Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Colette approached the vampire heiress loitering by her car and scolded her. “Just what are you doing now?”

Ingrid looked up with a frown on her face, as tears formed in her eyes.

“Hey…” The dhamphir stepped back a bit, feeling a little uncomfortable, “Why are you crying? Stop crying. What’s the matter with you?” then looked around and saw no one. “Where’s Rohit?” she urgently asked. “Why’s he not with you—did you two have a fight?”

The vampire heiress slowly stood up and leaned against the lot light, trying to pull herself together, but shook her head in response to her question.

“Then what?” Colette persisted without regard for the young woman’s feelings.

Ingrid stammered, “I… I just realized that it’s too much pressure on me.”

The dhamphir raised her eyebrows, still showing no empathy towards her.

“When I first encountered Rohit, I thought all of my problems would be solved right away,” she continued, “but I’ve already inconvenienced him enough. Both at home and in public. And for the Almighty One’s sake, it hasn’t even been a day!” Ingrid began sliding back down, mumbling, “Perhaps it would’ve been best if we never met,” but in the midst of her recession, her collar was clutched and she was forced back to her feet.

Colette tightened her grip upon the vampire heiress’s shirt and stated, “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but as far as I’m concerned, you’ve already introduced Rohit to our world. This makes it your responsibility to see him through.” Before Ingrid could get a word in, she continued, “Now let’s go find him before he gets hurt. He is carrying all those bags of blood after all.”

Ingrid’s eyes widened, recalling that with the amount of blood in Rohit’s possession, he was officially bait, especially at night. So she decided to transform into a bat and fly to his position, with Colette following behind her.

Before swooping down within the young man’s vicinity, Ingrid posted atop one of the buildings adjacent to the parking lot, where she could safely gaze at him from a distance. She sighed in relief after noticing that he was physically unharmed. The state of his emotional health, however, spelled distress.

Colette landed beside her and transformed back as well, “So what now, Miss Vampire Queen?” as she crossed her arms.

Ingrid flexed her cheeks. “I thought I told you not to call me that,” she snapped, glaring at her.

The dhamphir shrugged. “I just wanted to see if you could retain that fight in you after that brief moment of weakness.”

She rolled her eyes and continued watching Rohit sit inside the car, with her amplified vision.

He didn’t appear to be in any kind of danger, as he was talking to himself and fidgeting a lot. Occasionally he would step out of the car and pace around it, looking around for the vampire heiress.

Ingrid softened her eyes, while looking at how distraught he was and was feeling a tightness in her chest.

“I don’t have all night,” Colette impatiently remarked, as she stood beside her and looked down at Rohit. “My favorite show is gonna start soon, so are you gonna fly down there and apologize for abandoning him, or should I sweep him up and take him back to my place?”

“Like hell!” The vampire heiress’s eyes turned crimson and she slugged the store clerk in her shoulder.

She smirked, “All the more reason for you to go back down and patch things up,” then dropped her expression to a serious one. “Just look at how much suffering you’re causing him. He clearly cares a great deal about you.”

Ingrid’s eyes changed back to blue, as she frowned. “I… I don’t know if I’m ready,” she stammered.

Colette sighed and gazed up at the moon, removing her glasses and rubbing her eyes before putting them back on. “Look, Ingrid,” she empathetically began, “I understand your apprehension with involving him in a vampire’s affairs. But the truth is, you did bring him into our world, and there’s no turning back.”

Ingrid glanced at her.

“Once a human gets involved in the realm of vampires, their entire perception changes forever. Never to be undone.” She flexed her cheeks. “Just look at how the Vampire Hunters came to be—ordinary humans who got involved with the underworld, forever marking them with a primal instinct to hunt us.”

The vampire heiress pursed her lips, as she clenched her fists.

“Now I’m not saying that Rohit is gonna be anything like them—he has a kind heart. Perhaps too kind for his own good, but a kind heart nonetheless. He’s willing to grind it out with you if you’re open and honest with him.”

“I just don’t understand why though.”

“Then talk to him,” Colette bluntly replied. “It’s your duty to find out why he’s going so far to help out a complete stranger. Likewise, you also have an obligation to disclose to him the very reason you’re stringing him along in your mission.”

Ingrid tried brushing her comment off. “I’m not stringing him—”

“Well you’re certainly not being honest with him now, are you?”

She sighed, and admitted her fault. “I’m just afraid of explaining everything to him at one time. I was hoping to drag out the process if I could, so that he could adjust with time.”

“But you had your doubts, and that’s why you ran away.” Colette wasn’t cutting corners when it came to exposing Ingrid’s intentions and faults. She could see right through her. “And it’s like I already stated: once a human gets involved in the world of vampires, there’s no turning back. He seems to have figured this out already, it’s just you who can’t accept how giving he is of himself. What do you even expect?”

“I thought he’d be against it and unwilling to even give it a chance, but he’s just so nonchalant about it happening that it’s throwing me off.”

Colette shrugged. “Then you have nothing to worry about, if he’s being so accepting of the fact. He’s a special case of someone who understands the circumstances when it comes to them, and adapts accordingly. Then seeks to see what he could do to play his destined role—that’s who they call an opportunist.”

Ingrid widened her eyes, realizing what the dhamphir said made a lot of sense when it came to understanding the psychological and environmental influences surrounding Rohit’s potential reasoning for helping her so much. “So… you think he’s open to the idea of becoming my blood partner?”

The store clerk flexed her cheeks. “It’s possible. But you have to be absolutely sure that this is what you have to do to fulfill your mission.”

Ingrid nodded. “I think it was meant to be that way, but under certain conditions.”

Colette skeptically looked at her, tilting her head to the side. “What are you trying to accomplish anyway?”

“To become a human.”