The girl was becoming a woman. With adulthood came freedom. At least it should have. Carmilla was becoming more and more painfully aware that she was going to have to do something about her parents though the thought of it broke her heart.

Her mind was made up for her when her father decided to promise her to some noble brat. He tried to convince his daughter that he was doing it for her own good. That he was putting her on a path to greatness.

All Carmilla saw was gilded chains to be wrapped around her neck. What the woman needed was freedom to pursue her ambitions. She was so close to her goal that she could taste it.

As a teen, Carmilla Shaw became quite adept at siphoning all of the blood she needed. Weary of her mother’s watchful eye, she became a creature of the night, sneaking out after her parents went to sleep and making the short trip into town.

There was no shortage of men eager to dally with women who found themselves out after dark. Carmilla had become quite beautiful which helped in its own way. Whenever she went to town, the men would throw themselves at her.

In the beginning, she just needed their blood to replenish their supply but eventually, her goal changed. She wished to sample every type of blood. Enticing the women to come along with her was awkward for the maiden. In the end, it didn’t matter. They all succumbed to her charms.

Carmilla never killed. She never had to. One side effect of depriving her prey of their blood was the temporary loss of consciousness. With the young adult rituals revolving around sex and mead, it wasn’t considered abnormal for her prey to wake up half-naked in a dark alley.

To her credit, Carmilla was becoming quite infamous in the seedier parts of town. Many men and quite a few women bragged of having bedded the woman, though none claimed her virginity.

Kalliphae woke first. I suddenly felt the wind leave my lungs as she socked me in the stomach in an effort to push herself away from me. We had fallen asleep together in the hammock. The sudden motion flipped us over and dumped the two of us on the filthy floor of the safe room.

“Ugh”, Kalli groaned as she was forced to disentangle herself from me once again.

We could hear the high-pitched cackle of Kiki’s laughter coming from her fluffy bed on the other side of the room. Fina poked her head out of her tent and asked, “What’s going on? Isn’t it a little too early to be making all of that racket?”

Kalli pushed off of me and rose to her feet, “I’ll be back…”

I watched her walk out the door from where I sat on the floor before getting up and dusting myself off. Kiki continued her laughter and asked, “Did somebody cuddle a bit too much and get kicked out of bed?”

Shrugging as I righted the hammock, I answered truthfully, “I don’t know. I think we just fell asleep like that.”

Once I was settled back into the hammock, I looked for Kalliphae.

Are you mad at me?

It wasn’t anger that I felt from the girl, only urgency. No. Why would I be mad?

I don’t know. You hit me when you woke up

Her embarrassment flared as she peeked nervously around a corner in the dungeon. Oh, right, that. I forgot that I was in the hammock with you. Also, those stupid dreams put me on edge.

I’m sorry about that. I don’t know how to make them stop.

A surge of warmth let me know that Kalli wanted to reassure me. Don’t worry about it. I’m getting used to it. Besides, I wouldn’t want you to go through that by yourself. I can handle it.

I was about to say something else when she found a spot she liked. Don’t look but this is how you’re supposed to do it.

A short while later, Kalliphae slid back into the hammock next to me. I sniffed at the air and grinned at her.

Did you wash your…

My question was cut short as a sharp pain in my ribs made me wheeze. Kalli removed her elbow and snuggled closer. Of course, I did. Now, shut up and go back to sleep.

A couple of hours later, I was woken by the mouth-watering smell of bacon. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I couldn’t remember if I had any more dreams. Kalliphae slumbered quietly next to me, making me smile as I witnessed her dream about food.

Run hunched over a pan that contained a variety of sizzling meats. When he noticed me looking over the sleeping form of Kalli, he winked and said, “Good morning, I hope you’re hungry.”

I nodded in silence because I didn’t want to wake Kalli. The martial artist gave me a silent thumbs up and went back to preparing our food. A short while later, Fina emerged from her tent and eyed Kalli and me skeptically, “I’m not sure I should have allowed that. You two just slept last night right?”

I grinned at our guide, “Actually, Kalli woke up and took a…”

More pain flared in my ribs when Kalli elbowed me in the same spot. She glared at me before informing Fina, “Nothing happened. We just slept. I fell asleep up here and didn’t end up having Melvin summon me a bed.”

She said my full name, making me worry that she was mad at me. A loud grunting snore that suddenly caught in Kiki’s throat caught everyone’s attention. We all turned to the older girl as she sat up suddenly, woken by her own snoring.

She looked around at all of us, her hair disheveled, and yawned, “Morning everyone. What’s up?”

After a hearty breakfast thanks to Run, we headed back into the dungeon. I was sure to remove my edits, leaving the same rucksacks we found when we first arrived.

Fina talked as we scoured the floor, looking for a way down, “From here on out, the dungeon gets a bit tougher. Monsters for the next ten floors will be D-rank. While they should still be easy for you to defeat, they can cause injuries. Don’t run ahead, and fight as a team if we encounter anything.”

Almost as if on cue, a pair of wolves barred the path ahead of us. Fina stopped and waited for us to make our way to her before saying, “Okay. How are you guys doing to deal with this? Ki, let the new kids handle it.”

Kiki slammed her fist into her palm and sighed heavily, “Aw, I was looking forward to punching something.”

The two of them turned to look back at the rest of us. Run stepped up immediately, looking ready to fight but a white streak beat him to it. Byakko bounded off of the tattoo on my forehead and dashed across the room toward the wolves.

Kalli yelped and momentarily glowed red when Seiryu also extracted himself from her tattoo and struggled his way down her dress.

Soon, both creatures clashed with the wolves, Byakko pouncing on a wolf over twice his size. The power difference was obvious as Byakko made short work of the wolf.

Seiryu, on the other hand, wasn’t faring so well. The baby dragon was able to deftly dodge the maw of the wolf but was unable to deal any significant damage by itself.

Run quickly brought up the rear and caught the last remaining wolf with a roundhouse kick to the head. With the yelp of a kicked dog, it crashed into the wall next to Byakko who was gnawing on the corpse of the first wolf. He quickly turned his attention to the living foe and ended it with a bite to the jugular.

Fina turned to address us again, “While it’s nice that you both have pets, I think it’s rather important that you get some physical training while you still…”

She was cut off by the sounds of growling as more wolves approached us from both ends of the hall, effectively trapping us in the middle.

Byakko stood his ground, blocking the path of 5 wolves on his end of the corridor, “Bond, I am going to draw more mana. Prepare yourself.”

At first, I worried that he was going to enter his divine form draining all of my mana but the cub merely transformed into a fully grown tiger. Now he was roughly twice as large as the wolves.

Confident in my summon, I turned my attention to the group that appeared behind us. Invitorages by Fina’s speech, Kalliphae rushed toward the pack of wolves ahead of us. I ran after the girl, determined to fight at her side, though I had no combat experience.

Fina and Kiki lurched into motion behind us, trying to up, Fina yelling, “No, wait you two. There are too many of them. Let’s work as a team.”

Kalli reached the pack right when she said that but the wolves reacted quickly, surrounding us. Her kick struck the wolf she had targeted, striking its jaw with lightning precision.

Two of the wolves lunged to strike the girl before the first had a chance to fall. Infusing my arms with mana I brushed past Kalli to intercept the attack. I managed to connect a weak punch on the first wolf, deflecting it just enough to send it bouncing past us.

The second wolf caught my forearm in its jaw, which I barely managed to put in front of my throat. I winced and Kalli screamed as its jaws clamped down on my wrist, sinking its fangs into my flesh.

In a panic, I placed my free hand on its snout and tried to pry its jaw open but nothing happened. I wasn’t physically strong enough to force a determined wolf off of me. Copious amounts of my blood flowed freely from my wrist into the mouth of the creature.

When I closed my eyes and focused, I could feel it. With every beat of my heart, I could sense more blood flowing down the gullet of the beast.

Sudden realization hit me that I could control it. The wolf’s eyes bulged as it began to choke on my blood which I was forcing into its lungs. Sensing that it was in danger, the monster released its grip on my arm, sending me sprawling back into a wall.

Looking up, I saw Kiki and Fina taking out the rest of the wolves while Kalli lay on the ground, clutching her arm. On the other side of the corridor, Byakko, Seiryu, and Run were just wrapping up the fight with the other pack of wolves.

Willing the blood to stop flowing from the wounds in my arm, I crawled my way over to Kalliphae. A quick inspection of the girl informed me that she didn’t seem to be hurt.

Are you okay?

Her eyes flashed as she lunged at me, grabbing my arm and causing me to wince and cry out, “Ow.”

The wounds had closed but the angry red skin was still tender. Where are you hurt? I felt the pain.

Sorry about that. It’s healing already.

“Extraordinary”, a voice called over my shoulder.

I turned to discover that the battle had ended and the group was now surrounding us. Byakko, still a fully grown tiger, sniffed my arm and announced, “As expected of my bond. Only just bitten and already healed.”

Seiryu nuzzled my leg, “Father.”

Absentmindedly feeding the tiny dragon some of my mana, I turned to Kiki, “Did we win?”

Fina knelt beside me and snatched my arm, making me groan in pain, “How did you do this? I feared we were going to have to summon a medic and yet you’re practically healed.”

I pulled my arm back from the advisor and rubbed it tenderly, “I have enhanced regeneration.”

Standing back up, Fina shook her head, “No regen that powerful exists. Now, if you were to pair an enhanced regenerative trait with healing magic, perhaps, but you haven’t had time to cast a spell.”

Kiki walked over to the last wolf, which was twitching feebly on the ground, “Brother? What did you do to this wolf? Are you poisonous or something?”

Kalliphae’s gaze bore into me. You did something with blood didn’t’ you?

After the dreams we were having, I was a little concerned that Kalli wouldn’t approve.

I decided that if it wanted my blood that bad, I was going to let it have some.

Her eyes widened but she didn’t question me further. Climbing to my feet, I offered Kalliphae my hand and helped her up. Fina gave me another once over and asked, “Do you think you are okay to go on?”

I nodded and replied, “Yes. We have a dungeon race to win, after all.”