Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 1020: Savagery

Toru struggled in Alexandra’s arms on the depot’s loading ramp. "Please," he managed in English. "Help. Please..."

"I have you." Alexandra held him against her, gold bracing his knees before his own movements could hurt him. "Kai, she’s making them come to her!"

"She isn’t taking anyone." Aria’s voice had lost its warmth. Her crescent sharpened beside her lover’s head, its point aimed at Mizuno’s exposed temple.

Nyx folded the space in front of the ramp into a short loop. The survivors’ stumbling steps returned them to Alexandra’s arms, keeping them safely behind her barrier while Luna guided them into seated positions.

"There we go. Stay with Lexi." Nyx smiled at the survivors before facing Mizuno with cold disgust.

In the yard below them, Kaiden tightened his grip around Mizuno’s throat, choking off her orders.

"Khh...!"

He was disgusted. Toru had finally found his wife, and Mizuno had used her magic to force him away from her voice. Now he was begging for help while his own legs carried him toward her.

Kaiden could feel her power still pulling at the survivors through Alice’s senses. Silencing her prevented new orders; the ones she had already given forced their bodies to obey.

"How long have you been doing this to them?"

Mizuno shook her head as far as his fist allowed, choking. Her gaze darted toward the road.

Bastet stood across that route with sunlight gathering between her palms. Heat shimmered above the concrete around her bare feet, and she watched Mizuno’s searching eyes with open contempt.

"Master asked you a question."

Kaiden relaxed his grip to let Mizuno speak. Her feet swung above the ground, toes stretching uselessly toward the concrete.

"The monsters..." She dragged a breath through his fingers. "They would have eaten them. I saved them."

Behind him, Alexandra lifted the elderly woman’s sleeve. The same punctures marked her arm, some still bleeding beneath the dressing.

"Kai, she has them too. Someone’s been hurting them over and over."

Mizuno snarled.

Her canines lengthened past her lower lip as both hands locked around Kaiden’s wrist. With a violent twist, she wrenched his grip down from her throat and drove her fangs into the flesh at the base of his thumb.

"Kai!"

Luna’s shout cut across the yard as blood flooded Mizuno’s mouth. Calypso swung her axe toward the woman’s back, and Aria’s silver crescent flashed toward her head.

"Wait." Kaiden seized Mizuno behind the skull with his other hand. "I’ve got her."

Calypso checked her swing. Aria dissolved the crescent beside Mizuno’s temple, and Alice held her fire above her brother’s head.

Mizuno hung from his bitten hand, both of hers locked around his wrist. Her throat worked as she swallowed, sucking hard enough that he felt the pull all the way up to his heart.

If he had the Vitality of a normal human, he’d have died on the spot.

Pain burned through the torn flesh. With every beat of his heart, more blood rushed into her mouth, and the health reading in his interface dropped.

His mana was falling with it.

<Big Brother, she’s draining you!> Alice’s voice rang through his head. <Let me shoot her off!>

The punctures on Toru’s arm made horrible sense now. She had been feeding on those people.

Kaiden could feel the magic drawing strength out of him along with the blood. Her cheeks flushed as she drank, and her fingers dug deeper into his wrist. She was getting stronger while his resources poured into her.

"A fucking vampire." Luna stared at the fangs buried in his hand. "I knew something was wrong."

The sight had frozen Sonoda beside the ramp. Blood ran over Kaiden’s fingers into the mouth of the woman she had just tried to defend.

- DepotWatch: SHE BIT HIM?????

- MoonFeed: Those are fangs. Those are actual fucking fangs.

- GoldenWard: Get her off him! What is he waiting for?!

Kaiden let her swallow, following the pull of her magic through his body. His health and mana fell again as she gulped it down.

Kaiden’s red eyes flared orange.

Gluttony Stance.

"Hmm. Is this how you do it?"

With her mouth locked over his wound, Mizuno felt a ravenous hunger answer her own. It was so vast that she choked on the blood, her hands jerking against his grip.

Fear flooded her. She needed to get away from him.

She tried to pull her fangs out of his hand, suddenly desperate to get her feet beneath her. Kaiden bent his arm, hauling her against him while his other hand gripped the back of her head.

Her teeth were still buried in his flesh when he forced her head sideways and opened his mouth against her neck.

"Nn-!"

His teeth punched through her skin. Blood burst hot across his tongue as Kaiden drank.

"AAAAAH!"

Mizuno’s scream tore across the loading yard. Her mouth opened, ripping the fangs out of his hand, and she kicked him hard enough to split the concrete beneath his planted boot.

He held her up by the back of her neck, sucking until blood ran between his teeth.

Gluttony ripped blood and mana out of her in a torrent. The strength she had stolen rushed back into him with more behind it, swelling through his body as the holes in his hand closed.

Mizuno raked her nails down his cheek. Kaiden caught that wrist with his healing hand and wrenched it behind her back, forcing her chest against his while his teeth tore deeper into her neck.

"Get... off! GET OFF ME!"

Her free fist struck his ribs. Pain stabbed through his side, and Gluttony’s regeneration was already repairing the damage as he tightened his hold.

He could feel her fighting him inside the wound, pulling at the blood he was draining. Kaiden bore down on that resistance and sucked harder until hot blood flooded his mouth.

The vampire convulsed in his arms.

"Hh...! Aaaah!"

The flesh around his teeth struggled to knit together. Gluttony devoured the mana she was using to heal, and the wound split open again under his mouth.

Blood spilled down her collar as she thrashed. Her heels battered his thighs, each kick landing with less force as he drained the strength sustaining her.

Kaiden’s hunger filled the wound. He followed the flow deeper, drawing from the power gathered behind her frantic heartbeat, and tore it into himself with a pull that made her whole body arch.

Mizuno screamed into the sky, her free hand reaching past his shoulder toward anyone who might take him off her.

"Please! Please, I-"

Aria summoned a fresh crescent and stepped beyond Mizuno’s grasping fingers. The Moon Valkyrie’s spell hovered beside the vampire’s face as Kaiden continued drinking.

"Kai!" Alexandra called from the ramp. "They’ve stopped trying to get to her! They’re staying with us!"

Through Alice’s senses, Kaiden felt Mizuno’s hold on the survivors break. The mana she had been forcing into them collapsed as Gluttony dragged the strength sustaining it out through her torn throat.

Toru sagged into Alexandra’s arms. Luna supported the elderly survivor beside him, staring across the ramp at her lover.

"Holy fuck."

Mizuno’s fist slid down Kaiden’s side. She could only scrape her knuckles along his shirt when she attempted to strike him again.