"So tell me, Luciel Ashford, which path will you choose? A human, or a vampire?" Alex opened the blood bag, pressing it against Luciel's chest.
Luciel opened his eyes, about to answer, but he stayed quiet, hesitating for a moment.
His mind was urging him to tell human, but deep in his heart, he knew that this was no longer possible.
He wondered if maybe there was a way for humans to accept him, besides, there was no better way to fight a vampire if he was one himself.
"Neither." He answered, taking the blood pack from Alex.
He was about to say human, but when he was about to say it, something stopped him and he almost blurted out vampire.
He wanted to be on the side of the humans, but he already took his first victim and there was no going back. In the meantime, taking a vampire's side would mean that he supports their hunts and slaughter.
"My answer is the same as yesterday, I'll forge my own path." He finished before taking a sniff of the blood that Alex was holding.
The sweet scent reminded him of the first time he had his first taste and it was music for his taste buds. The worst thing of this all was that he didn't regret what he had done, making him unable to say what was truly on his mind. It felt wrong.
"Good enough, now let me go back to sleep. Wake me up when the sun sets, we'll head back to our colony." Alex didn't have a happy look on his face since. Even after all this mess, Luciel still seemed to have his heart in the right place, but he was concerned about how long will that be.
He will continue to support his friend as long he does no harm to others, but it still concerned him that whenever he would ask Luciel on whose side he was, he avoided giving him a straight answer.
Once Alex went back to sleep, Luciel finally decided to eat and threw the blood pack on the floor. It felt like someone was having a tug-of-war with his mind and body.
"If only it would be so simple as Alex makes it sound." He whispered to himself, his voice barely audible.
****
Once the sun had set, Luciel finally woke up Alex who didn't have the happiest expression on his face.
Alex wanted to sleep some more but also knew that they should head back to the colony since it was a two-hour ride. Not to mention that the funeral is tomorrow morning.
From there on, with the car that Alex had arrived with, the duo headed towards the settlement.
Luciel was sitting in the passenger seat until they reached the colony and he had to continue the journey in the car trunk.
They easily got past the hunters who were guarding the entrance and managed to get in with no trouble. No one could have hoped that a human, a vampire hunter, was helping a vampire to get in.
Humans were free to go and leave whenever they wished, all they had to do was have their ID with them so they could track the migration of the people.
Once Alex had entered the outer circle of the colony, one could see the real state of humanity.
There was a stench of poverty lingering in the air. Homeless people sleeping on the ground with beggars running around, begging for a little bit of food, or trying to pickpocket unsuspecting passengers.
The streets with large cracks on the ground were filled with trash and vomit from the people who found their peace in alcohol.
Alex always hated to go through this part of the city, he couldn't watch the people suffer, but it always reminded him for what he was fighting for.
He dreams of a better future, a tomorrow where people wouldn't be dying on the streets.
Most of the money that these people would earn would go for the development of weapons, vampire, and supernatural research.
"Here we are!" Alex entered in the middle circle and parked in front of his house with his stomach creating a monstrous sound. The last two days were so chaotic that he didn't even have time to eat.
"You hungry? I still have a little bit of blood saved." Alex opened the trunk of his car, allowing Luciel to get out.
Alex didn't want to think about what kind of trouble he got himself into since bringing a vampire into the colony was a death sentence.
"If you don't mind." Luciel got out of the car, smiling nervously. He still didn't feel hungry, but he was afraid of starving again and having more blood on his hands. What he was afraid of was what would come after Alex's supply runs out.
"Great! Wait for me in the house." Alex threw the keys towards Luciel before heading to his basement where he would keep his hunting equipment.
Luciel walked in, feeling like he was at home. He used to hang out at Alex's place a lot, so he was already familiar with the house layout.
Luciel walked into the luxury, high gloss, red kitchen with white tiles and an island in the middle.
The kitchen also had all kinds of house appliances meant to simplify the preparation of food.
The human technology has come a very long way, the only sad thing was that barely ten percent of the human population was able to afford it.
Only skilled vampire hunters and those in high positions were able to live their lives in luxury.
Luciel even had a slightly larger house than Alex, flaunting in wealth, but even then, they couldn't afford a living in the inner circle that was reserved only for those involved in politics and business.
"Catch!" Alex threw a blood pack towards Luciel who managed to grab it with ease as one would expect, but he did not proceed with drinking it and decided to save it for later.
"Also, Luciel, I brought you some clothes." Alex lifted it up for Luciel to see.
"Why do you have an exact replica of my usual clothing style?" Luciel raised an eyebrow. No matter how he looked at it, it was the same clothes he used when he would go hunting.
Alex looked at the clothing and laughed nervously, remembering his slightly younger... Embarrassing days.
"Well… Let's not talk about that." Alex blurted so fast that Luciel could barely understand what he had spoken and gave him a confused look.
"Anyways, just put them on!" Alex threw the clothes towards Luciel, wanting to break away from Luciel's judging gaze.
Luciel grabbed the clothes and placed the blood pack on the table before walking towards the living room, changing into his completely black clothes.
The clothing might make him look edgy, but there was a reason for this. Vampires were creatures of the night and while they could see fine during the night, they would still notice a human wearing all black a little bit later than usual.
The clothing was a little bit too large for him, but it was still better than the torn and dirty clothing he had till now.
He left the new leather jacket that Alex had given him in the living room, letting the T-shirt he was wearing reveal his well-defined muscles on both arms before heading back to the kitchen where Alex was preparing his meal.
Luciel sat down on the chair and it didn't take long for the delicious aroma of cooking to fill up the whole house.
The two guys were chatting, having a small talk, but all Alex could think about was food as he felt his mouth getting filled with saliva.
Meanwhile, Luciel had other thoughts. The smell of food that Alex was making didn't smell appetizing at all. It had an unpleasant smell to it. Like it was rotting for quite some time.
Once he was done, Alex took out two plates from the counter and started to serve food before going towards Luciel, handing him a plate with a tiny amount of meal.
"What is this?" Luciel took a closer sniff of the food that Alex put in front of him before pushing the plate away. It did not smell delicious at all, instead, it was making him puke.
"Have you ever wondered why vampires don't eat human food? Now is your chance to try it." Alex challenged him before starting to dig in. He felt like he didn't eat forever and made sure to savor every moment.
Luciel pulled his plate closer when Alex's words made him curious. It was such common knowledge that vampires don't eat the same food as humans do, but no one cared to take their time and explain why.
Just by the smell alone, Luciel could tell that he was not meant to eat this. He could still remember how it used to taste, but he could not make the previous picture to replace the current dominant one.
"Well… Here goes nothing." He gulped and pinched his nose before going for the first bite.
The moment the food touched his taste buds, he felt like throwing up, drinking some blood, anything just to get this taste out of his mouth. There was panic all around his body, wanting to throw the plate into the wall.
"So? How is it?" Alex pointed his fork towards Luciel, waiting to hear an answer.
"Like eating a swarm of stink bugs." The food had such a weird taste that he couldn't even describe it with words. He couldn't feel any texture and the taste was bland. It wouldn't even have any taste at all if not for the strong odor.
The worst part was swallowing the food. No matter how long he chewed it, it would feel like he was swallowing thousands of needles. When the food finally arrived in his stomach, there was an unpleasant burning sensation in it.
His body was not made for any kind of solid food. It needed a liquid type of meal, or to be more exact, blood.
"Oddly specific, but all right." Alex shrugged with his shoulders before continuing to eat.
He didn't care about what Luciel said about his cooking since he already expected that he was not going to like it.
"Hey! What are you doing!" Alex raised his voice when he saw that despite obviously not being made to digest human food, Luciel continued to eat.
"It would be rude to refuse the food from the host, besides, I'm curious what would happen if I were to eat this." Luckily, Alex gave Luciel just enough food for the tasting, so he wasn't afraid to eat it all even if his body was screaming not to.
Luciel believed that if he already managed to heal in less than an hour from broken bones, he believed that his body would be able to heal from this as well.
He gave it his all to finish his small meal. "Now, if you'll excuse me." Luciel picked up his blood pack and rushed towards the living room, wanting to fix the alarm in his mouth with some delicious human blood.
Once he was finished, a pleasant smile appeared on his lips, glad that he was finally able to get rid of this awful taste.
He knew fully well that he shouldn't have eaten this, for a moment it even made him wonder how Alex could eat that crap, but then he reminded himself that he was the problem, not Alex.
Once the night had fallen and Alex went into his room to sleep, Luciel regretted his choices as he spent his whole night in the bathroom in front of the toilet, vomiting at least once every hour.
It was one of the worst experiences he had ever felt because each time he would vomit, the sensation was the same as when he was swallowing the food, only ten times worse, and before he realized it, the sun was already up.
His funeral was about to start in four hours.