“I’m heading to the United States of America, state of Maine,” Luke said when his turn finally came to present his VIP card.

  “We’ll escort you to a waiting room. Unfortunately, all teleportations are temporarily blocked. A noble is about to use the system with their entourage, and for safety reasons we don’t allow anyone else to use it during that time,” the attendant explained. “My apologies, but for some reason a lot of important figures decided to show up today.”

  Luke sighed. “It’s fine…”

  “But it will be available in one hour. Shall I reserve your spot?”

  One hour? What kind of nonsense was that? Wasn’t teleportation supposed to be instant?

  “Yes, reserve it,” he said.

  ***

  Luke sat alone in the private waiting room, silently cursing the nobles for locking down the entire teleportation hub. Still, he hadn’t planned on leaving immediately anyway. Those twenty minutes he managed to secure were exactly what he needed. There was one thing he absolutely had to do before teleporting.

  He summoned Charlie out of his soul. She stepped into the room as if materializing from the air, blinking in confusion at the unfamiliar space.

  “What’s happening, Master Luke?” she asked.

  He didn’t waste time. He wasn’t going to sugarcoat or circle around it.

  “Charlie… I want you to do your vampire thing and feed on my blood.”

  He had already prepared himself for this. His Dark Blood was under strict control, pulled inward, condensed near his heart. Only the normal red blood flowed through the rest of his body. He didn’t want her accidentally drinking the black blood and watching it leap back out of her mouth, returning to him on its own, or worse, plugging the bite wound and stopping the flow of red blood altogether.

  So he had slowly commanded, mentally, not physically, the living Dark Blood to retreat. A bizarre process, but it worked. The blood listened.

  “Master Luke…” she murmured. “You saw it yourself. I’m only losing one point of HP every few minutes. I could hold on for weeks before starving.”

  He stepped closer. “I’ll be in Maine for a while, and you know that.”

  “But I can wait inside your soul. I can sleep there and stay inactive,” she insisted.

  “You told me you wanted to meet my family. Was that a lie?” he asked.

  “It wasn’t. I do want to meet them, Master Luke.”

  “Then let’s handle this now. Feed from me. The teleportation staff will call me in a few minutes.”

  Charlie sat on the edge of the bed. “I can meet them a little, then go back to sleep in your soul.”

  She wasn’t wrong. He’d considered that possibility himself.

  “But I need you at your strongest. And what if I end up in danger?” he said.

  She narrowed her eyes. “That’s not fair. You’re playing dirty.”

  “Yep. After all this time with me, you should’ve figured out I always cheat to win,” he replied.

  Charlie crossed her arms and turned her face away, lips forming a small pout. “No, Master Luke. I said no. Stop insisting.”

  He recognized that expression. Skeleton Charlie used to do it too. Except now… she actually had a real pout.

  He sat beside her and leaned in, close enough that she stiffened.

  “Y you’re really close, Master Luke,” she whispered, stumbling over the words.

  “Charlie… I care about you,” he said quietly.

  “Y-you care?” Her voice was small, almost disbelieving.

  “Of course I do. You matter to me. That’s why I’m giving you a choice. If you don’t want to do this, then I’ll just introduce only Angie to my family.”

  'Lord Luke… I do not mind being used by you, but this is unfair to her', Angie’s voice murmured in his mind.

  Charlie blinked at him, confused. Her mouth opened as if she wanted to speak, then closed again.

  “You’re very mean, Master Luke…” she muttered.

  “Being mean is fine if it’s for a good reason,” he replied. “So here’s the bonus: if you do this, I’ll let you hold my hand again.”

  He would use every weapon he had against his enemies, apparently including emotional blackmail on his own servants.

  “O-okay, Master Luke,” she agreed softly. “I want to meet your family, and… I want to hold your hand again. I’ll only take a little bit of your blood.”

  He exhaled in relief. “Problem solved.”

  There was no alternative anyway. If she didn’t feed, she would eventually wither and lose her sanity.

  Luke began pulling off his shirt.

  “W-w-what are you doing, Master Luke? We’re really going to do this now? I-I’m not even ready…” She covered her face with both hands.

  “You’re embarrassed?” he asked, genuinely puzzled, pausing halfway through taking the shirt off.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Y-yes… you don’t have to take your shirt off…”

  “Huh? But when you were naked you didn’t seem embarrassed. It’s just me without a shirt.”

  “T-that’s different,” she mumbled.

  Luke pulled the collar aside instead, exposing the side of his neck. Samael had explained that a vampire could draw blood from anywhere, wrist, shoulder, wherever, but the neck was the preferred spot. Something about flavor, tied to proximity to the brain. Like how some parts of a chicken were tastier than others.

  Charlie’s cheeks were bright red as she glanced up at him.

  “M-Master Luke… if I hurt you, just push me away so I stop,” she said.

  Her canines lengthened, just a little.

  Okay… that’s mildly terrifying, he thought. Not something he’d say out loud, of course.

  Charlie leaned in. Her breath brushed his skin. Her lips hovered at his neck. Luke wasn’t sure why he was this tense. He’d been cut in half, stabbed, shot with arrows, bisected by swords, but needles? Needles he hated.

  He braced for that sharp sting of a blood draw when Charlie bit down, but… nothing. He blinked, surprised, glancing at her to confirm she’d actually bitten him. She had, her mouth was on his neck. And then a warm, pleasant sensation spread through him, soft and almost euphoric.

  Oh. So that’s the compatibility thing…

  He’d read in Samael’s notes that a vampire’s bite could be either excruciating or strangely pleasurable. It depended entirely on the emotional bond between vampire and target. That was why vampires seduced. If they managed to win someone’s trust, the act of feeding became painless, even pleasant. Malicious, of course, since the whole point was to turn their victim into livestock.

  There were also vampires who didn’t bother with seduction at all. Their bites hurt. Which left him with two explanations for why it wasn’t hurting. Either Charlie was somehow trying to seduce him… or they were simply that close.

  Now he felt guilty for having lightly manipulated her earlier. She had feelings for him. Real ones.

  After a moment, Charlie pulled back. She wiped the corner of her mouth, still stained with his blood.

  “Did it hurt, Master Luke?”

  “No. It was actually… n–” He cut himself off before finishing that sentence.

  She leaned in, her face inches from his. “You taste very good, Master Luke.”

  He had absolutely no idea how to process that compliment.

  “Charlie, you should keep going. Your HP went up, but your Blood Core didn’t,” he said.

  “A-are you sure, Master Luke?” she asked.

  “I’m sure.”

  ***

  Charlie had finished feeding on him, an odd sentence for Luke to even think, let alone accept as normal. Afterward, she bombarded him with questions about whether it had hurt, if he was dizzy, if she’d taken too much. She was clearly worried. But the process was over, and it had worked: her Blood Core was full.

  Two small marks remained on his neck, but with his Rank E regeneration, they’d heal soon enough.

  “Th thank you, Master Luke,” she murmured. “For… doing that for me.”

  “That’s what I’m here for, Charlie. We take care of each other,” he replied, noticing subtle changes in her. Her skin was still pale, but no longer lifeless, more like porcelain with a pulse.

  And her eyes… they had shifted back to blue.

  “The Vampiric Hunger stopped?” he asked.

  “Yes. I don’t feel anything anymore,” she said. “I actually feel really good. No pain at all.”

  Their experiment was a success, including the timing. It had taken her twenty minutes to feed. But the path ahead of them, he realized, would be long and complicated. One glance at his HP told him enough.

  [Health Points (HP): 2770/4770]

  Two thousand damage. Damn.

  But…

  [Blood Core: 20/100]

  She had filled only twenty points of Blood Energy. Way too little for the amount he’d lost. At that rate, he could never fill her Blood Core completely, not without days or weeks between feedings. And he still had no idea how fast the Hunger would drain it.

  At least there’s one good thing. If this had happened while I was still Rank F, we’d be screwed. Rank F doesn’t regenerate HP at all.

  To fully replenish Charlie, she would need roughly ten thousand HP worth of blood. Next, he had to learn how quickly the Vampiric Hunger emptied her Blood Core. If it drained fast, they were in trouble.

  Like Samael said… because I’m half demon, my blood doesn’t yield much Blood Energy. No way a full two thousand HP of my blood only gives twenty to her. If she fed on a level 1 human with barely a hundred HP, she’d need to drain ten people just to equal the thousand HP I gave her… and even that’s not enough.

  I need to figure out how much Blood Energy she loses per day. If she burns through more than I can regenerate, I won’t be able to sustain her long term.

  His gaze drifted to the bracelet, the one that granted access to a greenhouse inside a pocket dimension.

  I’ll need a whole little farm dedicated to plants that boost healing potions. That way I can restore my HP faster and keep up with Charlie’s needs.

  Charlie, as a vampire, couldn’t rely on healers or healing potions. Samael had been very clear: healing magic hurt vampires.

  I just hope she doesn’t lose too much Blood Energy per day…

  ***

  Luke had walked down a long corridor before a door finally opened. He stepped inside a small room.

  “Luke Moon, from Maine?” a man asked, approaching him.

  “That’s me,” Luke answered.

  “Head straight down the hall and stay by my side,” the man instructed.

  Luke followed. The guy was dressed like a mage, robe and all.

  “First time using the teleporter?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s like riding a horse, just without the horse,” the man joked with a laugh. “You’re lucky, though. You got yourself an exclusive teleport on your first try.”

  He opened another door, and Luke stepped into a larger area filled with booths and partitioned platforms. Glowing runic circles covered the floor. Employees wearing the same mage like robes guided people in and out in a steady flow. It really did look like a subway station, just… magical.

  The man led Luke toward one of the attendants standing inside a booth, something that looked suspiciously like a clothing store fitting room.

  “You just need to step onto the circle and wait,” the escorting mage said.

  “Right. Thanks,” Luke replied, stepping in.

  “It’s set for Mexico,” the teleporter operator said.

  “Mexico?! What? No!” Luke jumped off the circle immediately.

  “Relax, it’s a joke,” both men said at the same time.

  They laughed, and Luke exhaled sharply. So that’s why they kept asking if it was his first time.

  “I’ve had bad experiences ending up in the wrong place when using teleportation,” Luke muttered.

  Three times so far, all disasters. First the dungeon, then the tutorial, and now the New World. I hate teleportation.

  Luke stepped onto the circle. He wondered if it worked the same way as his witch magic, the one he’d acquired through the Teleportation Pentagram.

  “Good luck back in the modern world,” one of them said. “And come back to the New World soon. Leave that boring place behind.”

  Then the runes lit up. Light wrapped around him like a cocoon, and in the next breath he vanished. His whole body flashed white, and when the light faded, the room around him had changed completely. It worked. He’d actually teleported.

  A man hurried toward him with wide eyes.

  “What? What are you doing here, kid?” the man blurted out. “No one’s supposed to be able to come here!”

  “What do you mean?” Luke asked, confused.

  “How did you end up on Mars?!”

  Mars?!

  Then the man burst out laughing and clapped him on the shoulder. “Kidding, kidding. Says here it’s your first time using this thing. Relax, you’re in Maine.”

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