18 ~ Hope - 3 ~

Jeha took Sora's invite with a delightful expression on his face, taking a seat on the boulder which was right next to Sora.

His graceful posture really gave Sora a migraine since he was well aware of how dark and mischievous the other was, but for the moment, he was too tired to argue. "You came."

It was a statement that was both praising Jeha's sincerity and also reeking with gloominess. Because Mr. President was nervous about this transaction, he did not know how to utilize the blood now that he had Sister Yin teaching him the basics, for the most part, this entire deal would be useless.

"Why don't you look happy," Jeha chortled, a bit pleased to see the other's skittish behavior. It was similar to that of a small animal's who was being cornered and had all its defenses up.

"Seems like I won't need the blood anymore."

Jeha understood, he had been watching the practice session and had concluded a long time back that Sora would back out of the deal. From his understanding, the other was very impulsive but also very cautious.

"But you already made the deal, backing out now would mean you are fickle."

Sora tensed, he had known it wouldn't be as easy to break the deal now that he had taken it up. Sighing in his heart with slight peevishness, he extended his palm to ask for the blood, he decided to go for it, maybe when in mortal danger, he could still use the hidden blood to protect himself?

"You don't need to be this stumped, the use of my blood varies, so you can use it for many purposes."

"Like?"

"Like you can easily make the blood serve you as a protective shield when heavily injured, or as a hidden safety trigger which would act when you are targeted by the dark core beholder."

"That all is possible?" Sora was rather amazed with such wide scope. Because making uses of the blood in such a way would mean it was possible to use it in an even more diverse path, such as blood healing, blood possession, blood marking, etc. Using blood as the safety trigger was the most difficult of infusion abilities, but if it was possible than anything below its level would be surely easier to attain.

"If you want I can teach you, albeit…"

"…yes?" Sora wasn't sure what the price would be to learn something of such value, but if Jeha could teach it to him, then wouldn't it be difficult for others to target him?

Watching the bright and curious eyes, Jeha almost laughed, however knowing the situation wasn't relaxed for such jokes, he avoided being targeted by the stink eye that would surely rest on him if he didn't behave. "You just need to kiss me, and I would teach it to you."

Sora's left eye twitched, he had known something like this would be used to make such heavy deals. He glared at the innocent face of the devil in black and decided then and there to never again get tangled with dark cores again.

"I won't do it."

"Why?"

Sora barely suppressed rolling his eyes, "I am not doing it, so I am not, you better decided something else."

"Then…" Jeha thought about it, "Just mark me with a hickey."

Sora blanched, "Can you not be this way, decided something else!"

Jeha sighed, "No can do, either that or you kiss me, chose any option, or else I will just give you the tube of blood and you can do anything you want with it."

Now that put Sora in a difficult position. He knew he couldn't scream his displeasure because neither the blood belonged to him nor Jeha's disposition. He couldn't behave like a spoiled child and argue about something like this.

However, he was rather reluctant to go ahead and share a kiss with the demon, or even give him a… ahem… hickey.

"Why must you be this… childish!" He couldn't find a word to describe this person so he ended up blurting out what was on his mind at the time. But childishness really suited Jeha, Sora thought.

The night darkened more as time seemed to have overlapped with their situation, making him tense under the heavy gaze of those violet eyes. He could clearly make out the glowing irises that stared at him, it was making his heart give a stutter.

The lighting was dim and if one didn't pay any attention to their surrounding, it would be very difficult to tell where they were stepping and if there were insects on the ground. Only a faint silhouette could be seen now, and a bit of color in passing.

Sora absently listed out the number of light lamps in this section that needed repairing. He did not see but Jeha took this opportunity to slip closer to Sora who was just standing there in deep thought.

"What do you choose?"

There was a silence that followed them, unlike the tranquil atmosphere, the static between them seemed to be alive and testy.

They both stared at each other with a sense of unwillingness and stubbornness, but who was Jeha, he had known what choice Sora would take, and his desire to learn was very obvious.

"Give you a hickey."

Jeha smiled, "Then come, mark me as yours."

Sora hadn't wanted to give in so quickly, but looking at the situation and his urgent need, it was inevitable to just ignore the sweet whispering of his other half that was hungry for recognition and power.

And if one thought about it, Jeha wasn't demanding to have sex, rather he was just wanting to be marked or kissed, both of which weren't a very big deal if they were talking about learning knowledge.

Sora made his way towards Jeha, his steps slow as he stared at the other, the sweet and dark tang of a scent flickering towards his nose, which he had recognized as Jeha's. It was powerful yet subtle, only there for those who dared get close to him, and for now Sora was absolutely ensnared by it.

Blinking away the haze, he got hold of the other and pulled him down from the boulder to make him stand, obviously keeping a tight grip because the other was too heavy to just pull down without any extra work.

It was said that demons specially, did not weight by bone weight, but rather they could adjust it according to their will. It depended on their level of achievements to determine if they would weight heavy or light. The stronger they were, the more weight they would have. Of course they wouldn't become overweight and flabby, but instead, whatever their body shape was, their actual weight was standardized according to their strength.

Sora absently wondered how much Jeha weighted, because right now when he pulled, it was like moving a rock, while from his previous experience when he had first been kisse-assaulted by the other, it was much easier to struggle against him as if he was just a regular person.

Sora instinctively knew to fear such a man, it was not known how powerful he was if he hid his strength.

A rush of air blew by when Jeha jumped down from his perch and stood opposite Sora with minimal gap between them.

From this perspective, Sora could see that Jeha seemed… taller than him. Like he had been tall before but this new measurement told him there was something wrong with the other. He was really a head and half taller than him… had he been this tall before as well?

There was something not hitting right.

Sorting through his memories, Sora explored his knowledge base, until he got to that section where he stored the facts about Demons.

Yes, that's right, demons also had three major shifts in their ranks. The first body was that of what they normally had, the other was that of their true self, which was of a demon's, like a beast, while the third form came out when they were in battle mode… or when they were very aroused.