"When you bit me, the bonding ritual activated," Antoinette continued, "and now we're bonded, permanently."
"A bonding ritual?" Noah asked, a bit confused.
"Hmm," Antoinette nodded, "similar to what you humans call a wedding but for vampires, it intertwines our souls."
Noah was silent for a while, of all the ways he expected to have been turned into a vampire, a wedding ritual wasn't one of them.
"Is there a way to undo it?" he asked after a while of thinking.
"No," Antoinette shook her head, "not unless one of us dies."
Noah raised a brow as he looked at her, "so you can just kill me if you become unsatisfied that you're bonded to a human?"
Antoinette looked at him in surprise before shaking her head, "that's not how it works."
She looked him straight in the eyes.
"Once bonded, the thought of even harming you feels the same as tearing out my own heart."
Noah's breath hitched despite himself.
"So killing you," she continued calmly, "isn't an option. Neither is abandoning, nor betraying you."
"And you're just fine with that?"Noah asked.
"Yup," Antoinette nodded with a grin, "after all, yours is the tastiest blood I've ever had, plus I like the way I behave around you, after all, being a vampire noble is a headache."
"You're a noble?" Noah asked...well, her name was an obvious giveaway, but he had no idea how the vampire culture worked.
"Of course," She said with a grin as she stood up, standing directly in front of him, "I am Antoinette Von Dracule, Countess of the Dracule house."
Noah stared up at her. "Von… Dracule?"
She puffed her chest out slightly, clearly enjoying the reaction. "Ancient lineage, one that's old even by vampire standards. We trace our bloodline directly to the progenitor's court."
"…That sounds important," Noah said slowly.
"It is," she replied, then waved a hand dismissively. "And unbearably tedious. Endless councils, power plays, etiquette rules written by undead fossils who haven't felt excitement in centuries."
She leaned closer, bending slightly at the waist so they were eye level.
"Which is why bonding to you is refreshing."
Noah looked at her red eyes before letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "You really are okay with being stuck with me."
"I wouldn't call it stuck," she said lightly. "More like… fate had good taste."
"I see," He nodded as he leaned back, processing everything he just heard and remembered.
Seeing that he was lost in thoughts, Antoinette quietly snuck on on his lap as she wanted to all the while.
She let out a satisfied sigh as she lay her head on his chest, listening to his still beating heart.
Noah looked down at her before sighing.
The thing is, he didn't hate the fact that he had bonded to the very same vampire that almost drained him to death.
It was just that he never even had a girlfriend before, so a wife was quite the jump, but nothing that couldn't be accepted with just a bit of thought rearrangement.
The only problem was how he would tell his parents that he was married and to a vampire no less.
He looked down at her laying comfortably on his chest when the urge to pat her head suddenly overcame him.
Slowly, he raised his hand and placed it on her hair before slowly patting it.
Noah was sure that since she was a vampire noble she'd hate the action, but instead, she just let out a hum of satisfaction, which worked to encourage him to continue.
After a while, he stopped and suddenly asked, "why were you hurt in that alleyway?"
She sat up, looking into his eyes, "about that,"
She paused for a while before adding, "let's just say I encountered an above average nuance."
From what he could feel from her, he knew it was more than 'an above average nuance', but he didn't press on, he just nodded.
"So," Noah continued, choosing his words carefully, "are vampires the only...supernatural beings out there?"
Antoinette looked at his serious expression, then burst out laughing.
"Oh, stars no," she said, waving a hand as if dismissing a ridiculous notion. "If that were the case, the world would be much quieter, and far less annoying."
Noah listened quietly as she spoke.
"Vampires are only a single race," Antoinette continued, "there's also, werewolves, demons, angels, ghosts, yokai, witches, sorcerers, fae, djinn, dragons, yes, the real kind, and things human minds couldn't even begin to phantom."
Antoinette finished casually.
Froze as his brain slowly rebooted
"…Dragons?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Angels?"
"Yes."
"Demons?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
Noah thought for a while longer as he asked, "if there're that many supernatural activity on Earth, then why doesn't the new report even a single thing off? And why have more humans not encountered them yet."
"That's simple," Antoinette said, "there's actually three reasons, one, each supernatural races have their realms, ones which are inaccessible to humans."
"Two," she raised a second finger, "because most supernatural beings use illusions. Even if one stood before a human, they'd see them as nothing but one of their kind."
Noah nodded, the existence of illusions wasn't as surprising as the fact that dragons existed.
"And finally," she raised a third finger, "an organization known as [The Veil], they're responsible for cleaning up every sign of supernatural activity."
"Supernatural activity?" Noah asked.
"Yes," Antoinette nodded, "activities like yours last night."
He was confused for a while before he suddenly remembered, he had ended up killing two men.
But instead of regret or any form of disgust in himself, Noah felt nothing.
Just an empty acknowledgement, like recalling a fact from a textbook.
"…I killed them," Noah said finally.
Antoinette watched him closely, her expression unreadable.
"Yes," she replied, "and it was quite messy."
Noah waited for something to hit him. Regret. Revulsion. Anything.
But nothing came.
"That's it?" he asked quietly. "I'm not supposed to feel… bad?"
Antoinette reached out and gently took his hand, her thumb brushing over his knuckles.
"You're not human anymore," she said softly, "your morals will start undergoing tremendous change."
The fact that he truly wasn't a human anymore slowly started settling in, especially when she pointed it out.
But again, he felt nothing.
"I see," he muttered pulling them back towards the topic, "so the veil handled the corpses?"
"Yes and they charged quite a bit," She answered with a smile as she raised her hand before a piece of paper appeared between her fingers.
Calmly she handed the paper to him and it seemed like a normal receipt at first, only for his eyes to widen when he saw the number.
"…This," Noah said slowly, pointing at the bottom line, "has too many zeros to be legal."
Antoinette tilted her head, peeking at it as if seeing it for the first time. "Really? I thought it was quite reasonable."
Noah stared harder.
[THE VEIL — INCIDENT CONTAINMENT INVOICE]
» Memory Alteration (Civilians x1)
» Reality Stabilization (Urban Zone, Grade A)
» Corpse Disposal & Temporal Cleanup (2 Targets)
» Digital & Physical Evidence Purge
» Emergency Noble-Class Priority Fee
TOTAL: 8,742,000,000 USD
"…Billion," Noah whispered. "With a B."
"Yes," Antoinette nodded proudly. "They even gave us a small discount for noble affiliation."
He looked up at her, utterly deadpan.
"Antoinette."
"Yes, dear?"
"I don't think my bank account has ever seen more than six digits at once."
Yes they were quite rich, but even they wouldn't pay this much casually.
"Oh, that's fine," she waved him off. "You don't pay."
Noah blinked. "I… don't?"
"Of course not," she said as if it were obvious. "You're my bonded. That makes you my responsibility."
She might as well just say, 'don't worry, Mama's got this,' with the way she was casually speaking.
Antoinette then leaned back against him again, utterly relaxed.
"The Dracule treasury covers it."
Noah's brain visibly short-circuited.
"…Treasury?"
"Yes," Antoinette nodded before adding, "I'm a Countess remember? Even my maid makes a lot more than this in a day."
Noah was completely speechless and the receipt suddenly disappeared in his hand.
"My maid will handle the payment," she said as he slowly turned to her, noticing that she had taken off the shirt, revealing her pink buds underneath.
She leaned her neck and cut herself just a bit, causing his eyes to suddenly turn red and she smiled seeing that, before she said,
"Eat."