“Oh! You’re up, I’m sorry did we wake you?”
Stretching out my body I groan at the feeling and then roll over to sit at the edge of the bed. I’m still wearing my school skirt and stockings.
“Why is it so dark?” I ask. My voice groggy and still heavy with sleep. My eyes start to get used to the dark until Jullia turns on one of her warm toned lamps. It illuminates the room enough as Hanna inches in. On the ceiling over Jullia’s window is a twin sheet blocking out the light. “What time is it?”
Jullia turns on another lamp that has me blinking and rubbing my eyes to adjust to the light as she throws a bunch of bags onto her bed. Hanna also has a couple bags and sets them down beside the foot of Jullia’s bed.
“About two in the afternoon, are you hungry?” Jullia asks.
Rubbing my eyes, I stand up and tense every muscle to keep from swaying. I need some water. Water and food and a shower. Jullia pulls out boxes and walks over to me. It looks like some kind of ToGo container and when she opens it the aroma of miso, chicken, rice, and vegetables fills the room.
My stomach actually growls. Sat in their little compartments is a bowl of soup with noodles and chicken, a section of fried rice, and a whole section of steamed vegetables.
Jullia also holds up a spoon and fork in her other hand and gives me a sheepish smile. “You always ask for extra veggies so I figured I’d get you some, but you also need carbs and protein, and you had said earlier you loved noodles so here.”
My stomach grumbles again and I catch Hanna giving me a perplexing look.
“You really do need normal food. . . “
Jullia glances back at her sister but doesn’t say anything as she places the steaming food on my desk.
“Eat,” she orders. “I know you need it and then I need you to have a bag of blood because you haven’t drank any sinceMonday. Then we’re going to set up a projector and watch romcoms and eat trash all night.”
Hanna pulls out a little camcorder looking device and sets it on Jullia’s desk. I’m still standing by my bed watching the both of them. Jullia ends up giving me a stern look and gestures towards the food cooling on my desk.
Despite the fact that I’m sure Jullia paid for this with her own money, and I can’t pay her back right now, I sit and eat. Nana would give me the same look and stern talking to. Reminding me that while a lot of people are manipulative and selfish, there are still a lot who do kindnesses out of the goodness of their heart.
I pull out my chair and sit. Grabbing the spoon to stir the noodle soup that smells amazing. I doubt Jullia will make me pay her back for the meal, but I’ll do it anyways. Or I’ll repay her back with something else.
Jullia watches me take the first bite before she turns to start fussing with her movie night props. It doesn’t sound like a bad plan, though I wonder how comfortable Hanna would be here. She’s gotten more relaxed around me, though she still seems very wary.
Shrugging it off I start downing the rest of the food. The soup is perfectly flavored and the chicken is juicy. Plus, the rice, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower – I've always had a love for vegetables.
When I’m finished I pack it all up and set it at the corner of my desk to throw away later. Jullia and Hanna already have our movie night set up. A projector positioned in the blank space over the door with microwave popcorn and other snacks ready.They’ve also set up drinks and few wine bottles without any labels.
“Oh, that’s Hanna’s friends special blend,” Jullia explains. “He makes all kinds of spirits, though these ones are sweeter and he uses the faeries method so you don’t taste the alcohol.”
Hanna makes a face at her sisters. “Way to just blurt that all out, Jules.”
“Oh please, half the staff goes to him too. You said so yourself.”
The sisters roll their eyes at each other but there’s no malicious intent with their actions. I’m guessing it’s just a sibling thing.
Hanna turns to me with a hesitant expression. “I’m sorry. . . about my actions before. Jullia is a lot more welcoming than I am, but we’ve been told our whole lives that you can’t trust vampires. We’re not exactly taught a lot about them except that they were once human and even after finding control they always have a bloodlust.”
That is very mature of her. Most people would have just pretended like it never happened and moved on.
I nod. “Growing up I wasn’t taught much about them either. There is a woman at the brothel who did tell me a bit about them though. We all called her Nana, she basically said the same thing, so I don’t fault you for it. Though if I did have bloodlust I would say shoving your bloody hand in my face was stupid. Newly turned vampires are faster and stronger than even old vampyr, so Asher wouldn’t have been able to stop me before I ripped out your neck.”
Her face goes slightly pale and I wave it off.
“That’s just some other facts. But I don’t have bloodlust and would need to be drained of a lot of blood or starved for a very long time to initiate it.”
Jullia hums and then asks, “So then why do you not have bloodlust? Why also can you eat food and sleep? That still confuses me.”
I shrug. I could tell them the truth. I can’t say I necessarily trust either of them, not that it matters that much anyways, but I’m sure if word got out the Mage Board would spin it to make it seem like I played them to get a free education. Syngenia is not cheap.
Even if they didn’t listen to me about my case and shut down everything before I could get a word out. But it would probably be best not to risk that.
