Vampire and Witch (GL) - Chapter 2

Slam!

A stinging slap landed on the blonde woman’s face.

Without thinking, Grey’s hand lashed out, and her body tensed in a defensive stance. She ignored the tingling pain in her palm and said in a cold voice, “Ma’am, please have some self-respect.”

The blonde woman raised an eyebrow, her gaze lightly scanning Grey from head to toe before settling on the smooth, flawless skin of her neck. She released her hand from Grey’s waist, took a step back, and offered an apologetic smile. “My apologies for the offense. Please forgive me.”

Her response was brief, without any further explanation. The two stood in a stalemate for a moment. Finally, Grey pursed her lips and walked over to silently pack the things she would need for her trip, completely ignoring the blonde woman’s presence.

“Uh… Grey?” The blonde woman called out, sounding unsure. When Grey turned her head to look, she continued, “Was my description clear enough?”

Grey frowned and glanced at her from the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry, I won’t be taking your order. Please leave.”

“Why?”

“I’m busy, I don’t have time. I have to go out today. Please leave.”

“Didn’t you just say you accept custom orders?” The blonde woman asked relentlessly, taking a confident step forward.

Grey put up a hand to stop her, her eyes watching the woman warily. “Stop. Don’t come any closer!”

“Oh? Is this how you treat your customers?” The blonde woman tilted her head slightly, pointing to the still-red slap mark on her face, and let out a lazy chuckle. “You slap a customer and then try to kick her out.”

Grey glared at her fiercely. “That’s because you suddenly came so close!”

“I just wanted to get a good whiff of your perfume. Didn’t you secretly smell my scent just now? Are you only allowed to smell others, but others aren’t allowed to smell you?”

Grey’s face flushed at her words. “You…”

“You told me to describe the scent I wanted, but I don’t know what scent you’re wearing, so I had to get a little closer to smell it.” The blonde woman leaned in again. “My request is simple: First, the scent must be strong. Second, it has to be your scent. I can pay the full amount upfront. After you successfully create it, you can charge extra for materials and labor, as long as the fees are reasonable.”

“So? It’s not a bad deal, is it?”

A complex expression flashed in Grey’s eyes. It was indeed a very tempting deal, a surefire win. She could name her own price. She had been in this small town for three years and would have to move in a few years. This was a rare opportunity to make a lot of money. How could she easily give up the chance to fleece such a big lamb?

Grey steeled herself and gritted her teeth. “Fine! I’ll draw up a contract right now.”

The blonde woman’s lips curved upward in a smile of satisfaction.

Mrs. Dorothy’s house was not in town. It was in a more scattered residential area to the south, about ten kilometers away, where most of the residents were poor or worked at a nearby steam boiler construction site. There were only two horse-drawn carriages that went back and forth each day, and a round trip took several hours.

It was already dark when Grey got back to town. By the time she walked back to her shop, only a few houses on the street had lights on.

Glasgow’s winter was cold and damp. Grey rubbed her hands together, her lips slightly parted as she breathed on her fingertips, which were numb and red from the cold. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the paper contract on the table again and murmured softly, “Silvertica…”

Silvertica. That was the blonde woman’s name.

A strange name…

….

“Silvertica… Ma’am, may I have your last name?”

Grey saw that the woman had only signed her first name and couldn’t help but remind her.

The blonde woman tilted her head. “Hmm… does it matter?”

“This is a contract. Please sign your full name.”

“Then it’s Siv-vertica. You can just call me Sif.”

Grey took a deep breath, her eyes showing impatience as she suppressed her anger. “Ma’am, please be serious.”

The woman named Silvertica suddenly stood up and looked down at Grey. With a slight curve of her eyes, she said, “My name is Silvertica.”

She leaned in. Grey immediately raised her hand in a defensive gesture, but before her slap could land, the woman grabbed her wrist. The icy cold of the woman’s fingers made Grey flinch.

Sif raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so violent?”

Grey struggled, but she couldn’t break free. She was shocked by how strong this person was. “Can you just talk normally? Do you have to get so close?”

“Because your scent is so good~”

Sif leaned in even closer, sniffing Grey’s fair, slender neck. She lowered her voice and said, “It smells like flowers… magnolia? No, it’s more like a fruity scent, citrus… sweet…”

Grey didn’t pay attention to her rambling. She was using all her strength to struggle, but was unexpectedly pulled into a full embrace. Her face was pressed against the woman’s soft chest, and the frantic pounding of her heart became exceptionally clear.

“!!!”

For a moment, her movements froze. She was as stiff and tense as a startled bird, and the vulgar words she was about to shout were swallowed back. By the time she reacted, she was already released from the embrace.

The hand that had been held tightly was then gently taken. The cool touch slowly massaged each of her fingers, and a feathery-soft kiss was pressed onto the back of her hand.

“I apologize for my behavior just now. Please forgive me.”

“And it’s a pleasure to meet you, Grey Florence.”

….

Grey was pulled back from her memory, unconsciously touching her neck. The woman’s breath seemed to linger there. The blonde woman’s body temperature was very low, her fingertips were cold, and even in that brief hug, she felt no warmth. But the breath she exhaled was hot and searing, leaving a burning sensation on her skin that lingered.

Grey wearily rubbed her forehead and sighed. Why was she thinking about this person again? She vigorously shook her head, trying to get the annoying woman out of her mind, and absentmindedly packed her things to go home.

She accidentally stepped on something soft on the ground. It was a pink scarf with a fresh, black shoe print on it.

“…”

Wasn’t this Sophia’s scarf? It must have been left here this morning. Grey picked up the scarf she had just stepped on and decided to wash it clean before returning it to Sophia.

On the way back, it started to rain unexpectedly. Thunder rumbled, and a cold, chilling wind swept down. Grey didn’t have an umbrella, so she could only tighten her wool coat and run home.

The heavy rain pattered on the streets, and the loud sound of her heartbeat was drowned out. The damp, cool air carried a strange smell of rot and rust. It grew stronger and stronger, getting closer.

Grey’s nose was unusually sensitive, able to distinguish subtle scents in the air. This strange, foul smell assaulted her senses, making her remember what Sophia had said that morning: Vanpir—vampire.

The first time she had heard that word was in her childhood, from a moldy German book in the room of the woman who had adopted her. At that time, she only knew a few simple words and couldn’t understand most of the book’s content. She only remembered one scribbled English word: “bloodthirsty.”

They liked to drink blood, whether it was from animals or humans. Any creature they could sense with a heartbeat was just “food” in their eyes.

She also remembered the recent rumors in town: the animal carcasses found by the riverbank, the shriveled limbs, the mysteriously missing pets, the sounds of cats and dogs crying out in the middle of the night…

Grey stopped running. She stood still, her hand, tucked inside her coat, tightly gripping her only weapon. She always carried a bottle of a prepared knockout drug. It would vaporize instantly upon contact with air, and anyone who inhaled it would immediately lose consciousness.

However, it only worked on humans. She had to take a chance on whether it would be effective against a peculiar species like vampires.

Grey took a deep breath, turned to face a dark alleyway not far away, and slightly raised her voice. “Silvertica, come out.”

A tall figure slowly emerged from the darkness. The woman was still wearing the same all-black outfit from earlier, with a wide-brimmed hat obscuring her face. Through her blurry vision, Grey saw the woman’s lazy, nonchalant smile, accompanied by a pleasant chuckle. “Grey, good evening. We meet again.”

Grey didn’t answer. Her eyes were fixed on the woman, her body filled with a defensive posture, not daring to relax her guard. She thought about it carefully; this person was really strange. She refused to give her real name, approached her for no reason, had a body temperature lower than a normal person’s, possessed unimaginable strength, and even had a faint smell of blood on her.

The scent grew stronger as the figure approached. Sif stopped about a meter away from her.

“You’re very tense.”

Grey frowned in displeasure. “Why are you following me?”

“Your heart is beating so fast.”

“Who exactly are you?”

“You… smell so good…”

Grey was completely enraged. She threw the bottle to the ground, and a wisp of smoke instantly billowed into the air, swirling around her and separating her from the woman. She saw that the woman just paused for a moment before running towards her.

The drug had no effect!

Grey gritted her teeth and raised her hand towards the approaching woman. Before she could react, a flash of cold, silvery light shot past her ear like a gust of wind. In an instant, a beast-like roar erupted in the darkness, deafening, then abruptly stopped, finally being drowned out by the sound of the rain.

Grey retreated in horror. A decapitated body fell heavily to the ground. Dark red blood gushed out like a fountain, mixing with the rainwater and emitting a nauseating, foul odor.

She remained in a defensive stance, but the stench in the air was unbearable. A wave of nausea instantly overcame her. Grey covered her mouth and turned her head, retching violently. The sour taste of vomit mixed with coughing left her face and hair a mess. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the corpse on the ground and couldn’t help but squat down and throw up again.

“Are you okay?”

Sif held out a plain white handkerchief. Her pale skin was so translucent that Grey could see the blue veins on the back of her hand in the darkness.

Grey didn’t take the handkerchief. A sudden flash of light came into her vision, and she saw a silver blade stained red, with blood dripping down its surface. Terrified, her face turned pale. She stumbled back and was about to fall when a strong force grabbed her arm and pulled her up, inevitably pulling her into a close embrace.

She looked up slightly. Under the wide brim of the hat, a pair of crimson pupils stared at her, with a hint of a warm smile. The woman’s pupils seemed to follow her suddenly accelerating heartbeat, contracting and expanding with each beat, trembling violently.

Grey completely forgot about the vomit still clinging to her face and hair, and even ignored the putrid smell in the air. Then she saw the woman’s nostrils flare slightly. The hand on her waist tightened, and she said in a low voice, “Can you stand steadily?”

Grey woke from her daze and pushed the woman away, her hands held up to her chest in a wary, defensive posture. It was then that she saw clearly what the other woman was holding: a scythe. The rain had almost washed away all the blood on the blade.

Sif looked at Grey’s actions with amusement, and once again offered her the handkerchief. “You should wipe your face.”

Grey’s face was flushed as she nervously took the handkerchief. She didn’t care about whether the item in the woman’s hand was safe; the thought of the vomit on her face was simply too much to bear. As she wiped her face, she watched Sif fold the scythe, then glanced at the corpse on the ground, unsure of what to make of the situation.

Sif found it amusing to watch Grey’s expression change so many times in a matter of seconds. She skillfully pulled Grey into her embrace again, ignoring her struggles and resistance, and held the sweet, delicious creature tightly as she forcibly led her forward.

“What are you doing? Let me go! Let go!”

“We can go somewhere to talk where we’re out of the rain, alright? Do you want to stand here in the rain and chat while smelling this stench? You’ll get sick.”

Grey pursed her lips unconsciously. “Where are you taking me?”

Sif gave her a warm smile and said with a serious expression, “To your house, of course. It’s late, and it’s not safe for you to be alone. I’ll take you home. And you can invite me in for a cup of coffee.”

“In your dreams!”

Grey yelled in her ear, but then unexpectedly saw a pair of wet eyes. The pupils and the whites of her eyes were red, and her thick, curled eyelashes trembled slightly, making her look like a pitiful puppy abandoned in the rain.

“I saved you and I’m taking you home. Can’t I even get a cup of coffee?” Sif pouted and said plaintively.

Grey was speechless. She was silent for a moment. Just as she was about to speak, a low, magnetic voice sounded next to her ear.

“Never mind. I know where you live anyway. We can talk when we get back.”

“What?! How do you know where I live? Were you following me? Who are you? What was that thing just now? Why were you following me? What is your purpose?”

“Grey, you’re so noisy.”

“Let me go! Ah! Where are you touching me? Don’t you dare touch me there!”

“Don’t squirm, you’ll fall. Besides, what’s wrong with a little touch? You have what I have.”

“You pervert!”

“Grey, you have a great body. A small waist and big chest. How did you get it? Did you eat something special?”

“Freak!”