Master of Lust

"Hmmm... I know you want to know what gave it away?" Rick pondered with exaggerated seriousness, his pale skin practically glowing in the dim light. Evelina shot him a look that could curdle milk, but Rick\'s mischievous grin held its ground.

"Maybe your pale skin," he suggested, winking at her as if sharing a secret that only the undead truly understood. Evelina sighed, torn between disbelief and amusement.

"Don\'t lie!" Jack barked at Rick, his nerves visibly doing the cha-cha. Until now, Rick had been nothing more than an entertaining annoyance that Jack had to tolerate. However, the air had shifted, and now he was looking at Rick as a threat.

Rick leaned in, his eyes gleaming with a blend of mischief and something eerily unsettling. "Well, Jack, my friend, life\'s full of surprises, isn\'t it? Embrace the pale."

"You couldn\'t be implying that just because of our pale skin," Michelle\'s surprise echoed through the room like a ricocheting ping-pong ball, bouncing off everyone\'s bewildered expressions. Even the onlookers outside the room, save for the almost-dead old woman and the wide-eyed boy, were caught in the gravitational pull of shock, "That\'s too farfetched of a guess don\'t you think?"

Rick, however, seemed to relish in the dramatic tension. "Maybe not just because of the pale skin of your darling daughter," he drawled, drawing out the suspense like a skilled magician preparing for a grand reveal. The collective irritation in the room was palpable, hanging in the air like an unwanted guest.

"Think about it, though," Rick continued with a theatrical flourish. "Pale skin, deep red lips, and those shiny teeth. I mean, even the men? Either you guys are secretly K-Pop stars in disguise, or the other choice is... And believe me you guys are no K-Pop star."

"Who are you trying to fool?" Rick finally declared with an air of disdain, his gaze sweeping over Jack and Martin as if he\'d just uncovered their well-guarded secret. "Why don\'t you just paste it on your forehead and make it easy for all of us?"

Martin\'s patience, like a frayed rope, finally snapped. "Stop lying to us!" he snapped at Rick, teeth gritted in frustration. "No one has ever been able to find out about us if we didn\'t want them to."

Rick, undeterred by Martin\'s glare, smirked with the satisfaction of someone who had just uncovered a hidden treasure. "You know, I\'ve been dropping hints like breadcrumbs, and I\'m pretty sure of it now," he teased, locking eyes with Martin. "You men in this house might just be the most stupid bunch in this house."

A collective tension filled the room, as Rick reveled in the awkward pause he had orchestrated. "You just confirmed it with your own words," he continued, his smirk widening as Evelina and Michelle turned their sharp gazes on Jack and Martin.

It was as if a light bulb had flickered on above their heads, and Martin suddenly realized that everyone had been masterfully dancing around the truth. Vague words, neither admitting nor denying, had been the order of the day.

Rick, seemingly the puppet master of revelation, attempted to comfort the beleaguered men. "But don\'t be too downhearted," he offered with a sly grin, as if handing out consolation cookies. "I wasn\'t actually in doubt. I knew you guys were vampires."

Evelina, caught between relief and curiosity, softened her gaze. "How long have you known?" she inquired, her eyes filled with a mix of emotions and a myriad of unspoken questions.

Rick, ever the enigmatic showman, leaned into the mysterious allure. "Let me keep it a secret. Suspense is sexy," he declared with a smirk, leaving Evelina\'s question dangling in the air

Truth be told, Rick had been blissfully ignorant of Evelina and her family\'s vampire status. The revelation only dawned on him about fifteen or twenty minutes ago when he casually strolled into the old woman\'s room.

Everything took a wild turn when he decided to play his newly acquired skill card on the ailing old woman, hoping to learn more about her mysterious ailment. Little did he anticipate that this seemingly frail and wrinkled figure in front of him was, in fact, a vampire. A dying vampire, to be precise.

In the heat of the moment, propelled by a cocktail of curiosity and adrenaline, Rick impulsively cashed in Ero points for three additional cards, deploying two of them in quick succession. It was as if a fog had lifted, and suddenly, the enigmatic pieces of the puzzle fell into place right in front of him.

His eyes widened, and his hand instinctively moved up to his neck, nervously rubbing his nape. The stark reality hit him like a ton of bricks – he was perilously close to becoming a living blood bank for a house teeming with vampires. The audacity he had flaunted just moments ago now felt like a precarious tightrope walk on the edge of a supernatural abyss.

In the brief span before the butler made his entrance, a whirlwind of permutations and combinations churned through Rick\'s mind. The potential scenarios played out like a chaotic mental chess game

And now here he was, trying to get as much of an upper hand as possible. But he had also opened his inventory, and was ready to pull out the only weapon he had, the Six venomous needles he had bought before entering the Whispering Wetlands. They were small and deadly, Rick just hoped that along with the venom, they were made of silver as well.

"Hell with your suspense. Tell me who sent you here?" Martin\'s patience was on a razor\'s edge, and he sprang into action. In a blink, he moved with a speed that defied the laws of normal human capability.

Rick found himself abruptly caught in a vice grip, Martin\'s fingers wrapped firmly around his neck. With a swift and forceful motion, Rick was propelled backward, colliding with the wall with an echoing thud. The suddenness of the assault left the room frozen, the air heavy with tension. Evelina, however, was the first to break the stillness.

"Don\'t kill him!" she cried out, her voice laced with alarm.

A hushed silence settled over the room after Evelina\'s plea, the only audible sound being the collective inhales and exhales of those present.

"Are you talking to me?" Rick\'s voice sliced through the stillness like a rogue note in a symphony, catching everyone off guard, everyone but Evelina.

"Don\'t do it," she implored, her eyes locking onto Rick\'s.

"Good thing you stopped me there, if not this motherfucker would have been waiting for your grandmother in hell," Rick retorted, a smirk playing on his lips as if he had just cracked a dark joke

Rick\'s provocative words hung in the air like a dark cloud, and the room\'s attention pivoted to Martin, who had seized Rick in a vice grip. However, the anger etched on Martin\'s face had morphed into sheer horror. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and his eyes darted downward, revealing the menacing presence of a long needle pointed threateningly at his throat.

Its tip hovered perilously close to the delicate territory of Martin\'s neck.

The origin of the needle remained a mystery, materializing out of thin air, and it froze millimeters away from Martin\'s Adam\'s apple. The room collectively held its breath, caught in a tableau of uncertainty and imminent danger.

"Can you please let him go?" Evelina\'s voice cut through the tense atmosphere, devoid of concern and delivered with an icy calmness. "I don\'t want my grandmother\'s carpet soiled. It will be too much hassle to resist the blood."

"Oh, you guys drink each other\'s blood as well? Isn\'t that cannibalism?" Rick\'s smirk persisted, the needle still menacingly close to Martin\'s throat.

"Blood is blood. Even if it belongs to someone like him," Evelina remarked, her gaze casually drifting toward her uncle Martin as if discussing the weather, "Just let him go."

"I am not holding him back. He can always let go of me and back off. But this dumb bastard of a vampire can\'t even think that," Rick shook his head, a condescending tone lacing his words. "All he had to do is let go of my neck and run away with his tail between his legs."

"Let him go," Jack intervened, his teeth gritted. "Martin!"

Rick had wielded the weapon of humiliation with precision, verbally slapping each member of the room since the moment he swaggered in, leaving them speechless in the face of his audacity. Now, he hovered just a few millimeters away from turning his audacious banter into a deadly reality, threatening Jack\'s brother.

The room simmered with Jack\'s seething anger, a cauldron of emotions on the verge of boiling over.

Hearing Jack\'s command, Martin slowly released his grip on Rick\'s neck, cautiously stepping back. Throughout this tense exchange, Rick maintained his enigmatic smile, making no move to hinder Martin\'s retreat.

"Well, that was exhilarating," Rick remarked, twirling the needle between his fingers with a casual nonchalance. "Nothing like a bit of sibling rivalry, huh?"

Evelina\'s glare bore into Rick, her irritation palpable. "Enough with the theatrics. If you have something useful to say or do, spit it out."

Rick, seemingly unfazed, casually pocketed the needle, adopting a nonchalant demeanor as he sauntered toward the center of the room. "Alright, alright. No need to get your fangs in a twist."

He raised an eyebrow, feigning offense. "Would I ever play tricks on you? I\'m hurt."

"What is wrong with my grandmother?" Evelina cut to the chase, her impatience reaching critical levels, "You have just been doing side talk all this time. And I am reaching my limit here."

Rick surrendered to the direct approach with a dramatic flair. "Alright, no beating around the bush," he declared, waving his hand like a magician revealing a not-so-magical trick. "Your grandma has been having some deadly poison as her seasoning. To be more precise – it\'s the Amethyst Mist. Turns out, it\'s like vampire kryptonite, especially for the ladies of the fanged variety."

* * * * *

Q. Should I fasten up the seat belt?

1. Yes, Definitely.

2. No. I like the process.