Mikael: Quietly slipping out of my hiding place, I faced those men with a sinister smile, anger burning through me for daring to touch and hurt someone I considered precious. Seeing them break into a cold sweat only widened my smile. I darted toward one of them, my claws extending, and in an instant, I took his head clean off.
When I noticed the fresh blood running down my claws and caught its scent, my honey-colored eyes turned blood-red, my pupils dilated, and my fangs lengthened a few centimeters.
Normally, I wouldn't even think about the blood—though now it seemed absurdly enticing and stirred my hunger—but the human part of me recoiled at the idea of drinking human blood.
While my vampiric instinct battled the last pieces of my humanity, I found myself conflicted… and ended up licking my claws. But the moment I recognized whose blood it was and tasted it, I spat it out immediately.
It was disgusting.
I tried to steady my thoughts, and slowly my hunger eased. I knew I'd need to feed soon, but… it wasn't the right moment.
When I turned to the other man—the partner of the one I had just killed—I couldn't help but laugh. That worm had abandoned his own companion, hurt my precious Drake, and still thought he could escape me in the middle of the night? Daytime is my street… and nighttime is my playground.
I ran after him and took his head as well. Only then did I notice Drake was still there. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and sighed in relief when I saw him lost in thought. But then he looked straight at me—at my eyes, my claws, my fangs. For a moment he seemed afraid… and then he relaxed.
Confused, I met his gaze and asked, sadness slipping into my voice, if he was afraid of me. To my surprise, Drake said he wasn't—and that warmed my heart. Still, I needed to know what he intended to do, so I asked:
"What are you going to do now, Drake? I'm a vampire, a creature that feeds on human blood… a being you humans consider the very embodiment of evil…"
Drake sighed and said something that left me stunned:
"I'm not going to do anything. You didn't hurt me. You HELPED me. You defended me…"
I stayed silent for a few minutes, trying to take it in, until I finally managed to say:
"But now that you know the truth, I can't just leave you here. It's not about distrust… it's about danger."
As I tried to find a solution—without forcing him to become a vampire or harming him in any way—Drake surprised me again with another unbelievable proposal:
"Take me with you. I don't care about stopping being human. My own kind abandoned me, and unlike them, you—even with people calling you bloodthirsty and evil—saved me…"
I wondered what kind of life he'd been forced to live to say something like that. The determination burning in his eyes made me let out a soft laugh. Still, I needed to warn him. I was different, yes, but I couldn't tell him about my past life or justify a normal vampire's behavior. So I said:
"I may be a vampire, but I'm different from the others—at least in my opinion. So don't assume every vampire you meet will be like me. There are always exceptions."
Drake held onto his decision with the same resolve, which made me sigh—though inside, I was celebrating for two reasons:
First: the race of demon-eyed people is nearly extinct, and from what I could tell, Drake is a hybrid with a very faint demonic lineage. Because he lived in the slums, the church's agents probably hadn't detected him. Those born with demon eyes wield the power of hellfire—and even if they change species, that power remains.
Imagine a vampire with control over hellfire… The thought thrilled me.
The second reason was simple: I liked this messy boy, and I didn't want to be separated from him.
Drake:
When those idiots who used to extort me found me again, I couldn't run. I yelled, hoping Mikael would hear me and come save me, but… no one showed up. They found the coin pouch he had given me and started mocking me.
A fury unlike anything I'd ever felt took over, and my eyes burned for a few seconds—but I thought I was imagining it.
A little later, Mikael finally appeared. The moment I saw him, I calmed down. He shot the men a twisted, sinister smile, and just the sight of that furious expression sent a chill up my spine.
When he charged at one of them, right before the final strike, my mind went blank. I slipped into a trance, reliving my entire life up to that moment. When I came back to myself, I found a creature in front of me known for being bloodthirsty and the embodiment of evil: a vampire.
And what terrified me even more… was that this creature was Mikael—the only person who had ever been good to me.
Seeing his eyes glowing red like blood scared me, but when I remembered everything he had done for me, the fear faded.