“No, I meant there would be no soreness or anything like that. You can have rough sex and no consequences because you just heal right away. A moment of pain, and that’s it. Cassia and I once had sex for seven days straight. We only stopped to eat when we needed to, and we fucked the rest of the time before we finally had to flee where we were staying. That was the only reason we didn’t keep going. That was… God, that was in 1713.”
Arwen swallowed, and her fangs seemed to disappear at the sound of Iro talking so matter-of-factly about having sex with the woman she’d spent so many years with.
“In the movies, vampires sometimes have special abilities,” Iro continued. “In reality, very, very few have anything all that special about them. Most vampires just have what I’ve already told you about: strength, better hearing, all of those things. I only know of maybe twenty vampires who had some kind of ability. One could fly, but only about five feet in the air or so. I’m not sure how useful that would be. One could walk in the sun without issue and didn’t need to recover from the UV rays. Therewas one I heard of a long time ago who had retractable claws that worked kind of like fangs but were poisonous to vampires. Every power or ability was unique. I have never heard of the same one twice. And I didn’t know that Cassia had an ability, either.”
“Cassia?”
“She can, apparently, shape-shift.”
“She can dowhat?” Arwen asked as she stared down at the blood in her hand.
Then, no longer able to resist, she took a hesitant sip and recoiled.
“You get used to it,” Iro told her.
“This is what you eat?”
“We can still eat regular food. You’ve seen me do it. It just doesn’t keep us alive. And I don’t drink human blood at all, Arwen. I don’t want to risk hurting anyone. Even drinking from a blood bag would only undo all the work I’ve put in.”
Arwen took another drink and tried to be a little more open-minded. Then, something happened. Her fangs came back out, and she guzzled.
“Good. You need it,” Iro said. “And Cassia can become any human, apparently. I only found out about it from Zara, so I don’t know all the details, and there could be more to it than that, but she shifted into you when she showed up here earlier. She must have already had you at her house. She pretended to be you and broke up with me.”
“She didwhat?” Arwen asked before she licked her lips.
“It’s a long story,” Iro said. “I went to her with weapons in case I needed them, yes, but Cassia wasn’t the only one with a secret. I never told her mine because I didn’t know about it myself until about a hundred years in, and by then, I was growing tired of our lifestyle. We were hurting people, and I didn’t want to do that any longer. Cassia did, so I left, and I thought it would be okay, but when I went back, she was stillthe same. It continued like that, and I regret not doing anything sooner, but you… this was the last straw. She hurt you.”
“Iro, what did you do–”
“I found out, by sheer happenstance, that I can make people do what I want them to do with my words alone,” Iro professed. “There was a woman. We were engaged in…”
“You were having sex,” Arwen finished for her and set her container down.
“Yes. I accidentally bit her and drank from her before I stopped myself, and she was screaming and scared. When I told her to stop screaming, though, she did so instantly, and it was strange, the sudden quiet. I wiped up her neck and told her that she had fallen and cut herself, but that she was fine, and she repeated it after me. Her eyes were white, and I knew something was going on. We stopped, and she was laughing and told me to call her when she was leaving. I checked on her the following day, and she seemed fine, so it happened a few more times after that. Mostly, I would just try it out when it didn’t impact anything important. Telling someone that I was before them in line, for example. Their eyes turned solid white, and they let me go in front of them. Talking to someone about something inconsequential and seeing if I could get them to repeat it. I don’t practice, which is important with any ability, and I haven’t used it in years, but tonight, I told the woman I thought I loved for three centuries to forget all about me.”
Arwen now understood why Iro appeared to be so unaffected. She was in shock, or whatever version of being in shock hit vampires, at least.
“Here, drink this,” she said, handing her the container that still had a small amount of blood in it.
Iro took it from her and finished it.
“Iro?”
“Yes?”
“Did you… ever use your ability on me? I mean, maybe you did, and you didn’t mean to or something.”
Iro turned to her in surprise and said, “No.”
“Are you sure?”
“You saw what happened to Cassia today. Normally, they don’t fall to the floor how she did, so I’m not sure why that happened, but their eyes go white. They fade, Arwen. I have looked into your eyes every possible second when I’m talking to you, and they are always hazel. I have memorized those golden flecks. I can promise you that I’ve never used my ability on you. If I had, even accidentally, I would have given you up. I never wanted anything not to be your choice when it came to me.”
“How do you explain it, then?”
“Explain what?”
“Why it felt like that when I met you.”
