“I used to dream of living somewhere warm when I was human. But the temperature makes no difference to me.” When he looked at me, there was a curious expression in his eyes. “Then again, there’s something about your warmth that I like very much.”
I blushed. “Maybe I can see where you’re from some time.”
His jaw set. "It's nothing but rocks now, my home. It was destroyed in the war.”
I turned toward him with a deep sadness threatening my ability to talk as a lump formed in my throat. I could feel how deeply he still felt that. “Your original home is gone? Rubble? Nothing left? Where are your people?” I placed my hand on his arm. “Or because of being turned and how much time has passed, did you lose touch with everyone from your human days, including ancestors?”
"They are all gone, the people I know now are like me or immortal in some fashion for the most part. Caring about your kind is hard. Gone in the blink of a small few decades." He turned his face away.
"Yeah, mostly cattle save for a very few exceptions.” I rubbed the back of my neck.
He started to fold the map back up. “That is right.” His tone was colder, more like when we had first met.
The crinkling of the map stopped when I reached up to touch his cheek. His eyes met mine, and I smiled as I pointed to the place he had just shown me. "Okay, so you're from here..." I pointed to the Ruins of Saainborg, his mortal home. "And we are here..." I trailed my fingers to hover over Everwinter. "But where did we meet?"
Kane laid the map back out fully and shifted so he stood behind me. His hand gently rested over mine, guiding my fingers over the parchment. "We met way off over here, little one."
Our hands transverse the continent’s varied landscapes, through mountain ranges, plains, rivers, lakes and more until they reached a spot on the map in a lower, more tropical area with a lion and boats marking a sizeable city.
The feel of him pressed up against the back of me made my heart flutter. With his heightened senses, I was sure he was able to pick up on my body’s reaction to him, but I didn’t try to hide it either. I was trying too hard to pay attention to my geography lesson. “Elder-something, right?” I leaned back into him. “What else is of importance on this planet?”
"Yes. It's Eldercairn." He moved my hand left and up a bit. "This is Briarwelsh, a human city. Well, the last major one." He slid his fingers across my hand. "Then off to the left we have Sybarlyn. It is the home city of the Voirechoes. They are tiny people, barely up to my waist. Their skin is a deep red, which made many others think they were demons of some kind… evil. But in fact, they are highly intelligent creatures that work to maintain the balance between the races and nature as the elements are learned."
Over this way,” His hand took mine over toward the east this time as his free hand slid to my side. “There is a series of villages along the Rhainour River all called The Hurthfeur. It’s home to a woodland race called Emalne. Each village is tasked with their own purpose. One might specialize in growing foods. Another in non-edible plants. Another in herbs. Yet another in trees or flowers. There’s eleven in total that run the expanse of the widest part of the river.
Each village’s inhabitants of their race have markings or growths that are indicators of what they specialize in. The river, itself, runs throughout the continent and is, in fact, an energy and life source for much of the lands.”
My body temperature rose in response to him as I let him guide my hand, repeating each name as he says them, trying to concrete everything to memory. When he started sliding his other hand up my side, my voice quivered. “W-wow. This is all very interesting. Tell me about the human city...” I pointed to it. You’d think that I would be starting to get a little less effected by him after the time we’d spent in the bedroom, but that wasn’t the case. If anything, it was getting worse. “Would I still stand out there? Is Eldercairn a human city as well? Vampire? How many races are there on this planet? And… oh! Oh! Oh!” I was clearly reacting to not just the information, but I was flustered. “When you were on earth... how long ago was it? Tell me about that!”
He leaned in and kissed the soft spot just below my ear, sending shivers down my spine. "The humans are just humans, the last of them hold up in their huge city pretty much. You would not stand out there with the right clothing and attitude, but as I have said, it is not the most safe environment. There are several other races though. What I have spoken of are but a few." He paused, taking a moment to think. "But my travels to Earth? It was a few years ago. California, I believe? I cannot be certain." He shrugged and pulled away from me.
I exhaled, both hands planting on the edge of the table to help steady myself. “I want to see the Hurthfeur some time. Are the Emalne beautiful? And the other races. I’m so curious what they all look like; how they sound; what they’re like.” My imagination was running a mile a minute as flashes
