My Heart Is Drawn to Jade - Chapter 2

When I woke the next morning, I was alone in bed.

Nothing hurt. There wasn’t even any sticky residue, and someone had dressed me in soft, expensive black silk pajamas.

Had I dreamed the whole thing?

“It wasn’t a dream,” the System said hollowly inside my head. “Last night, a Bloodkin bit you AND slept with you!”

Oh. So it had actually happened?

Remembering his face, I licked my lips, still wishing for more.

“Really? I actually went to bed with someone that beautiful?”

He really had been impossibly gorgeous…

While I was busy swooning, the System had a breakdown.

“The important part is that he didn’t give you the First Embrace! You’ve become a vampire!”

Fine. A vampire, then.

I didn’t much care. I got out of bed—and my vision went black, my head spun, and my legs nearly folded beneath me.

Exactly how much blood had that beauty taken last night?

If I’d been an ordinary person, I was fairly sure he would have drained me dry.

After a moment to recover, I looked around.

Rose vines were carved into solid wooden wall panels. Heavy purple velvet curtains partly covered an arched iron window. Black gauze hung from the four-poster bed, a wine-red carpet covered the floor, and orange candle flames flickered against the walls.

Gothic, gloomy, and lavish.

A silver cross necklace lay on the floor. Its lower end was slender and sharp, catching a glint of light in the dim room.

I shuffled over and picked it up.

I seemed to remember ripping it off my neck and throwing it aside because it got in the way while I was in bed with the beautiful man.

I tried to recall the background the System had given me.

This was some kind of fantasy world overrun with Bloodkin and vampires, wasn’t it? Silver was a vampire’s weakness.

The person whose place I’d taken had been an ordinary human. Wearing a little silver for protection made sense.

The System was still chattering away.

“Host, your mission in this world is to stay alive. You have to find the Bloodkin who bit you and receive his First Embrace! Otherwise, you’ll grow to fear and loathe sunlight. You’ll become vicious and bloodthirsty, craving blood every waking moment—a lesser vampire everyone wants dead!”

Then it let out an earsplitting shriek.

“WAIT. HOST. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

I had the pure-silver cross pressed eagerly to my chest and was about to drive it into my heart.

“You said I’m a vampire now. I want to see whether stabbing my heart will kill me.”

The System went from speechless to hysterical.

The tip had barely pierced the skin when a sharp, burning pain exploded from the tiny wound. The flesh around it immediately reddened and blackened, the pain lashing through my nerves like a thousand whips.

That did hurt a bit.

I didn’t mind. Excitement lit my eyes, and a sick, delighted smile curled my lips.

Back in my own world, I’d slit my wrists and stabbed my heart so many times without managing to die.

Maybe this time it would finally work!

I pushed deeper. Before the point reached my heart, my hand stopped moving.

What?

“Host, what is WRONG with you?” the System wailed.

It had turned into a blob of slime and stuck itself to my fingers and the silver cross. Then it hauled backward, wrested the cross from my grip, and flung it out the window.

Seriously? Why?

The System flew in circles around me, practically dying of frustration.

“Host, what are you trying to do? You’re a vampire now! If silver kills you, you’ll be annihilated, body and soul! No afterlife! No reincarnation!”

My eyes lit up.

“Wait. I can permanently delete my Earth Online account? No chance of having to log in again?”

I immediately looked around.

Where was the rest of the silver? There had to be more silver somewhere.

I wanted my account deleted. Permanently.

If Earth Online had a five-star rating system, I’d give it one star, leave a scathing review warning everyone away, and quit for good. Absolutely no fresh playthroughs.

The System had no words.

What kind of lunatic had it bound itself to?

Realizing I genuinely had no desire to survive—I’d barely bothered to resist or even struggle while being fed on and thoroughly ravished last night—it whirled around in desperate circles.

“Host, being alive is wonderful! Why do you want to die?”

“Too many red beans,” I said absently.

Another silence.

Then something seemed to occur to it.

“But… if you die, you’ll never see that beautiful Bloodkin from last night again. You like him, don’t you?”

I paused.

A little reason returned as I remembered him.

I’d been in this world for less than five minutes when the beautiful man knocked me unconscious and carried me off. When I woke again, I was in this room, sunk into thick, soft bedding.

He’d been sitting beside the bed, stroking my face and neck with long, slender fingers. One smile from him, and I’d forgotten what day it was.

Whatever he did to me, I’d willingly gone along with it.

Silvery-white hair, violet-and-gold eyes, an immaculate face with a wickedly seductive smile. The lovely little sounds he’d made beside my ear, the beads of sweat sliding down his pale chest…

Even the way he took what he wanted from me had been so sexy.

I swallowed.

Maybe I didn’t need to delete my account quite so soon.

I could admire this god-tier player’s character design a little longer.

The tiny hole in my chest kept burning, the pain intensifying. I knew the healing had begun.