Kiss Me Not

The next morning, Cain left early to see Cedric. By the time he arrived at the palace, Cain was pretty much a walking ball of anxiety and apprehension. He knew that his blood tests were due at any moment now, and he was actually inwardly hoping that they'd get delayed just so that he'd get some more time to prepare himself. Not that he actually needed to. He was more than ready to see whether or not he'd have to hide himself from Kimmy forever.

"What's taking Cedric so long anyway…"

Currently, the doctor was inside the forbidden wing, nervously waiting for Cedric to appear and give him the news. He was pacing back and forth and was quite honestly just wishing that the pain of waiting for these bloody test results could finally end.

"He said that he's just gonna be away for a while," Cain mumbled out in exasperation. "It's been an hour already… Where the hell did he run off to?"

Either way, where in the hell were these blood tests even taking place? He was pretty sure that it wouldn't be done in some random hospital somewhere, and it won't certainly be done in a government lab. At best, it'll be done by a private entity that was probably surrounded by some sort of secrecy mumbo-jumbo.

"For all I know, he's probably just driving back right about now," Cain scoffed to himself. "I wouldn't put it past him to let me marinate here just for laughs…"

Cain sighed to himself as he leaned on the nearest wall. He just had to keep his patience up and hope for the best.

"This better be worth it…"

***

Another hour passed, and Cain was just about ready to leave when Cedric finally returned. The man greeted him with a knowing smirk, a stack of papers in one hand as he waved at the doctor with the other.

"Sorry I took too long there," Cedric chuckled. "Traffic's such a pain these days."

"Where did you even go?" Cain sighed as he greeted him. "I've been here for two hours now. Kimmy's probably worried about where I went right now."

The Prince casually laughed off his concern. "Oh relax. My cousin's far too busy with other stuff to even bother with you or me right now."

Cain suspiciously blinked at him, "Did you do something about that? And you didn't even answer my question yet."

Cedric scoffed, "In order then. First off, maybe I did something to distract her while I was out. And secondly, I've been around here and there a few times…"

"You're not gonna give me a straight answer, aren't you…"

"Why would I?" the Prince laughed. "It's something you don't need to know, Cain. And trust me, you're better off not knowing about a lot of things I'm doing in the background right now."

"Right…" Cain trailed off, his suspicion still flowing out from within. He quickly reigned it in as soon as he saw the stack of papers, however. "Anyway, let's move on from all of that. What's the prognosis?"

Cedric raised an eyebrow as he responded, "I haven't really checked it yet. Either way, I can't exactly read all this medical jargon."

"You mean even if it's steeped in what I could only assume as supernatural terms, you still don't understand it?" Cain dubiously asked.

"Hey now, you're the medical doctor here," Cedric quickly rolled his eyes. "Just read it and see for yourself."

Swiping the papers off of Cedric's outstretched hands, Cain then meticulously eyed the papers for anything that he could use. Surprisingly enough, it read just like a normal chart that it didn't take him long to come to a conclusion. Albeit, it was a confusing one, but it was something that he should really be happy about.

"I'm still human?" Cain questioningly voiced out. "How's that even possible?"

"Huh? How should I know?" Cedric raised an eyebrow, no doubt also curious about how such a result came to be. "Either way, you're somehow still human, which means that you have pretty much nothing to worry about."

"Nothing? If I'm still human, then how the hell do I still have these weird symptoms and other supernatural abilities?" the doctor inquisitively questioned. "Being human doesn't explain those away."

Wanting to satisfy his own curiosities, Cedric grabbed the results off of Cain's hands and gave it his own cursory glance. After rummaging through them, he finally came to a conclusion that was just as disappointing as it sounded. "Well, it says here that they don't know a single fuck about what's wrong with you."

"Are you serious?" Cain incredulously groaned as he took the papers again and read into them further. "Oh wow… Then what's the point of these tests then?"

"On the bright side, at least we know you're still human," Cedric chuckled. "As for your cool upgrades, they'll either stick with you, or they'll fade away in time as more of your humanness shines through."

"That still doesn't explain why I'm hearing that woman's voice inside my head though," Cain grumbled. "The test doesn't say anything about that beyond that I have a bit of your blood inside me."

The Prince quickly replied, "That's actually probably why you can hear her in the first place. Seeing as I have a bit of the Exordium inside me, I most likely passed on its traits to you as well. In the end, you now have the same weaknesses as I do, including the fact that the bitch can feed on you whenever she likes."

Cain blinked at the sudden news. "What did you just say?"

"What? The last part?" Cedric shrugged. "That's just par for the course. Either way, she won't be able to do it while I'm still alive and kicking. She prefers me anyway, for some goddamn reason."

"That… doesn't really give me more confidence, Cedric."

"You'll just have to take my word on it," the Prince smiled. "Either way, isn't this good news? You're still human, which means that you won't have to leave us, which also means that your bullets are probably still loaded for service, if you catch my drift."