Bite | Changlix vampire au

Chapter 10

Already in a full-blown panic, Felix opened to the page Changbin had left off on, a black skull patterned bookmark in the margin. He wondered if that was his go-to bookmark, or if he was using it specially for the subject he was reading about.

    The pages of the book were yellowing and folding on the corners. Immediately, the book said nothing but lies about vampires and what they stood for. The page the bookmark was on said that vampires were bloodthirsty creatures that drained a human of their blood whenever they fed. Another lie was that if a human did manage to survive, they would turn into a vampire afterward.

    From his experience, vampires never drained a human unless they were starving or if their blood had an irresistible taste like Changbin's. Vampires only drank enough blood to get by, before leaving their victim alone. When a vampire bites a human, they only turn if the bite marks are left unattended for more than half an hour.

    He opened Changbin's notes, every available space filled with facts he found important. Unfortunately, those facts were nothing but myths and lies woven to increase humans' fear of vampires. Even the diagrams of 'real' vampires were cliché and inaccurate.

    "Hey, Felix are you-" Changbin cut himself off when he saw his belongings spread out on the counter.

    He immediately rushed over, scooping the books away from him and shoving them back under the counter, his face turning a light shade of pink.   

    "I'm sorry you saw that," He said quickly. "I've just been getting interested in those types of things recently."

    Changbin's flustered voice betrayed no hint of suspicion towards the vampire or that he knew what he was. Either he was genuinely clueless, or he was a really good actor. His friends would say that he should leave now when he had the chance, but he had no intention of doing so anytime soon.

    "You don't need to hide anything from me," Felix said, feeling more than a little hypocritical. "I know we just met, but we need to trust each other at least a little to work together. Do you really think that little of me?"

    "No, it's just that you didn't have such a great reaction when I brought it up last time," Changbin stated, hesitantly placing the book back on the counter. The cover was a deep purple with detailed drawings of a vampire and werewolf near the center.

    It was true that his response was on the defensive side, but he had never come so close to being caught before. The sudden topic change had caught him off guard with little time to think of a smart response.

    "I'm aware," He replied, staring at the cover absentmindedly. "How does anyone know if these facts are real if vampires really existed? What people say about them differ in every book or movie. They should at least keep some of the facts consistent."

    "But if they're mythical creatures, it's more fun to play around with the facts and shape them the way you want. Plus, people still consume the books or movies regardless if the facts are up to date with what they've seen elsewhere. As long as the basics are the same, I doubt they would care."

    "You have a point. I'm just saying that it would be less complicated for people to understand if they kept most of the facts consistent."

    Changbin, clearly enjoying the conversation, opened his phone and checked some kind of calendar he had with the moon cycles on it. "There's gonna be a full moon soon. Wanna try to find some werewolves with me?" His tone suggested that he was only half joking.

    He thought about Jisung and Chan, preparing for the dreaded week where they would be painfully stuck as werewolves and locked inside two seperate rooms until the moon began to wane. "No thanks. There's other things I would rather do than wait for something that doesn't exist. Besides, if they did exist, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be near one."

    "Why are you so interested in them all of a sudden?" He added, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

    "Halloweens around the corner," The other replied simply. "Besides pumpkins, nothing screams Halloween like werewolves and vampires."

    The conversation ended there as they reopened the shop, their break long over. A selfish, yet rational, part of himself was telling him it would be in his best interests to collect some of Changbin's blood to make into a wine and leave forever. It was the safest, most logical thing to do, but he couldn't bring himself to cause the other any more harm. Not when he had brought light to his world that had gone dark years ago.

    Abruptly, Changbin turned to him, an understanding look in his eyes. "You wouldn't keep secrets from me, right?"