"Greetings~ you can call me Baroness Camila. It's a pleasure to meet such… surprising and knowledgeable individuals."
She opened her mouth up, revealing two baring fangs that marked her as the famed bloodsucker of the night: a vampire.
"Now then. I shall give you a chance to explain yourselves and who you are before I choose how to deal with you."
Helen whispered to Simon. "Ahh, she can probably know when we're lying, too."
"I can also hear when you're whispering, but thank you. The heart has such a tell~."
It was true, whenever most people lie, their hearts noticeably beat faster, however, men like Simon had no such weakness.
He lied so many times that it became pathological.
"My name is John. And I'm here with my friend Mary; we were just curious and followed your men here, that's all."
Helen nodded along, staring at Camila to see any reaction. She knew that her speaking would most likely get her into trouble, but he was surprised that Simon would lie so brazenly.
"Curious? And this artifact you mentioned? What of it?"
Camila read their heartbeats, the one who called himself John was perfectly stable, while Mary on the other hand had a heart beat that was mostly normal in very excited people.
"Ah ,the artifact? Well we are scavengers of course, we heard of a powerful artifact through the streets that can grant people immense power."
This was getting progressively harder. How much of their conversation did Camila listen to? How much does she know?
He was definitely not prepared for this. Why again did he agree to something like this?
"I see, so you're after my power?" She stepped forward, a smile on her face growing.
"Ah ,who wouldn't! You have a set of powerful, mystical abilities; I'm sure anyone would desire to be as mighty as you are."
Simon appealed to their nature, even getting on his knees right beside Helen, who was staring at him with disgust.
"Yes, I suppose anyone would want it, but then…"
Camila stared at Helen, her eyes narrowing as they glowed. "Why did it sound like you were able to fight me then?"
Simon looked up at Helen, making weird faces that were supposed to be him trying to tell her to suck up her pride and just let it happen.
"Haha, that was just… me being excited yo,u know, always been one for a fight and a challenge."
She gave Camila a wink that the vampire did not buy into at all.
"I see, so just a couple of scavengers that were trying to steal something precious."
The Baroness sighed. "You lot are everywhere in this city. I guess it was time someone got lucky, anyway. I'm going to have to get rid of you now. Don't worry, it's not death, just… a harmless deterrent."
Helen gulped and suddenly turned red. "Ah! Before you do such a thing, can you uh grant me one more final action? It's just something I uh always wanted to do in a secret underground vampire lair."
Camila raises her eyebrows. This Mary girl did not seem to be planning something profound. None of them would be powerful enough to stop her, so why not.
"Go ahead, make it quick."
"Thank you."
Helen sighed and pulled Simon up, hugging his neck suddenly.
"Wait, what are you-" But before he could say another word, she tiptoed up and kissed him.
It was quite passionate as well; she did not stop at a peck, no, she even slowly pushed her tongue into his mouth, making out with him gently.
Simon's mind went blank. It was not his first time he had kissed or made out with someone, but it was the first time it had sprung on him like so.
She also tasted and felt better than any woman he had been with, tasting much like strawberries.
It was intoxicating, he could not resist, in fact he followed her actions, making out with her passionately, now hugging her waist.
Camila had to turn away, her cheeks now red at such public indecency. She even brought out a fan to shield her eyes but occasionally peeked at the two of them kissing.
After what seemed to be an eternity, Simon and Helen finally took a step back, a small yet visible trail of saliva connecting both of their lips as they quickly wiped it off.
"W-Well that's all haha, alright do your thing."
The vampire baroness sheathed her fan and sighed. "You humans are so brazen and blatant ugh, how disgusting…"
Camila's eyes turned crimson red as she stared directly at Helen and Simon's eyes. "Now, you both shall be under my control!"
However… nothing happened, and Camila's jaw dropped as she looked at both Simon and Helen ,who were very much not hypnotized.
"W-what how?"
Helen grinned. "It's the power of lo-the ultimate duo!"
She then punched Camila right in the face, sending her flying into the air, and into the wall with a resounding clang, denting it in the process as the vampire heaved and snarled at the one who punched her.
"How-" Simon touched his lips, finally realizing what was happening.
"Power sharing. When we are intimate I can share more of my power with you and vice versa, the more intimate, the more I can share… d-don't think about it too much okay?"
Helen waved her hands around as her hair turned golden blonde. "I'll deal with her and you find as much as you can on the artifact! Got it?"
"Alright, I'll see you on the flip side!"
Simon dropped a smoke bomb by his feet, disappearing as the grey clouds erupted all around him.
Camila zoomed straight at Helen once more, her nails becoming as sharp as claws as she tried to slash at her again only to get a fist ran through her chest and the resulting force blowing her back into the metal wall again.
"Alright then~ first boss fight, here I come~"