Vampires had a heightened sense of smell, but it wasn’t as strong as what she’d seen portrayed in the recent versions ofthe species humans usually believed to be fictional. She could, however, smell blood. It was typically because someone had a cut on their skin, but if someone was close enough, Iro could smell their very blood pumping through their veins. Not feeding on humans anymore, this was now an unpleasant experience for her every time, since she had spent well over a decade weaning herself off it so that she wouldn’t be tempted to take a woman home and feed off her.
Iro hadn’t ever been about the kill. She hadn’t even been about the feed. She needed blood to survive, but it didn’t have to be human blood. Animal blood was the only requirement, and humans were animals, but so were pigs, cows, and many others. Vampire blood helped other vampires not to starve, but it didn’t contain what they needed to survive for long, so that wasn’t an option for every meal.
When Iro had breathed in the room again, she’d smelled her, knowing exactly where that intoxicating, sweet scent had come from, and it was the woman she could now call Arwen. Most women these days wore perfume or otherwise strong-scented lotions and used various body washes with intense fragrances, as if to cover their very essence, but Arwen wore nothing. Even her shampoo or conditioner had no scent to it. Iro had breathed her in again after sitting down at her table and had been surprised because very few modern products had no scent. She’d been able to smell the soap base, but that had been it, and it had been very refreshing. It had also made her want to sink her teeth into flesh to draw the red, hot liquid unencumbered by the other scents that surrounded people today. She had licked her lips as she’d stared at Arwen’s neck, hearing the woman’s pulse and wanting to both taste her and never hurt her at the same time.
Never wanting to hurt the woman she’d just met meant that there was something else at play here; it wasn’t just the smell ofher blood that had attracted Iro to her. Those eyes, that sweet smile, and the nervous laugh Arwen was giving her right now for something Iro had said that hadn’t even been particularly funny meant that this was something else entirely.
“How was your drink?” Iro asked.
“Good,” Arwen replied as she set down the now-empty glass.
“Would you like another one?” Iro asked.
They had remained seated next to one another in the booth, with Iro not wanting to move to the other side when Zara had left because she’d craved this closeness with Arwen in a way she hadn’t craved anything in years.
“No, one is my limit. I’m a bit of a lightweight. In fact, I drove here, but I don’t think I can drive home.”
“I can take you home,” Iro offered. “Or, I can get you another glass of water, and you can stay a little bit longer.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t really help that I skipped dinner and hardly touched my lunch today because I had a meeting with a smarmy lawyer who works for a company that’s trying to destroy the planet we all have to share.”
“He’s trying to destroy the planet?”
“Oh, I’m anenvironmentalattorney. Did I not mention that? I’m not perfect, but I try to do my part. Vegan who makes her own toothpaste so that she doesn’t have to buy it in plastic tubes; that kind of thing. It’s probably really weird, huh? I make my own soaps and stuff, too. It’s time-consuming, but it’s worth it to me. The science is clear: we’re already past the breaking point. But if we slow down on the bad stuff, we have a chance of keeping this place habitable for a while longer.”
Thatwas why she smelled so perfect to Iro. And, for some reason, hearing Arwen talk about what she was doing to try to save the planet only made her more interesting.
“What? It’s weird, right? You’re smiling like it’s weird.”
“My smile is because it’s interesting,” she replied. “And no, it’s not weird. I’ll admit, I have not exactly been the best when it comes to taking care of the world, but it’s not strange that you should care about it so much.”
“How have you misbehaved?” Arwen asked her with a lifted eyebrow that Iro wanted to kiss.
“Well, I’m not the best with recycling. I do it when I can, but not all the time. I’ve also traveled a lot, and sometimes, it’s by private plane.”
“You have your own plane?”
“No, but there’s a service I use. I…canfly commercial sometimes, but not all the time.”
“Why not?”
“Depends on the urgency of my trip and what’s available.”
“So, you’re really important or something?”
“I own an investment firm, and I need to go places to review the investments.” Iro kept it high-level for safety, like she always did with humans.
“And you have to travel private for that?”
“Sometimes,” she replied. “Are you disappointed in my bad behavior?”
“No, I just feel like I need to do more to make up for whatever you’re doing, but that’s a normal feeling for me.”
“You bear it all, don’t you?”
“Sorry?” Arwen said and took a drink of her water.
“So others don’t have to; you take on the responsibility.”
