I feel like writing a VampAU is just asking for trouble, as an anemic. But at that same time I really love writing this so like... Whatever.

shout out to North for bein super cool

Not as many warnings apply to this chapter! ! Just mentions of the previous things and general vamp stuff. Still no more biting, unfortunately. We meet Death though so hell yeah.

Hope you all have a gr8 day/night/eternity! ! !

She has a horse.

It really shouldn't surprise you, given that she does claim to be a Horseman.

But you're still pretty fricken startled as you look up at the large horse.

"Human?" She says, effortlessly getting onto its back. She tries your name next, smiling encouragingly. "Come along. There's a portal to our realm nearby, but it is faster riding."

You carefully take her offered hand and admit, "I've never rode a horse."

She has the gall to laugh when you make a squeaking noise upon being hoisted up on the horse in front of her. "About time you learn then." She says, wrapping one arm around your waist.

"Are you sure this is... Safe, for a human?" You ask slowly.

"Ye of little faith." She responds teasingly, somehow making that sound half as dorky as it reasonably should.

She spurs the horse on before you can come up with a properly snarky response, and you forget everything aside from we're moving, oh my god, please don't let me fall, and Fury's laughter.

Oh, goodness, are you in over your head.

It's not an hour later that you're absolutely positive of this.

The Horsemen's Realm, Fury calls it, is apparently an entire world that they've claimed as their own. The main area you're concerned with is their home, which... Honestly seems more like a castle than a cottage.

"Oh my stars." You breathe, allowing Fury to lead you by the hand as you take in her sprawling home. "I thought you said there's only four of you?"

"Yes. We only use a small portion of this." She answers offhandedly.

You blink. "Why'd you build it so big then?"

"We didn't. Long ago, this was a growing world, and it was necessary. After their fall, this place was abandoned. My siblings and I only repaired what we needed after claiming it." She explains.

"How'd it fall?"

Fury stops in her tracks, and just barely you stop your fall.

"Are all humans so inquisitive?" She asks, not looking at you.

Wrong question, you scold yourself mentally. Stuttering, you tell her, "I don't know? I mean, considering I've only ever been around humans it's pretty hard for me to know what's above average in comparison to other... Things. Maybe?"

That made much more sense in your head.

Shaking her head, she gives you a small smile. "Perhaps later you can tell me, then."

You wonder if she's purposely trying to imply you'll get to spend more time with her.

You sure as hell hope so.

The two of you fall silent after that, Fury leading you through what feels like a maze of corridors into the heart of their home (although that could just be because you have a horrible sense of direction).

It's... Spooky, is the only word you can think of. The hallways Fury leads you down are all lit up and nice, but the side paths don't appear to have been spruced up in ages. They're dark and dusty and some part of you automatically begins compiling a list of things that could be hiding within them. Given how big it looked from the outside, it's a pretty long list.

Not comforting.

You do like the design though. It's warm, the walls covered with large seemingly abstract paintings and lit up with what look like candles at first glance but appear to just be a strange type of rock. You wonder if those are naturally occurring, seeing as the castle seems to be all carved from the same type of stone. Like they chiseled the entire thing out of a mountain or something.

That would be fuckin sick.

"He should be home, unless I have been gone longer than I assume." Fury suddenly says, her voice making you flinch.

"What?"

"Death. He should be home." Fury repeats. She looks mildly concerned when you glance over at her.

"Sorry. I was admiring the architecture." You admit, making a vague motion.

Her lips tilt up in amusement. "The architecture."

"...yes." You say slowly, wondering what's so entertaining about that statement. Vampires are weird. "It's all made the one piece of rock. So this was either a cave system, or solid rock that they carved a castle from. Either way this must've been a mountain, at one point."

She blinks, apparently startled. "I... Never cared to notice that, but I suppose you're right."

"Vampires are weird." You say decisively.

"To a human." She agrees easily, grabbing your hand. Her hand dwarfs yours, and you have to wonder if her siblings are equally big. Maybe that's a vampire thing too? Or perhaps just a Horsemen thing?

You're sort of relieved when she throws open what appears to be an office door and you see what must be Death. You'd say he's about the same size as Fury.

He's like... Twelve times as intimidating though. But that might be affected by the whole "she woke up in my bed" thing. You briefly try to picture drunk you getting the courage to ask her to come home with you.

Damn, drunk me, you got game.

"Fury..." Death says, making you snap to attention.

"I have returned." She responds.

Death's unnervingly bright eyes (fully yellow, like Fury's were when she first awoke) flicker back to yourself, "With a guest, it seems."

She takes a deep breath, "I... May've over indulged."

"She crashed in my bed and I burned her arm. Accidentally." You add, watching the girl you've come to know as pretty fricken articulate struggle for words. Death must make her nervous.

You're willing to bet she's a little embarrassed about bringing a human home, too. So both of those things must be really messing her up. You squeeze her hand comfortingly, and she nearly jumps out of her skin.

Oops.

"You accidentally burned my sister's arm." Death says, disbelief lacing every word. He gets to his feet to inspect said burn, which is now no more than a slightly reddened stripe (presumably from when she blocked her face).

"I'm sorry I didn't realize that the girl I found in my bed was allergic to sunlight." You respond just as bitingly, your head tilted up defiantly. Maybe not the best plan, you know, but he doesn't immediately kill you so... Score one for the human.

He seems much more concerned with the mark on your neck anyway, and Fury lets out a harsh hiss that has the hair on your arms standing up.

"Calm down." Death scoffs. "I expect as much from Strife, but you?

"Fury." You say quietly, trying to comfort her. Someone has to, Death. You glare at him out of the corner of your eyes and he seems downright amused. Granted, the mask makes it very hard for you to know.

"I apologize. This is a new experience for me." She sighs, releasing your hand in order to stretch. You focus on her scary brother while she does so, mostly to distract yourself. He's so... Cool looking. Scary and intimidating, totally, but cool as hell all the same.

You have to wonder what kind of club he's gotta go to in order to get blood, what with that rockstar hair of his. You sort of doubt he'd fit into the ritzy bar you met Fury at.

Wonder what her other siblings look like...

"What will you do?" Death asks suddenly, his voice dry. He keeps his eyes on you all the while, and you try not to fidget.

Fricken Vampires

You sort of zone out while they discuss the pro's and con's of you being here, extremely aware of how very late it is when the three of you all settle down into chairs. Note to self: working a full shift isn't a good idea when you're low on blood.

Its also way past your designated bed time, but you guess you can catch up on sleep later. Watching the two Horsemen interact is actually pretty entertaining, so long as Death doesn't look back at you.

He's going to take some getting used to.

Eventually they move on from discussing yourself to things like missions and something called the Council. Death's eyes seem to get even more glowy when that's mentioned, and you think that must be an emotional thing.

Your eyes are drifting closed by the time they start talking about their other brothers, and Fury laughs when she notices. "Tired, little one?"

"Human." You answer tiredly, glancing around for a nice place to nap. You wonder if you can get away with calling in sick tomorrow. If you can get service here, of course.

You pull out your phone to check the time while Fury responds, "I suppose you could take my room."

"It's like two AM." You don't remember exactly when you left your house, but you're willing to bet it was a while ago. "Natalie's gonna be annoyed."

"Natalie?" Death asks.

"Roommate. She's got morning classes so she-" You yawn. "...Doesn't like me coming home late. Fuckin bat ears." You role your eyes.

He snorts, and you figure that's about as close to a laugh you can get at the moment. "Make sure to keep your human away from Strife. I'm sure he'd love their language."

Your human? You repeat, glancing over at Fury.

She just laughs and helps you to your feet. "Come along. You may use my bed until sunrise."

"At which point I will be kicked out?" You huff. "I guess it was nice meeting you, Death."

"Likewise." He says. Honestly, you have no idea if he's being sincere or not (and you're too tired to really think it over).

Weird.

Fury leads you over to her room, this time the walk only being a few doors down the hall. You figure the cleaned up rooms are all in the same area. That does beg the question: have they cleaned up a kitchen? You assume, given the castle-like layout, there's several, with at least one main servants kitchen.

Not that you would want to oppose upon actual fucking vampires. But it would be nice to hang out with Fury and her family.

...hang out.

Like a bat.

Fucking hilarious, some part of you hisses despite your smile as you get situated in Fury's bed. Thank goodness she doesn't sleep in a coffin.

"What are you thinking about?" She asks amusedly.

"Puns." You laugh. "Dating a vampire is gonna be fun."

She rolls her eyes, "Don't let War hear you. That one abhors puns."

"The youngest?" You clarify.

"Yes." She perches on the edge of the bed, all prim and proper like. "He is silver haired, and I am certain you will meet him soon enough. He is... Prickly, I suppose is a good word. The one you should be fearful of is Strife."

You raise an eyebrow, "Fearful as in afraid of him or fearful like I should try to avoid him?"

"The latter. As Death said, he may take a liking to you." She roles her eyes.

"Oh? And you don't wanna share?" You tease, shifting closer.

Fury places a hand over her heart, mock offended. "What is you humans say? Dibs? I have dibs."

"I'm a firm believer in the rule of dibs being moot if its not being used." You prompt.

Her eyes shift to complete yellow and her grin is positively feral. "Are you propositioning me, human? And here I thought you could barely keep your eyes open."

You are definitely propositioning her.

Wandering a castle isn't really part of your morning routine, you are definetely willing to change that. It's even prettier now that you can see better, although the way the windows are situated, high and completey out of view, is rather odd. You suppose it's good for the vampires, although if Fury is anything to go by, they rarely stay up with the sun.

You figured, given Fury's dead tired expression as soon as the sun rose, Death would be sleeping too as you curiously explore the lit up section of the castle.

He's still just where you left him though, this time with a crow perched on his shoulder. He seems unsurprised when you enter, not even bothering to glance up.

"How much paperwork do you need?" You ask, not quite sure if you should sit down.

He completely ignores your original question, only responding, "You would think, being thousands of years old, the other kingdoms would know better by now."

"Fury mentioned you guys being balance keepers." You say lightly, looking at the bird. Is it rude to ask to pet birds? Do birds even like being pet? Would it bite if you tried? Vampire birds?

"Fury has been very busy." He answers vaguely. He closes his eyes for a moment, the picture of exhaustion.

"You should sleep." You say, frowning worriedly. You blame your naturally empathetic personality. "Doesn't sunshine make you tired?"

Death gazes lazily up at you, eyes narrowed. "And what? You'll do my work for me?"

He's being ironic, of course, but you nonetheless pull the chair Fury has previously claimed over to the other side of the desk and demand, "Teach me how."