21 Mutual Bond
Maximillian Vikander, a. k. a. Maxill, is not like any other bloodhunt.
He’s a special vampire hybrid that has surpassed his kind in skill, intellect, and power.
One would probably think that because he’s half-blood, his bloodhunt gifts would become diluted.
But it turned out the opposite
As his gene pool became diverse, it enabled his mind and body to evolve and resist the weaknesses in both of his vampire and human genes.
Add this to the fact that her sacrificial witborn mother constantly fed him pure human blood.
He became stronger, more agile, and his intelligence had reached a higher level of genius compared to his peers.
He’s aware of his exceptional abilities, but Maxill doesn’t know if his talents have served him well.
Physically and intellectually he has definitely buffed up, but it left a big blow into his social life because many are afraid to admit that half-bloods would do better than full-bloods, and they were utterly envious that he had a constant supply of fresh and delicious life-giving liquid from infancy.
That was why he was bullied, ingraining in his head that he’s the total scum of their bloodline.
So he chose to be a lone wanderer after breaking free from his initial witborn masters.
When he was caught again, that was when he met Chastine at an inconvenient time. Then the rest is history.
Maxill have a soft spot for the smart witborn. Other than her having spunk, Chastine reminded him of his late mother.
She did succumb to consumption, but it also reminded him that he almost killed his mother from drinking her blood many times.
And now his self-hate and deep guilt were growing in him again.
—
Chastine finally awakened after she had fallen asleep from dizziness and exhaustion. Juste fed her as per Maxill’s instruction, and she then quickly fell asleep to replenish her blood loss.
Her eyes slowly opened and she first saw the caring fellhound cutting up long twigs into smaller and shorter twigs for extra tinder.
“Juste…”
He quickly glanced at Chastine and went near her to attend to her as soon as he heard her call for his name.
“Chastine, you’re awake. Are you now ok? What are you feeling right now?” His caring nature and sincere stare made her heart skip a beat.
Chastine held one of his arms and said, “I’m fine, Juste. Thanks for asking.”
She put a weak smile upon her face, a weak but charming smile usually seen when someone just woke up from sleep, saw their loved one, and do the gesture.
Juste couldn’t help but blush. His body temperature also rose up the second Chastine put her hand on his arm.
Juste thought that he wouldn’t fall for the witborn, as his offer for that one-time s*x was purely for his escape and her survival.
But it turned out that his feelings were growing for Chastine, as he found her to be wholly beautiful inside and out.
Chastine noticed they were staring at each other for too long, so she broke the awkward moment between them; she glanced to her left.
Then, having noticed the tall bloodhunt nowhere in sight, she quickly asked his fellhound crush about their vampire hybrid companion.
“Juste, where’s Maxill?” She asked with a sense of urgency.
“Maxill? Uh, yeah, right…” the fellhound sounded a bit disappointed because he wanted to look at her for longer, “Maxill said he’d look for more twigs so he can make you a makeshift shelter. You’re prone to getting cold, so there.”
“How long was I asleep?” Chastine’s brows furrowed.
“The sun is about to set right now, so about four hours?”
“Four hours and he hasn’t come back? Where do you think he’d go?”
Juste shrugged. “I don’t know. But I think he needed some space alone to think about what he just did to you.”
Chastine tried to quickly stand up. Seeing her struggle, Juste helped her to her feet.
“I need to find him. He must’ve been thinking that I’d hate him-I don’t.”
At this point Juste couldn’t do anything but oblige to what Chastine wanted.
His anger towards Maxill had already subsided, but he was still wary of what would happen should Maxill go into a drinking frenzy again, whether out of necessity or from pure craving.
Chastine had already gone a few steps away from their camp when Juste came to his senses in accompanying her to find Maxill.
Scurrying, Juste said, “Chastine, wait! I’ll go with you.”
—
“Maxill? Maxill!” Chastine’s slightly curled hands were placed near her mouth as she called for Maxill.
“Maxill, Maxill…” Juste was also calling his name.
The sun was soon setting down. It was dusk, and the darkness was slowly creeping into the woods.
They needed to find Maxill before it will get harder for them to look for him in the dark.
It then dawned on Juste to search for the bloodhunt using his spatial senses.
“Chastine, wait, I have an idea.”
“Ok, what is it?” She stopped shouting Maxill’s name and stopped to her tracks.
“Just stay where you are. I’ll use my hypersense on him.”
Juste closed his eyes a breathed deeply. He then reached for the ground with his palms touching it.
He can feel nature moving and flowing in harmony with each other: the trees swaying, river freshly streaming, birds chirping, four-footed animals gently walking, rabbits hopping, insects making sounds.This is from NôvelDrama.Org.
And then he sensed the tall bloodhunt, crouched within the recesses of that deep cave where it was hiding Maxill’s cries of guilt and pain.
He was tall and majestic and unique enough to be spatially sensed by his keen fellhound friend.
“I found him,” Juste declared it to Chastine with a smirk about his face.
He strode towards Maxill’s direction, in an agile manner but slow enough so that Chastine could catch up.
Chastine reached for Juste’s sleeves because she now found it hard to see in the dark.
When she caught the edge of his hem, the young fellhound held her hand instead.
They were holding hands while they make their way to their vampire friend.
Maxill could hear footsteps nearing his location. He was aware that those where from Chastine and Juste.
He quickly rubbed his red-colored sockets, the scleras of which were also enveloped with bloodshot redness from his lengthy session of lamenting. His eyeballs were red all over.
“Maxill! There you are.” Juste spotted the handsome bloodhunt inside the cave. His hypersense enabled him to see in the dark.
Chastine then hurriedly but carefully went near Maxill and hugged him tightly.
“Where you at? You were gone for too long. I missed you already Maxill.”
Maxill cannot keep his feelings from releasing a torrent of droplets from his eyeballs.
But this time, the feelings were from being touched by the sincere gesture of Chastine.
It was his first time experiencing such a heartwarming gesture.
He then held Chastine’s nape and wrapped his arm around her back, embracing his beloved friend like they hadn’t seen each other for years.