2024-11-05
I smiled at the handsome woman across the table. After moving, I hadn’t expected to start going on dates so soon, especially given how... traditional my last town was. I hadn’t realized quite how lonely I was before I had moved here. It had been a surprise to meet a queer woman so quickly, let alone going on dates with her. At least, things that I hoped they were dates. I was pretty sure she was gay from the way that she was looking at me, and she certainly seemed flirty enough, but neither of us had actually done anything yet.
I was determined to actually ask her questions this time around, instead of just sitting there being a gay mess. As great as it was to just sit there and be overwhelmed with gay thoughts, I wanted to know more about Mary as a person.
“You seemed incredibly busy when we met for work, but I’m not sure what that constitutes. So, Miss Town Consultant, what’s your typical day-to-day like?” I asked her. “It seems like such a broad job title, I don’t know all that much about what you actually do.”
“I was wondering when you’d ask.” Mary gave me an amused smile, setting her glass down. “It varies quite a bit every day. The common thread is a lot of communication with different people, occasionally including tracking them down first. At this point, I mostly just help with whatever is needed to keep things around here running smoothly, I have a lot of different skills. That’s the main goal of all of it, really. I live here, I want it to be nice. If I wanted to get paid well, I’d do something else.”
From someone else, that could have felt like an evasion. And it still did, at least a little bit, but still felt genuine. I had met with her a few times before this, and she truly loved this little town, from the reclusive but friendly people all the way to the untouched nature right outside. Not that I could blame her, it was an amazing place.
“And that’s enough to keep you that busy? I can’t imagine there’s that much that urgently happens, but you seemed to be running all over the place when we first met.”
She laughed, a beautiful sound I immediately locked away to treasure later.
“No, no. It’s normally not that bad, you just saw me at a busy time. We had a few different people needing a bit of assistance after a bad storm, which is normal enough. There’s also a new geomana engine being set up so we can get some of those fancy new automatic streetlights, but that requires time and planning and business deals. And then on top of everything, there’s a cute new hunter in town who needs to be shown around. Easily my favorite of the tasks, but still another thing to have to keep track of.”
Between her flirting and the desire to continue watching her talk, it was hard to focus on a response, but I managed it, if only barely.
“And you like it enough to keep doing it, even without much pay?” I asked, unable to keep from grinning at her flirtations.
She nodded. “Oh yeah. I like meeting new people, and there’s a lot of that if nothing else. At some point or another, I’ve met most of the town and a bunch of local guild representatives. I have plenty of money saved up anyway, so it’s not like I’m desperately trying to make ends meet. I can afford to do something I like.”
“What about you, huntress?” She accentuated my informal title with a small teasing smile; I tried not to blush as she continued speaking. “I know quite a bit about hunters in general, but almost nothing about your work personally. What made you go down that path? Dreams of fame and glory?”
“Yup, that’s why I moved here. The glory.” I flexed my arm, toned but not particularly impressive, my expression as serious as possible before breaking down in laughter. “Nah, a big part of what drew me in was the independence of being a hunter. You go off somewhere and either make a good living for yourself or die trying. I needed to get away from the people around me, see new places, meet new people, and make some money along the way. It was the perfect choice, aside from all the danger.”
“And is that what makes you keep doing it?”
“I definitely still like that part of it. There’s something freeing about it. Going off to fight a monster, there’s nothing else to focus on.” I stopped, unsure whether to continue or leave it there.
Fuck it, this was a probably-date with a girl I liked, I wasn’t going to dance around it. If she was going to be judgy about this, we weren’t going to work out anyway. “What I really love is the rush of combat. Careful planning and preparation, let alone all the training, all leading up to a set of split-second decisions. Not that I’m some sort of battle-crazed bloodthirsty girl who only wants to fight, but there’s something about exchanging blows that really can’t be beaten.”
She blinked in slight surprise, but then smirked at me. “Wow, I only somewhat took you for a thrill chaser when we first met. Maybe I should have given you a monster to fight on day one, since that’s the only thing that can keep you around. Nothing but violence for miss scars over here.” She said in a teasing voice, gesturing to my arms.
“Hey, that’s not entirely fair. Even if there might be the tiniest kernel of truth there, I promise I don’t go around seeking out fights. I love sparring just as much, it just doesn’t pay the bills, and monster hunting does.”
Mary stared into her wine glass as she swirled it around, before finally looking back up at me. Something changed, and she looked almost hesitant, the exact opposite of her usual persona. “I’ve had some run-ins with combat in my job, and there was certainly an adrenaline rush. That seems pretty terrifying to have to deal with on a regular basis.” Mary paused and shook her head. “I guess I can see how you enjoy that part, but it must be tough to deal with all the rules they put on hunters.”
That comment was enough to set off alarm bells in my head. There was an edge to my voice when I spoke next. “Most of the rules we have are there for good reasons. They protect people, both hunters and everyone else. I’m pretty happy with rules designed to keep us all safe.”
Mary stared at me intently as she spoke. “Even the ones about the... mosquitoes?” Her voice was barely audible over the din of the bar. “I don’t see why they don’t just hire more hunters and wipe out the blood suckers entirely. They all seem so friendly, but too many of them end up murdering innocents. It’s ridiculous that we wait for that to happen when there don’t need to be any of them around in the first place.”
Of course that’s what it was. I made absolutely no effort to keep the disgust off my face. “Keep your murderous fantasies to yourself. Or better yet, talk to a therapist about them. For the record, I don’t go around killing people, nor do I want to. ‘People’ includes vampires, even if you don’t want to think of them that way.”
I was so incredibly done with this. With her.
I left my seat without even looking back. I took a second to slip a few coins to the bartender to cover my bill before storming out. It took some self-control, but I suppressed the urge to glance back at Mary’s reaction. Nothing that I saw would make me feel better.
I took a deep breath in as the door slammed shut behind me. The soft murmur of night was a small comfort, a suddenly welcome break as I started my walk home. It wasn’t worth trying to go anywhere else tonight, my mood was thoroughly ruined. No point in ruining someone else’s night around me. My few seconds of peace were interrupted, unsurprisingly, by the noise of the bar door opening behind me.
“Chloe, wait! Don’t go, please!” Mary really wanted a second chance after pulling that shit? I wasn’t going to give her one. I had done that before, giving second chances after a comment like that, and I knew exactly how it went. They apologized, they walked their statements back, and everything would seem fine. Then, a little while later, when they thought I would be more receptive or thought I wasn’t listening, they would say the exact same awful things in slightly different ways. I wasn’t going through that again.
“Another stupid bigot, fuck off,” I mumbled under my breath. When certain people learned I was a monster hunter, they tended to assume I shared whatever shitty views they held on monsters. Dealing with active or imminent threats from almost entirely non-sapient creatures was entirely different from supporting extinction or genocide, but a disappointing number of people missed that point. The Hunter’s Guild had absolutely nothing to do with non-feral vampires, not the bigots ever bothered to learn that.
Mary called out again, “Give me a minute, please. I can explain, I promise it’s not what you’re thinking.”
She was going to try and walk her comments back, exactly according to the script. I almost wanted to see how she was going to try that, given that she hadn’t been particularly subtle. Between that and the pleading in her tone, I almost turned around, but I knew that it was a bad idea. If I let an attractive woman start talking to me, I wouldn’t stop listening to her until she had convinced me to give her another chance. The simple fact that I wanted so badly to give her another chance meant that I couldn’t trust myself to actually do so.
I shivered in the wintry forest breeze, but it was exactly what I needed. I could feel a tiny bit of the tension leaving me with each soft gust of the wind. One of my favorite parts of living out here were the trees, I loved having them everywhere. There was nothing that could quite replace the calming presence of the forest.
Except, tonight, something was clearly off. The owls had gone silent. Even the bugs seemed subdued, meaning there was probably something magical going on. Which, in turn, meant that I would be the one to deal with it, sooner or later. Ideally later, once I had time to prepare, but being a hunter didn’t often afford that type of luxury. Based on the lack of insect noises directly around me, that seemed unlikely.
I racked my brain for any obvious suspects. Hunters made enemies, and only some of them were sapient. Once you chase enough immolating lizards away from town, one will eventually decide to come back for revenge. I had only just moved here, so I didn’t expect many local creatures to have a grudge yet. There were people who had been rather upset with me before I had moved, but none of them would pull off something like this. They might try to fight me if they saw me in a bar, but for the most part, they lacked the subtlety required for something like this, let alone the magic.
I simply continued walking as if I hadn’t noticed anything, there was no point in playing my cards early. With the clearing between the path and the forest, I had enough time to react whenever a threat showed itself. As silly as it had felt to practice drawing my weapons while wearing fancy outfits, I was glad for it now.
Something rustled the underbrush off to my left. It was quiet enough to dismiss as wind, except there wasn’t a corresponding gust of wind. Sure enough, a few moments later, there was rustling off to my left again. It was timed better the second time, but now that I knew what to listen for, it was still noticeable.
Assuming it was a magical creature after me, it was probably also faster than me. Attempting to run would just tire me out for no benefit, which left me with the safest option of continuing on with my walk.
Ideally, whatever it was would get overconfident that I hadn’t reacted and attempt a suboptimal surprise attack. Most creatures that could truly take advantage of my lack of awareness didn’t need to bother. A griffin could pounce on me before I reacted, but with my date clothes and a few daggers I wasn’t going to survive a griffin attack anyway.
At the very least, there was one small upside to the whole ‘being followed by a mysterious creature through the woods’ thing. I could tell my friends about this, and they’d probably be too focused on the story to remember to ask about my date. And, being totally honest with myself, I wasn’t completely against being pushed into a fight at the moment. Something a tiny bit dangerous would get my mind off of things, and it’d probably get me paid.
I was waiting for the next bush to rustle, but instead there was a loud crash of multiple branches breaking at once. I let myself glance in that direction, I couldn’t see anything but trees and brush. A fraction of a second later, I tensed up my shoulders and sped up to a slow jog. The game of stealth was up, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t still be underestimated. I continued glancing around, that seemed like what most unarmed people would do. Either that or run off the other direction into the woods, but that would just put me in even more danger.
I spun around at the sound of more branches breaking to see a woman striding out from the forest behind me. She was still cloaked in shadows, but appeared to be clapping her hands. Neither of us made any move to approach each other. Even without a directly hostile move from her, someone following me through the forest was obviously dangerous. She stepped forward into a beam of moonlight and I saw the glint of her dark hair. One more step and I saw her face. Mary. It was Mary.
A deluge of questions raced through my mind as I stared at her. Why was she here? How did she even get here? If she was that upset that I walked out on her, what was she going to try and do now?
She spoke up before I could. “Wonderful acting, I enjoyed the performance. There were some small slip ups at the end, otherwise I might have even believed you, if I hadn’t already known better.”
I considered trying to convince her I was mostly harmless, but I dismissed that idea immediately. She knew I was a hunter, and I hadn’t exactly been acting like an unarmed hunter caught in the woods. Besides, playing the helpless damsel in distress got frustrating very quickly, at least in contexts with actual danger.
I still wasn’t quite sure how to respond to Mary. She didn’t look upset, at least as far as I could tell from her body language. That was either a good sign or an especially terrifying one. She had followed me through the forest, mostly silently at first. In theory, she could just be a human who was skilled at moving around forests. She was deeply familiar with the area, but I still doubted that. She didn’t work out in the woods, at least as far as I knew, and nothing indicated that she should have this level of familiarity.
And she was still standing there, waiting for my response. I didn’t know how to respond to Mary the potential threat, but I did know how to respond to Mary the cute girl, so I decided to go with that.
“Oh really? Do you have any tips for me, so I can give you a better show next time?”
Mary tilted her head to the side as she thought. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her, and not just because she was dangerous. “You were acting totally relaxed, but still clearly paying attention to your surroundings. That was a bit off, but still fine. Your first real mistake was when you didn’t react at all to the bushes rustling around. Someone who was paying attention like you would have glanced around first, even if they dismissed it, you didn’t even do that. Your big mistake was when I broke those branches. You were right to react, but it took too long. You had to remember to be scared.”
She grinned at me. “It was plenty cute though.”
Mary watched me expectantly, although I didn’t know what she was looking for. She looked more comfortable out here than she had in the bar. Despite the obvious tension between us, her face was far more relaxed than she had been at the bar. For a second, I let myself drink in her appearance again. Her dark brown hair came close to, but didn’t quite reach her shoulders. She had a little black choker that went perfectly with her dark red dress. Her fangs peeked out just enough to poke slightly into her lower lip.
Wait. Fangs?
“So, reintroductions. I’m Mary. Nice to eat you,” she said, smirking, before finally breaking down into giggles.
A vampire. She was a fucking vampire.
I had to force myself to unclench my hands. That made things fall into place, at least partly. That was why such a pretty woman had been ‘interested’ so quickly, the whole thing had been about making sure I didn’t want to commit genocide. That made a lot more sense.
It still didn’t quite add up. She had already gotten the information she needed, and presumably I had passed. Yet, for whatever reason, there was still a vampire in the middle of the road, pretending to flirt with me. Maybe she was worried that I’d be so upset I wouldn’t want to work with her anymore?
None of that explained why she was laughing at her own joke to the point where she wasn’t even looking at me anymore. Not many of the vampires I knew would take their eyes off a hunter, especially not this close. Vampires tended to live long lives, of which the first step was usually caution. Mary was putting a lot of trust in my single comment from earlier, not that she was wrong to do so.
She took a step towards me and twirled. “So... any questions?”
Oh gods. She was somehow absolutely adorable, while still terrifying. People’s fear of vampire’s wasn’t entirely unfounded, after all.
With the right preparation and gear, I could take on a weaker vampire one-on-one and expect to survive. I didn’t have fancy armor with me, I didn’t know the terrain, and I had no idea how strong Mary was. All I had was a few miscellaneous daggers, the bare minimum any girl ought to bring on a fun night out.
Did the fact that she was adorable matter if my survival was in her hands? She had followed me into the woods, therefore she wanted something else from me. Or... out of me.
I took a moment for self reflection and determined that yes, it did matter. If I was going to die to a vampire, I would prefer them to be a cute girl.
Why was I even thinking about this? She was messing with me, and I let myself fall exactly into it. A pretty face was apparently enough to entirely distract me when I should be focusing on survival.
“I never would’ve guessed that this is how you spend your free time. Calling for your genocide in bars and then chasing people down.” Mary looked shocked, but I wasn’t done. “And what now? Why are you here? Are you going to kill me? Drain me?”
She wrung her hands together in a very un-vampire-like way. “Of course not,” she stammered, “I just wanted to make sure that you were safe.”
It felt and sounded entirely ridiculous, and I wouldn’t have entertained it at all if she didn’t look and sound incredibly sincere. Not enough for me to trust it, though.
“Thanks, I feel very safe. Nothing like a vampire following me through the woods to inspire security.”
“I know it looks bad. I swear on my life,” she said, pausing to smile at her own joke. Could she ever be serious? Apparently so, as her grin faded. “I have no intent to hurt you in any way.”
What a dork. I wanted to believe this was her personality. The Mary that I had gotten to know was fantastic, and I desperately wanted that to be the real her. If she hadn’t been faking all of her enjoyment, we could possibly even be friends. Unfortunately, I hadn’t survived as a hunter by basing my decisions off of what I wanted reality to be.
“Do you do this for everyone you get drinks with, as some sort of complementary service?”
I knew that pressing the vampire wasn’t my smartest move, but I needed more from her somehow. Either elaboration, or for her to stop bothering with words and just attack me. Something.
Mary winced. “No! I said awful things, and then you were heading home, barely paying attention to your surroundings. The wildlife here is more dangerous than you might be used to, and hunters have gotten hurt before. It would have been my fault if you had gotten hurt on your way home. I couldn’t deal with that.”
“You really expect me to believe that you stalked me through the woods out of concern for me? Purely to keep me safe?”
“Fine. I’m a vampire who can’t stop herself when a pretty girl walks away and there’s an otherwise good reason to give in to my instincts.” She hesitated before adding, with a sly smirk, “It’s hard to resist following prey.”
I involuntarily gasped. I immediately stifled it, but based on her smirk widening, Mary clearly heard. Why was I like this?
Still, her story wasn’t quite adding up, so I decided to poke a hole. “First of all, you already know I’m not going to murder sapient creatures because they’re ‘monsters’, so you don’t have to try to flatter me anymore. And even if I believe all of that, where do the noises while you were following me fit in? Why did you even come out to talk to me?”
“The worst part about spending time with you,” Mary said, slowly, as if she was considering each individual word, “was genuinely flirting with you, all the while knowing that at some point I was going to intentionally say something awful. At that point, you’d either reveal yourself to be a terrible person, or you’d think that I was.”
She bit her lip again, which was even cuter with her fangs. “I tripped while following you. The root must have moved or something. And I ended up talking to you through sheer charisma.” She flashed a brief smile that immediately turned sad. “I wasn’t going to approach you today, but I did want you to know that I’m not a genocidal bigot, even if I did lie to you. Besides, I heard your breath catch after I tripped.”
When I didn’t respond, she continued, shaky, “I’m pretty sure that wasn’t entirely panic, especially now. You can’t keep your eyes off of my fangs. You don’t smell very scared, but I saw your pupils dilate when I called you prey.”
I squirmed as she took a few steps closer to me, now only a few steps away. Despite her lack of confidence in the delivery, she wasn’t entirely wrong. I was still scared, but she was also incredibly distracting. That just meant that if she wanted to do something, I was even more helpless. I mentally ran through how long it would take for me to pull a knife, versus how long it would take a vampire to fully disable me. The odds didn’t look great, but I wasn’t just going to completely roll over.
Something must have showed on my face, because Mary spoke up, “I’m not that type of monster. The second you tell me to, I’ll leave.”
I snorted, while keeping my eyes on the vampire, of course. I wasn’t stupid. All of this was still happening on her terms, not mine.
I expected anger. Vampires didn’t tend to like it when you didn’t believe them. And an unhappy vampire quickly became an angry vampire. I could walk it back. Assuming I lasted that long. Tell her that I didn’t really mean to offend.
And yet, instead of getting angry, her face twisted with shame. I had to remind myself I was dealing with an apex predator, not a kicked puppy. One of the queens of the night. I shouldn’t be worrying about her feelings at a time like this.
“I’m sorry for how this happened. I won’t bother you again.”
Not a kicked puppy. Not a kicked puppy.
Against my better judgment, I gave in. “Wait.” Mary instantly froze and stared back at me. She still wasn’t a kicked puppy. I had to keep telling myself that, or else I’d forget. However, my mouth didn’t get the memo. “If you’re serious, can we talk again tomorrow? I need to process this.”
“Of course!” Her entire face lit up in pure excitement, and I fully trusted her for the first time in the conversation. She was adorable.
I couldn’t help myself. I took two steps forward and grabbed Mary’s hand. “I’m looking forward to it,” I whispered, too quiet for a human to hear, but Mary picked up every word, her grin only widening.
“How scandalous,” a man’s voice said. I froze immediately, and Mary spun around to face the source, putting her back to me. Her grip loosened, but she didn’t fully let go of my hand.
Down the road, a taller man in a suit walked towards us. “I’m disappointed that you’re going after a human woman though, they’re so much less of a challenge. I guess some of us aren’t truly built for the hunt.” He sniffed at the air, his menacing smile enough to show off a hint of fang. “I guess she’s a good vintage, at least. Are you going to share?” He added with a slight grin, showing off the tip of his fangs.
It all made sense now. Approach a human, get on their good side, and then ‘protect’ them from another vampire. That way, they would be more compliant. Mary would get me to do something ‘for my own safety,’ and just like that I would be captured. That would explain why Mary would bother flirting with me.
“Get out. Leave us alone.” Mary snarled at him with more venom than I had expected. She was either a very good actress, or she was actually telling the truth and was quite upset. She deserved credit either way, not that I was going to wait around and find out which was the case.
Mary was still holding onto my right hand, but very lightly, and her attention appeared to be elsewhere. I waited until the other vampire moved, which only took a few seconds. Just as I expected, Mary’s full focus snapped to him.
In a single motion, I slipped my hand out of hers, stepped forward, and drew my silver knife with my right hand. Mary almost immediately tried to step away, but as quick as vampires are, she was slower than my pre-planned motion. I grabbed onto her shoulder with my free hand and had my knife at her throat before she could start to make use of her superior strength.
“What in the hells?” exclaimed the still unnamed vampire. Mary didn’t say anything, she just whimpered. Fuck, if Mary wasn’t actually involved with him, there would have to be some serious apologies later. For now, only one of us was in lethal danger, so the knife was staying at her throat.
I turned to him, and grinned. “Oh, I’m a hunter, by the way.” I felt incredibly smug, and wanted him to know that. “If you step too close or try anything, Mary dies. And I know exactly how far a vampire can travel in the time I need to stab her. Once you’re close enough to stop me, no matter what, she dies.”
That was a blatant lie. Not knowing the distance, I did have a very good idea of how close he could get, but there was no way I was going to stab Mary. I had no proof she was involved, and my gut feeling was that she probably wasn’t. If he called my bluff, I was going to take the gamble on trusting Mary, then fight back as best I could, wherever that led me.
“What makes you think I don’t want that?” he asked. “You get rid of an annoyance and then provide a snack, all at once.”
“You don’t want to be involved in the death of another vampire. Your council will look into this, and so will the Hunter’s Guild. You can’t pin it on her if she’s dead from a neck wound, and everyone will know something is up. My blood isn’t worth that headache, and we all know it.”
He scoffed “This sounds just like one of Mary’s little costume party things. If you’re lying to me, human, there will be consequences. For both of you.”
Without a word, Mary leaned forward and touched her throat to my dagger. The sound of sizzling flesh made both vampires flinch. Luckily for Mary, I immediately moved the dagger away from her neck, although I kept it pointed at her. That was incredibly stupid of her, whatever her goal was, but I kept my mouth shut.
She hissed in pain, but quickly resumed her glaring at the man, “Does that satisfy you, Jeoffrey? I’m not stupid enough to give a random girl I’m fucking a real silver weapon, especially not of that purity. Holy shit, girl.”
She slumped against my upper body, which I briefly considered objecting to, but decided to let her get away with it. She wasn’t restricting my movement too much, and she probably didn’t feel great after that little maneuver.
“Even if we were just playing, that gives you absolutely no right to follow us around. And for the record, we’re not. Drop your stupid pretense and go.” I smiled at him. That tended to unnerve predators, especially ones that expected fear. “I even know your name now, very convenient.”
I used my chin to bump an artifact on my right shoulder, prepared for this type of situation. “Mary is a vampire, possibly hostile. We were accosted by another vampire named Jeoffrey, who is acting aggressive.”
The man’s eyes widened as he began approaching. “What is that? What did you do?” he asked, taking another step forward.
“It’s a fancy new artifact that records audio,” I said. “I don’t know exactly how it works, but they’re almost always recovered after hunter deaths. It has some sort of tracking beacon, I think? Even if you kill me, they’ll find it, and know for certain that you were involved.”
Mary turned slightly to the right, smirking. “Jeoffrey Langsam, somewhere around a century and a half old. He’s involved in some local politics, but probably can’t leverage anyone to help him flee. He has basic shifting, but he’s too slow to be a real threat there.”
I paused for a second. It still wasn’t enough to make me trust her fully, but the gesture was appreciated. At the very least, it very visibly pissed Jeoffrey off, so I approved.
He took a step forward, appearing more agitated. “How dare you.”
He was now a few steps away from the mental border I had designated. I didn’t want to escalate, but he wasn’t taking either of us seriously.
I reached into my jacket pocket with my free left hand. Mary was still leaning on me, but not enough to get in my way. I pulled a throwing knife out of my pocket and flicked it at the vampire. It hit the center of his chest, handle first, just as I wanted.
He jumped back and hissed, either from the attack’s spontaneity or the silver burn. I hoped it was the latter.
“I have more where that came from. Leave.” Another blatant lie, that was the only one I had brought along. Mary whimpered quietly again as I shifted around, leaning on me further.
Jeoffrey took one slow step back, then another, and another, until his visage melted into the forest.
I waited until a few seconds after he had disappeared before nudging Mary forward. “Okay babe, time to walk. Slowly. I still don’t quite trust this.”
“Babe?”
Oh, gods. At least she couldn’t see my face. “Sorry.”
“Hey, don’t apologize.” I could hear the amusement in her voice. “If you call me babe, I’ll go wherever you want.” She giggled. “Or you can keep a knife at my throat, also a good solution. No complaints from me either way.”
I nudged her shoulder again. “Regardless of your motive, we need to walk. Which means you have to stop leaning on me.”
“But you’re so warm and comfortable,” she whined. I couldn’t see her face, but it sounded like she was pouting.
There was no plan if she refused to move. I really didn’t want to issue more threats, and I absolutely wasn’t going to follow through on any of them. Thankfully, despite her protests and some rather charming grumbling noises, Mary began to walk without any further convincing.
“I took you hostage and threatened you,” I said after a bit of walking. “I don’t see how you can possibly call me comfortable while I’m pointing a knife at you.”
“I’ve had worse interactions. It’s not like you were going to hurt me.”
I didn’t have a response to that. She was right, but I couldn’t admit it. If she was somehow acting, she could call Jeoffrey back, and then I’d be totally screwed. But then, assuming she wasn’t with Jeoffrey, I was marching her around for no reason.
“Chloe,” she said, drawing out my name in a way that made my stomach do funny things, “you must have questions for me. I’m entirely capable of walking and answering questions at the same time, even if this is rather distracting.”
I almost laughed, as inappropriate as it would be. ‘Rather distracting’ was the most diplomatic way I had ever heard someone describe a threat to their life. And just like that, I no longer wanted to laugh.
“It would be wildly inappropriate,” I said. “What I’m doing right now is questionable at best, and interrogating you at knife-point would be even worse.”
“You have no idea what I’d give for every interrogation to be given by a pretty girl with a knife and morals. I want your questions.” Her voice turned sultry. “And I’m sure you could come up with some good ways to get me to talk.”
Her unending antics still managed to cheer me up slightly, even if her exact joke brought up some other feelings I was absolutely not going to pursue in any way. In a few more minutes I would be home, where I could safely let her go and apologize.
“I can ask questions if you actually want me to. What led to you going to all this trouble to see what I’d say? Did I do something?”
“It was absolutely not because of you,” Mary said. I hadn’t ever heard her be quite this serious, especially not with me. “You gave no indication that you had anything against magicals. There are quite a few of us in the general area, so we send someone to talk to new hunters and sniff out potential problems before they appear. It had nothing to do with you personally.”
“What happens to those who fail the test?”
“It depends on what they actually think. At the very least, we’re careful and document their actions. If they’re not too out there, we try to educate them. If they actually try to harm someone, we stop it and send proof to the Hunter’s Guild. They’ve always been helpful.”
“Good. The guild tries to screen people like that out early, but they’re not always perfect.”
If I trusted her, this wasn’t even her idea that led to her being at knifepoint, which made it even worse. Not for the first time, I considered letting her go. With so little distance left to go, I decided against it.
I was content to let silence fall as we walked, but Mary apparently was not. “No more questions, huntress?”
Yet again, I wondered how she managed to speak to me without any hint of venom in her tone. She was either incredibly forgiving or a good actor. Or I was worse at reading people than I thought, that was entirely possible too.
“Vampires have excellent night vision and you seem incredibly graceful. How did you trip on a root?”
“Wow, asking the tough questions.” She sounded amused. “I guess that’s what I get for pressing you.”
“You absolutely do not have to answer. I don’t-”
“Chloe. It’s fine, I’m just teasing you. I want to talk, it’s just a little bit embarrassing.” She sighed. “I was looking away from the path and missed a root.”
“The so-called apex predator of the night, brought down by a root? How does that even happen?”
“Yeah, yeah, here we go.” She sounded exasperated, but still had a tinge of amusement to her tone. “It seems rather obvious what I was actually focused on.”
I was too curious to stop now. “Shouldn’t you be used to moving and watching ‘prey’, as you put it earlier?” She surely heard my voice quiver as I described myself as prey, but maybe she wouldn’t read anything into it. At least she couldn’t see my face.
“I told you it was embarrassing.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but still clearly audible above our footsteps. “What do you want me to say? Your butt was so captivating I couldn’t take my eyes off of it?”
Assuming that she was telling the truth, this was even worse. She only got into this situation because she thought I was attractive. A fun thing to learn, now that I had thoroughly killed off any attraction she had for me.
Or maybe she was just fucking with me. I would certainly deserve it.
After that revelation, we descended into silence. I wasn’t sure why she had even tried to answer my questions.
She slowly drifted ahead of me, getting as far away as possible without slipping out of my grasp. I couldn’t blame her, I wouldn’t want to be close to my kidnapper either. If anything, I was surprised that she didn’t try to run. Oh, right. Maybe she was deathly afraid of the silver knife that could burn her flesh. That had already burned her flesh, even if she had bumped into my knife on purpose.
I promised myself that no matter what happened, she wasn’t getting hit by that knife unless she directly tried to attack me. If she ever tried to escape, I would be ready to get my knife out of her way. She deserved far more than that, but this was the safest option for now.
I found my eyes on her swaying hips and immediately tore my gaze away. The absolute least I could do was avoid ogling her body. I found my eyes drifting back subconsciously and swallowed hard. I gently pulled her slightly closer, where I wouldn’t be able to stare quite as easily. She giggled and slowed down, offering no resistance.
She leaned her upper body back against me, slightly slowing us down. The presence of her body was somehow nice, even as I tried to not let myself enjoy it. She could be trying something nefarious, but I really didn’t think so. I had ordered her around enough already, I didn’t deserve to stop her from whatever she was trying to do.
Her leaning was a cool pressure that reminded me of a pillow, especially on a warm night like today. Not that I was going to let myself think of Mary that way, as wonderful as that would be. My heart began beating faster anyway, not getting the memo.
Mary slowed even more, which I noticed just barely too late. Before I could do anything about it, she was pressing the rest of her body against me. Grinding her butt against my crotch. Against my dick.
I jerked away almost instantly, but she obviously felt it. Great. As if there hadn’t been enough surprises for her tonight.
Mary spoke before I found words. “Fuck. I’m sorry.”
“You...” I searched for the words. “I didn’t mean to let that happen. I would have stopped it.”
“That was very clear, and I really shouldn’t have put you in that spot,” Mary said. She sounded upset, not that I could blame her.
“This isn’t your fault. You don’t need to apologize for my mistakes just because you’re afraid of me.”
“You’re not going to stab me, I’m not scared, and there’s no point in beating yourself up over it. We can pretend like that didn’t happen if you would prefer.”
I shrugged my shoulders. She couldn’t see me, but she could probably discern the motion, and I had no desire to try to find the words anyway.
She made no comment as turned us towards my house and walked up on the front porch. When I got to the front door, I used my left hand to unlock it, still holding the knife in my right hand. As I stepped inside, I pulled the knife away from her throat.
She turned to face me without stepping away, a blank expression on her face. “What?”
It only made me feel more guilty. She hadn’t deserved this. “I’m so incredibly sorry. I was terrified you were somehow working with Jeoffrey to kidnap me. Or something.” I saw a series of emotions flashing across her face. Hurt, fear, concern, regret. I didn’t stop; I couldn’t stop the words from spilling out. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to survive. I- I just- I don’t know. I don’t even know what part I would do differently, but it was so terrible to you and I shouldn’t have let you stew in fear.”
“I’m so fucking sorry you were scared. You were never in danger.” Her voice was trembling. “Jeoffrey wouldn’t stand a chance against me. I’m more powerful and a better fighter than he is. If he had gotten close, I would have fought him off. I would have killed him if he dared. He was not going to hurt you.”
She looked down, but I could still see her eyes dampening.
My hunter training told me that it was ridiculous to walk outside when a vampire was waiting for me, but that same training had gotten me into this mess. Had made Mary cry. I stepped back outside, almost without thinking. Pretty girls were literally going to be the death of me at this rate.
“I should have explained more,” Mary said without looking up. “I don’t know if you would have ever trusted me, but I should have tried to explain. I didn’t know how scared you were. And I was a little distracted by having a knife at my throat, if I’m being totally honest.” Her tone was almost joking as she finished.
“I don’t know how you could possibly see this as your fault.” I couldn’t look at her, but I couldn’t let her take the blame. “I took you captive. This is my fault. I should have told you something more. I was in control, I should have communicated.”
“Based on some of your reactions while we were walking, I think you were also a little bit distracted by me.”
Oh fuck. “Ohmygod I really hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable. I didn’t-”
I stopped as I felt a gentle hand on my wrist.
“Chloe.” Her voice was soft. “Chloe.” I met her eyes, and she continued. “It’s okay. Seriously.”
“How can that be okay?”
“Among other things, I was teasing you on purpose. I wanted reactions, and I got them.”
“How- Why were you still flirting with me? I drew a weapon. I was threatening you.”
“Partly, I trusted that you wouldn’t have hurt me. I was right.” She smiled at me, which got my heart beating. “As for the rest, well...”
Mary kneeled on the floor, her eyes not focused on my face. I followed her gaze to my hand, still held in place by her grip on my wrist. The hand that was still clenched on my silver knife.
The knife that had burned her earlier, and had been pointed in her direction for this entire conversation.
I wanted to drop my it immediately, but Mary was too close. I tried to pull my hand away, but her grip was unyielding.
Her expression softened as she looked at my face, but her grip remained just as tight. “Chloe, it’s okay.”
She stared directly into my eyes as she slowly leaned forward. “I said it was distracting, and you made some assumptions. In hindsight, understandable ones, but I didn’t know where your mind was going.”
She smiled, showing a hint of fangs. It was hard to focus on anything else, and yet, I still didn’t feel like prey. Or, at least, not like prey in a bad way. I trusted her, somehow.
She placed her throat directly in front of my knife. In front of the silver knife that could almost instantly kill her. All without ever breaking eye contact. She finally released her grip on my wrist, but I didn’t move it away. All my attention was on her.
“It was incredibly hot,” Mary said, her voice husky. “A beautiful monster hunter gently holding a knife to my throat, leading me back to her house. Steady hands, the blade never wavering from my jugular. Hearing the hunter react to my teasing, even though she was trying to be professional. Not even capable of enough thought to realize I could hear every little gasp.”
She gave me a smile filled with desire. “You have no idea how many of my fantasies you fulfilled.”
Was this okay? I didn’t think it was dangerous, not really. Mary had been given opportunities to hurt me, and she hadn’t. And she looked so needy on my porch. Even if I wanted to, could I really turn around and leave her sitting there?
If it came down to it, any human I was sleeping with could hurt me if they truly wanted to. If I would normally trust a human who I met at a bar, I could absolutely trust Mary right now.
And, fundamentally, I didn’t have it in me to leave the adorable vampire there.
I reached my left hand out, halfway expecting her to flinch away, but she didn’t move an inch. I grabbed a handful of her hair. With the knife still sitting at her throat, I stepped forward. Now directly in front of her, I tilted her head up to continue looking at me.
I had to ask again. “You’re completely sure you’re okay with this?”
“I want this so badly. Please. Keep going.”
That was good enough for me. I tugged upward on her hair, only barely softly enough to let her provide the support.
It was hard to come up with the next steps while staring into her beautiful, red-tinted eyes. Not that I had to meet her gaze.
“Close your eyes.”
She did so without hesitation, the trust still shocking me. First, I moved my knife far enough away to avoid hurting her, then I pulled her very slightly forward. Keeping her off balance, I leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. She wasted no time in responding, pressing herself against me with hunger.
I didn’t want it to end, but being the only one who needed to breathe in oxygen, I had to be the one to pull back first.
I knew enough about vampires to know that it was a subtle misconception that vampires needed to be verbally invited to enter a home. Vampires needed an invitation, but it certainly did not need to be verbal. I tightened my grip on her hair and pulled her forward, first stumbling on the step and finally crossing over the doorway.
I dragged her all the way to my couch, before rotating back around and shoving her against it.
“This stops the second that you’re uncomfortable in any way. I will not force you to do anything, nor will I hold it against you. You are my guest, not my prisoner.”
“I get it, Chloe. I wasn’t worried to start with. You don’t have to keep reminding me.”
I smirked. “You told me about your fantasies earlier, are you going to tell me now that you don’t love this? The monster hunter taking you prisoner, but being oh so gentle about it. Constantly trying to remind you how safe you are. Does that not play into your fantasies?”
She blushed and paused for a second. “For all that vampires get accused of being evil, you’re the wicked one here. You have me here, all yours, and you’re just teasing me. Despicable.”
“Oh? You want me to be doing something else?”
“Gods, yes. Stop stalling already.”
The idea of touching her was almost as tempting as continuing to tease her. Besides, it was hard to worry that she wasn’t really into it when she was literally begging.
“That sounds tough. There are so many options for me, I’m just not sure what I should do first.”
“Chloe. I don’t fucking care. Just touch me, you can use me for your pleasure for all I care, just do something.“
I reached out and gently squeezed her shoulder. Even with only the slightest amount of force, she shivered. If it wasn’t for the knife at her throat, I think she would have been practically throwing herself onto me.
“Please,” she begged.
“And is that what you actually want? To just be an object that I can feel?”
“Why are you doing this? What sins have I committed?”
“I want to hear you say it. You have to tell me what you want. This is too important to not use your words.”
Mary sat there with a blush on her face, before speaking without making eye contact. “Fine, hunter. I want you to follow through on every last glance you’ve given me. You’ve been staring at my butt, I’ve seen the way your eyes gravitate towards my tits, and the smile on your face when you think my attention is elsewhere. I want to discover your fantasies, Chloe. And if I’m lucky, maybe I’ll even get to touch that gorgeous body of yours.”
My heart skipped a few beats as she was talking. Gods above, she had been paying close attention. And she still wanted me. I leaned in and kissed her hard, letting my lips shove her back against the couch. She could take it. Mary had just as much enthusiasm as I did, letting our tongues brush against each other.
I eventually pulled back from the kiss, as fun as it was. I very deliberately let my eyes wander across her entire body. She was absolutely beautiful. I ran a hand along the outside of her thigh, just below the end of her dress. I had plenty of time to uncover skin later, there was no need to rush.
“And that’s it? There’s nothing that you want out of me?” I first let my hand wander up to rub the top of her chest, before moving my hand up to her neck, then finally running a finger along the side of my knife. “You’re not desperately hoping that I’ll accidentally cut myself and let you lick up the drops?”
She hissed, catching me off guard enough to almost make me flinch. I couldn’t allow myself to ever do that when I was pointing a dangerous weapon at Mary. She was the one to actually react first, using both hands to cover her mouth. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. No matter what, I won’t ask you for blood. You don’t have to worry.”
It sounded like she was mostly concerned about me. I sensed a bit of irony there, but set it aside to deal with later. “Just to be clear, you’re interested in drinking my blood, and are just trying to avoid pressuring me? No other qualms.”
“That’s not the way I would describe it, but close enough.”
I smiled and Mary gave me a questioning look. “It feels good to be desired,” I said. “I had my suspicions, you pay my neck a good bit more attention than most people do.”
“Uh... that does sound like me,” Mary sheepishly admitted.
“I’m glad to hear you admit it. I think that deserves a reward.”
I sat down next to her, intentionally leaving a small space between us. Despite all her assurances, she was going to have to come to me, if she wanted.
I reached down and started toying with the end of her dress, right between her thighs. As if on instinct, she spread them enough to give my hand room.
I let my hand wander up her thighs, tapping my fingertips as if they were walking. The shiver I got in response was sweeter than any fruit I had ever tasted.
This time, I didn’t tease her quite as much. She deserved a reward, and I was getting desperate to touch her myself. I still could barely believe that she was stretched out in front of me. I let my hands brush up against her panties, getting another delicious shiver out of Mary.
Consciously, I knew that she was turned on, that she wouldn’t have gone anywhere near this point if she wasn’t having a great time, but I was still a little surprised I could already feel how aroused she was through her panties. It helped evaporate a little bit of doubt in the back of my mind, it fully sinking in that Mary was into me.
I didn’t waste much time, letting my fingers trace around the delightful wet spot. I paid attention to the way she squirmed when my fingers got vaguely near her clit. Mary was apparently very sensitive.
I opened my eyes to see Mary staring at me with a soft smile on her face. She didn’t flinch away from the eye contact this time, making the moment feel even more intimate. Did Mary look at every hookup that way? I had no idea, but something told me she didn’t. Either way, I wanted to deserve that look, and I never wanted her to stop looking at me like that.
Before Mary could really start to demand more stimulation, I pressed my entire hand between her legs, cupping against her. Mary wasted no time in starting to grind against my hand.
“Kiss my neck. Slowly.”
I watched her eyes widen, before interrupting her thoughts. “You can handle that much, right? Or are you helpless to the rushing blood to the point where you can’t even get close?” I let a mocking tone creep into my voice, challenging her same vampiric instincts.
This time, she didn’t stop to stare, instead leaning towards me and wrapping an arm around my body.
“Can I move closer?”
I didn’t bother hiding my amusement from my tone. “I haven’t taken your agency about where you can sit, at least not yet. Not that I’m complaining, it’s cute when you’re subby.”
Mary didn’t deny my accusations, but ignored them, shifting closer to me. A small part of me still labeled the action as an objective threat, a way that the predator sitting there could hurt me, but I had no fear of her left. The move just felt intimate in a way that left me craving more.
Her lips on my neck were no less divine. They were incredibly soft and gentle, which made them feel like a wonderful contradiction. Being Mary’s lips, they carried the inherent promise of fangs behind them. Her fangs that could pierce my neck or throat, but were not doing so. The implicit assurance that she truly wanted to follow orders instead.
I was barely able to speak, but she needed to know that I approved. “Such a good g-girl. Being so delicate with my neck.”
Mary must have noticed my stutter, although I suspected that she wouldn’t do any better if she tried to speak. After a few more blissful seconds, her lips pulled away from me. I immediately missed the contact. I glanced down long enough to see her satisfied expression, before moving my hand right to the edge of her panties, enough to get her to briefly freeze.
“Are you done already? Just one kiss?” I asked.
Her grip on my torso tightened, and she pressed another kiss into my neck, more forcefully this time. I moved my hand out from under her dress, prompting a mumbled protest. The moment was too precious, I needed to appreciate her in a different way. I ran my hand through her soft, dark hair, getting an appreciative murmur in response. It seemed like I was forgiven for taking my hand away.
I loosely grabbed her breast over her dress, and couldn’t resist pulling her in a little bit closer. She immediately leaned in against me, all the while keeping her kisses incredibly gentle.
“Isn’t it funny how you’re considered to be an apex predator?” I scoffed. “For a predator, you sure like being under my control. You like getting teased. You love the knife at your throat. I’ve barely touched you, and yet we both know exactly how wet you are. If your mouth wasn’t busy, you’d probably be begging for more.”
I traced a circle around her breast and then squeezed harder, causing Mary to slow down her kisses as she moaned into my neck. I alternated between tracing circles around her nipples and kneading her chest as a whole, enjoying all the fun noises that Mary was making.
Reluctantly, I took my hand away from her chest. Mary let out a small whine and I couldn’t help but giggle. She was so responsive, so much fun to toy with. She tried to follow my hand as I took it away, but she was unable to do so without moving away from my neck. It was absolutely adorable, I wouldn’t ever get tired of this side of Mary.
I used my newly freed hand to press her head all the way against my neck. I gasped as I felt the side of her fangs pressing against my neck. Mary wasn’t immune, letting out another squeak as she enthusiastically pressed herself against me without needing prompting.
I grabbed her hair and pulled her away from my neck. Mary pouted at me, but didn’t immediately move back. I first slipped my jacket off and dumped it on the floor. Next, I clipped a finger under my shirt, just enough to expose a tiny sliver of stomach. It was incredibly gratifying to see Mary’s eyes immediately snap to my stomach.
I grabbed the bottom of my shirt and pulled it up along with my bra, just enough to leave my tits out. Mary made yet another delightful noise. At this point, I would sell my soul to keep hearing those. I gave her just long enough to get a good glimpse of my chest, then tilted her head back up and kissed her.
It wasn’t my most dominant kiss, but Mary was in absolutely no place to comment on how needy I was being. I focused entirely on her lips, getting lost in the warm sensations, before getting brought back to the surface by the gentle pressure of fangs.
I let out a small gasp and tensed, which she immediately noticed and pulled back from.
“Was that-” Mary started to say.
She was going to ask pointless questions about fangs. She was going to feel bad and doubt her body in a way that Mary, this beautiful person I was lucky to be sleeping with, shouldn’t ever feel doubt about. None of that had to be refuted with words, so I didn’t bother. Instead, I leaned forward with no hesitation. Mary’s eyes widened, but she made no moves before our lips met again.
This time, I wasted no time. I put as much desire as I could into that kiss, running my tongue over her fangs. They were wonderful in a very strange way. The sharpness and strangeness pleased my mind in a way that I wanted to explore more already, even without taking into account the fantastic vampire that quivered with every gentle brush of my lips.
I opened my eyes to see a hungry look on her face; she was obviously holding herself back. It didn’t just feel like hunger for my blood, if I was reading her correctly, she wanted me deeply, but was scared of hurting me. Which was nice, and just meant that I needed to push her harder.
I shifted our mouths so that her fangs were pressing into my lip, which was as far as my self-control was able to take me. I gave up all attempts at staying composed, collapsing onto Mary as I moaned into her mouth.
My mind only started to reassemble itself when I needed to disengage to breathe. That was my signal to move on, immediately pushing Mary’s head downwards directly towards my exposed breast. She wasted no time with words, immediately getting her tongue out.
She had more restraint than I did, drawing slow teasing circles on my breast itself, before just barely teasing my nipple. Mary pulled away, pressed a few kisses into my neck, fangs notably absent, and then was back down to my other breast.
All the while, Mary was staring up at me with her deep eyes, cataloging every single tiny twitch and gasp I made. I leaned down and kissed her forehead as gently as I could.
“Nothing says you can’t use your fangs. Just, be gentle, at least at first.”
I gasped as she brushed a fang against my nipple, so gently that I briefly thought I was imaging it.
“I see that got your attention,” I said before she dared take her mouth away. “I wonder why....”
I held my hand up to my mouth as I thought, slowly tilting my head up and away from her. Accidentally exposing my neck to the vampire. Oops.
“I’m not sure what else a cute vampire would possibly want from me though.”
That was enough to get Mary to freeze for a second. She finally lifted her mouth from my chest, with her eyes fully focused on my neck. “You’re doing this on purpose!”
I tried my best to look confused, not that it was fooling her. I was a hunter and not a traveling performer for a multitude of reasons. “What?”
Mary didn’t let me bait her into discussing my obviously feigned confusion. “Hunters normally try to avoid getting bitten. You are not doing a good job of that right now.”
I reached out and grabbed her fang with two of my fingers, just watching her squirm under me until I released it.
“Work is one thing. I’m usually a lot more worried about damage there, and I don’t have the same degree of trust. It’s a little different when I’m pinning a cute vampire down on my sofa.”
She made another adorable whimper. I couldn’t resist teasing her more, rubbing my neck as I said, “It’s a good thing you’ve been doing so well at using your mouth for things other than speaking so far. It doesn’t seem to be working so well for that.”
“Chloe.” Her voice was husky and strained.
I didn’t bother hiding my grin as I replied, “Yes, Mary?”
“You’re teasing me too much here. It’s hard to keep control when you say things like that; to keep myself from biting you. I’m not strong enough for you to keep going like this.”
“You keep making so many assumptions there. Notably, that I’m trying to avoid that.”
She shook her head. “I’m not... It needs to come from you. Like earlier. Your words. Please.”
Her tone was too serious to continue just teasing her. And my neediness was starting to get to me too. “I want you to bite me. Drink my blood. But first you have to take control, and I’m not going to let you do that for free.”
Mary froze for a second, then slowly relaxed, resting her hand on the side of my ribs. Her gaze wandered up and down my body, eventually settling on my face.
“You’re really totally sure? This is what you want?” Mary asked.
“I promise it is,” I said, staring directly at her eyes, letting her see my sincerity.
The moment felt too intense to break, before I noticed a hint of a smirk appearing on her face.
It only took me a fraction of a second more to realize my mistake. My right hand was holding the dagger, but it was no longer pointed directly at Mary, and her hand was right next to it.
I attempted to correct that before she could take advantage, but it was futile. Mary’s hand shot out even faster than I had thought possible, knocking the dagger entirely out of my hand. Before I had time to be concerned about the sizzle as she made contact with the silver knife, she kicked my legs out from under me. She slid one hand around my shoulders as she slid out from under me and caught me.
I made a token attempt at grabbing another knife, but it was futile. I registered the gentle pressure of fangs on my neck and froze.
“Good girl,” she whispered, gently grabbing my hands and pinning them down above my head. It was wonderful, better than I imagined this going, but I was still concerned about her. She didn’t look like she was in pain, not enough for me to end this, but I was going to be looking at those burns later.
My heart felt like it was going to pound a hole in my chest, but it didn’t quite feel like the fear of being at a vampire’s mercy that I was worried about earlier.
Even without her pinning my arms down, she had her fangs very clearly on my neck. I was entirely at her mercy. Not that I had any doubt that she would stop if I expressed any kind of discomfort, but that wasn’t the point of all of this. I was physically at a vampire’s mercy, and I wasn’t complaining.
Mary was now sprawled partly on top of me, pressing my torso into the sofa. She had one hand holding my arms above my head while the other was free to do whatever she wanted, currently brushing lightly against my cheek as I quivered at her touch.
“That’s cheating,” I complained. “I thought you were legitimately asking because you were unsure.”
Mary instantly pulled back and released my arms, a small frown on her face. I barely noticed her grip loosening, my attention almost fully consumed by the spots on my neck where her fangs had been. Where they were currently being missed.
I made a noise of objection, which seemed to confuse Mary. She was still leaning directly over me, her fangs were on full display over top of her lip. Evidently, Mary noticed my gaze and hid her fangs once again. “Sorry. Are you okay? You definitely don’t have to-”
“Well, I didn’t want you to stop. Definitely not that. And I don’t ever want you to feel like you have to hide your fangs.”
I took full advantage of her loose grip and leaned up into a kiss. Once again, the press of fangs on my lips was enough to obliterate my entire train of thought. I did the only thing I was still capable of, moaning as I pushed further into the kiss, pressing my upper body against Mary.
The vampire quickly got the message, taking her free hand and wrapping it around my lower back. Mary hesitantly brushed her hand lower, against my butt. At my hum of approval, her hands wandered further, exploring every last curve. She seamlessly swapped between teasing pinches, rough grabs, and featherlight caresses.
Mary was entirely focused on me, and vampires were known for their perception. My favorite part of kissing vampires, I decided, was that they could pick up on every little signal and reaction, no matter how subtle. The smallest of twitches had Mary’s fingers digging into my ass, showing me exactly what she wanted.
“You’ve been driving me absolutely insane, you know that?” Mary’s voice was low, almost a growl. “And now you’re all in my grasp. It’s delightful.”
“Do you want me to pretend to be bothered by this? Not that I’m particularly good at acting, but I’ll try if you tell me to.”
Fighting a vampire was terrifying in large part because of how fast they could move, and I got to experience this firsthand. One second Mary was calmly talking to me, then in the blink of an eye, her mouth was firmly on my nipple. She stayed there long enough for me to start to relax a little bit. When she nibbled again, with her fangs, I cried out in pleasure, and then she was back to staring me in the face.
“Just to be sure, are you okay with your pants coming off too?” Mary asked, getting a nod in return.
In a single smooth motion, she lifted me up and stripped my pants off, all without touching my panties. I reached up to finish taking my shirt off, since it wasn’t covering all that much, but Mary stopped me.
“If it’s not uncomfortable, leave it on. There’s something hot about the way you’re wearing it now.”
I wanted to tease her, but it was hard being on the back foot. I just nodded instead, and let her continue with whatever she was doing.
Mary bit her lip as she looked over my almost naked body, eyes filled with some emotion that I couldn’t place. She didn’t look angry or upset, at the very least, but I couldn’t quite read anything else.
She could see everything. Most of my body was fine. I liked my chest and my face, but those were also plainly obvious to anyone who cared to look. Anyone who slept with me knew exactly what to expect there.
This was different, or at least it felt that way. It was one thing to know that I was a trans woman, and one that hadn’t fully sculpted her body. It was easy for someone to accept that I had different genitals from most women when clothes were on. It was another thing entirely to have clothes come off and be confronted with the fact that, yes, I had a dick, and it was right in front of you. Or in this case, plainly visible through my panties.
I braced myself for the rejection that was coming. For Mary to back off, go home, and never quite meet my eyes the next time we ran into each other. It was fine. She didn’t owe me anything, certainly not this.
“You’re so gorgeous.” Mary’s voice was soft, like she was still drinking in my appearance. “You look so good like this. I love how disheveled you look, like a beautiful woman is about to pounce on you and finish the job.”
I shivered and finally let my breath out. She wasn’t going to leave.
Mary grinned at me. “What should I avoid doing with your dick?”
“What?” I responded as eloquently as I possibly could, only causing Mary’s grin to widen.
“I have things that I’d like to do to you, but I’ve seen the way you’ve been reacting and don’t want to make you feel bad. It’s simple enough, huntress. Try to keep up.”
Her tone was dismissive, but between her piercing gaze and what her words suggested, I couldn’t sit still.
Mary took a small step closer to me. “I wish you realized how fucking adorable you are. I could watch you squirm all day. Forever.”
“Based on the way you’re looking at me now, I’m slightly doubting that you have the self-control to just watch forever,” I rebutted. Mary giggled at my words, but was still clearly waiting for a response. I swallowed. “I- I’m good with anything. Well, ask about anything especially wild. Just... whatever we do, please make sure you perceive me as a woman.”
She snorted. “That will not be a problem, Chloe. You’re beautiful, and nothing you’ve said has indicated that you’re anything but a woman.”
She stepped forward, leaning over me and gently kissing my lips. She first cupped my chin, then let her hand roam down my body. “All of this for me. What a delicious treat. Trust me, I’m interested in all parts of my food.”
Something about being called food made my breath stop for a moment. In the meantime, Mary shifted her body down and licked my dick from base to tip through my panties. It was hard to remain concerned about Mary’s enjoyment when she had quite that much enthusiasm.
Something about the action of leaving my underwear on made the action a little bit hotter. She wasn’t trying to rush through this part, she wanted us both to enjoy it.
“Well?” Mary asked.
It took a minute to piece my mind back together. She had asked me a question. I opened my mouth to answer exactly how much I was enjoying, which seemed to be what she was waiting for. Before I could get words out, she slipped my panties down and the tip of my dick into her mouth, turning my words into a desperate moan.
Mary lifted her head up, gave me a grin, then shifted upwards. She laid back down on me, nuzzling against my neck. I was almost overwhelmed with anticipation.
There was a kiss on my neck, then Mary was squirming against my body, another kiss, and then a gentle nibble that didn’t come close to breaking skin. She was pushing every single one of my buttons, one by one. Her lips pressed against my neck, almost needy, but still not giving me what I needed.
“This was your plan, huntress. You did this. You teased me with your neck.” Her hand brushed against my skin, impossibly soft, but not the sensation I wanted. I shivered and she giggled in response. “You forget that I can feel every twitch of your muscles. I know exactly how hard it was for you to tease me. It went both ways, and now I’m in control.”
I whimpered, wrapping my arms around her before she could get the wrong idea.
“How does it feel, huntress?” She kissed my neck again. “Wondering if every pause... every breath... every kiss... will turn into... a... bite.”
I shivered at the sensation of sharp fangs on my neck, but a bite didn’t follow.
I giggled at the absurdity of a vampire teasing me. Most hunters I knew were terrified of vampires, while I had invited this one into my bed. I was closer to begging than I was to being scared in any way.
As soon as my mind started to relax, Mary bit down. It was hard to identify the individual sensations. Her tongue was dancing across my neck; her arms were holding me tight. The knowledge that this gorgeous woman was not just fucking me, she was actively living off of me.
I moaned, lacking the brainpower to be self-conscious about the noise I was making. Mary wouldn’t care about any of that, and she needed to know exactly what she was doing to me.
In response, she squeezed my breast, before trailing a claw across my nipple. The sensations were fantastic, and I had no air left in my lungs to moan with, so my body spasmed.
Thankfully, my neck was held in place by her hands. Mary pulled her fangs out immediately, a concerned expression on her face as she sat back.
“Did it hurt? Are you okay? Was that too much? I’m so sorry.”
“Good. It was good.” I was struggling to find words, and Mary was pulling away. I didn’t want to lose her. “Come back.”
“You’re unarmed with a vampire, and you didn’t intend any of this. I shouldn’t have done that to you.”
Mary was looking around the room, barely paying attention to me. She was looking for something, my mind racing for what it could be. Oh fuck, my knife was on the floor somewhere.
She started to get up, and for the second time, I saw a disaster in motion, but this had larger consequences, and I had the time.
“No!” I yelled. She finally looked back at me. “Mary, don’t you fucking dare. That knife still has silver in the handle. I am not okay with you hurting yourself with my knives.”
“Then you come grab it.”
“This is fucking ridiculous. My jacket has knives in it, none of which I went for after initially being disarmed. I took it off myself. I disarmed myself on purpose.”
The incredibly stubborn vampire reached down and grabbed my jacket. I used one hand to grab her hand, then snatched the jacket out of her hands, tossed it behind me, and finally pulled her into a hug. She stood entirely still for long enough to remind me that yes, she was a vampire, and quite a bit stronger than me, before collapsing against me.
I scratched her head as she leaned against me. I could feel the tension slowly draining out of her. “You’re being silly. I wouldn’t have encouraged you to disarm me if I didn’t want to be disarmed. We wouldn’t ever have been in that spot if I was at all worried about you hurting me.”
I kissed her forehead, softly. She made an incredibly cute noise, before relaxing against me further.
“But then why did you react like that?”
“You haven’t drunk much from humans, have you?”
“Not directly, no. Animals or blood bags for me.”
I rotated us around, sitting in her lap, much to her amusement. I was a bit taller than she was, but she was the one who could be picking me up and moving me, so it worked. “Then you’ll be glad to learn that it felt really fucking good. Better than I was expecting.”
“Really?”
“I’m certainly not going to have that be the last time I get bitten. Ideally, not even tonight.” She blushed at my words. “You have no idea how cute you are. I’m so glad you came home with me.”
“But...” The excitement she couldn’t keep off of her face melted my heart. If any small part of me was still convinced vampires were inherently evil, those thoughts would’ve been instantly banished. “Why? I’ve barely even done anything for you yet. It’s just been you giving.”
“Then why don’t you?” I asked.
She took a second to answer. I slowly brushed my fingers through her hair as we sat. “You’re still a human at my mercy. It’s scary to do things to you.”
I laughed. “Do you really think you’re in control here?”
Her face was a cross between confusion and mild offense. “I am very clearly stronger than you. I forcibly disarmed you once, and then you disarmed yourself, against my will. It seems pretty clear that I’m in control right now.”
She was so cute. I reached out and grabbed her jaw, sticking my thumb inside her mouth. “Let’s re-evaluate. Tell me you’re in control.”
Mary mumbled something, made more difficult by my hand being in her mouth. She was looking down, not even attempting to meet my gaze.
“Are you convinced? Are you going to be a good girl and listen?”
She nodded.
“Look at me and use your words, then.”
I helpfully removed my hand from her mouth and gently tilted her chin up.
“Yes, please. Whatever you say.”
“Then follow me.” I grabbed her wrist, dragging her into my bedroom. I stopped in the middle of my floor in order to spin around and kiss her passionately. Mary was just as enthusiastic, pressing back into me. I cut the kiss off after a few seconds, pushing her back.
“Strip.”
My breath caught as she pulled her dress over her head in a single smooth motion. She had beautifully defined abs, which I slowly ran my fingers over.
I slid my hand up and under her lacy bra, squeezing her breast. Mary actually squeaked, which was absolutely adorable. Any lingering doubts I had over her enthusiasm for this evaporated as she pushed her chest against my hand.
I pushed her down onto the bed, then leaned over top of her.
“So,” I asked, smirking, “my adorable little prey is enjoying this?”
“Prey?” she sputtered. “I’m letting you do this, I could take back control at any time.”
“It’s cute that you think that. Or at least, you’re pretending to think that. I’m not convinced you even have yourself fooled.”
She scrunched up her face as if she was getting offended, but I saw desire and amusement as well. It made me want to kiss her even more, which I did. She leaned into the kiss, biting at my lip with enthusiasm. I wasn’t ever going to get tired of her fangs.
“What was that for?” she asked.
“I don’t need a reason,” I said, knowing it would infuriate her even more. “Anyway, what do you want me to do to you?”
“I thought I had made it properly clear earlier what sorts of things I was okay with. We’re doing great right now.”
I grabbed each of her wrists and pulled them together over her head.
“Don’t worry, I understood that. This is the start of you begging.”
Mary’s eyes widened. “Begging?”
“Well, we can sit here all night if you want, but I figure you would probably enjoy some other activities.”
“Fuck, yes. I’d lose my mind if we just sat here.”
“Well then, tell me. What is it you want?”
Based on her gaze firmly locked on my breasts, it wasn’t hard to predict what she wanted. “My mouth on your nipple. Please.”
“Hmm, that does sound nice. Although, I went through hunter training, they taught us to always be mindful of any magical creature’s mouth. Are you sure it’s safe for me?”
“Please, Chloe. I want it so badly.” I loved the way my name sounded in her mouth. She was so desperate, yet said my name like it was a wondrous treasure. “I’ll be so good, so gentle. I would never hurt-”
Mary squeaked as I grabbed her head with my other arm and then pushed her forwards onto my nipple, but wasted absolutely no time in enjoying herself. Her mouth was once again absolutely fantastic.
I rested on my side, her mouth still on me, and started playing with her chest. All it took was a gentle pinch to get a whimper out of her and have her pushing against me even harder. For all the focus that she was giving me, Mary had absolutely fantastic breasts that I needed to appreciate too. And there was no reason I had to be silent about it.
“You’re absolutely gorgeous, not sure if I’ve properly told you that. All of you, but I’m especially focused on your chest right now. I can barely believe I have you here in my bed, it’s almost unimaginable. I was slightly shocked when you showed any interest in me in the first place.”
“Oh, Chloe.”
I leaned back, giving her a teasing smile. “Oh, I guess you’re done with having my nipples in your mouth if you’re talking.”
I expected protests or pouting, but Mary just blurted out “I think I should touch your butt”
“Should? That’s awfully presumptuous of you, I thought we were pretty clear about our respective roles.”
“I’m sorry, you just have a fantastic butt and I wanted to touch it. I would really like to feel more of you, Chloe.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere, normally, but not right now. You’re going to play with my tits for a few seconds, and then you’re going to thank me letting you do so.”
It took one look at her face to see that this was effective on her. Something to be properly capitalized on later.
I released just one of her arms from my grip. Mary wasted little time before moving. Instead of going straight for playing with my breasts, she reached over and grabbed the side of my chest first, making it feel so much more intimate.
Mary’s focus didn’t stay there, she moved over to feel as much of my chest as possible before returning her hand to my grip above her head, without needing to be prompted.
“Thank you, Chloe.”
“Good girl.”
That was also highly effective on the cute vampire in front of me, noted.
“Chloe, please, can I touch the rest of your body? I want you so badly.”
It was hard to stop myself from reaching over and holding her when she said something sweet like that, but I also wanted to continue.
Without commentary, I shifted my body upwards on the bed, leaving more of my body accessible to her, but still kept hold of her hands.
Mary wasted no time in making use of my new position, first pressing a few kisses into my stomach, then my thighs, and then finally moving on to my panties, which she absolutely peppered with kisses. She slowly worked her mouth around, covering everything, although she kept going back to kiss my dick again and again.
She even made one adorable attempt at putting it in her mouth, panties and all. It absolutely didn’t work, but it was appreciated. I needed to do something, so I started running my hands through her hair.
A few seconds later, she bit down on the edge of my panties. She looked at me for a second before letting them go.
“Chloe, please, I want to taste you.”
I smiled at her and then leaned over to give her a quick kiss. She kissed me back then pouted at me, but couldn’t stop her smile from showing through.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. You’re evil.”
“If that wasn’t what you meant, why weren’t you more specific?”
“Why are you being so mean to me?” she asked, then bit her lip, ruining any illusions that this wasn’t turning her on.
“You’re so cute when you pout. Try again.”
“Chloe. I don’t know how to phrase it right. I want to taste you and do things to you with my mouth.”
I brushed my hand through her hair again. She was so patient, even when frustrated by me.
“So why don’t you just say what body parts you want to taste? That should help.”
“Chloe. Fine. I want your dick in my mouth, so incredibly badly. I can’t think of anything else right now. Please, let me do this for you. I want you to feel good.”
How did Mary manage to say things like that? She was melting my heart during sex, that had to be against the rules somewhere, but I couldn’t bring myself to argue with her when she sounded so sincere. Besides, was I really going to argue with a cute girl who really wanted to suck my dick?
“Fine, but first...” I said, getting up. She stayed in place, but I could feel her eyes on me. I reached down into a drawer and grabbed a specific toy, putting a tiny bit of lube on it for good measure.
Returning to my spot on the bed, I brushed my fingers over her thighs one more time. She was so delightfully wet. Making eye contact with her, I slowly ran the toy across her lips, then slid one of my fingers in instead.
“You’re not trying to distract me, are you?” she asked, as if she wasn’t breathless and shivering under me. As if I couldn’t feel her pushing against my finger, trying to get every last bit of stimulation.
“I just wanted to get you a little bit worked up first, although I seem to have been rather successful at distractions.”
Before she retorted to that, I finally pushed the toy inside of her, drinking in her delighted facial expressions. I slid it in and out a few more times until Mary finally recovered her composure.
I pushed her back down towards the foot of the bed and gently rolled her over onto her stomach. She was no less beautiful or hot facing away from me. I reached down and squeezed her butt, then finally sat next to her, suddenly feeling rather nervous.
She could surely hear my heartbeat, she had to know a bit of where my mind was at, but she still let me set the pace without commenting. I only had to pull down slightly on the edge of my panties for Mary to get the picture, immediately taking over and pulling my panties down the rest of the way. Mary looked me up and down, lingering on my face, then pressed a kiss to the tip of my dick, giggling as it twitched.
“You’re so cute,” she said, and just before I could respond, she enveloped me with her mouth. I still tried to speak, but it came out as a jumbled mess.
Mary made a noise, presumably laughter, and then reached out and squeezed my hand. I happily squeezed her hand back, too lost in the pleasure to even stand a chance at anything else.
She was good at this, constantly shifting around with her tongue just enough to keep me on edge, while still keeping the pleasure constant. I wanted more, I needed more, but I wasn’t about to get in the way of this goddess who was in my presence.
I squeezed her hand hard, once again thankful that she wasn’t a human that I needed to be gentle with. It still wasn’t enough, so I reached a hand out and ran it through her hair. Mary gently murmured at that and kept going.
I was losing my composure much quicker than I had expected, but I still had a trick up my sleeve to at least even things up. I snapped my fingers for dramatic effect as I cast a tiny spell to activate a particular engraved magical circuit.
I knew it had worked by the expression on her face. Mary moaned into my dick, a strange but delightful sensation. She took her mouth off of my dick and leaned her head back, my breath catching at the pleasure on her face.
I let her settle in to the newly vibrating toy for a few moments, but I still had to check. “Is that okay?”
Mary leaned back down, running her tongue over my entire length, and then putting the head back in her mouth. I supposed that counted as an answer.
I took my hand out of hers and reached up to start playing with my nipples. Based on the noises she was making in the back of her throat and the way her eyes were locked to my hands, I think she appreciated it almost as much as I did. She certainly deserved to feel as good as I did.
“Touch yourself for me.”
She did as I asked, sticking her hand under her. Almost immediately, I felt her movements start getting less and less coordinated, not that I was doing much better.
“I can’t believe how cute you look down there,” I said, and she twitched. “I’ve always wanted to watch a girl come with my dick down her throat.”
I felt her body tense as she came, but she didn’t pull away from my dick. I had a moment of panic of her running out of air, before remembering that I was dealing with a vampire. A cute vampire, with my dick down her throat.
As she recovered, I tried to gently pull her head off of my dick so that we could do something more fun for her, but my initial pressure wasn’t enough to push her back much. She was looking up at me with clear hunger in her eyes, as if I was some beautiful treasure. If she wanted this for herself, I was happy to let her have it. I let my hand fall back into her hair and she immediately started moving again.
I tried to tell her that I was getting close, but words were difficult. Instead, I mumbled something unintelligible, but hopefully that was enough to get the message across.
Mary made eye contact again. Her piercing gaze was difficult enough to handle normally, let alone on the edge of an orgasm, but I managed to hold on a little bit longer.
Without warning, she shoved my hand away from my chest, her mouth still doing wonderful things to me. I opened my mouth to complain about this horrible affront, but I didn’t get the chance for words.
Mary pinched one of my nipples in her hand, hard. I had no choice but to moan. Mary took her hand away, traced gently around my other nipple, and then pinched again even harder. There was no holding back this time, my entire body shuddered as I came. Mary slowed down but didn’t let up, one hand still tracing my chest gently while the other squeezed my butt, not letting go until I finally relaxed.
Mary shifted up the bed and pulled the still vibrating toy out of herself. I had completely forgotten about it. Apparently that showed on my face, since she giggled as she handed it over to me.
Another quick spell and the toy turned off. I set it down and looked over at Mary, her dark hair streaming down next to her. Once again, I was struck by how incredibly pretty she was.
I laid back down on the bed and pulled her into me. She was so wonderfully soft in a way that felt hard to reconcile with how strong she was, but that somehow made her even more special.
“How are you doing?” I asked her, my voice just above a whisper.
“Is this supposed to be a way to ask if I have energy, human? I can certainly keep going if you’re up for it.”
I reached out and brushed a bit of hair out of her face, Mary’s eyes widening as I touched her. “Oh, don’t worry, I have more planned for you, but that’s not what I was asking. I really wanted to know how you’re feeling. If everything was as fun for you as possible.”
She looked at the ceiling, breaking our moment of eye contact. “That’s really sweet, Chloe. I’m having a great time. Thank you.”
Her voice was slightly shaky at the end, but I didn’t comment on it. We both knew, it didn’t need any words.
I shifted slightly closer and paced my head in the crook of her neck. Hopefully close enough for support, but far enough to give her a bit of time to relax. Her hair was incredibly soft and smelled like cherries. I heard her gasp slightly, a funny and shocking sweet move from a vampire who didn’t actually need to breathe.
She turned her head slightly to the side, finally meeting my gaze. I examined her face for a brief moment. Not seeing any distress or concern in her expression, I pushed forward to meet in a gentle kiss, our lips sliding together easily.
The kiss did not stay gentle for long. With the way I could taste myself in her mouth, it was impossible not to deepen the kiss, to be greedy for more of her. Our whole bodies pressed against each other. That would have been somewhat terrifying to imagine a few hours ago, but now just felt great. I needed more of her, as much as I could get. I had to be the one to pull away from the kiss, completely breathless. Stupid human limitations.
I nestled my head against her neck like earlier, but with an entirely different feeling this time around. The sweet smell of cherries greeting me every time I inhaled only fueled my desire for more of her.
Before I could possibly try to relax, Mary pinched my butt, hard. I retaliated, biting down on her neck. See how the vampire liked being the one getting bitten. Mary yelped and then grabbed my butt again, squeezing me like I was a stuffed animal, not that I was complaining. I pushed into her neck, leaving kisses and bites all over. I couldn’t remember if I could leave marks on a vampire, but I certainly wanted to try on this one.
I shifted down the bed and gently spread her legs open. Mary was looking at me as if I was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
I pressed a kiss into her thigh, making her twitch in a beautiful way. Mary reached out towards me, I assumed to try to hurry me along, but she just gently rubbed across my cheek before playing with the tips of my hair.
She was so... Caring? Gentle? Sweet? Whatever the right words to describe it were, I loved this side of her. I couldn’t get enough of it.
Someone let out a content sigh, it took me a minute to realize it was me.
I finally pressed my face between her amazing thighs, and finally tasted her. She tasted incredible, sweeter than I had expected while not being overwhelming.
I ran my tongue up and down her lips, enjoying her taste, while occasionally stopping to kiss nearby flesh. I finally made my way to her clit and gently licked a circle around it. Her grip in my hair tightened, but she didn’t try to pull me in harder. Not that I had expected anything less from the incredibly gentle vampire, but a girl could dream.
I found myself getting lost in the sensations, the wonderful feeling of Mary pressing herself into me, even as she tried to be gentle with me.
“I’m getting so close again, Chloe. I- I want to kiss you as I finish, if that’s okay.”
Gods, this woman. I wanted to fulfill every last one of her desires, including this one, even as I also wanted to push her over the edge right here and now.
I slowly leaned back and hopped off the bed. “That sounds nice, but if there’s a next time, you’re finishing on my face.”
I treasured the lust filled look that Mary gave me, even while trying to ignore the hint of surprise. It was the time to show her how wonderful she was, not try to use words to convince her.
“How do you feel about toys here?” I asked. “I have a fun idea, but it’s up to you.”
“After your wonderful idea earlier, how could I possibly say no to more toys?”
I wasted no time in grabbing a specific toy. One with a soft vibrating end. Notably, one that could be pressed up against differing body parts and work well for both.
I popped in a new power crystal, and then turned it on, making sure it worked. I glanced over to make sure that Mary was watching me closely, before I gently pressed it against myself.
Mary’s eyes went wide as she watched, quietly whimpering. She started to reach down for herself, but I shook my head. I was catching up, not leaving her behind.
As great as it was to have her watching me with that much desire in her eyes, that wasn’t my goal. I took the toy away from myself, climbed up onto the bed, and straddled Mary. She looked so wonderfully needy under me. As I kissed her, I pressed the toy against her and flipped it on. Mary grabbed my shoulders, deepened the kiss, and bit down on my lip.
I only pulled away from the kiss to breathe again, then pushed the toy back up against myself. Mary whimpered at the loss, before opening her eyes and pulling me into another kiss.
When I felt her finger tracing around my nipples, it was my turn to let out a soft noise. I enjoyed the sensations for a few more seconds, and then moved the toy back over to Mary before my legs gave out.
While Mary was preoccupied, I shuffled my body down over her. She was far too focused on her own pleasure to catch on to what I was doing. I waited until I could see her getting closer to a climax before lifting the toy away from her, pressing it back against me.
With the toy pressed against me, I slowly lowered myself down. I saw Mary’s face light up the exact moment that she caught on to my plan. It still took a tiny bit more awkward shifting, but I finally let my body down, squishing our breasts together in a wonderful way as the toy was sandwiched between us, buzzing away.
Mary’s hips bucked, and it had the wonderful effect of pushing the toy into both of us a little harder. Each little tremor of our bodies traveled to the other, only amplifying the pleasure further. Before we had been at it for long, I felt Mary start to squirm.
“Hold on for me. Just a few more seconds.”
She stared at me with wide eyes and an open mouth, although no words came out. I pushed our lips together one more time, and she shattered. I followed almost immediately, collapsing on top of her as I came.
We continued laying on the bed for a few minutes. Mary moved to get up first, but I interrupted her with a hand on her arm. “I’m not done with you yet.”
Mary looked at me, about to ask a question. I couldn’t resist the opportunity and reached over to her chin, pushing down slightly. At the tiniest bit of pressure, Mary opened her mouth.
I ran my finger over each of her fangs, grinning as she twitched each time. Mary was delightfully expressive, and this was no exception. I grasped one of her fangs with two fingers. Not forcefully, not ever to hurt her, but it was so easy to tease her like this. I could feel her instincts warring against this indignity from a human, but she didn’t waver.
I removed my hand from her mouth and rubbed her head. “You’re such a good girl.”
I brought my hand back down and held my wrist upside down directly in front of her mouth.
“Drink.”
Mary leaned in for a split second, then looked away. “You don’t have-”
“I didn’t ask if you needed this, I told you to drink my blood. You can either tell me this is something you don’t want to do, or listen.”
Mary shivered as she brought her hands up, holding my wrist in place. She trembled as her fangs brushed against my skin, but I just gave her an encouraging smile. It was obvious how scared she was, but we both wanted this. Before I could open my mouth to reassure her that it was okay, she finally bit down.
Her bite felt unbelievably good. I felt pure bliss wash over me, as well as a twinge of vulnerability. Mary could simply drink my blood away, just like that. My instincts from years of training screamed at me to do something, but I trusted her. After a few seconds Mary slowed down her drinking; the bliss slowly faded to where I could properly think again.
I ran my other hand through Mary’s hair as gently as I could. Her expression calmed as soon as I made contact, and I could practically feel her adoration from here.
After a few more seconds of drinking, Mary pulled her fangs out of my arm, without loosening her grip on it. Her gaze was firmly focused on the puncture wounds. Instead of letting go, she began to tenderly lick my wrist. When she shifted her gaze back to meet my eyes, I almost melted.
Reluctantly, Mary let go of my wrist. I immediately pulled her over to me and kissed her once again. The hint of metal mixed with the lingering remnants of me made the kiss infinitely hotter.
As the kiss ended, Mary quickly shifted away from me. For the briefest moment, I felt like I had done something, but a glance at her quickly dispelled those concerns.
She was trying to make herself small and non-threatening, in a way that felt so deeply familiar to so many who had been born like me. Shoulders scrunched in, arms crossed, back slightly hunched as she looked at me. Even her gaze was slightly different, like she suddenly had to keep all of her desire held back now that we weren’t actively touching anymore. Even with her facade, I could still see a hint of longing as she looked at me.
I spoke first. “Thank you for letting me take control. You were amazing. This was so much better than I possibly imagined tonight being.”
“Letting you? Vampires are supposed to be a feared creature of the night, and I couldn’t even drink your blood properly without your direction. I’m sorry if I let you down.”
“Trust me, I’ve heard enough about ‘supposed to’ for a lifetime. Don’t put yourself through that. I had a great time tonight, and it seemed like you did too. Fuck whatever we’re ‘supposed’ to be doing things.”
She gave me a thin smile, which was about what I expected.
I exhaled softly. I was pretty sure I knew what was going on, but I had to check. “Did I do anything wrong? Are you okay?”
“No! You’re totally okay. I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I am still a vampire, after all.”
“You’re worse about this than I am. I thought I made my stance on you pretty clear.”
I smirked at the vampire, who eventually glanced over at me. As soon as I had her attention, I continued, “Or maybe I need to finish in your mouth or make us come together before you get the idea?”
She blushed and looked away, but her body only loosened a tiny amount. I reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it between both of mine. She slightly tensed at first, but then quickly relaxed much further at the continued contact.
“Do you want to cuddle?”
“You don’t have to do that again. I’m not warm, and I know I’m a little bit scary. I’m used to it, it’s fine.”
Was I ever this frustrating? I knew the answer was yes, unfortunately.
“I’m not scared of you, and I’m asking because I want to cuddle with you. Not out of some sense of obligation, but because you’re amazing and kind and soft and cute. And I’m warm enough for two, we can share. Is that okay with you?”
Mary squeaked in the middle of my compliments, but gave me a shy nod at the end. Part of me wanted to press her for more, but it wasn’t the time.
I gently pulled her towards me and wrapped my arms around her. As soon as I touched her, she leaned into me. She was perfect, a cool pillow that happily snuggled against me. I held her tightly as I drifted off to sleep.