Chapter 6
“Aren’t you gonna drink my blood?” I asked timidly.
“Do you wanna die?” he asked me back.
After a moment of hesitation, I shook my head.
For some reason, he smiled, “Then I’ll save your blood.”
It had been years, yet his smiling face under the streetlight that night was still engraved in my mind.
Everything on the street had changed. The glaringly colorful neon
signboards had been removed, and the rusty fences had been painted. The whole place looked neater.
Sitting on the railing, I was lost in memories. “I had nowhere to go back then. He took me in.”
“But he failed to keep you around,” standing next to me, Alden tilted his head and said to me.
I knew Alden during an accident, too.
One day, the border train platform had a malfunction, so I went to the tunnel to check alone. Since I forgot to bring the gate key, I couldn’t get ahold of anyone. Luckily, Alden showed up, or I would have been frozen to death in the low–temperature tunnel.
I didn’t know how to repay him. Just then, he asked me if I wanted to take a Blood Oath with him even though I already had a master.
“We made an announcement to tell the passengers the platform was
DJES JO] JOU OOWNS
Chapter 6
closed for repairs. Why were you there that day?” I asked Alden.
To my surprise, he said, “It wasn’t the first time we met.”
With that, he took out an emerald–encrusted pocket watch and handed it over. “Do you remember this?” he asked.
It rang a bell. I found it near the tunnel edge one day shortly after I began my job patrolling the platform, and it took me a lot of effort to find the owner. After all these years, now I could only remember the person who showed up to retrieve it was wearing a black robe, and I didn’t see his face in the darkness.
“It’s the last thing my mother left me. It took me ages, but I still couldn’t find it. You brought it back to me,” he said.
Then he told me he had been following me ever since that day, which was why he appeared in time when I was trapped in the tunnel.
He was as stubborn as me.
I jumped off the railing and looked at him face to face. “Time for me to repay.”
He knew I was asking him if he was interested in taking a Blood Oath with me.
“Do you know… this is an invitation for vampires?”
He ran his fingertips across the strands of hair scattered by the wind on my forehead.
Noticing I was stunned, he smiled gently and stroked my head again, telling me to wait for a little longer.
I asked, “How long?”
11
He replied. “Till I’m the only one you want to offer you blood to.”
When we took the last train to go back, as usual, the platform was lit by a few lights.
I was surprised to see Sean still there.
He didn’t even move after we left; upon seeing me, he relaxed, stopping holding himself so stiffly.
I intended to ignore him and walk away, but he blocked our way.
“I know you haven’t taken a Blood Oath with him. I can smell it,” he said.
to me.
I walked forward as if I hadn’t heard him, and he followed me closely.
“After you left, I haven’t drunk a single drop of blood…”
Finally, I stopped in my tracks, running out of patience.
“Mr. Wright, feel free to drink blood from any creature. Just stop. following me.”
“I just want your blood!” he roared and then panted heavily, almost losing his balance. He was so haggard; it seemed he was telling the truth.
“Come back with me. Just this time–one last time–and I’ll never ask again.” Seeing the unyielding look on my face, he stared at me intently as madness crept over his eyes. “Or I’ll drink the butler’s blood.”
“You…” I was so pissed off that I gripped his collar, my hands trembling.
The butler had served him for years. How could he say this?
Seeing that I was agitated, Sean continued, “Come with me, and nothing will happen to him.”
I let go and compromised. “Fine. I’ll go back with you.”
It was the butler who helped me after I came to the vampire world. I couldn’t risk his life.
But… I looked at Alden, who didn’t stop me. He just nodded at me.
Then he said to Sean, his voice deep, “You have half a day. If I don’t see her after that, I’ll go look for her.”
Neither Sean nor I said anything on our way back.
Standing in front of the familiar castle doors, he suddenly broke the silence.
“I’ve never seen you smile so happily.” He saw me when I was chatting and laughing with Alden on the platform.
On the contrary, I rarely smiled when I was with him.
“You’re happy, too, when you’re with Ms. Vasquez, right?”
I pushed open the door without waiting for him to respond.
Inside, Chelsea was sitting on the couch. Upon the room being illuminated by light, she screamed and shrank into a corner, unlike before, she could never bask in the sun again. Sean quickly closed the doors and walked forward to check on her.
I wanted to go to the butler, but no longer after I took a few steps, Chelsea, who had smelt my scent, suddenly rushed forward and pinned me to the floor, baring her fangs to bite me. I used my elbows to forcefully prop her upper body away to stop her from getting close while
questioning Sean, gritting my teeth, “This is why you want me back?”
He strode forward and pulled her away. “Chelsea isn’t stable now. She didn’t mean to…”
Since he didn’t want to hurt her, he didn’t use much force.
As a result, Chelsea easily broke free. In the blink of an eye, she charged at me, grabbed my hand, and bit my forearm.
I immediately winced in pain as both her fangs and sharp fingernails dug into my flesh. I couldn’t pull free or utter a word at all due to the immense. pain.
