Page 16 of Blood Day: Part One

“I need a dinner bag,”I said as I materialized in the campus kitchens.

The human servant beside me did her best to hide a yelp at my sudden appearance, but I’d heard it with my enhanced hearing. Some of my kind would enjoy punishing her for the reaction. It served as a way to keep ourselves superior and the mortals meek.

However, society had already done the job of degrading humankind to cattle, so I didn’t see the benefit of belaboring the point.

This whole bloody operation felt trivial to me.

What was wrong with hunting and seducing our food? Why did we have to make it so easy and boring?

Alas, it wasn’t for me to make those decisions.

I merely served the system.

Well, not exactly. My expertise was requested to fill a recent opening, and I’d agreed as a way to escape the political pressures of Silvano Region. My maker—Prince Silvano himself—wanted to promote me to a sovereign position. And I just wasn’t interested.

So I’d opted for the Blood University role instead.

Which had afforded me the opportunity to meet my Lily—a temptation I’d never known I craved.

“What kind of dinner bag, Sire?” the human servant asked.

She wasn’t a student but a mortal chosen for this task after what was likely a grueling Blood Day experience. That event was the proverbial graduation ceremony for Blood University students—a day when all mortals were assigned their fates.

To end up here meant this human had been sent to the servant auction first, then purchased specifically to spend the rest of her mortal days in a kitchen.

Then she’d been processed forthiskitchen.

I eyed her curiously, noting the graying hairs along her scalp and the subtle wrinkles beneath her eyes.

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her age because she’d obviously matured past her prime years—a feat accomplished by essentially living in a safe area not commonly frequented by superior beings. Lycans needed food, while vampires did not. And lycans were less prone to the sudden desire to drain a mortal of their life essence.

Interesting,I mused, still scrutinizing her as an idea formed in my mind.

However, the mortal began to shake—another outward reaction that could earn her an immediate death sentence—drawing me from my musings.

“There are different types of dinner bags?” I asked, not at all familiar with how these kitchens operated. I knew they existed to provide necessary sustenance for the human students. But there had never been a cause for me to visit—hence this human’s break in her programming. She likely hadn’t seen a vampire in several years, her position here keeping her secluded and safe.

Which only had me returning to the idea blossoming in my mind.

Maybe my sweet Lily flower could end up here instead of in a grave.

“Y-yes,” the mortal stammered, her nervous behavior enthralling me.

How are you still alive?I marveled.When was the last time you saw a vampire?There weren’t many on campus. Maybe two dozen of us and three dozen lycans. All of the supernatural beings were here to teach the mortals how to perform as suitable cattle.

There were also another two or three dozen lycans in charge of managing the humans in personal areas, such as in the dormitories.

And then the human Vigils guarded the school grounds, hunting and killing their own kind when one was stupid enough to try to escape.

However, that wasn’t common.

The real reason Vigils existed on these grounds was to provide the mortals with a false sense of hope. The Vigils resembled a position the humans could aspire to attain, thus giving them a reason to cooperate and compete against each other.

Manipulative programming.

A dark new age of mortal existence.

And boring as fuck for vampires like me who missed the hunt.