Copyright © 2020 Kaizer Wolf
Innocent Devil's Harem | Chapter 15-3: Testing Her Limits
Shit, that brought up another concern.
Could Gabriella even stomach drinking blood from a living animal? I mean, she was a vegetarian before all this, and yeah she was kind of alright with eating meat, but this was an entirely different situation.
“R-Right,” I said hesitantly, my thoughts moving to considering how we could test our limitations out. “Oh, and can I borrow your gun?” I asked, directing my question to my housemate.
That caught them all off guard, everyone looking at me like I was crazy.
“To shoot yourself?” Nick clarified in disbelief.
I nodded, causing Serenity to gasp.
“Kai!” she exclaimed. “Isn’t there some other way?”
I focused on her again, giving her a sympathetic look. “To see how much I can get hurt, before I might lose control? No, I don’t think there is.”
She grimaced, taking a shallow breath. “You just better be careful! I can’t lose you! You’re basically the only one I have left!”
I fully understood how she felt, knowing that there was no one who could replace her in my life.
I gave her a weak smile. “I know. And I’m not going to try to kill myself. I’ll stop before it gets to that point. But I also can’t risk killing some random person just because I don’t know what my limits are.” I sighed heavily. “I love you, Ren.”
“I love you too,” she whispered, still seeming against the idea, but knowing I was determined.
I bent down to give her a quick hug, and then grabbed Gabriella’s hand to lead her over to where I’d left Serenity’s gun after collecting it from her kidnapper’s car the previous night, followed by heading out past the stairs to the backdoor. Once we got outside, Gabriella started apologizing again, obviously still feeling miserable about what she’d done.
I shook my head in response, leading her past the shed into the trees. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t know this would happen. I wouldn’t have bitten you if I’d known.”
She was quiet for a few seconds as she absorbed that. She then tentatively spoke up. “Kai…I feel horrible about what I did. Like, really horrible.” She paused. “But, if this means I’ve really become like you, then that makes me kind of glad. It makes me feel closer to you now.”
“It does?” I said in surprise, glancing back at her still-vibrant emerald eyes.
She nodded, a slight blush appearing beneath her tan cheeks. Her tone was more lighthearted, with it being obvious she was trying to lighten my mood. “If anything, it might mean I can actually overpower you in bed now.”
I unexpectedly chuckled at that, which was a nice temporary release from all the tension I felt.
Gabriella smiled weakly in response, seeming happy to have made me laugh, but clearly still feeling miserable.
I took a deep breath, still a little amused as I shook my head. “Wow, you really have a one-track mind, don’t you?” I teased.
She gave me a slightly more playful look. “Normally it’s guys with that kind of problem, but when I’m with you, I just can’t help myself.”
I gave her a small smile. “As if you didn’t already do what you wanted before,” I said with mock disbelief.
She finally smiled more fully, before it vanished just as fast. “I love you,” she whispered somberly.
“I love you too,” I replied sincerely. “Now, we need to get you something to eat, hopefully–” My voice cut off when her expression suddenly became serious, as she started looking around. It was enough for me to quickly focus on my senses in alarm, only to not notice anything significant.
Just the trees rustling in the wind, the bird singing at each other, a few early cicadas chirping in the distance. It was actually kind of peaceful, or would have been were it not for what just happened in the house.
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“What’s wrong?” I asked after a moment.
Her vibrant emerald eyes focused on me. “It’s just, you said your senses were stronger than regular people. But I don’t feel much different than usual, except maybe a little stronger.” She then held up her arms, focusing on her tan skin. “And I can’t seem to turn back to normal. I tried earlier after I was done cleaning up the floor, but nothing happened.” She sighed. “Although, I’m not really sure how to do it anyway.”
I honestly wasn’t sure either, since I had no idea how to explain a process that I’d just done naturally all my life.
I just did it.
I took a deep breath. “Well, let’s just focus on finding an animal to hunt for right now. We can worry about the details later.”
Gabriella frowned briefly before agreeing with a nod, prompting us to set off to hunt down a deer. I figured that would be easier for her than a predator like a coyote, or something really small that she might perceive as cute, like a squirrel. Granted, I wasn’t sure how she was going to do no matter what I picked out.
As we moved quickly, I noticed that she was definitely faster than a normal person, but there was no way she’d ever be able to outrun a four-legged animal at this point.
Still, it was surprisingly nice to run beside her at such an accelerated speed. In gym at school, I of course always had to hold back, making sure I wasn’t the fastest person, in order to avoid the coach trying to recruit me for track or something. Thus, I was familiar with running beside others. However, going at a pace that would be considered world record breaking for humans was a different experience.
Primarily because I’d never been around anyone who could even remotely keep up with me. It made me look forward to, and hope, that maybe Gabriella would actually get faster as time progressed, though I had no idea what to expect from this seemingly unprecedented transformation.
Once I located a deer with my nose and ears, I asked her to wait so I could catch it for her, knocking it unconscious and dragging it back. However, much to my surprise, when she caught sight of me, she eagerly ran to meet me halfway, suddenly seeming extremely cheerful.
And then, even more shocking, she didn’t even hesitate when I held the head up by its small antlers, wrapping her arms around the buck’s neck as she bit into its furry throat, readjusting her teeth a few times until she had the blood flowing, beginning to slurp it up with each heartbeat.
Seriously, I was in shock.
I watched her in disbelief, continuing to support most of the deer’s weight as she drank until its heart began sputtering and eventually stopped.
Finally, she pulled back, some of the blood having gotten on her already-torn shirt.
“Wow,” she exclaimed emphatically, a huge grin on her face, a little bit of blood actively disappearing on the corners of her mouth as it seemed to get absorbed into her skin. “That was extremely satisfying.”
“You liked it?” I asked seriously.
She nodded, leaning forward and grabbing my face to give me a long kiss on the lips, prompting me to drop the deer.
“Yep!” she agreed cheerfully, grinning up at me. “It was like caramel popcorn, but in liquid form. Salty, sweet, and buttery all at once. Possibly the best thing I’ve ever tasted…” She lowered her voice, gently rubbing her thumbs along my jaw. “Aside from your stuff,” she added.
I cleared my throat, only able to nod.
She tilted her head to the side slightly. “What’s wrong?” she wondered, her expression adorable.
“Umm, you just seem different,” I admitted. “Like, you’ve gone from vegetarian to drinking blood in less than a day, as if it’s no big deal.”
She pouted. “Is it because of my smell?” she asked. “Did it change?”
I gave her a confused look. “No, but what does that have to do with anything?”
Her pout deepened. “Well, you never did tell me if that’s why you didn’t want me to stop being vegetarian.” She sighed. “But remember, I told you I grew up that way. I don’t have a particular issue with eating meat, other than habit. And I’d much rather kill a deer than accidentally kill a person.” She shivered then, dropping her hands from my face and wrapping her arms around herself. “It really scares me thinking about what might have happened if you hadn’t been there to wake me up.”
Honestly, I didn’t want to think about it either.
Because if I hadn’t been around, Gabriella could have killed my friend, and that was a horrifying thought indeed. Not to mention, I couldn’t even imagine how my fiancé would have felt when she did finally wake up, only to discover that she was drinking from Serenity’s neck.
I mean, being completely honest, if I woke up like that, I probably would have killed myself.
Especially if it was Serenity.
Which was even more reason to figure out what our limits were, to make sure nothing like that ever happened to either of us.
Unexpectedly, Gabriella cheered up again, dropping her arms and interrupting my thoughts. “So then, I still smell good?” she asked, sounding hopeful.
I just stared at her in disbelief, surprised by how quickly her emotions seemed to be shifting. “Umm, yeah. You still smell as amazing as always. Your scent hasn’t changed at all.” I frowned then, really focusing on it, wondering why it was the same.
I’d already considered that it might actually be because she was part-succubus, something that I’d almost forgotten about with everything going on. But I supposed this really confirmed that my assumption about her diet being the cause was wrong, because not only had she eaten meat the previous day, but she’d also just drank more blood than should be possible for her stomach to hold. Yet, she still had that intoxicating smell somewhat similar to the taste of maple syrup.
So then, maybe it was truly because she was part-succubus.
Granted, we hadn’t actually confirmed that yet, since Gabriella’s mom hadn’t gotten back to her.
However, either way, Serenity usually had the same base scent too, despite what she ate, just not as potent as Gabriella’s aroma, and much more normal too. So I shouldn’t be so surprised it wasn’t due to her diet.
Although, with my housemate’s scent, while she didn’t smell bad to me, I’d never compare it to something related to food. Serenity just smelled like a human female – a very familiar scent that was extremely comforting, but not appetizing. Or more specifically, the scent itself didn’t get me in the mood, like Gabriella’s smell did.
Copyright © 2020 Kaizer Wolf