215 Stalling
‘Just a taste won’t hurt, right?’ Vincent kept on telling himself. ‘Yes, maybe just a lick. And then I will... yeah... I will...’ He gulped hard as the rational side of his mind kept on slipping further and further away from him.
Vincent staggeringly pointed his foot in the direction where the scent of blood was extremely strong, and then he began walking in that direction with footsteps as quiet as a cat.
By now, all of his fangs had already protruded out of the gums. He was being controlled by his hunting instinct. And all he could focus on at the moment was the strong sweet scent of the werewolf blood.
When he reached the corner, the scent of blood got even stronger than before. The smell was so good that he could imagine the taste of warm blood at the tip of his tongue.
He closed his eyes and moaned. ‘Mmmm... I cannot wait any longer...’
He then swiftly moved his steps to get to the other side of the corner. The moment he did that, his eyes fell on the tall man who was holding one of his hands by the wrist and then looking down dejectedly at the broken shards of the glasses.
Vincent instantly closed his mouth to hide his fangs. However, he couldn’t hide his desire to taste the blood. His eyes were glued on that man’s palm where there was a huge cut.
Romulus smirked, satisfied that he had the vampire under his control.
He then pretended to chuckle nervously and said to Vincent, “Oh, I am so sorry if the sight is bothering you.” He opened his palm wider so that Vincent could see his wound even more clearly. And he said again, “It was very clumsy of me to drop the glass. I wanted to pick it up so that the others wouldn’t accidentally step on it, but I happened to cut myself with it.”
.....
Funnily enough, Romulus’ effort to make a conversation with Vincent backfired on him.
Vincent was forced to think of a suitable reply when his mind was already mush. And because he was forced to think, a shred of his rationality returned, forcing him to criticize the action he was about to take just now.
‘What the hell was I thinking? I was going to attack a werewolf IN their own place? How dumb can I be?’ Vincent screamed in his mind and looked at Romulus’ face.
Romulus gave a subtle smile and then asked, “I’m sorry but may I ask for a handkerchief? I think I forgot to bring mine.”
Vincent gave a polite nod and kept his gaze glued on his own shoes as he took out a clean handkerchief from his pocket. He took a step forward toward Romulus and then handed it to him.
Romulus thought that it was the perfect chance for him to provoke the vampire’s hunger even further.
“Oh, thank you!” he thanked Vincent and then held out his hand to grab the handkerchief. But right when he was about to grab it, he pretended to stumbled upon nothing but the air. “Whoa!” And then grabbed Vincent’s wrist with his wounded palm.
“Mmm!” he grumbled in pain and quickly got back up on his feet.
Vincent was in utter shock. He was standing like a statue and staring at the cuff of his shirt which now had blood on it.
“I am extremely sorry. I didn’t mean to do that,” Romulus pretended to be worried. He grabbed the handkerchief from Vincent’s hand and instead of using it for himself, he began to rub it on Vincent’s shirt as if it would be of any help to remove the blood stain.
All he was doing was stalling Vincent there in the hopes that the vampire would attack him, and that he would be able to create a ruckus.
Vincent clenched his jaw harder. He could feel himself losing control over his rational mind.
‘No, no, no...’ He grimaced and scolded himself in his mind, ‘I cannot simply attack someone here. I need to control myself. I need to get away from here and find my blood servant. I have to control...’
However, soon enough, all he was seeing was the blurry image of blood on his shirt, and his smell was now focused on the fragrant smell that was in the air.
Romulus raised his gaze and then looked through his thick lashes. He could see Vincent’s gaze stuck on the blood on his shirt. And he could hear Vincent breathing like a mammoth.
He softly smirked again upon seeing Vincent fighting with himself. He could tell that Vincent was having an internal conflict. He wanted Vincent’s raw instinct to win, so he asked Vincent, “I don’t think the blood is going to come off. Would you like to come with me? I will arrange a new shirt for you.”
It would be a lie to say that Vincent wasn’t tempted by that invitation. All kinds of thoughts started to appear in his mind. He was imagining himself digging his fangs into that werewolf’s neck and wrist, and enjoying the warm drink.
However, his eyes suddenly fell on Romulus’ palm. The deep wound wasn’t there anymore, it had already healed.
‘Oh my god! Right! He is a damn WEREWOLF!’ Vincent felt a chilling coldness in his heart when he suddenly realized the situation he was in. ‘Right now, I am the one who is vulnerable here!’
He took a step back from Romulus and scolded himself, ‘Get a hold of yourself, Vincent! Do you think this werewolf will stay still while you try to drink his blood? Don’t you recall what Ruby did to those vampires? If you try to raise a finger at this werewolf when you are madly driven by your hunger, then I guarantee that you will die here!’
“What do you say, sir?” Romulus took one step forward and asked Vincent again while giving a wide smile to him.
Vincent glanced at Romulus’ face. For a split second, he felt as though he was looking at that sweet but fake smile of his captors when they would come and ask how he was doing after he would win a match.
‘Oh, hell no!’ Vincent shouted in his mind when he felt the pit of his stomach twisting like crazy. ‘I need to stay away from this man,’ he thought to himself.
And without caring that he was in the corridor of someone else’s castle, he ran at his vampire speed so that he wouldn’t end up doing something he would regret moments later.
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