14. Tavia
Chapter 14
Tavia
T hree stiff raps came to my bedroom door early the next evening. As much as I would have loved to keep hiding in the cocoon of my bed, I dragged myself up to answer.
Cyan stood across the threshold, his face a cold, impassive mask. “We leave in an hour. I’ll meet you in the garage then.” Immediately, he turned to leave.
“Wait, what?”
He paused with his back still turned to me. “We’re going to Sapien to visit your friend. Unless you’ve changed your mind?”
“Oh. No, I haven’t. I’ll be ready.” After the weirdness of last night and this mean robot-Cyan now, I needed my best friend more than ever.
“Good.” He started for the door, and I felt my chance for answers slipping away.
“Cyan!”
He stopped stiffly, still not looking at me. “Yes?”
I held onto the doorjamb, feeling crushed under his coldness. “Is there…can we talk about what happened last night?”
“I would rather not.”
The words stung like a slap. He wanted to pretend like none of it happened? He broke his vow to me by taking my blood. Not that I cared, but that had to be important to him, right? Plus there was that giant elephant in the room of him kissing me. I was embarrassingly aroused the whole time but I knew I didn’t instigate that.
The suite’s door opened and I called out in a rush, “You can’t keep pretending I don’t exist, Cyan! This isn’t fucking fair.”
The door slammed shut, and I softly closed my own door, wondering how I’d survive riding with him all the way to my former home.
“Twenty-four hours.”
That was all Cyan said to me as he pulled up in front of the outer gate of Sapien, let me off his motorcycle, and sped off with a roar. He was so pissed off at me, he couldn’t even speak full sentences.
I turned to face the settlement which had been my home since birth, but didn’t feel welcoming in the slightest. Amy and Robin were the only ones I wanted to see. No one else sleeping in those quiet cabins and mobile homes cared if I was dead or alive.
It was well into evening now, but I knew Amy would still be awake, probably with her nose in a bodice-ripper paperback. Moving quietly between the homes, I knocked on the door of the single-wide that Amy and I used to share. There was dim lamplight in the window, and I heard someone stirring right after I knocked.
The door swung open and there stood my bestie in her cotton shorts and the giant, threadbare men’s T-shirt that she slept in. Her hair was mussed on one side, like she’d been lying down, and her open-mouthed stare at me was so dramatic that I wanted to burst out laughing.
“Tavia?!” she whisper-yelled, wide eyes scanning me up and down. “Holy shit, what are you doing here? Did you escape?”
I chuckled softly at that. “Hey, Ames. No, just stopping for a visit.”
She looked bewildered, like she couldn’t tell if I was kidding. I had to remember that from her perspective, I was a sacrifice. A blood meal for the monstrous species who ruled the world we lived in. She might have even mourned me over the past few weeks, believing I didn’t live long after Cyan took me away.
“How are you alive? How long can you stay?” Her eyes welled with tears, bottom lip trembling.
“It’s a bit of a story, and only for a day.” I spread my arms. “Gonna invite in your sister from another mister or what?”
Amy rushed at me with a bright peal of laughter. She was so small that I could pick her up and carry her inside, which was exactly what happened.
The inside of the trailer didn’t change much. My side had been largely untouched, the bed still made with one of Amy’s knitted blankets thrown over the top. I didn’t keep many things in my space, but what little I did have was still there. My clothes still hung on the rack that served as my closet, and the few books I had, science fiction primarily, remained in a neat stack in the cubby of my nightstand.
Amy’s side was messy, but in an endearing, cozy way. She had blankets, pillows, romance paperbacks, and unfinished knitting projects piled everywhere. She also loved bright cheery colors—pinks, creams, mint green, and mustard yellow, while my side was more neutral. The blanket on my bed was my favorite that she’d made, a foresty green with small details of red.
“So, what have they done to you for the past few weeks?” Amy pulled me to her bed to sit with her, inspecting me closely. “You look good, healthy even.”
“Yeah, I haven’t been fed from at all, actually.” With the exception of last night, I thought, rubbing the base of my thumb where I’d cut myself. The wound was completely healed now, with barely a scar.
“At all?” Amy repeated. “I thought that was the whole point of giving you to them.”
“Turns out, it’s more complex than that,” I said.
“Well, explain.” Amy crossed her legs in front of her, settling in for a story.
“A blood pet is significant to vampires, it actually implies a commitment. The protector, the—” I wracked my brain for the word Cyan had used—”the verakt, is responsible for the blood pet’s care and well-being. And he’s expected to not feed from anyone else.”
Amy’s eyes narrowed. “So it’s kind of like a marriage?”
“No!” I protested loudly. “It’s totally normal for the relationship to be platonic, that’s what Cyan and I are. We’ve been becoming friends, kind of.”
“And he hasn’t fed from you at all?”
“Well…” I couldn’t lie, not to Amy. “I cut my finger the other night and he licked a little bit of my blood when he closed the wound, but not like actual feeding.”
I decided not to mention the kiss or how immensely turned on I had been, as that would unravel the whole platonic angle. Plus I was still too confused by Cyan’s behavior to call us anything but platonic at this point.
“Why not?”
“Cyan didn’t actually want a blood pet. I’m guessing none of his clan did, because they drew straws and he got the short one. So he ended up with me.”
“Why didn’t he want you?” Amy leaned forward, hugging a pillow in her lap. “Scared of commitment?”
“I don’t know about scared, but yeah, he said he likes having a variety of blood sources.”
“I knew it!” Amy pumped a fist victoriously. “He’s a rake.”
“A what?”
“A manwhore, basically.” She held up a paperback and waved it in my face. “Forced into an arranged marriage, but still clinging to his rakeish ways. How long until he realizes his bride is his perfect match after all?”
“Shut up,” I groaned. “My life is not a romance novel.”
Amy cackled at my reaction. “You have to admit, it sounds like the start of one.”
“Well, it’s not. The little taste he did get of my blood must have been horrible because he’s been all pissed off at me since last night.” My mouth slammed shut. Fuck. I must have wanted to get that off my chest more than I realized. At least I didn’t mention the kiss, although that too was now a burning weight on my chest.
Amy’s expression sobered. “Oh, I’m sorry, Tav. Were you starting to, you know, like him?”
“No, not like that.” I shoved back the memory of hugging him, the sensation of his bare skin, and the utter euphoria of his kiss. “We were becoming friends, like I said. It was his idea to let me come visit, and he got me a bunch of winemaking supplies. Also these.”
I swung forward the backpack I’d been carrying and pulled out the two cell phones that Bea helped me to activate. “One is yours. So we can keep in touch.”
“Phones?” She took one of the slim black devices and held it as carefully as if it were a gold bar. “Wow, a personal phone! Your vampires must be rich.”
“Keep it hidden when you’re not using it,” I said. “Use the outlet in Robin’s place to charge it.”
I had already recorded my number into her phone and sent her a text right then and there. She startled when the device buzzed in her hand and I laughed, showing her how to type out a reply on the screen’s keyboard.
“I’m texting !” Amy laughed in delight as she spammed me with multiple emojis. “This is amazing, it’s like passing notes.”
“Call or text me any time you can,” I said. “Just make sure no one sees you. Any time of night is fine. I’m becoming more nocturnal these days.”
She nodded, slipping the phone and charging cord under the pile of pillows on her bed. “So, you’re doing okay over there? You’re not locked in a dungeon with a bunch of vampires gnashing their teeth at you?”
“No.” I laughed. “It’s nothing like that. It’s…good, actually. I have a friend, a woman named Bea. She’s actually a brusang, not a vampire.” I quickly explained the difference to Amy. “She’s been helping me adjust. They have a market where humans can buy food. Humans can also earn money in exchange for blood at the blood bank, which is totally safe and regulated. The vampires are actually pretty nice. I mean, most of them ignore me, but a couple have been friendly. They’re fans of my wine, it seems.”
Amy snorted. “Who isn’t a fan of your wine?”
I grinned. “They drank it all like a bunch of frat boys, but I’ll save a bottle for you on my next visit.” I grabbed a pillow, hugging it as I relaxed onto my side. “How’s everything been here? Same old bullshit?”
She knew I was asking if others were still bullying her or giving her too much work to do. To my relief, she said, “No one’s been messing with me much lately. Something else caught everyone’s interest a couple days ago.”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense, Ames.” I nudged her with my foot. “What happened?”
“Someone stumbled in from the human world.” Amy chewed her lip.
“Really?” My eyes widened. A human accidentally finding their way to our world wasn’t unheard of, but it was rare. “Where are they now?”
“That poor thing,” Amy sighed. “They’re keeping her in the council room because she kept trying to run. She wants to go home but is completely disoriented on which direction to go. She keeps running straight for the Heart of Sanguine. We would’ve escorted her to the closest human-world border, but someone let it slip that vampires rule this world. She doesn’t believe it, but the council are still worried that she could be a liability if she makes it home and starts telling everyone. So they’re kind of…holding her and figuring out what to do.”
“Wow,” I snorted. “Typical council.” Magic was blocked in the human world, to the point where vampires, shifters, and witches were only in folk tales and legends. Even if the woman made it home and ranted about vampires enough so that some people listened, the odds of them finding their way into our world were minuscule.
“Yeah, Robin’s going to appeal to the council tomorrow. The woman should be welcomed in the community and free to make her own choices, not treated like a criminal.”
“Have you met her?”
“Yeah, I bring her clothes, blankets, and food. She was really upset and confused, at first. But now I think she’s accepting that she won’t go home any time soon.”
“That’s too bad. I wonder if the vampires can help at all.”
“Help?” Amy scoffed. “You mean help her leave and lose a potential blood source? Yeah, right.”
“I mean, they’re just people, Amy.” My defensiveness surprised even me. “I’m sure some will love to hear about a human stumbling in their territory with no hope of escape, but they’re not all predators. Everyone in Blood 'til Dawn wants humans to be treated well, and I’m sure that would include returning them home.”
“If that were true, we wouldn’t have to sacrifice one of us every fifty years,” Amy said softly. “If they cared so much, they would just let us go to the human world, where they don’t exist and we’d be among our own kind.” She slouched against the headboard, hugging the pillow to her chest. “But I guess we’ve been here so long, the human world wouldn’t feel like home anyway.”
I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, but sitting here with her no longer felt like home to me either. I’d been gone less than a month and while I missed her , I found no comfort in what used to be our shared space. Already I was craving the big, comfortable bed in Cyan’s spare bedroom, the spacious kitchen in the great room where I could make my wine, and learning about vampire culture on my friend-dates with Bea.
And I hated how much I missed being on a motorcycle, wrapped around a vampire who now hated my guts.