Sixth Bloodline [BxB]

ARC 2 - BLUE DEATH - CHAPTER 18: HEALERS [SORRY, MY HAND SLIPPED]

ARC II: BLUE DEATH

cHaPTeR 18:

HeaLeRS

[SoOrY, MY HaND SLippeD]

   MIKHAEL UNDERESTIMATED Ethan's shamelessness — he already thought that his old boss was the most vile person in the universe, but why did no one warn him that his new warden is someone much worse?

A week!

And entire week! Seven days, 148 hours!

That's how long Mikhael didn't have a decent sleep! After being tortured for entire night, and then got bullied during the day and dragged to various places — Mikhael didn't have a single chance to even take a short nap, forget about decent sleep.

If Mikhael complained that he's tired, the Ethan would happily offer his hand and feed him. If Mikhael complained that he's not feeling too well, the other guy would still feed him his blood.

If he wanted to use an excuse to leave his side, Ethan would cheerfully ditch his job and accompany him everywhere!

He was worse than a fly that won't go away!

And when night fell, he'd drag Mikhael to the bed and do *cough cough* with him until morning, then continue his "Daily quests of torturing Mikhael". He even used him as a snack!

When he's hungry — or he'd just use that excuse, since vampires don't really need food — he'd exploits Mikhael's cooking skills who could only obey lest the other party chose his blood as snack instead.

   "Ah, how tired," Mikhael is someone who'd lose all of his willpower if he skipped on a sleep, so recently, despite his body being in perfect health, he looked like someone on a verge of dying.

   "You need more blood then?" If a vampire drank blood, forget about being tired, they could even run a circle around the world.

Mikhael decided to throw a glare at Ethan who, in comparison to his wretched self, looked fresh and cheerful like he found a Fountain of Youth or something.

One would think that after a week of time spent together, Mikhael would come to like this place and chose to accompany Ethan from now on, but no! With every passing second, Mikhael's desire for freedom only grew bigger!

Ethan, too, was well aware of that fact which is why he didn't dare let Mikhael out of his sight even for a single second. Seven days ago, after he spent his night with Mikhael for the first time, he let him out of his sight for a mere minute. What happened in the end, you wonder?

By the time he found Mikhael again, the later was in the middle of digging a hole through the barrier and just about to escape from Eden! Ever since that incident, Ethan decided to be more careful. He wouldn't even have to be this careful if he had to guard Dominique from running away!

   "If you continue to look at me so intensely, I might just get turned on. You'll have to take a responsibility for that, Flame," Ethan casually spoke like it was an unimportant matter, but it was precisely that expression that made Mikhael shiver in fear and turn his head away.

He knew that those words weren't a joke. This guy was serious.

   'Fiend! An insatiable beast!'

Truth to be told, although Mikhael complained all the time and was on the verge of going mad, Ethan wasn't as bad as Mikhael made him sound.

Although he does bully Mikhael with his sadistic tendencies — it's mostly result of Mikhael seeking death on his own. He also takes proper care of him during the night and Mikhael has absolutely no complaints about that part. Not to mention that he's handsome, has a high position in society, and provides him with high quality blood and excellent lodgings!

But. What. Use. Are. Those. Things. When. He. Can't. Even. f*****g. Sleep!?

Yes, every good point about Ethan can't even compare to few minutes of sleep Mikhael had no fortune of obtaining for the past seven days!

In fact, the main reason he wanted to escape Eden is just so that he can sleep!

He doesn't fear Ethan anymore and he is no longer concerned about his identity being revealed since the other guy didn't notice it even after drying him off blood for the past week (Mikhael exaggerated, as usual), and Ethan treats him well other than forbidding him to sleep and exploiting his cooking skills.

He's even living in the city where he can do whatever he wants with Ethan's backing, not having to hide his true nature, even getting a his blood for snacks every day — as much as he wants, to boast!

So why the heck would he run away?

But then again, all those good points are useless in front of his lack of sleep.

Ethan hummed silently as he continued to sign various documents and look for problems to investigate, becoming more satisfied with Mikhael with every glance.

Can cook, doesn't go mad at the sight of blood, doesn't attack indiscriminately, can protect himself, doesn't want to exploit Ethan's position, can be eaten at night — what a perfect partner! Ethan had never bothered with something such as blood partner before Mikhael — being a Pureblood, he had his own share of duties.

He, like his previous five older siblings, was meant to wed a half-blood if possible, but because of some matters, he was without one for so long. The first time he considered settling down with someone was twenty years ago when he first met Mikhael, a silly human who had a weird hobby of dressing up as a priest and trolling people until they lost all money.

No, their first meeting was a bit earlier than that. His seventh brother, Dante, has asked a powerful spell-caster to create a special armament that could be used on entire city for vampires. At that time, not knowing what kind of person that spell-caster was, he hid his identity and took the same train as Mikhael where the two met.

Back then, Mikhael was someone who wore a mask and hid his face, but what made him stand out in Ethan's mind was definitely his ugly shirt which said "I hate vampires", and how he appeared to be poor that he couldn't even afford a meal.

He later learned that Mikhael fought those shirts on flash sale and had a whole bunch of them, as well as another bunch with similar design, but for humans instead.

After that they parted and he met him again at Dante's home, but for some reason, he also hid his face and identity and pretended to be a Higher Noble working for Sixth Pureblood, accompanying Dante's silly human friend for a while, and in the end did it with him. Because they both were stubborn, they made a bet that when they meet and sleep again, the first to give in would reveal his face and name first.

He wasn't sure what happened after that, but he didn't meet Mikhael for whole five years, and when he did meet him, both looked half-dead. But both were stubborn so in the end, they weren't willing to say reveal their face for a long time, but ironically remained by each other's side for entire year.

The more Ethan saw, the more he became interested in Mikhael, and made a promise to make him his partner once the war ended. They did it again and as a compromise — or perhaps a silent plea to live until the end of that war — only honored half of that bet. Mikhael gave him his name while Ethan showed his face.

They made a promise for another tomorrow just so that they had something to help them move forward.

But in the end...

Ethan sighed.

In the end, the next time he saw Mikhael, it was in the midst of chaotic battlefield. He doesn't remember all the details, but once he woke up — the other side completely disappeared along with his brother and a whole city of New York. And all around him were corpses and blood staining the land for tens of miles.

But back to the point, Ethan was never too interested in power, so he didn't need a half-blood for himself, his siblings agreed strongly. One less competitor, just perfect!

After those events, peace reigned and Ethan's interest in a partner diminished, thinking that perhaps Mikhael also died... Or what he never dared to think too deeply about was that his body was among those countless corpses.

He always regretted never seeing his face. He felt like Mikhael would disappear if that bet came to end, and as if to mock him, destiny really took him away.

Twenty years came and passed by, the only thing that reminded him that he really did meet Mikhael was the silver cross around his neck, a special yet somewhat useless armament the later made for him. Vampires couldn't use armaments, but the one Mikhael made was different. And Ethan was the first person to receive it.

Ethan spent days without care, burying himself in work so that his mind doesn't go back to that always sleepy figure. His heart stopped beating like he was growing in endless darkness without a speck of light to guide his way. He thought that it those days would continue forever, but...

But then Mikhael reappeared.

Without a mask covering his face, without any fake identities and secrets to separate them, he saw a youth standing in darkness, whose radiance burned like flame. And like a moth, he fell towards that flame that ignited a spark in him, burning the shackles around his heart.

But by bit, his figure overlapped with the one in his heart. At first, he thought that he was simply looking for replacement, for a spell-caster as skilled as Mikhael couldn't ever survive the change to a vampire.

But...

   'Turns out, he was one from the very start.'

Ethan was both angry and not. It's not like he felt particularly hurt, since he too hid his identity as a Pureblood from Mikhael, but even so, it was frustrating that he never came to look for him on his own.

And now, it appears that he doesn't even remember Ethan at all.

   "What? We can't do it in the office. My waist would snap!" Mikhael noticed to gaze Ethan bored through his head and said in defense.

   "..."

   'And his qualities as a vampire are really...'

He glanced at Mikhael and sighed.

Want to indulge in ordinary food, want to sleep, uses hair dye, avoids the red eyes... This guy is more of a human than other humans Ethan knew! It's no wonder he was cheated back then, this guy really doesn't appear like a vampire!

Back then, he thought that Mikhael was a human, and humans were frail, OK!? So he indulged his every need and let him sleep as much as he wanted. But now that he doesn't need to...

He looked at listless Mikhael, and could almost see his would leaving his body from exhaustion.

   "..."

Should he not be so strict with him, after all?

Although vampires don't have a need for sleep, this guy really looked like he's about to wilt and die.

As if on cue, the younger vampire sitting on a sofa next to him let out a defeated sigh and began to draw circles with his finger.

   "..."

Perhaps he really should turn a blind eye to some of his actions.

   "...Flame?"

Raising his head tiredly, Mikhael threw a suspicious glance at Ethan.

   'What do you want now, you fiend? Is it food? Or my blood? My body? Maybe even my soul?'

  "..."

Even though he didn't say those out loud, Ethan felt like he understood what the other wanted to convey.

He just wanted to tell him that he can rest if he wanted it so much, but before he could open his mouth, they were interrupted by an urgent knock on the doors.

   "Your Majesty, a big trouble!"

   "..."

   'Well, it will have to wait until later.'

   "Enter," he just finished signing the last file before Varus came in with concern written all over his face. He bowed to Ethan before turning and doing the same for Mikhael and handing him out the report.

Ethan read through it, but the more he found out, the more his eyebrows furrowed. By the time he finished, his face was so distorted that even Mikhael became curious.

   'What happened? Is someone destroying the barrier around Eden again? Just in time, I'll offer them my help this time!'

   "Speak, what exactly happened?"

Mikhael curiously drew closer to Ethan who only threw him a glance before handing him over the report. Mikhael too began to read and was somewhat surprised with what it actually was. An autopsy report.

Raising an eyebrow, he glanced at Ethan before continued to see what it was, yet before he could see the detailed information, Varus spoke again.

   "Yes. We already begun investigation but there aren't much details. Early this morning, the coroner got a body to inspect. Since the corpse didn't turn to dust, the people on lookout thought that it was human, but since there weren't bite wounds not any blood at all at the scene where it was found, they thought it was something suspicious so they just sent the body over to the W.E.R.P."

Mikhael couldn't understand why the need for that nonsense. Vampires didn't leave bodies after their death, so the victim is naturally a human!

But in this city, finding out who killed a human is something W.E.R.P. should deal with, not vampires? Why send the autopsy record to Ethan? Better send a report on the murderer...

Clicking his tongue, Mikhael was about to say something when s certain word caught his attention from the corner of his eye.

Blue.

Looking back at it again to make sure that he didn't see wrong, Mikhael suddenly had a bad premonition.

  "But the coroner found out that the body was actually that of a vampire when he opened it up. Moreover, the blood of that vampire was completely blue, and after further observation, the victim's skin, together with hair turned blue after another hour."

He paused.

   "Since the coroner was someone who specialized in humans rather than vampires, they decided to leave this case to our hands, saying that they'll help us if we need them, but..."

   "..."

After a short silence, Ethan sighed and asked.

   "How about the corpse, has it been sent over here already?"

   "Yes, there are also two W.E.R.P. agents downstairs with it asking for an audience with you, Your Highness. They aren't sure about this case, but we highly suspect that it's..."

   "Blue death." Mikhael interrupted, the laziness from earlier was completely gone as he carefully read though the records.

   "...Yes," Varus nodded his head as Ethan raised an eyebrow.

   "You know it?"

He got separated from Mikhael around the time when those bodies started to appear first, so he had no idea what Mikhael did during that time.

   "Uh, yes. I was on this case twenty years ago," realizing that he blurted out the truth, Mikhael gave up trying to cover it up any further. What a joke, hide something from this old fox?

Ethan tactically chose not to question him any further before standing up and heading out, Mikhael naturally dared not to delay after learning his lesson for the past entire week, Varus behind him.

Surprisingly, the two agents they met were Malèna and Krull.

   "Ah, it's the hunter vampire!" She cheerfully greeted him as always, perhaps she was the only person in the entire city that found his identity as something awesome.

   "We meet again," compared to her, Krull was more reserved, "Your Majesty." Unlike vampires who bowed at the sight of Ethan, he wasn't as pious, but he still acknowledged his identity. It's thanks to his cooperation that this city is peaceful, after all.

   "It's been a while," Mikhael was, after all, a nice guy who wouldn't shrink back from basic courtesy — unlike a certain someone who only nodded in return.

   "The body has been taken to... 'that guy' for now, shall we go and see him, Your Majesty?" Varus spoke and Ethan began to lead the way as Varus and the curious trio followed behind. Who's 'that guy'? Why did Varus hesitate when he mentioned him?

Mikhael's real nature of a gossiper sparked as he immediately rushed over to Ethan and poked his hand.

   "Say, say, where are we going?" He whispered like it was some sort of a secret. Ethan only flicked his forehead like getting rid of a fly before continued without a word.

   "..."

   'f**k, you think I can't do anything without you?'

Sighing his next target, he hopped over to Varus and poked him instead. The later fought an urge to twitch to this gossiper. Unlike Ethan, Varus couldn't afford to provoke this disaster.

   "You see," he coughed twice, not sure how to explain the guy they were talking about, "There are some vampires who have a similar professions as doctors in human world, though they are a bit of eccentrics. We just call them Healers."

Mikhael nodded, it's not like vampires heal on their own or just bury themselves in coffins upon sustaining a serious injury, they too have people who deal with those issues.

As of eccentric part... Well, Mikhael met some so he understood.

They usually liked to sleep in coffins — vampires don't really sleep in those, they also prefer beds — but when choosing a deep sleep, a coffin is more reliable than sleeping on a bed in the middle of forest or castle.

Dust is annoying, especially when you wake up after decades to find a whole ton of dust in your nose or ears and eyes, not to mention various spiders and insects crawling on your body or some crazy bird or other animal choosing your body to sleep on or pee on you and etc.

Basically, vampires don't sleep in coffins, but those eccentric do it every day. Or they hang from a ceiling like bats. Or experiment on how to drink their own blood. Or how to become human again. Or how to make a human immortal. Or destroy the world. Or shape-shifting into some weird things — most vampires could do it, but while they chose a shape of a hound or bat or cat, those lunatic go as far as to become a fish and then try to survive in water.

Sometimes, when bored, they'd experiment on taking out their hearts and seeing for how long, and under what circumstances would a vampire survive without it. Or hemomancy.

Those kind of things.

And no, Mikhael was not joking.

They are special since their blood is fully capable of hemomancy, but they don't suffer from the crystallization effect. From Mikhael's observation, they were guys who had high potential to become spell-casters with light attribute, but we're turned instead.

Spell-casters can't become vampires, and vampires can't stand spell-casters' armaments. They're that repelled by each other.

But there would always be miracles, even for them.

Still, a Healer's hemomancy is limited to interacting with another person's blood, and is not really capable of hardening or changing shape to harm others. So they have their own profession in order to survive.

Using that hemomancy to heal others, although it's only useful with vampires. If in touch with human blood, they'd just make them vampires without needing to bite them.

Healers are usually the guys vampires would look for to help them turn their partners into vampires if they can't bring themselves to cause them pain.

Feeding on a human and turning a human are two different things — the pain, likewise, in on completely different levels. But with Healers, the change is completely painless.

But anyway, during the great war and even before it, powerful vampires fought to snatch them for themselves while those in possession of these guys chose to kill them if they couldn't keep them, so many died. Nowadays, there really aren't many Healers left, and if they are treated almost like Purebloods themselves.

   "You actually keep one?" Those lunatics!

Mikhael only met two in his entire life, and swore to stay away from them forever. The first one was a plain madman, while the later who somehow found out about him being a child vampire wanted to do various experiments on him and chased him for few century. Luckily he didn't know about Mikhael being a half-blood as well, else Mikhael would've lost his poor little life that way.

Just remembering that guy made him shiver in fear.

The worst thing is that he had many life-preserving methods so Mikhael was unable to kill him and had to resort to running away until the later lost all track of him.

   "I understand, no need to say anything else," Mikhael threw a rare, compassionate look at Varus while Malèna and Krull frowned even more.

Humans aren't that familiar with the terror of those crazy Healers who would hope their patients suffered terribly so that they could use excuses to experiment with weird medicines on them.

   "Well, that guy's methods kind of, eh... Leave some traumas behind," Varus seemed to be really embarrassed about this and Mikhael nodded.

Yes, if one had to go to have an injury healed only to be fed some weird pitch black or glowing green medicines, then suffer unimaginable pain or weird side effects until they get healed completely, he too would be too embarrassed to have employed that kind of a medic.

   'And it's even a matter as for how long would they keep you "to treat" you. Your mental safety might be at risk as well... As your safety in general, too.'

   "So, uh, he was quite happy with this corpse, so..."

   'Yeah, such a valuable specimen is perfect for those lunatics.'

   "He even wanted to cut up our Lord Pureblood to play with his blood."

   'A wretched person, really.'

Ethan frowned, apparently dissatisfied with something, as he slowed down and took Mikhael's hand before proceeding forward like nothing ever happened.

   "..."

   "My dear lord, what is it now? Do you think I'll escape after hearing all that? Don't worry, yours truly here has already felt the terror of those lunatics so I won't be scared easily," he protested while the later only flicked his forehead once again, before throwing another insult at him.

   "Stupid."

   "..."

Mikhael could already see his patience drift somewhere unknown with his teeth itching to bite.

The trio following behind all had their own thoughts about this. As the saying goes, outsiders see more of the situation than those directly involved.

This Pureblood eating vinegar, it truly is the first they saw.

   ARRIVING IN front of a suspiciously looking laboratory, Mikhael could feel dangerous vibes surrounding it. It might be his imagination, but he felt like he saw some purple gas leaking from it making him unconsciously draw closer to Ethan.

In any case, nothing is scarier than this Pureblood, so he's also the safest person to be next to.

Ethan's lips curled upwards as he let him do as pleased before opening the doors, only to be greeted with someone's miserable scream.

   "H-h-h-help me..." Someone's voice weakly plead for mercy followed by maniacal laughter not that far away.

Now, now, Mikhael doesn't fear ghosts and like, but this is on completely different level! He wanted to turn and run away, but with Ethan's firm grasp on his hand, he could only stay and reluctantly draw closer to him for protection.

If anything comes out, attack Ethan first!

When he took a better look at the situation in this lab, he saw someone on the bed, desperately trying to get away with some odd greenish patches on his skin. His eyes bloodshot and white hair, it was obviously a vampire who seemed to be on a verge of death, but...

   'Yeah, he probably received the treatment from a Healer...'

Now that he thinks about it, Mikhael is quite lucky that they took him to a normal hospital when he fainted before. Or else, if he was sent here instead, Heavens know if he'd still have a life to complain about his lack of sleep.

   "Marvelous!" Noticing another person, Mikhael turned to see someone standing above an operational table with a body on it. The body was half-covered, but Mikhael could clearly see the blue skin underneath that cloth.

However...

Looking at the back of the person standing above that corpse, Mikhael's fingers twitched and before he even realized what was he doing, a gunshot rang in the silent room.

If was so sudden that even the weeping vampire stopped complaining, while Ethan failed to even notice when Mikhael brought out the gun.

   "Flame," he warned, grabbing the hand that held the gun.

   "Sorry, my hand slipped."

The trio behind them: "..."

   "Holly blood, who the hell did that! Who is trying to destroy my beautiful corpse!" The person turned around and don't ask how, but Mikhael found the strength to fight off Ethan's before shooting two more bullets at the guy, unfortunately missing.

   "Flame!" Ethan gritted his teeth and warned him again, but Mikhael only spoke with somewhat blank expression.

   "Sorry... My hand slipped... Again!" He gnashed his teeth as he said that.

   "..."

   'Who'd believe that nonsense!? '

The guy who was the target of Mikhael's bullets finally raised his head to look at his guests and was about to begin a kind barrage of curses — but upon seeing Mikhael's face, he paused.

First, there was confusion in his eyes, but it soon turned to curiosity, then pondering and finally into realization.

The corpse he was so obsessed when he first laid his eyes on it the seemed so insignificant compared to this living specimen in front of him; so much that his red eyes almost turned into stars from happiness.

   "It's you, my dear little~" but before he could say something else, Mikhael no longer hesitated as he spent an entire barrel's worth of bullets trying to shot him down.

It couldn't be helped.

If someone locked you up in a dark room for entire year trying out various experiments on your body and you finally managed to escape only to be hunted by the same person for few centuries; with the later appearing everywhere around you and trying to knock you out with every single opening you showed — even God wouldn't be able to stop his impulses to blow a bullet through their brain.

   "Sorry, my hand seems to have completely slipped out of my control..."