CHAPTER 5
Iro
When she had watched the woman she now knew as Arwen walk into the bar, Iro had been instantly transfixed, and she hadn’t been instantly transfixed on anyone in over three hundred years.
It was hard to remember much about her life as a human before being turned, but one part of her life would never fully leave her mind, of course.
She had been in love, yes, but she had not been instantly transfixed by the woman who had later become the reason she’d turned into a vampire.
She hadn’t been transfixed by Cassia, either.
Enamored by? Maybe. Confused by? Absolutely.
But not so transfixed that she hadn’t been able to take her eyes off the woman.
When Arwen had entered the bar with her long blonde hair framing her face and long neck, though, Iro had stared at her unabashedly.
She hadn’t cared if the entire world had noticed that she was staring at a stranger.
When Arwen’s eyes had met her own, she’d noticed their hazel shade.
At first, Iro had thought them golden. Then, when the light had hit them differently, they’d appeared green, and lastly, brown, before Arwen had finally connected her gaze with hers, and Iro had known: they were hazel, and they were beautiful.
She’d read many poets over the years describe eyes with their rich words, and she’d never met someone with eyes that felt like those descriptions applied.
Arwen’s, on the other hand, made her feel as if every beautiful description did.
It made Iro think of the poem by Sara Teasdale that she had read for the first time decades ago now.
Your eyes drink of me,
Love makes them shine,
Your eyes that lean
So close to mine.
We have long been lovers,
We know the range
Of each other's moods
And how they change;
But when we look
At each other so
Then we feel
How little we know;
The spirit eludes us,
Timid and free –
Can I ever know you
Or you know me?
She’d been sitting at the bar, staring at Arwen, thinking about that poem and wondering why it had sprung to mind when she didn’t even know this woman, only of her eyes and how remarkable it felt to have them connected to her own.
Iro hadn’t been foolish. She’d understood that there had to be a reason she’d been so drawn to her.
She had breathed in the room, and its scent had revealed to her a combination of sweet liqueurs and juices, body odor and sweat, urine from the bathroom several feet away, and yes, blood.
Vampires had a heightened sense of smell, but it wasn’t as strong as what she’d seen portrayed in the recent versions of the species humans usually believed to be fictional.
She could, however, smell blood. It was typically because someone had a cut on their skin, but if someone was close enough, Iro could smell their very blood pumping through their veins.
Not feeding on humans anymore, this was now an unpleasant experience for her every time, since she had spent well over a decade weaning herself off it so that she wouldn’t be tempted to take a woman home and feed off her.
Iro hadn’t ever been about the kill. She hadn’t even been about the feed.
She needed blood to survive, but it didn’t have to be human blood.
Animal blood was the only requirement, and humans were animals, but so were pigs, cows, and many others.
Vampire blood helped other vampires not to starve, but it didn’t contain what they needed to survive for long, so that wasn’t an option for every meal.
When Iro had breathed in the room again, she’d smelled her, knowing exactly where that intoxicating, sweet scent had come from, and it was the woman she could now call Arwen.
Most women these days wore perfume or otherwise strong-scented lotions and used various body washes with intense fragrances, as if to cover their very essence, but Arwen wore nothing.
Even her shampoo or conditioner had no scent to it.
Iro had breathed her in again after sitting down at her table and had been surprised because very few modern products had no scent.
She’d been able to smell the soap base, but that had been it, and it had been very refreshing.
It had also made her want to sink her teeth into flesh to draw the red, hot liquid unencumbered by the other scents that surrounded people today.
She had licked her lips as she’d stared at Arwen’s neck, hearing the woman’s pulse and wanting to both taste her and never hurt her at the same time.
Never wanting to hurt the woman she’d just met meant that there was something else at play here; it wasn’t just the smell of her blood that had attracted Iro to her.
Those eyes, that sweet smile, and the nervous laugh Arwen was giving her right now for something Iro had said that hadn’t even been particularly funny meant that this was something else entirely.
“How was your drink?” Iro asked.
“Good,” Arwen replied as she set down the now-empty glass.
“Would you like another one?” Iro asked.
They had remained seated next to one another in the booth, with Iro not wanting to move to the other side when Zara had left because she’d craved this closeness with Arwen in a way she hadn’t craved anything in years.
“No, one is my limit. I’m a bit of a lightweight. In fact, I drove here, but I don’t think I can drive home.”
“I can take you home,” Iro offered. “Or, I can get you another glass of water, and you can stay a little bit longer.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t really help that I skipped dinner and hardly touched my lunch today because I had a meeting with a smarmy lawyer who works for a company that’s trying to destroy the planet we all have to share.”
“He’s trying to destroy the planet?”
“Oh, I’m an environmental attorney. Did I not mention that?
I’m not perfect, but I try to do my part.
Vegan who makes her own toothpaste so that she doesn’t have to buy it in plastic tubes; that kind of thing.
It’s probably really weird, huh? I make my own soaps and stuff, too.
It’s time-consuming, but it’s worth it to me.
The science is clear: we’re already past the breaking point.
But if we slow down on the bad stuff, we have a chance of keeping this place habitable for a while longer. ”
That was why she smelled so perfect to Iro. And, for some reason, hearing Arwen talk about what she was doing to try to save the planet only made her more interesting.
“What? It’s weird, right? You’re smiling like it’s weird.”
“My smile is because it’s interesting,” she replied. “And no, it’s not weird. I’ll admit, I have not exactly been the best when it comes to taking care of the world, but it’s not strange that you should care about it so much.”
“How have you misbehaved?” Arwen asked her with a lifted eyebrow that Iro wanted to kiss.
“Well, I’m not the best with recycling. I do it when I can, but not all the time. I’ve also traveled a lot, and sometimes, it’s by private plane.”
“You have your own plane?”
“No, but there’s a service I use. I… can fly commercial sometimes, but not all the time.”
“Why not?”
“Depends on the urgency of my trip and what’s available.”
“So, you’re really important or something?”
“I own an investment firm, and I need to go places to review the investments.” Iro kept it high-level for safety, like she always did with humans.
“And you have to travel private for that?”
“Sometimes,” she replied. “Are you disappointed in my bad behavior?”
“No, I just feel like I need to do more to make up for whatever you’re doing, but that’s a normal feeling for me.”
“You bear it all, don’t you?”
“Sorry?” Arwen said and took a drink of her water.
“So others don’t have to; you take on the responsibility.”
“Oh. I guess. But not so that they don’t have to. It’s because they won’t.”
“I will be better, if that helps.”
“You will?” Arwen asked, looking hopeful.
“Yes. I’ll do my best not to fly private and maybe take trains more when I’m in Europe. It’s much easier there than it is here, in America. What is it with this country’s aversion to mass transit?”
Arwen laughed and said, “I have no idea, but yes, it does make it difficult. I try to walk or ride my bike whenever I can, but I have to drive for work most days. There’s not exactly a station near my place, and the bus stop is pretty far away.
I don’t like having to load my bike onto the front of a bus.
It takes time for me and for everyone else on the bus who has to wait for me to do it, and I can’t exactly show up sweaty to a meeting with a client because I rode my bicycle all the way in.
We have a shower at the office because a lot of our staff does that, and it’s specifically a firm for environmental law, but if I’m at another attorney’s office for that meeting or in court, I need to at least look presentable. ”
“You look very presentable to me,” Iro said.
“You’re really good at this.”
“At what?”
“Picking up women.”
“What makes you think I’m trying to pick you up?”
“Oh,” Arwen said, looking embarrassed now, and Iro watched that red flush sweep up her cheeks. “You’re not? It felt like you were flirting with me.”
“I am.”
“But you’re not trying to pick me up?”
Iro leaned in closer and let her hand move to the back of Arwen’s neck. She cupped it, gave it a little squeeze, and began massaging it. Arwen’s eyes closed, and Iro used that as her opportunity to look down at full lips she wanted to meet with her own.
“You feel tense here.”
“I’m always tense.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Iro said.
Arwen opened her eyes then, and Iro stared into them, seeing the gold flecks again.
“I’m not picking you up, Arwen, because that makes it sound like I’m only interested in one thing.”
“Sex?”
Iro smiled and gave her a nod.
“So, you don’t want to sleep with me?”