Everyone stood frozen under Jules’s cold gaze, not even daring to breathe for fear of being too loud and incurring his wrath. Bastien didn’t dare to move harshly either, though he didn’t shy away from Jules’s gaze and stared straight back at him. He never lowered his head, nor did he avert his eyes.

Silence stretched, and only the sound of blood dripping on the floor could be heard. For a moment, it was as if time itself had come to a halt—a standstill that seemed to last forever.

Was the hunter still sane, or had his mind already been corroded beyond salvation? It was hard to say. ‘Well,’ Bastien thought, ‘as long as he hasn’t attacked us, not all hope is lost.’ He’d start worrying the moment Jules pounced on them. Until then…

“Jules?” Bastien asked in a careful voice, breaking the silence as he took a step forward. Once he spoke, time seemed to tick again. “Are you…?”

“Don’t come near. Stay back.”

“Great, you’re still sane.”

Bastien smiled, and Jules glared at him. The hunter’s murderous aura was palpable, but the demon didn’t flinch, and his smile didn’t falter either. Instead, he walked up to Jules, shortening the distance until there was but an inch left between them. He then lowered his eyes to look at the hunter’s clenched fists, which were trembling.

“You’re holding in your bloodlust well. I’m impressed, honestly.”

A scoff was his answer, but the incubus didn’t take it to heart. He was all too aware of what Jules was going through, and a simple scoff was something to smile at. Others, who were less strong-willed, would have already pounced on him, going straight for the jugular. 

Now that Jules’s bloodlust had been freed after years of suppression, every fiber of his being was reclaiming blood. That is to say; he’d need to slaughter an entire city to quench his newfound bloodlust. And if he didn’t, said bloodlust would slowly erode his mind, leaving in its wake nothing but the raging desire to shed blood. No matter how much Jules resisted, he’d lose it in due time and slaughter whoever was in the vicinity regardless of who they were, whether they were friends or family. Such was the fate awaiting him. 

“But well,” Bastien continued, “I wonder how long you can hang on.”.

“Not long,” Jules snarled. “Get away from me!”

“No, I won’t.”

“Then kill me.”

The demon responded with silence.

“You swore you’d take care of it if I were to lose control,” Jules was angered into laughing. “Now, don’t you dare go back on your word!”

“I said I’d handle it,” Bastien smiled yet again, leaning closer to whisper in his ear, “but I didn’t say how.”

Jules’s eyes grew wider as the words sank in. Disbelief flashed across his face, though only for an instant. It was soon replaced by fury, and perhaps a bit of madness.  

“You played me!”

“Not really. To be fair, if you had lost your mind right after the seal shattered, I’d have had to kill you regardless of how I felt,” Bastien admitted with a self-mocking sneer. “But thankfully, you’re one hell of a stubborn man. Ah, really, it’s at times like these that I’m grateful to have been born an incubus. Ain’t I the perfect being to dispel that overflowing energy of yours?”

“And what if you overfeed?! Your body won’t be able to handle it, not in that state!”

“Ah, that… Well, we’ll see once it comes to it.”

“You’re out of your mind.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

The two men stared at each other, unsaid words lingering between them. There was so much to say, yet neither of them spoke.

Incubi had the particularity to feed on both life force and spiritual energy, but there was a limit to how much they could feed off the latter. Spiritual energy, unlike life force, became harmful to the body after a certain threshold. There was only so much one’s vessel could contain, and incubi weren’t an exception. Though they usually had a higher threshold than most, they still had one.  

Among hunters, it was common knowledge that heavenly beings’ spiritual energy was like a drug to demons, something they craved as much as they feared. It was one of the main reasons these two species didn’t get along. Being seen as some exquisite food didn’t settle well with the citizens of the upper realm, while demons weren’t ones to suppress their desires. It was bound to create friction and lead to conflicts.

Anyhow, when incubi fed on heavenly beings, they tended to forget themselves and drown in pleasure. They would often overfeed, meaning that too much spiritual energy would flow in their bodies and tear them off from the inside out. Some couldn’t handle it and died on the spot, while others survived the agonizing pain only to end crippled. Nevertheless, most incubi couldn’t resist the temptation. They thought they could stop feeding whenever they wanted, unaware that one bite was all it took to send their mind in a drunk-like daze.

For incubi, feeding on heavenly beings was basically playing with fire while being coated in oil: a truly foolish thing to do.

Last time, Bastien already had difficulty stopping himself, and he only fed on his life force. Moreover, the taste of Jules’s spiritual energy at the time was a far cry from what it was now. After breaking the seal, the hunter’s spiritual energy mixed with the one contained in his soul, and it had become closer to a heavenly being’s. It wasn’t a perfect replica, but it had the addictive taste. To put it bluntly, Jules was now akin to a walking feast but also a sweet, deadly poison.  

Hence, what if, after taking a taste, Bastien couldn’t hold back? It certainly wasn’t Jules who would stop him. The instant he let out his carnal desire, which had become almost as strong as his bloodlust, he wouldn’t be able to control himself anymore. He’d become a mindless beast. Of course, Bastien was aware of this. And yet, he still wanted to feed on the hunter’s spiritual energy.

“You should just kill me,” Jules growled through gritted teeth, knowing he didn’t have much time left. “That’s far less dangerous, and it’d be safer for everyone.”

“But that’s not what I want,” Bastien chuckled, gently kissing the hunter’s cheek. “Trust me. I’ll be fine—we will be fine.”

Jules wasn’t convinced. If he could, he’d have straight out killed himself instead of asking Bastien to do it. But he couldn’t. The moment he turned his murderous intent toward himself, his spiritual energy would feel it and then proceed to devour his mind in the name of survival. Thus, he could only depend on Bastien… who refused to end him. For a demon, he was pretty sentimental, maybe even too human-like. And stubborn.

“You better not regret it,” Jules snarled lowly after a moment, aware that he couldn’t change Bastien’s mind. “Well, even if you do, it’s going to be too late.”

That being said, he grabbed Bastien’s wrist, then yanked him to the bathroom. Though he had thrown his sister and the teenagers at the back of his mind, he wasn’t shameless enough to get at it in front of them. That was probably the only shred of reason he had left.