carrying the scent of rain and ink and something sharp beneath stood perfectly still in the center of the drawing room.
He hadn't sat when invited. He hadn't spoken since that last challenge.
Try me.
Valen hadn't heard those words in over a century spoken without fear.
He was intrigued.
"Take off your coat" Valen said at last, turning to pour a fresh glass of that deep, near-black wine.
Elias didn't move right away. Not out of hesitation but calculation.
Then, slowly, he shrugged the coat off and draped it over the back of a high-backed chair, revealing a high-collared black shirt beneath. Simple. Fitted. Dust still clung to the shoulders. His satchel remained slung across his back like a scholar's sword.
Valen approached again. This time slower. Closer.
"You really do look the part" he murmured, trailing a finger along the edge of Elias's sleeve. "Books. Knowledge. Discipline."
Elias arched a brow. "And yet, you summoned me with silence. No invitation. No response. Were you hoping I'd beg?"
"No" Valen said, voice soft as silk. "I was hoping you'd come anyway."
He stepped behind Elias and reached for the satchel. Elias stiffened just a fraction but allowed it. Valen unhooked the strap from his shoulder and let the bag fall to the floor with a heavy thud.
Books. Bound in leather and ink and secrets. Of course.
"Your curiosity" Valen said "is either brave… or suicidal."
"I wasn't raised to fear myths."
"You should have been."
Valen came close enough for Elias to feel breath on his neck though Valen had no need for breath. The heat of his presence was entirely intentional.
"You're not the first scholar to come looking for answers" Valen said, brushing Elias's hair behind one ear. "But you may be the last who dares to stand instead of kneel."
"And if I choose to kneel " Elias said evenly "it will be because I want to. Not because I'm told to."
Valen's smile widened. It was slow. Hungry.
"Oh, Elias. That's exactly how it begins."
He circled again and finally gestured to the chaise where Cassian had been only an hour before.
"Sit."
This time, Elias obeyed.
But not like the others. He didn't sprawl or slouch or fidget nervously. He sat like a man holding court. Upright. Composed.
Valen poured another glass of wine and handed it to him, then sat opposite. Legs crossed. One arm resting casually along the armrest.
The fire crackled between them. The silence was intentional.
"Why vampires?" Valen asked. "There are easier obsessions."
"I'm not obsessed" Elias said, taking a sip. "I'm fascinated."
Valen's eyes gleamed. "There's a fine line."
"There always is" Elias replied. "Between interest and desire. Between truth and danger. Between man and monster."
"And which do you think I am?"
Elias looked directly at him.
"I think you were once a man."
Valen's smile faltered just a moment. Enough.
And Elias noticed.
Clever boy.
"You came here" Valen said "not just to learn, but to test me."
"I came to see if the stories were true."
Valen leaned forward, his voice dropping to a velvet murmur.
"Then let me give you a better story."
He stood and walked toward Elias again. This time, there was no hesitation.
He stopped just before the chaise, gaze fixed on the man seated below him.
"I offer you a game" Valen said. "No lies. No violence. No feeding. Not yet."
Elias's brow lifted. "And the rules?"
"Simple. You stay here. In my manor. For seven nights. Each night, I'll ask you one question. If you answer honestly, you may ask me one in return. Truth for truth."
"And if I lie?"
Valen smiled.
"I'll know."
Elias was silent. His hands rested on his knees, perfectly still. But his mind Valen could feel it working. Weighing risk against reward.
"And what do you gain from this?" Elias asked.
"A challenge" Valen said. "A chance to remember what it feels like… to want something I can't simply take."
"And what do I get?"
Valen knelt before him.
A mirror of the pose he'd taken with Cassian but this time, not to mock.
To offer.
He reached up and gently touched Elias's chin.
"You get the truth you came for" he said, voice low, reverent. "And a choice you'll have to make by the seventh night: leave with everything you've learned… or stay, and let me claim you."
Elias didn't speak.
His breath was shallow. Controlled. His gaze locked to Valen's.
Then he whispered.
"Ask your question."
Valen exhaled slowly. His fingers traced down Elias's jaw, then fell away.
And with a voice dipped in centuries of control and curiosity, he asked:
"What is the one thing you fear would undo you?"
The fire flared.
And the game began.
Valen's eyes bore into Elias's, unblinking and sharp as a blade. The question hung in the air, heavy and insistent.
Elias's jaw clenched. The flicker of firelight caught the subtle twitch of his throat as he searched for an answer worthy of the challenge. Silence stretched long between them, a taut thread ready to snap.
Finally, Elias spoke, voice steady but quiet.
"Losing myself."
Valen's lips curved, pleased. "Ah. The fear of dissolution. To become something unrecognizable even to yourself. How very human."
Elias didn't flinch. "Perhaps. But maybe it's the only way to stay alive when everything around you demands you break."
Valen stood, the wine glass nearly forgotten on the armrest. He moved to the mantelpiece and poured himself another drink, the fluid catching the firelight like liquid night.
"You're sharper than most" Valen said, his voice low. "Most crumble under the weight of their own fears before they even admit them."
Elias met his gaze squarely, a flicker of defiance sparking behind his calm. "I don't intend to crumble."
Valen approached again, slow and deliberate, each step measured. "Good. Because if you do, I'll be the one to watch you fall."
He paused inches from Elias, their breaths mingling, cold and warm, mortal and immortal.
"And now," Valen murmured, "your turn."
Elias didn't hesitate. His eyes never left Valen's as he asked, "What's the greatest truth you've never told anyone?"
The fire crackled, the manor's shadows deepened, and in that charged silence, centuries of secrets poised on the edge of revelation.
Valen's gaze darkened. "That I am not as invincible as they believe."
The words hung like a whispered confession, heavy with centuries of loneliness and hunger.
Elias leaned forward slightly, the game's stakes rising with every heartbeat.
"So tell me" he whispered "what breaks you?"
Valen's smile was slow, dangerous, and somehow… vulnerable.
"You will find out soon enough."
The night stretched on, the fire dying to embers as two souls one eternal, one fragile each wove a web of truth, desire, and deadly curiosity.
The game was far from over.