4 The taste of vivacity

Did you know that most things people worry about never even actually happen...?

***

Draekai's troubled senses about how to repay Bodie were silenced temporarily by the liquid he slurped into his mouth.

The thick red liquid tasted like an indescribable sweet heavenly nectar beyond anything a human could comprehend. It was like being able to perpetually exist off nothing but sweet desserts without any health repercussions. It's the perfect paranormal fuel for him.

Bodie watched the bob bounce up and down his throat. His experimentation was just beginning. Naturally different blood types along with a person's nutritional balance alter the sweetness of blood positively or negatively. Also eating something that a vampire finds repellent can deeply alter the taste. At the top of the list was garlic.

Fortunately... Bodie's grin pinched upwards as he handed him another juice box but Draekai didn't open it. It seems a few pieces of information he had about them was false. He made the donor of that blood eat a portion of food highly concentrated in garlic but all it did was make it easier for him to drink. Garlic reduces the elevated stickiness of blood.

Draekai fiddled around with the juice box.

"It's still warm."

He said while licking the red stains on his teeth.

Bodie nodded at him, what the hell was the bloodsucker so excited about? He thought he'd smell the garlic on the box and wouldn't bother drinking the tainted blood inside. He was wrong and it pained him. It was supposed to be a little payback for the knife-to-the-head trick earlier.

Bodie recalled that it had been over a decade since creatures only imagined and written about in fantasy novels started appearing on earth. The top government of the world stopped it from escalating into a widespread panic and contained any new transmigrators from another galaxy. Although they've only been four transmigrators in the last ten years, the government believe that more will come since the universe of the fantastical beings is falling apart.

And here with Bodie was no five...

He was thrilled to get his hands on Bodie before the government did.

"What exactly do you like about blood?"

Bodie asked and watched him pull the leather casing around the straw but he didn't remove it or stick it into the carton. What's wrong with him? Doesn't he want more blood?

"I love how it feels, how it looks and also how it tastes."

Draekai replied. He didn't shift his gaze from the soft container which held more blood.

"What do I have to do to repay you for saving my life?"

Draekai finally met his eyes with Bodie. Bodie shifted uneasily. His eyes were red slits hanging in an obsidian pool. He felt like he was under the hypnotic gaze of a cobra.

"Repay me...?"

Bodie liked the sound of that. If he could make this bloodsucker believe that he couldn't survive out there in this world without him, it'll be great. It'll be fun too. Watching a powerful creature, grovelling at your feet like a helpless caged wild animal will most definitely be intriguing.

His serotonin levels were rising just thinking about it.

"Yes, to repay your help."

Bodie had to sit down opposite him while he processed this information. Was that what the bloodsucker had been so pensive about all this time that he even refused to drink blood? To Bodie, this was great news. He rubbed his chin and pondered on the idea carefully.

He didn't know how smart this creature was. It might have been a genius wherever it crawled out from but right now he was on earth, in a reality completely different from what he knew. Bodie thought hard, he wanted to get this bloodsucker under his control at all costs.

"Do you have a name?"

Bodie decided to start little. He needed this thing to trust him first. If he acted too rashly and threw his possessive desires in the open, the bloodsucker might sense it and flee or better or worse attack him. He wasn't scared of death, but he wasn't prepared to die either.

"Lëxorïan Draekæïusæ."

Bodie blinked. What? It sounded like another language. Something otherworldly. Probably what a murderous message from outer space would sound like.

"Okay er... I'll just call you Lex. Am I the first human you met? Did you meet any others?"

"No, I didn't."

Bodie was ecstatic. Everything was just in his favour today. Returning home from school and landing himself his private bloodsucker. What great luck. Now, he just had to make one thing clear. Who the master and Pet were.

"That means that you don't have anywhere to stay. You can live here then at least until you figure your shit out..."

That is if Bodie will ever let him go after living here for a bit.

"Where you come from, what do the vampires do there to repay each other a favour?"

Draekai hesitated and Bodie was curious as to the sudden change in his body language. It was definitely something gruesome like he suspected.

"You'll have to stab yourself forty times every day for my amusement. I want deep cuts with thick blood oozing out from each consecutive hole."

Draekai saw the tint in Bodie's eyes while he mumbled. He also had this sudden change in his voice regarding this situation. Rising in noticeably high notes at the mention of the words "thick" and "blood".

"Okay."

Bodie's eyes broadened at Lex's quick response. Really? That's it? Is it because he knew about his self-rejuvenating abilities or something else? Bodie scowled. Things went easy. A little too easy. He wanted to see the unmentionable emotion in Lex's eyes again. Will he ever get to see it?

"No. I was just joking. If you want to repay me then just listen to everything I tell you. I want you to obey me. Can you do that?"

Lex seemed more relieved by this task. Little did he know that he'd crawled into the home of this snake who lives off the torment and fear of others.

"Yes... What should I call you?"

A million replies raced through Bodie's mind. Master? Overlord? No, the supreme overlord sounded more threatening. Young master? No, he already had over a hundred servants calling him that.

Bodie touched his eyes. He needed to slow down. Only patient people get everything they wanted in life. He shouldn't be too greedy and throw his intentions out in the open.

"Bodie Throndsen, but call me Bodie."

He smiled at himself as he said that. He'll start small and in due time he'll come to find out what made this blood-reliant being tick.

"Dinner will be ready soon. Come, I'll show you how to use a shower."

***

"Try to get him enrolled at my school before Sunday."

Bodie muttered whilst stepping into his bedroom. Benson was getting ready for Bodie's bath.

"You plan to take him in, young master?"

Bodie stopped and slowly turned to the bathroom door to face the old man. He had walked in here with a smile but now a questioning glare preceded his features.

"Do I pay you for throwing my questions back at me?"

The teenager said through his teeth and Benson flinched. He should have minded his business. But sometimes, he just couldn't help it. The way the boy thinks scares him sometimes. He wanted to confirm that this was actually that innocent little boy he agreed to take care of fourteen years ago.

"No, young master. Please, punish me."

Benson said with a bow.

"A punishment won't be necessary today, just don't let it repeat itself again. Did you get me what I asked?"

Bodie continued walking to the body-length mirror while he unfastened the buttons on his shirt.

"Yes, young master. Here it is."

Bodie grabbed the little bottle from Benson's grasp and sent him off.

"Finally!"

He exclaimed to himself when he was completely alone. He popped the little bottle open.

The shining red turned blue in the air before dropping on his index finger.