Chapter 73: The Reunion
In a dark room, similar to the VIP room Nikolai used, there was a slightly sour and foul stench in the air, but the bubbling chemicals and desk filled with vials of blood and various dark liquids, sticky and thick with awful odours, revealed the cause.
"Well, this little idiot accepted? Hahaha! Brilliant, what a fool! The fact he accepted will spell his doom." Alistair sat in the darkness, a ring of fire appearing as he took a drag of his pipe filled with special herbs that soothed stress and slowed thoughts.
'I cannot believe my illness flared up because of that filthy mutt—how dare he kiss my future wife!'
Unlike Maximilian Faust, who sought to court Selene through a frontal approach using his squire and those he trained personally, the rest of his family were not so upstanding.
The Faust family came to power only five hundred years ago when they began their research into the realm of alchemy, using their power on the dead to create flesh golems at first. These golems helped the vampires to survive the humans who discovered their existence and tried to burn them at the stake.
This clash caused the world to change forever.
Monsters who ruled many of the world's continents began to take roles in the shadows. They hid from the humans but controlled them like puppets. The place where the current S-Kingdom formed used to be known as the land of vampires, the place of their birth and was a large reason so much Western culture remained.
The Faust came from across the sea, a strange clan with dark and disgusting habits, yet those same people who regarded them as disgusting relied on them during this time, using the flesh golems as effigies to avoid death.
There were two branches of the Faust clan, with one lingering in the dark arts of necromancy and the other a lineage focused upon honour and using blood arts to create weapons like a knight to fight.
Maximilian was of the knight branch, the main bloodline, and Alistair was from the necromancer branch, those who usually hid in the shadows.
'Hahahaha, my stupid brother is still in confinement for his actions of losing a squire! But I must be careful... those stupid elders seem to be on his side after that duel where I trusted a fool to fight on my behalf!'
"After all... I can only trust you, my beloved creations."
In the darkness, something moved... a wet squelch as her neck tilted to the side unnaturally before the candles flickered and the face of someone familiar to Nikolai appeared for a moment. The woman who made him experience heartbreak. It was Mari...
"Well, it seems you can't speak anymore... a shame, the medicine I gave you was rather strong. Forgive me. Let's wait and see how he manages to survive tomorrow~ Ahahaha. It seems that bribing that official to hide the match type was correct!"
The same contract that Nikolai signed suddenly appeared on the screen, like when he called Nikita, but there was an additional thing added.
[Match Type: Gauntlet (3 Battles)]
When the image appeared, for a moment it seemed like a small tear of black fluid leaked from the corner of Mari's eyes, soon evaporating into the air.
***
Meanwhile, back in Nikolai's VIP room...
'Why can I not calm down...?!'
Nikolai didn't understand why, did he eat something bad or was there something wrong with him, until Eliza's words poured cold water on his head and he felt a stabbing pain in his head.
[It's because of your battle, the bloodline of your father... after fighting strong opponents, it triggers a certain response]
'What kind of....'
"Ugh..."
He placed his hand on the wall as a delicious scent filled his nose, a sweet yet delicate fragrance like an alluring flower, that of a sensual woman. His stomach grumbled, and his mouth began to fill with saliva—the desire to suck the life out of something increased.
"I want it...." His voice was deep, filled with a ferocious tone and a slight low growl as he placed his hand on the door of Selene, pushing open the door, a strange charm coming from her skin, her scent, her flesh and that beating of her heart like a snake charmer, charming him.
His body moved by itself, guided by instinct and a desire to feed, but when the door opened, Selene was not sitting there. Instead, she was wearing a nightdress and holding a bottle of blood wine, used to appeal to a noble vampire's tastes. She noticed him enter and jumped. Her eyes narrowed into an aggressive look as she scolded him.
"A-Ah, what the hell do you think you're doing?! What are you even doing here? Get out!"
Her voice was sharp, and her eyes were fierce, causing Nikolai to awaken slightly.
'W-Wait, what was I doing...'
Ba-Dump
Before he could recover, his two hearts began to race, the mixture of her scent and visual appeal, her soft white thighs pressed together, her alluring round breasts, soft and hanging slightly because of her lack of bra, and the sight of her neck, the pulsating veins amplified in his hungering sight.
'It looks so... tasty.'
Bang!
She used her power to throw a cushion at him, the force so powerful it almost smashed the door as his body, like a monster, twisted and lunged forward, avoiding her attack, and then her finger, pointing at him, a fiery anger burning in her eyes.
"I said get o-"
He didn't let her finish, her body falling beneath him, and the sound of her heartbeat filling his ears, the gentle rhythm like a song, his fangs exposed, sharp and long, ready to tear her throat apart.
Bang!
Selene's left leg collided with his abdomen, sending him flying against the wall with great impact, his lips leaking a small amount of blood before Selene rushed forward and grabbed his chest, her angry expression inches away from him as she slammed his against the wall, her voice shaking with aggression and a slight tremble.
"N-Never... Never do that again!"
Nikolai didn't respond, his thoughts turning blurry, the scent of her blood so sweet he was sure it would taste more delicious than any blood bag ever could—his eyes darkened, and even his sclera began to fill with the colour of black-like ink.
"S-Selene..."
Like a zombie, his voice leaked before his power seemed to double—grabbing her arm, he flung her across the room, her back slamming into the wall, with her body in mid-air.
'What's happening?! How can he overpower me when his essence was so pathetic only a few days ago?!' Selene panicked, her body inlaid into the wall as she tried to pry herself from the wall, cracked stone and cement forming spiderwebs around her body, while pain she never felt before throbbed from the impact.
'I must use my full power! Even if I break the building, this monster must be stopped! I know this feeling. It's an instinct that can't be suppressed!'
However, before she could let loose, Nikolai grabbed her left leg with one hand while the other stretched out and grabbed her throat, the black claws easily wrapping around her neck and tightening.
"Ghgk?!"
Selene's eyes widened when she realised his strength was so abnormal that his claws could crush her throat and kill her instantly, her mind spinning from the overwhelming pressure, a pressure she hadn't felt from someone in a long time.
"S.....st..op"
Crack!
Selene felt something crack and released a muted scream, the grip on her neck tightening as her arms were free, her left hand grabbing his face, her eyes burning with a bright red light.
'You monster.... I'll kill you...'
However, the monster seemed unhindered by her claws, tearing his cheeks and forehead. Instead, his grip on her left leg tightened, cracking the bone in her ankle as if it were made of ceramic, and the smell of her blood, his nostrils flared as his tongue licked his lips.
"A delicacy."
Selene's pupils shrank, and her expression became twisted. 'T-this... no, I cannot... lose!'
In the air, her fingers glowed with a dark purple colour, a magical formation appearing in her palm as she tried to use her clan's blood art.
However, before she could, the hem of her dress lifted, revealing her thighs and pelvis, causing Selene's pupils to shrink before the magic on her hand flickered and fizzled out.
'No!'
Nikolai's face came close to her thigh, the common femoral artery pulsing with her blood, like a melody in his ears, as his fangs grew longer and with an eerie upward glance at the captured vampire princess.
Her black silk underwear was on display before he bit into her upper thigh—the moment his fangs pierced the inside of her leg, Selene's face became twisted with a mixture of emotions and feelings, and her strength seemed to vanish.
She had become the prey, no longer the proud princess and huntress.
"W-why are you... no... ahhhhh."
Her moan leaked out, her entire body going limp as if she was drunk. Her eyes became blurry and hazy, and the hand trying to grab his face had fallen. Instead, she wrapped her fingers around his silky black hair as he drank her life-giving blood, his eyes dark and menacing, with a hunger for more of her blood only growing.
'This is the feeling of being devoured by a beast. I'm being eaten alive!'
Her legs began to tremble, and her body arched backwards as he gripped her broken ankle tighter, yet the bit became like an anaesthetic numbing the pain.
Selene's body felt on fire; she understood his state and didn't blame him.
The stories about blood lust were common in those born of two different races, even if they weren't hybrids... Most of the erotic novels she read were of this nature—and thus, her mind became dull and hazy, the pain fading.
Selene was fearful because the only blood she could drink now was his... When she tried to drink the prepared blood, it would cause her to vomit and suffer cramps.
A starving vampire being fed on was dangerous.
Now, only the feeling of his fangs in her flesh and the pleasure and blissful feeling of her blood flowing from her body, filling his body with life and vigour.
"Y-you idiot. Don't take too much. You'll make me like you... a weak and pathetic monster like you."
Her words were like an insult and plea, but he didn't seem to care. Instead, he focused on the blood; the reason for the bloodlust seemed strange because even the pendant's voice no longer reached him, rather as if, by instinct, it was lying on the floor beside the door.
The only positive was he released her neck, a dark blue marking from his claws forming like a collar and chain around her neck, her breathing uneven as her vision grew blurry.
"I... can't... I cannot fall to... such a pathetic thing; I will not become... agh....."
With a look of anger, she slapped his cheek, trying to release him from his bloodlust, but his strength was too bizarre, and it felt like he was sapping hers away.
She began to sink into a darkness that she only experienced as a young girl... terror, hunger, fear and desire swelling as her eyes became dull, a dull red flowing through her eyes as the crimson ink painted away the whites of her eyes.
This was now the clash of two hunters, a reunion of two enemy races who both desired the same thing.