Crude But Honest

I informed my brother who was still up, going over what looked to be his work, that I was going to head out.

He asked me if something was wrong or if I needed him to accompany him but after assuring him that everything was alright, he allowed me to leave.

It's not that I needed his permission but it was just customary to let a family member know when you're heading out somewhere at night so if anything happens to you, they can begin their search as soon as possible.

I didn't have a license or even a driver's permit but I had a pocket full of diamonds and rubies so if the police were to pull me over, I just have to pay them off.

It sounds a little scummy but it's for a good cause.

Getting into the car, I was glad to see that the functions to drive it was identical to the ones back on Earth.

After a minute or so, I was back to driving like I'd never stopped.

Following the route to Diana's location on the GPS, I couldn't help but wonder what trouble she was in that she needed to call me.

The obvious answer had to do with her now-vampiric blood, of course.

I couldn't help but sigh.

Even in the novel, she prevented herself from tasting blood until the main character arrived at school.

She was a few months ahead of schedule.

'Now what am I to do?' I asked.

I promised I wouldn't tell anyone about her secret but how was I going to deal with her urges without exposing her secret?

As I stopped at a red light, I looked down at my shoulder and exhaled sharply.

'Is this really the only option?' I asked myself.

There was also the chance that I was incorrect and that this emergency had nothing to do with her vampiric blood.

I crossed my fingers and prayed that this was the case even though realistically, I felt like the chances of it being the case were one in a billion.

"Turn left and in two hundred feet, your destination will be to your right," said the GPS.

As I got out of the car, obviously I was at the "entrance" of the forest rather than the being at the forest itself.

If I could drive my car all the way to where Diana was then I would but the clusters of trees made it impossible.

It would be a twenty-minute run to get to where Diana was if I was to move like a normal human but I told her I'd be there in the next five minutes so I took a deep breath, lowered myself into the sprinting position, and like a blur, I zoomed into the forest.

As I reached the final stretches of my sprinting, the meat on my legs felt like they were about to fall off the bones in one clean swoop.

Stomping on the ground as hard as I could, I brought myself to a complete stop, sending dirt and leaves flying up into the air.

In the middle of this small empty space in the forest was a girl down on her knees. She was looking up at the moon and when she heard the sound behind her, she turned around with fingernails laced with ice.

"Hey," I said, waving at Diana.

She must've tried to hide it as best as she could but I was able to see the traces of tears on her face.

After her face, the next thing I noticed was her hands covered in blood.

Her shirt also had some blood on it.

'She must've wiped some of the blood on her hands on her shirt,' I thought to myself as I slowly walked towards her.

She looked at her phone and with a tired smile, she said, "Twenty minutes on the dot."

And like someone who had been running on fumes, her eyes closed and she began to fall towards the ground.

Activating Liona, I caught her before she hit the ground.

Was it a waste to activate Liona here?

Perhaps but my body had moved on its own and by the time I realized what I did, it was too late.

"One in a billion for sure," I said as I looked at the blood on her body once more.

Carrying her on my back, I stood up and began walking towards my car.

Her phone was in my pocket and it constantly buzzed. After a while, my temptations got the best of me and I powered off the device.

"What am I to do with you, Diana?"

Admiring the sky as I was making my way out of the forest, I began thinking back on the novel and how her vampiric traits were dealt with.

Like a knight in shining armor, the main character offered to become Diana's blood bank.

She refused the offer at first and like the good person she was, she tried to satisfy her bloodthirsty urges by drinking the blood of criminals. In a way, her desire to quench her thirst had turned her into a vigilante.

That lasted for a few weeks but when she finally tasted the main character's blood, it was so delicious that she had no other choice but to accept the offer.

It'd be another four months before he arrives at the academy.

'Unless I want her to become a vigilante like she did in the original... will I have to take his place?' I asked myself.

Because of my interference in the world, I didn't know whether or not her vigilante life would play out the same. She might get caught, arrested, or even killed.

There was a benefit to being a vampire's blood bank but it was very small and in my opinion, was a con more than it was a pro.

The connection between the drinker and the drink would build up over time and the two beings would be able to read each other's emotions to an extent, feel when the other is in danger, and like a radar, roughly know where the other person is.

That's only if the vampire drinks the person's blood a hundred times though.

'Four months. If I can time these drink sessions properly then perhaps we don't reach a hundred,' I thought.

No one else can know about her vampiric blood except for the main character who is so righteous that he wouldn't rat her out to anyone even if he had to take it with him to his grave.

'Hopefully, my blood doesn't taste that good,' I prayed as I placed Diana down in the backseat of my car.

'I'll be her blood bank for now. When the main character arrives, he can take my place.'

I began driving while playing soft relaxing music.

My destination was Diana's house.

It was so late by now that the only people around were those that worked night shifts and the nocturnal humans whose lives began when the white lights turns off and the neon lights replaces them.

It was interesting to see that even in this fictional novel world, the nightlife was still rather similar to the one back home.

A few ladies even hollered at me because of the car that I was driving which I simply ignored.

Once I was near Diana's home, I stopped the car a few blocks away.

I wouldn't want her family to see my car outside and get suspicious because I had something I needed to discuss with Diana first before I allow her to head home.

"Diana," I called her name. "Diana."

I called a few times but she was unresponsive.

Pointing my index finger at her, I used very minimal mana to shoot a weak lightning bolt at her.

As it hit her, she jolted awake and shot up from the seat like a cannonball, hitting her head on the roof of the car.

"Ow," she said as she slouched back down to the seat, rubbing her head.

She looked around and noticed me in the driver's seat.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"A quarter mile away from your house," I replied.

"How... how do you know where I live?" she asked me.

"I'm Bell Agnus," I responded and that was all she needed to hear to understand. She must've assumed that I used my connections or something but in reality, I just knew from the novel.

"I... I can't go home," she said, looking down at her shirt as well as her hands.

"Look below your seat. There are some wet wipes and new clothes. I don't own any female clothes so they're just my spare clothes from the closet. Sorry," I said.

She shook her head and hands. "No no no. Thank you."

"I'll get out of the car so that you may change. Let me know when you're done," I told her.

Nodding her head, she said, "Thank you," once again.

Waiting outside the door, I was looking in the opposite direction so that Diana would be as comfortable as possible changing in the car.

I heard clothes shuffling around and then, "I'm sorry for making you do this in the middle of the night."

"It's fine," I assured her.

"No," she responded, "it isn't. I said that I wasn't going get a taste of human blood and... and it only took me a month to mess up. I'm sorry I couldn't—"

"Diana, it's fine," I reassured her. "I'm not going to blame you for making a mistake. We... we just have to deal with it as best as we can and move on from there."

"But I... but... thank you," she softly responded.

"So have you considered what to do about your thirst?" I asked her.

She was silent for a moment before replying, "Not really but I was wondering if I could maybe find blood from criminals and bad people."

"What if you get caught? What if someone powerful discovers you and not only punishes you but also your family? What happens if they're caught in the crossfire."

"I... I..."

"Sorry if that came off crude. I didn't mean to sound like I was trying to be pessimistic. I was just trying to say that there's a better option."

"Which is?"

I took a moment to respond, pretending as if this was a hard decision to make.

'Well, it is a hard decision. My neck. My precious neck.'

"Me," I answered.

"What?"

"You can drink blood from me."

"No. I can't," she rejected my offer.

Her response was as expected from a kindhearted person.

"Why?"

"You've already helped me more than enough keeping my secrets and now this. I can't bother you any further," she explained herself.

This was similar to the explanation she gave to the main character and no matter how many more times he offered, she rejected him.

That's because he was a nice person. Me — I'm not afraid to be a little more mean.

"So what happens when you can't find a criminal on the street? What happens then? Hmm, I know. Your bloodthirst takes over you and you attack your family members, draining them of their mana one by one until they drop deep and you're left all alone as the murderer who destroyed her family."

Most people don't die of loss of blood when vampires attack them; they die of being drained of all their mana.

The sound of the door opened up after I spoke so harshly and when I turned around, my collar had been grabbed and pulled up by Diana who was beginning to tear up.

"How dare you speak such evil things about my family!" she said, looking like she wanted to punch me but was holding herself back because I was her benefactor.

"I know what I said sounds terrible, and for that, I apologize. But... you and I both know that is the truth," I told her.

Her eyes quivered momentarily.

"So," I said as I grabbed her wrists and freed my collar from her, "accept my offer. Let me be the one to quench your thirst for you. Don't be afraid to drink my blood. I have more than enough mana to survive your needs."