Nikolai suddenly jerked back, and a sour, rotten taste filled his mouth.
"Urgh..." He forced himself, clawing the ground, digging several inches deep, anchoring himself. A violent, sharp pain assailed him like blades tearing apart his throat, quickly spreading further like rciless hands of venom reaching towards his stomach and lungs.
Chills shot down Nikolai’s spine as he peeked at Zara lying in his arms with dilated pupils and remaining unresponsive. His stomach clenched tight, forcing his aura to rage around his body as if fighting an invisible battle and driving him insane.
"What’s happening?!" Oi! What are you doing to my sister?!"
A shrill shout sounded, but Nikolai ignored it, his lips kissing Zara’s soft pink stomach, sucking the murky green goop from her belly. With each mouthful, his mind dulled. As if he sat drinking sand and salt water.
"Verna, calm down. Look at his face, that is not the look of a reckless man!"
Vladik’s voice ca and went.
Nikolai’s mind focused on the soft woman in his arms, her breath light and faintly audible as she watched him with a misty curiosity. But his nerves jolted when the softness of Zara’s stomach beca tight and withered.
His triple hearts thumped enough to explode while sensing the heat and colour fading from her once vivid pink body.
He let go of the ground, ignoring the sharp rending pains which spread from his head to toe, green veins pumping corrupted blood beneath his flesh.
’Do your job, Evil god! Save her... do sothing worthwhile!"
He ignored the violent flood of foreign energy, allowing his black blood to copy, perfect and detox it on the spot. The more he drank from Zara, the sooner he could grant her his blood and restore her completely.
Yet... the pain constantly changed, from stabbing, to a burning and then back to a dull ache. He tried to mask it, but his face scrunched up the more he drank. The cells and parts of his body attacked were only on one side; the other was completely untouched.
He searched his mories, thinking back to conversations with Anastasia and Sasha about what happened while in the hands of the Nosferatu and other families—the person responsible for their suffering and who made those labs.
’Was it him?!’
Nikolai’s bloodshot eyes widened, his lips dripping with less green blood; now, fresh blue blood leaked from Zara’s stomach.
However, the dark veins, withered skin and faded colour didn’t change; her throat sounded as she firmly gripped Nikolai’s head, forcing a smile upon her lips.
’It’s not anti-werewolf, but rather. Anti-monster.’
Once he realised, everything ca into place like a jigsaw puzzle in his mind. The doctor he faced, with an obscene level of aura, was the man who helped Alucard capture his aunt, and likely many other mbers of the Volkov clan.
’All for the sake of immortality...’
Nikolai pulled his lips away from Zara’s stomach, and Vladik sent the nobles away, clearing the room while black and blue blood mixed into a violet shade, dripping from his chin onto Zara’s slightly muscular abdon.
"How is she?"
Verna’s reaction earlier remained in Nikolai’s mind as he stroked Zara’s stomach, but didn’t turn to face her. His lips trembled before he spoke. "She should pull through, but what changes will occur, I do not know."
"What do you an?! Can you save her or not..."
He snapped back, glaring at Verna before seeing her look... tearful eyes, scrunched up, ruining her makeup as she hugged her shoulders.
’I see... she isn’t the enemy.’
Because her father brought the doctor who caused this trouble, Nikolai couldn’t hold back the resentnt towards his only blood relative remaining in the hall.
"I’ll still need to do one more thing, but after that... she’ll likely change forever. It’ll be positive, but even I cannot know the direction things will take."
’Honestly, I hope she gains an extra set of arms, so her heart is at ease.’
"Mm, forgive , I snapped at the wrong person, but Zara is like family to , and I cannot bear to know sothing happened to her, just because I insisted she co ho."
"We all lose control of our emotions at tis, don’t worry. Since we’re already family, after this bite... Zara will be my wife. A bride, to be exact, a vampire’s bride."
He noticed the change in her facial expression, the scrunched up and ssy look, now one of wide-eyed confusion, her mouth opened like a large circle.
Nikolai gave her a passing smirk before crouching next to Zara’s face.
"You’re awake, right?"
"Mhm..."
"Did you hear what I said?"
He didn’t play around or make jokes; his manner and words were cold and blunt.
Zara stared at his face.
Despite her weakness, she tried to cup his cheeks. Her pale lips were cracked and darker than before. "I can’t believe things are moving so fast, don’t think that I planned for this so soon..." She forced back a laugh, only to start coughing.
"Zara?!"
"Sister, are you okay?!"
Even Vladik, who’d controlled his emotions earlier, beca a simple doting brother once the Shadow Guard cleared the room.
Their constant questions and voices struck a nerve, and Nikolai snapped at them, his utterance practically a beast’s roar.
"Don’t force her to talk; go sit on your throne with your wife."
"Y-You!"
Vladik’s clenched fists trembled without a target as he ground his teeth together. He finally grunted before pointing at Nikolai. "You better save her, you hear ?! I know you can, so do whatever you need."
"Ah, I will."
Nikolai blocked everything out, his thoughts about Franz, Clara’s emotional state and even Zara’s confusion. He looked into her ears, while loosening his visage, he curled his lips into a bitter smile.
"Finally, we’re alone again."
"Idiot... what kind of ti is it for that?"
"Zara, it’s always ti to flirt with one’s wife, didn’t you know?" Nikolai raised his brows while taking her chin with one hand and turning her away. He then extended four-inch-long claws like blades on the other and slashed his pale flesh.
Blood trickled across the wound in small droplets.
"Ahh... It’s so hot, and strange... my stomach is suddenly tingling."
"That’s good."
Nikolai’s voice shivered as he pushed the sharp claws into the wound, tearing apart the rapidly healing ulnar and radial arteries, creating a ssy, soft squish. His face puckered like eating several lemons each ti.
"W-What’s he doing?!"
"Shh, this must be why he sent us away. But you’re right, how the hell can he look so focused when almost severing his own hand? It’s fascinating."
Zara struggled against his hand, but with the strength of a Great Elder in comparison to Nikolai’s, she could only lose.
The man in question just curled his lips slightly at their words, enduring this pain, which drove him half mad, was sothing he’d endured multiple tis now. Along the insides of both his arms were several pale scars that even his regeneration refused to heal.
Nikolai saw them as a badge of honour.
’Each one is important, my mother’s revival, my first children, my first son and now, my lovely royal wife.’
Although his other wives were classified as Royal Class due ot their blood, Zara was the only official princess of her kingdom and world.
He focused on the wound, watching as the dark, ebony veins shrank, returning to their regular blue hue. The withered, salmon pink flesh also started to fatten up, becoming plump and soft, recovering almost fully.
’Now the hard part...’
When he lifted Zara’s face, allowing her to see the state of his arm, her eyes widened, then narrowed, and then looked up at his face. "What the hell are you doing?! Are you a damn fool, cutting yourself like this every damn ti!"
Her raspy voice resounded through the royal banquet halls like a clap of thunder; even Vladik and Verna froze still at her sudden regality.
Nikolai faced her eyes, captivating and golden, with a black sclera.
"The blood has to be fresh."
"I don’t give a damn if it has to be fresh! Nikolai Volkov, look at your arm, look at those scars, not just those, do you think I haven’t seen the ones covering your entire body!" Zara pushed against his strength, and for the first ti, he moved.
"Stop, listen to ."
"No, you listen to ! I may be unwily, lack the common sense of your other won and wives, but surely they also don’t want to see you like this. Haven’t you considered how we feel when you hurt yourself so intensely for us?"
’Ah...’
She was right.
Nikolai thought everything was fine since his wounds always healed in a few seconds.
"I’m right, aren’t I?" Zara sighed before taking both his hands into hers. She stroked the striking red and black bloody wounds, her fingers gently stroking each scar.
"I know, I know in my head that I am being a hysterical fool right now. But... since we’ve kissed. I can’t just look on like a doctor or bystander anymore, okay?"
A ferocious warmth overwheld the stabbing pain, which lingered as if a raging beast; it swallowed everything, and all that remained was Zara’s aura.
Mysterious, soft, malleable and... fused with his.
’W-wait...’
"Z-Zara, what just..."
"Aha, you just felt it, didn’t you?"
He felt sothing soft stroke inside his chest, as if kittens were kneading his sore muscles and flesh. This wasn’t his energy, but it was inside him and stread freely like his aura.
It was Zara’s Soul Force.
"You need to feed your blood right...?"
Zara’s voice disturbed his shock at the weird phenonon. Akin to soone else putting their hands inside your body and freely ssing with you.
"Y-Yeah." He answered with a delayed reaction.
"Mm, then... allow to help so it’s less painful."
"What do you an—Mmmph!?"
Zara wrapped both arms around his neck and kissed him with an open mouth. A soft puff of cherry flooded his lips, followed by a slight prick. The next mont, the squishy softness of Zara’s long tongue wrapped around his.
’How is she going to take my blood like... oh, I see.’
A sweet, faintly bitter taste spread through his lips as blood seeped from his tongue.
’That’s why she numbed my sense of pain.’
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