A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Seraphina prepared herself for the worst as she nodded slowly and closed her eyes. "Alright, give me the bad news first," she then sighed and opened her eyes again. Her gaze was steely, prideful, and ready for anything.

Erik grinned appreciatively and nodded, "As you wish. Then let me get straight to the point. We want you to accept the Bond of Service, and serve alongside Nora and Anne, until we return to Europe."

Seraphina's face turned grim, and her body tensed, but she didn't react as exaggerated as most of the others had expected. Clearly, she truly had prepared for the worst. She did take a moment to internalize the new information however, as some struggle appeared on her face.

But in the end, she sighed and nodded, "Guess it could have been worse…" before narrowing her eyes, "What about sex, though? I know what you do to Anne and Nora..."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Erik chuckled and shook his head, "I've never forced them into anything, and neither will I with you. I won't even try to coerce you." He shrugged and smirked before continuing, "Of course, if anything ever happens, that's fine too…"

At first, Seraphina relaxed slightly and released a breath of air. Even the tension in the air eased, as the atmosphere relaxed. But then she scoffed and rolled her eyes on his last sentence. "Fat chance of that," she grumbled.

Erik couldn't help but laugh as his lips curled up into a wide grin, "You're not the first to say that, only to end up in my bed!"

Seraphina groaned and rolled her eyes again. "You truly are incorrigible," she groaned.

"I am," Erik nodded laconically. "But that's one of my best qualities, ask anyone."

Unfortunately, when he looked around for confirmation, all of his wives were shaking their heads and, in doing so, delivered a knife wound straight to his heart. But he wouldn't take that lying down, so he narrowed his eyes and asked a deadly question, "Who wants to have sex tonight?"

Instantly, they all began nodding instead, and a smug Erik turned back to Seraphina. "See? They agree!"

The raven-haired vampire felt compelled to palm her face, yet she couldn't help but let a small smile appear on her face. As it turned out, she was actually enjoying herself. She realized she felt incredibly safe here, even if her pride kept screaming at her not to get complacent.

But then, her face hardened, and the atmosphere darkened a little again, because they weren't done with the topic just yet. "So… can I refuse?" she asked a question, more because she felt it needed to be asked, than because she was actually considering doing so.

"Of course you can," he nodded calmly, because he had no doubt she would accept. "I won't force it on you, and I won't treat you any worse either, even if my lovely wives might."

In response, Elora and Astrid immediately scoffed and agreed, Emily looked uncomfortable, and Emma indifferent.

But before Seraphina herself could respond, Erik continued with a small smile. "But I doubt you'll refuse. No doubt your pride is barking at the idea of serving me, but it's probably barking even harder at the idea of leaving this matter unresolved, right? Well, I'm not giving you another way, so it's this or nothing."

Seraphina smirked wryly at how much Erik understood her already. Yet, she could only nod at his assumption. She sighed once again and leaned back on the couch. "Alright, you said there was good news as well?"

"I did," Erik smiled and thumbed at the fairy on his shoulder. "Elora here is going to figure out a way to remove a vampire's dependency on my blood."

That truly got Seraphina's attention, because she instantly widened her eyes and turned her attention to Elora. "Seriously?!" she exclaimed, now finally envisioning a future where she wouldn't be depended on Erik anymore.

Even if that prospect became less and less problematic by the day.

Regardless, even if she didn't mind as much now, she'd been searching for a way to get rid of that dependency from the moment it started affecting her, and now that one was in sight, she couldn't help but become excited.

Elora didn't care about the vampire's enthusiasm, however. She snorted and turned her gaze towards the other vampire in the room: Astrid. "Don't get too excited. I'm doing it for my sister-wife, not you."

Even if Astrid was perfectly fine with the situation, because she had no reason to stop drinking his blood, it was still prudent to have a way for her to drink normal blood again. Anything could happen, after all, and if the two of them were somehow separated for too long, she'd need a way to drink blood again.

She had some emergency vials, of course, but those would only last her a few weeks.

Besides, there was also the fact that Erik didn't want there to be any doubt about the reason Astrid stayed with him. She needed to have a way to leave at any time, because that was the only way a real relationship could work.

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Seraphina's eye lids began to twitch, and her enthusiasm dampened a lot. She turned back to Erik with a grumpy expression. "So why are you telling me this then?" she growled in frustration.

Erik rolled his eyes at Elora's half-truth, before addressing Seraphina. "What my lovely partner forgot to mention, is that she'll also share it with you, at the same time as your punishment ends."

Instantly, Seraphina perked up and breathed a sigh in relief. "Okay, good… Thank you."

"I mean, assuming you'll still want it at that time, of course," Erik suddenly chuckled mischievously.

The raven-haired vampire narrowed her eyes, "Why wouldn't I want to?!"

"Oh, I don't know…" Erik shrugged as his lips curled up into a smug smirk. "It just seems like all woman I've come across so far prefer to stick around when given the option…"

Astrid immediately palmed her face again and groaned, "You…! Ugh, whatever. Let's just get this over with, huh?"

As if she'd been waiting for her que, Elora instantly grinned maliciously and flew up from Erik's shoulder. "That's what I like to hear!"

Hearing the fairy's enthusiasm suddenly caused Seraphina to gulp a little. Suddenly, the fact she was about to be willingly enslaved was hitting her hard. Nervously, Seraphina's eyes followed the fairy's trajectory as she quickly flew closer to her.

Elora's small form stopped just in front of Seraphina's neck. The vampire felt the urge to recoil, or slap her away, but she viciously thought that instinct. She'd made her choice.

"Are you ready?" Elora grinned, while putting her small hand on Seraphina's cold skin. Seraphina nodded slowly, and Elora's grin widened, "Good girl. Don't resist now!"

Elora's dark green Seidr magic flashed, and soon, a collar of runes formed around Seraphina's neck and throat. The vampire muffled a groan as she felt like chains were wrapping themselves tightly around her soul.

But before she could fully recover, Elora tossed her a bundle of clothes with a wide smirk. "It's done! Now, don the clothing intended for our family's servants, you are showing far too little skin!"