Page 248 of Eternal Ruin

A vampire from Goro House grabbed her, eyes shining. “You have freed us.”

She couldn’t speak, afraid her tongue would fall out. What the hell was happening to her? Another grabbed her, saying thank you. They shoved and crowded her, until there was no more air.

“Please. I—I need to leave.”

Her words were swallowed in their excitement. A clinking sound greeted her ears, and she sighed in relief, turning to him. GK had a firm hand around hers, a wave of black clothing cutting through the crowd. He slid a glance at her face and without a word, he seemed to understand. They disappeared into a blur of speed.

GK left her outside a bathroom, and she rushed inside, hand to her mouth. As much as she tried, she couldn’t expel whatever was twisting her gut. Honestly, she would feel better if she retched.

She splashed water on her face, down her neck, sighing at the coolness. Her skin was melting. A fever coming over her and a tingling inside her teeth, itching like a stubborn wound. She lifted her gums, searching for injury.

Did she swallow something sharp? Or did she catch a cold—

“Ah.” She let out a hiss, slicing her finger on her teeth.

Blood plopped onto the sink.

Her heart pounded, staring at her thumb.

Slowly, she widened her mouth.

Her canines were abnormally… large, and filed to a point.

Kidan jerked away from the mirror, blinking rapidly. Shook her head, rubbed her eyes, and tried again.

Kidan had seen this version of herself in her old apartment, before Uxlay, repeating the mantraYou are not like themover and over again. But those had been visions born out of dehydration. Her fear of her darkness.

This was clear as day, and her teeth—were like theirs.

His.

Fangs.

“What the fuck,” she whispered.

She ran her tongue over her canine and cut herself instantly, swallowing metallic blood.

“Fuck,” she said, spitting out the rest.

Panic rattled inside her.

Was she… a vampire? Because these werefangs.

A burning along her inner elbow made her suppress a scream. God. What was happening to her? A tear bubbled up as she rolled up her sleeve quickly. Her spine went stiff.

Golden letters were branded into her brown skin, making the room spin.

As long as the water blade remains whole, Kidan Adane will drink only from vampires.

Her broken gasp was the only sound in the world.

She quickly shoved up the sleeve of her right arm. There was another haunting law, a near twin to the first. One she’d absorbed into herself.

As long as the water blade remains whole, Kidan Adane will drink only from graduated actis.

Professor Andreyas’s voice echoed cruelly, making her chest heave.

A law always applies to his master first… It is called Absorption.