5. Tavia
Chapter 5
Tavia
I slept deeper and longer than I expected. Cyan’s spare bedroom was pitch-black without any lights on, and the bed more comfortable than anything I’d slept on in my life. When I woke up, I fumbled around for five minutes looking for a light switch.
After a shower, I took in my new surroundings with fresh eyes and less panic. There were no windows in the suite, probably none at all on this underground level. A clock on the wall noted the time as four-thirty, but I had no idea if that was morning or afternoon.
I puttered around Cyan’s empty place for only a few minutes before a soft—way too soft to be any of the male vampires—knock came to the door. A spark of fear jolted me at the sound. Should I open it? I had just been considering snooping through Cyan’s bedroom when the knock came, like I was being watched and had been caught.
Were blood pets even allowed to open the door? Could I leave the suite and just explore? With zero notion of what I was supposed to do, I just froze.
“Hello!” A feminine voice called through the wood, followed by more soft rapping. “Cyan’s blood pet, are you awake? I’d just like to introduce myself, one human to another.”
Human?
My body shot into action, rushing to the door like it would self-destruct if I didn’t get there in time. When I flung it open and met the gaze of the woman standing across the threshold, a small part of me wanted to slam the door shut again.
She was not human.
What were supposed to be the whites of her eyes were completely black. Her smile showed fangs and her olive skin had that perfectly smooth, unblemished look of a vampire. Her irises though, were not red as all vampires seemed to be. They were an aquamarine, shining bright like gems against her black sclera.
“Ah,” she said, taking in my reaction. “First time you’ve seen a brusang, huh?”
“A what?”
“Is it okay if I come in?” She held up a plastic bag with styrofoam containers inside. “Figured you’d be hungry, so I brought breakfast.”
The scents from the bag hit me then like a slap to the face. Cheese, meat, grease, salt. My stomach didn’t so much as rumble as it roared. I hadn’t eaten since the morning of the Selection, and that was at least a full day ago.
“Um, sure.” I stepped aside, not caring if this person was permitted inside Cyan’s place or not as long as I got fed.
She breezed in gracefully, her long black hair barely fluttering from her movement. Even with the jarring black eyes, she was pretty. After setting the bag on the small, high-top table, she turned to me.
“I got you two breakfast burritos. Wasn’t sure how you felt about avocado, so I had them leave it off. Dig in and I’ll explain everything.” She made herself comfortable on one of the barstools, pulled out a small paper bag of tortilla chips and a container of what had to be salsa.
“Mexican food in a vampire world, huh?” I went to the barstool across from her at the small table, reaching for the bigger container.
The woman laughed before crunching down on a chip. “I know, right? The market is supposedly near one of the borders to the human world, specifically somewhere in LA. So, the humans who stumbled their way into that area love their Mexican food. The deli specializes in it because of that.”
I paused in my unwrapping of the burrito. “There’s an entrance to the human world all the way out here?” The only one I knew of was a half-day’s hike from Sapien. A barely-marked, winding trail through a woodland area dumped out into a small town called Jacksonville, Oregon.
No one was completely sure how our worlds connected, or if they overlapped in some way. But we’d always known growing up that there was a world full of humans with no vampires, angels or any shifters at all. Crossing between the human world and ours was tricky, and only done when absolutely necessary.
I’d been to Jacksonville a few times to help buy essential supplies for Sapien, but Oregon always felt different in a way I couldn’t explain. Robin said it was because there was no magic in the air, which was probably true. It would explain why no one over there believed in vampires.
“Oh yeah!” The woman’s eerie eyes flashed excitedly. “Like all of ‘em, it’s hard to find. I heard you gotta walk down this maze of alleyways, give a drop of blood to a bat statue, say a prayer to Temkra, and if you’re lucky, she’ll show you the way. All the market suppliers know, but they’re keeping it under wraps.”
“So wait, there’s a market?” I chewed and swallowed the most heavenly mix of tortilla, potato, egg, cheese, and sausage I’d ever eaten.
“Mm-hm. It’s the only place in Sanguine that sells human-specific grocery items. It’s not big like a Wal-Mart or anything but they make so much of their own stuff.” She pointed at the salsa as she chewed. “Mmm, I watched Alejandro blend this up himself before he sold it to me. Can’t get any better or fresher.”
I got up to retrieve two water bottles from the fridge. “So you uh,” I tried to phrase the question in a way that wasn’t offensive, “eat food?”
The woman licked her lips and laughed. “Sorry, how rude of me. I’m Bea, by the way. And yes, brusang do need to eat, although not as much as you unturned humans. I need to eat human food about every other day. For the rest, I feed on blood.”
“Unturned humans?” I had so many questions, but the burrito was so damn delicious and I couldn’t stop taking bite after bite. It was hard to talk without my mouth full.
Bea nodded. “Brusang are humans who have been turned by vampires. So we’re a bit of both, but don’t fully fit into one species or the other.”
Since putting food in my stomach, my brain seemed to get better at connecting dots. “Wow, so that has to be where the human-world myth comes from. The one about how vampires are made.”
“Correct. I suspect brusang have tried to integrate back into the human-ruled world in the past, but were ostracized as monsters.” She shrugged and popped another salsa-dipped chip into her mouth. “I’ve never been to the human-only side, but that’s my theory.”
My throat tightened and I took a big gulp of water. “So, is Cyan going to want to turn me?”
Bea stared at me for a moment before her eyes went wide with horror. “Oh Temkra, no! He would never. The turning process is extremely risky and it fails something like fifty percent of the time.” She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, her gaze lowering to the table. “It’s a um, last resort kind of thing. Most vampires won’t turn a human unless they’re already dying. You could say it’s a last-ditch effort to save a human’s life.”
With how serious her mood turned after being so full of laughter moments ago, I could only surmise that was exactly what happened to her.
“Oh, I see.” Awkwardness settled in. “I’m sorry.”
The corner of her mouth quirked up and she gave a flippant wave of her hand. “It’s fine! I got turned over twenty years ago. Sometimes I forget I was human at all. Then I get a craving for peanut butter or something and it’s like, oh yeah!”
My stomach now felt like it was near bursting, and I leaned away from the table. “Thanks for the food, and explaining things to me. I’m Tavia, by the way.”
“My pleasure, Tavia. You feel like walking off that burrito baby? I figured we could go to the market and you can start getting the lay of the land. You’re welcome to my food of course, but you should probably stock up on groceries for yourself.”
“That sounds good, thanks.” Bea was bubbly and friendly in a way that made me feel at ease. It was hard for me to feel unguarded around anyone besides Amy and Robin, but I could see her being added to that list. “So, do you live here? In this, uh…”
“Mm-hm, I live in the Blood 'til Dawn compound.” She crunched on another chip with a nod. “I’m just across the corridor from you, actually.”
“Are you uh, somebody’s blood pet? I’m sorry if that’s rude to ask, I truly have no idea how things work here.”
“Ah, you’re good, girl. And nope, I’m unclaimed.” Her smile twitched in a way that I didn’t know how to interpret. “Want to digest that deliciousness in your belly first, or you ready to head out?”
I looked down at the single piece of clothing I’d brought with me, the stupid white virgin sacrifice dress Nancy had stuffed me in. At least I didn’t have to die in that hideous thing after all. I wasn’t even a virgin, not that Nancy knew that.
“I would like to explore, but I don’t have any money for groceries,” I admitted. “Or a change of clothes.”
“Oh no, babe! Don’t worry about money.” Bea waved both palms at me with a shake of her head. “All our necessities will get billed to Blood ‘til Dawn. As for clothes, I probably have some things you can borrow for now. But we can go clothes shopping too, if you’re up for it. We’re near some great boutiques.”
“The clan will cover everything?” I stared at her skeptically. “Are you sure?” Cyan certainly could have mentioned that as a perk, but maybe he took it for granted.
“Oh, they’re flush, believe me. And they take care of their people, which is what you are now.”
I never thought I’d see the day I’d be part of a vampire…faction? Extended family? I still wasn’t sure what a clan was.
But, first things first. Groceries and new clothes.
“Alright, then.” I slid out of the barstool, my gaze landing on the clock that now read 5:02. “Is it early morning or afternoon?”
“Morning,” Bea said. “We brusang can function fine in daylight as long as the sun isn’t at its strongest. So I can hang with you until about ten am, then I’m useless until about six pm.”
“Okay, good to know.” I drummed my fingers on the back of the barstool. If it was morning, was Cyan already asleep in bed? Or would he be getting in soon? What was the typical bedtime for vampires? I had so many questions.
“Guess I’ll get cleaned up.” Earlier, I had seen a brand new hairbrush and toothbrushes in Cyan’s spare room, which I probably should start calling my room.
“You do that.” Bea gathered up the food containers as she headed for the door. “I’ll come back with some clothes for you to try on, and then we’ll go out. ‘Kay?”
“Sure, sounds good.”
After brushing my teeth and detangling the mess on my head, I stepped out of the bathroom to find neat stacks of clothes folded on a chair just outside the door. The folded pants and shirts smelled of fabric softener when I held them to my chest. A wave of emotion came over me to the point where I was almost blinking away tears. Bea was being so nice , and I wasn’t used to anyone helping me out this much.
I composed myself quickly, tried on a few different things, and settled on a jeans and T-shirt combo that fit me best. With a final check in the mirror, I figured I was decent enough. Bea was lounging on the couch and glanced up from her phone when I walked out of the bathroom.
“You look much better,” she said with an approving nod and smile. “Rested, refreshed. A woman of the twenty-first century instead of a Victorian ghost child.”
The laugh that burst out surprised me. “Thanks. I guess it was time for an update.”
With a grin full of fangs, she stood. “Ready?”
“Uh, yeah. Only I don’t have a key or anything. Do I need to lock up behind us?”
Bea jerked her chin at the side table against one wall. “Already taken care of.”
I went to look at what she was talking about, and found a note under a simple, ordinary-looking key. In blocky, masculine handwriting, the note said,
Tavi,
This is for you. You are not a prisoner, so come and go as you please. The key is made of silver so only you can touch it directly. I’ll see you around. -C
I picked up the key, continuing to stare at the note while feeling oddly sentimental about it. He had this made for me and me alone, apparently while I’d been asleep. That, along with literally carving a vow into his flesh for me, seemed oddly…sweet?
“You can’t touch silver either?” I looked at Bea as I slipped the key into my pocket.
“It doesn’t burn me as badly as pure vampires, but it’s uncomfortable to touch, yeah. Imagine sticking your hand in a colony of fire ants and they’re stinging you all over.”
“Ouch.”
“Tell me about it,” she snorted. “I found out the hard way. I used to love my silver jewelry.” She traced one of the hoops in her ears with a sigh. “Now it’s stainless steel forever for this bitch.”
“Is that common around here?”
“Oh yeah!” she chirped. “Stainless steel jewelry and accessories are huge. Actually, I think it was a human metalsmith who started the trend, then the vamps caught on.”
We left the suite and while locking the front door, I noticed Bea staring at the portrait of Cyan and the other vampire on the wall. She seemed to have gone somewhere else in her mind, her intense, strange eyes full of emotion as she touched the glass with one finger.
A sudden thought hit me like a kick to the chest. Did she have a thing for Cyan? Was that why she was being so nice? She could be trying to make me lower my guard and then manipulate me with whatever ulterior motives she had. It was the same treatment I’d expect from anyone in Sapien.
The only question was, why would I care if she wanted Cyan? I didn’t. I definitely didn’t. The sight of him with his shirt off and carving my name into his skin did absolutely nothing for me. Not at all.
But when I moved away from the door, a sigh of relief escaped me when Bea rested her finger over the face of the longer-haired vampire, not Cyan.
“Who’s that?”
Bea pulled her hand back, blinking like she was returning to the present, then turned to me with a sad smile. “That’s Kalix. Shall we go?”
“Oh.” The abruptness didn’t seem like her. Her expression was neutral as we started down the hallway, but her eyes still carried that sadness. “He’s another Blood 'til Dawn member, I assume? I haven’t met him yet.”
“You won’t meet him,” Bea said quietly as we went up the stairs. “He’s gone.”
“Oh. Shit, I’m sorry.”
We entered the main, high-ceilinged room with all the couches, stripper pole, and luxurious kitchen off to the side. No vampires were in sight, probably because daylight was approaching.
Bea gave a sad smile as we crossed the room, heading for the exit. “So am I.”