“Iro, what did you do to her?”
But Iro cleared her throat, stood, and walked into the kitchen.
“Iro, tell me.”
“I am. I just need something first. I got cut earlier, and it’s still healing.”
“Cut? You–” Arwen stood and breathed in.
It was only then that she noticed the smell of Iro’s blood. She hadn’t ever been able to smell blood before, not from this far away, and now, she was thinking about it. She could feel it on her lips, running down her throat, quenching her thirst. It was Iro’s blood, and Arwen’s instincts already understood that it wasn’t vampire blood that she craved, but she could and would drink it all the same.
“You can sit. I’ll be fine. It’s silver, so it’ll take a while, but I need to eat, and so do you.”
Arwen watched her open the pantry and walk inside, so she moved around the couch to see what she was doing. A door slid open then, and there was a refrigerator.
“How many hidden rooms do you have here?”
“Three. This one, the one you stayed in for all of thirty seconds, apparently, and there’s one in my closet, where Zara hid before. The one upstairs is the most recent build. I thought I might want the bedroom upstairs at some point but wasn’t sure. There was space to do it, and it was easy enough. The one in mycurrent closet is better, more well done than the one up there, though. I haven’t gotten around to–”
“Okay. Three. I get it,” she said as Iro pulled out two large, round containers that looked like the soup containers Arwen had gotten from a deli once before she’d gone vegan and could no longer go to because they didn’t have any options for her.
“Here,” Iro said. “It’s better hot, but I need mine now. If you want to heat it up, go ahead.”
She flopped down on the couch, and Arwen noticed it then.
“Iro, you’re really hurt. I smelled the blood, but I didn’t realize how bad it was. It smells wrong.”
Iro lifted her shirt and looked down at the infected cut.
“It’ll heal. I need to eat. That will help. Then, I have to sleep and stay out of the sun tomorrow if I can.”
“Can I do anything?”
“No. It’s not really something you can disinfect and put a Band-Aid on. It takes care of itself. Is the smell bothering you?” she asked, pulling her shirt down.
“It’s infected, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I can tell,” she said as she watched Iro open the container and take a long drink, nearly finishing half of it before taking a breath. “Oh, my God…” she added and covered her mouth when she felt them.
“Fangs.” Iro nodded sympathetically. “They come out when you’re around blood unless you work on restraint. You should drink that. You’ve got to be hungry.”
“Iro, what did you do to Cassia?” she asked and opened her own container, the smell nearly overwhelming her.
Fangs emerged from her teeth, and her mouth salivated at the smell, while at the same time, she knew it wasn’t going to be as good as the real thing. Her brain registered wanting to bite into something warm, and she felt a pulse between her legs.
“You’re turned on, aren’t you?”
“How did you–”
“That’s how it works,” Iro said, shrugging a shoulder. “Blood and sex are very linked for us, which can complicate things, but you can feed and not have sex with the person you are drinking from. It’s not like youhaveto. It just feels really good.”
“Sex?”
“Sex while feeding,” Iro corrected and finished her container. “Sex feels really good, too, though. I don’t remember much of it from when I was still human – it was so long ago now – but I do remember thinking about how much better it was once I was a vampire. You’ll probably feel that way, too. The orgasms start to feel extra strong and are usually longer. Plus, you can have as many as you want.”
“Most women can.”
