If I ever get blood drawn again, I'm giving whoever does it a written apology about all the complaints I used to give my mom about getting bloodwork done. That was a thousand times better than this.
Just as Alex was preparing to pull his hand back out of fear that Claire had no plans of stopping, her fangs slipped out of his arm. She pressed her hand over the wound as she lifted her head and ran her tongue along her lips, swallowing once more before letting out a relieved sigh.
"Bleeding hell," Claire said through a poorly repressed groan. "That was incredible. Thank you."
Alex glanced down at his hand. He could still feel the two puncture wounds throbbing. They weren't really all that big, but they were still there.
"That's not going to close or something, is it?"
"I mean… it will eventually?" Claire offered, giving him a weak grin. "I can't heal you if that's what you're asking."
"Everything I read about vampires said that was supposed to feel good," Alex grumbled. "And usually you've got some kind of magical stuff in your fangs that makes the wound seal up after."
Claire scrunched her nose. "I'm going to forgive that because you probably just saved my life, but I'm serious about not being a vampire. I'm a Dhampir. Very different. And you were getting bit. What did you expect? Sunshine and rainbows?"
"Point taken," Alex said. Claire released his hand and pulled her bandages out, wrapping the bite for him.
"I wonder…" Claire muttered as she worked. "You're human, right?"
"I certainly hope so."
"Your blood has a lot of energy. It didn't taste great — no offense — but it was actually pretty good. More than what I've ever felt in a human. I wonder if it's because you aren't from my world? Maybe you don't count as human." Claire finished wrapping his arm. "And if it helps, you won't get infected. My saliva is poisonous. Nothing that'll affect a human, but it kills any germs that try to live in my mouth."
"Lovely," Alex said. He pushed himself to his feet and a small wave of dizziness passed over him. It passed quickly and he shook his head. "Bleh. Never liked the feeling of losing blood."
"Sorry," Claire said sheepishly. "I won't need to feed again for a few days. You must have really had a lot of energy left over after you ranked up. Everything went well, right?"
Alex's brow furrowed. Unless he'd somehow missed it, reaching Novice 2 had drained every single scrap of energy that he had. There was no blue mist or water left anywhere in his soul.
"Yeah. It went well. I got my second Auxiliary Skill. Just one more and I can start upgrading them."
"I'm looking forward to that bit myself," Claire muttered. "I just don't have enough energy to make it yet. Oh — I don't think I ever told you what I could actually do. Should probably do that properly before we run into our next spook. It's not all that useful down here, but my Soul Manifestation is Siphon. It lets me drain power from a monster and strengthen myself in the process."
"What about your Auxiliaries?"
"Two of them are self-buffs. The first lets me take on minor traits from monsters I drain while the second just lets me evolve my own body temporarily when I drink enough blood," Claire replied. "The third one is a blood manipulation skill. It doesn't do much now, and it doesn't work when the blood is still inside someone's body. I already tried."
Alex nodded. "And you've seen just about everything I can do myself."
"Didn't you just get a new skill?"
In response, Alex pulled Glint's card from his deck. Sensing his mental call, Glint's claws carved through the air and he stepped into the cave. The mirrors on his back rippling slightly as he shook himself off and waited for a command.
"Bleed me. He got even creepier," Claire said. "You took something that makes him stronger?"
"A skill that lets me combine him with the energy that dead monsters leave behind," Alex said with a nod. There was no reason not to share information — the more they knew about what the other could do, the more they'd be able to rely on each other in a fight. "Anything else? You don't know about Titles or the like, do you?"
"Unfortunately not. I don't have any. Do you?"
That's interesting. She didn't get the Anomaly Title, then. So the only people who get it are the ones that actually get a class inside the Mirrorlands.
Given what I could see of Claire, the only thing she can see about me is my name and that I'm a human. That means she has no way to tell if I've got titles or not.
He wasn't keen on straight out lying, but he wasn't so sure he wanted to give any information that wasn't related to fighting out either. Not yet. He hadn't known Claire for that long. The best way to handle it was to give some of the truth, but not all. "I got one for being stupid enough to fall into the Mirrorlands less than a day into the apocalypse. It isn't really doing anything, though."
Claire let out a snort. "At least you got something out of it. Well, we've got some more time to find a way out of here now."
"Not really," Alex said with a shake of his head. "You might be good, but I'm not. There's no water here that you saw, right?"
"None. Nothing that looks potable, at least."
"Then I've got two more days and a bit, max. Humans don't live for longer than that without being able to drink water, and blood isn't going to do it for me."
"Oh, shit. That slipped right past my mind," Claire said, her eyes widening slightly. "Is there anything else you can drink? I don't know human physiology very well."
I don't care how bad things get. I am not about to pull a Bear Grylls
///Author's Note///
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