Kiss Me Not

There was a deafening silence that followed after Cain\'s outburst, before a bout of crisp laughter echoed through the room. Cain jokingly looked around and chuckled, trying his best to ease the tension in his chest. "W-where\'s the camera, Gavin? Is this one of your freak prank shows, huh? Are you filming live right now and I\'m the one getting pranked here?"

It was plausible, after all. Gavin and Brione were both celebrities in different fields, and that was aside from being the King and Queen at Country B in recent times. The doctor was sure that this was some kind of joke that involved Gavin\'s entertainment company somehow.

Cedric only shook his head and mumbled, "He had a worse reaction than you, Will. Cain just beat yours for the ages. Though I must say… I\'m quite disappointed. Of all people, I thought Cain would be rational enough to know whether I\'m being serious or not. I bet our psychiatrist would need one of his kind to look after him instead…"

Will rolled his eyes. He distinctly remembered having actually fainted the moment he heard the truth from Cedric. The man even showed him his fangs while threatening to bite him with them.

"What kind of silly plot is this? Really, this is a good prank, Gavin…" Cain nervously laughed.

"Don\'t you feel weird? Anything weird about your body?" Gavin asked with a frown.

"Well, there\'s only one way to prove it," Cedric shrugged as he stood up and approached the doctor. Grabbing Cain\'s wrist, he sliced at his bare arms using his sharp nails in one fluid motion.

"Oww! Are you nuts!?" Cain yelped as he quickly stemmed the bleeding in his arm by pressing his other hand on the wound. He had felt the sharp stinging pain inflicted by Cedric\'s sharp nails. Though looking at them now, he frowned when he saw how it was already shrinking back to normal, the sharp nails disappearing as if they were retractable claws.

He met Cedric\'s stare as the latter murmured, "No need to press on the wound. Why don\'t you see for yourself what\'s happening to it?"

Hesitantly removing his hand, Cain watched in horror as he witnessed how the cut was slowly closing on its own.

"Is Cain also a vampire now?" Will gasped in shock.

Gavin let out a sigh and murmured, "We don\'t know that yet. That\'s why it would be for the best that Cain isolated himself while we observe for possible side-effects of him having Cedric\'s blood in his system." He explained further, "The vampire who turned Cedric was an Exordium one, according to our research. My friend tried to remove her venom from his body, hence the reason why we kept him hidden from others for a month. During that period, the infection in Cedric\'s blood turned him violent. But with the help of my friend, they managed to help Cedric control himself and his urges for a time. But in the end, the problem had… the venom had already reached Cedric\'s heart. As such, they could no longer remove the venom…"

"Thus, I turned into a vampire…" Cedric deadpanned.

"Is… Is this funny to you, Cedric?" Cain retorted as he glared at the vampire, having finally gathered his senses as he put on a brave front.

"Is saving your life funny, Cain? You should know that you were as good as dead after that accident," Cedric hissed. "Didn\'t your doctor explain it to you? That only a miracle could\'ve saved you? Don\'t make it sound like I did it to you because I wanted to. You begged for it, don\'t you remember? You begged me and refused to let me go! You said you wanted to live for her!!!"

Cedric annoyingly spat at the ungrateful man. He didn\'t want to infect Cain that night, but it had been hard for him to witness and watch his dear friend dying. It had been a lucky coincidence. He was in the area during that time, casually hunting for prey when the accident happened. Smelling Cain\'s blood made him run towards the direction of the crash, and the sight of the carnage was truly devastating. He had been utterly destroyed, barely even able to recognize him as the dying doctor cried mercy while uttering Kimberly\'s name. Cain had been delirious, begging for someone to save him, chanting that he still wanted to live for her.

At Cedric\'s words, Cain cringed as he felt a sharp pain shoot through his head. Suddenly tears rolled down his cheeks as he finally recalled the night of the accident. Now he remembered... He couldn\'t recognize who the man was, but his voice was the same as Cedric\'s, asking him if he was sure with what he wanted.

"You didn\'t let me go that night, Cain. You were begging me to save you; constantly  repeating Kimberly\'s name as you pleaded to the gods that you wanted to be with her…" Cedric murmured with a sigh.

A long silence followed. Sighs were the only audible sounds heard inside the room as Cain continued sobbing.

"I did not bite you but simply let you feed on my blood, Cain. So one thing\'s for sure… You will turn into a vampire once you die because my blood is in your system. However, we\'re not sure if drinking a large amount of my blood can turn you into a vampire now after a specific time," Cedric casually explained.

"You see, the one who infected me is hiding right now, and she\'s probably the only one who can give accurate answers to our questions. There are a lot of speculations like, maybe you\'re already a vampire since you\'re healing fast like me? Or perhaps you just simply acquired some vampiric characteristics like special and supernatural powers," he hypothesized.

"Your libido for sex will be strong than usual as well. You\'ll have some hallucinations and other random dreams. You\'ll crave blood… You\'ll smell better than usual… and who knows? There could be more than only you might experience since every individual can have different reactions after the infection. Like me… I turned violent for the first few days, but you didn\'t…"

"Look, I hate to say this, Cain… But I think that it would be better that you stay away from Kimmy till we can confirm that you\'re safe for humans to mingle with," Gavin apologetically whispered, almost a murmur.

"Ah… Cain begged Cedric to live because of Kimmy, Gavin!" Will protested. "And now you want him to stay away from her? How ironic could that be?"

"I won\'t compromise Kimmy\'s safety as well, so I will agree with Gavin on this," Cedric sternly stated.

Will gulped, giving both Cedric and Gavin a disagreeing look as he shook his head. He felt bad for Cain, who right now looked like he was going out of his mind, staring absentmindedly at the figurine on the center of the table.