The Vampire King's Pet-Chapter 352: Inhuman

There was something different.

His blood was different.

At first, Liora thought it was simply because he was a vampire. She was used to human blood—warm, familiar, predictable. This was thicker, heavier, almost humming as it slid down her throat. She forced herself to keep drinking, aware that his blood was the only thing that could heal her body back to a state where she didn’t feel seconds away from collapsing.

I just need enough, she told herself. Enough to stand.

But she had barely taken half when something went wrong.

Her mouth began to feel numb.

It started at her tongue, a dull buzzing sensation that spread quickly to her lips and jaw. The taste shifted—what had once been rich became bitter-sweet, metallic in a way that made her instincts scream. Her body recoiled even as her mind hesitated.

Stop. Something’s wrong—

Her entire body seized.

It was sudden and violent, like lightning ripping through her nerves. Her muscles locked painfully, her spine arching as she stumbled backward, tearing herself away from him. It felt almost like a seizure, her vision fracturing as she collapsed onto her hands and knees. Horror stretched across her face as she scrambled away, gasping like she had been poisoned.

Vander remained where he was.

His neck was torn open, blood smeared down his chest. His face was frightfully pale, lips tinged blue, and he sat slumped against the floor—standing clearly too much for him. Yet despite his condition, a huge grin split his face.

His half-opened eyes fixed on Liora with unmistakable delight.

"I thought it would kick in faster," he groaned, smirk curling his lips.

He scooted closer to the wall, pressing his back against it like someone settling in to watch a show. He didn’t make any move to drink her blood—something Liora had expected, something she’d been bracing for.

"...But now is fine too!!"

"What... what are you talking about?" Liora gasped.

Pain slammed into her without warning. She clutched her belly and throat, choking as she looked at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. Her expression was one of pure astonishment, her mind desperately trying—and failing—to comprehend what was happening to her body.

Vander chuckled.

It was low and rough, weaker than it should have been, muffled by the fact that he had lost so much blood. He pressed a cloth shakily to his neck, though his wounds were healing far more slowly than they should have.

"...My father liked rituals," he said casually. "Something I already mentioned."

Liora’s head rang violently.

"Did you really think he’d leave his family out of it?" Vander continued, voice thick with amusement. "We were the final subjects."

Her stomach lurched.

"My father’s ability was never strong enough to make him king," he went on. "So he changed us."

Liora bent forward suddenly.

Her body convulsed as she vomited—but it wasn’t food. Thick, dark blood poured from her mouth, splattering onto the floor beneath her. She gagged and choked, barely able to breathe as more followed.

Vander laughed softly.

"What do you think happens," he asked smugly, "when two rituals meet inside a vampire’s body?"

Pride shone in his eyes—cold, sharp, absolute.

"Nothing," he said confidently. "My body can take it."

Liora’s ears rang so loudly she barely heard the next words.

"But what do you think happens to you," he continued, "when your body can barely survive one?"

Her heart pounded violently, each beat painful and wrong. Blood continued to pour from her throat, sticky and suffocating, filling her mouth faster than she could spit it out.

I’m choking, she realized in panic. I can’t—

Then it got worse.

Her skin burned.

Her pores opened all at once, and blood—her blood—began to force its way out in violent spurts. It streamed down her arms, her legs, her stomach, pouring from her like a fountain. The floor beneath her darkened rapidly.

If her death had been uncertain before, it no longer was.

She looked up weakly.

Vander stared back at her with open mirth, his red eyes glowing in the dark as he watched her unravel.

"Don’t blame me for your death," he said lightly. "Blame your ignorance."

His gaze promised pain—he wanted to kill her himself for the injuries she had caused him. But for now, he was content to watch her die.

And die she did.

Her skin began to peel away in strips, tearing unnaturally. Her skull warped grotesquely, swelling as if something inside her was pushing outward, struggling to escape. Her head grew larger, misshapen, the pressure unbearable.

Something inside her was seconds away from exploding.

Even at death’s edge, Liora thought of her sister.

I shouldn’t have hoped, she thought bitterly. I shouldn’t have believed I could survive.

Her screams tore through the space, raw and agonized. She clutched her head as it bulged further, her heart racing impossibly fast—far beyond what was humanly possible.

Then—

Half her head exploded.

Blood and gore sprayed violently as her body collapsed, hitting the ground with a sickening thud. Vander leaned against the wall, chuckling breathlessly as he watched her body flop and lie still.

"Well... that’s that," he muttered.

Half her head was gone, destruction so complete that there was no doubt—she was utterly dead.

His gaze drifted upward, scanning the surroundings as he wondered where he might find his next meal to heal himself properly. The noise had been loud. He needed to leave.

Scrambling to his feet, he turned—

And froze.

Vander’s senses were sharp. Sharper than most. Yet even he doubted them as he slowly looked back.

Liora’s arm twitched.

Once.

Then again.

His face twisted into a deep scowl, something between fear and fury tightening his features as he watched the arm jerk once more.

His first instinct was to flee.

He had lived long enough to know better than to wait. His first thought was that she had never been human at all—that she was a zygon, or something worse, pretending.

But his legs refused to move.

The body stirred.

Slowly, impossibly, it pushed itself upright.

Half her head remained gone—yet she stood.

One remaining eye focused sharply on him, glowing faintly in the darkness. Vander instantly activated his ability, power surging through him in defiance.

Whatever she was, she shouldn’t exist.

She shouldn’t be alive.

Fear—true fear—flooded him. The kind only his father had ever managed to drag out of him.

His ability failed.

She was suddenly in front of him.

The last thing Vander saw was half a face grinning.

"I guess my body was strong enough," she whispered.

Her voice was scratchy—inhuman—nothing like anything he had ever heard before.