Chapter 12: Jjunie
Doyoung's eyes, with their distinct boundary between white and iris, stared straight at Gamal. They were eyes that knew no fear - quiet yet strong.
Gamal tilted her head toward Doyoung's nape. The breath escaping between his lips was sweet. It tickled her skin like puppy grass. Though her senses had always been excessively sharp, now they were more sensitive than ever, making her lower back tingle.
Her lips touched his nape. His skin burned hot and smooth, carrying faintly sour sweat mingled with a woody scent. Without thinking, she licked his neck once.
"Don't lick," Doyoung murmured in a low voice.
"Sorry..."
Distracted, Gamal mumbled an apology but instinctively licked again. This time Doyoung remained silent, his hands motionless on the wooden post behind him.
As she pressed closer, Gamal suddenly realized she'd settled between Doyoung's legs. Her fangs sank into his neck.
Doyoung's body jerked violently. Like an anaconda coiling around prey, Gamal instinctively wrapped her arms around him, feeling hard shoulder blades beneath her palms. His ragged breathing warmed her ear.
The deep pull sent warmth radiating to her fingertips and toes. Tremors coursed through her parched body like water on dry earth. Rather than swallowing blood, it seemed to absorb into her very being upon touching her tongue.
Suddenly Doyoung's hand gripped her head.
"You're biting my skull."
Regaining awareness, Gamal slowly withdrew. Their eyes met - Doyoung looked weary while rainbow hues shimmered in Gamal's vision. Ecstatic colors swirled in her pupils.
"Captain..."
A strangely fragrant breath escaped her reddened lips. Though metallic blood should have dominated the scent, it now smelled filtered through her body.
Her formerly dry, branch-like skin now glowed pink. The post-feeding vampire exuded not decadence but vibrant vitality, like a sea pearl radiating life - its glow nearly tangible.
Doyoung abruptly pulled her into a kiss. Gamal offered no resistance, wrapping her arms around his neck as if anticipating this. Though uncertain why he continued, he couldn't stop.
"Captain...mm..."
"Retract your fangs."
Gasping, Doyoung kissed her again - unexpectedly gentle despite his usual assertiveness. His large hands cradled her face as their lips parted smoothly for his tongue.
The sensation felt alien to Gamal. No man had ever touched her with such care - whether due to historical misogyny or simple disregard, they hadn't bothered.
"You drive men wild," Daniel had once told her. "Your mere presence makes them desperate to claim you."
Daniel was the human she'd lived with before the island - a man who preferred men (called "gay" in modern terms), which explained why she'd found him being beaten in that field. After her rescue, he'd housed her despite knowing her nature.
Having lived through ancient Greece's celebration of same-sex love, Gamal never understood its later stigmatization. Regardless, Daniel's isolated home became her perfect refuge.
Perhaps due to life's hardships, the young man possessed unusual wisdom: "Find someone who kisses gently," he'd advised.
The tongue in her mouth tasted like soft candy. When she experimentally sucked it, Doyoung's body stiffened - yet the pleasant sensation made Gamal repeat the motion.
Suddenly he crushed her against him, the earlier gentleness replaced by desperate contact. Just as she craved more, Doyoung jerked away. Gamal gasped, having forgotten vampires scarcely need breath.
"Putain [Damn it]."
Doyoung tried rising but couldn't without support. When Gamal offered help, he glared.
Wiping his brow, he growled, "Why just lie there? You should've pushed me away!"
"But Captain didn't mind..."
Strangely, those words quickened Doyoung's pulse - until Gamal added brightly, "We're friends!"
Doyoung short-circuited before snapping, "You kiss all friends?! By that logic, you'd kiss a volleyball!"
"Why angry? Is volleyball your friend?"
"Yes, my best friend! Get lost, idiot!"
By evening, Gamal still hovered at a distance until finally approaching: "Captain...shouldn't we heal your neck?"
Doyoung stared blankly. Right - she remained a vampire despite cute appearances. Female vampires couldn't physically couple with human males. Why? Consider their supernatural strength applied everywhere. Let imaginations handle the rest. Male vampires with human women worked; the reverse didn't. Common knowledge.
Not that Doyoung ever expected this dilemma. His momentary attraction must be Stockholm syndrome-induced delusion.
Exhaling, he conceded, "Fine. Heal it."
As tension left him, Gamal brightened absurdly.
"Stop making that face."
"What face?"
"Nevermind."
Later on the beach under Christmas tree-bright stars, Gamal asked, "Why 'Luax' for vampires?"
"Last Universal Ancestor theory," Doyoung explained, gazing skyward. "All life shares one ancestor. The X virus turning humans into vampires arrived earlier than thought, making us evolve together before diverging. 'LUA' plus 'X' became 'Luax.' Just scholarly speculation."
"So we're siblings? Like Homo sapiens and Neanderthals?"
"Homo sapiens means 'wise man.' Vampires get 'Homo bibens' - 'drinking man.'"
Gamal murmured, "Then vampires aren't monsters."
"Historically labeled, but now just another species."
Lying side-by-side, Doyoung remembered his grandmother's lakeside home - uncle reading nearby, father's strong footsteps, mother's laughter with cousins.
"Gamal...I have a home too."
"I know."
She understood - unlike her vanished home, somewhere still waited for its son.
"Captain became vampire?" Gamal blurted during dinner.
"What nonsense?"
"You eat like one."
Doyoung paused mid-bite. After resolving last night to focus on leg recovery through rest and nutrition, he simply said, "Just hungry."
"More?"
Their gazes locked intensely across the table.
