"Umm, no; I'm not through with you yet," I stated sassily.

Maverick looked irritated with my response (too bad) as he gained more momentum; Speedy Gonzales, this one, but at least he was paying attention to the road this time. …Or maybe he was always paying attention to the road? …I can't fucking remember but whatever, it's not like it's all that relevant anyway, the information.

"Proceed," he said with aggravation in his tone.

"You told us earlier that you'd been stalking us," I started. "And, then, you mentioned that you found me because of the thoughts the rapists had. So, I've got two questions regarding that." I paused. "Three questions, actually. One, how did you manage to lose sight of me when you were stalking us? Two, what exactly were you doing as you were searching for me; like, were you just checking everyone's minds until you saw me in their head or something? And three, how does mind reading work exactly, apart from the obvious?"

"Because you're a slippery snake; I looked away for two seconds. I tried sniffing you out, to catch your scent, but that didn't quite work out in my favor, though it did get me to the general area you were in; that's when I started focusing more on people's thoughts. Lastly, it has limits; I have to be near the person to hear their thoughts but if I know that someone, I can hear them from further away. And, unless I'm focusing on what they're thinking, it's all idle chatter; I only process a few words, here and there."

"…What about your siblings and parents?" Chrysanthemum quietly interjected. "Can they also read minds or do they, individually, have their own special… talent, unique to just them?"

"Only I can read thoughts," he answered. "But yes, my family has their own particular talents, some in similarity to mine, that being a… "superpower", while others are more… realistic, like self-control or simply just being physically stronger."

I hummed. "How come I'm the only exception to your power? Why do I get to keep my privacy while everyone else's minds get invaded?"

He shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Oh." I was disappointed by the answer. "Well, that's frustrating."

He snorted. "You're telling me."

"…Is it possible that Iris is an exception for others like yourself, too?" Chrysanthemum asked. "Like, uh, other abilities focused on the mind? Do you think they'd have trouble, too?"

He hummed, intrigued by the thought. "It's plausible."

I agreed with him. "Yeah, I don't think this is just some kind of fluke either."

Chrysanthemum sighed. "Yeah, I was kind of hoping it'd just be a… good theory to put a pin in, but yeah, you're… you're probably right; it does feel like a possibility."

It was silent for a split second.

"Speaking of theories," Maverick began. I groaned. "No complaints; I answered questions from the both of you, so, now, it's my turn to have questions answered."

For the first time, since getting into the Subaru at the restaurant, I looked away from him. Immediately, I realized just how fast the motherfucker was going. "Goddamn, you're a speed demon!" I glanced at the backseat; Chrysanthemum didn't look terrified but she did look a bit concerned for our safety. "Seriously, how are we still alive?!" He was going pretty fast earlier but Jesus Christ and Satan, he was hitting impossible speeds.

"Do you always drive this recklessly…?" Chrysanthemum asked nervously.

"Yes," he admitted. "I always drive this fast." He dismissed our concerns. "It's fine. I haven't crashed yet and I've never been pulled over." How, though? Do traffic cameras not exist? Does physics not work with the vehicle or something? Was it magical too? Those are questions I should've asked. Or things I should've pointed out.

"Yet is the keyword here!" I yelled, mildly startled. "Yet means you know it's possible!" Even though I was growing a bit terrified, I still thought it was kind of hot, him being such a dangerous speed demon.

"Buzzkills," he said before finally slowing down, driving at a normal speed. "Will you tell me your theory now? Please?"

Roughly, I bit into my lower lip, trying to look all sexy, as a distraction because I honestly didn't want to come right out and say it. However, he glanced at me with a stern look before gazing back at the road so the attempt immediately was a failure; bummer. "Well, firstly, it's not really a theory; it's more… We absolutely know this is what you and your family are."

"…That explains the endless loop of alternative music happening in Cyrus' head today," Maverick stated.

"I couldn't make it too easy for you to figure out," Chrysanthemum jokingly said. She sighed seconds later. "Although, truthfully, I was just trying to keep it out of my head in general; I wanted another normal day."

"Until today turned out to be less than normal," I continued for her.

"Yeah," she agreed.

For a moment, I thought about the conversation we had in the dress shop. I'm pretty sure we discussed his vampirism openly there. I guess vampires don't have super hearing? But then, I remembered he lost sight of me, so maybe he hadn't been listening in. All of that is probably irrelevant information, honestly.

"Anyways, at the beach, we met Cormac White. He told us the tale of his people, how the werewolves made a deal with the vampires that were behaving like civilized people. He said it was your family." I paused. "And in case you're worried, Cormac seemed to not really believe that tale." While also judging the Soren-Phoenix family anyway, though it was subtle.

"…And considering you can, well, read minds, you already know that, like Iris but she said it aloud, I've been thinking that your family is… different since you arrived," Chrysanthemum said. Maverick silently agreed by nodding.

"If anyone else is suspecting the same thing, well, you'll be the first to know," I told Maverick. "Mr. Mind Reader."

Maverick was silent for a little longer. "…So, from that story, you both immediately agreed that it was true?"

"Not immediately, but we did talk and yes, we came to the conclusion, fairly quickly, that yeah, the story was definitely true," I said. "From there, I did online research, just to see if there was any vampire knowledge I wasn't already aware of." I paused. "…Actually, flip that, maybe. Actually, I'm not sure anymore which happened first; the talk or the research. Whatever; it all leads the same direction."

"…And?" Maverick quietly asked. "How do you both feel about it?"

"Intrigued but terrified," Chrysanthemum admitted. "Because now, I know that supernatural species exist. And that while your family may not necessarily be outright dangerous, others might be."

"That's reasonable," he said with understanding. "And you, Iris?"

"Honestly? I am much like my Flower Angel about it, only I also think it's pretty hot," I stated. "Kind of kinky, in a freaky way. Sort of." Not really. Still hot, though.

He snorted but he also scoffed. "Of course you'd think that way about it."

I smirked, pleased. "I'll take that as an admission of us both being correct about vampirism. Which means I've got more questions."

He sighed, exasperated. "Go ahead, then."

"Age?"

"Over one-hundred."

"Goddamn, you're old. Anyway, uh, hmm, from the myths about vampires, what's actually true?"

"Youth, bloodlust, blood drinking, the general physical description, the sunlight thing is only partially true since we can't step into it without immediately letting everyone know that we're not normal, sleeping-"

"You can't sleep?!"

"That's correct."

"That fucking sucks ass."

"You're telling me."

"And I assume the story Cormac told was true? Uh, about you and your family only stealing blood from animals."

He snorted. "Stealing, huh? That's one way to put it, but yeah. Doesn't make us any less dangerous around humans, though."

"I don't doubt you," I stated. Everyone had the capacity of being dangerous, regardless.

"But you don't care," he continued, finishing for me.

I nodded, agreeing. "But I don't care."

"I partially care," Chrysanthemum butted in. "Unlike Iris, I actually have a sense of self preservation. To an extent, anyway."

"That makes you the smarter one," Maverick complimented her, while insulting me. I didn't care, though. No matter how many red flags hit my face, I was always gonna be into him. He was just so, so hot. God and Satan, my dreams that night were just…so much better than usual, but also still weird towards the end, unfortunately. I skipped ahead by accident, sorry. Actually, I'm not sorry. Fuck you.

"So, why drink animal blood?" I asked, putting his attention back on me. "Why not get human blood from hospitals?"

"Because we don't want to drink human blood," he stated.

"Why?" I pressed. "Because of morals?"

"Mostly, yeah, because of morals. Amongst other reasons." He didn't explain further than that. A bummer, really, but it wasn't like I could force him to reveal more; that was all up to him.

"Is that why your eyes change colors? It depicts if you had your fill or not? Or is it just an unfortunate side effect of being a vampire?" I asked.

"No, you were right on the nose the first time," he stated.

Chrysanthemum made another comment, reminding us that she was still in the vehicle. She sounded normal so I guess she had calmed down a bit, like me. "I'm honestly surprised that only Iris and I have noticed that feature; it's not exactly subtle."

"I know right?" I huffed. "Like, damn, it's pretty obvious." I crossed my arms, leaning back against my seat. "So, I assume that camping trip or whatever that you went on with your bro, that was actually just you two getting some food?"

"Yeah."

"Cool, cool. …Did you miss me?"

"Actually, yeah, I did."

"Really?" I might have been calm on the outside but I was flipping my shit all over the place on the inside. I was dancing. I was screaming. I was super happy to hear it. He missed me. Me. Just like I missed him. We were perfectly toxic for each other.

"I was worried. Thought that you'd attempt fate again while I was away," he stated. "Which, you did, today, but I won't hold it against you, seeing it wasn't your fault you walked past some lowlifes."

I held back a smile; I was supposed to be trying hard to get but it was, like, quite literally about to fly out the window, with my body. Because I'd have jumped out of the moving vehicle. Just because. I'm being dramatic, yeah. "I missed you, too."

"…Yeah?"

"Yeah."

I could feel the awkward radiating off of Chrysanthemum in the backseat. The power of third wheeling compels her!

Maverick looked like he was struggling to hold himself together. Like he wanted to pull over and jump my bones in front of Chrysanthemum but knew that he couldn't. "We really shouldn't do this."

I rolled my eyes. "Because it's dangerous?"

He took one hand off the steering wheel to gesture dramatically for a second. "Yes! Exactly! And if you were smart like your friend in the backseat, you'd stay away from me."

I rolled my eyes, again. "Except I tried that already, after your gaslighting bullshit, and guess who ended up approaching me instead? You!" I gestured dramatically, too. "So, whose fault is this really? Yours!"

He groaned. "You're infuriating."

"And yet, you want to continue seeing me anyway," I pestered.

Out of nowhere, we came to a stop. I looked around. It was Chrysanthemum's place. I don't recall her ever giving him her address. Oh, right, yeah; Maverick said he stalked us all day. That explained it. Fairly quickly, Chrysanthemum sent us awkward third wheel goodbyes, which I returned (except it wasn't a third wheel goodbye, it was a normal goodbye; I'm being stupid, stop complaining about everything I say), and, alongside her things, she was outta there. Leaving me alone with Maverick, who started driving again.

Briefly, we talked about the attempted sexual assault that happened earlier. I told him that I had planned to, at least, take down one of the bastards; if it was gonna happen, I wasn't just gonna let it happen, you know? I was gonna fight back. If I was gonna be forced to remember them, I was gonna force them to remember me back; I was gonna leave marks, bitch. Instead of spitting sexism at me or whatever, saying I would've lost cause I'm a girl or whatever, he just snorted, having expected such.

Besides, it wasn't like I could run away for much longer; I would've ended up tripping and breaking my own face. How I didn't manage to do that during my prior escape attempt, I don't know; I was lucky, I guess. Who knows? Maybe I did trip but forgot I did, so I didn't mention it.

I'm dying. Cut me some slack here.

What? I'm not being as snarky as usual? What do you mean? I'm just as snarky as I've always been, bitch. I'm just tired, okay? You'd be tired, too, if you had to retell multiple months of your life as you're in the middle of getting murdered by a crazy vampire man.

Maverick invited me to sit with him during lunch again. My heart jumped out of my body, out of the window, and got run over violently by the wheels of the car. That would be crazy if that actually happened, holy shit. I'm just over exaggerating again, obviously. But yay, lunch with Maverick! Again!

Erica was gonna be so pissed! Haha! I loved that because she totally was gonna be; she wanted to sleep with him so badly! How pathetic!

The next little bit isn't all that relevant so I am just gonna zoom through it for ya, leave out the dialogue and tell you all the details, as per usual when I get bored of retelling everything word for word. I mean, nothing; you didn't hear that. I mean, you didn't read that. No. You didn't. No.

It literally took, like, a few seconds to get to my house, thanks to Maverick's reckless driving; yeah, he started going fast again, like Sonic the Hedgehog. Anyway, we got to my house; Cassius' house but still, my house. I got out, about to go inside without a proper sendoff because I'm just that bitch, playing hard to get, but Maverick stopped me and made me promise not to enter the woods alone, for some reason. Why would I go in there, ever, I don't know but he seemed to fucking think I would, which was really odd. Like, eww, nature. Gross.

And with that, he was gone and I was swooning, or whatever the word is.

I went inside, briefly talked to Cassius about the trip (and yes, I left out the attempted sexual assault because of course I wasn't gonna tell him, come on now), and went straight to my bedroom, flopping onto the bed. I sighed dreamily.

I was about to start daydreaming about my future with Maverick when Erica suddenly called me, wanting all the details. I answered, gave her no details whatsoever, told her to go suck Constantine's dick, and hung up before calling Chrysanthemum to quickly just let her know that I got home safely and that I was sorry for leaving her out of the conversation with Maverick a lot (I wasn't actually sorry, though, which she called me out for with a small laugh so she wasn't mad, at least).

I took a long shower because the coldness of my entire day finally caught up with me and I wanted to be warm before I caught a cold or some shit, I don't know; I just wanted to be warm, man. Temporarily, obviously. I love the cold. I promise.

I laid back in bed and, again, sighed dreamily.

My soulmate, my bae, my lust, my love, my darling. My Maverick was a vampire. My Maverick was a vampire who probably wanted to suck my blood as much as I wanted to suck his dick. My Maverick was a vampire who probably wanted to suck my blood as much as I wanted to suck his dick and I was thoroughly and assuredly in lust with him, too.

What is my life? It's about to end is what it is.

Nothing. You didn't hear that. Where was I? Oh, yeah.

I was thoroughly and assuredly in lust with Maverick.