Once her body was wrung out, she collapsed onto him. He curled her body up into his, tucking her head underneath his chin, kissing the top of her head.
Her small hand ran little circles on his chest.
"Well," she said, her voice soft and dreamy. "We are not bad at that."
He smiled against the top of her head, smelling lavender and rosemary, lips pressing into her silky hair again. "We were impressive."
"I bet we could get a gold medal for how good that was," she said and he laughed.
"I bet you're right. But we should probably perfect it before we try to go Olympic."
She lifted her head, wearing a serious and thoughtful look.
"I think we should practice, then. A lot."
"I just got a taste of you, love. I'm going to need a lot."
Her big eyes looked back at him, still serious and a little frightened, but then happiness bloomed once she had thought about his words and let them settle.
"I can do that."
"Good." They stared at each other, little smiles passed back and forth until he slowly kissed her, taking her mouth thoroughly but lazily. All the time. As much time as he could barter for with her.
The stars would boast that they serenaded them to stay a while longer, taking their time with each other.
"Did you know about my magic?"
He hummed in question, the sound a soft vibration under the cheek that lay on his chest as they bathed in the forest night.
"You didn't kiss her. She hexed me to see something that wasn't real. But you kissed me and I saw what truly happened."
He didn't answer immediately; instead, ran his hand over her arm.
Finally, "Did you not know?"
She shook her head, pushing herself up until she was looking down at him. "You didn't kiss her. But I saw you kiss her. She hexed me."
His large hand smoothed her wild hair away from her eyes. "I know."
She frowned, but before she could ask, he said, "Vampires don't have magic, but we can sense it. She cleverly orchestratedthat meeting, and then you came charging in yelling at me," he shrugged, a half smile and unbothered, "and I put it together."
"You said something to her that scared her. What was it?"
His dark eyes roved over her face for a moment before he answered her. "First, let me tell you why I moved here."
The forest did its job of holding them safe and warm as the vampire chief told Tilly how the nature of creatures afforded too much time can sometimes turn cruel. His family, who got into politics, found taking power from the hands of the people a noble hobby. Boredom offers a certain license to vampires who would play with the laws that control people, creating rules and watching them kneel at the feet of those rulemakers without realizing they had no humanity and were taking theirs.
28. Theses on Doors
Two days after Tilly and Theo's moonlight forest meeting she dressed in a blue sundress that was fitted on the bodice, then flared out at the hips in a perfect pouf. It was blueberry festival day at The Crescent Inn and while she had been preparing for it for weeks, she was ready to get it over with. Instead of excitement, she felt an undercurrent of dread and she couldn't deny the old friend of anxiety that had placed itself firmly inside of her, despite her years of kicking it out.
Persistent was one of anxiety's main characteristics, which she might applaud if it didn't mean that she was constantly forgetting herself in mid-thought or mid-action always circling back to check in on her anxiety. She had picked up the habit of picking at her cuticles, something she hadn't needed once it had been kicked out and the door locked.
Jen had painted her nails the perfect purple blue the night before as they ate blueberry crisp in The Lost Souls living roomwith the fire practicing for the real autumn to make its way to the northeast.
With crackling sounds from the fireplace and flickering candles around the room, Tilly spoke of her night that bled into early morning with the chief of police and Jen, more than once, grabbed her arm with wide eyes and a happiness that could only come from a friend who shared in this kind of joy.
This was going to be an anniversary for their friendship. Every year since Jen grabbed Tilly up into her orbit that first blueberry festival, they dressed up in blue, bringing their own woven baskets to pick blueberries and drink the blueberry punch, and then they would take their bounty home, wash and prepare a dinner filled with blueberries.
