The haft of the axe slipped smoothly through his calloused hands, muscles bunching as Mir continued splitting the wood. He paused, wiping sweat from his brow, and eyeballed the pile he'd already quartered. There was something satisfying about manual labor, not that he'd readily admit it. Chopping wood took him back to the few not-unpleasant memories of his youth. Tragic backstory aside, Lei liked it when he came in all sweaty from doing honest work.

  He lined up another log and raised the axe high. A moment of distraction caused the strike to land off-center, his attention going to the ring of wards around their land. He sensed no danger. No malice. Thus, he wrote off the interloper as either someone Lei had invited or one of the exceedingly rare random travelers that stumbled in from time to time. Lei would handle them. Mir didn't deal much with their guests, by mutual agreement with his husband.

  He wasn't the personable sort spontaneously.

  "Vladimir!"

  The shout from the house, his full name, snapped his head around.

  The axe fell, unattended, as his body twisted through space. Reality rippled with the force of his stride, the chopping block abandoned behind him as he simply appeared in the front room of their cabin. His eye, burning with inner magic, fixed on the kneeling form of his husband and the figure in Leifr's arms.

  "It's the miller's boy, Eric." Lei looked up, a hand pressed to the young man's forehead as the commoner's body convulsed.

  The tang of dark power was rancid on the tongue, Mir looming over the writhing form. It wasn't the movement of the body that drew the bulk of his attention. His tail stabbed into the youth's shadow, and it writhed around the appendage. Taloned fingers opened a fist-sized hole into his pocket dimension, arm reaching through.

  On the other end of that hole, Flarb was playing knucklebones with one of the other members of the Shadow Gang. "Boss?" His rough voice didn't even seem surprised to see the demanding hand under his nose.

  "Medium warded beaker." Mir's clipped order was curt. This was what minions were for, handing you things when you were rather busy.

  The chief minion, nowhere near where the beakers were kept, didn't break a sweat. He and the Shadow Gang had been training for a moment like this. They'd had drills. They rose to the occasion. "Medium warded beaker!" Flarb relayed to another nearby goblin. Who relayed it. Who relayed it further. In under six seconds, the beaker had been fetched, handed from goblin to goblin, and then finally to Flarb. The leader of the Shadow Gang gave a pleased smile as it was delivered into Mir's waiting hand. Score a victory for the minions!

  Back in the cabin, Mir pulled his tail up, the dead shadow clinging to it. He put it into the beaker, filling the thing to the brim with the gelled shadow flesh, then tossed it back through the hole once more. "Put it on my workbench." Only then did he close the small portal and relax a fraction.

  Lei looked from the miller boy to his husband and back again. "Do I want to know what that was?"

  "I have theories, but I'll need to examine it later. Consider it no longer a problem for the moment, though." Mir cocked his head to the side, lowering himself to his haunches next to the still twitching youth. "He reeks of Evil. It's already starting."

  "It's in his blood. These sores are indicative of a blood pathogen." The dragon very carefully didn't use the words plague or fever. That wasn't what this was. It wasn't something naturally occurring. "He's been fed on. Our problem neighbor is most likely some sort of sanguivore."

  "My heart, he's a vampire. Just call him a vampire." Mir gave a low groan and stood up. The look on his face was one of utter disappointment. "My would-be replacement is a common vampire that uses cheap shadow magic. I'm frankly offended."

  "Yes, yes, truly tragic, darling. Could you spare a moment from being offended to get me a tonic that's good for the blood? Something with iron and clotting agents? Something that could fight the fever? I know you could whip one up with your eyes closed." The dragon's attention was already back on the injured mortal. It was in his nature to tend to the weak and the wounded. The actually wounded, not just how Mir's pride felt at the moment.

  "You want an anti-vampyretic."

  "If you please. I'm going to move him into the guest room and get him some bone broth. The poor young man, I think he ran all the way here from Holly-on-Green. I can feel his exhaustion. His fear."

  Mir rolled his eye. This miller boy had no idea just how lucky he'd gotten. Had Mir and Lei really just been a backwoods herbalist and a minor marvels merchant, he would have been dead. Or undead, rather, rising tonight as a spawn and murdering his first meal. Instead, the ex-Dark Lord fetched a potion that could have bought Holly-on-Green in its entirety three times over from a rack in his workshop, muttering the whole time he did so about the waste.

  Lei's eyes brightened at the sight of the vial, planting a swift kiss on Mir's cheek as he plucked it from his husband's fingers. "Thank you, Mir, and don't scowl so. It gives you an excuse to make another one."

  "I have a feeling I'll be making many, many more of them. I'll tell Flarb to cultivate the Blood-moss in the gardens again." Arms folded across his chest, fists tucked in Northern habit. It was always the little things that gave his origins away, from hairstyle to body language. "How long till he can tell us anything?"

  Lei snorted, tipping the youth's jaw and slowly pouring the potion down, encouraging swallowing with a stroke of his thumb and a bit of magic. "Around lunch tomorrow. I suspect his fever won't break till morning, and then he'll need a few hours of restful slumber to recover. He's been fed upon at least twice, couple that with the exertion, and it's a wonder he made it this far."

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  "Farm boys. They're robust." That's why they became heroes so easily.

  "Miller's son. Though I suppose it's only a step up." Lei blotted at the young man's fevered brow with a cool cloth, the soft light of late afternoon glinting off the dragon's mana-lenses. "Can you deal with dinner tonight? Just warm the bone broth, and after you spoon him out a bowl, perhaps throw some root veg into it? A simple vegetable soup sounds lovely."

  "I can cook, Lei. I'm an alchemist! I can make more than vegetable soup if you'd like it." Mir's eye narrowed. "Or are you going to tell me that this is another one of my talents that needs improving on?" Like his sense of decor?

  "I was simply thinking of quick and easy. If you'd like to make me a more fulfilling meal, of course, I'll eat it. I actually enjoy your cooking. You've never once poisoned me without actually intending to do so." He smirked, a small flash of fang peeking in the corner of his grin.

  "It was one time my heart. One time, I even warned you before you ate them that those cookies were poisoned. I stared you dead in the eyes as I handed them over, and you still ate one to call my non-existent bluff!" He pinched the bridge of his nose in mock distress. "What kind of Dark Lord announces he's poisoning people and then doesn't?"

  "The kind that plays mind games, Mir, which you are rather good at."

  Mir drew in a deep breath and counted to five as he let it out. "Leifr, I don't need to play mind games with you. We're married. There's no prize to win from lying to my husband." He gave the other this hopeless smile. "But I realize we weren't married at the time, and I suppose you had no reason to realize I am a Dark Lord of my word. Or, well, was." He needed to extract himself from this topic. "So, dinner, soup, I have just the thing. Wait right here." As if his husband could do anything else with their guest needing to be tended to.

  It started with the iron pot over a fire. Then in went the bone broth to serve as the soup base. Mir even remembered to let the broth warm up and set aside a bowl, untouched by the rest of the soup ingredients. Their patient wouldn't be able to eat a rich meal, laid out as he was. But with the rest of the broth on the boil, he turned his attention to the rest of the things needed.

  First was cubed boar shoulder, honey, salt, and blackberries, all of which needed to cook down together. After it had been on the boil for a bit, he tossed in cloves of garlic and pinches of spices, stirring gently. Then he scattered the fire, lowering the heat and putting the lid on to simmer it and let everything blend. "He wanted veggies. Hmm..." Leeks. Onions. Mushrooms. Then, after a few minutes, he gave in and added cabbage and carrots. Mir wasn't a fan of carrots, but he had to admit his husband loved them, and in a stew like this he could hide them well enough with the other flavors. Or pick them out.

  The sun had set when he brought the two bowls into the guest room. "Here you are, pork stew, just like they make it back home!" Mir served the bowl up into the dragon's waiting hands with a kiss and a flourish. "Oh, and broth for the farm boy." That bowl was dropped on the bedside table, the only consideration given was a bit of magic to keep it from spilling.

  Lei took the bowl, shaking his head, and blew on the first spoonful as he watched Mir. "You have terrible bedside manners, darling."

  "My heart, if you weren't here, I'd have already killed him myself and extracted the information from his soul. Do you have any idea how much I dislike watching you care for him?" Jealousy, thy name was Vladimir Grimm. It was the same petty and possessive jealousy as a child separating their favorite friend from the rest of the schoolyard rabble. He wanted all of the dragon's care and concern for himself, unrealistic as that was.

  And the dragon knew it. "Don't be petty. It's like caring for an injured pet. Even you cared for your pets."

  "My pets were useful, Lei. The boy is going to be trouble for us."

  Mir fetched his own bowl and chair, dragging them next to his husband, joining him in dinner and the bedside vigil. The youth was already looking better, the expensive tonic having done its magic. Coupled with Lei's tender care, it was obvious that he was going to live. He was still sweating, but the marks were fading, the breathing was easier, and he'd stopped twitching. The heartbeat was strong in their ears.

  "Is his energy clearing?"

  "The Evil, you mean? Yes. As soon as I'm done with dinner, I'm going to examine the thing from his shadow. I want to use my proper tools though..." His voice trailed off. It meant going into the pocket dimension and leaving his husband out in this one. "...first time I'll have been away from you since we were married."

  The dragon paused, turning toward the pale man. Lei leaned into Mir's shoulder, a half smile on his face. "My dear darling darkness... Who am I?"

  For a moment, their gazes met, and then a laugh rippled out of him. "I'm not worried you can't take care of yourself. I'm worried I'll miss the fun if something tries to test you! I love you when you're being ferocious." He snapped his teeth together, biting air, and then offered his husband a spoonful from his own bowl. "Promise me you'll wait for me before you smite anything?"

  Lei took the bite offered to him and chewed slowly. Thoughtfully. "You're such a bad influence on me, Vladimir Grimm. Fine. I promise I'll wait for you before I erase anything from existence."