Mina stopped as soon as her fangs pierced his skin.
The blood wasn't coming out.
She pulled back and looked at his neck, which bore the mark of her teeth, in confusion.
Then she looked at him. He was watching her calmly, almost as if her suddenly biting him meant nothing.
His voice sounded then, as if to explain:
"My blood isn't good for you."
She frowned.
Aren't you going to run?"
"Run? From what? From you and your little fangs?"
"Aren't you surprised?"
"Again: from you and your little fangs?"
An annoyed expression appeared on the maid's face.
"Anyway, I had never met an Unliving before; I had heard of them, but it's nice to finally meet one," he said, the interest clear in his voice.
"You know my race? We're not very well known among the humans on this side."
"I know. I also heard that you feed on blood; seems like it's true."
"No! Those are senseless rumors!"
Cassian raised an eyebrow, as if pointing out that this was exactly what she had just tried to do.
But then a groan of pain escaped Mina as she curled into herself, trying to contain something or find relief.
Cassian's brows furrowed.
"If it's not hunger that's making you like this, then why?"
Mina's red eyes rose to look at him with fury.
"That damn drug, what else!"
"Drug?"
"All Unliving are subjected to it from birth, whether we're turned or born this way. It makes us loyal and controllable by our elders. And if we rebel… we become bloodthirsty creatures."
For a moment, he didn't want to keep listening; he didn't want other people's problems.
But she continued:
"That's why I'm like this. I left my homeland, disobeyed a direct order, and now I have to pay for it," she said, clenching her fists over her shoulders, trembling with anger and helplessness.
"It doesn't look like your judgment is that clouded yet."
"It will be, but it's still early. This should just be a relapse; once it passes, I just need to drink blood and I should be fine. That's what I was planning to do, but you arrived before I could."
"So you decided to feed on me," he finished, as if closing the matter.
She nodded while he continued.
"Well, I'm sorry to tell you that my blood isn't ideal for you." Though internally he thought, 'It shouldn't be as much of a problem as my original body's…' He shook his head. "It's better if you find someone else, or an animal."
"Why?" the woman interrupted his thoughts. "You can spare a little blood, I won't overdo it."
"It's not because of that. It really isn't suitable for you."
This didn't seem to convince her, because she kept insisting:
"Just a little! Don't you care about Bethany? Do it for her!"
He frowned, his gaze growing colder at the mention of his little sister, but he still answered:
"You've already seen that it doesn't come out for you. You'd better stop insisting."
The change in him made the woman recoil slightly, but then tears began to fall from her eyes.
Cassian's eyes softened a bit at the sight, feeling a touch of helplessness.
Don't be weak in front of tears, he told himself, frowning as he offered her a handkerchief.
Mina snatched it roughly, wiped her tears, and then blew her nose with it.
"I shouldn't have listened to those people… Now I'm alone and I have to endure the pains of the obedience curse. I'm going to turn into a mindless creature, and for what?"
"Do you absolutely need to drink blood? Or how does it work? Maybe I can help you…" There was clear reluctance in his voice.
"Blood helps with the pain, but the end will be the same unless I manage to get the drug out of my system, which is impossible."
Cassian reluctantly took her wrist and began circulating his energy inside her body. Mina jumped in fright.
"What are you doing? Stop!"
But he was focused on seeing what was really happening to her.
He was in for a surprise as he examined her interior: her heart pumped blood as if she were alive, but every so often it stopped as if she weren't.
That matched her race's name, but what caught his attention most was something else: there was no drug circulating inside her.
The reason for her suffering didn't seem to have that kind of explanation.
"Aren't you lying to me?" he asked.
"Huh? What lie? Are you stupid? Can't you see I'm suffering here?" Red veins appeared in her eyes as she spoke.
"If you're not lying…" an explanation seemed to form, "then your elders did."
Cassian's eyes grew cold again; he didn't like her tone.
"How could the elders lie to me when, clearly, ever since I stopped obeying them I've been going through this?"
"Did you never consider that the rumors are true? That you need blood to live."
"Impossible…" she whispered in disbelief. "I had never consumed blood before."
A helpless sigh escaped him. He extended his wrist and brought it close to the woman's mouth.
"Just a little. I'll let you have a bit just to confirm what I told you."
Mina's eyes narrowed as she looked at the offered wrist with desire and distrust.
With trembling hands, she took his hand and brought it closer to her teeth. When his skin brushed against her fangs, she sank them into his flesh again, sucking, and this time she actually got something.
A moan of pleasure escaped her almost the instant the first drop touched her palate.
A blush began to spread across the maid's face; she looked like she had tasted the most incredible delicacy of her life.
She adjusted herself and pulled his wrist harder so her fangs could sink deeper and suck even more.
And almost at the same time, something in her core, in her circles, began to change.
From the fifth to the sixth circle in a matter of seconds; from the sixth to the seventh took a bit longer because she had to break the limit, but she managed it not long after.
From the seventh to the eighth, and when it seemed she was going to reach the ninth, the blood stopped flowing to her.
A whine of annoyance echoed in the room, but the pleasure it had left inside her made her fall to the floor and melt with the lingering taste.
Her legs moved restlessly and her eyes looked at Cassian as if she had found her god.
"Mmmm, she was definitely deceived. How foolish. For someone who knows quite a bit about other things, it seems she never doubted what her 'elders' told her."
At that moment, Adela returned, only to be met with a sight that triggered every protective instinct she had.
Seeing another maid so close to Cassian, and only the two of them, immediately activated irrational jealousy.
She completely forgot what had been worrying her.
Circulating mana through her body and creating two black, sharp stakes in her hands, heading straight toward Mina to cut her in two.