Getting Comfortable
Getting Comfortable
His body was screaming at him to grab that vial of blood from Kenneth's hand and gulp it down in one shot. However, a sliver of his mind was yelling at him to withstand the bloodlust.
"Damien, your aim is to resist the urge. Don't let it control you," Kenneth was speaking in the background. However, all that Damien could hear was the unclear murmuring noise.
Damien's blood-red eyes were fixated on the vial. And his breathing was getting heavier and heavier by the second.
It looked like his mind was torn between snatching the vial and running away from the room. He was visibly in pain because of his indecisiveness at the moment.
Damien even forced himself to turn his leg towards the door.
But Kenneth immediately read Damien's thought and ran to stand in front of the door. And he forbade Damien, "You aren't allowed to run away from here. Running away in situations like this is good, but right now, that's not our goal. Our goal is to resist."
"Shut up! Just shut your damn mouth!" Damien glowered at Kenneth and threateningly snarled.
After a while of glaring, Damien gulped down his saliva and forced his eyes to close. He even held his breath so that the sweet smell of blood wouldn't affect him that much. And he even hoped that his desire for blood would eventually fade away if he didn't see or smell it.
However, it was easy said than done.
Though Damien tried his best to control his natural instinct, he was miserably failing at it.
In the end, Damien flung his eyes open and dashed to grab the vial.
Kenneth stiffly pressed his back against the door and inhaled sharply when he felt Damien's warm fingers touching his hand. He was ready to shout for Ariel's help if Damien had grabbed his wrist instead of the vial. But thankfully, he didn't need to do that.
Damien emptied the vial in one go and closed his eyes while savoring the taste as sweet as nectar. He gulped down the blood and waited for a few seconds before he opened his eyes to look at Kenneth.
Kenneth looked into Damien's eyes to find them still glowing red. And to his horror, he saw Damien's gaze traveling from his face to his neck.
"No!" Kenneth widened his eyes and gestured for Damien to stop whatever he was thinking of doing. "Don't you dare..."
Damien readily followed Kenneth's order, or so it seemed. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths in. And when he opened his eyes back again, they were back to their normal winter-grey color.
Kenneth couldn't explain how relieved he was when Damien's eyes and fangs reverted back to their normal state.
He took a deep breath in and forced a smile on his face. And then he looked at Damien with a proud look on his face and said, "Well done, Damien! It wasn't that bad for someone who is new to all this."
Damien was still recalling what he had done when he was in his blood-thirsty state. And while he was doing so, his eyes were trailing up and down Kenneth's body. He was trying to recall if he had caused any harm to the person who was trying to teach self-control to him.
Kenneth misunderstood Damien's gaze and furrowed his brows. He went stiff again and asked, "Damien? You aren't still hungry, are you?"
Damien swiftly shook his head. "No. I was only making sure if I hurt you or not."
Kenneth let out a quiet sigh and replied with a subtle smile, "I wouldn't praise you if you had hurt me, would I?"
"So…" Damien handed back the vial to Kenneth and asked, "How long did I hold myself for?"
"Barely a minute. But that's not bad."
"Hmm… It's bad." Damien pressed his lips together and looked down. "A minute won't give my victims any edge if they want to run away from me."
"No. But today is the first day of your practice." Kenneth smirked and boasted, "Don't think that you can be like me with a day of practice. You still have a long way to go."
Damien didn't mind Kenneth's boastful behavior, since he had accepted the fact that Kenneth was better at being a vampire than him.
Damien was really curious about one thing though. So he asked Kenneth, "By the way, how come you are so good at resisting the scent of blood when you are literally holding the container?"
"Blood doesn't excite me as much as it used to do in the past."
Kenneth furrowed his brows as a piece of his old memory got refreshed in his mind.
"It used to drive me mad in the past. One time, I felt like drinking my own blood and killing myself. It was when I was locked up in the dungeon. But I instantly vomited after taking in a few gulps of my own blood. I felt disgusted by myself. And after that, I never dared to do so no matter how desperate I was for blood."
Damien felt a soft sting in his heart upon hearing that painful confession from Kenneth. And seeing Kenneth sad, Damien tried to change the topic by asking another question, "How long can you go without drinking blood? I don't think I have ever seen you drinking it."
Kenneth happily divulged the information because he desperately wanted to avoid spiraling back into his past memories, "I take a vial every day when I am here in my Kingdom. But when I got to Wyverndale or any other Kingdoms, I try not to do that so as not to spook my hosts. I can stay without blood for as many as 10 days."
"What if someone accidentally got hurt in front of you when you aren't drinking it frequently? Do you also go berserk like me?" Damien asked again.
To be honest, Damien wanted to hear that Kenneth would also act like how he was acting now. He wanted to hear that he wasn't the only one who gets uncontrollable upon inhaling the sweet aroma of blood.
And Kenneth's answer gave some solace to his heart.
"I don't go berserk per se. But I feel uncomfortable if I stay near that wounded person. So I run away if I ever find myself in such situations."
The two of them continued talking and sharing each other's experiences, both good and bad. And in doing so, the two of them didn't realize yet that they were starting to get more comfortable around each other.