I Have a Tail

“Ruobing, what are you afraid of?” Xi Xue’s voice suddenly echoed in her ear, laced with concern.

“Huh?”

Lan Ruobing lifted her head, her expression bewildered.

The sensation on her neck confirmed it: Xi Xue had retracted her fangs and was now gently licking the wound with her soft tongue.

After two gentle licks, Xi Xue lifted her head.

Her expression was serene, yet her eyes held a chilling quality, as though she had instantly transformed into an aloof, untouchable elder sister.

“Your body is trembling, and it shouldn’t be from the cold,” she said softly, brushing aside the strands of silver hair that obscured Ruobing’s eyes.

“Are you afraid of me? Afraid that I might… turn you into a cold corpse?”

She spoke calmly, wiping a drop of blood from her lips with her thumb before putting it into her mouth to lick clean.

Lan Ruobing’s eyes widened.

She stared blankly as Xi Xue licked the blood from her thumb, watching as the fresh crimson remaining on her fangs gathered into a drop and fell onto her tongue.

Her slender, jade-white fangs were starkly revealed.

“Hmm?” Xi Xue’s questioning hum reached her.

Gulp. Lan Ruobing swallowed hard, then looked up into Xi Xue’s eyes.

Those piercing eyes were as still as an ancient well, betraying no immediate emotion.

Yet, Lan Ruobing couldn’t shake the feeling that beneath that placid surface, a torrent of terrifying, complex emotions lay hidden.

Just one glance brought an inexplicable sense of oppression to her heart, like the calm before a storm, threatening to suffocate her at any moment.

She wisely closed her eyes and shook her head.

“No, it’s not that.”

Exhaling a hot breath, she added with considerable effort, “I’m not… haah… afraid of Xi Xue.”

Without the assault of Xi Xue’s thigh and soft tongue, her words came out much more smoothly, though her body still burned intensely from the lingering effects of the bite.

Even with Xi Xue acting as cold as an iceberg, it couldn’t melt the heat within Lan Ruobing.

This heat felt like a poison, one that could only be relieved by a passionate, tumultuous embrace.

She struggled to wrap her arms around Xi Xue, pressing her entire body against hers, clinging tightly.

“What I’m afraid of isn’t you, Xi Xue.”

She gasped for air, continuing, “It’s the fear of being drained. I’m afraid of being sucked dry.”

‘I can’t hold on much longer…’

She slumped against Xi Xue, feeling utterly weak.

‘These side effects are truly intense…’

Gasps wracked her body. She intended to rest for a while, regain her strength, and then carefully move away.

Unseen by her, Xi Xue’s pupils dilated at her answer, her gaze momentarily lost in thought.

Then, a wicked, charming smile curved her lips.

Not long after, as Ruobing still struggled to recover, a sudden immense force from behind pulled her into a fierce embrace.

Xi Xue’s voice, brimming with a triumphant condescension, resonated in her ear: “A good answer, little kitty. As a reward, I’ve decided to let you see my true form when we get back, and then we’ll have a really good time.”

‘True form…?’

Lan Ruobing struggled briefly, but she was held too tightly, forcing her to give up the fight.

“What do you mean? Is the one in front of me not real?”

Having recovered some strength, she quietly circulated her Water Healing to deal with the side effects plaguing her body.

“No. It’s my original appearance as a Bloodkin,” Xi Xue said softly.

Lan Ruobing tilted her small head, a puzzled expression on her face.

Xi Xue explained, “In your mind, a Bloodkin should have bat wings, stand under a blood moon, be surrounded by bats, with a ground littered with blood and corpses, and old trees with cawing crows in the background, right?”

“…” Lan Ruobing looked at Xi Xue with a hint of surprise.

While Xi Xue’s description was mostly accurate to popular media, wasn’t it a bit too gory and terrifying? Was she demeaning her own race?

Noticing Lan Ruobing’s expression, Xi Xue suddenly smiled. “Actually, that describes lesser Bloodkin. They can only be considered a fragment of the race, not the entirety of it.”

“And I can directly represent the legitimate lineage of the entire Bloodkin.”

She declared proudly, looking into Ruobing’s eyes, anticipating an interesting reaction.

Instead, she was met only with Ruobing’s subtle eye-roll.

For some inexplicable reason, Xi Xue felt several veins throbbing in her forehead.

“Aren’t all Bloodkin the same?” Lan Ruobing asked, her face full of bewilderment.

‘They’re just vampires, what’s so special about them…’

If Xi Xue hadn’t been right there, Lan Ruobing would have certainly voiced that thought aloud.

In her opinion, ‘Bloodkin’ was merely a refined term vampires used to package themselves.

“No, they’re not. You’ll understand when we go back. Legend has it that the most ancient Bloodkin were actually angels,” Xi Xue said with pride.

“Are you referring to that ancient deity from the creation myths? The legendary Tier 13 powerhouse who defeated the alien races in the ancient texts?” Lan Ruobing murmured, searching her memory of school history lessons.

She suddenly looked up, shocked. “So you have angel wings?!”

“No,” Xi Xue replied, then gave a wicked, teasing smile. “But I have a tail.”

Lan Ruobing’s mind reeled, and her legs instinctively clamped together.

“You, you’re not kidding, are you? You, a Bloodkin, can have a tail?” Lan Ruobing felt her jaw might drop off.

“That’s right, but…” Xi Xue suddenly pinched her cheeks.

“How is your stamina suddenly so good? You’re speaking without needing to rest?”

Her voice radiated a dangerous aura.

Gulp. Lan Ruobing swallowed, her mind racing, frantically searching for an excuse.

‘Oh no…’

“I rested for a bit, so I quickly—”

“So you used Water Healing?”

Xi Xue cut off her excuse, a dangerous glint flashing in her eyes as her hand reached straight into Lan Ruobing’s combat pants.

The words she hadn’t yet spoken died in her throat.

Feeling the invasion, Lan Ruobing swiftly grabbed the offending hand with both of hers.

With tearful eyes, she pleaded, “Don’t…”

“No,” Xi Xue immediately refused.

‘Damn it!’

Lan Ruobing quickly squatted, dodging the encroaching hand, and fell backward.

‘Dragon’s Head Rise!’

Xi Xue tried to pursue, but the water dragon’s sudden upward surge made her lose her footing slightly.

Lan Ruobing seized the opportunity, using gravity to slide rapidly onto the dragon’s back.

But as she slid, she was shocked to see Xi Xue running towards her, stepping directly on the vertical dragon’s body as if gravity meant nothing.

‘What the hell?!’

Terrified, she scrambled to roll over and escape, but her ankles were firmly caught.

With another pull, she was thrown entirely onto the dragon’s back.

‘Oh no!’

She cried out in pain as her body was swiftly pulled back, then flipped over.

A leg-pulling maneuver brought her directly back beneath Xi Xue.

“Oh, you’re quite fast, aren’t you!” Xi Xue chuckled, her smile hiding a sharp edge.

Lan Ruobing swallowed, indignantly retorting, “You, you cheated! How can you stand on a vertical surface!”

‘Heaven is my witness! The dragon was flying vertically!’

‘The dragon’s head could be stood on earlier, but then I made it raise its head, and the entire dragon became a vertical wall!’

‘So why could Xi Xue still walk casually on it and pull me back?!’

“Hehe, any member of the Bloodkin can stand anywhere as long as they have a foothold. You haven’t forgotten even this basic common sense, have you?”

Xi Xue looked at Ruobing, licking the corner of her lips.

“Now, Ruobing. I spent so much effort giving you that buff earlier, and now the buff is gone. What do you think we should do about that?”

Lan Ruobing’s heart trembled, and she screamed internally, ‘Danger!’