56 He Shouldn't Have Gotten Greedy

Part of him wanted to pathetically beg to kill him faster now that she was gone but there was still Flora to worry about. They had been so excited when Lily fell pregnant a mere seventy-four years after they got married. He couldn't leave his baby behind!

But if they had killed his wife they definitely planned to kill him too. He doubted his death would be as quick since this entire mess was his fault.

Lily was right; he shouldn't have gotten greedy. None of this would have happened if he kept Ruby's powers for himself instead of agreeing to sell her off to someone else, no matter how much they supposedly offered in return.

Flint tried to gain more and ended up losing everything. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the worst.

Dorian was not the slightest bit merciful. "You should not have crossed me Flint Gardner," he said coldly as he felt around the empty space on the fairy's back in search of his wings.

He slowly and torturously ripped them right off of Flint's body. The stumps on his back bled profusely but it wasn't enough to kill him on his own. He knew he was dead anyway without the ability to fly away; everybody knew a downed fairy was a dead fairy. It was why they never showed their wings to anyone they didn't trust with their lives.

The vampire kicked him right where the stumps were and he fell to the ground. "I will give you one chance to run but my men will catch you. Have fun."

Utterly defeated, Flint didn't even want to try to run. But he had a feeling there would be worse torture in store if he didn't so he forced himself to his feet. They were horribly heavy; running instead of hovering was painful.

With how weak and out of practice his feet and ankles were at bearing his body up, he was caught in mere seconds. His last conscious thought was hoping that Ruby cared enough for Flora to save her.

===

Dorian Cromwell was not pleased with the way things went down here today. He had come to check on the status of the delivery a few days early because he hadn't heard anything from Flint Gardner since the deposit was handed over.

It was a good thing he did because how else would he have discovered his merchandise had run away? Fairies truly were idiots.

He only found out about Ruby's powers in the first place several months ago because her blabbermouth aunt and uncle weren't capable of keeping their mouths shut. They were gossiping about an expensive necklace they had appraised and sold on the way into the witches coven.

One of his vampires had been down there picking up a three month supply of blood pills for the coven and overheard. That tidbit was worthy of further investigation.

There were five covens total on this continent. Two of them had to share the same witch coven and deal with the issue of supply and demand.

The Averills up in Alaska had sole claim to the blood pills made by the Juneau witches. The Venicis and Romanovs were in completely different parts of Canada so they went to separate witch covens for their supply as well.

Dorian had long hated that he had to share resources with the group of vampires he hated most. The Mayhews had been nothing but a bother since before they came to this country.

Their original homes were far too close together; the two groups had lived in the mountains of what was now known as Romania. That many vampires in a single place brought a series of problems no one could solve, such as food supply.

Dorian had argued with Ash's predecessor constantly about who had the rights to the closest human villages to feed on. They had different ideas about how much should be taken as well.

Liuthold Mayhew thought it was better to only use the old and infirm or very young to feed on, rationalizing that they were more likely to get sick and die anyway to raise less suspicion. He was always such a goody-two-shoes.

Then the vampire hunts happened and he had the nerve to blame it the Cromwells' eating habits. Everyone's numbers were severely impacted. Even that old windbag got killed and his son ended up in charge.

Ash was even weaker than Liuthold had been. He couldn't properly cast a single blood spell without assistance! But the laws of inheritance were absolute; if a coven leader had a child, they would take over in the case of death.

Things got messy when there wasn't an heir, which happened often due to the rarity of fae children. Dorian didn't have one so on the off-chance someone was able to kill him there were several vampires who would have to duke it out for the position.

That was something else that bothered him about that worthless coven. In all the time since they left the old country not one vampire child was born to the Cromwells.

The Mayhews had nearly ten! That kind of prosperity was practically unheard of!

The only reason Dorian's coven was so large was because they merged with many small ones as they made their way west back in the 1700s. Technically speaking, a coven was a group of three or more vampires.

All were the scattered remains of ones who had been affected by the hunts. Some were couples with children, which was helpful, but no new ones were born once everything settled down.

A few decades later, witches discovered how to create blood pills and the threat of discovery became much lower. But that didn't change the fact that food was a limited resource that had to be shared or that the vampires the Cromwells were forced to share with had been part of the reason they were driven from their homeland.