MY SUGAR MUMMY IS A BEAUTIFUL VAMPIRE

Only when the last ruddy drop had passed her lips did Rose finally set the cup down, drawing in a deep, shuddering breath. Some of the haze of ravenous hunger began to clear from her senses, allowing shame to creep in at her uncivilized display.

"Forgive me," she murmured, unable to meet Dumphries' gaze. "That was...unbecoming of a lady."

To her surprise, the weaponsmith let out a hearty laugh, waving off her apology.

"No need to be contrite, Rose. You've been put through the wringer by that conniving beldame you call 'mother'." His expression hardened briefly. "If anyone understands the demands of our unfortunate conditions, it's me."

He jerked his chin towards the corner where the disheveled human still huddled, unmoving. Rose felt her stomach churn queasily, though she could not deny the vitae coursing through her had temporarily sated the gnawing ache.

"I did not realize things had become so...dire," she said carefully. "When I left the palace, the old traditions still held sway. The taking of human life carelessly was sacrosanct."

Dumphries snorted derisively at that. "Times change, and traditions become...malleable in the wake of necessity." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table's battered surface.

"You've been away for quite some time, Rose. While you were gone...well, let's just say some power shifted in ways that upended the old order."

Rose's brow furrowed slightly as she studied her old friend's weathered features. There was a hardness there that she didn't recall, an edge of bitterness that hadn't existed before.

"What happened here, Dumphries?" she asked softly. "What could possibly drive our people to such depravity as enslaving humans?"

The weaponsmith was silent for a long moment, idly running one calloused finger along the grooves in the tabletop. When he spoke again, his voice was low and tinged with barely suppressed anger.

"The Outsiders happened. Those damnable feral savages from beyond the barrier..." He trailed off, jaw clenching as his gaze bored a hole through the dingy wall opposite them.

A chill raced down Rose's spine at the mention of that accursed name. The Outsiders - the scourge that had plagued their realm for untold centuries. Vicious, animalistic brutes that continually tested the integrity of the mystical barrier separating their lands from the uncivilized wilds beyond.

The outsiders were the stuff of nightmares, whispered about in hushed tones among the vampire elite. To the immortal denizens of the vampire city, they were an existential threat, a primal force that lurked beyond the safety of their stone walls.

These hunters of the night were not bound by the same constraints as vampires. They were not seduced by the shadows or weakened by sunlight. Instead, they reveled in the daylight, using it to their advantage as they stalked their prey with ruthless efficiency.

Their strength was legendary, surpassing even the mightiest of vampires. It was said that they could tear through stone with their bare hands and move with the speed of the wind. Their senses were honed to perfection, allowing them to track their quarry with unerring accuracy.

But perhaps most terrifying of all was their insatiable thirst for vampire blood. While vampires subsisted on the life force of humans, the outsiders saw vampires as nothing more than prey to be hunted and devoured. They relished in the taste of vampire blood, finding it to be the sweetest nectar imaginable.

In the eternal game of predator and prey, the outsiders were the apex predators, and the vampires were their favored prey. They struck fear into the hearts of even the most powerful vampire lords, for none knew when the hunters would come knocking at their door, ready to unleash hell upon their once-untouchable domain.

"They've breached the barrier?" she breathed, aghast. Dumphries shook his head grimly.

"Not yet. But their numbers and ferocity have increased tenfold in recent years. Skirmishes along the borderlands have turned into outright battles, with horrific casualties on both sides."

He paused, seeming to weigh his next words carefully. "There are...rumors...that they've amassed a force unlike anything we've seen before. One powerful enough to punch through the barrier's defenses once and for all."

Rose's stomach turned to lead as she struggled to comprehend the magnitude of such an onslaught. If the Outsiders truly did shatter through into their territory, unleashing their feral hordes...

"Surely the council has made preparations?" she said, more of a demand than a question. "Our mightiest warriors, our most powerful sorcery must be marshaled against such a threat!"

Rather than offering reassurances, Dumphries merely shrugged again, his expression grim.

"They tried, at first. Called up the knightly orders, conscripted any able-bodied vampires to fortify the borderlands and stanch the Outsider incursions. But..."

His voice trailed off, leaving Rose's heart pounding in trepidation.

"But what?" she pressed urgently. "Spit it out, man!"

Dumphries sighed heavily, suddenly looking decades older than his years.

"The old ways proved...insufficient against their overwhelming numbers and savagery. Even turned humans, bolstered by our supernatural gifts, proved little match once the Outsiders adapted their tactics."

A creeping sense of dread unfurled in the pit of Rose's stomach as his meaning became clear.

"So this..." She nodded towards the wretched captive human. "This is how you've resorted to bolstering our forces? Capturing innocents, draining them as...as livestock?"

Though she had witnessed the truth of Dumphries' words with her own eyes scant hours ago, she still could barely bring herself to acknowledge the reprehensible practice out loud.

To his credit, the weaponsmith did not attempt to deny or obfuscate, merely meeting her horrified gaze steadily.

"Like I said - dark times, dark necessities. You've been gone for far too long to fully grasp how desperate the struggle has become. How easily our entire world could be consumed by the Outsider hordes if we don't take action...

Though the vampires tried to bury the memory of the outsiders and their own dark past, they knew deep down that they could never truly escape them. The outsiders were a reminder of the tenuous balance between the human and vampire worlds, a balance that could be shattered at any moment.

So every night, in the name of all that was unholy, the vampires prayed that the outsiders whose true identity were Dhampirs never remembered them.