* * *
I spent a week in bed. The spot where Carmine’s bite left on my neck did not fade until the fifth day. Every part of my body looked just fine except I still had not regained adequate strength. Len said as I lost too much blood, I required a long period to fully recover.
What occurred after the throw was quite a story. Len caught me as I fell but the damage the force made was great enough to make me faint. On hurting me, Carmine seized the chance to escape when everyone went to save me. He made it to the forest but was later hunted down. Carmina did not give up the persuasion but with no success, Carmine killed himself. She died with him.
Viktoria and Edmond were caught indeed. They received harsh punishment. As a result of their crime, they were locked up in the Silver Tower. The Morlettes were defeated in this war. It seemed they had totally overestimated themselves and trusted Carmine too much. Hunter Morlette never expected the Grimmels would retaliate and help the Morganthes by having five royal families to join in alliance. In fact, many had always wanted them to vanish but none of the families had enough courage to stir up a real war with the Morlettes. This time, the betrayal of Carmine and the hassle of the Morganthes triggered the malice everyone had towards the Morlettes and were enough to drive them to fight. The Morlettes forfeited plenty of their people and land. They had now little power in this world.
“I want to hear the story.” I begged.
“But it’s time to rest.” Len said, as usual, being at all careful and stern.
“You didn’t tell me how you got saved.”
“Oh? That was quick. I did not expect to be locked in the dungeon. Jaymes and I both learnt a lesson this time. Our plan does not always work and we should always expect the worst.”
I chuckled a little.
“Zander came down to the dungeon, though I had no idea how he managed to do so. I guess Carmine and others still did not know he was about to betray them. He did a little bit of fighting and we were freed in no time. At least I got one thing right. I did have some hope about my second brother and he turned out to be the good guy. He told me what happened and we rushed out. By then, help from other families had already arrived. We went to find you. Zander said you were in the secret room but nobody was there.”
“And then?”
“And then you should sleep.”
“Oh, please continue!” I said.
“And then I told him, ‘you made a mistake leaving her alone.’”
“You did?”
“Yes,” Len smiled. “I said whenever you were left alone; something else would surely take place. Either you did not do as told or you just got into danger even without doing anything. I may be a troublemaker but to me, you are worse.”
“What am I?” I interrogated.
Len sniggered. “An accident prone.”
I groaned and Len laughed.
“Next?”
“Next, we encountered Viktoria and Emmit in the garden. They intended to fight us but of course, the number of our people outweighed the two of them. They stood no chance and had to confess Carmine took you. That was how it went. I stormed out of that place to find you.”
I rolled my eyes as Len made the last sentence sound exceptionally heroic.
“But,” Len sighed. “I still could not stop him from drinking your blood.”
I could tell he was extremely thwarted and that was just rational. The first time I got linked to blood was when Demonia forced me to drink a cup in the banquet. He blamed himself for the humiliation I suffered right away. The second time, I drank Jim’s blood and that frustrated him enough, for I turned into a blood soul afterwards. The third time was worse. His brother, who had always been his rival and foe, drank my blood when Len was supposed to be the only one that had this privilege. The whole thing was just pitiful. Len must have felt more hurt than I did.
On the seventh night, I insisted on getting out of bed despite the fact I knew it would be another failure in an one-sided fight.
“Stop being so stubborn.” Len said. “Stay in there one more night, okay?”
“I don’t want to.” I complained. “I need some fresh air.”
“I will open the window.”
“Oh no, you know what I mean.”
Len smiled. “I do?”
“Stop fooling around.” I said. “Why should I stay in bed all the time? Can’t I at least walk around a little?”
“No,” Len said. “You will get out of this room once you are allowed on the ground.”
I snorted. “You are cruel.”
“Think what you like.”
“Len,” A question suddenly appeared on my mind. “Why do you think Carmine let me go?”
I had always wondered why. He did not kill me. He even had me drink the antidote. He could have twisted my neck but he did not. Instead, he threw me, though the throw was strong enough to end my life. Still, I did not reckon he had the mind of murdering me.
“I think you know better than I do.” Len sighed.
“Well, I don’t.” I pouted. “Though I would not thank him for that, I do not really think he is that evil.”
“I think the same.” A sullen look came on Len’s face. “But I have just made a conclusion.”
“What might it be?”
“Carmine would have been able to escape if he did not indulge so much in you.” Len said. “He could have heard the sounds and noises but he did not. He was concentrating in you and had no idea he was losing until we broke in.”
“You don’t think…”
“I do believe he really felt something for you.” Len made a bitter smile. “That’s so ironic. Everything I owned he wanted to pursue so much, even you.”
“And there is one more thing troubling me.” I arranged some pillows behind my back and got into a more pleasing posture. “If I was poisoned and he drank my blood, did he poison himself?”
Len tittered. “Well, that’s easy to explain. Either he was being too stupid or you were too tempting. Perhaps both.”
I raised my brows, to show my dissatisfaction.
“Well? Not satisfied with my answer?”
“No.”
“If you want a more scientific one, I will give you.” Said Len. “But don’t grumble if it is too boring.”
“I am too much engrossed in hearing that.”
Len’s look changed to a more sober and professional expression.
“Let’s see.” He thought for a moment and said. “I have two deductions on my mind. First, I assumed the night you were attacked by Viktoria, the poison only reached your arteries. It travelled down to the heart directly or through blood capillaries to the other body parts. It infected your cells and gave a paralyzing effect. It slowly consumed your organs and you would lose all your strength. The Grimmels’ medicine could only reduce the symptoms but could not eliminate them. Practically, Carmine drained blood out your veins, where poison should not exist if it had been absorbed through your arteries. Another theory could be someone like Carmine was basically clever and cautious at most times. He would not allow himself to be poisoned by his own invention. He could have done something to himself such that even if he drank his own poison, nothing would happen. It’s like how people invent vaccine in human world to create an immunity before getting a disease. It works the same way on poison. You can have a poison and an antidote, but there can be something more to prevent oneself from being harmed by a poison.”
Despite the fact I listened to my full concentration, I still yawned.
“See, I told you.”
“No, I was listening.”
Len made a face.
“Look, can I ask a rather stupid question?”
“Go on.”
“Is blood in arteries or in veins cleaner?”
“Why are you asking? You are not planning to drink someone’s blood, are you?”
“I am just curious, after what you have said about the poison.”
“I don’t know.” Len shrugged. “It d
epends on certain situation, like when you are poisoned or something. But I will say, mostly when a blood soul bites, he drinks blood from the veins. If you start with arteries, the prey dies right away. It will be too much.”
“I really think there can be a subject on this race.” I said. “It all sounds so logical that I can’t even…I did think things like vampires and fangs were just myths, nothing that can be explained and studied about.”
“Surely you are wrong.” Len smiled. “Our diet and exercising habits can all be explained scientifically. You know how we get blood from the animals? To prevent them from suffering too much pain, we slaughter them by hurting the part that would cause the least ache.”
“People do that in human world.”
“Yes, we can be very considerate and kind if we want to.” Len said. “And very brutal if we have to.”
“I don’t understand. If you care so much for the way you kill the prey, how can you stand murdering your own kinds?”
“Let’s say if a war starts in the human world, the same thing happens. People kill each other from time to time. We are some species that are far too direct and emotional, easily provoked but we feel more than anyone does. Humans can be crueler than us. I will say they can kill each other without making someone physically bleed but in a much more unbearable way that we can think of. Don’t you agree?”
“Give me a second to get what you mean.”
I brooded over his words.
“Do you mean something like verbal attack?”
“Can be.” Len said. “What do you say about bullies, kidnaps, rapes and arson? There can be more. Someone can be ruined for the rest of their life, betrayed by their closest ones, constantly deceived or maltreated. In that world, these things never end and the victims have to go on living. In this world, the traitors face their doom fast. Revenge is direct. Penalty is harsh. Here, we live our own ways, punish the bad ones, get on with our feelings and do as we want.”
“Very…er…”
“Practical, I know.”
“Now I understand.”
“You do?”
“I will try.” I said. “Or else I can never live a life as a blood soul.”
“Great.”
“Oh, speaking of being a blood soul, you owe be something.”
“I don’t owe you anything.” Len pretended to be unaware.
“You do.” I crossed my arms. “You owed me an explanation why you refused to teach me about hiding my mind. The first time Carmine met me, why was he so convinced that I was a human when he could read my mind? Why didn’t the same thing happen in the banquet?”
“You did notice something after all!” Len exclaimed, looking rather surprised.
“Yes, I did notice something weird was going on.” I said. “Did you do something to my mind? I mean, nobody ever mentioned my mind in the banquet.”
“Okay.” Len took a breath. “I admit I did do something about your mind.”
“How could you do that?”
“Not many others know about this rare ability of mine.” Len said. “I only explained it to Jaymes once. I never told anyone too. I can, in fact, hide one’s mind besides reading it.”
“You can?”
“Not all of us can. It’s like some of us are more gifted than the others. Oma has the sixth sense and your mother was capable of looking into the future. My father can teleport and Carmine was very talented in making poison.”
“I thought every blood soul knows how to hide their minds.”
“We do.” Len nodded. “But we can only open and hide our own minds. We can all read humans’ mind but only few of us can hide someone else’s mind without their knowing.”
“Really? You hid my mind in the banquet.”
“There are two ways to prove whether you are a blood soul or not.” Len explained. “One is to check whether you can hide your mind from us and the other one is to make you drink the blood. I was surprised when you could take more than one sips of the blood Demonia handed you, without vomiting or your face turning green.”
“Why didn’t you hide my mind when we met Carmine?”
“Because I wanted him to think you were a human.” Len sighed. “He found out the truth anyway.”
“What was the point in doing that?”
“Don’t you see?” Len said. “I did so to keep you alive. If you were a human, he would not give you more hurt than a human can stand. What did he do once he knew you were one of us?”
“He…” I looked away. My heart suddenly felt painful. “He tossed me around and drank my blood.”
“Exactly.” Len said. “When you were a blood soul, he could go as far as he could and because normal pain would not even hurt you much, the pain he gave you would then be beyond a human being could endure. That was what I pictured out at first.”
“I don’t know things can be this complicated.” I shook my head.
“They can get even more complicated than this.” Len said. “I knew my brother too well. As you have always been told, we, blood souls, don’t do things without reasons. So, Carmine freed you in the end for his own reasons too.”
“I feel bad.” I said.
“You should.” Len giggled. “You are too alluring. If someone can happen to tame and make my evil brother completely lost, she must be eviler.”
“So you are suggesting that I am evil?”
“You bet.” Len laughed.