Blood Queen - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Mutation

***

In the moonless night forest, the intermittent chirping of insects floated in the air, along with the sound of bodies brushing against grass.

Carrying the unconscious Gu Yao on his back, Xia Yan didn’t even know himself why he could always squeeze out a few more ounces of strength when he felt he couldn’t go on.

After arduously climbing to the top of a hill, he collapsed onto the grass, with Gu Yao sliding off to lie beside him.

Looking south, in the distant valley, the abandoned factory area where an intense battle had taken place a few hours ago was brightly lit. The faint sound of helicopters patrolling the skies above the valley could still be heard.

Earlier, when escaping from the underground factory, Xia Yan had discarded most of their personal items, including communication devices, keeping only a pack containing emergency medicine, a water bottle, and a few high-energy food bars, along with their handguns and knives.

“Brother…”

Gu Yao let out a low groan, seemingly regaining some consciousness, but still in a confused state.

Xia Yan touched his forehead and exposed arms, finding them very cold.

Feeling his own skin, he found it equally cold, except for his eyelids which radiated a feverish heat. For a moment, he wasn’t sure if it was his fever worsening or the body temperature drop associated with the Embrace.

As the early summer mountain breeze blew past, Xia Yan couldn’t stop shivering. Seeing Gu Yao also trembling on the ground, he gritted his teeth and carried him on his back again, continuing towards the dark mountain ridge on the other side of the hilltop.

A small cave hidden by weeds and bushes appeared in the circle of light from his tactical flashlight. Delighted, Xia Yan cut away the obstructing branches with his knife, directly entered the cave with Gu Yao, then turned back to cover the entrance with the cut vines and branches.

After finishing this, Xia Yan felt his entire body soaked in sweat, and the feeling of exhaustion grew stronger. Almost every muscle was twitching, no longer able to coordinate his body’s balance. He leaned directly against the cave wall, his eyelids feeling as heavy as lead from the intense drowsiness.

“No… I can’t sleep… can’t sleep…”

In the darkness, Xia Yan weakly tried to feel for Gu Yao’s body, but lost all sensation after just lightly touching the edge of his clothes.

Feeling his body suspended in the air, alternating between hot and cold, rising and falling like a roller coaster, in his foggy consciousness he could always hear an eerie sound of something tearing. Then, a violent pain originating from deep within his bone marrow suddenly spread throughout his body, as if every cell was being torn apart by an overwhelming force from within.

Xia Yan completely passed out, losing all consciousness.

……

……

A few rays of early morning light filtered through the gaps in the weeds and vines into the small cave, shining on a pale and dirty face, stirring the eyelids of the sleeping person.

“Mmm…” Xia Yan slightly opened his eyes, realizing it was already daylight outside the cave.

Slowly sitting up, his body still retained a few traces of numbness and soreness. Although his mind was still in a half-dazed state, the feverish aches and chills from before passing out were gone, replaced by a burning hunger in his stomach and a dry discomfort in his throat.

Turning his body, he realized his black combat uniform was sticky underneath, with a faint indescribable fishy odor, as if he had sweated out a lifetime’s worth of stink during those few hours of unconsciousness.

“Brother… thirsty…”

A soft, weak mumble came from beside him.

Xia Yan instinctively moved closer, groggily reaching out to touch the other’s forehead.

Seems okay, nothing special… Xia Yan listlessly undid the water bottle attached to the pack, unscrewed the cap, and aimed it at Gu Yao’s small mouth, while stroking his smooth forehead and soft white hair.

A flicker of strangeness suddenly flashed through Xia Yan’s foggy mind, causing him to widen his eyes and turn Gu Yao, who was leaning against him, completely over.

The black combat uniform that once fit perfectly now wrapped around a much smaller, softer body, appearing loose and baggy. A sour, rancid odor of old sweat emanated from every crevice of the uniform.

A head of white long hair half-covered a delicate and dirty little face. Though dull and lackluster, the slightly dehydrated cherry-like small mouth was still pretty and charming. The arms were soft and weak, with a pair of small hands exposed from the sleeves, their skin fine and fair.

“Who are you? Am I delirious from fever?”

Xia Yan doubted if he was still in a high fever, causing hallucinations. The person before him was clearly not Gu Yao, but a young girl in her early teens.

“Brother… I hurt… so cold…”

The girl in his arms let out another soft murmur, so gentle it seemed capable of melting everything.

Staring blankly at the girl, unfamiliar sounds reached his ears. Xia Yan’s hands gradually tightened, pulling the other’s trembling body closer to himself.

At this moment, Xia Yan’s own body also shook slightly, and a few strands of long, shiny black hair fell from beside his ear.

Xia Yan froze, freeing one hand to grab the hair strands, slowly moving upwards, feeling their smoothness.

His gaze then shifted downward to his chest, where the girl was leaning, and he felt an unusual soft pressure on his skin.

“It’s okay now, sleep a bit more, it’ll be fine after some sleep…”

Xia Yan closed his eyes, muttering softly, as if speaking to the unfamiliar girl in his arms, but also seemingly reminding himself. A few seconds later, he drifted off again.

……

“Who are you!?”

In a daze, feeling a sharp and burning pain against her neck skin, a sense of crisis instinctively exploded in Xia Yan’s mind.

Consciousness awakened her body memory. Xia Yan suddenly grabbed in one direction with one hand, twisted, then grabbed a soft arm with the other hand, turned her body, and pressed down on the other person with her whole body.

At this moment, she finally heard the clear metallic sound of a knife falling to the ground.

“Don’t move!”

Xia Yan fully regained clarity, firmly controlling the girl beneath her, her eyes showing both relief and confusion.

“Who are you… where’s my brother…”

The white-haired girl gritted her teeth, her voice gloomy yet soft and weak.

“Xiao Yao?”

A chilling thought suddenly exploded in Xia Yan’s mind. She abruptly flipped the other’s body over, then stared intently at those beautiful large eyes with long eyelashes, and slowly released her grip on the other.

“Brother? Is that you?”

The white-haired girl, rubbing her wrists as she sat up, also looked incredulous, staring at the black-haired girl before her whose black uniform was clearly mismatched in size, her small mouth slowly opening wide.

“We’ve… turned into ghosts… vampires?”

Gu Yao stretched out both palms, looked at them carefully for a few seconds, then touched her face and white hair, her expression showing traces of terror and confusion.

“Maybe… maybe something even more terrifying…”

Xia Yan smiled bitterly, looking down at herself and shaking her head helplessly.

Two adopted siblings who grew up together in an orphanage, both miraculously having rare blood types, then miraculously reuniting in the Dark Arrow Unit after entering society, and finally miraculously turning into female vampires simultaneously after a bizarre Embrace.

“It’s almost noon, we must leave this mountain area as soon as possible!”

Xia Yan parted the weeds and bushes at the cave entrance, peering outside while grabbing the pack.

“Brother, something’s not right. Why aren’t we afraid of sunlight? Wasn’t it said that most Embraces result in becoming the lowest-level Thralls, and Thralls’ skin changes color when exposed to natural light?”

Cautiously extending her arm into the beam of white sunlight entering the cave, apart from a barely perceptible slight stinging sensation, there was basically no special change.

“No one knows what the result will be after being Embraced by that monster.” Xia Yan shook her head, not knowing either.

After all, vampires are a mutated human species that has been in a secret war with humans for over 2,000 years. There will always be new terrifying changes that leave people at a loss.

At least, in the information Xia Yan had access to, she had never heard of such an existence.

“Brother, so we’re… just like this now?”

Gu Yao stared blankly outside the cave, her mind in chaos.

Three days ago, she was still full of vigor, applying to join the Black Armor Squad in the Western Surveillance Area with excellent evaluations from the training center. But on her first mission, she had already parted ways with her newly acquired identity.

Looking at the dirty, loose black combat uniform, Gu Yao sighed weakly.

“Let’s survive first, we’ll deal with the rest later. Come on, the Dark Arrow Unit might have already started a carpet search…”

With that, Xia Yan twisted the pack, supported Gu Yao whose body clearly hadn’t recovered to normal, and slowly crawled out of the small cave.

A beautiful purple butterfly fluttered over, gently landing on Xia Yan’s shoulder.

Xia Yan’s pupils contracted. In a flash, her hand moved, and the sharp silver knife cut the purple butterfly into pieces.

“Quick, run!”

Xia Yan suddenly grabbed Gu Yao’s arm, not caring whether the other could withstand her pulling, and ran desperately towards the dense forest.

About 15 minutes later, several fully armed men and women in black combat uniforms arrived at the small cave. The man in the lead crouched down, carefully examining the surrounding grass, wood, and soil.

“Embroidered Robe Team Combat Group 3 reporting, traces of the pursuit targets’ activity found, but their anti-tracking ability is not bad. Recommend initiating a search within a 5-kilometer radius centered on coordinates XXXX!”

After speaking, the group raised their weapons and entered the nearby woods.

……

……

At dusk, two young girls wearing loose and dirty black uniforms appeared hand in hand on the outskirts of a small town straddling the national highway at the foot of the mountain.

Looking at the endless flow of traffic on the distant highway, and the rows of hotels, auto repair shops, restaurants, and farmhouses along the road, the burning sensation in both their stomachs had become unbearable. It was a kind of bodily anxiety similar to hunger, yet distinctly different from hunger.

As their gaze shifted to the rural fields adjacent to the highway, where a few leisurely moving farmers and scattered poultry came into view, both the black-haired girl and the white-haired girl simultaneously revealed an uncontrollable fierce light in their eyes.

“Brother… I want to…”

Gu Yao touched her burning face and stomach, her lips trembling, her gaze fixed on the back of a farm woman returning home.

“Mm, I want to too…”

Xia Yan nodded, then tightly closed her eyes, several thoughts frantically colliding and entangling in her mind…

Suddenly, Xia Yan’s right hand formed a blade, violently striking Gu Yao’s neck. The latter’s body went limp and collapsed to the ground.

“I’m sorry… Xiao Yao, bear with it a bit longer.”

The black-haired girl, wearing a guilty expression, forcefully tore her gaze away from the distant farm woman’s back, and continued to carry the white-haired girl on her back, slowly retreating into the forest.