Song Recommendation: Crooked Colors - JustBreathe
four.
Eryn.
The unfamiliar scent of cooking assaulted my senses and I moaned in my sleep, twisting over and shoving my face into a pillow. The smell of breakfast was stifled and replaced with the smell of sandalwood and rose.
Mm.
In a flash, my eyes whirled open and I looked around in a panic. Marina spent the night, and yet she wasn't in my bed. I looked around the black sheets sniffing for any split blood. Last night was a blur and I barely remember how we ended up on my bed. That wasn't like me to forget about things.
What happened last night?
I woke up with a headache which hadn't happen to me in years. Waking up was never strenuous like this morning.
I gazed at the kitchen and saw a mess of brown and pink hair moving around. I got up slowly, feeling the room do a tilt-a-whirl as I did. I wasn't like this normally. I felt so... drained.
"What happened last night?" I asked as I plodded over to the kitchen. I realized I lacked clothes aside from my boxers.
Mari turned and her eyes widened. "Hey! Uh, sorry hope you don't mind, I wanted to t-thank you for last night and cook breakfast." Her cheeks were burning more than I've ever seen.
"Never seen tits before?" I smirked, cupping my breasts in my hands and lifting them. My own breasts weren't something that I noticed. They were always just sort of there, labeling me as what society deemed as female. I didn't mind having them either way, since I didn't really identify as wholly female.
She huffed and turned her back to me. I laughed and walked over to a clothing rack I had on one of the walls and threw on a black t-shirt.
When I walked back, I looked at the stove I never used and saw she was making eggs and bacon. I sometimes bought human food to pick up girls from supermarkets. Mostly, I would find hot mom's telling me the difference between food brands. I enjoyed it. Thoroughly.
I turned my lip in disgust as the smell of bacon assaulted my senses. Turned vampires lost their appetite for food the second they were turned. Having normal food would make me sick. It's moments like these that reminded me why I didn't socialize with humanity much. It took too much to pretend to be human.
Suddenly it dawned on me, "wait, so you opened my fridge?"
The view of blood bags scattered in there should've been enough to send her running. I opened it and noticed that they were all arranged on the top shelf neatly. Other items of human food were organized nicely inside. My eyes enlarged and I turned to her in a panic.
"I know you mentioned you were sick. I just didn't know how bad it was," she said quietly as she looked down at the food she was cooking.
Was she really that dense? There was no way I got out of this without an explanation. "You're not curious?"
"Back home we really didn't share things that shouldn't be brought up. Sickness is something that happens rarely with my family, but when it does, it's polite not to talk about it," Mari finished preparing the eggs and placed more on my plate than she placed on hers.
The sound of toast leaping up caused me to flinch slightly. I never used any of these appliances. I bought the place pre-furnished so they had everything that was needed here. I didn't even understand how half of them worked.
I nodded, now thinking of a way to get out of eating. "Thank you." I woke up notably thirsty this morning. Seeing Marina dressed only in my shirt that fell to her thighs and her hair in a disheveled bun had my mind elsewhere. I could only imagine how sexy it would look with the marks of my fangs on her thighs and neck.
I really hate that I barely remembered last night.
She didn't answer my question, but it was apparent that we slept together. "What happened last night?" I asked again.
"You don't remember?" Mari asked, her eyes widening, "nothing happened, we fooled around a bit then fell asleep."
"Are you sure? I have this rager of a headache," I moaned, leaning against the counter.
"Maybe you're hungover?" she handed me a plate and waved me off to the kitchen island. I scowled and slid onto a stool. How the Hell I was going to avoid this?
I grabbed Mari's wrist and pulled her in front of me. "I ate this," I said quietly, holding her gaze and waiting for her eyes to glaze over.
Mari raised a brow. "You've eaten it before?"
I was dumbfounded, my compulsion wasn't working on her. I was going to attempt to try it again, but she pulled away and set her plate down. "Uh, no."
"Well, there's a first to everything. I didn't know how to cook until recently. Google is an interesting concept. I'd heard of it back at home, but—"
I gave her a look of confusion, wondering why she only heard of Google rather not used it. I was slowly beginning to feel like I was in the Twilight Zone. "What, are you like Amish?" I questioned, a playful smile making its way to my face.
Marina's eyes widened and she covered her face for a brief moment before speaking again. "No, I'm from a very, uh, s-small island from here. We keep to ourselves."
"Is you and your family indigenous to Washington or at least the island you are on?" I asked, truly wondering about Marina's background.
She sat in front of me and started eating deliberately. "Yeah, something like that."
I studied the food in front of me and cursed silently. I didn't want to be rude in front of Mari she seemed too sweet to offend. There was no excuse that I could think of to not eat this and not hurt her feelings. I leaned in and took a bite, trying to remember what eggs tasted like. To me now, they tasted like cardboard and sour socks.
I smiled fighting through the horrible taste. I looked over at the mug of coffee in front of me. "Coffee?" she was so sweet to make breakfast for me. This was something that I hadn't had in a very long time, if not ever.
"Yeah, I didn't know how you liked it so it's black," Marina replied, watching as I shot up and headed over to the fridge. She turned her head back to the food and I took this as the opportunity to grab a blood bag with inhuman speed and pour it into the coffee. I knew that it was going to be revolting with the coffee in it, but if I could prevent myself from getting sick that would be best.
A hiss of pain came out from Marina and a familiar scent made its way to my nose. I grabbed the edge of the counter, feeling it give way under my grip. My other hand gripped the mug tightly to the point that my knuckles were white. I brought the mug to my lips, hands shaking.
I should've known what Marina was. I hated myself for not realizing sooner. If I knew I would never have paid mind to her the second I saw her.
The sweet, dreadfully familiar scent of her blood told me everything I needed to know. Everything clicked into place and made sense immediately.
Marina was a mermaid.
ns 64.252.185.142da2
