Xun Jin lay in bed, the quilt covering only the lower half of his body from the stomach down.
He held the small glass bottle, turning it over and over in his hands.
‘Can this be opened?’
[No. Opening the lid will cause the malice value to leak.]
Just as Xun Jin was about to pull out the stopper, he heard this and quickly lowered his hand.
‘Then how am I supposed to check what the malice value is at?’
He brought it up close to his eyes, pressing them almost flush against the glass in an attempt to see more clearly.
[You’ll know when the time comes.]
‘I don’t know.’
[I said, when the time comes.]
‘I don’t know.’
[Are you angry?]
Xun Jin disliked how the voice spoke to him in riddles; his ears were practically growing calluses from it.
The voice had warned him that something would happen tonight, so Xun Jin had stayed awake.
He kept his peripheral vision fixed on the direction of the terrace. The curtains were left open, meaning if anyone came, he would spot them immediately.
Xun Jin let out a yawn.
If whoever it was didn’t show up soon, he really wouldn’t be able to stay awake much longer.
With a crisp, sharp click, the sound of metal colliding echoed abruptly through the quiet room.
The bedroom door opened and closed, followed once again by utter silence.
The glass bottle was lying right beside Xun Jin’s hand.
Too preoccupied with hiding things, he hadn’t even pulled the quilt up properly, leaving half of his shoulder exposed.
He knew someone had entered.
Because he heard the faint sound of footsteps and they were getting closer.
The mattress near the door dipped slightly as the blanket on that side was lifted.
A body radiating a chill drew close. As the intruder lay down, his head lingered near Xun Jin for a moment, and the crisp, clean scent of his breath felt instantly familiar to Xun Jin.
He slipped under Xun Jin’s covers, even resting his head on Xun Jin’s pillow.
A hand slowly caressed his body, feeling somewhat chilly for some reason.
Like a porcelain doll, Xun Jin allowed himself to be manhandled without betraying the slightest hint that he was awake.
The person pulled Xun Jin into an embrace. Xun Jin could even feel the man’s nose pressed right against the back of his head, the breath he exhaled stirring his hair. The coolness seeped into his scalp, making his whole body tingle.
He couldn’t help trembling, his entire body instantly tensing up.
The movement of the person behind him paused.
Xun Jin didn’t dare to let out a full breath. He tried to relax his body, but the harder he tried, the stiffer he became, until he was shaking all over from sheer tension.
He was already doing his absolute best to control himself.
The grip around him tightened, and Xun Jin was passively dragged a bit closer, their chests and backs pressing almost flush against one another.
The restriction made it slightly difficult for Xun Jin to breathe.
He mentally calculated the probability of escaping unscathed if he stopped feigning sleep right now and sat up to confront the person behind him face-to-face.
At that exact moment, he felt something brush against the skin of his neck.
Before he could even process it, a sharp pain blossomed from the spot. Xun Jin could almost hear the sound of sharp fangs tearing through skin and flesh.
He caught a whiff of an intensely sweet scent his own blood.
The vampire behind him was likely biting down precisely where he had been bitten yesterday, using the nearly healed puncture wounds to save himself the effort.
Xun Jin gritted his teeth and made not a sound, though his fists clenched involuntarily.
He didn’t even realize when the person had grabbed hold of his hand.
By the time his muddled senses cleared up once more, his hand was already firmly intertwined with the other person’s in a ten-finger grip.
When Xun Jin tried to wiggle his fingers ever so slightly, the person suddenly tightened their hold.
Xun Jin froze, abandoning any thought of moving.
He had been hesitating just moments ago over whether or not to wake up, but now that notion was entirely gone.
He was terrified that his neck might be snapped clean off in a single bite.
Xun Jin was rolled over onto his back, facing the person head-on.
Breathing puffed warm against Xun Jin’s eyelashes, causing those butterfly-wing lashes to flutter with every single inhalation.
The eyeballs beneath his closed eyelids twitched erratically.
Zelan traced the contours of Xun Jin’s face with a smoldering gaze, his fingers gently massaging and kneading the delicate earlobe. His eyes devoured every single detail the petite chin, the lips, the nose, the eyebrows as if he could never grow tired of looking.
Every uneven breath and every swallowing motion offered a fresh, novel sensation.
Zelan’s gaze finally lingered on the corner of Xun Jin’s eye, where a single tear track slipped down, accompanied by a cluster of moisture pooled on the bridge of his nose that had clearly been gathering for a while.
He must have cried when he was bitten and held it in all this time.
Such a good boy.
Zelan loved this version of Xun Jin the most.
He leaned forward and licked away the droplet of sweetness.
It tasted just like blood.
As expected, Xun Jin tasted sweet all over.
“You refuse to drink the blood bags at home, insisting on drinking from outsiders outside instead? And then you even go feed those blood bags to stray dogs on the street?”
Zelan’s fingers applied a bit more force as he pinched and rubbed Xun Jin’s earlobe, as if administering a punishment.
Only when Xun Jin’s brow twitched did he let go, before sinking his teeth once more into that crimson-stained earlobe. Smacking sounds filled the air as Xun Jin’s eyelids fluttered like autumn leaves in the wind, blinking frantically without pause.
“You are not allowed to play with stray dogs outside.”
Zelan spoke in a very soft voice, but he knew Xun Jin could hear him.
In the early morning, Xun Jin bolted upright in bed.
Raising a hand to cover the right side of his neck, sure enough, his fingers brushed against two hardened scabs of dried blood.
Last night was not a dream.
Xun Jin had assumed the one tormenting him in the middle of the night was Cianus, never expecting the culprit to be his own cousin!
Furious, Xun Jin slapped his fist down onto the quilt.
Wait, where was the glass bottle?
Standing at the head of the bed, Xun Jin threw back the entire blanket, but there was no sign of the glass bottle anywhere.
[It’s under the bed.]
Xun Jin scrambled over the edge of the mattress and spotted the glass bottle lying deep underneath. He reached out to test the distance; he would have to crawl partially underneath to actually reach it.
Dropping to his hands and knees, he lowered his upper body and inched forward into the gap. Pressing down on his healing knee while crawling like this sent a sharp twinge of pain through his joint.
“What are you doing?”
Startled by the sudden voice, Xun Jin jolted, his back arching upward and smacking against the wooden slats of the bedframe.
“Ah…” That hurt like hell.
Fortunately, he had managed to grab the glass bottle.
Xun Jin quickly backed out, though the oversized tank top had slid up his torso during the awkward crawl, riding all the way to his shoulders and exposing a vast expanse of pale skin that was almost blinding.
Once out, Xun Jin knelt on the floor, clutching the bottle in one hand while frantically trying to straighten his clothes with the other.
Zelan stood by the doorway. Comparing the two of them, one was a disheveled mess while the other was impeccably put together.
Xun Jin merely glanced at Zelan in a rush and had no intention of answering.
Hearing his cheap cousin’s voice now practically gave him PTSD; he deliberately avoided looking at Zelan in hopes of acting as natural as possible.
“Hurry up.”
“Mm.” Xun Jin let out a low, muffled acknowledgment.
They behaved no differently than they had on countless mornings before, as if neither of them cared about the events of the previous night.
“I suppose I count as your boyfriend now, right?”
Dismissing the driver with a text message after school, Xun Jin finally looked up at Talon, who had been clinging to his side ever since classes ended.
He had no idea why Talon was so obsessed with this question, badgering him online, offline, from morning until now. Furthermore, no matter what Xun Jin replied, Talon always managed to steer the conversation right back to: “Are you hungry? Do you want to drink some blood?”
“Am I your boyfriend?”
Xun Jin nodded.
“Then am I your only boyfriend?”
Xun Jin was secretly thankful they were currently up on the rooftop; otherwise, someone would undoubtedly snap a photo and post it to the school group chat.
Compared to Talon’s restless impatience, Xun Jin answered at a leisurely pace: “I guess so.”
He honestly wasn’t entirely sure if he had any other boyfriends floating around.
“What do you mean ‘I guess so’? You and Ethan haven’t broken up yet?”
“We broke up.”
Finishing his sentence, Xun Jin raised his eyes to look at Talon. “How do you even know about Ethan?”
The sunlight was somewhat harsh, causing Xun Jin to squint his eyes down to narrow slits.
“Of course I know him. Guys like that are usually no good, you know.”
Talon stepped closer, raising a hand to shield Xun Jin’s eyes from the glaring direct sunlight.
“What kind of guy is ‘like that’?”
Thinking of Ethan, Xun Jin figured that type should be immensely popular around the academy, so why would he be considered no good?
“You know, guys like Ethan all brawn and no brains. Let me tell you, jocks, especially football players, are all totally crude and have no idea how to cherish someone.”
Talon said this with a completely straight face.
“So, breaking up with him was the right choice.”
“See how great I am? And my blood tastes amazing, right?”
Well, that much was true.
Xun Jin stood beneath the sunshade with his hands clasped behind his back, staring down at the boundary where light and shadow met on the pavement.
He stood on one leg, lifting his other foot slightly and extending it just enough for the sunlight to illuminate the deep brown leather of his shoe. The raised creases of the leather reflected the light, looking exceptionally neat.
“Are you listening to me? Zoning out again?”
Talon lowered his head, tilting it to peer at Xun Jin.
Out of the corner of his eye, Xun Jin watched the leaning Talon and shook his head.
He really hadn’t zoned out this time.
Was this seriously the only reason Talon had dragged him up here? How boring. When would he finally stop talking? It was way too hot out here; he wanted to go back downstairs.
“Come on, drink my blood.”
Circling back around, Talon’s ultimate objective remained unchanged.
Xun Jin had a large portion drained by that hateful cousin of his yesterday, and he suspected that whatever he had fed on from Talon yesterday had probably been siphoned away by Zelan as well.
He pressed a hand against his stomach; it felt a little hollow.
Did he really have to drink blood every single day?
[No, normally it’s every other day, but Zelan drank from you yesterday.]
Ah, right. That meant he was free to drink again.
Xun Jin licked his lower lip and, under Talon’s expectant gaze, gave a nod.
Talon drew a deep breath and broke into a grin, the bright sunlight spilling across his face.
Though Xun Jin couldn’t quite figure out why Talon felt the need to strip off his shirt entirely.
“Ahem… I’m just afraid of dirtying my clothes.”
“Oh.”
Kneeling on one knee before Xun Jin, Talon directly pulled Xun Jin into his lap, settling him squarely atop his braced thigh.
Xun Jin’s legs parted automatically, his knees brushing against Talon’s stomach, so he drew his legs back slightly, planting his toes against the ground for balance while resting his hands on Talon’s shoulders.
Even though this posture made biting into a neck exceptionally convenient, Xun Jin was wearing that particular outfit underneath, which made things feel rather awkward. Lowering his head, he shifted his weight and rose slightly to his feet.
Mistaking this for reluctance to feed, Talon pressed down on Xun Jin’s shoulders, urging him back down. “What’s wrong?”
Meeting Talon’s concerned gaze, Xun Jin hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. But he instinctively pressed his knees closer together.
Misinterpreting the gesture as a fear of falling, Talon reassured him, “It’s fine, I’ve got you.”
The familiar sweet aroma kept wafting against his face, making Xun Jin push all other bodily discomforts to the back of his mind. His tiny sharp fangs eagerly sprouted, and his eyes shifted entirely to a crimson red.
Locating the bite marks left behind yesterday, he aligned himself and opened his mouth.
“Ouch… mmph!”
A hand suddenly clamped onto Xun Jin’s forehead, using firm, unyielding force to wrench his head backward, leaving Xun Jin to watch helplessly as his impending meal flew away.
Initially thinking Talon was playing some cruel trick and about to throw a tantrum, he was interrupted by two unfamiliar voices ringing out from above.
“What are you two doing?”
“Hey.”