Song Recommendation: The 1975 - Sex
Five.
Marina.
"Is you and your family indigenous to Washington or at least the island you are on?" Eryn asked, settling onto the seat. She got comfortable and leaned over the table.
I sat across from her and shoved a bit of egg into my mouth. "Yeah, something like that."
I couldn't get my mind off what happened last night. I should've known that my abilities would kick in while Eryn and I were beginning to get hot and heavy. Being drunk left me with no control over them. I accidentally put her under my trance, sapping all her energy in one go.
She seemed like she had no remembrance of last night and if I could keep it that way that would be great. The blast of hypnotic and trance-inducing power that came from me must've been enough to knock her memory too.
"Coffee?" Eryn pointed at the mug in front of her. She seemed slightly surprised as if she didn't eat breakfast often. Perhaps she didn't cook much. Eryn didn't seem like the domesticated type anyway.
"Yeah, I didn't know how you liked it so it's black," I babbled, hoping I wasn't overstepping my welcome. I just felt so bad for last night, I needed to make it up to her even if she didn't know what happened.
Eryn got up abruptly and I followed her walking towards the counter. I turned back to eating and scowled. I was letting my slipups becoming too apparent. Google? Why in the fins did I say that?
I was ruining my cover bit by bit and it made me nervous. Daddy was very clear that I needed to keep my identity a secret. It was hard for mer-kind to hide from humanity unless the mer did their research.
I wanted to leave so quickly and go on land that I just fast-tracked my research from Sydney who already been here for a couple of years. She showed me what Google was and from there I learned how to be the perfect domesticated human. I realized I love reading about housewife lifestyles more than anything else. I thought domesticated life was utterly adorable.
I couldn't let Eryn find out what I was. It was too risky. Humans were unable to keep secrets—
Drops of blood landed on my toast. It took me a few seconds to realize what I'd done. The knife that I was using to cut my toast had sliced the skin in between my fingers. If I was in my mer-form I would've sliced the webbed skin. However, the pain of this was much worse.
I would've been a shitty housewife.
The crappy things about mermaids were that they bled, a lot. Jasper explained it to me, something about the DNA make-up of mer-kind and how thin our blood was, but I was too lazy to pay attention. I wish I would've paid attention now.
I could feel Eryn's presence behind me. I turned to her and my eyes widened slightly at the sight of her.
Red-rimmed saucers stared back at me and there was something animalistic about Eryn with the way she looked at me. Her grip was tight around her mug, so much that I was worried the mug would break. Her other hand was gripping the back of the barstool I was sitting on.
Standing up, I walked over to the faucet. An empty blood bag was already on the counter.
Suddenly, a feeling of dread made its way to my gut. At first, I assumed the blood was for some sort of illness Eryn must've had because there was no way a vampire would be so dignified and drink from a mug. However, deep inside knew that the woman I was looking at wasn't human.
"You need to lock yourself in my bathroom right now," Eryn said as if it was an effort to even speak. Her jaw was clenched hard enough to see a nerve tick. The skin under her eyes was darkening, the veins pulsating red and blue.
Adrenaline kicked in me and I fled to the bathroom, hearing the mug shatter behind me. The bathroom was within reach and I managed to dart inside.
Eryn crashed into the door, causing me to flinch in response. I caught sight of her blood-red eyes looking back at me. Wild abandon showed itself in her eyes and as I desperately tried to lock the door. I backed up until I hit the bathroom sink. "Eryn?" I called out, cradling my injury in my other hand.
"Mari," Eryn croaked, banging on the door, "there's a black zipper case in the mirror cabinet. Take it out turn the dial until the liquid turns yellow."
I threw the mirror cabinet door open and searched frantically for the black case she described. With my good hand, I grasped it and unzipped it looking at two syringes that were placed in a holder. They resembled thick pens, but on the bottom, there was a vial of a thick liquid that had a slight reddish hue to it. I twisted the dial and saw it gradually turn yellow.
"Okay," I called out, wondering why it was so quiet on the other side, "what do I now?"
"Pop the cap off," the doorknob turned slowly as if she was trying to stop herself from coming in, "and stab me with it," Eryn broke the doorknob with ease, barreling through the doorway.
I gasped in fear and I couldn't take my eyes off the sight of her fangs. She snarled at me and the pointed incisors were mere inches from my face. I shut my eyes and turned my head as I blindly waved the syringe and felt it stick into something.
Eryn paused in her tracks, her body toppling onto me. We fell down slowly, with me trying to bring her to the floor gently, without falling myself. She slid against the glass shower door. Her head was down, and she was breathing hard.
I slid to the ground slowly and watched her for a moment, noticing she wasn't stirring at all. "What did I just inject you with!?" I screamed, feeling a myriad of emotions hit me all at once. I was terrified, I was in the presence of a vampire, the very thing that my father sought to keep our kind from. They were the ones who killed so many of our people, one of them being my sister. And yet, I met Eryn in a club like normal and laughed with her. She didn't make a move to hurt me until I cut myself.
Even now, she seemed subdued. Given, she made me inject her with something that I didn't know what the Hell it was, but it did calm her down.
As her breathing slowed, she lifted her head with the speed of a sloth. "Liquidized silver mixed with lemongrass." Tears were welling up in her eyes, and I held their gaze for a moment, watching the red in them pulsate. I'd never seen vampiric eyes up close, much less an entire vampire.
I leaned in slightly, mesmerized by her thin black pupils that were tiny vertical slits. The red around them was nearly illuminated within. From her haunted grey eyes to these, I could see something in them that made me want to hug her and tell her everything would be okay.
I swallowed, thinking of my sister and knowing she didn't feel that way in her last moments. Guilt settled into my gut. I looked away.
"What does it do to you?" I asked, hoping I could understand.
Eryn swerved her head to me and her gaze went down to my hand. A small guttural hiss came from her mouth and she turned her head away. "Please take care of that first."
I stared at my hand and saw there was blood dripping from it. "Oh, sorry." I was in a state of shock, my body turning numb. The adrenaline must've helped me from not feeling the pain of the cut. I still didn't feel it hurting.
I stood up shakily and rinsed my hand under the faucet, watching as Eryn's gaze was transfixed on my blood being washed away. She looked completely tortured as she watched, her breathing ragged.
I took some toilet paper and pressed it to my cut, hoping that I could get into the water soon and heal completely. I hated scabs. I'm too tempted to pick at them.
"Okay, is that good?"
Eryn nodded, following my movements with her eyes. I settled down across from her, noticing how her body wasn't moving at all. "The silver and lemongrass act like a tranquilizer, stopping all my motor functions for several minutes. They don't always work and the more I use them the more I'm immune to it, but this time around, it's working," she spoke. I stared at her mouth as she spoke, watching her speak without the fangs getting in the way. I noticed a small metal barbell in her tongue and a sharp zing made its way to my lower abdomen. If I wasn't so afraid, I would make a joke about her piercing.
"Doesn't silver hurt vampires?" I asked, questioning how this all worked. I didn't know they had this. All this time there was a way to protect ourselves from them.
Eryn's eyes narrowed into slits as I asked. Somehow, I felt like I asked a dumb question. "Yes," she forced a pained grin, "silver burns us."
I raised my brows, now understanding how it stopped her motor function. "You're burning yourself from the inside out."
Eryn laughed, "Just a bit," An onslaught of coughs wracked her body and I noticed there was blood welling from her mouth. She clamped her mouth shut, probably stopping me from seeing her like this.
"And the lemongrass?" I asked as I reached over and grabbed a small hand towel, wiping a droplet of blood coming from her mouth.
She recoiled a bit with how close I was. "Marina, please stay back, I don't know if it works one hundred percent."
"Sorry," I retreated a bit and couldn't help but feel bad for Eryn. She didn't want to hurt me. She stabbed herself with the very thing that harms her.
"The lemongrass," she wheezed, "is also harmful to us, but not fatal. It dilutes the silver a bit, but it's still a bitch nonetheless. It's what keeps me under control for a bit."
"Why aren't your eyes back to normal then?" I asked another question. I couldn't help but sit here and have all these questions for her. For all the years I was alive, I heard stories of vampires murdering hundreds of people within seconds, draining the life from them with no remorse.
Stories of vampires bathing in their victim's blood or having sex with them after they're dead. Countless stories were told, frightening us all. A part of me felt like these stories weren't all true. Eryn was in front of me, contradicting everything that had been told to me.
"I'm in a bloodlust state right now. It'll slowly reverse the vampiric effects. It'll be like this for a few minutes. I'm sorry if it's scaring you. You should go now," Eryn replied, groaning as she moved her leg a bit.
I looked down in silence and saw the syringe I pricked her with. I took it from the floor and rolled it in my hands. "Why do you have these?"
Eryn paused for a moment, as if she was contemplating her next words. "To keep me from hurting anyone. I carry one around with me and these stay here. A friend made them for me, it's helped me with these situations. I'd just wish I had known sooner." Her red-hot gaze met mine, unsettling me a bit.
I already knew what was coming next. "Yes, I'm a mermaid."
Eryn closed her eyes, a pained expression on her face. "It's my fault, I should've known. I had my suspicions, but that should've been enough to walk away from you."
"I don't want you to walk away from me," I breathed, nervous to even admit that.
"You have to."
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