"Good to know you finally stopped with the annoying rubbish," she murmured, her tone light and seemingly pleased, but her crimson eyes narrowed like knives. "If not, I'd have crushed your skull like an overripe plum."
Raven, now hanging upside down, gave her a flat stare, blood pooling in his skull enough to keep his usual sarcasm from itching his tongue.
"You already figured out most of it, didn't you?" she inquired, her voice soft and knowing.
Raven smiled tiredly as he hung upside down.
"You probably wanted to teach your girls a lesson, cause your maid only watched all the time. Scare them into obeying whatever you say. Yada Yada, or whatever twisted noble logic you vampires run on."
Cryptic as his words were, the woman's expression didn't shift, as she understood exactly what he meant.
"A small doubt, though," he said, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Wasn't that lesson somewhat too dangerous? What if they died? Do you vampires have no regard for your spawns?"
"....."
"It was necessary," she said calmly, unmoved by the question.
Her tone softened as she continued, "My babies are naïve, so they must learn about the lurking dangers around us. And I have no concerns if they get harmed while they learn important lessons under my watch where I can protect them."
'Well, it appears that these people have different age standards than average humans.' Raven owlishly blinked once, then let out a dry chuckle that barely reached his eyes.
"Ahh, necromancy. The ultimate parental safety net." He quipped.
The woman did not respond or clarify his opinions, instead resting her chin on her knuckles, her stare opaque as if telling him to stop his dry jokes and move on to the real topic.
"..."
"Anyway, I don't know, and I didn't care about your reasons," Raven muttered, his voice low but steady. "I was gonna stay the hell out of it." He exhaled, the motion awkward with his upside-down position.
A drop of blood slid past his temple.
"But my fucking sixth sense kept screaming at me to save them, telling me that I would somehow benefit through it."
She watched him a moment longer, then tilted her head with a glint of genuine curiosity.
"So, just like that? You followed a gut feeling?"
"Yeah," he replied, rolling his eyes.
"There was always a fifty-fifty chance it'd blow up in my face. Could've gone well, could've gone straight to shit, and lo-and-behold, the shit happened. Now here I am here hanging upside down from a chandelier in some unknown torture chamber, blood rushing to my head, with the lovely scent of intestines from a dead horror wafting up from below..."
He tilted his head slightly, as if to get a better look at her.
"And I'm having a nice chat with a man-hating vampire lady who's probably gonna torture me to death and feed my genitals to bats—your maid's words, not mine."
".....…"
"You're strange," she murmured at last.
He blinked.
"…Thanks, I guess?"
"Not a compliment," she added smoothly, lips curling ever so slightly.
"You're just… quite strange. Calmly hanging upside down, chatting away like you're not one step from dying. And the fact that you know about supernaturals? That's not something a brat from the gutter should know."
She rested her chin on her palm, crimson eyes inspecting him like an odd puzzle.
"And it's not just your mouth or your knowledge," she continued lazily. "Your body's a cocktail of oddities. Your blood. Your perception. The way your gaze doesn't glaze over when my maid used her charm on you."
Her eyes gleamed.
"You're immune to it. Or at least, you have high resistance to any mental intrusion. That's rare."
'Wait, she said 'charm' didn't she?' his eyes widened as a weird thought surfaced, 'was that maid seducing me all along? Did I had the chance to score-'
"She was not, you small-brained brat," she cut in, as if reading his thoughts.
He scrunched his face, annoyed. "Then what is this 'charm' you are talking about, some kind of vampire voodoo?"
"It's a highborn ability," she said, straightening, "One only possessed by vampire nobility."
'High born and nobility, huh?' That explained a lot and confirmed his gut instinct.
This woman isn't just some run-of-the-mill fang-face.
She's top dog in her world.
And if someone as powerful as that maid is serving her, then she's probably high up in the echelon—even among nobles like her. Though, I can't be sure yet.
Her crimson eyes narrowed, voice low with suspicion.
"Not only did you shrug off my maid's charm… you're resisting mine. Even now."
She peered closer, eyes narrowed to slits.
"I'm not just any vampire. I'm a higher-blood. Direct lineage. A Duchess. That kind of resistance shouldn't be possible for a street rat like you."
That hit him like cold water to the face.
'Duchess?! Wait, what the heck is that? Still, somehow this title sounds heavy as fuck,' he mused.
A numbness crept in.
'No way. That's... not normal. Sure, I've always been a bit weird, but this? This is some next-level bullshit…'
His gaze shifted, drawn instinctively to the drifting dust ball suspended in midair.
Except… it wasn't a dust ball anymore.
It swelled and distorted in form, resembling a tattered plushie and a puff of black fog.
Its body had no distinguishing traits, only threadlike sutures where eyes should have been.
Two small wings flapped slowly and awkwardly, like a paper piece caught in the wind.
Raven stared at it, raising a brow. His expression clearly read, 'Did you do that, buddy?'
The strange being fluttered and shook side to side, almost like it was saying, 'Bro, I got no idea what this crazy lady's talking about. Don't drag me into this shitfest.'
Not wanting to draw attention to his weird chat, Raven was about to shift his focus back to the vampire lady when a voice cut through the air like an icy blade.
"So that's the puny creature that's been tailing you."
His eyes widened as he noticed she was now standing directly next to them.
'When the hell did she move?!'
His eyes widened as he saw the woman looking at the creature.
"Nemu! Run away, she can see you!" he warned.
But before Nemu could react, the vampiric woman's exquisite palm blazed a deadly crimson, and in a split second a Ruby-like substance shimmered into form, and her fingers closed around the creature.
Seeing Nemu in the woman's grasp, something in Raven snapped and his expression became dark as he cursed, "Let him go, vampire bitch."
She didn't get offended at the curse. In fact, she smiled wider, like she'd been waiting for this.
"So this is the real you under all that pretense," she mused, lifting Nemu gently.
She glanced back at Raven. "Look at you ... .you are snarling like a mutt for this little thing."
Raven said nothing.
But his eyes warned, 'Shut the fuck up. Put him down.'
Her grin intensified, "Relax, brat. I'm not going to hurt him."
She turned her palm slightly, observing the stitched creature with a strange fondness.
"In fact," she said with a hint of amusement, "I find him… endearing because my honey uses cursed spirits too."
Her crimson gaze inspected Nemu with morbid curiosity.
"Still… to think this tiny, sentient cursed spirit of a mere low second rank could hide from my senses for so long…" she murmured, eyes narrowing with intrigue. "Interesting. Very interesting."
She brought the trembling plush-like creature closer to her eyes, as if studying a rare artifact.
Nemu, already scared out of his stitched little mind, began to vibrate in her palm, on the verge of passing out from sheer terror.
Her crimson gaze flicked from the cursed spirit in her hand to Raven hanging upside down. "Hmm… should I kill you and give this strange little thing to my honey? I imagine she'd be quite pleased."
________
A/N: If you're enjoying the story, consider tossing an early review (they're like writer caffeine).
Wishing you a good day, night, or whatever time zone chaos you're living in!