Chapter 62 Chapter 62

Chapter 62 Chapter 62

Dahlia didn’t say anything else.
She simply stood in front of me, letting my fingers gently tidy her tangled hair. Ever since she was little, she had always been like this. Whenever she felt anxious, she would go silent. She wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t complain. She would just stay quiet and look at me as if I had the answers to everything.
But I never did.
I was simply better at hiding my fear.
“I’m hungry.”
The words came out so softly they were almost swallowed by the sound of vehicles passing outside the window.
I lowered my hand.
“Hungry as a human, or...”
Dahlia turned her face away.
She didn’t need to answer.
I already knew.
My chest felt heavy again.
I opened the small drawer beside the bed and took out a bag of bread I had bought last night after work. The bread had already started to harden. It was no longer warm. But it was all we had.
“Let’s eat first.”
Dahlia took the bread without saying much.
She bit into it slowly.
She chewed for a long time.
I watched her every movement.
As vampires, human food never truly satisfied us. It only helped our bodies maintain our disguise. It gave us just enough energy to keep appearing like ordinary humans.
What our bodies truly needed...
was blood.
I took another piece of bread.
I bit into it slowly.
It tasted bland.
Dry.
Almost like chewing sawdust.
But I forced myself to swallow it.
“Kak.”
“Hm.”
“Are we really not allowed to hunt?”
I stopped chewing.
The question had finally come out.
I had been waiting for it since last night.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Dahlia.”
“I’m just asking.”
I took a deep breath before answering.
“Because once we start...”
“...it will be very hard to stop.”
Dahlia wiped away the crumbs clinging to the corner of her lips.
“But we’re not human.”
“That’s true.”
“Drinking blood is part of our life.”
“That’s true.”
“So why do we have to keep torturing ourselves?”
I looked at her for a long moment.
This girl was still too young.
She had been raised in the palace.
Every need had always been provided for.
She had never known what it was like to hunt.
She had never known what it was like to lose control.
All she knew was that blood was always available whenever she needed it.
“Dahlia.”
“Yes?”
“Do you still remember the night I lost control?”
She nodded slowly.
Her face immediately turned pale.
“That was the first time I saw you like that.”
“Me too.”
I stared at my own hands.
Even though the man’s blood had long since disappeared from my skin, I could still remember its warmth flowing over my tongue.
I could still remember how my body refused to stop.
“I barely recognized myself.”
The room fell silent again.
“I’m scared.”
The voice came out almost like a whisper.
It wasn’t from Dahlia.
It was from me.
“I’m scared that one day I’ll do the same thing again.”
Dahlia slowly moved closer.
“Kak.”
“I don’t want you to see me become a monster.”
Her gaze changed instantly.
“You’re not a monster.”
“I killed someone.”
“You were defending yourself.”
“I still killed him.”
“He attacked you.”
“Dahlia.”
I shook my head slowly.
“If I could truly control myself...”
“...I should have stopped once he stopped fighting back.”
The words made my throat feel tight.
“But I kept drinking his blood.”
“I couldn’t even hear him begging.”
Dahlia took my hand.
Her hand was cold.
As cold as mine.
“You’re not alone.”
I lifted my head.
She smiled faintly.
“If one day you lose control...”
“...I’ll pull you back.”
I let out a small laugh.
“Your body is even smaller than mine.”
“I’ll still try.”
I gently ruffled her hair.
“You really are stubborn.”
“It’s because I’m your little sister.”
For the first time since waking up...
I smiled genuinely.
It only lasted a moment.
But it was enough to ease the tightness in my chest a little.
After we finished the last of the bread, I cleaned up the small table near the window.
There wasn’t much to tidy.
This room was too small to even be called a home.
One bed.
One old wooden table.
A small cupboard with peeling paint.
A cheap electric stove that sometimes worked, sometimes didn’t.
Done.
That was the entirety of our life now.
I still remembered my room in Crimsonveil.
It was almost ten times the size of this place.
There was a balcony overlooking the black pine forest.
There were bookshelves covering an entire wall.
There was a white piano that I rarely even touched.
Back then, I always complained.
I thought of that room as a golden cage.
How funny.
Now I actually missed that cage.
“Kak.”
I snapped out of my reverie.
“Yes?”
“You’re working again tonight.”
“Yes.”
Dahlia seemed to think for a few seconds.
“Can I come with you?”
“No.”
“I just want to watch.”
“No.”
“I’m bored staying in the room.”
“Dahlia.”
She let out a long sigh.
“I already knew the answer.”
I walked over to her.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you.”
“Then why?”
“Because I want at least one of us to stay safe.”
She tilted her head.
“If both of us go out...”
“...and something happens...”
“...who will protect us?”
Dahlia fell silent.
A few moments later, she nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
I grabbed my jacket hanging behind the door.
I checked the inner pocket.
Wallet.
Keys.
A few bills.
That was all.
Not much.
But enough to buy food tomorrow if the tavern owner still hadn’t paid me.
I put on the jacket while glancing at the wall clock.
There was still some time before I had to leave for Raven.
I hoped tonight would be just an ordinary night.
No hunters.
No Alaric.
No surprises.
For some reason...
Simple hopes like that were always the hardest to come true.
As my hand touched the door handle...
I suddenly stopped.
There was something.
My senses had shifted.
It wasn’t because I heard a sound.
It wasn’t because I smelled anything specific either.
It was instinct.
The instinct that had saved me since I was a child.
I slowly turned my head toward the window.
Outside...
The street was still busy.
People came and went as usual.
But among the crowd...
I felt...
as if someone was watching the building where we lived.
I narrowed my eyes.
I tried to find the figure that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
There was nothing.
Just an old woman carrying a shopping bag.
A small child running after a balloon.
A man and woman laughing in front of the flower shop.
Nothing strange.
Absolutely nothing.
“Again.”
I rubbed my face slowly.
“I’m starting to get too paranoid.”
But deep in my heart...
I knew.
A vampire’s instinct was almost never wrong.
Someone was searching for something in this city.
And for a reason I couldn’t explain...
I felt that search was slowly beginning to point toward me.