Upon seeing that I had calmed down, Bane reached out for the inner pocket of his coat. He did not answer me immediately, but he handed me a small cylindrical glass vial. “Here, this is my blood, have it.” 

I grabbed it while I eyed it with obvious confusion, “you carry your blood around like this?” It was so odd to just carry it around like water and offer it like water. My eyes went over the vial disturbed and then back at Bane. Did he actually have more than one of these? Besides, why exactly did he even carry them?

“Yeah,” Bane replied, “if there is an emergency, I prefer this to cutting myself.” 

“That’s smart,” I said as I twirled the vial around. It had a cute, tiny cork on it with a skull symbol on top. “You did not answer my question, though.” 

“Drink that first-” 

“No need,” I said, “my abilities allow me to sober myself up. It just did not click to me a while back.” Bane stared at me and then reached for the glass vial. I gripped it snugly in my finger and hid it behind my back, “I think I will keep this for emergencies. Now how did you train your blood to act outside your body if you are keeping it in these vials?” 

Bane dragged a sharp breath before replying, “I can sense when poison enters my body. I just tried it with others as well.” 

“And?” I nudged him to continue. 

“Well, I cannot see how it affects in other person’s body but I can replicate the reaction in my blood without poison or narcotics entering my body,” Bane informed, “it is quite simple for me now. Stimulate, get the sample in a vial, and store it.” 

That was easy. But unlike him, I was actually able to see inside the other person’s body.

“Wait a minute,” I noticed what he had said, “did you say narcotics as well?” 

Bane nodded casually, “but of course, anything that can take your body to an unnatural turn my blood works on it all. Though I had tried it with hypnosis before. That did not work, but the person was at least aware of it after the hypnosis stopped.” 

“Wow,” I had no words but so many ideas burning in my brain. “Did you like hypnotize someone?” 

“No,” Bane was quick with his answer, “there is a guy who can hypnotize others with his abilities in Waterwoods. He usually connects to your brain through your eyes so I survived it once and then experimented with others if my blood could prevent it.” It reminded me of Connie, even he was able to hypnotize, but I had never fallen prey to that. It wasn’t the same for his brother though, that guy had the luck of pushing me into his nightmares. Bane continued, “That did not work but yes, sometimes there are werewolves with the ability to play with your brain. ” 

“Like Fang?” I interrupted him. 

Bane shook his head, “no, his abilities are too strong to be held back by an omega like me. He has trained too well. But yes, werewolves who mess with your brain need you to be in a vulnerable state if their abilities do not prevail over yours. They use cheap tricks like narcotics, so I trained my blood strongly to recognize it as poison as well.” That did make sense. If you weren’t vulnerable with your guards all letdown, even in that condition, it would work, and if not narcotics, were always there. 

“What about a witch’s mind control?” I asked. That was tough to counter since their powers derived purely from magic. 

Bane hummed, “I never had a chance to meet a witch, so I cannot say about that.” 

“I can help you meet one,” I said immediately. Dandeline had one of the best mind control I knew of. Since most of her time with me was spent creating illusions during my imprisonment, she had mastered how to go inside multiple minds at a time. 

Bane looked at me with an inquisitive look, “why do you know a witch?” 

There I messed it up so easily. Witches in Adalolpha had their own covens. From what I had known, there were sand witches that Fang knew only because he was a foreign minister. Others were not even allowed near the borders. General public never came in contact with witches because the only witches inside Adalolpha were the rosewood witches. Their coven was of unknown origin, but their duty was to serve the crown.

Every royal Alpha, when born, would have a witch to serve them. If anyone other than Alpha child needed a witch, then there was some price to be paid by the crown which was not in money. 

Now, since that information had flashed in my mind, I realized how problematic it was. 

Even if most people weren’t aware of the things that went inside the kingdom, Bane was sure to have knowledge about it all. “I met… I mean Fang,” I corrected myself as I drawled on my words, “Fang, umm, took me to meet-” 

“I see,” Bane quickly cut me. 

It was as if even he understood something was wrong, but he did not pry further. “Yeah,” I said. I did not know what else to say since my previous statement was left hanging. 

“Fang knows a few witches,” Bane filled the awkward silence, “I am sure he introduced you to them. 

I hummed. Bane was actually understanding. He definitely was smart enough to understand that was not the case, but he still put it forth. “Are you trying to cover up for me just to go and investigate behind my back?” I went serious with my tone again. Maybe I hadn’t yet sobered, but I needed to also make sure of what Bane was thinking. 

Bane’s eyes moved to the stairs and then back at me, “I understand some things are sensitive. I don’t like to pry. It’s better I stay out of personal matters.” 

My face scrunched. I mean how sorted that was, but I can understand why he did not have close people. “You have it so sorted Bane, how do you tackle that loneliness?” I asked. Bane stared at me without answering at all. I felt like that was the worst question I had asked him, “erm, I just said that because usually for people to trust you, you need to get involved with them.” 

Bane sighed, “I know, I have enough people close to me. I don’t want any additions.” 

That was fair enough. I nodded in agreement before turning my eyes around the room. There was another waiter who was walking a little away from us. I politely raised my hand and he immediately noticed me. He walked to me with a tray that had only yellow drinks on it. The glasses also looked different, they were longer than compared to wine glasses. Just to be sure, I turned to Bane to be sure if I want to try this and he shook his head. I pursed my lips before I sent the waiter away. “I think that was champagne, right? Isn’t it good?” I asked. 

“Yeah, but I don’t want you to drink anymore,” Bane said. 

“What!” I ridiculed, “you stopped me just because you didn’t want me drunk.” 

“Well, I am not sure how your abilities work, but I am not risking it without you drinking my blood,” Bane was rather pushy with his ” request. “

I rolled my eyes, “geez I can even get you sober if you were to drink my blood.” 

“I don’t know if I want to try,” Bane said without any hesitation. I continued to twirl the vial in front of my eyes. It looked extremely convenient to carry one’s blood like this. But I wasn’t sure how this would work with the blood if I hadn’t trained it.

“How long is this valid? Like, would my blood work the same?” I inquired. 

Bane answered, “My blood will stay and work in your system for the next five days, though if you keep yours outside without training, then I think two days at max.” 

That was sad to hear. Though it would be better for me to store it like this and train. For me to recover the blood in my body takes mere hours, unlike a normal body which takes two days. That reminded me of something. If I was to be careful and do it well, I could accomplish what I wanted soon. “Do you have an empty vial?” I asked Bane, with eyes sparkling louder than the stars in the night sky. Bane retracted a little away from me. 

“Why?” He was obviously skeptical when I asked it to him like that. 

“I need your help with something,” my eyes pleaded with him. Bane almost cringed his face before he took a step away from me. His lips curled to say no, and I grabbed his hand, “Come on Bane, are you going to say no to this face?” I showed him the puppy eyes and Bane squirmed to get free from my hold. 

“I don’t want-“

“Oh shut up Bane, I don’t have any destructive ability,” I said as I gave up my act. It was ridiculous to hold on to. 

Bane scratched the back of his head, finally giving up, “As long as it doesn’t put my head on the line with Alpha.” 

A wide grin spread across my face as I slapped his shoulder, “ah, don’t worry, Fang won’t even notice.” Sadly, Fang was definitely going to notice when I would extend this glass vial to him, but well, Bane couldn’t read my mind, anyway.. We walked to the restroom area as soon as we could while I almost dragged him behind me like a kid.