My Heart Is Drawn to Jade - Chapter 4

I stopped short, staring at his face, then couldn’t help taking another few steps toward him.

He really was so beautiful.

I waved hello, stumbling over my words.

“Hi, w-wife?”

Vansern raised an interested eyebrow. “Wife? What does that mean?”

“It means your partner,” I explained earnestly.

“Bloodkin don’t take partners lightly.”

So he only thought of me as a walking blood bag and someone to sleep with?

I felt a little hurt. Disappointed, too.

Oh well. A blood bag, then. A fuck buddy.

Fair enough. What right did I have to a partner, anyway?

The moment Vansern saw the light leave my eyes, he amended, “But exceptions can be made.”

I brightened at once.

He spread his arms with a smile. “Come here, little human.”

I threw myself into his embrace, wrapped my arms around his waist, and greedily breathed in his snowbell scent.

He was tall. I was already 186 centimeters, yet the top of my head barely seemed to reach his nose.

He ruffled my hair.

“Little human, why aren’t you afraid of me? I’m a Bloodkin. What you humans call a vampire.”

I didn’t understand.

So what? Vampires drank a little blood. What was so terrifying about that?

Apparently keen to see me panic, Vansern continued, “I could drain every drop of blood from your body and leave you a dried-out corpse!”

I looked up at him sincerely. “Wife, didn’t you have enough last night?”

I pulled down my collar, rose onto my toes, and offered my neck to his lips.

“If you didn’t, you can have some more.”

The System screamed inside my head.

“NO, HOST! You heal quickly, but he took an enormous amount of blood last night! And you just stabbed yourself with silver! You’ve already done serious damage to your body!”

“My scans show you’re extremely weak! If he keeps feeding, you really will die!”

I ignored it and gazed straight at Vansern.

My blood clearly held an immense attraction for him. As he looked down at my neck, his smile slowly faded. His breathing grew heavier, red seeped into the depths of his violet-and-gold eyes, and two small fangs emerged beneath his upper lip. Hunger and longing were written all over his face.

Smiling, I leaned a little closer until my neck almost touched his lips. I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain of fangs piercing flesh and the cold dizziness of blood loss.

Instead, something warm and soft brushed the side of my neck—a kiss, I thought. Then my collar was pulled up, and he lifted me into his arms.

“Strange,” Vansern said. “Aren’t human bodies supposed to be fragile? Even a scratch takes days to heal. The bite I gave you wasn’t particularly deep, but it wasn’t shallow, either. Yet it stopped bleeding and scabbed over so quickly.”

He touched the side of my neck. “Now there isn’t even a scar.”

I opened my eyes. “My body’s unusual. I heal much faster than ordinary humans.”

Then I couldn’t help asking, “Aren’t you going to drink my blood?”

He carried me down the corridor, a few strands of silver-white hair drifting against my cheek. His eyes had returned to their usual violet and gold, and his fangs were gone.

“Little human,” he said lazily, “any more, and you’ll die.”

I said nothing. Peering out from his arms, I hooked a strand of his hair around my finger.

Silvery white, the color of moonlight. Silky and smooth, so perfect I’d mourn the loss of a single strand.

Then I touched my own black hair, uncombed since I’d climbed out of bed and as messy as dry straw.

I felt shabby by comparison and wilted.

Vansern noticed almost at once and held me closer.

“What’s wrong, little human? Are you hungry?”

I touched my stomach. Actually, I was a bit hungry. I nodded.

He drew a line through empty air with his forefinger. A white ring of light, as tall as a person, appeared before us. He carried me through it, and after a flash of white, we were in a vast hall.

Holy shit. Was that magic?

A long dining table stood in the center, set with cutlery and candles. An exquisite crystal chandelier hung overhead.

Vansern pulled out a chair, set me in it, and sat beside me.

“Have I really become a vampire?” I asked.

He showed not the slightest guilt about turning a human into one.

“Yes. A Bloodkin’s bite turns you into the lowest kind of incomplete vampire.”

“Without my First Embrace, sunlight will burn your skin and cause it to ulcerate. You’ll develop a frenzied craving for blood, especially human blood. You’ll grow increasingly volatile and cruel until you lose your reason. Silver and holy objects will become deadly weaknesses. Eventually, the blood hunters and pureblood Bloodkin will hunt you down…”

Almost word for word what the System had told me.

Still, I couldn’t quite understand why I’d turned into a vampire.

Back in my own modern world, I’d been Subject 004 in a large organization that experimented on humans.

After more than a decade of brutal experiments—electric shocks, live dissection, genetic modification, viral infection, sensory deprivation, attempts to expand the brain’s capabilities—my body didn’t just heal quickly. I was immune to poisons, and to most drugs and viruses.

But on reflection, my world hadn’t had vampires. It would have been perfectly reasonable for my body to withstand toxins from another world’s Bloodkin. Equally reasonable if it couldn’t.

Pure luck, really.

“Little hu—ah, no. Little vampire, now.”

He tipped up my chin and rubbed it with intimate familiarity, mischief glinting in his violet-and-gold eyes.

“My pretty, adorable little vampire. Are you frightened? Do you want my First Embrace?”

“Give it to me if you want,” I said seriously. “If you don’t, don’t.”

He looked baffled.

As long as he’d let me stay with him, I could make a small effort at being alive. Whether I was a vampire hardly mattered.

Vansern let go of my chin, his mouth twitching.

“I’ve never met a human like you. What’s your name?”

“Huo Xiangjin. Xiang means ‘toward,’ and jin is a kind of fine jade.”

Amusement softened his eyes. “Huo Xiangjin? A lovely name from the East.”

Something like a wisp of blue flame appeared at his fingertip and sank into my wrist, as though he were examining me. I felt only a chill.

After a long moment, he frowned.

“Wait. You’re in very poor condition, and your color is terrible. You can’t withstand my First Embrace yet. That’s strange… You weren’t this unwell when I stopped feeding last night.”

The System gave a humorless laugh.

“Of course he wasn’t. That silver cross came within a few millimeters of his heart.”

Guiltily, I looked away.

Vansern’s frown deepened. He reached out and pulled open my black pajama collar, exposing the small, red-rimmed, charred hole in my chest.

Silver had slowed my healing considerably. Nearly an hour had passed, and all I’d managed to do was stop bleeding.

His pupils contracted. Fury and murderous intent blazed in his violet-and-gold eyes.

“You were stabbed with silver? Who did this? Did a blood hunter break in? Tell me who it was! I’ll fucking kill them!”

I shrank back a little.

“I did it myself.”

He stared at me.

“You bit me and turned me into a vampire,” I explained quietly, “so I wanted to see if driving that silver cross into my heart would kill me.”

Vansern looked appalled.

“Wait! Even if you were still human, stabbing yourself in the heart with something sharp would kill you! And now that you’re a vampire, dying by silver would annihilate your soul as well! No reincarnation, ever!”

“I know.”

If the System hadn’t stopped me, my Earth Online account would already have been permanently deleted.

I was even a little disappointed.

“There was a minor complication. I didn’t manage to die.”

Neither Vansern nor the System had anything to say.

After a few silent seconds, Vansern spoke softly, choosing his words.

“Little human… you don’t seem especially keen to live.”

How was I supposed to answer that?

I wasn’t.

When I didn’t reply, he looked at me for a long time, then sighed. Reaching into empty air, he drew out a round jar of ointment.

He unscrewed the lid. Inside was a creamy white salve with a clean, pleasant scent. He scooped out a little and spread it over my wound.

I blinked.

The fierce burning faded almost immediately. The blackened flesh and redness disappeared, and the wound began closing at astonishing speed. Soon, only a small scar remained.

I pressed it with a finger.

It barely hurt. Even the damage inside had healed!

Vansern looked down at the scar. “Does it still hurt?”

“No,” I said, pleased.

He rested his fingers on my wrist to examine me again.

“But the damage the silver did to your body was real. You’ll need time to recover. Once you’re well, I’ll give you the First Embrace. For now, eat something.”

He snapped his fingers.

The candles flared to life, followed by the chandelier overhead. A middle-aged man in a tailcoat emerged from the darkness, pushing a serving trolley.

I craned my neck. There was an entire spread of… human food.

Steak, thick soup, baked bread, desserts, a fruit platter, even a bottle of red wine.

The man bowed respectfully to Vansern and addressed him as “Master.” He arranged the food before me, then disappeared without a sound.

“Do Bloodkin only drink blood?” I asked curiously.

Vansern ruffled my hair and explained patiently.

“No. That’s a misconception. Blood is essential, but we can draw energy from human food, too.”

“And how did you pull things out of thin air?”

“Bloodkin know all sorts of magic. That was spatial storage magic. What I used to bring you here was portal magic.”

…

He poured red wine into a stemmed glass. I picked up a piece of bread and nibbled at it while sneaking glances at him.

Lounging in his chair, he curled his long fingers around the glass and raised it to his lips. The wine tilted; he caught a mouthful of dark red, his throat moving gently. As he tipped his head back, his silver-white hair slipped aside, revealing the lovely line from his jaw to his collarbone.

His violet-and-gold eyes remained perfectly clear, without a trace of drunkenness.

He lowered the glass, wine still clinging to his upper lip, and glanced sideways at me with a lazy, seductive smile.

In the shifting candlelight, his beauty was almost painful.

I stared, swallowing.

So beautiful.

I wanted to kiss him.

I leaned closer. When he didn’t stop me, I pressed my lips to his.

The wine still lingered on them. I tasted its mellow sweetness mingled with his own fresh snowbell scent, and nearly lost myself in it.

Clumsily, I moved my lips against his, tentatively slipping my tongue inside and brushing the tips of his teeth.

His violet-and-gold eyes were so close, half-lidded with interest and a hint of indulgence.

At last, he moved.

One hand cupped the back of my head, deepening what had been the lightest of kisses. His mouth was cool with wine, possessive as only a Bloodkin could be, sweeping over my teeth and palate as though laying claim to them.

By the time he let me go, my breathing was unsteady. His silver-white hair had tickled my cheeks, and without realizing it, I’d clenched a fistful of his shirt.

Vansern cut the steak into small pieces, drizzled it with black pepper sauce, and pushed the plate toward me.

“Eat more. That little bit of bread wouldn’t fill a gap between your teeth.”

Under his attentive feeding, I finished the steak, drank a small bowl of soup, and ate several pieces of fruit.

Then he produced five test tubes from thin air. Clear, blood-red liquid gleamed inside them like vivid rubies. A faint, sweet metallic scent spread through the air.

Blood.

Fresh blood.

My gaze followed the tubes instinctively, almost beyond my control. A fine itch stirred deep in my throat. The warm fullness in my stomach vanished, replaced by a strange emptiness and hunger rising from within.

I wanted to drink.

I was so hungry.

I needed blood.

Wait.

The involuntary response made me frown. Revulsion rose in me. I forced down the physical urge and looked at the other clean set of cutlery on the table, wanting to stab myself—to fight this loss of control with the familiar certainty of pain.

The next instant, every knife and fork on the table disappeared.

I stared at Vansern, confused.

He stroked the shell of my ear.

“Xiangjin, you’re a vampire now. Don’t suppress your instincts. You’re very weak, and blood will help you…”

Pressing my lips together, I accepted a tube. Its red contents reflected in my eyes.

My mind’s rejection collided again with the vampire instincts written into my body.

Red blood.

Blood.

Someone seemed to be slumped across a desk, a wrist hanging down, blood running from terrible wounds along the fingers. Motionless.

Or perhaps it was a deformed test subject on the floor, skin peeling off in chunks like rotting sponge, writhing and screaming like a fish hauled onto land. The same bright red everywhere.

“Huo Xiangjin! Why weren’t you the one who died?”

“Both your parents died because of you! Your mother died giving birth to you. Your father died for you, and they didn’t even leave his body intact! Are you satisfied now?”

“Why don’t you just die, Huo Xiangjin? You should never have been born! What right do you have to keep living?”

…

My face drained of color. My stomach churned and cramped.

Violent self-loathing overwhelmed the vampire’s instincts. The place where I’d stabbed myself with the silver cross began to ache unbearably.

My fingers shook. The tube slipped from my hand and shattered on the floor, spilling blood everywhere.

Vansern frowned and immediately gathered me into his arms. He cut his own finger and pushed it straight into my mouth.

What?

My tongue reflexively brushed the blood.

Beneath its sweet, iron tang was his unmistakable snowbell scent, warm and rich.

The moment it slipped down my throat, the overwhelming darkness in my mind receded. The burning in my chest eased, and the vampire’s restless hunger gradually settled.

I sucked greedily, as though tasting nectar.

His blood…

It tasted so good.

After only a few mouthfuls, I felt as though I were beside a great stove in winter. Every trace of cold disappeared. Warmth spread through me, almost hot, so comfortable…

Seeing this, Vansern withdrew his finger and wiped the blood from the corners of my mouth with a handkerchief.

I looked at him, bewildered and aggrieved.

“Wife, I haven’t had enough.”

“You’re very weak right now,” he explained gently. “You can’t drink too much of my blood. Your body couldn’t withstand it. You’d burst apart and die.”

Resigned, I picked up a small piece of cantaloupe and chewed to soothe the itch in my teeth. My cheeks bulged as I ate.

After a little hesitation, I tried his surname.

“Wife, can I call you Sihe?”

Something flickered in his violet-and-gold eyes. He didn’t look entirely pleased.

“Why not my first name?”

In the fine Chinese tradition of keeping things as simple as possible, I said, “Sihe is only two syllables. Easier.”

Vansern said nothing.