October 3, the day after Lucien realized he had become a vampire and was married to a beautiful vampire.
He was walking toward the train station. Each step brought him closer to his pig-faced boss, and the mere thought of it made him more nauseous than last night's cheap blood.
However, he had a problem: how was he going to explain the sudden change in his body?
He stopped in front of a building's glass window and almost didn't recognize himself; his appearance was completely different. Before, he looked like a terminal patient, pale and skinny because of his "Black Blood."
But now he had abs that could grate cheese, muscles as defined as those of a professional athlete. And his skin was much paler than before. He also grew a few inches taller and now seems to be about 1.81 meters tall.
"I'm not close enough to them to give them an explanation, I'll just say I took anabolic steroids, and that's it," he muttered with a shrug. Anyway, he was going to quit.
He took out his old phone and checked the time, which was 6:45 a.m. According to what Selene had told him, vampires weren't usually awake at that hour, but he, with his rare immunity to sunlight, could walk around as if nothing were wrong... although he was hell sleepy.
Standing at the traffic lights, passersby looked at him curiously. With that aura, he looked like a lost tourist... or a celebrity who had taken the wrong red carpet.
"He's quite handsome, could he be a new model from an agency?" whispered an office worker, nudging her friend.
"His skin is so pale... could he be a vampire?" replied the other, adjusting her glasses seriously.
"I wish he were! I wouldn't mind having a forbidden romance with such a handsome vampire. And if it's like those dark romance novels... Kya~!" shouted a schoolgirl, while the rest of the group silenced her, laughing hysterically.
Lucien ignored them, just as a truck nearly ran over a depressed wage earner.
"Truck-kun? Is it your turn to shine?"
He imagined the truck giving a metallic thumbs up before sending the poor man to another world.
Suppressing a laugh, he shook his head and continued on his way.
...
Al llegar al edificio donde trabaja, Lucien observó el nombre de la empresa, "Traanglae Shirtwaisth", que curiosamente tenía un nombre parecido a una empresa que explotaba a sus empleados.
He entered the building with a smile, arrived at the reception desk, and with his heightened senses, he could feel everyone's eyes on him.
"Excuse me, do you need anything?" the receptionist asked with a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Laura, don't you recognize me?" Lucien said playfully.
She had long black hair, black eyes, a symmetrical face, and a curvaceous body that couldn't be appreciated because she was sitting down. She was approximately 5'7" tall.
Laura was the only friend Lucien had at this company. She wasn't arrogant just because she was beautiful; what's more, her body was 100% natural. She hadn't had any rhinoplasty or similar surgery, nor had she had any other operations.
She looked him up and down, blinked twice... and her jaw nearly dropped.
"Lucien!? It can't be!" Her voice went from surprise to disbelief. "The pale guy with the chronically anemic face, the one who looked like he was going to faint every time he climbed the stairs and who was going to die a virgin... what the hell happened to you?"
'Did I need to mention that I'm a virgin? Besides, I already have a wife!' Lucien wanted to shout it in her face, but he held back.
Laura came out from behind the counter and, without asking permission, touched his abs. Her fingers pressed into the rock-hard muscle of his stomach, and her eyes widened. "They're real... you're not using 4D Photoshop, are you?"
Lucien snorted, crossing his arms. "Woman, do you hear what you're saying?"
She clicked her tongue in amusement.
"So you are Lucien. Only you would react like an indignant virgin. Although... now you look like a Marvel extra after being bitten by a radioactive spider."
"I'm not some indignant virgin!" he shouted, veins bulging in his forehead.
Laura smiled like a cat that had just caught its prey. "Aha... only a virgin would say that."
The veins began to bulge. He thought about hitting her on the forehead, but refrained from doing so because he could blow his head off.
'Stupid super vampire strength,' he clicked his lips in annoyance.
"Bleh." Laura stuck her tongue out at him before returning to her seat with all the dignity one can muster after making a childish face. "But hey, aren't you a little late? Your shift started at six in the morning." She said it as casually as if she were commenting on the weather.
"Ah, don't worry about that." Lucien smiled like someone who had just dropped an atomic bomb and remained completely calm. "I'm here to quit this shitty company."
The happiness in his voice was so pure that he sounded like a hostage returning to his family after ten years in a basement.
"Congratulations!" Laura applauded as if she had won the lottery. "Good for you for leaving this shitty company... too bad I can't do the same." Her smile faded suddenly, and she sighed.
Lucien frowned, intrigued. "And why not? Don't tell me you have workplace Stockholm syndrome."
She looked at him seriously, then gestured for him to come closer. "Come closer."
He leaned in, thinking he was about to reveal some dark corporate secret, a global conspiracy, or something like that.
Her voice dropped to a whisper: "Because they pay me six thousand dollars a month."
Lucien froze.
'Six thousand dollars!? Just for sitting and smiling at the reception desk!? And me... killing myself twelve hours a day for a measly five hundred dollars? What kind of cosmic joke is this?!'
Laura patted him on the shoulder, smiling. "Sorry, honey, not all of us were born to suffer like characters in a Turkish soap opera."
"Go to hell!" He gave her the middle finger and headed for the elevator, annoyed, muttering about how unfair the world can be and more.
"Hahaha~" Laura laughed amusedly; she always liked to tease him. "Oh, right, I forgot to ask you how you got so muscular... Meh, I don't care."
Inside the elevator, the smile on Lucien's face faded until he reached his floor.
When the doors opened, there was his damn boss: Scott Radien, with his eternal, greasy smile. He was short, fat, and sweating like a pig in a slaughterhouse. The shiny bald spot in the middle of his greasy hair and his brown eyes full of lust completed the portrait of someone disgusting just to look at.
Lucien approached, his smile slowly twisting. Standing in front of him, he said nothing.
"Who let you in? This area is off-limits to civilians," Scott muttered, wiping his sweaty forehead as he looked at the pale, muscular man who seemed like someone else.
"Pig, don't you recognize me?" He smiled, flashing his fangs.
"Pig?" Scott repeated, his expression darkening.
"Yes. Pig." His smile widened. "I've come to quit, you damn bastard."
"Damn parasite..." Scott clenched his fists, red with rage. "I see, you've gained a little muscle, and you think you're not my slave anymore."
Lucien watched him silently, but his eyes began to burn bright red. The air around him became stifling, as if the predator had just marked its prey.
His fangs peeked out from under his lips in a crooked smile.
'Relax... not yet. The blood of a pig is not worth staining my fangs.'
Scott swallowed hard, not understanding why a simple employee made him tremble as if he were devouring him with his gaze.
Clap.
Lucien clapped his hands, and the threatening aura disappeared, as if it had never existed. "Let's go to your office so you can accept my resignation," he said with a smile.
Scott nodded, wiping the sweat from his forehead again; that smile only made him shudder.
Once in the office, Lucien calmly took a seat; the crooked smile never left his face.
"What do you want?" Scott asked from his desk, trying to sound firm, even though his voice was trembling.
"You pig, are you deaf? I said I came to quit this damn company." Lucien's mood soured, and his eyes began to glow an ominous red.
Scott swallowed hard; sweat soaked his shirt as he tried to appear in control. He moved his hands awkwardly and began to write his resignation letter. "Why do you want to leave the company?" he asked, his voice broken, like someone feeling their way into the mouth of a hungry wolf.
"He~, why do I want to quit?" He let out a dry laugh and squeezed the armrest so hard that he crushed it in his fist.
He stood up and walked over to the desk.
"Shitty pay for inhuman hours... a disgusting pig who exploits me with overtime while he goes to strip clubs. Need more reasons to quit?"
Scott opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Then he saw Lucien's crimson eyes glowing brightly.
Fangs peeked out from beneath his crooked smile. The air became heavy, suffocating, as if something invisible were draining the strength from the room.
Lucien grabbed Scott by the neck, lifting him slightly off his seat, whispering calmly, "Don't worry, Scott... your signature isn't the only thing I'm taking. So get ready, pig."
Scott's eyes widened. Panic coursed through his veins, and a damp, yellowish heat began to flow from his crotch; shame and terror mingled in a single gesture: Scott had wet his pants!
The sour smell filled the office for a split second.
"Tsk." Lucien clicked his lips in disgust and blurted out, "Finish my resignation letter quickly, you pig."