Qadir felt some guilt worrying Arietta about the possibility of ghouls coming after her. He thought about asking her to move into his home, and he could keep her safer than her in her own place. Also, it would increase access to her. The question will be how to bring it up.

He had sex with Arietta. It no doubt confused her as it started to conflict with his morals as both a vampire and a man. Another issue he had was that he crossed the boundary. Ethically speaking, he has done so many horrible things that he shouldn't have the right to claim he has morals. However, he upheld the Masquerade and followed orders, which was why he was called to New York decades ago.

"Do you want to watch anything?" Arietta asked; she had something on the TV, and Qadir didn't know if it was a show or a movie.

"I'm fine with whatever you want to watch," he answered. It was true. He wanted to get to know the woman more. She fed him, kept the Beast at bay, and nearly silenced it. Maybe he could find a reason not to… Fall in love with this woman? Was this love? Was that what this was?

Arietta changed what she had on to something else entirely, Qadir looked at what she had on the tv now, and she had changed it to a paranormal show. She leaned back into the couch and pulled her knees up to her chest, arms wrapped around them. Qadir refrained from pulling her close to him, she looked deep in thought, and he wondered what was more to her besides what he could find.

"Were you always interested in the paranormal?"

"Yeah. I've always been interested in it," she said. "I know that might be weird for someone that doesn't have a religion."

"No," Qadir said. "I understand not believing in a religion and being interested in beyond what is considered normal."

Arietta nodded her head in agreement. "I just think, or thought, that the world was too big to not have more than what we could see daily." She paused, her eyes gazing at the screen but not absorbing what she was watching. "It's odd when you think about it. We're specks on this planet but in the whole universe. We're nothing."

"That's... Not what I expected to hear from you," He said cocking his head to the side. He often thought about what his purpose would be if he will always be the Sheriff. The hand of the Prince, or any Prince for that matter.

"Sorry," she sighed. "I know it's a little weird to bring up, but knowing that just one of the..." she paused, trying to think of a word. She licked her lips and shifted uncomfortably. "Aspects is actually real. It makes it interesting and better for me, I supposed." She shrugged her shoulders as she looked up at him.

"That's an interesting way of thinking about it," Qadir allowed her. "What did you think about... What I was?"

"I didn't know what you were until you kissed me," Arietta said. A delightful blush flushed her cheek and crossed the bridge of her nose. "But I guess, do most of the humans you drank from react that way?"

"Yes," he said, then thought some more. "Well, you seem to pass out after I feed you, and I'm not taking any more than I would from any other human. However, our kiss, or me feeding from you, is intoxicating to both my kind and yours. Some vampires can't control themselves and drink them fully."

"You said that you could feed from me and not be hungry for a couple of days," Arietta said, leaning back against the couch. "That's not normal?"

"I have never heard of it happening with any of my other kind," he answered. He really needed to figure out where or who to even broach this subject without exposing Arietta. As rare as she was, he didn't want to... give up what he had with her and what she was willing to give to him.

"Oh," she looked down, and he didn't know what to do.

"Let's not worry about what happened tonight," he said, his arm reaching across the back of the coach, wrapping around her shoulders to pull him to him. She relaxed into his body and rested her head on his chest. She was so warm, and again, he crossed that meticulous line of what the kine were to the kindred.

Together they watched the show she picked, and she even offered that he could choose whatever show he wanted to watch the next time he came over. He said he would be happy to take her up on that the next time he visited.

Arietta

Arietta woke up with a jolt. There was a knock on the door, and she crawled out of bed and yelled. "I'm coming!" She trotted to the front door looking through the peephole and seeing a woman officer. She unhooked the chain and unlocked the bolt before opening the door. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Ma'am, I just wanted to let you know that there will be a police presence tonight with that prowler," She told Arietta. "The man said that he was working for someone and that there would be more during the day."

A thrill shot through her body, and she knew that she needed to text Qadir about this. "Should I stay somewhere else tonight?"

"We'll be around and on as many floors as possible," the woman said. "But I wouldn't disagree with the residents staying at another place tonight."

"Okay," she said, wanting to cry. "I will make sure that I'm not here."

"Take care, ma'am," the officer said with a nod. Arietta closed the door, locking and hooking the chain back in place. She rushed to her room and over her bed to her phone.

Hey, an officer said that the guy won't be the only one and that there will be more tonight. I will not be at my place during the day, but I guess I'll probably hear from you tonight. There was still no history of them texting, and she hated that this was the first text sent to him. But she promised, and she intended to keep her promise.

She then texted Solana. Hey, can I come to your place today? If that is no big deal? There was a creep around last night, and a cop came by to tell us that there would be more men tonight.

A reply came immediately. Yes! Omg, that's so scary. Come by as soon as possible, and I'll clean up a bit.

Arietta sighed, grabbed a bag, and packed for a couple of days. She got her toiletries and other things she would need. She had the money to stay at a hotel for a few days. She could get a couple of friends to come over, and they could make it a trip.

Lastly, she packed her charger and brought her laptop. She grabbed her keys and locked the door, taking the subway straight to Solana's place. She knocked on her friend's entry, and Solana opened it immediately.

"Come in!" She urged Arietta, and she complied. "You have to tell me what the hell happened!"

"Oh yeah, for sure," Arietta said as they settled on the couch. One of Solana's cats jumped on the sofa to greet Arietta and gave the cat a pregnant stray Solana took in, a good scratch under the chin.

Arietta told Solana everything except anything that included any detail about Qadir. Solana was invested in Arietta's retelling of the events until the cop's visit.

"Well, you can stay the night if you want!" Solana told her, "I already told Abhoy what you told me when you were on the way over, and he agreed that you should stay with us at least tonight."

"I appreciate that," she sighed. "Yeah, I was thinking about getting a hotel room and then making it into a thing, you know, a girl get-together. Unless," she strayed away from that thought, thinking about Qadir. He was good. He fed from her a day ago, but how would she explain her relationship with him?

"Unless?" Solana cocked her head to the side, her bright eyes taking Arietta.

"I mean, there's this person I've been talking to," she relented. "It's new, so you know how I am."

"Yeah, if they're trash, no point in giving me the down low until after the fact," Solana agreed. "But what's he like anyways?" She wiggled her eyebrows, eyes giving her a deadly glint of interest.

"Well," Arietta blushed and covered her face. "It's mainly a physical thing. We're still getting to know one another."

"Oohhh," Solana sangsonged. "I'll leave it at that. You want to watch something?" She asked innocently and playfully. Arietta swatted her arm, and Solana feinted injury swooning to the armrest of her couch.

They did end up watching some tv shows until Abhoy came home. He was a tall, dark skin man with chin-length hair. "Hey, Arietta," he greeted her as he gave a kiss to Solana on her cheek. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," Arietta answered and checked her phone for the seventh time. "Thank you for letting me stay the night."

"Yeah, no problem," Abhoy said with a nod. "Let me get cleaned, and I'll come out and hang out with you two."

"Alright, no problem," Arietta said. "You should let me buy us pizza."

"No, no," Solana waved her hands animatedly. "Really, it's okay. I can make something."

"No, it's the least I can do," Arietta said in return insisted.

"Let's wait until Abhoy comes out and see what he says," Solana relented, and for the first time, Arietta's phone buzzed, and Arietta jumped. Reaching for her phone and dropping it in her hastiness.

Are you okay? Are you somewhere safe?

I'm at a friend's apartment and staying here tonight. But I don't want to go home, so I will get a hotel room for the rest of the weekend.

Don't do that. I can come to get you tomorrow night. I have more people looking into it, but it could have been an anarch that somehow linked you to me. Or, the very least, the Carmilla. Can you stay with your friend until tomorrow night?

I can ask, but I don't see why not.

Please let me know if you can't spend the day at their place, and I will arrange something.

"Hey, Sol," Arietta said, looking up to see that Solana was watching Arietta intently. "What?"

"Is this the guy?" She asked, her eyes razor-focused on Arietta. She felt and fought the urge to hide her phone.

"Yes," she answered slowly. Solana nodded once but then encouraged her to continue. "Is it alright that I stay until tomorrow night?"

"Of course," Solana answered. "But... can I like... meet him?"

I can stay until tomorrow night, but can my friend, like.. meet you? Like really quick?

That would be fine. He said it would be okay for him to meet another human. After a second, he sent another message. Ari, humans, see me every day. This won't hurt anyone or me.

Arietta looked up to meet Solana's eager eyes and gave her a solemn nod. She squealed and danced a little, scaring her cats off the couch. "Ah, I'm sorry, babies," she soothed them.

Arietta laughed, covering her mouth out of habit. Then Abhoy walked out, "what's up?"

"What's up is that I'm buying us pizza. What kind of toppings do you want?" Arietta cut off Solana at her protest, but Abhoy grinned and gave what toppings he would like. Arietta ordered the pizza, and they all hung out pleasantly until they turned in for the night. They only had one bedroom, so Solana gave her a pillow and a blanket so Arietta could get comfortable. It wasn't her first time sleeping on their couch.

The next day went the same. Arietta and Solana had the place to themselves as Abhoy went to work in the morning. Only woke Arietta up for a bit, but she was able to fall back to sleep.

When night came, she and Solana got ready to head downstairs to the lobby, where they met Qadir.

Solana practically danced next to on the elevator ride down, and Arietta felt like dancing a bit herself.

When they got to the lobby, Arietta's heart soared as she saw Qadir waiting at the front doors. His back was facing toward them until he turned around to face the two of them. Solana faltered before continuing. "Hello!" She greeted him brightly.

"Hello," he said, offering his hand to shake hers. She gave hers, and they shook hands. "Are you ready?"

"yeah," Arietta said, hefting her bag back on her shoulder. He ended up taking it from her and placed it on his shoulder. "I'll talk to you later," she said, turning to Solana, and she nodded. Her eyes said, oh, we're talking tea about him later.

She hoped that it wasn't going to be so bad.

He led her out of the apartment and to his car. Placing her bag in his trunk. He opened the passenger door for her, and she climbed into the seat.

"That won't be bad, would it?" She asked him as he climbed behind the wheel.

"As long as you don't tell her I'm a vampire and our interactions are minimal, it will be fine, Ari," he said. Her heart skipped a beat with the ease of his using her nickname. He looked over to her, "Is it alright that I call you that?"

"It's fine," she said. "It really is."