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The street was quiet. Streetlamps were the only source of light at this late hour.
A lonely shadow scurried from house to house in search of something – someone – to eat.
Tazuki was hungry. He hadn’t really eaten for a while now and slowly but surely he began to crave the metallic taste of human blood… as much as he disliked to be dependent on those mortals to keep living his own immortal live.
The next house awakened his interest. Whoever lived there seemed to know about the supernatural. He could detect the smell of oni child and dragon. There were some other scents that were not human or caused by normal pets, but Tazuki couldn’t pinpoint which ones those were.
The window on the garden side was unlocked in this hot summer night, so Tazuki used it to climb into the house. The room looked like a fairly normal kitchen-living room, wouldn’t it have been for the Anubis statue snoring softly on the table in front of the sofa. Not a normal house at all.
The blue haired vampire sneaked into one of the other rooms.
Bingo. He’d found the bedroom.
The scent of human was overwhelming; someone was indeed sleeping in the bed in front of him.
Orange hair peeked out from under the covers.
Tazuki’s steps were quiet as he approached the bed. Carefully he dragged the covers down a little and discovered a young boy. He wasn’t sure how old the sleeping boy was, human aging was a mystery to him, but there was a school uniform on the chair next to the door, so he was probably a high schooler.
Tazuki was about to lean down to bite the fair skin on the sleeping boy’s neck when that one’s eyelids fluttered open all of the sudden.
“Is it morning already? Mii-kun?”, the boy slurred, half asleep.
Tazuki froze, his fangs bared.
“You’re not Mii-kun. And you’re also not Kaede-san”, the boy observed, “Did you come in through the window?”
The vampire blinked and nodded slowly.
“You’re my guest then. I’m Kashiwagi Sora”, the orange haired one yawned, ”Do you want to drink something?”
“Actually I was about to do that”, Tazuki said, finally snapping out of his daze. He pointed at his teeth and the boy’s neck, “My name is Kamiya Tazuki.”
“Oh, are you a vampire?”, the boy, Kashiwagi, said. He looked excited, “I’ve never met one before, but I’ve heard that they exist! How many of you are there? Are there more here in the area? Can you really turn ordinary humans into vampires when you bite them? Do you live off blood exclusively? Can you go into the sunlight? Do you have a reflection?”
Tazuki rubbed his temple. “Too many questions at once. Calm down. Normal people panic when they see me and understand what I am.”
“Well, I guess I’m not a normal person then”, Kashiwagi said, “Come on Tazuki; answer at least some of my questions! It’s my first time seeing a vampire; you can’t blame me for being curious.”
Tazuki sighed. “I have a reflection. I didn’t have one in a mirror until they started replacing the silver behind the glass with other materials though.”
”It’s the silver, I see”, there was the faint scratch of a pencil on paper.
“Are you taking notes?!”, Tazuki asked, but then sighed, “It can’t be helped then. Please ask anything you want to know.”
“Nice! Thanks Tazuki.”
“Yeah, yeah. So… I live off animal blood mostly but without human blood once in a while it becomes difficult to stay awake. I have sensitive skin, but I can go into the sun when I put on long clothes and sunscreen. I can’t turn humans into vampires. There aren’t any other vampires in this area as far as I know and I only know three or four others in total, but I’ve heard there are quite a lot if you count every single one on the planet.”
“Interesting. What about garlic? And wooden stakes?”
“I don’t like the smell of garlic, so eating garlic would keep me from drinking your blood if I wasn’t starving, I guess. It seems to be common with vampires, this dislike. And the wooden stakes… I mean, who wouldn’t die from a wooden stake being stabbed through your heart?”
“Fair point”, Kashiwagi said, “Do you still want to drink my blood then? I don’t mind giving some to you.”
“You… don’t?”
”It’s how you survive. I eat animals too; it’s the same, isn’t it?”
”I see your point but…”
“It’s fine Tazuki! Just make sure that I don’t die, Mii-kun and the others would be sad.”
Tazuki gritted his teeth. “I think… I’ll look for someone else.”
“Hey, you don’t have to do that! I really want to try being bitten by a vampire if I’m completely honest.”
“This attitude is going to get you killed”, Tazuki commented.
“It hasn’t yet. So come on, bite me!”
Tazuki sighed. “Okay, sit down on the bed.”
Kashiwagi complied and sat down. He looked excited and was practically sparkling.
”Don’t look like this when I’m about to suck your blood”, Tazuki mumbled and sat down behind the boy. He grabbed Kashiwagi’s upper arm and tilted his head to get better access to the boy’s neck.
“There’s nothing to worry about”, he whispered and bit down.
Kashiwagi winced when the sharp fangs pierced his skin, but he relaxed quickly. With a few big gulps Tazuki’s thirst was satisfied, but he kept sucking a little more, for good measure.
”Thanks for the meal”, he said then and let go of Kashiwagi, “you should probably get a band aid or something to cover the wound.”
Kashiwagi shook his head to get out of the daze he had been put in by the vampire. ”Ah, yes. That’s probably a good idea. Thanks Tazuki.”
“I have to thank you”, Tazuki said, “You’re the first human who let me suck their blood out of their own free will.”
”Did it taste better that way?”, Kashiwagi joked, “You’re free to come again, Kashiwagi blood service is open all day. Actually, feel free to come by whenever, my family and friends are all very accepting about supernatural creatures!”
“Maybe I will”, Tazuki said and smiled.
He watched as Kashiwagi got a band aid and covered the bite with it.
“Sorry”, he said, “I’ll bite in a less obvious place next time, so you won’t have to cover it up when you go outside.”
Kashiwagi’s eyes sparkled: ”Okay! See you next time then.”
Oh. He hadn’t even realized that he’d said ‘next time’, but it didn’t matter now anyways. He had made his mind up. He’d stick with this boy and his unusual environment for a while.
“Yeah. See you.”, Tazuki said and waved before leaving the house.
He concealed a smile when he saw Kashiwagi waving too.
Until next time.