“You could’ve waited inside, you know?”

  Collin raises his head as Sincir approaches, but he doesn’t smile. “I heard you weren’t home yet, so I thought it might be rude to enter without an invitation from the house’s owner.”

  Facing Collin’s clear gray eyes directly, Sincir smiles. “The house isn’t even mine, and the girls could’ve given you an invitation themselves; Rex a little.”

  Collin sighs, but he does rex his shoulders slightly as he straightens himself and bow his head in Sincir’s direction.

  “I’m still not fully sure how this arrangement between us is supposed to work, but I’ve talked with the others, as you’ve asked me to.”

  “Wait, let’s enter first; I’d rather not talk about this stuff out here on the street.”

  Sincir walks by Collin, heading for the door and giving the vampire no real chance to refuse; He’s beat, and he’ll be damned if he has to have some long, tense conversation out here on the street, when his house is right in front of him.

  “Take off your sho-” Sincir is telling Collin over his shoulder, when the sound of shouting from within attracts his gaze.

  “Rez, wait! Those are still raw! I promise I’ll feed you, so…!”

  Sincir feels his eye twitching as he is met with the scene of Rez being pursued around the house by Ena, both of them still having their hair wet, and Rez wearing an obviously oversized shirt as she maintains a pair of eggs carefully tucked against her chest.

  At a first gnce, it is obvious Ena is much faster than her, but the half-goblin is nimble and smaller, using the furniture and corners to repeatedly dodge her pursuer...

  “Damn it, Rez, please stop!”

  “…And close the door after you,” Sincirh finishes with a sigh.

  For Collin’s credit, he only freezes up for a second or two before doing as instructed, though his eyes are still a bit wider as he stares at the green creature being pursued by a panicked half-elf.

  “…Should I catch her?” Collin offers, hesitantly.

  “No need.”

  Having said as much, Sincir rises his hand as he casts a spatial spell which stops both Rez and Ena dead in their tracks; The former directly, by making her float, and the tter by virtue of almost bumping against her.

  In the following silence, while maintaining the spell active, Sincir approaches Rez and meets her shocked gaze as he extends his open palm in her direction.

  “If you want something, it’s okay to ask, but we can’t have you stealing things from our kitchen.”

  Rez flinches, then hugs her eggs even tighter, closing her eyes and tightening her jaw, as though expecting a hit from him.

  “Sin, wait! I should’ve fed her before our bath, but I didn’t realize she was this hungry…!”

  Sincir throws Ena a look which has her voice slowly trailing off, before shifting his eyes to Rez once more.

  “I’m not going to hit you, kid. I just want you to understand that this is the wrong way to go about things. I bet you’ve never had fried eggs before, have you?”

  It takes a moment, but Rez does reopen her eyes to look at him, even if her expression is slightly suspicious. “Rez is not kid… Fried?”

  “Yes. I promise you, it tastes a lot better than eating them raw… Ena can make them for you, but only if you return the eggs and apologize.”

  Rez gulps, red eyes gleaming under the promise of something she has never eaten before.

  “What do you say? Do we have a deal?”

  After a moment, Rez hesitantly nods, and Sincir finally lowers her down, dismissing the spell.

  “…Rez is sorry,” the half-goblin murmurs, gaze downcast as she extends the eggs toward Ena with slightly shaking hands.

  Even at a gnce, it is obvious it takes a lot out of her to partake with them.

  Staring at Rez with obvious pity in her leaf-green eyes, Ena humphs as she takes the eggs from her. “You better be! When you taste my food, you’ll regret having stayed in the way of perfection…! Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize we had guests,” Ena says, now hesitantly, as she stares from Sincir to a silent Collin.

  “Don’t worry about Collin, he’s just passing by… He’s the vampire Esme talked about. Speaking of which, where are the others?”

  Now that she has also noticed Collin, Rez is quick to hide behind Ena, who smiles somewhat warily as she responds, “Eleanor is out in the yard, training, and Esme has been locked in our room since I arrived… I introduced Rez to her, but I guess she is not much for social interactions.”

  Sincir sighs. One day away from work, and she’s already depressed?

  “Fine, then do me a favor and take these things up to her… Also, tell her to come down for a bath, and that I’m not asking.”

  “You heard that, Rez? That’s your first task… When you come back, I’ll be almost done with the eggs, so do I good job, okay?”

  Sincir leaves them to it as he beckons Collin further into the house, heading for their backyard.

  “That was Ena; I guess you could say she is like a sister to me.”

  “She seemed a nice girl… Was that a half-goblin? I wasn’t sure they were real.”

  “Rez looks real enough to me,” Sincir counters with a chuckle as they leave the house, stepping into the yard outside.

  As usual, Eleanor is training practically naked under the light of a ntern, her sword dancing beautifully through air after every rotation of her arm and every step taken forward.

  Collin immediately stops and stares, though Sincir doesn’t bme him; There is no straight man alive, or gay woman, for that matter, who would’ve not, when faced with the sight.

  “I’d close my jaw before she turns over, but that’s Eleanor,” Sincir tells him.

  Though, if Ena is his sister, then what is Eleanor supposed to be? Sincir wouldn’t call her a friend or a lover (at least not yet), exactly, and she’s undoubtedly a part of their strange family, but…

  Eleanor gnces in their direction, but she doesn’t stop her movements, and she soon looks away, having seemingly given both him and Collin for dismissible… This brat, he swears he’ll teach her to respect him, one of these days.

  “…How were things at the guild? Were there any problems with the contracts?”

  “…No. They believed our story about a lone goblin struggling to survive, and since Rez won’t show up around those parts anymore, we should be in the clear,” she grunts.

  “Good. That aside, this is Collin, the vampire Esme was talking about yesterday.”

  “The one you pimped her to?” Eleanor grunts.

  Sincir grimaces. “Yes, if you must put it in the worst light possible.”

  “…Cool; Can you tell him to stop staring at my ass, now?”

  As he catches Collin flinching and quickly averting his gaze away from the corner of his vision, Sincir narrows his eyes at Eleanor. “I can see you’ve got some extra energy to burn, already.”

  Once she ignores him, Sincir begins to feel as though he is about to pop a vein. He knows she is probably stressed about the talk she’ll have with Ena ter, but purposefully embarrassing him in front of a guest is a bit much...

  Fine, he’ll do things her way. “Collin, I was going to invite you for a bath, but I guess I’ll have you work out a bit of a sweat first… You see, Eleanor over there can’t get her thoughts straight unless she is beaten senseless before dinner.”

  Most likely sensing the tense atmosphere, Collin shifts his eyes in between the two of them. “It’s okay, I don’t really-”

  Sincir throws him a look, grinning at the vampire. “Well, Esme is joining me in the bath, and there’s space for another. Since you happened to show up, I was going to invite you… But it’s up to you, of course. You could always wait outside until we’re finished.”

  Collin throws him an exasperated look for a moment, then shakes his head and smiles, sighing. “Fine, I get it; You’re the boss. What should I do?”

  “Nothing much, really. Just walk in there and bring me back that sword she is so enamored with.”

  Eleanor snorts; As usual, when training alone, she uses her real, steel sword to do so, and she’s obviously confident in maintaining her grip over her weapon in the case of scuffle… Or maybe, knowing her, she is just taunting Collin in the hopes of a spar with him.

  “Is it really okay…?” Collin murmurs.

  Sincir grimaces. “Can’t you see she is being a bitch to the both of us on purpose? Just do it already.”

  Collin sighs again, but the look on his face once he looks toward Eleanor this time is completely different; Sincircatches a glimpse of red in his eyes, followed by Eleanor’s mana fring to life… Except, she never moves more than a single step before Collin appears behind her, grabbing her sword mid-strike in between his thumb and index finger.

  “…Let the handle go, Miss Eleanor. I’d hate having to hurt your hand.”

  As Eleanor stands paralyzed, eyes wide with shock and still in a striking pose, Sincir blinks.

  He could probably have reacted to Collin, but it’d have been a close call… The vampire is strong, no doubts about it. As he is right now, Sincir would t the very least struggle to defeat him, though of course, that makes him that much more valuable as an ally.

  Seeing that Eleanor doesn’t immediately move, Sincir cps his hands, attracting both of their attentions.

  “Just give him the sword, Eleanor… You can see he is beyond your league, right?”

  As she recovers from her shock, Eleanor clenches her teeth, but even as she pulls on it with what Sincir suspects is a grade C strength buff, the sword doesn’t move more than a couple of millimeters… And even those are most likely in virtue of Collin’s awkward grip over its bde.

  Even as his fingers begin to bleed, Collin simply stands still, staring at Eleanor calmly with eyes partially consumed by red.

  “…Let go,” she grunts, after realizing her efforts will lead to nothing.

  “I’m sorry, but I cannot.”

  Eleanor sends a kick in his direction, which Collin simply ignores; He doesn’t even bother to dodge it.

  In virtue of the girl’s stubbornness, Sincir rolls his eyes. “Just yank it from her already. We don’t have the whole night.”

  Collin sighs, then does so, appearing at his side a second ter, now with Eleanor’s sword in hand.

  Breathing heavily, Eleanor deactivates her buff as she stares with wide eyes at the vampire, open right hand trembling slightly from having had her sword’s pommel forcibly remove from its grip.

  Sincir extends his hand in Collin’s direction, and Collin obediently pces Eleanor’s sword in his grip.

  “You’re grounded,” Sincir tells her, “Now go to your room and stay there until I go talk to you.”

  Eleanor’s jaw falls, then stays that way for a full two seconds, before she finally manages to close it. “You’re joking, right?” she ask,s incredulously.

  “Unless you want me to ask Collin to start bringing clothe pieces next… Not that there’s much to take away, I suppose.”

  Eleanor clenches her teeth, then walks by the two of them, storming into the house just as Esme comes out of it.

  “What…?”

  Esme throws Eleanor’s expression a gnce, then quickly steps out of her way.

  “…Is she okay?” she asks warily, once Eleanor is out of view.

  “I’ll talk to her ter, don’t worry. What about you? I heard you were locked up there.”

  Esme grimaces, then shifts her eyes toward Collin. “I see you’re pimping me out again.”

  Sincir sighs. “Would you please stop using that word? Me and Collin need to talk, and you’ve already seen each other naked, so I thought we could all share a nice, warm bath together… If you don’t want anything other than that to happen, then it won’t.”

  Esme rolls her eyes. “You said the bath wasn’t a choice, so it’s the same thing.”

  “I just didn’t want you rolled up in there, drowning in your own misery, and I know you’ll enjoy the bath… Esme, please, I’ve had a long day with both of those two dumbasses making my life miserable.”

  Esme faces his begging gaze for a moment, then gnces toward Collin, who is now looking at the ground… It takes a while, but her expression does soften.

  “…I wasn’t trying to say I’m against a bath,” she murmurs coyly, in the end, “It sounds nice enough.”

  Sincir smiles, rising an eyebrow at her. “Even if Collin is going to be there?”

  “I know Collin can behave himself, unlike a certain someone,” she retorts.

  Sincir snorts, then sps Collin in the back, causing him to take a step toward Esme, most likely as a reflex, than because he lost his bance.

  “What are you standing there for? Go talk to the nice dy while I prepare the bath… Consider this part of your training. I’m sure much has happened since you both st saw each other.”

  Sincir leaves the shy duo to greet each other, heading toward the bathhouse. Had his retion with Eleanor been public already, and had she not been a brat, he might’ve invited her as well, but now she’ll have to contend with waiting for a bit… Granted, the bathhouse would’ve felt cramped with four people in it, so maybe this is for the best…?

  If not for his magic, filling the bathtub and heating it would be somewhat of a pain, and the girls usually have to do it the hard way if he’s not around, but Sincir simply casts a couple of spells to get things ready, before beckoning Esme and Collin to come closer.

  “Leave your clothes outside,” Sincir tells them, beginning to undress, “Or the steam will get them wet.”

  Seeing that neither Esme nor Collin immediately begin to move, exchanging a gnce instead, Sincir rolls his eyes.

  “Fine; Esme, come here,” he says, beckoning her with a finger as he does so.

  Albeit hesitantly, Esme does approach him after a sigh.

  “What?”

  Staring into Esme’s brown eyes, Sincir steps forward, closing the distance in between them as he meets her lips with a soft, slow kiss. “...Rex,” he whispers after the kiss, “I’ll be fun, I promise.”

  In spite of her apparent reticence, she doesn’t resist his advances, shuddering slightly as his tongue enters her mouth and his hands begin to caress her shoulders, slowly massaging them until most of the tension has left her body.

  “Don’t worry... Nobody is looking,” he tells her once their lips are apart again, “Are you upset? Because you feel I’m pimping you out?”

  Esme runs her hand up his abs, biting her lower lip as she does so. “Every time we talk, I feel my brain is melting; If I don’t do my best to put some resistance, you’ll think I’m just your pything.”

  Once he carefully slides her dress’s sleeves from her shoulders, revealing the perked pair of breasts underneath, Esme shudders again.

  Maintain their gazes locked, Sincir smiles at her. “Aren’t you?”

  “Don’t even joke... It is bad enough as it is,” Esme murmurs, slightly bitterly.

  Sincir chuckles. “Fine, I get it; You’re grumpy from being locked inside all day... I’ll make it up to you ter, but for now, go over there and help our frustrated friend out of his clothes. We’re being terrible hosts right now.”

  Once Esme throws Collin a gnce, the vampire all but steps back.

  “I-I don’t think that’ll be necessary. I’ll just take them of,f myself…”

  But Esme is already walking on his direction with a determined look on her face, and Sincir can’t help but ugh as Collin’s eyes shift toward her exposed, visibly hard nipples, widening slightly.

  Esme is bit more forceful than him, and sloppier, but she does the job of getting Collin out of his clothes, until only his underwear is left, showcasing the obvious erection underneath...

  Having maintained a kiss through most of her work, Esme finally moves away from Collin, then kneels in front of him as she slowly drags her hands down his thighs, causing Collin to shudder.

  “Miss Esme, w-wait, I can do the rest-”

  “Shut up, we’re in the same boat as fellow pushovers and pythings, so at least from you, I don’t wanna hear it,” she murmurs, throwing his hesitant expression a gnce, then shifting her eyes toward the bulge of his member, now right next to her face. “Look, at least your friend is honest about it.”

  “Miss Esme’s sex is rather honest as well, if the present wetness of her underwear is anything to go by,” Collin retorts drily, though he doesn’t pull away from her as she chuckles and begins to slowly lower his underwear, gaze fixated on his crotch all the while.

  As Collin’s member is revealed in front of her face, Esme takes a deep, slow breath, causing Collin to shudder. “…You can smell mine, right?” Esme whispers, “Now we’re even…”

  Poor Collin seems about to bust it already, so Sincir clears his throat, attracting the attention of the both of them.

  “Collin, help Esme out of her underwear, so we can go inside. The water might grow cold if we take too long… Though I suppose I could heat it up again, if you too really want to go all the way out here?”

  Both Esme and Collin throw a gnce toward the house, but the kitchen window is empty, and so is the yard’s entrance.

  “We should probably get in…” Esme murmurs, rising as she does so, “Do we have towels?”

  “I’ll dry us with a spell once we’re done, don’t worry,” Sincir tells her.

  Collin hesitates for a moment, but then presses his hand against Esme’s lower back, bringing her to shift her eyes in his direction once more.

  “May I, Miss Esme?”

  She snorts softly. “Why are you asking me? Your master gave you an order, didn’t he?”

  Collin frowns, throwing Sincir a gnce, but then sighs. “Our master, you mean… How did things even turn out this way? Are we really just going to do whatever he says, from now on?”

  “I never told either of you to call me master,” Sincir points out, causing Esme to roll her eyes.

  “Right, and you didn’t force us to do anything, either… You should’ve realized how pointless it is to resist him at this point, Collin. He has what we want, and he won’t give it to us for free.”

  Sincir chuckles at that. “Well, technically, you have what he wants, Esme, so Collin wouldn’t need me if you just agreed to become his girlfriend, instead of mine.”

  Esme smiles self-deprecatingly as she meets Collin’s gaze again. “You see? He knows I’m in love with him, and he still says something like that… But I don’t think he is a bad guy. Do you?”

  “…I’m not sure,” Collin confesses, “He is hard to read.”

  “Oh, I’m most definitely a bad guy,” Sincir interjects again, “The only question is… Are you willing to live your lives not knowing what it’d have felt like?”

  Having said as much, Sincir smiles at them, then opens the bathhouse’s door, allowing some of the vapor inside to escape around him.

  “...I’m afraid no clothes are allowed beyond this point.”

  Collin sighs. “I see your point, Miss Esme. He is a real bastard, isn’t he?”

  Sincir rolls his eyes as Collin finally steps forward, and gently pces his hand against Esme’s underwear, causing her to bite her lower lip.

  Considering how obviously horny they both are, Sincir is almost sure they’d obey, even if he ordered them to crawl inside… But for now, it’s best to take things slowly, since his retionship with Esme is recent, while Collin and him have just met.

  Unfortunately, building trust takes time, while a single mistake might undo months, or even years of comradery…

  Once Collin finally pulls Esme panties all the way down, having kneeled in order to do so, he looks up and meets Esme’s gaze.

  Sincir clears his throat. “Okay, now inside, before Esme catches a cold out here.”

  Esme bites her lower lip, sustaining Collin’s almost feverish gaze for moment, before walking away from him and heading toward the bathhouse. Sincir smiles at her as she approaches.

  “Having fun?”

  “Maybe,” she murmurs, returning his smile, “Thanks for bringing my things from Inquiry, by the way.”

  “You’re welcomed.”

  Sincir sps her ass as she walks by - causing Esme to yelp and throw him a pyful dirty look - before shifting his eyes toward Collin, as he approaches… The vampire was mindful enough to settle both his and Esme’s clothes on a neat pile, before coming.

  “Collin,” Sincir greets formally, causing the vampire to frown at him.

  “There’s much we need to discuss,” he says, clear gray eyes gleaming slightly in dim light created by the ntern Eleanor left behind.

  “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten… There will be time to talk in the bath. How are you feeling? Hungry?”

  Collin shakes his head. “I can go up to a week without feeding, so long as I’m not hurt and have to generate.”

  Sincir nods. “Just one more thing before we start; If we’re pying Esme like st time, this will make for a very frustrating threesome for at least one of us… I’m not asking you to suck my cock, and I won’t be sucking yours either unless you want me to, but we should be comfortable with at least touching each other.”

  Collin blinks. “…Did you just say you would suck my cock, if I asked you to?”

  Sincir smiles. “I’d consider it... Now get in, or Esme will grow lonely waiting for us.”

  JBDantas

  Additional Info: Just a reminder, in case this wasn’t clear or you guys have forgotten, but acordding to what Noah told him when Varzath was about to meet Collin, a vampire of two hundred years is the equivalent of a rank A adventurer (same as Zarod, the half-orc Varzath and Ena fought during their test) and they grow stronger at a linear rate the more they age; Meaning, at five-hundred, Collin is 2.5 times stronger than Zarod, who Ena couldn’t even scratch... Since Eleanor is only slightly stronger than Ena (at least according to their current spar record), there was never any chance she’d be able to put any resistance against Collin.

  But she judged him as a shy guy she could just push around (probably not far from the truth, let’s be honest; still, being able to doesn’t mean that she should), so Sincir tried to teach her a lesson about humility and respect... I guess we’ll see what she has to say about that once they have their talk ter (light spoiler: she is probably not happy about having been humiliated by the two of them).

  [colpse]