"Why would you offer it?" Kevin asked but even as he did, he couldn’t take his eyes off the dagger cut. Never had the redness of blood looked so inviting.
The sweet scent he had been perceiving had been under the skin but here it was now in the open and almost irresistible. His mouth watered so much he had to continuously swallow. His hands were gripping the armrests so tight, his knuckles were turning white.
"I’m not your enemy," Arlette said with a smile.
She could see how ’Caius’ struggled and she knew her plan was working. Vampires were almost slaves to their desires and even if this boy had spent years as one, she didn’t think he had gotten used to it enough to resist.
As she watched ’Caius’ swallow over and over, Arlette’s lips pulled into a smirk,
"I doubt you’ve ever received such a generous offer. Come on, Caius, have a taste."
As she watched her blood begin to pool and get close to dripping, Arlette believed there was no way Caius could resist. She knew enough about Vampires to know those as ’young’ as Caius could barely resist the thirst.
Blood-sucking is an intimate art usually only pleasurable for the Vampire because it drains its victims who feel hurt and terror all through. But if someone like Arlette could take advantage of her magical superiority, she could lay a trap for a much weaker Vampire like Caius.
She could ’nurse’ him with her blood. Strengthening him and developing an almost perverse bond so, as he got stronger and more callous, greedy, and evil like a true Vampire, she’d be the one exception.
The way Arlette saw it, there was no downside to having Caius on her side. On his own, he was so talented he was only rivaled by one person in his Academic set.
If properly nurtured, Caius was sure to become a person of importance and Arlette could not see how that would be bad for her if she began laying the groundwork to control the success he’d become.
This had been her plan all along and the fact that he somehow already knew of ’Ophiuchus’ only convinced her more. What more did he know? She’d like to find out.
Beyond Caius’ talent and obscure knowledge, there was also his father and the prestigious name ’Von Helsing’. In the Empire, there were doors and opportunities that name could kick open that even ’Ophiuchus’ couldn’t.
Arlette extended her arm above Kevin’s head and as the blood dripped off it, he Instinctively opened his mouth to catch the drop and had his first taste of human blood ever.
It was nothing like he had ever tasted.
[To Kill A Demon Lord...] had described it as euphoric and it was that and more. No food or drink could ever taste like this.
’No food or drink could ever taste this good!’ Kevin thought and knew instantly that he had to have more.
Arlette smirked at the sight,
’It never stops at a taste.’ She thought confidently.
A drop could never be enough.
Kevin stood up from his chair, grabbed Arlette’s arm, and extended his tongue to lick off the blood that was dripping down the side of it. He was tracing his way to the small slice wound when he heard a voice so close to his ear,
~"Take your time."~
He paused.
The voice was definitely female but it wasn’t Arlette’s voice. She also didn’t react like she heard it.
Furrowing his brows, Kevin continued but moved much more slowly this time.
"Yes," Arlette said still with a smirk, "Yes, that’s it."
Kevin ignored her. The strange voice from before was back,
~"Good, good."~ it crooned,
~"Now, you’re going to want to excite her more. It’ll taste better when you do. Trust me."~
Confused at the advice but feeling the urge to obey, Kevin took his left hand out of his pocket and wrapped his left arm around Arlette’s waist, pulling her closer.
"Oh?" Arlette let out when his arm went around her and her eyes went wide in surprise.
Kevin didn’t notice. He continued to obey the strange voice and stopped sucking blood out of Arlette’s arm. He trailed his lips along her arm and his left hand slipped from her waist toward the high rise of her ass. Feeling the silky material of her gown all the way.
"What—?" Arlette started to say and then chuckled, "Of course. I should have expected no less. I give an inch and you’ll take a mile."
Even with all she said, Arlette didn’t stop Caius even though she could. She thought, what could be more effective in fostering dependency in a ’child’ like Caius than to play into his youthfully high libido?
Kevin barely heard her. His desire for the blood running through her body was so strong that ’exciting’ her as the voice had asked him to was taking all his concentration.
His hand took a firmer grip on her ass and he led her backward about a foot until the back of her thighs hit the edge of her desk. His left hand returned to her waist just in time for Arlette to take a seat on her desk surface.
Arlette chuckled. A sound that was a mix of surprise at his audacity and her amusement,
"How far will you take it?" She asked placing a hand between them and lightly against his chest. Ready to push him away from her the instant he went too far.
Caius’ lips continued their journey up Arlette’s arm and when he got to her shoulder, he felt her shudder against his body.
~"You felt that, right?"~ The strange voice asked Kevin, ~"You know what it means?"~
’Of course, I know what it means,’ Kevin sniped at the voice in his thoughts, ’Think I’ve never been with a woman before?’
The voice chuckled like it had heard his thoughts and then it said in a low breathy tone,
"Well, now that you’ve gotten her excited, go for her neck. Her blood will flow stronger from there."
Kevin left Arlette’s shoulders, his nose sniffing and guiding him by some natural predatory instinct. He was at the Professor’s neck in a second and he felt the blood there pump with greater intensity. His normally violet eyes turned red and he grew fangs that sunk into Arlette’s neck, puncturing her skin and causing her blood to spurt into his mouth.
"Ah—" Arlette let out in shock and then her body shivered. Both her hands were now gripping the edge of her desk and she slowly closed her eyes and let the feeding continue while Kevin’s eyes were wide open and glinting with delight.
The voice was right. It did taste better. Exciting Arlette had charged her blood with something more... something powerful and as he drank it, Kevin felt something inside him react. Something inside him was seizing the charge in Arlette’s body and improving the Vampiric blood coursing through him.
Kevin knew what this was; It was Vampiric Evolution.
In [To Kill A Demon Lord...], this was how Vampires could evolve their Vampiric blood which in turn made them stronger both physically and magically.
And then something changed.
There was a shift in the very air of the room and the blood stopped flowing from Arlette’s neck. When he squeezed her hips, the skin contracted but when he released her, it just stayed like that. Like she was frozen.
"What the—" Kevin said as he pulled away from her and looked all over the room. It was so unnatural how still everything was. Like everything in the room and maybe even beyond was just as frozen as Arlette was.
"Honestly, you performed so much better than I could have expected.
Dare I say, you’re a natural." the strange voice from before said only this time it wasn’t coming from right by Kevin’s ear but a few feet to his side.
He turned slowly and a woman’s face was suddenly an inch from his own causing him to yelp in surprise and leap back a step,
"Ah!" He let out and the woman laughed.
"Relax Kevin," she said in-between laughs.
Kevin’s eyes widened. She called him ’Kevin’. So far, no one in the world of this strange dream had called him by his actual name.
"Who are you?" He asked because he was damn sure he didn’t recognize her.
The woman’s green eyes twinkled and her lips were turned up at the corner in an amused smile,
"My name is Samantha Ellis. You may know me as Sam_Ellis."