That's right.

I bit the vampire.

As he sprang at me, I kind of grabbed his head and bit down on his neck, hard enough to draw blood. Metallic-tasting liquid trickled into my mouth. It had sort of stale flavour to it, if blood could be called stale, but also tasted kind of... zingy.

He froze in shock. I froze in shock. We stayed in that awkward position for a few moments.

I was the one who unfroze first.

"Geh!" I wrenched myself away, shoving him back from me and started spitting out the blood. "Pleh!"

I sucked my teeth and gathered all of the saliva up, then spat the bloody glob out in disgust, making sure to swallow nothing. I wasn't sure of the consequences of vampire blood consumption, but I sure as hell didn't want to find out first-hand. Where was water when you really needed it?

The vampire guy had fallen to the ground on his knees with his hands planted on the ground in front of him, probably questioning his entire existence as a being who bit people and not the other way around.

"That," I spat out what was hopefully the last of the blood, "was not planned at all."

I didn't receive a response. Bending down to look at his face, I saw that it was even paler that it had been and he looked completely traumatised. I waved a hand in front of his face and still didn't receive a response.

"Um... sorry?"

Nothing.

"So... I'll just, uh, be going now..."

I started to back away and he still didn't look up.

"Yeah, uh, bye!"

I broke into a sprint and ran away. But as expected, I hadn't gotten very far when the rest of the vampire family, who had been hiding behind the tombstones all this time, jumped me.

"Oh my gosh, little brother. You're, like, so pathetic."

"Shut up! That's all you've said for the past three hours!"

"Hey, I only speak the truth. You got bitten by a human. That's so lame."

"It was a human with superior Flame powers! You saw how it produced that globe of fire in its palm."

Gee, I totally appreciated being referred to as an it.

"That's no excuse for getting carelessly bitten like that. I never knew humans could even bite vampires until today."

"Stop bringing that up!"

That wasn't Japanese. Wasn't English either. Obviously, I still understood it.

"Supposedly superior speed, supposedly superior strength, and supposedly superior Psyche."

"What's with the 'supposedly'?!"

"And yet, even with all those advantages, the human managed to be more vampiric than the actual vampire."

"Will. You. Please. Shut. Up."

The older sister sounded like she was having fun teasing the guy I had bitten. Laughing at another's misfortune. I could respect that.

"I gotta agree with Adela. You're always bragging about how your Psyche is the second most powerful out of all of us."

A new voice reached my ears. So Adela was the sister's name.

"Brother, not you too."

"And then you can't even psychout one measly human female."

Who the hell did he think he was calling measly?

"Isaac, the proper term is Mesmerise."

Look, or rather, hear, another voice has entered the scene!

"But Xavier, that doesn't even make sense! Why is it called Psyche and then Mesmerise?!"

"Because our family head decreed it so."

There was grumbling, probably from 'Isaac'.

"That being said, I must admit I am quite disappointed in you too, youngest brother. I fully expected you to capture the human. It would have brought much prestige to our family had you managed to successfully subdue it. We also would have gained much power from feeding on it."

"I am sorry, eldest brother." was the ashamed reply. I would feel sorry for him, if not for the fact that it was my freedom on the line. There was a yawn.

"And you won't fail again, blah blah blah." The sister, Adela, who was sounding incredibly bored. "By the way, has the human awoken yet?"

There were footsteps, and then I felt a presence lean over me.

"Oh? It's, like, actually really pretty, isn't it?"

Why, thank you. Compliments on my features were appreciated. Pokes on them, not so much. I felt a cool finger touch my face, tracing my cheek down to the corner of my lips. That was not welcomed.

Time to go bite another vampire.

Adela had been admiring the human female's aesthetics, stroking its face with a finger, when all of a sudden its eyes flew open and it chomped down on the digit. She shrieked.

Her brothers came rushing over to see what was wrong and the human rolled off the sofa, letting go of her aching finger. It sprang up and leapt over the luxurious piece of furniture, one hand on the gilded back.

"It- it bit me!" screeched the only remaining woman of the de Flăcării family, backing away from the savage creature with beautiful long hair. It bared its teeth at them, reminding them of what had happened to their dearest baby brother.

Maybe she could actually sympathise with him.

She glanced at the young vampire, who was trying to hide how utterly terrified he was of that set of perfectly normal human teeth.

Or not.

Xavier was already stepping forward, preparing to use his Psyche. There was a crackle in the air which she had not noticed before, which was most likely caused by his power. Adela had never seen her eldest brother use the full extent of his Psyche before, but since this human had easily resisted - no, not even resisted, completely ignored - the strongest of the family's second most powerful, underestimation of the human would be pure folly.

Xavier wasn't even facing them, yet Adela could see the red glow of his eyes - a side effect of Mesmerising - reflected on the sofa and the human's face.

"Come out from behind the sofa. You can trust us," he coaxed. "We won't hurt you. Come here."

Amazing. Adela could feel the power of his words. She wanted to believe and obey him, even with her natural resistance, and it wasn't even aimed at her. Her own Mesmerise was laughable in comparison.

The human stopped baring its teeth, a confused expression on its face instead. It hesitantly stood up. It was working-!

"And I'm just supposed to believe you?" it asked in disbelief. Nevermind. "You kidnapped me and were talking about gaining prestige from subduing me - which didn't you just kinda do from knocking me out? - and feeding on me."

So, apparently it spoke their language and had been awake the whole time.

Xavier sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"So this is it, huh?" he mumbled to himself. "This is the day I'll have to actually physically handle a human."

"Did you just ignore-" Xavier sprang at the human, which looked completely unconcerned about he undead creature jumping at it. And with good reason too. The oldest surviving vampire of the de Flăcării family hit an invisible wall - which became visible in crackling green for a second - with a nasty crack and fell onto the plush red of the sofa.

"Lightning flames!" hissed Isaac.

"What?! So that crackling wasn't eldest brother's power?" asked Adela.

"Well, evidently not," replied the middle brother.

"What a powerful human." Adela's eyes gleamed. They really had to have it now.

Hello, I'm alive, but the heat yesterday and last Friday almost killed me. 45 degrees Celsius ugh. Damnit Australia. Yeah, this chapter probably sounds incomplete, sorry, but I ran out of steam.

Maiokoe: I may have other plans for him.

suntan140: Haha yeah, true friendship always begins with attempted homicide.

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