From One to Another

Taking off my jacket and shirt, I exposed myself to the chills that came along with the night.

Sitting at one end of the backseat with my bare torso out for the world to see, Diana was on the other hesitant to get closer.

We had closed the door and threw a shade over the windows so that nobody could take a peek at what we were doing but the light in the car kept our bodies illuminated.

She would occasionally glance at me before turning her attention to a random spot in the vehicle.

"Is the plan to take all day?" I asked in a joking manner to lighten up the mood.

She shook her head and got a little closer to me.

"Come on Diana, we don't have all day. Your family must still be worried sick for you," I told her. "Who knows if they've called the police searching for your whereabouts? Let's just get this over as quickly as possible so that you may return home."

"I know... I know. Stop trying to rush me," she said, getting quieter with each word.

Exhaling quietly, she mustered the courage to close the remaining distance and the two of us were mere inches away from one another.

My senses were so enhanced that I could hear her heartbeats and they were fast.

She was nervous and I could tell.

Even the beads of sweat dripping down her forehead betrayed the poker face she had on.

"Come on Diana," I whispered into her ear. "What are you waiting for? Dig your fangs in whenever you're ready."

I could see her ear turn red as I said those words.

Our eyes met despite it being side to side and like a rabbit that noticed the wolf about to jump on it, it vanished off to the other direction.

"I'm... I'm going to do it now," she said.

"Okay. Go ahead."

"I'm really going to do it."

"Yep."

"Are you ready? I'm going to—"

"I'm ready Diana. Just... just do it."

"Are you sure you're ready? What if you—"

"Just do it already Diana," I said with a little irritation in my voice.

And as I said that, I heard the sound of her canine teeth extending even longer than it already was.

It was quick and sharp, almost like swords being drawn out of their sheaths.

Like two thick needles stabbing into my neck, her fangs planted themselves firmly into my body and slowly, I could feel not only my blood being drained but also my mana.

As a practitioner of a mana training technique that wasn't yet known to this world, my pool of mana was plenty.

Once you include the demon core that I had absorbed after killing Diamesca, the amount of mana coursing in my body was enough that even if Diana spent an hour absorbing it, it wouldn't be enough to kill me.

But — that's only the case because she's still an amateur when it comes to being a vampire.

If a vampire noble were to suck my blood, then ten minutes was all they would need to empty out every last drop of mana in me.

Through the corner of my eye, I watched as Diana drank my blood with her eyes closed, her face flustered and embarrassed.

I assumed it must've felt even worse knowing that I was the bane of her existence in the past and now I was the blood bank she was withdrawing from.

She was embarrassed but whenever she sucked in and consumed a solid amount of my blood in a single gulp, she would subconsciously make a face expressing satisfaction and joy.

'How tasty can blood truly be?' I asked myself. 'Surely it just tastes like consuming liquid iron.'

But seeing her occasionally let out muffled sounds of pleasure like someone drinking a cold glass of water after being out in the scorching Sun for hours, reminded me of the passage from the novel.

"As she drank his blood, it felt like consuming the sweetest juice ever made. Freshly squeeze, the fruit at its ripest state, and the refreshing nature was pure happiness."

For someone who was a terrible writer, that was a decently written piece of imagery.

Every time I glanced at Diana, she looked more and more guilty about what she was doing to me and yet, she couldn't stop herself from drinking more and more.

To her, this must be what an addict feels when they drink or smoke despite knowing how bad it is for them.

We were in this intimate yet awkward situation for what must've been at least ten minutes.

As her fangs retracted and left the room that was my flesh, she looked at me with these eyes you'd only seen from someone who was drunk.

She took a deep breath and when she exhaled, a strange aroma filled the car.

My body indeed felt a little more tired than before. Add that to how long I've been awake and I was ready to hit the bed at any moment now.

"Thank you," Diana said, slightly less embarrassed about the situation than before.

Despite this interaction with me being the most intimate connection she's had with another human being so far in her life, I know it to be true, she had naturally gotten more comfortable about it all because of time.

Ten minutes was short in the grand scheme of things but when you consider what she had been doing in those ten minutes, it must've felt like years to her.

Long enough to lose some of those nerves she must've had.

"No problem. That should be good enough to last you a few days," I told her, using a towel to wipe off the saliva on my neck.

"Sorry about the mess," she said, finally noticing the blood and spit that she had left on me.

"It's not that big of a deal."

'Especially when you compare it to what you just did,' I wanted to say out loud but held back.

Putting my shirt back on, I noticed that she was staring at my body. When she finally noticed what she was doing, she tried to look away but kept taking quick glances.

'Teenagers and their hormones,' I told myself as I got in the driver's seat and began driving her home.

Every time I glanced in the rearview mirror, she was looking at me.

As she got out of the car and began walking towards her house, she turned around and said, "I feel like I've said this a hundred times tonight but... thank you."

"You're welcome," I responded with a smile. "You have my number now so just text me if you ever need... that again. I'll be there as soon as I can."

At the mention of what just occurred, her face turned a little red.

After nodding her head in response, she began running home.

As I watched her open the door and was pulled in by her mother like a planet being swallowed by a black hole, a few thoughts bounced around my mind.

Firstly, I was imagining the level of scolding she was about to receive.

Not only was she gone but they were also unable to contact her via text or call.

Once they realized that she was wearing my clothes, a man's clothes, I could only pray for the best.

'I hope you survive,' I thought.

The second thought I had was that in a few hours, when the adrenaline beings to settle, once she truly comprehends what she had just done and who she did it with — she'll either get angry or depressed at herself.

By the time I arrived home, it was so late that I contemplated whether or not I should even sleep.

The eldest daughter of the Asano clan, Asano Ichiko, would soon arrive and I'd rather get no sleep than be running on a few hours of it.

So as I sat down at my desk, I began speaking to my artifacts who I was so close to that I knew practically everything about them and their past.

We just spoke of unimportant things as I was trying to pass the time such as a movie I'd watched a few days ago.

As they say, in conversation, times move faster so by the time I looked back at the clock, it was an hour before sunrise.

"From one girl issue... to another," I sighed as I entered the shower.

Using the handle, I had the water run at its coldest and because of how advanced magical devices were, it felt like I was being dunked into a pool of ice.

In the shower, I spent the time preparing myself for what was to come.

This change in the story was something I didn't expect and what I knew of Ichiko was very minimal.

"Please be an honorable fiancée," I thought to myself.

It was conceited but since I wasn't technically Bell, I could admit that he was extremely good-looking.

It'd be an issue if she fell for his looks.

And because I was playing the role of an honorable respectable young man, once you pair that with my looks, it was a deadly shot to the heart.

It would be easy to ignore a fiancée who doesn't care for her fiancé but if she actually fell for me, I could already anticipate Asano Gonkuro forcing the two of us to go on dates or parties together.

"Will I be forced to relearn how to dance?" I asked.

In Bell's memories, he once knew how to dance with a female companion because he used to attend parties and events with his parents but as he got older, he became less and less interested in the world of high status so he gradually forgot how to dance over time.

In the little information I got from investigating my fiancée, she still attended this sort of event.

As her fiancé, obviously, I would have to accompany her if she requested it.

"Please don't make me waltz," I sighed.

I could just play the role of a terrible fiancé and get Ichiko so disgusted with me that she'd want nothing to do with me.

But if I do that, all the effort I put into improving my public image would go to waste.

Exhaling for what must've been ten seconds, I closed my eyes and began visualizing myself waltzing.

"Yuck."