222 Equally Guilty
Before Tilla’s fist met Vincent’s eye, he abruptly opened his eyes and managed to grab her hand. He stopped the fist in time and protected himself from getting blue eyes, that is if Tilla’s fist had that much power and precision.
Sure enough, Vincent was finally fully aware of his surroundings. He saw Tilla looking down at him with pure terror in her eyes. He looked down at his mouth and finally realized that he had been draining Tilla’s blood. He abruptly opened his mouth wide and retracted his fangs.
However, since he had made very deep puncture marks on her hand, the bleeding didn’t immediately stop. The sweet blood kept on pouring inside his mouth; Tilla was in too much of a shock and didn’t immediately pull her wrist away from his mouth.
‘How the hell did I end up hurting Tilla?’ he tried to recall everything that had led him to do this, but it was taking him some time because he wasn’t completely conscious when everything happened. He was blinded by his bloodlust and his memory was a bit hazy at the moment.
He gently held Tilla’s hand that was still in his mouth, and he lifted it up.
No words were exchanged between the two of them. Both of them were too scared to utter a single word. Tilla was scared that Vincent would bite her again if she spoke. And Vincent was scared that Tilla would beat him up and storm out of the room if she knew he was fully aware of what was happening.
Thus, Vincent quietly held Tilla’s waist with his other hand and then pushed himself to sit upright.
Tilla slid down from his stomach to his lap. Her heart and lungs were overworking, trying to keep her alive and out of shock. However, since he was holding her waist as well as her wrist, she didn’t dare to get up and run away just yet.
It was true that she was scared to keep on sitting there in his presence, and on him. But, she was terrified to get up and turn her back on him. ‘What if he went berserk again and attacked me from the back?’ she thought to herself.
.....
Vincent gently held her punctured wrist and looked at it with a guilty expression on his face. He was still under the belief that his bloodlust had taken over him at last and Tilla had fallen victim to it. He lifted his gaze and dared to look at Tilla’s face. Her face looked really pale, almost as if very less blood was left in her body.
‘What have I done?’ he cursed himself in his mind for almost completely draining Tilla out of her blood and killing her. He looked back at her puncture marks and then murmured in his head, ‘Let’s think about everything later. First I need to stop her bleeding.’
Without wasting another second, Vincent protruded his fangs again, startling Tilla once more. But she was surprised when he did something completely unexpected. He lifted his palm and then bit himself. He swiftly fisted his palm over Tilla’s wounds.
Tilla was utterly stunned when his blood started to drip onto the puncture marks on her wrist. “M-Milord?” she stuttered in fear thinking that he was doing some weird ritual before killing her off.
But before Vincent could speak, she was dumbfounded to see her wounds healing right in front of her eyes, that too at a speed that wasn’t normal for a human.
To answer her confusion, Vincent softly whispered, “My blood can heal the puncture marks on my victims. Only my victims.”
“Hmm...” Tilla raised her brows and watched her wounds heal in fascination. She had forgotten that she was still sitting on the lap of the very vampire who was sucking her blood nonstop until a while ago.
“Your blood has healing properties?” she asked as one of the puncture marks vanished in front of her eyes.
Vincent let out a sigh of relief after hearing Tilla talking normally, and then he replied to her, “Yes. It’s almost like a defense technique that allows me to hide the evidence of my involvement. I can heal the puncture marks on my victims and act like I never attacked them.”
They both shared an awkward glance with each other before Vincent broke the silence again, “Um...” He nervously looked at her wrist where the wounds were now almost completely healed. And he mumbled defensively, “It’s not like I am healing you to cover up what I did to you. I will report this incident to both the King and the Queen and receive appropriate punishment from them. I am healing you because I...”
He took a deep breath in and removed his hands away from Tilla. Then he spoke when Tilla’s wrist looked as good as before, “Because you were still bleeding and I didn’t want you to suffer.” He guiltily looked away to the side and mumbled in a hateful way, “Although all I have been doing today is making you suffer.”
“I don’t think I even have the right to apologize to you anymore.” He sounded so dejected that Tilla felt pity for him.
“Er...” Tilla cleared her throat and spoke in her soft and polite voice, “I think I am equally guilty. I was the one who forced you to drink my blood after all. The only mistake on your part was that you almost drained me completely.”
Vincent looked back at Tilla with a surprised expression on his face. “You forced me to drink your blood? Why?”
Tilla had assumed that this was the case, that he was feeling guilty because he didn’t fully remember everything that had happened. So, she explained it to him, “Umm... it looked like you were going to attack someone else. And for some reason, I couldn’t let that happen. So... I tried to keep you here by making you drink my blood.”
She gave a nervous laugh and said as if it was nothing, “Thankfully, it worked! And you are satisfied, so you won’t go around attacking anyone else.”
“Tilla!” Vincent exclaimed in disbelief and rubbed his eyes with his cold palms. He looked into her pure eyes and asked in a hushed voice that came deep down from his heart, “Why would you throw yourself as bait to stop me when you fear being bitten?”
Tilla chuckled nervously again and replied after breaking eye contact with him, “That’s what I have been asking myself. I could have... died if you didn’t stop in time. So, even I am wondering at my own action.”
Vincent suddenly felt something unexplainable in his heart. He didn’t know if it was guilt, discomfort, or his gratitude towards Tilla, but it felt oddly nice.
Before he knew it, his palms automatically moved forward and cupped Tilla’s cheeks. And almost as if his bloodlust was controlling his mind, something made him lean forward towards her lips.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶