“Stay here!” Barry left the two drol’ka beside a large oak tree and walked to the base of the ridge. He exited the trees and waved his enormous war cleaver overhead. The wind blew from the west, and he could smell the numerous watchmen long before he reached the ridge. A few watchmen noticed his approach, and a loud whistle sounded. Two medium trills preceded a short one. The whistle pattern resounded down the line of watchmen. This particular whistle meant a friend was spotted. Barry whistled back with two medium whistles, then a short one, then two medium and a long one. His response let the watch know he needed to speak with one of the community leaders.

  After a brief moment, Barry saw Cassandra step to the edge of the ridge. Barry waved her to him. The agile Hol’den wasted no time. She stepped off the ledge and sprinted down the near-vertical descent. Loose leaves and dislodged rocks tried to pull her down, but she easily adjusted her balance as the ground shifted beneath her feet. Before she reached the bottom, Cass leaped outward. Her momentum was redirected to carry her toward where Barry stood. She calculated her trajectory perfectly and landed lightly before him. She looked up at his face, and a smile began to form. It quickly dissolved as she stepped to the side and scanned the trees behind Barry.

  “There are drol’ka nearby.” She whispered.

  “I know, Cass. I brought them here.” Barry told her.

  Cass grabbed Barry’s wrist and pulled him around. Her glower was equal parts shock and confusion.

  “You what?” Her tone was even and firm. “Why would you bring eaters to our doorstep?”

  Barry slowly pulled his hand away from her grip.

  “They were already at our doorstep. I chased them away from it.”

  “And you let them follow you back? Look, Bear…I know you have been struggling with what you did back at the prison, but the drol’ka are the enemy. They do not share your contempt for killing. I can’t believe you would let one of them live, much less let them this close to our—”

  “I need to speak with Druz’ka Lanth. Will you please trust me? Bring her here, and I’ll explain everything.”

  “Seriously? What could possibly—”

  “Cassandra!” Barry cut her off. “Please! They pose no harm to me here. I will have no problem snapping their heads off…if it comes to that. Druz needs to hear what they have to say. We all do.”

  Cass held his gaze, but finally turned and quickly made her way to the top of the ridge. She wasn’t gone long, and soon came bounding back down the slope. She walked up to Barry and shook her head.

  “Where is Druz’ka Lanth?” he asked.

  “I told her you wished to speak with her. I can’t make her—” Cass saw Barry’s eyes dart upward, and she spun to see what caught his attention.

  Druz stood at the edge of the ledge. She quickly scanned the area below her and then jumped from the ledge. She did not run down the slope, like Cass. Druz’ka Lanth launched herself into the air and arced up and away from the ridge. With very little effort, she flung herself over their heads and came down over the woodline. Barry and Cass followed her trajectory and watched as she plummeted into the top of a nearby oak tree. She nimbly skipped from branch to branch as she angled toward the forest floor. As she neared the ground, she dropped to a lower branch and caught it with both hands. Her long, slender form swung down and then forward as she vaulted deeper into the woods.

  The sound of rustling leaves and snapping limbs broke from the trees. It was followed by two terrified drol’ka sprinting toward Barry. Cass instinctively pulled her knife and moved to step toward the approaching duo, but Barry clamped his hand onto her shoulder and stalled her attack.

  “They’re okay.” He assured her, just as Druz came striding out of the trees with her eyes locked onto Barry. She wore an uncharacteristic scowl, and her lips were pressed together. “But I may not be.”

  “Explain yourself!” Druz’ka Lanth order, just as the drol’ka reached Barry.

  “What the hell is that?” Marcus whined.

  Barry ignored the terrified drol’ka, afraid to take his eyes away from the imposing figure that addressed him.

  “They claim that they are no danger to us. They are only here because they saw me on patrol and assumed I was a drol’ka. They were worried I would find our hideout and kill the people there.” Barry blurted it all out in a single breath. It wasn’t fear that drove Barry to act like a cowering child. Fear comes from uncertainty. It wasn’t terror, because Barry’s emotions were far too rigid to be terrified of anything. Druz’ka Lanth’s visage was cold, hard, and exuded sheer will. Barry was compelled to comply or face damnation.

  Druz stepped up to Barry and grabbed his head in her hands. She lifted him onto his toes as she lowered her forehead to his. Barry’s mouth went dry, and his breath caught in his chest.

  “For your sake, I hope I find justification for this reckless scheme of yours. Bringing the Drol’ka Choth’Den to our sanctuary is a nearly unforgivable offense!”

  Druz dropped Barry back to his feet and turned toward the terrified drol’ka brothers. Dom involuntarily stepped away from her, but Marcus turned and ran.

  “STOOOOP!”

  Barry and Cass recoiled from the impossibly loud command. Every sound in the forest went quiet, except for the reverberating echo that bounced around the rocks and trees.

  STOOOOPstoooopSTOOOPstooopTOOPtoopOOPoopOPop…op…op..p..p

  Marcus froze in his tracks.

  “Have a seat.” Druz invited. “All of us.” She extended the offer that wasn’t an offer to Barry and Cass. “I am sorry for my brief loss of composure. My reaction was premature. Barry has earned my trust, and I owe him the courtesy of explaining the situation.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “What are you?” Marcus wondered aloud.

  “You do not know? I would not be surprised by one of the ignorant drol’ka that are more human than Drol’ka Choth’Den…but I would think one of your pedigree would be privy to such knowledge. If not in memory, at least in lore.”

  “Memory? Lore?” Dom had no idea what Druz’ka Lanth was talking about.

  “Your grandfather, or perhaps great-grandfather, depending on the dilution of drol’ka blood in your parents, was the fiery-haired Trazoo. He is the only Drol’ka Choth’Den to carry that particular trait. I’m guessing one of your parents is mostly human and also has red hair.” Druz surmised.

  “Our mother. She was human. Her hair was as orange as the setting sun.” Dom answered. “I have heard of Trazoo. He is the ginger-haired OG, but if he is our father’s dad…or granddad…we wouldn’t know. Our father wasn’t big on talking about where he came from.”

  “How do you know all this?” Marcus asked. “Do you know Trazoo, or our father? Our father’s name is Karpos, but the older drol’ka always called him Druhm’Hrot.”

  Druz’ka Lanth threw her head back and howled with laughter.

  “Druhm’Hrot? They called him Druhm’Hrot?” Druz asked, before chuckling.

  “Yes, Druhm’Hrot. Why is that funny?” Marcus asked.

  “Do they not teach you their natural language?” Druz asked.

  The two drol’ka shared a confused look, and Dom shook his head.

  “Druhm’Hrot means shame of father, or Father’s Shame. Whomever your father is, he brought a great deal of embarrassment to his family,” she explained.

  Dom laughed, and Marcus joined in.

  “That’s no surprise. He was a piece of shit!” Dom told her. “He was a sadistic bastard, and the only thing he was good at was terrorizing our mother.”

  “You loved her?”

  Dom’s expression turned somber, and he nodded to Druz.

  “Alright, I am thoroughly intrigued, now. Let’s hear it. Why did Barry feel it prudent to risk our safety by bringing you here?”

  Barry and the brothers recounted the events leading up to their arrival at the ridge. Druz listened and never interrupted their story. When they finished, Druz remained silent for a long while. She finally broke her silence and began asking a series of blunt questions.

  “Have you ever consumed human blood?”

  “Yes. Our father made us. He would bring in human captives, and he would rip them open. He would make our mother watch, then he would beat her until we each fed.” Dom told her.

  “Did you not enjoy the way the blood made you feel? The surge of strength and clarity didn’t entice you?”

  Dom dropped his head and didn’t answer.

  “Of course we did!” Marcus barked. “But we knew it was wrong! Our mother wouldn’t look at us for days after we fed. We hated it. We grew to hate the taste and the rush. We started hating ourselves!”

  “Then why didn’t you refuse?” Druz asked.

  “We did. We refused…once.” Dom looked at his hands as he picked at his fingernail.

  “And he spent that night torturing and tormenting our mother. He used his nails to make hundreds of shallow cuts all over her body. He viciously raped her, over and over. The whole time, he bit and clawed at her bare flesh. When she stopped responding to the physical, he started in on the psychological. He made her watch as he played with the victim he brought for us to feed on. When our mother looked away or closed her eyes, he would make the captive scream. He told Mom it was her fault. He told her the poor soul suffered more when she looked away.” Marcus explained.

  “We never refused again,” Dom added.

  “Did he keep you captive? Were you locked away with your mother?”

  “No. We were free to come and go, but we would not leave our mother.”

  “Then why are you here. Why did you leave her?” Druz pressed.

  “WE DIDN’T LEAVE HER. WE WOULD HAVE NEVER LEFT HER!” Marcus screamed.

  “She died. She was forced to endure that hell for more than thirty years before her body finally gave out.” Dom pulled his brother against his chest and looked up at Druz. “We waited for four days. Four days after she died, our father came back. He brought us another…treat…and we eagerly sucked him dry.

  Our father was elated. We had finally given in and embraced what we were. He began to gloat and yell across the room at our mother. When she didn’t respond, he walked over to her bed and ripped her covers back. After four days, there was no denying she was dead. He spun around to ask us what was going on, but we were already descending on him.

  The six of us were surging with the power of the blood. We fell on him and clawed and ripped and bit. He tried to fight back, but he couldn’t overpower six of us. We left his sorry ass on the floor, and we took our mother’s body. We buried her and left. That night, we each swore that we would never consume human blood again, and we would spend our lives defending our mother’s people from being fed upon.”

  Druz’ka Lanth stood up and turned from the group. She took a few steps before turning around to address them.

  “What do you seek from us?”

  “Lady, we don’t seek shit from you. He’s the one who dragged us back here.” Dom pointed at Barry. “If it wasn’t for him zipping and zooming around just as fast and powerful as a drol’ka, we would have been long gone from here. We came here to make sure he wasn’t planning to wipe ya’ll out.”

  “So you say, and I do believe your story. I believe you swore an oath, and that you mean to keep it. My problem is, I do not believe you can keep it. I don’t think any drol’ka can refrain from human blood…not forever.”

  “I don’t know what you are, but I know you have no idea what you’re talking about. What makes you think you can tell us what we are capable of?” Marcus asked. “You just met us. You don’t a damn thing about us, or our resolve!”

  “Even if you withstand the allure of the power, you’ll get weaker and weaker. Eating food will keep you going for a while, but eventually, your human genetics will begin to fail you. You will start to age and deteriorate. Your vitality is linked to the human in you, but there is an ingrained resilience that comes from the Drol’ka Choth’Den heritage.

  Your heart will keep beating, your lungs will keep pulling air. You will slowly become a living corpse as your muscles atrophy and your joints stiffen. Decades will pass, and you will slowly become locked within the confines of a petrifying body. All the while, your body instinctively knows that blood is all you need. The craving will get stronger, and stronger, and stronger. Eventually, you will give in. Instinct always wins out, in humans and drol’ka alike. Nobody is stronger than starvation. The brain twists and contorts your perspective as it strips away the layers of your humanity. In the end, it all comes back to survival. In the end, it's that stupid little part of your brain that we inherited from the reptiles that wins out.

  You were made to rely on human blood. It's hardwired into every cell in your body. Humans are driven to eat, sleep, and procreate. Their biological prerogative is to live as long as they can to make as many offspring as they can. The drol’kas is simpler than that. You must consume human blood. You are a parasite upon mankind. You can’t turn it off.”

  Marcus jumped up and rushed for Druz. His brother wrapped his arms around him and pulled him back.

  “FUCK YOU! WHY THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT?” Marcus screamed at her.

  “Because…” Druz’ka Lanth walked over and loomed over Marcus, as Dom struggled to restrain him, “I created you.”