Chapter 186: Lessons & Attraction

"Alright, babe, time for a refresher! What is the first law of thermodynamics?"

"I know this has nothing to do with learning, but what do you think it's like to be inside a cartoon?"

"Babe!"

"Sorry, sorry. Energy can change forms but cannot be created or destroyed, entropy of an isolated system always increases and entropy of a system approaches a constant as temperature approaches absolute zero."

"That's my boy~!"

Currently, Malachi was sitting at an all black desk in the open practice room beside Bianca.

Over the past month that they had been here, Malachi had been receiving lessons to help him understand his power of absolute force manipulation.

Because the power relied on a fundamental understanding of the basic laws that make up reality, Bianca had been teaching Malachi physics for an entire month.

Malachi often joked that he was a psychology major because he was bad at every other subject, especially ones centered around math and sciences.

Now it no longer felt like a joke.

For lack of a better description, Bianca was a genius.

While he knew that before, now he was really getting to see it firsthand.

Every time that she cracked open the textbook to teach him some new information, he felt like his mind was going to explode by the end of their session.

He couldn't believe that she could actually grasp it all and rather firmly for that matter.

But the bright side was that he finally started to understand different concepts and he no longer had a constant headache at every waking hour of the day.

So far, he had only learned how to influence sound waves and small amounts of kinetic energy, leading to his third lesson of the course : thermodynamics.

But there was a problem.

Like any good teacher, Bianca was fully capable of recognizing when her student was feeling burned out.

So now, her challenge lie in finding a good way to motivate her boyfriend so that he was still learning efficiently.

And as of now, she believed that she might have found the way.

Bianca closed the book on the table and pulled out Malachi's chair just a bit.

She peeled off her jacket and placed it aside before she straddled him and wrapped her hands around his neck.

"What's this for, B?"

"I can tell you're feeling a bit exhausted from all of the nonstop tutoring so I wanted to make this lesson a little more personal. Are you alright with that?"

Bianca's voice was slightly raspy and soft, both of which were terribly alluring to Mal.

"Alright, tell me what kind of lesson could have led to this scenario."

Bianca's eyes immediately lit up.

"Thermodynamics! See, our boyfriend can use his powers to manipulate the energy produced by fire and heat sources for a wide range of-"

"Okay, okay I believe you!"

-

After his lesson was over, Mal sent Anna and Bianca up to their room before he scoured the house to find Nadine.

Unsurprisingly, he found her in the living room of the mansion; staring out the large glass window in the center of their home and drinking a cup of tea with blood mixed in.

A delicacy that had been generously donated by one of the girls.

"You actually came." She said, still trying to uphold her aloof and uninterested attitude from before.

"Don't tell me you thought I wouldn't?"

Malachi sat down beside her and raised a brow when she immediately scooted away from him.

"..." Stubbornly, he closed the distance between the two of them again.

"...!" With a growl, Nadine moved away once more before grabbing a random pillow and placing it between them like a wall.

"Nadine..."

"Hmph!"

Rolling his eyes, Malachi snatched the vampire up before she knew what was happening and pulled her into his lap.

He thought for a moment that he may have seen a happy smirk on her face, but it disappeared before he could confirm.

"...What's with the sudden affection...?"

"I owe you at least this much after you stuck by me like you have, don't I?"

"...Maybe."

Judging by how hard she was fighting to remain indifferent, Mal figured that she clearly did not dislike it.

Before he could figure out how to get the conversation underway, Nadine beat him to it.

"I need to know... Has everything that I've done to earn your attraction been in vain..? When you look at me, do you feel... anything?" She asked hollowly.

After hearing the normally always cheerful Nadine sound so fragile, Malachi finally realized just how much he'd been inadvertently hurting her.

He also didn't realize just how much he had grown attached to her usual personality and antics.

"When I look at you... I feel guilty." He finally said.