“Do you want to go?”
He hesitated a bit. He recalled the days he had repeatedly told himself to forget Sirius and the resentment he felt. The uneasiness about Sirius not being human still lingered. But, but.
“Yes.”
Yan answered honestly.
“Alright, things should be settled by now anyway. Let’s go then.”
Procion took the lead. Following silently behind him, Yan looked around. Having been brought with his eyes covered, he hadn’t known anything, but now he saw they were in a vacant lot overgrown with weeds. He wondered if such a place existed in New York, but then considered they might have left the city.
The weeds had grown so densely that it was hard to see the path. Procion cleared a way through the weeds that reached up to his waist. Hurrying to follow before the path disappeared:
“Ah!”
Yan’s foot caught on a root, and he stumbled for a moment. Then a large hand suddenly appeared and supported him. Thanks to that, Yan avoided falling face-first onto the ground.
“Th-thank you. I’m not usually this clumsy, but my shoes are just slippers, and my legs are numb from being tied up for so long…”
As he mumbled excuses out of embarrassment, something that wasn’t a leaf brushed the back of his hand. It was a warm hand.
“If you can’t walk, say so. I’ll carry you.”
And a calm voice, as if engaged in everyday conversation.
He felt he should express gratitude, but Yan could only move his lips without speaking. He merely tightened his grip on the hand, interlacing their fingers.
Until they returned to Sirius, neither spoke a word. Only the rustling sound of weeds being brushed aside broke the silence.
***
Yan looked up at the building with peeling white paint. It had been abandoned for so long that there was no trace of its original purpose. If forced to guess, it might have been a barn or warehouse.
“It’s quiet.”
Yan whispered, his ear pressed against the wall. He hadn’t expected to hear gunshots or clashing blades, but the excessive quiet was ominous in its own way.
“Is it okay to go in?”
“Why ask now?”
Yan worried that entering carelessly might result in being taken hostage again. As Procion said, it was a concern that came too late.
“Just go in.”
Before Yan could stop him, Procion kicked the door. With an unpleasant thud, the door opened easily. Yan flinched, but nothing happened. Just as he was relaxing his shoulders in relief, a fishy smell crept in like an ambush.
“…It’s blood.”
His sense of smell detected it before his vision did: blood had been splattered all over this space. Procion lightly pushed Yan’s back, and Yan stepped forward. And then he saw them.
Two people lying face down in torn clothes. One was a woman and one was a man. It was exactly as he had expected from hearing their voices.
“Ugh…”
Suddenly their conversation came to mind, making him feel sick. The two who had said they would do anything for Lady Alesha. Yan neither understood nor wanted to understand their mindset, but they had been serious. They had the ability and determination to kidnap and bind Yan tightly. It was hard to believe that such robust individuals were now lying in pools of blood.
Just then, a deep voice asked:
“Are you afraid?”
Yan instinctively turned his head. He was standing in a corner where shadows fell heavily. Sirius’s silhouette was faintly visible. Yan blinked hard, and in that moment, Sirius approached him.
“No,” Yan shook his head.
“I’m just surprised.”
Whether human or vampire, seeing corpses isn’t pleasant. That’s all it was. Yan wasn’t enough of a saint to feel sympathy for those who had kidnapped him.
“Then would you come this way?”
It seemed the subject of the question wasn’t the vampire after all. If he had wanted to see Yan up close, he could have simply walked over, but he had stopped. Sirius was wearing his trademark black clothing. He didn’t seem particularly different from a few weeks ago. But Yan thought his face looked strangely tired.
One step—Yan began to move. Blue eyes looked directly at him. Three steps—now Yan looked straight back at Sirius. His steps were forceful, as if to say that he wasn’t afraid, and was even angry rather than scared. And five steps.
Yan stood right in front of Sirius.
“I heard the news, but my congratulations are late, Sirius.”
“…”
“Or should I call you Lord now?”
When Yan added “Your Majesty,” Sirius’s neat eyebrows twitched. Yan hadn’t known he had such a talent for sarcasm. He wasn’t trying to be this way, but every word he spoke dripped with resentment.
“What did you think when I confessed? Did you laugh, thinking ‘This fool is blushing without even knowing who I am’?”
“May I speak honestly?”
“Yes.”
Yan nodded, curious to hear what answer would sting his heart.
“Honestly, during your first confession, I only thought about how to naturally move past the situation.”
But hearing the actual answer made him feel more miserable than he had prepared for. As he clenched his fists and trembled—
“But during your second confession…”
“…”
“I’m not sure how to explain what I felt. It was strange, like my blood was flowing faster than usual… I just, at that moment, truly wanted to devour you.”
How should he interpret those words? Yan listened to Sirius’s confession in shock. Had he nearly given his blood to a vampire?
“Why explain it so complicatedly when you could just say you were horny?”
Procion, who had been listening to the conversation from behind, responded succinctly. Sirius glared at his twin brother once before turning his gaze back to Yan.
“That’s not it.”
“What’s not it?”
“Desire, that sort of thing.”
“You spanked me when I confessed the second time.”
“…”
“Wasn’t that desire?”
Yan questioned boldly. For the first time, he found Sirius cute. If someone asked what was cute about a man holding a whip in one hand and a knife in the other, Yan himself would have no answer.
After a moment of silence, Sirius replied as if he had no choice:
“I suppose you’re right.”
“I see. I don’t know if I should be relieved, but at least I wasn’t nothing to you.”
“Nothing to me?”
Sirius’s voice rose in disbelief. Yan stepped back in surprise. Despite his boldness with Sirius today, the man reeking of blood was frightening. But Sirius stepped forward just as much as Yan had retreated.
“If I thought you were nothing, would I have saved you by giving my own blood?”
“What? When? This is the first I’m hearing of this.”
“Of course it is. You were under hypnosis at the time.”
“What did you say?”
That was truly information he was hearing for the first time. As Yan gaped in astonishment, Sirius provided a simple explanation. Unbeknownst to Yan, he had nearly died, and Procion had performed the first bonding ritual to save him. Then Sirius had performed the second bonding ritual to drive out the contaminated vampire blood.
“No… that… what…”
Would this be how an earthling would feel after being abducted by a UFO, experimented on by aliens, and then waking up? The situation was similar—waking up to find your body changed. However, the two vampires had done this to save Yan. Though he didn’t like the method, it was awkward to question why they did it when he owed them his life.
“So what happens to me now?”
“No need to worry too much. We haven’t performed the most important third ritual.”
“Although you’ve been influenced by unknowingly receiving our blood, that too will fade with time.”
With these alternating explanations from the two vampires, Yan finally regained his composure. As the tension eased, fatigue set in. He was looking around for somewhere to sit when—
“…!”
He saw the male kidnapper rising. Though it seemed impossible in his condition, he was different from humans, being a vampire. Yan watched him lunge at Sirius. In reality, it happened at an astonishing speed, but due to the crisis, Yan’s vision seemed to slow down.
‘No.’
The only thought that came to mind was that he needed to save Sirius. Yan moved with purely functional efficiency. He reached into his pajama pocket, took out the water gun, aimed at the vampire…
“AAAAARRRGHH!”
Agonized screams filled the air. Black smoke rose from the vampire’s torn skin. He twisted his body grotesquely, like an insect burning alive. Perhaps because the scene was so surreal, Yan observed it dispassionately, as if watching events unfold in another world.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
