—
Chapter 2:
—
The storm had cleared by morning. She woke with a gasp and sat up. A wave of dizziness washed over her and she reeled for a second. Dim in the room. The curtains closed. Silence. No wind, no birds. The quiet seemed to ring in her ears. She blinked and looked about, holding the covers to her chest. On the sheets beside her there was a dark stain of blood. She stared at it for a second.
She got out of the bed quickly and almost fell over, lurching into the nightstand and leaning on it until the dizziness went away. She was naked and it was very cold. When she finally opened her eyes she grabbed up her underwear from the floor and stumbled into it before staggering into her uniform pants. Her uniform blouse seemed to be missing so she grabbed a shirt from the closet instead, shrugging it on with a frown of concentration and buttoning it haphazardly over her naked breasts.
Her gunbelt was laying on the dresser and she went over to get her gun. There was a mirror mounted into the dresser and she froze when she saw her reflection. A large bruise on her neck, black and purple, and in the center of the bruise two swollen puncture marks like the bites of some monstrous mosquito. Her face and even her lips were pale. Her hair tangled and matted. She had unbuttoned the holster on the kitbelt but now she lifted her hand and touched the bite marks tentatively. She winced at the pain and remembered the events of last night. She looked down at the pistol in the belt, still frowning, but in the end she left it in the holster.
She exited the bedroom cautiously, peering into the corridor. She approached the spare room and opened the door slowly. The bed was untouched and the girl's backpack was laying in the floor at the foot of the bed. Her heartrate accelerated at this evidence that the girl was still in her house and then she continued down the corridor.
She was still lightheaded as she descended the stairs and before she reached the bottom she heard noises in the kitchen, a soft clank and scrape of pans. She turned the corner and found the girl standing at the stove, flipping pancakes wearing nothing but a pair of panties and Bella's police blouse.
Bella felt another wave of dizziness but this time it wasn't because of blood loss. The panties were pink and the material hugged her buttocks in a way that almost seemed affectionate. The girl noticed her there and turned to smile, spatula in hand. Only one or two buttons of the blouse were done up and the collar was open almost to her breasts. The kitchen windows were open and she stood in a beam of sunlight with her mussed hair and the crumpled half-buttoned blouse like a pixie after sex.
"Hi," she chirped. "I borrowed your shirt, hope you don't mind."
Bella kept her distance and glared at her. "What are you doing?"
Her tone caused the girl to dim slightly but she seemed to have expected it. She turned to the stove and took the handle of the fryingpan, poking about at the pancake inside of it with the spatula and a studied domesticity. "Making pancakes," she said. "Do you like pancakes?"
"Put that down," Bella said, ignoring the question. "Turn off the stove."
The girl glanced at her, slightly disappointed, and then she switched off the stove and set down the spatula. She held up her hands, as if to demonstrate her defenselessness, and approached the woman cautiously. "Look," she said. "I can see you're a little freaked out, so why don't we just calm down and talk about this. Okay? I'm not going to hurt you. Look, I even fed your cat."
The cat was in the corner, crouched on the dinnermat there and nibbling at a small plate of Fancy Feast. Bella looked at the cat and back at the girl.
"You're crazy," she said.
The girl giggled softly and took Bella's arm, gently, and guided her to a chair. "Just relax, okay? Come on, sit down. Do you want syrup with your pancakes? Do you even have syrup?"
She opened the fridge and she looked into it. Bella was sitting at the kitchen table stiffly, watching her. Her arm still tingled from where the girl had touched it and she couldn't stop her eyes from flickering over the girl's bare legs. The wound in her neck was throbbing gently, as if to remind her what happened, and she noticed that the girl once again didn't seem affected at all by the cold.
"No syrup," said the girl. "I guess you'll just have to have them with butter."
She searched a few cupboards for a plate and flipped a few pancakes onto it. Then she added a pat of butter—which was actually margarine—and placed it on the table before Bella. Bella sat there, frowning. The girl went and rattled some cutlery and came back with a knife and fork. Bella watched the knife cautiously, as if wary of being stabbed, but the girl just set it on the edge of the plate together with the fork.
"Go ahead," the girl said. "Try it."
Bella took up the knife and fork but she only seemed to move them out of the girl's reach. She didn't touch the pancakes, although they smelled good. The girl sighed and then she took the other chair and shuffled it closer and sat on it, leaning on the table and taking a deep breath to prepare for a difficult conversation.
"Okay," she said. "Let's get the obvious out of the way. Can you guess what I am?"
"Crazy?"
"No," she giggled. "I'm a vampire."
Dead silence in the kitchen. The cat came over and jumped onto Bella's lap. Bella frowned and set it back down on the floor. The cat was confused. It sat there on the tiles, looking up, waiting to be petted, tail twitching in preparation of another jump. The girl picked her up instead and began stroking her.
"A vampire," Bella repeated.
"Mmhm."
Bella looked at the sunlight in the window and back at the girl.
"It's daytime," she said.
The girl lifted a hand and looked at the sunlight on it, as if embarrassed that she wasn't burning to a crisp. "Well, sunlight isn't really a problem for me," she said. "My ruleset seems to be a little more lenient than what you see in movies."
"You sure you're not just crazy?"
The girl scratched the cat behind an ear and smiled at the woman, a knowing smile that dimpled her cheeks and revealed two long sharp fangs in the corners of her mouth.
"Pretty sure," she said.
Then the fangs were gone. The girl lowered her head to coo at the cat in her lap and when she smiled again her teeth were plain teeth, perfectly even and pearly white.
Bella was sitting very still. Her breathing was slow and shallow. When she swallowed she could feel her throat move up and down, but it had to be caps. Caps or crowns. Somehow the fangs had to be fake.
"But listen," the girl went on, setting the cat on the floor and leaning forward. "Before anything, I need you to know that I'm not an evil vampire. I'm a good vampire."
Bella looked at her. "A good vampire."
"Well," said the girl. She smiled and gave a little shrug. "I can be a little naughty, I guess. But yeah, mostly I'm good. I don't hurt people, that's the main thing. I mean, you're still alive, right? And it only hurt a little bit. May I see?"
She pointed loosely at Bella's neck. Bella didn't answer. The girl shuffled her chair around the table even closer and Bella stiffened up as the girl leaned and examined the wound. She touched it gently with her fingertip, tracing the edges of the puncture marks.
"Yeah," she whispered. "It looks pretty bad, doesn't it? You'll be okay, though. I cleaned it up and disinfected it while you were asleep. I was going to put a bandage on it as well, but I couldn't find a first aid kit."
"Well, no offence, but I think I'll have a doctor look at it anyway."
"Why?"
Bella recoiled from the hand and looked at her incredulously. "Why? Because some strange girl who thinks she's a vampire bit me in the neck. That's why. I don't know what diseases you might have."
The girl giggled and sat back, giving the woman some space. "I know this is a lot to take in," she said, "but there's really nothing to worry about. You're not going to turn into a vampire or anything."
"What a relief," Bella said. "Because that's exactly what I was worried about, becoming a vampire."
"You don't believe me, do you?"
Bella didn't answer, not looking at her. The girl sighed, sitting there with her hands in her lap. Her eyes dropped and she noticed a wrinkle in her blouse that she didn't like there. She brushed at it with her hand and adjusted the buttons for a moment. Her eyes wandered to the untouched plate of pancakes on the table and she said:
"You're not eating."
Bella's eyes moved to the pancakes. The butter had partly melted and slid of the side of the stack leaving a trail of gold. She pushed the plate away and shook her head.
"I'm not hungry," she said. "Why are you telling me all this, anyway? Why didn't you just leave while I was asleep?"
The girl gave her a shy smile. She had no makeup on and her lips were a pretty shade of pink. She lowered her eyes and flicked them back up. "Because I like you," she said.
Bella's face remained stony but she could feel her eyes prickle. Because she liked the girl too and the girl was out of her pretty little mind.
"The truth is," the girl went on, "I've had this conversation before. Hundreds of times, with a hundred different girls. Back when I was younger, I used to lie a lot. I'd pretend to be just a regular girl, feeding from my lovers in secret. But eventually they would always find out. And not only would they be shocked that I'm a vampire, but they'd be betrayed as well. Because I'd lied to them. Most of the time they wouldn't even care that I'm a vampire. But the betrayal…it's always the betrayal they couldn't forgive."
The girl was silent for a moment. Then she reached and placed a hand over Bella's on the table, bestowing a smile that was prettier than the sunrise outside.
"So that's why I'm being honest," she said. "I feel that if I tell you what I am right to your face…you might be more willing to accept it."
"You're serious."
"Completely."
"Then you really are crazy."
The girl's hand had been caressing hers warmly. Then it stopped. Then she retracted her hand, folded them in her lap, and sighed, a large and heavy sigh that lifted her shoulders an inch or more and back down again.
Bella rose from the table, the chair scraping back. "Go put some clothes on," she said. "I'm taking you to the hospital. They'll know what to do with you."
"I'm not crazy," said the girl.
Bella was reaching for the wallphone and now she spun around, her temper cracking through her veneer of patience. "You bit me in the neck and drank my fucking blood," she hissed. "Aside from being fucked up, that's also assault and battery. You're delusional and possibly a serial offender. You need help."
The girl rose from her chair with a certain playfulness, tucking it in and spinning on her toe like a ballerina to smile at the woman there.
"I'm not going anywhere," she said.
"You can either come with me to the hospital or I can arrest you. It's strictly up to you."
The girl laced her hands behind her back and swayed on the spot coyly. She was bathed in sunlight from the open window over the sink and inching backwards like a skittish animal.
"Well, you could try arresting me," she said. "But I can't promise I won't resist. You might have to wrestle me to the ground. And whip out the handcuffs."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
"Fine. Go put some clothes on."
"It might be more fun like this."
"I said—"
Bella reached for the girl to drag her upstairs. But before her hand could close around the girl's wrist, the girl leapt back. She sprung off her feet, instantly and effortlessly, and leapt backwards into a highcorner of the kitchen where she perched weightlessly from the ceiling like something possessed, smiling down at the dumbstruck woman with her eyes suddenly black and opaque and glistening like ink.
"Oh my god," whispered Bella.
The creature cocked it's head, baring it's fangs in a hiss, and then it scuttled across the cabinets like a gigantic spider and disappeared out the open window.
Bella turned and ran.
A wave of dizziness swept over her as she was going up the stairs and she tripped on the landing, stumbling into the corridor and rising and running again. For one brief and wild moment it occurred to her that in the tradition of most horror movie bimbos she was running upstairs when she ought to be running out the door and into her car but then again most Hollywood damsels don't keep a gun on their dresser.
She tore into the bedroom, panting from both the adrenaline and exertion, and seized the pistol from its holster. She flicked off the safety and checked the chamber, reeling slightly from lightheadedness, and then she spun around and surveyed the room.
The girl was outside somewhere, creeping across the walls like a large and predatory insect, and there were two windows in the bedroom. One over the bed—which didn't open—and one in the other wall. Bella swept her gun over both, lingering on the smaller sidewindow. She paused, listening. Utter silence outside and no sound at all in the room but her breathing and the throb of her pulse in her head.
A sheen of sweat covered her forehead and she turned the gun to the door. She approached it cautiously, deciding to make a sweep of the other rooms and then she heard a soft click behind her.
She spun back to the window.
It was open. The lace curtains fluttering in the breeze. Bella stared at it with the gun in her hands and her mouth likewise open and then she felt a breath on her ear.
"I'm right here," the girl whispered.
Bella gasped in fright and spun with the pistol. But the girl caught it and snatched it away with surprising strength, letting it drop to the carpet. Bella panicked and tried to hit her. She had taken kickboxing classes at the gym but all she managed was a girlish flailing of her balled fists. The girl was giggling. She caught the woman's hands and wrenched the woman from side to side to make her quit and then she threw the woman backwards onto the bed, half launching her across the room.
Bella bounced twice on the mattress and began scrambling. She was almost in tears. She had half turned onto her side when the girl landed on top of her. She had leapt almost to the height of the ceiling and came swooping down like a hawk. She was straddling the woman's hips and the woman once again tried to hit her. But the girl caught her wrists and pinned them to the mattress.
"Oh god," Bella groaned, bucking her body under the creature on top of her. "What are you doing? Let me go."
"Shhh," whispered the girl. The woman tried to thrash out from under her but the girl's grip was like iron. "It's okay, it's okay," the girl continued. "Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just showing you what I'm capable of so you can see that I won't do it. Just relax, okay?"
Bella looked at her, her brown eyes wide with fear, her pale face in a pool of brown hair, her hands pinned to the bed above her head. The bruise in her neck, the bite marks. She was trembling and very aware of how her body was stretched out and helpless.
The girl smiled as the woman calmed down. The fangs were gone and her face was strangely serene and childlike. She watched the fear begin to fade in the woman's trembling eyes and then she passed both of the woman's wrists into the same hand. The woman bucked once but the girl didn't budge. She used her free hand to brush some hair away from the woman's face and smiled even softer.
"There," she said. "See? I told you I'm not going to hurt you, didn't I?"
Bella didn't answer. Her breath trembled in and out of her rising and falling chest. The girl leaned toward her face. Bella stiffened but she didn't turn away. The girl kissed just above her eyebrow. Then lower along the side of her face. Then on her cheek, once, twice, and finally a small kiss on the corner of her mouth.
"I'm sorry I had to attack you like I did last night," she whispered. "But I was desperate. I hadn't fed in a very long time. And I knew you wanted to help me. I thought you'd be cool with it, I honestly did. I really didn't mean to hurt you. I still don't."
Bella blinked. A tear welled in one eye and slid off the side of her face.
"Then let me go," she said.
Her voice came out very small, as if maybe she didn't mean it. In any case, the girl didn't listen. She smiled and leaned lower and rubbed her body against the woman's. The woman squirmed at the friction and made a strange sound. She tugged at her wrists but they were pinned too tight.
"Is that what you really want?" the girl whispered into her lips, kissing them softly. "Hm?" Another kiss. "Do you really want me to let you go? I will, if that's what you really want. But you have to be sure. Think about it. I spoke to you last night about destiny. About how lucky we were to have found each other. Do you really want to throw that away? Do you really…"
The girl trailed off. Bella was returning her kisses. Whimpering. Feverish. She felt powerless not to. Her face was on fire, her heart slamming against her ribcage. She opened her mouth and turned her face slightly, surrendering to a passion that was dark and strange and utterly irresistible.
The girl seemed to expect it. She arched her body into the woman below her, moaning, and deepened the kiss. The entrance of her tongue made the woman's head reel. She opened her mouth wider and squirmed uselessly, unsure if she was trying to get away or trying to get into it. Her skin was ice cold from shock and at the same time burning from how the girl rubbed against it. She could feel herself going awash, drifting, fading.
The girl's grip on her wrists was loosening. Bella was hardly even aware. Her arms became free and instantly she wrapped them around the girl on top of her, deepening the kiss and stroking her back, pushing the blouse up and caressing the skin there, the knobs of her spine, the delicate waist, the faint shape of her shoulderblades, gripping her tightly and mashing their bodies together as one of her hands darted downward to cup her butt, feeling it through the material of her panties before sticking her hand inside the underwear and squeezing the bare softness there. The girl giggle into her mouth, flexing her buttocks under the groping hand, and opened her bright eyes.
"It's okay, don't be shy," she whispered excitedly. "Touch me wherever you want. Here, give me your hand."
The girl took her hand. Bella wasn't sure if she actually gave it to her. The girl was straddling her hips, half sitting up, and she guided the hand between her legs and pressed it to the front of her panties, giggling at the touch with her impish face all pink and flushed.
"Do you want this?" she asked, rubbing the woman's fingers against herself. "You can have it if you want."
Bella's heart was fluttering uncontrollably like a bird trapped in her chest. A damp patch was forming in the girl's underwear, a faint moisture, and suddenly Bella bucked and flipped her over, setting the girl on her back and thrusting her pelvis at the girl's open legs.
The girl gave a yelp of surprise and surrendered the lead happily, craning her face to the side as the woman's lips landed on her jaw, her neck. Bella's hands were fumbling at the girl's blouse. She was kissing at the girl's collarbone and trying to get the buttons open. It was only three buttons but she couldn't even open one. Finally she sat up and simply ripped it open, the buttons bursting and shooting across the room. The girl giggled and helped her take it off, rising up slightly as the woman pulled it away and tossed it over the edge of the bed. Bella's face was frustrated with concentration and when she saw the girl's smile she swooped down and kissed it angrily. The girl giggled again, the sound of it muffled into the kiss, and hooked a leg around her.
Bella spent a few minutes kissing and touching her, letting one of her hands roam the leg wrapped around her, the warm thigh, smooth as silk, while the other hand found one of the girl's breasts and cupped it. It was almost flat on her chest but not quite and the girl responded with little movements of her little body, moaning attractively and loving every second.
Finally she abandoned the girl's mouth and lowered her face to the girl's chest. She licked at one of the nipples there, making the girl groan. The nipple was hard and rough on her tongue. She licked it again and took it between her lips. She moved to the other one and licked it, kissed it, suckled at it. The girl was laughing and her hands had taken little fistfuls of the woman's hair.
"Yes," she said. "Keep going. Don't stop."
Bella raised up, flushed and breathless, and flung back her dishevelled hair. The girl lay there with her legs open, smiling, waiting, her nipples pink and hard on her naked chest. She reached down and touched the insides of her thighs delicately, as if to draw the woman's attention there. Her panties were drenched. Bella took them and pulled them off and tossed them aside. The girl had closed her legs to help get the underwear off and now she reopened them, revealing her bald and glistening girlhood.
Bella looked at it and swallowed, her eyes darting to the girl's face. The girl smiled. There was no sound in the room at all other than their breathing.
"Go ahead," said the girl. "Do whatever you want."
Bella hesitated, her breath trembling. She felt high. The girl kept her eyes locked on Bella's face and Bella reached slowly with her fingertips to touch the slick wet mound between the girl's legs. Soft. Sticky. The girl shivered at the touch. Bella felt a thrill and touched a little more. The girl groaned and squirmed her hips.
"Come on, don't make me beg," she whined. "Please?"
Bella smiled, teasing her. She was easing the tips of two fingers into her folds, slowly, tauntingly. The girl waited for it, her small chest heaving, her hips wide open. Bella lowered her eyes. She could feel the girl's vagina. She could feel the tightness closing around her fingertips. The heat. The hotness. She pushed them in deeper and made the girl groan. The girl's eyes were closed and there was a breathless smile on her face.
"Mmm," she moaned. "That feels so nice."
Bella went deeper. To the knuckle. She pumped her fingers once, in and out and back in, and made the girl moan some more. So warm. So wet. She curled her fingers and touched everywhere inside her. The girl whimpered like a puppy. Bella could feel her vagina clenching down. It felt as if her lower parts were sucking on her fingers. She pulled them out a little and pushed them back in. The girl bucked her hips softly, getting them in deeper. Her clit was right there, a hard little nub above her entrance. Bella looked at it and then she reached with her other hand and brushed it with her thumb.
The girl flinched and giggled. She opened her eyes and beamed a beautiful smile at whatever was going on down there.
"Oh gosh," she gasped. "You're pretty good at this."
Bella smiled and traced circles around her clit.
"Mmm," moaned the girl. "Keep going. That's so good."
Bella kept going. She pumped her fingers in and out, slowly and methodically, and tweaked the girl's clit between her thumb and forefinger. She pinched it and rubbed it and watched the girl's face. The girl watched back, laying there naked, her wrists flung back on the mattress. The orgasm was coming into her face and it was beautiful. She hid nothing. The pleasure came into her eyes and brightened them into glistening black pools. Her smile became elated. She kept her gaze on the woman between her legs and the woman watched, spellbound. The heat around her fingers was getting tighter. The girl gave a gorgeous moan and finally her gaze failed. Her eyes fell shut. She clutched at the pillow above her head, panting, her back beginning to arch, and finally she climaxed with a loud cry, spasming on the fingers inside her and her whole body twisting off the mattress in a sweet agony of orgasm.
Bella watched all this with a feeling she couldn't quite identify. She seemed to be somewhat in shock. Dazed. Passive. The girl subsided onto the bed, laughing breathlessly, clutching little fists to her chest. Her eyelids fluttered open like butterflies and she looked down between her legs. Bella's fingers were still inside her. The girl squeezed on them affectionately with her vagina and eyed her boldly with her lust glazed eyes. Bella was reluctant to take her fingers out but she did. The girl sighed softly at this final withdrawal and closed her legs contentedly.
"Wow," the girl breathed. "Just wow."
Bella knelt there, watching her. She didn't know what to say. She was exhausted. Her head was a complete fog. There wasn't a single thought in it. The girl had rolled onto her side and the shape of her was breathtaking, pale and perfect, like a finely crafted sculpture laying in the bed. Bella touched her hip.
The touch stirred the girl back to life. She turned and sat up, rising from the sheets with a seductive ease, and wrapped her arms around the woman's neck.
"Thank you," she said, gazing into her eyes. "That was wonderful."
Then she kissed her. Bella let her. The girl was pressing their chests together and after a moment she broke the kiss with an impish grin.
"Now come here," she said. "It's your turn."
She went to kiss Bella again but Bella recoiled. The girl stopped herself short, her face flickering with panic and a hint of hurt.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "I thought you weren't mad at me anymore?"
Bella didn't know if it was as simple as that but that wasn't the problem.
"I have to pee," she said.
The girl giggled in relief. "Oh."
"And I should probably shower, too."
The girl giggled again and took the woman's hand. "Well, come on then," she said, pulling her off the bed and toward the adjoining bathroom. "I'm an expert at shower foreplay. By the time I'm done with you you'll be begging me to stay."
The girl winked over her naked shoulder and the woman allowed herself to go along, tugged at the hand of this tiny pixie and stumbling at her heels like something rapt and bewitched by fairy magic.
—
At some point she fell asleep. When she woke it was dark. Dusk. Not quite night. She was naked but tucked in. Only a little cold. She had slept most of the day but she was still exhausted. She sat up in the bed with a headache and looked about.
The girl was once again in the kitchen. She was wearing an apron and ovenmitts and she was loading a small casserole dish into the oven. Bella wandered in wearing nothing but a sheet she'd pulled off the bed and wrapped around herself. The girl saw her and smiled, closing the oven door.
"Hey you," she said. "Look, I made dinner."
She gestured with a grand sweep of her hand at the dinnertable. The table was set with plates and silverware and she had even found a box of candles that were kept in a drawer in case of blackouts. There were two of them in little silver holders and the girl struck a match to light them.
"Hope you like lamb," she said.
"Where'd you get lamb?"
The girl shook out the match and then blew on it as well. "From the store down the street," she said. "I found some money in your purse."
Bella couldn't help smiling. "You stole money out of my purse?"
"Borrowed," said the girl. "You're still gonna get me a job somewhere, right?"
Bella's smile faded a bit. Remembering what the girl really was. The girl waited a moment but she could see it wasn't the right time and she quickly giggled and flapped a hand excitedly.
"Come on, go get dressed," she said. "It'll be ready in just a minute."
Bella hesitated for a moment, looking at the candles and holding the sheet at her chest, and then she turned and went back upstairs.
She opened her closet and realized she had no idea what to wear. It felt like a date and she had never been on a date in her life. She sifted through her shirts. She found a shirt that was a pastel lavender colour and put it on while searching for some pants. She settled on some black slacks and stood in the mirror as she tucked the shirt in. Dimly she realized she wasn't a virgin anymore. It seemed weird. For shoes she went with black flats and then she went into the bathroom and gave her tangled hair a vigorous brushing. She was nervous. As if it really was a date. Frowning, she put the brush away and looked at her face in the mirror over the sink. It looked pale and bland and, still frowning, she used some makeup to spruce it up a little.
By the time she got back downstairs the girl had served dinner. The candlelight was mostly lost in the glare of the yellow bulb overhead but it still seemed romantic. The girl noticed her makeup and smiled to herself. Bella sat down shyly.
The casserole dish was sitting in the centre of the table and the girl lifted the heavy glass lid and served some onto Bella's plate. Bella could smell it, a rich scent of meat and spices. She watched the proceedings with an almost vacant look in her eyes and then she laughed once.
"This is crazy," she said.
The girl giggled as if she agreed. "Well, at least we're both crazy now and it's not just me," she said. "Go on, eat, eat, eat. Don't let it get cold."
Bella took up her fork and tried a piece of the lamb. It was delicious. She hadn't eaten all day and suddenly she realized she was starving.
The girl had set plates for two but she didn't serve herself. She put the lid back over the dish and sat down at the empty plate, like a bad girl who didn't get any dinner tonight.
"What about you?" Bella asked.
"I don't eat. Not food, anyway."
"What do you eat then?"
"Pussy," said the girl.
Bella had been bracing herself for something a little more sinister but the joke made her smile. The girl giggled and apologized for the lewd humour with a wave of her hand.
"I'm kidding," she said. "Just blood."
"Blood?"
"Mmhm."
"So you really are…?"
"A vampire," said the girl. "Yes."
A slow sense of disorientation swept over Bella. She had a piece of diced carrot on her fork but her appetite had failed as instantly as it had come. She lowered the fork and shook her head.
"I still can't believe it," she said.
The girl was watching her with a sad sort of sympathy, as if she had seen it all before and still didn't really know what to say. "I know," she said. "It's not easy. You can't expect to come to terms with it in one day. For now it's probably best to just not even think about it. Besides, is it really that important? I mean, labels are just labels. It's not who I really am."
"Then who are you?"
"Well, I'm Alice. I'm cute and funny and super nice and maybe a tiny bit of a slut. Not to mention I'm a fantastic cook. That's the important stuff, right?"
"I don't know. Is it really that simple?"
"I think it is. I mean, sure, I also drink blood. But none of that actually defines me. I'm more than just a thirst, more than just…a monster. You can believe that, right?"
The girl was looking across the table with a strange earnestness, as if she was trying to convince herself just as much. Twin candleflames trembled in her big black eyes and Bella found herself nodding vaguely.
"I think so," she said.
"So you'll give me a chance?"
"What kind of chance?"
"A chance to get to know me. I'll leave any time you want me to, but I…well, I really do like you."
The girl looked aside shyly. Bella's heart was beating strangely and there was a weird pressure in her head. She looked for something to drink on the table but there was nothing. She licked her dry lips.
"Well…"
The girl looked up. Bella shrugged helplessly.
"Listen," she said. "Vampire or not, you're still the same girl I found wandering in the rain. And the offer still stands. You're welcome to stay here for as long as you need to."
The girl's face slowly lit up in a smile brighter than the candles.
"All I ask," Bella went on, "is that you be respectful. And…"
"And what?"
"And, you know," Bella said, her face flushing with embarrassment. "Don't kill me or whatever."
The girl's smile went even brighter. One corner tilted upwards into a smirk, revealing two fangs that glistened in the candlelight, and she leaned slightly on the table with a sort of seductiveness that was almost evil. She levelled her dark eyes across the table and said:
"Do I have to promise?"
Bella chuckled and blushed, lowering her eyes and poking at the plate with her fork. It seemed like a joke and a very sexy one.
—
They went to bed together that night and together made love, as little as they knew each other, and afterwards they lay in the dark in each other's arms.
"Are you sure it's okay if we share a bed?" whispered the girl.
It was the fourth or fifth time she'd asked. She was laying at Bella's side with Bella's arms wrapped around her and Bella could feel her warm weight on top of her and her smooth skin under her hand and she smiled at how nice it all felt.
"Sure," she said. "Don't worry about it."
The girl snuggled closer, wrapping a leg around her. "Vampires don't sleep, but I hate being alone. I love to cuddle. Do you like to cuddle? We don't have to if it's annoying. I don't want to make you uncomfortable."
"I don't mind."
"Thanks. Just hold me till you fall asleep."
"Okay."
"And Bella?"
"Yeah?"
The girl raised up slightly and placed a kiss on the woman's lips. "Thank you," she said. "I'm really glad I met you." Then she subsided again at her side.
Bella caressed her waist. Her heart felt like it was swelling in her chest. A feeling that was almost painful. She never realized how lonely she had always been until now.
"Me too," she whispered.
Then she closed her eyes, holding the girl in her arms, and slowly drifted toward sleep.
—