Chapter Text
“As I neither live nor breathe… Now, what do we have here?”
Petrichor lingered through midnight squalls, yearning for the fateful encounter to come, a miracle as elusive as the rain weltering in a million directions. Stormy tarns as gelid as the tempest pelting their heads met a bewildered set of earthbound depths no different from the brumous downpour and its edaphic fornication underfoot. Beyond the sylvan glades stretched a verdant avenue of endless forests flashing obsidian and argentine beneath the full moon’s cold scrutiny, a landscape Ruki familiarized himself with night after night ever since residing within the caliginous chateau. Buried in umbra, he had long studied this forsaken terrain in its flexuous paths and ominous silences until even the crack of a bough rang like an omen. A cobalt bolt of levin smote in the distance, heralding the ample precipitation, yet its faraway cacophony paled compared to the shock of discovering an unknown interloper. Each droplet whispered against weathered boulders like a warning too mute for mortal ears as frigid zephyrs bit into what little skin remained unobscured by their knee-length coats, a paltry barrier in the face of more than just the indefatigable deluge.
Eons bled away since Ruki last beheld so pitiful a human, lesser still a woman all by her lonesome, who dared to trespass the outskirts of his estate. From the scattered luggage around her, he surmised she had lost her home, her sense of belonging, though he doubted her exile would endure. The tent she struggled to assemble stood crooked and misshapen, its fabric flapping wildly in the wind as if mocking her own inexperience. Relentless drizzle soaked through the thin canvas, rendering her refuge more of a sieve than a shelter for the destitute. Trembling hands fought in futility against the gale, essaying to drive the steel stakes to no avail as they refused to yield. Those apologetic hues, reminiscent of the sodden ground, blinked upward to him—and in them he spied a desperation he witnessed countless times throughout his years: the unspoken cry for mercy even as the storm gathered unseen.
“Just what do you think you’re doing? You are aware I own all the land in this area, aren’t you?”
Unamused, with his arms crossed, he scowled at her in disbelief for a thunderous moment, awaiting a response.
“Please… Would you please let me live here for a little while?” Abandoning the sorry excuse for a makeshift shelter, the woman finally stood up, her black tresses billowing with the wind. “I’ll leave as soon as I find a job and work until I have enough saved up to move somewhere else… I promise. I don’t have much money now, but I will pay what I can.”
“This is a dangerous spot, you know.” Condescension dripped with his every word. “Not only because you're on my property without permission, but because of the wildlife, the terrain, and—if you hadn't noticed—the storm that threatens to wash away your pathetic little tent into oblivion.”
Ever the pedantic man, he took a step forward with each venomous remark as if to further ascertain a situation he already pieced together seconds ago, evaluating her efforts like a serpent lying in wait.
“For someone so determined to stay, you’ve done an impressively poor job of securing your new home. The stakes barely pierce the ground and they’re never going to hold under these winds. And don’t get me started on the angle of the tarp, either. It’s laughable, really. One good gust and it’ll all collapse. You somehow managed to pitch the tent in the lowest part of the land, which, by the way, will flood before sunrise at this rate. Your ‘camp’ would’ve been a pond by now had I not intervened.”
The corners of his mouth curled into a snide smirk, his tone turning cruelly amused.
“Tell me, how long do you think you'd last out here, with nothing but these flimsy walls to protect you? You’re clearly not cut out for this.”
“I—I had no idea. This is my first time,” she flinched at the gravity of the situation. “I’ve never had to do anything like this in my life.”
“That much is evident,” he suppressed a derisive chuckle. “Do you have a name, or shall I refer to you as ‘the trespasser’ from now on?”
An uncomfortable pause elapsed as she choked back the urge to shed tears in self-pity. Hesitating, her lips parted then closed as if ruminating over what to say, as if debating whether he deserved to hear her name. One hand clenched into a fist out of instinct, the other mindlessly toying with the small rosary pendant draped around her neck like she had no clue what to do with her hands. Her fingers brushed over the gilded accessory lightly, forgetting she had yet to discard it after the religious institution discarded her—just like her family.
“It’s Jasmine. My name is Jasmine.”
“Jasmine,” Ruki let her name roll off his tongue slowly, savoring it with sardonic mirth. “A fine name for one so foolish.”
A delicate flower, ingraining its roots in a miserable attempt to weather the storm. Revered for its purity and pulchritude, often symbolizing innocence, grace, love, though she seemed to lack all but the former. Petals as white as snow, fragile and untested, that he longed to dye red in the bloodshed of her own ignorance soon enough. How naïve, like a blossom struggling to bloom in the dead of winter. Ruki could already envision it, taste it, the slow, inevitable wilting of the once pristine flower, crushed beneath his heel, its innocence quelled. Yet even in ruin, all its petals plucked, her vulnerability tantalized him, a certain thrill in watching a woman so weak wilt under his watchful gaze.
“And here I thought the church would teach its flock better survival skills. Or do they all just pray that God will solve their problems? Cast out by the very people who preach love and acceptance—what irony.”
“How did you… That’s not—”
“No need to explain. I’d rather not get drenched in this downpour. Here’s a proposition for you, Jasmine.”
Smooth as sleet, his lilt carried both promise and danger.
“My home is large—far too large for not just one person, but my family of four. It could easily house someone like you. In return, all I ask is that you do your part without shirking your work. A few household chores here and there… Nothing strenuous for a woman of your stature.”
“You… You would let me stay? Just like that?” Jasmine blinked, taken aback by his sudden generosity. “All I have to do is some housekeeping, and I can stay there? No, I couldn’t possibly…”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You have nowhere else to go. You have no family, no friends, and your church cast you out like you were nothing. A girl can’t possibly live in a tent alone for months. Not to mention the bedroom doors are lockable,” his smirk now bordered on sinister. “Do we have a deal?”
Both fear and intrigue seized her addled mind. The cold rain continued to beat against the tent, an obnoxious reminder of the precariousness born from her prior idiocy. After Jasmine’s untimely apostasy, she had severed herself off from a once peaceful life in the comfort of her family’s home, those she assumed would support her until the bitter end. With no way to return, with no looking back, all hesitation evaporated like wisps of precipitation before reaching the earth.
“Yes,” she spoke softly, nearly drowned out by the surrounding deluge. “We have a deal. I accept your offer.”
“Very well. I do hope you follow the rules of my household, then.”
Under yet another guise of kindness, Ruki reached down and grabbed Jasmine’s belongings for her without waiting for permission. Not giving her a chance to reconsider her decision, he headed for the manor looming beyond.
“Hurry along.”
Escorting her to his anything-but-humble abode, the young woman spared one last glance at her pitiful tent before trailing behind him into the night. When the two encountered a fork in the road, Ruki slowed his pace to accommodate her unfamiliarity with the area, traversing the quickest path to his home rather than opting for the scenic route. Puddles splashed between them with every footfall as lush grass squelched beneath their shoes, seeping to the soles.
“I never got your name.”
Peering at her over his shoulder, an unmistakable shimmer of condescension shone in his steel-blue eyes.
“You’re far too trusting to accept my proposition without even knowing my name.”
An incredulous snicker left him as he faced forward again.
“Ruki,” he finally said. “Ruki Mukami.”
A small gasp escaped her lips as if that name held some sort of significance despite how they had just met mere minutes ago.
Ruki Mukami.
The name sat at the top of every test score leaderboard in college, right above hers. A name she swore to surpass someday. Although Ruki and Jasmine never once shared a class together, she often wondered about his academic diligence with each exam, how many tedious hours he poured into his studies to achieve such flawless records regardless of the subject. Just hearing him properly introduce himself rekindled the embers of a competitive flame.
Before either of them knew it, they approached an imposing gate at the end of the passage. Still maintaining a firm grip on her baggage, Ruki pushed it open with the ease of a man who had done so a thousand times, leading her into the clearing of the most staggering structure. Nestled beneath the indigo veil of the heavens unlatching onto the night sky, the esteemed Mukami manor stood in ageless elegance, its silhouette soaring past the blanket of grey and into the stars.
Turrets rose like spires encroaching the nimbus on either side of the residence, their round, tower-like forms crowned by cobalt roofs. The stone façade, with its classic European symmetry, evoked the resplendence of nobility from its rugged texture to its mottled shades of pewter as though the exterior withstood a century of storms before the one currently ongoing. Dormer windows punctuated the sloped roofline above, lending the manor a further touch of aristocratic grace at which Jasmine could not help but marvel.
In the curtilage below, a fountain vigilantly resisted the susurrous downpour, its reservoir overflowing onto the pavement. The front entrance, framed by a stately arch that beckoned her past its doors with the promise of warmth from enduring the rain’s incessant onslaught, welcomed the two into the Mukami manor at long last.
As Ruki shoved the heavy door open, a creak resounded throughout the grand foyer. Just as its exterior suggested, the inside of the mansion painted the very picture of luxury. Soft illuminations, diffused through clusters of opulent chandeliers suspended from the high ceiling, bathed the vast hall in a gentle luster that contrasted aesthetically with the monochromatic marble swept across the floor as well as alabaster walls adorned in baroque-style artwork. Taken aback by the never-ending extravagance unfolding in front of her, Jasmine stepped into another world entirely.
Dark teal curtains hanging from brass rods sealed the entirety of outside away in suffocating silence. No more howling winds, no more pitter-patter of the tempest. Only squeaking shoes from the storm and the rustling of fabric echoed in the antechamber now as Ruki shrugged off his impluvious coat, the material leaden with water, and hung it on the nearest hook, turning to her with the same nonchalant ease with which he carried himself since the beginning.
“Dry yourself off before you catch a cold,” he ordered as he handed her a towel. “It sure has been a while since we had a storm like this.”
Now that they left behind the enveloping umbra of the tempest in question, Jasmine found herself examining his debonair appearance more clearly. The dim lighting shed a golden glow upon his sharp features and especially the top of his charcoal hair clinging to his visage in sleek strands that approached a ghostly white at the ends. Each tuft of his sable fringe brushed against prominent cheekbones in perfect framing of his countenance that called to mind a serpent at rest. Lithe and lean, his muscular frame exuded thaumaturgic magnetism. Capable of cruelty and care alike, his large hands, long-fingered and broad, held an unsettling grace. His complexion bore a marmoreal pallor, like marble polished by forgotten deities, divine yet distant from the harsh doctrines of her former faith. A beautiful man, not in the conventional sense per se, but undeniably attractive all the same. Although he constantly carried himself with calm composure, a concealed sense of caution charged his conduct. Truly, a remarkable individual of contradictions.
Everyone who met Ruki Mukami shared this very first impression of him.
Without his coat, she observed how the thick cable-knit turtleneck he wore hugged the subtle curve of his chest and emphasized the broadness of his shoulders beneath its deep black fibers. Trailing her gaze down to his hand as she retrieved the towel from him, his digits demonstrated a masculine elegance in their movements. The faint sheen of water still clinging to his skin and the tips of his bangs brought her attention back to his azure jewels that looked down on her expectantly. While she never swooned over mere looks, he alone captivated her.
Handsome, intelligent, wealthy, reliable, playfully sarcastic—everything about him lured her in. It mystified her, standing so close to someone she both admired and competed with in a one-sided rivalry. To reside with him in his own home from here forward invited an insatiable curiosity that extended past his academic prowess.
“Th-thank you,” she forced the gratitude from her lips as their fingers grazed, sending a miniscule jolt through her. “Your reputation precedes you, Ruki.”
“Is that so?” A faint smirk twisted his striking features as he raised a brow at her quizzically. “And what exactly does that reputation entail?”
“You’re also a student at Ryotei University, isn’t that right? I know because you always have the best test scores. No one seems to come close,” she averted her eyes with unforeseen bashfulness. “You must work so hard. It’s rare to meet someone as consistent as you.”
“School is the least of my worries, but I suppose you wouldn’t be remiss in thinking that. I take it your classes are in the mornings and afternoons since I don’t recall seeing you on campus at all.”
“Yes,” Jasmine nodded, “I prefer to get my classes done and over with at the start of my day. Don’t tell me you attend at night?”
Although his expression remained unreadable, his tempestuous hues flickered with a cross between amusement and assessment.
“Indeed. Simply put, night classes suit my lifestyle. Fewer distractions, fewer people.”
“Does it ever feel unsettling, studying when no one else is around?” She tilted her head, running the towel through her damp, waist-length tresses. “Being on campus that late by myself would honestly freak me out.”
“And assembling a tent by yourself on a stranger’s property doesn’t?” A hand raked through his own midnight locks as he let out a scornful laugh. “Hardly. I much prefer it this way. Solitude is a conducive environment for sharpening the mind.”
“That’s impressive… I can’t imagine balancing everything like that, going to school when most people prefer to be asleep at home.”
Rain continued to drum softly against the glass, mourning its plaintive cries for a firmament that had long obliviated its luminary.
“You’d be surprised how much the world shifts once the sun sets,” he took hold of her luggage once more. “Anyway, we haven’t all night. If you’re done drying yourself off, then let me show you to your room.”
“Ah… Yes, I lost track of time,” Jasmine draped the used towel on a nearby chair and hurriedly followed Ruki upstairs to meet the difference in their strides. “My apologies!”
Countless doors lined the halls of the second floor as the reverberations of wheels rolling along marble guided Jasmine to her new sleeping quarters. She pondered just how only Ruki and the three others in his family could live in such a spacious house given that the manor boasted enough space to serve as a whole dormitory on its own.
“Here we are.”
The bedroom’s tranquil yet romantic atmosphere breathed a relief of fresh air compared to the chaotic storm raging beyond the manor. From the tall window dressed in flaxen curtains with cascading pleats to the pastel plaster along the perimeter, her eyes widened as she absorbed her new surroundings. Ideal for undisturbed slumber, the bed sat in the corner of the room, its lightly carved headboard a testament of rococo artistry. To the right stood a small secretaire, painted in white with delicate detailing along its drawers, complete with a complementary chair. Much like every other room she set foot in throughout the manor, a chandelier hung overhead with its gilded arms splaying in sophisticated curves. While Jasmine enjoyed plenty of vacations with her family in the past, none of the hotels she had the pleasure of staying at could hold a candle to Ruki’s capacious homestead. Every corner looked straight out of her wildest reveries as light coruscated from the walls.
“W-wow… This… is my room?” She questioned in awe. “Really, this place is… Magnificent.”
“Naturally,” he hauled the last of her bags inside and carefully shut the door behind him, watching as the young woman wasted no time in settling upon her new bed. “You ought to get some rest. We’ll discuss your duties as a housekeeper tomorrow, but first—”
A sudden flash of lightning traced along the curtains’ outlines as distant thunder crackled. Golden pleats shimmered like spectral tendrils only for a nanosecond before plunging into the shadows. Roaring wind rattled the windowpanes as rain now descended in torrents, its earlier lamentations escalating to a cacophonous crescendo. In tandem with the rising fury outside, her heart skipped a beat.
“—Are you familiar with the story of Adam and Eve?”
The abrupt change in subject piqued Jasmine’s interest as her castaneous hues flickered up to meet him.
“Yes, of course. I remember the story vividly from all those sermons,” she toyed with the cool silk of the linens idly as she sat on the bed. “Adam and Eve’s relationship with God, their exile from Eden, the forbidden fruit… And their downfall.”
Traipsing towards the window, the darkening sky framed Ruki’s tall silhouette in a striking glow. Another crash of lightning illuminated his countenance as his gaze glued to the storm beyond, then returned to Jasmine.
“Between Adam and Eve, who would you blame for the fall of humanity?”
Uncertain of the line of thought this conversation followed, she contemplated for a moment, mindlessly staring at the soft blankets into which her extremities exulted.
“Hm… They both share responsibility, in my opinion. God specifically instructed Adam not to eat from that tree, but it was Eve who instigated it. You could argue Adam did not correct her mistake and instead took the fruit himself, too. He could have stopped her if he wanted to, and yet he didn’t. That’s why they were both punished—because they both disobeyed.”
“And all because Eve was tempted by the serpent,” came his portentous retort as he stepped closer. “Eve, in her innocence, believed the serpent’s lies. It wasn’t just the sin of disobedience, it was naivete. Oblivious to what true corruption looks like… Much like you.”
Those words weighed on her like the drizzle mercilessly pelting the woodlands outside.
“You have the audacity to set up camp on my estate, seeking shelter—safety—from a world that forsook you. After your so-called faith and family rejected you… Without even knowing who I am, or where you are, you blindly took my offer. Seriously, you might be the dumbest human I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. In your own way, you already took a bite from the forbidden fruit and allowed the serpent to tempt you.”
“Human…?” Her eyes misted in confusion and fear. “What are you saying, Ruki?”
“I’m saying that you are more stupid than a girl who never knew the difference between right and wrong.”
Similarly to how they first met, she flinched at his affront, scooting away from him atop the mattress.
“No… I—”
She could find no rebuttal to deny him.
“It’s true I’m inexperienced and lived a sheltered life up until now, but that doesn’t mean I’m ignorant or that I can’t learn more of the world around me. Believe me, I want to.”
Pulse quickening, voice wavering, Jasmine stood her ground against him.
“I didn’t accept your offer because I am blind and naïve, Ruki. I came here because I had already lost everything, because I don’t have anywhere else to go, like you said yourself. I broke free from the life that confined me at the price of losing everything, which, yes, I can see why you might call me ‘stupid’ for that. It’s true that maybe I had no clue what I was stepping into, and that I trusted you way too easily. But… I don’t regret it. Because even if I don’t know what dangers lie ahead of me, I want to learn. I have to step outside my sheltered life and into the unknown in order to do that,” the deluge howled in concert with her newfound defiance. “Even if you are the serpent of my story, I don’t regret taking a bite of this metaphorical fruit of yours, no matter how ‘forbidden’ it may be.”
“Foolish woman,” he slid onto the bed next to her and leaned forth. “You have yet to lose everything.”
The proximity of his slender frame as he inched closer made her hyperaware of their differences in size and strength. The mattress dipped under his added weight beside her own as he loomed over, smothering any hint of resistance and eliciting an instinctive withdrawal. Each poisonous word he uttered stung her ears as shivers ran down her spine, her heart now thumping erratically against her ribcage akin to the thunder rumbling miles away. With each lightning bolt that plummeted into the earth, farther in distance, Ruki only encroached closer, close enough for Jasmine to see the bloodlust written all over his face.
“Wh-what do you mean by that…? Just what do I have left to lose?”
An arm slowly snaked around her narrow waist, tightening enough to ensure she lacked the mobility to escape what could only appear as an embrace between lovers from an outsider’s perspective. Spontaneous, passionate, tender. For the first time, the young woman noticed the unnerving chill emanating from his body as if he had stood in that storm for hours. An eerie silence permeated his chest bereft of a heartbeat. No steady downpour, not even a single raindrop. Shivering, she recoiled from his touch, the contrast in temperature more intimidating than the Adam and Eve allegory. Coiling even firmer around her petite build, he gave a virulent chuckle against the shell of her ear, his voice low enough to cut through the air like a hiss. With one swift, fluid motion, Ruki’s free hand doffed the collar of her moistened trench coat away from the unmarred expanse of her shoulder, revealing her honeyed complexion beneath titillating featherlight fingertips. Vigor exuded in his every ministration reminiscent of a snake savoring the last breaths of its constricted game, as though a mere shift in pressure would shatter her from head to toe.
“The blood coursing through your veins. Your very life essence,” he enveloped her into his chest. “Despite losing everything, you seem to be in adequate shape. From the instant I first saw you, I already knew you would suffice in quenching my thirst.”
The tips of his fingers splayed along her skin, a firm reminder of his strength without needing to display it in full exertion.
“Ah, it’s been far too long. I’m quite parched,” he husked. “A woman like you makes for ideal prey… No family, no friends, no employment. No one would miss you if you disappeared entirely.”
‘Human,’ ‘blood,’ ‘parched,’ ‘prey.’ The serpent who tempted Eve. Each word of verisimilitude shook her to her core in realizing that bloodsucking predators existed outside mere fiction. That a Vampire held her in his arms the same night her family cast her away like God banishing Eve from the divine garden of Eden. She shuddered as the bridge of his nose dip down along her jugular as though savoring the path to her pulse. When his gelid lips met the hollow of her collarbone, they lingered, parted, patient, and poised to strike. The chill of his undead form seeped into her soul, empty yet deathly intimate. It didn’t take a second look at Ruki for her to quake upon sensation of two sharp, vespertine stakes threatening to puncture the delicate skin they raked over. Goosebumps peppered the exposed flesh laid bare to him and without meeting her gaze, he ripped off the rosary pendant from around her neck.
“How annoying,” he remarked as he threw the cherished jewelry into some unknown corner of the bedroom. With a sickening thud, her rosary hit the floor like a family relic of the distant past, a reminder of how no one would come to her rescue as he already acknowledged. The final tether of a life she once clung to, so easily discarded with what little pride remained. “Your prayers fall on deaf, nonexistent ears.”
“V-Vampires… They really…”
Caging her in his relentless embrace, he clicked his tongue, irritation seething. Although her body quivered in trepidation with every fiber screaming at her to flee, the poor woman resigned herself to her fate, visibly defeated. Fighting against a supernatural being, a real Vampire, equated to a death wish, yet at the same time, surrendering to his fangs spelled out her demise. Dark ambers glistened with unshed tears as her shoulders slumped in despair, ensnared beneath his possessive grip. The chill of his breath fanned over her as if draining the heat from her human form, rivaling that of the squall that encouraged her to fall for his temptation in the first place.
“Yes, what of it? We exist, as much as your sacred scriptures suggest otherwise. Now, stay still. The more you resist, the more painful it will be.”
Frightened shrieks tore from her throat as Ruki’s trenchant fangs lodged into the soft adipose of her shoulder. Crimson cascaded from ruptures he pierced into the flesh beneath her clavicle in red rivulets of cloying ichor, slaking a craving that accumulated for bitter, icebound winters; damp springs dripping with storm-soaked fog; sun-scorched summers; and aching autumns laden with the scent of withering leaves—each season passing without a designated livestock to sate his voracity. Far from satisfied, the Vampire’s eyes closed as he exulted in the delectable taste of her vital nectar, and in it he relished more than just the familiar flavor of coppery sanguine—he savored her fear in every drop that ran between his fangs. Honed ivories descended deeper as he vehemently carved into her skin, chasing the metallic tang blooming across his palate. Each release coated his senses in pure, unadulterated bliss, her life force staining his mouth vermillion.
“Ugh… Uuuh,” tears finally spilled from her ochre hues as the prey screeched in agony. “Gh, hurts… Can’t…!! M-my body is splitting… I can’t!!”
“Heh. Your voice as you cry out… It’s not bad,” sadistic exigency suffused him as he sawed his fangs in and out of her flesh to torment her further. “Mm, let me hear more.”
“Nooo!! It hurts, I’m dying…!” Delicate hands clutched at the back of his turtleneck for purchase. The pain gouging through her felt as though Ruki broke her clavicle in. Not just her shoulder, but a shock ran through all the way to her head like her whole body threatened to fall apart. “I can’t take thiiis!!”
“Get a hold of yourself. You are in no position to defy me. In fact, you never were. That is all you ever amounted to… A human raised to be used like livestock for my sake,” he abandoned the first perforations near her collarbone only to penetrate her neck this time, earning a shrill squeal. “In the end, you’ll crave my fangs the same way a Vampire craves blood.”
The crimson life force carried a maelstrom of terror and arousal that only served to heighten Ruki’s ecstasy, fangs lingering dangerously yet tantalizingly above her pulse point. A mocking rumble resounded from his blood-slicked throat, serpentine canines laying claim to the rich ruby tide that streamed forth. Raspy growls matched her desperate scream-turned-moans as the Vampire greedily drank, his body pressing in demand towards her own and his tongue lathing at her trembling gorge all the while.
“Roughly making a mess of you, hearing you scream until you can bleed no more… Haah, I never tire of this thrill. Mm, your blood… It truly is intoxicating. Even a pesky livestock like you has its uses.”
A flood of euphoria washed over her as if cumming from her neck. Just as Ruki’s fangs ached to rend through her jugular, the throbbing pain inflicted not once but twice slowly spread like a dizzying electricity that clouded Jasmine’s mind. Down to her every limb, she trembled with hypersensitivity, succumbing to the venom of a Vampire’s bite. Somehow, the copious amount of blood escaping her served as a much-needed release. Supercells of rapture ravaged her as if she belonged in his merciless embrace, her very soul rewritten to exist solely for his sake. The strands of his damp, charcoal hair tickled her chin as he indulged, and the fierce growls from him sounded mellifluous on sore ears. Horrified screams blurred into wanton cries as her arms wound around his back, anchoring herself to him, no longer out of fear but need.
The intimacy of his bite stole her breath away. A heady scent enveloped the air around him, a fragrance of unyielding elegance, robust and rain-soaked, reminding her that she had never been this close to anyone in her whole sheltered life, especially not a man. Rather than trying to escape, she pressed closer into him, hiding within his embrace and thus shielded from the world that betrayed her by the strength of his virile hold. As the Vampire’s mouth lingered on her skin, steadily draining the redolent life force from her, Jasmine welcomed his assault with open arms. Sharp stakes sunk deep enough to draw a shuddering, prolonged gasp, siphoning not only her blood but also an awakened devotion.
“A-ah…” Her face contorted into one of pure rapture. “S-so deep…”
A low groan escaped him, a sign that he too found pleasure in their joining. Ruki’s large hands continued to roam her body, mapping every curve and valley, branding her anew with his subzero touch.
Penetrating so deep into her that he harbored no doubts she would remember him inside her even when he eventually pulls out, centimeter by centimeter, the ravenous Vampire looked down upon the young woman in his arms, steel-blue hues ablaze with concupiscence as he fixated on where their bodies fervently joined. Every earnest plunge and withdrawal rained carnage upon them both as the lubricated opening he buried himself in spurted with the nectar of her arousal. A profuse blush dusted her cheeks as she failed to stifle her salacious moans, ecstasy overflowing in blissful waves. Back arching, toes curling, licentious whimpers delving her further into delirium. Hearts practically danced in her eyes as he held her steady for the next bite. No clemency found in the way he impaled her, over and over again. Just as Jasmine submitted to Ruki’s fangs, he fell under the full moon’s influence, begetting a voracious bloodlust, his supernatural ardor unparalleled.
“You love being ravished by your master—I can taste it, smell it. What a lewd piece of livestock.”
By now, Ruki had consumed such egregious amounts of blood that she failed to muster a reply. Vision blurring at the edges, her consciousness slowly faded to pitch black. Of all the brutal ends a human could incur, she wondered if this was truly how she would perish. War, famine, pestilence, natural disasters, genocide, unfortunate accidents—humans could die in so many ways. From birth to present, Jasmine reluctantly spent her days in the chapel, struggling not to doze off to sermons she heard countless times, all extolling the existence of a God she could neither see, hear, nor touch. Most people she knew clung to their faith during their trials and tribulations, praying to the Almighty above to guide them to the answers they so desperately sought. Day after redundant day, they taught her to worship Him, to kneel before Him. All she had to do was adhere to the scriptures and commit no wrong, and she would one day ascend to heaven.
Yet, despite the endless hours wasted in church, the young woman never viewed it that way. She attended only to appease her family until adulthood. Secretly, Jasmine regarded the Bible as little more than a work of fiction, one of the oldest texts for her to dissect in sport. Much like Vampires, or any demon of the night, God too was, in her mind, merely a fictitious character, a higher being that devout followers found solace in throughout the obstacles of life, albeit intangible. In truth, she resented everyone who attributed her achievements to Him rather than to her own innate talent and intellect.
Thus, to die in the embrace of a Vampire, a creature she once thought as mythical as God, was the ultimate irony. At least she could writhe beneath Ruki’s fangs, delight in the way he drew her blood as opposed to perishing from pure pain alone. God and Vampires shared too much in common: immortality, agelessness, a sagacity that transcends time, an air of authority, an imposing presence, the serenity of one who has seen everything, and the power to hold the lives of humans in their palms.
Rather than the serpent of her story, Ruki would become her new God to worship. Jasmine teetered dangerously on the thin dichotomies of pain and pleasure in his every bite; torn between her ugly hatred for the world that forsook her and blossoming love for a Savior who welcomed her, a sensual introduction to the realm of ecstasy she had never known heretofore. Of all the brutal ways to perish, discovering the existence of Vampires and serving as sustenance for a man of her admiration was, quite possibly, the most divine staircase to the pearly gates. Unlike God, she at least beheld Ruki’s deadly beauty, holding him in her arms as a tangible existence. A serene smile graced her lips as she clung to the ravenous Vampire for dear life, deeming herself fortunate to have met him, fortunate that someone so extraordinary would be the one to end her suffering, to save her from her misery, from herself. Lucky to be a sacrifice for Him.
The moment all her loved ones cast her away, she wholeheartedly resigned herself to the possibility of death. While she lacked the courage to drive and twist the knife into her own heart, she had long been willing to welcome any tragedy that might find her, be it a sudden accident or a slow, creeping end. She wandered through life with the cold indifference of one who had nothing left to lose, greeting the future like a burden she grew exhausted from carrying.
That is, until she met Ruki.
With each drop of blood he drained, so too did her contempt and hatred towards everything dissipate. Unwanted by everyone she ever loved and cared for except the parched Vampire who held her limp body. At least, in the end, he preyed upon her as an undead demon of night seeking to slake his thirst and bloodlust using her vital essence. The anything-but-comical notion brought an incongruous chuckle to her lips, likening Ruki’s indulgence to each delicious meal she ever savored as he roamed amongst mortals, an unforeseen predator higher up on the food chain, hidden from their prying eyes and wagging tongues.
As her pulse weakened, Jasmine’s thoughts faded in and out, floating adrift into darkness. Just as churchgoers found catharsis in their God, the newly branded livestock found solace in Ruki’s ruthless clasp. In that fleeting instance, she understood a truth that eluded her for so long: the beauty of surrender, the paradoxical freedom of relinquishing one’s control. No doctrine could replicate the salvation Ruki imparted onto Jasmine.
Exhilarated and impatient, the Vampire pushed his helpless prey supine onto the sheets that bore witness to their macabre tryst, hands planted on either side of her as he forcefully erased the space between their bodies. Remnants of rainwater dripping from his dark, tousled hair fell onto the pallor of her face, tracing moistened paths along her cheeks before plummeting his fangs into the other shoulder as if meting out equal, symmetrical punishment. The morning continued like this, hours bleeding together in a haze, repeatedly dyeing his porcelain daggers against a fountain of red. Together, they drowned in irresistible rapture, the tempest outside slowing to a steady yet gentle downpour that mirrored the rhythmic palpitations beneath her fragile skin.
However, before he could savor the finale before the kill, Ruki could no longer ignore the hearts that never stopped swirling in her citrine umbers. Eyes alight with an unfathomable, persistent warmth. The unsettling, open-mouthed grin, paired with breaths that came in quick and bordered on hyperventilation, did not speak of relief but rather hinted at a budding obsession. No matter how carefully he studied her expression, the Vampire could detect no animosity, no flicker of rage, not even a thirst for revenge.
“…Oi, Livestock. What’s wrong? Too afraid to even resist?” With a slight tilt of his head, his brow furrowed in bewilderment. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
All humans fear dying alone—Jasmine was no exception. From his bared fangs that doggedly pierced wherever they pleased, to his procellous jewels narrowed in scrutiny, and finally, his pale complexion stained with her own blood, the dying girl gathered the remainder of her strength, shaky digits unfurling to caress the side of the last face she would see. The face of her saving grace.
“So, Vampires… are real…”
