Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Kunis
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Tora.
Someone whispered.
Tora.
“Tora!”
Jain shouted. The voice that had been distant suddenly zoomed in close, like pulling a lens. Tora barely came back to her senses.
Jain’s chest in front of her eyes glistened, soaked with sweat. In her hypersensitive vision, the sweat droplets rolling down her skin appeared in slow motion.
She wanted to faint, but fainting would only make things worse. Because then she wouldn’t be able to control her body at all.
Suddenly, Jain gripped Tora’s arm tightly.
“Tora, drink my blood.”
“What…?”
This time, even Tora had to ask in bewilderment.
***
Gamal faintly came to. Her eyes stung. The room was dark, and the texture of the blanket covering her felt different.
The cold, stinging sensation of the spray that had been fired at her face flashed in her mind. Gamal jolted upright. And she realized someone was sitting in the darkness.
The moment the vague silhouette on the single-seater sofa came into view, a shock pierced through her entire body.
Gamal recoiled in horror to the edge of the bed. She couldn’t breathe.
“Ku…nis.”
Kunis didn’t move. He simply shifted his eyes to carefully examine Gamal.
“You’ve grown. Because of the flower.”
The Gamal in her twenties, whom he’d thought he’d never see again, was truly dazzling.
She was several times more beautiful than Kunis had imagined—no, beautiful enough to make him realize just how impoverished his imagination had been.
Her innocent black pupils had turned red, but it lent her a profound aura the young girl had lacked.
Creak.
Kunis pushed back the chair and stood.
Gamal scanned for an immediate escape route. But suddenly, Kunis dropped to one knee beside the bed. With a heartrending expression that could shake anyone’s heart, he said,
“I’m sorry. I want to apologize.”
“You killed Rantu and Adawi.”
Gamal spat out the words that had been lodged in her chest for three thousand years.
“Daniel too…!”
Daniel had only been her friend. And yet Kunis had mercilessly cut him down.
“Back then, it was an era when vampires killing humans was just natural. I wasn’t at ease with it either….”
“Kunis.”
Gamal called his name with a tearful expression. Kunis felt a surge of ecstasy at the sound of Gamal saying his name. He straightened his kneeling knee and took a step closer.
But Gamal dragged her legs back, her face like a monster from her childhood dreams was approaching.
“Don’t come closer.”
Even so, Kunis didn’t stop. He approached, placed a knee on the bed, cupped her face, and whispered,
“Gamal. I missed you.”
Kunis pulled Gamal into a tight embrace, pouring all his heartfelt longing into it.
“Forgive me, Siji.”
Gamal’s body trembled. Siji—the name Kunis had always called her.
“What I did to you was an accident. I was so angry I couldn’t see straight. I’m sorry. Back then, I was too young and didn’t know how to control my emotions.”
Kunis begged sincerely for Gamal’s forgiveness.
Gamal in his arms trembled faintly. Kunis regretted what he had done to his twin, so fragile.
“Then what about the people?”
But Gamal spoke. Kunis froze. As he slowly pulled away, Gamal’s eyes gleamed—not quite tears, but shining like they were—as she asked,
“Why did you kill the people? I’ve heard about what you did.”
Kunis’s eyes twitched slightly.
“Gamal, we’re vampires. That’s our kind from the start.”
“There are vampires who aren’t like that.”
“I admit it. Flowers are convenient. No need to worry about what to eat the next day. But this is like a snack. Vampires have to drink blood. Have to hunt humans.”
“No, we…!”
Gamal tried to speak frantically, but Kunis cut her off.
“Look, Gamal. We have the strength and power. And if that were all, we’d be no different from animals, but we can think like humans. Why do you think that is? Because we’re the new ‘humans.’ The ones who eat all the others.”
It wasn’t pride in his voice, but calm detachment.
“Humans believed they were the apex predators all this time, but it just turned out they weren’t. And this is the law of nature. Humans eat pigs and cows, vampires eat humans—why is that simple truth so hard for everyone to accept?”
He sounded genuinely baffled.
“Of course, I get it. It’s tough to accept a changed world all at once. That’s why I’m telling you. This is the new order you should naturally embrace.”
“…….”
Gamal kept her head bowed, silent.
Kunis seemed even more solid. Back then, he’d been quick to anger, fiery in good ways and bad—but now he was utterly calm and polished.
His looks were the same as three thousand years ago, but no one would confuse him with Gamal anymore. Even if she hadn’t grown.
Gamal slowly raised her eyes.
“But you killed people even when you were human.”
Kunis gave her a pitying look, like she was a child who didn’t understand.
“Gamal, don’t you get it yet? That you and I being one is also the law of nature. We were born twins. And we both overcame that near-impossible infection to become vampires. We’re one forever.”
As he spoke, he slowly stroked her cheek.
“I couldn’t stand the things trying to come between us. But back then, I was too impulsive and ignorant. If it were now, I’d never do it. If I could, I’d apologize to Rantu and Adawi too.”
“Apologize…?”
Gamal asked slowly, unable to believe her ears, but Kunis looked oblivious to why she was repeating it.
“Yeah. Thinking about it, those guys were just bewitched by your face. No man turns down a pretty girl. Their mistake was not knowing their place, but yeah—that wasn’t a crime worth dying for.”
“Kunis!”
Gamal cried out, unable to hear more. Silence fell. Kunis let out a long sigh.
“I’m sorry. You just woke up, must be out of it, and here I am talking too much.”
Gamal couldn’t hide her grief-stricken face. She’d thought if she vanished, things would be fine. At least, she’d believed Kunis would eventually learn to tell right from wrong.
“You were a kind person. Why….”
“Because you liked me that way.”
Kunis spoke clearly, making sure she heard every word.
“But that wasn’t me.”
“Kunis, please….”
But in an instant, Kunis’s demeanor shifted so abruptly it was hard to follow.
“Is it because of that human?”
His voice turned violent. Gamal shook her head.
“No. I’m talking about us.”
Pleased with the word “us,” Kunis’s expression softened again. He spoke in a gentle tone unparalleled in the world and rose from the bed.
“Rest. Rest up, and we’ll talk.”
Then Kunis stepped out. He’d waited nearly three thousand four hundred years for this moment—a little longer wouldn’t make him age.
Click. Whirr.
The door shut and locked.
Gamal clutched her shoulders.
She had lived her entire life dreading this moment. The moment she acknowledged that Kunis—her twin—was truly beyond saving.
Until now, perhaps Gamal had been fleeing this moment. And from the realization that she shouldn’t.
If she had killed Kunis long ago, all the countless people he’d killed directly or indirectly might still be alive. At least until time claimed them.
Her hands tightened on her shoulders.
***
“Tora, drink my blood.”
“What…?”
Even Tora had to ask in bewilderment this time. But Jain’s face was deadly serious.
“Just the right amount.”
As Tora opened her mouth to protest, Jain added quickly,
“If we stay like this, we both die. Especially me—by your hand.”
No arguing that point, but….
Tora furrowed her brow.
“I’m not confident I can stop halfway.”
“Try anyway.”
“Don’t think of a vampire drinking blood like a human eating a meal.”
Truth be told, Jain had spoken confidently, but she wasn’t entirely sure this would work. Tora’s eyes were already snakelike, pupils narrowed into slits, a mass of murderous intent.
Her sweat-slicked red eyes bored straight into her, sending chills rippling across her skin.
Intense killing intent radiated from eyes desperately clinging to the last thread of reason. And somehow, she found it beautiful.
Why humans were drawn to danger—Jain could only click her tongue at the folly of it.
“Then what?”
Still, her tone was resolute.
“What do you think will happen to Ms. Gamal if you don’t snap out of it? Won’t you go back to Mati?”
Ironically, in that moment, Tora truly felt the hunger. From eyes staring straight at him, unafraid.
As Jain said, the thought of returning to Gamal was what moved him.
It was true. But the instant he braced a hand on the floor and leaned forward, that rational thought slipped away from his soul like it was detaching from his body.
Sweat-soaked, taut skin brushed his lips.
Tora bared his teeth. A blue murderous aura swirled at the tips of his beastly fangs.
In truth, right after becoming a Luas, he’d followed Gamal and survived on flowers, but bloodsucking wasn’t his first time.
Bloodsucking was a vampire’s instinct—curiosity was harder to suppress. Occasionally, he’d gotten consent from women he spent nights with and tried it. For Tora, at least, women had agreed with surprising readiness.
In the end, bloodsucking was fairly addictive, but it never quite lived up to the hype. It paled compared to just spending the night with a woman.
Only now did Tora realize it was because he hadn’t been truly hungry back then.
“Tora.”
Jain gasped for breath as she called his name. She could hear her blood sliding down his throat, vivid and clear. Her head was starting to spin. But Tora showed no sign of stopping.
In a panic, Jain raised her hand to slap him. But Tora snatched her wrist. She hadn’t seen the slightest hint of movement.
It was an iron grip. She couldn’t wrench her arm free. Jain squeezed her eyes shut.
Her blood kept draining. Dizziness whirled. Like Ophelia drowning in the river, her body sank deeper into icy water.
Sensation faded from her fingertips and toes, her body plummeting further. Her vision darkened, sparkling like she was submerged in a river reflecting the night sky.
Haa….
Her own exhaling breath sounded strangely close.
But suddenly, Tora froze. And though nothing had changed, it was as if sanity snapped back—he released his mouth, lifted his head. If red could turn pale, his eyes had paled, vitality blooming in them… like a flower unfurling.
She felt that living without knowing such a sight existed was a grave, profound mistake.
In that moment, Tora kissed Jain.