My Brother's Keeper (a Superman story)

Chapter 27: Afflicted (Part II)

At school, things were not quite going well. I was still afflicted over killing my aunt Nour, who was about to kill my mom. Even though I knew, deep down, I had no choice, it still did not make it any easier to accept.

            The guilt of having taken a life was not only eating me alive but having allowed my mom to take the fall, was what made me feel ten times worse.

I kept telling myself it was all out of instinct and that I was not a cold-blooded killer. Except, I was forced to choose between my aunt and my mom. Also, having been mysteriously rendered powerless to fight a high-powered alien like my aunt, did not help a whole lot, either.

Powerless or not, I still felt the guilt and my heart was beating fast just thinking about it. I also knew this was not going to stay hidden for long, whether I came clean out of will, or not.

"Omar?" I heard Damian.

"Oh, hey?"

"What's going on? You're looking a little bit pale."

"Nothing, just here..." I sullenly said.

"Okay, something is definitely up and you're not looking all that well."

"I'm fine."

"I'm a transilvanian and I can smell it in your blood. You're lacking a lot of nutrients and I can also tell you're stressed about something."

"You can smell my malnourished blood?"

"We can detect such things, even by standing next to a person. We feed on blood, as you know and well, we have similar abilities to those of vampires."

"I haven't been eating much."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. I guess I'm not feeling well. Haven't for days."

"Listen, you've been distant these last several days and now you seem like you're sick and I can tell your powers aren't exactly working."

"I don't know man. I'm sure my mom's gonna want to take me to get a blood test to see why I've been so pale and miserable. But I'm going to have to convince her otherwise, because if my powers are coming in small bursts, I can't take the chance of a doctor or anyone, detecting alien oddities in my DNA."

"You've taken blood tests before, no?"

"Yeah, when I was a child, and if I got sick. But unless my parents did something to keep anyone from finding out about my true origins, my having powers could have altered my DNA."

"I can tell you what you're lacking just by a small taste of your blood."

"You can?"

"Yeah" he chuckled. "It might sound weird but we taste blood differently from what humans taste and can even detect if there are missing nutrients by a simple taste."

"It all tastes like metal and like a bunch of pennies in my mouth, well from a human standpoint. But sure, why not."

We both got up and headed to a more private area. My powers were not exactly working, I was stressed from the guilt, and now my health was likely declining as a result of being malnourished since I have not eaten a whole lot, as a result of my mental state.

Even as a Human-Kryptonian hybrid, I was still susceptible to illness. I had caught COVID not once, but twice.

So yeah, I was not a hundred percent immune.

            We finally made it into a room that was away from civilization. We sat down and then he went for my neck, feeling his warm breath against my skin. My heart was beating fast and felt his fangs caressing my skin.