Food or Lover (4)

"Hey," Michael called out to Ringo. "Are you free tonight?"

Shiro blinked and excused himself. Lately, it had become a common sight to see Sei's roommate approach his roommate. Although the snow fox demon didn't know what was going on, he heard the rumours how they were called to the principal's office. It wasn't hard to guess what kind of relationship they had now ever since Ringo was marked.

Ringo glared at Michael. "Not here," he whispered and led the vampire away. The alpha shouldn't be so near an omega's classroom, he was always attracting too much attention and Ringo hated it.

"How thirsty are you?" Ringo asked. The last cut on his wrist hasn't healed yet. Even Iason refused to overhead the slash marks because it would do Ringo more harm to hold so much magic in his body over the long run. He was an exorcist and spiritual power was his main source of power. Mixing magic into it will cause the energy to grow chaotic and useless in an exorcism.

Michael held up three fingers. They agreed beforehand to rate Michael's thirst level so that Ringo can meet with the vampire at the infirmary at night for feeding sessions. A five was feeling full after a feeding. A four was a good level of energy after a meal. A three was getting dangerously low and feeling the need to guzzle. A two meant that Michael was close to losing it and attacking others. A one would be too late.

The agreement was for Michael to inform Ringo when he reached a three. It didn't happen very often but once every three to four days, Michael would look for Ringo. The one time Ringo had his heat for a week and came back for feeding duties, the vampire reached a two state and almost drained Ringo. Thankfully, Iason was present to stop it. From that day onwards, Ringo fed the vampire by blood-letting instead of offering his neck for a buffet.

"Understood, I'll be there around nine after my shower," Ringo said and left.

Michael watched the exorcist leave with a slightly concerned look. Ringo wasn't behaving very well lately and he didn't know why. He tried to control his thirst as much as he could but for some reason, Ringo wasn't recovering fast enough. Maybe this intensity of blood donation was still too intense for a human. Michael had to consult Iason about it.

>>Xxx Destiny Aitsuji xxX<<

"Hm? I don't know but he should be alright after a few days. Ringo might be human but he is an exorcist with spiritual powers. Healing is one of the areas priests like him excel in. Now that you mention it, he always smells like fresh blood under those bandages as if his wound had never healed."

Hearing what Iason had to say, Michael thanked the doctor and went away with heavy thoughts on his mind. He couldn't help but still be concerned about Ringo and decided to follow him. He knows that the exorcist was busy lately because Asahina arranged a meeting for Ringo and a superior dragon god spirit alpha. He was one of the other alphas who was on par with Michael's power so if things go well, Ringo will be mated to the dragon god.

Yet, why couldn't he feel happy for Ringo? Was he really such a selfish person that he couldn't let go of one rose blood? Angry at that, Michael decided to put off following Ringo for a while. To prove to himself that he wasn't hung up and obsessed over a single rose blood carrier, Michael went to search for some humans to provide him with blood to snack on so that he didn't have to take too much blood from Ringo tonight.

There were only a few humans in the academy and Michael knew one he could approach easily. He was an alpha cultivator in the same class that Michael didn't attend very often because of his condition.

"Ruo Han," Michael approached the human cultivator with jade white skin and long snow-white hair that reached his back. Not many other alphas and demons wanted to get near him because of his icy demeanour and ability to cause demons real pain.

Ruo Han glanced up at the platinum blond vampire. Although they never really saw each other or talked, the cultivator knew who this was. Still, he preferred to play dumb. "You are?"

At the question, the other classmates started whispering. Some stayed to listen to a fight while others left, not wanting to get involved with a pure-blood vampire and a cultivator who is a founder of a powerful demon-hunting sect.

Michael wasn't deterred. "I'm Michael, a starving vampire. I'd like to ask you for a favour."

Ruo Han raised his brow and his lips curled into a slight smile. "A favour? What do I get in return?"

"What do you want in return?"

The cultivator sect founder paused and thought for a while. "Follow me, it isn't convenient to talk here with too many flies around."

Michael didn't hesitate to follow the cultivator, ignoring the stares and gossips flying all over. Eventually, they returned to Ruo Han's room. His roommate was out so the cultivator finally turned to the vampire.

"Let me guess. You're going to ask if I could become your blood donor, right? I heard the exorcist is now trying to hook up with other alphas and just the other day he scored a huge one with a dragon god spirit. Did he ditch you?"

Shocked, Michael could only ask about what Ringo was doing. "Did you say dragon god spirit? The one known to be very kinky and has slept with so many omegas that they were on the brink of death just after one night with him? The one that steals life energy from his partners? That dragon god spirit?"

Surprised that Michael didn't know, Ruo Han nodded. "I don't know what's happening but your temporary mate looks very happy. I thought you came to me because he doesn't want to give you any more blood."

Michael felt weak hearing it and collapsed onto a bed, his mind still reeling from the shocking information. "I-I thought that it was strange lately, who knew that this would be the case? No wonder he wasn't recovering fast enough... I thought I'd try some other blood sources because I didn't want to burden his body."

Ruo Han could only look at Michael in pity and held out his wrist to the vampire. "I don't think I can help you with your love issues but I can at least donate some food to a starving vampire. I know you can hardly stomach blood from blood bags, you're quite delicate for an alpha and a vampire prince."

Michael didn't deny it and laughed without humour. "That, I am. You're more of an alpha than I am. I must have been blinded by the smell of rose blood that Ringo had when I attacked him the other day. Normally, I wouldn't lose control so easily. Even now, the smell of your blood is appetising but I can still control the thirst."

"Whatever, drink up and get lost if you have nothing else."

Michael was about to drink but he remembered something. "What about that favour?"

The cultivator smiled. "I'll make you owe me one for now."

Obediently, Michael nodded and drank from Ruo Han's wrist. The cultivator's blood was refreshing like icy mint but after two mouthfuls, Michael stopped and helped Ruo Han heal the wound with a frown.

Ruo Han was similarly surprised. "That's it? You can take more if you want, I'm not going to faint."

Michael shook his head. "That's not it. I don't understand it myself either but this is not the blood that I want... the thirst is still there."

Observing how much Michael was suffering, the cultivator suggested that the vampire went for a check-up. Michael thanked him and left the room wobbling slightly. If the problem wasn't about the species then what was it? There was just something about Ringo's blood that drew him in like a magnet. After drinking the exorcist's blood, Michael simply couldn' drink anyone else's blood to quench his thirst.

"What's going on?" he groaned and decided to take a walk to think it through carefully.