The Accidental Vampire

Lilith fell asleep in Atlas' arms. After a really long time, she had felt this peaceful and safe as she slept. The beautiful atmosphere made things even better for her.

The carriage kept moving throughout the night. It was unclear when it happened, but even Atlas fell asleep sometime during the night.

Even the first ray of sunlight fell on his face; he slowly opened his eyes, using his right hand to give some shade to his eyes.

He also felt some weight on his chest. Lilith was still sleeping; however, her head was now resting on his chest somehow.

He couldn't get up, or he would've disturbed her sleep. He smiled wryly but didn't move, letting her get enough sleep. Just like him, she hadn't slept in a really long time either. It was probably her first time getting sufficient sleep.

He moved his hand before Lilith's face, giving her the same shade, so her sleep wasn't broken by the sunlight.

For two hours, he remained like that on the roof of the carriage before Lilith finally started making some movement.

She rubbed her eyes lightly as she yawned.

"Hmm?" It took her some time before realizing where her head was resting.

She sat up swiftly, slightly embarrassed. Fortunately, Atlas had already lowered his hand before she woke up. He even closed his eyes since he felt that she might be embarrassed to think that he knew she was sleeping on top of him like she was a child.

Lilith noticed that Atlas was still asleep, slightly calming. She took off her cloak and placed it on top of Atlas' face, so the sunlight didn't disturb his sleep.

Being covered in Lilith's cloak, Atlas couldn't help but smile. For a few minutes, he didn't react. It was only after around five minutes when he started pretending to wake up.

He uncovered his face from the cloak. "It's already morning?"

"Yeah, it can't be night every time, can it?" Lilith responded.

"When did you wake up?" Atlas sat up, yawning.

"I don't sleep so long, unlike you. I woke up hours ago." Lilith proudly stated as if waking up early was some kind of achievement. She truly was like a child in some aspects.

Even though Atlas knew that she was bluffing, he let it pass.

"Aren't you getting hungry?"

"A bit."

Atlas instructed the Carriage driver to stop the carriage inside the nearest forest.

Following the instructions, the driver stopped the carriage as soon as they reached the next first.

Atlas jumped down the carriage. "You stay here. I'll bring something to eat."

Along the way, they had already exhausted their food stock which presented a need to gather more.

Atlas went inside the carriage and picked up the bag. Lancaster and Yovana were still sleeping as well, on different births.

Holding the bag, Atlas disappeared inside the forest. Since there was a forest, he was sure there were going to be some fruit trees as well, or something similar. If not, he could at least hunt something. With him, it was faster as they didn't have to waste as much time as they would looking for food otherwise.

Fortunately, he didn't have to search too much since there was a tree not too far from here.

It appeared to be an apple tree that had a beautiful fresh apple. He plucked the apples and filled the bag he was carrying before continuing his search for a pond.

Finding a pond was harder than finding a food source, but thanks to the footprints of the animals in the forest, he was able to get to the closest water source. He filled the water bottle to the brim before.

For as long as Atlas remained near the pond, no beast dared to even get close to the pond as his aura kept them all away, intimidating them.

Through the corner of his view, Atlas was able to see some animals hiding in the bushes and behind the trees as if waiting for him to leave. He even noticed a leopard in the distance, which he found somewhat funny.

If he wasn't a Vampire, that leopard could've ripped him to shreds, but now he was scared of him.

"The importance of strength," Atlas muttered, shaking his head in dismay. "Without strength, even a human won't give you importance in this world, but when you possess the strength, even predators will respect you."

"And if I'm successful, Misella will have this strength. Even without me, she would be able to live her life to the fullest."

He walked back to the carriage, carrying the bag and the bottle of water, leaving the pond to the animals.

****

Atlas gave some to the carriage driver to eat before handing over the rest to Lancaster and the others, waking everyone from their sleep.

It was as if this was a short picnic where everyone ate in the forest together.

In one place, Atlas and his team were having something akin to a picnic, while in another place, Atlan was sealed in another cell, being given nothing to eat.

It had been over a hundred years since he had been given the proper amount of blood. He was intentionally kept hungry, only being given one droplet of blood every month, so he didn't enter Bloodlust.

There were also times when Atlan just refused to take that drop of blood which looked like they were taking pity on him. Unfortunately, just because he didn't take it didn't mean they were going to allow it. It was important for them that he got some blood in his system ever so often to keep him safe.

They didn't give him more blood since they didn't want him to gain strength from blood, but at the same time, they forced the blood droplet into his mouth.

Unfortunately, even that had some scheme of these people behind it. The blood droplet that Atlan was fed in the last hundred years wasn't human blood. It wasn't even Vampire Blood. It was the Blood of the Werewolves. Just like the fangs of the Werewolves, even their blood was poisonous for the Vampires.

Even Atlan couldn't escape this negative effect. Werewolf Blood kept away their Bloodlust phase, but it also weakened them further.

Atlan would've been stronger not having any blood than he was after having the blood of a Werewolf, but this was all intentional to weaken him.

Even now, he was only fed Werewolf blood which the Franc Clan had received from the Werewolf Clan.

Atlan was just fed that blood droplet. The poison slowly spread in his body, weakening him further. Even his nerves turned pitch black and were visible from the distance while Atlan sat with his back against the wall.