Chapter 41: The Southern Range [8]
Alden stared at her. The word hung in the cold cave air between them.
’Blood.’
He weighed the options quickly. She was still in vampire form, the wound on her back was still bleeding. Nicholas and the others would be climbing back up the mountain slope and it was a matter of time before they reached the cave.
There was no scenario where this ended well without dealing with the obvious problem directly in front of him.
He sighed.
"Fine." He shifted closer and turned slightly, angling himself so she could reach his neck without straining the injury on her back.
"Take what you need. Be quick about it."
Seris gave him a faint smile.
She leaned toward him slowly, her strength clearly not where it usually sat. Eventually she rested her cheek against his shoulder just to stay upright.
Alden went rigid.
’This feels deeply wrong.’
Bite!
"Ah—" He clenched his teeth and held still.
’What am I doing. What am I actually doing right now.’ His thoughts ran while she drank.
Seris wasn’t just an injured student, she was a vampire. The Helion Core theft had been her people’s plan. Vincent had been their spy.
And Seris had known. From the beginning.
’I’m sitting here in a mountain cave letting one of the people who orchestrated this entire disaster drink my blood.’ His expression darkened.
After a few moments, the wound on her back had begun closing. The torn flesh pulling together, the blood slowing. The exhaustion that had been pulling her whole body downward started releasing its grip.
Seris drew back from his neck and let out a quiet breath.
"Ahh." Her eyes softened slightly. "Much better."
Alden pressed his hand to his neck and looked at her sideways.
"I should probably be killing you right now."
"Oh?" Her head tilted.
"You and other vampires, and all of these plans. Everything you’ve been doing inside the academy while everyone thought you were just the Vice President."
Seris looked at him for a moment then reached forward and took his hand.
Before he could react, she placed it against her neck.
She kept her eyes on his.
"You have the chance." Her expression didn’t shift. "Go ahead. I’m still weakened."
Alden stared at her.
At his own hand, then back at her.
He couldn’t do it, and he knew it. A part of his mind knew it before he could even explain why. But he wasn’t going to let her see that. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and kept looking right at her.
"Aren’t you afraid?"
Seris smiled.
"Why would I be?" She kept her hand over his, completely still. "If your goal was to kill me, you wouldn’t have helped me recover. And you wouldn’t have given me your blood in the first place."
Alden’s eye twitched.
’You smug—’
He yanked his hand back.
"Don’t get too comfortable."
"Then perhaps," she said, "you shouldn’t make it so easy for me to be comfortable."
He looked away.
Then he looked back at her.
She was still in vampire form. Elongated ears, crimson glow in the eyes, gothic dress.
"Now that you’re recovered, change back to human."
"Who said I’m recovered?"
"You just drank my blood."
"I took enough to speak and move." She turned toward him, her calm expression making it clear she thought the answer was obvious. "Not enough to use my abilities. Not enough for the transformation to reverse."
"What do you mean ’not enough’—" Alden turned fully toward her. "I can literally feel the difference. You took a ridiculous amount of blood!"
"Don’t be dramatic."
"I’m not being dramatic, I’m being accurate—"
"Then lend me a little more." She tilted her head. "Once I’ve had enough, I’ll return to my normal form. It’s simple."
"More blood?!"
"Why are you exaggerating?" She looked at him with the patience of someone who has asked for a perfectly reasonable thing. "I’m not asking for your life."
"ed hu~" Alden muttered something.
Seris leaned closer.
"Pardon? I couldn’t quite hear that."
"I said," he repeated, looking away, his voice about three tones lower than usual, "it hurts."
After a moment of silence,
A sound came from Seris that she covered with the back of her hand.
"In every battle I’ve watched you fight, you’ve taken injuries significantly worse than this and not made a single complaint." She leaned slightly closer. "But now you’re whining over a sting?" She tilted her head.
"I thought you were a strong man."
Alden’s eye twitched.
"To think you’re actually this fragile."
’She should be grateful I gave her any blood at all—’ He clenched his jaw.
He let out a breath, tilted his head sideways exposing his neck.
"Fine. However much you need. And then you change back."
Seris smiled.
"Good boy."
His eyebrow moved.
She knelt beside him and leaned in carefully, her arms settling around his neck, and bit the exact same spot as before with considerably more precision than the first time. Gentler. No additional sting.
He flinched anyway.
After a few moments—
"Huff."
She pulled away slowly.
The crimson glow in her eyes faded as he watched. Her ears returned to their normal shape, her fangs retracted.
The color in her skin shifted back from marble-white to something that looked warm and alive. The gothic dress dissolved into red particles and her academy uniform reappeared underneath it, pressed and neat as always.
She stretched her arms above her head.
"That did it."
Alden looked at her.
Fully recovered and transformed back.
"Good." He turned away. "Now we can—"
"I do have to admit something." Her voice carried the specific quality it got when she was about to say something she found amusing. "It’s a rather useful trick."
He stopped and looked back.
"Getting someone to willingly offer more blood," Seris continued, one finger touching the corner of her lips, "by convincing them you haven’t recovered yet."
The cave went quiet.
Alden’s face did several things in rapid succession.
’I knew it.
I KNEW IT.
I could feel that she wasn’t as weak as she was pretending—’
He turned to her completely.
She looked back at him with an expression of total innocence.
"What?"
Alden looked at her for a long moment. Then he looked at the ceiling.
"Nothing," he said and looked away.