Talia's pov

The moment we walked into the living room, Darcia took a seat on the couch with me in her lap. I raised my eyebrows at her for doing so. She, on the other hand, started to shake her head, with her eyes darkened, looking into my eyes.

Stacey and Nicoli took a seat opposite us on the caramel-brown leather chairs. She looked astonished, although more on the confused side. She didn't understand the situation at all, obviously. I wanted to explain it properly, just the two of us alone in my room; however, Darcia is not a patient being.

She adjusted herself in the chair multiple times, looking nervous.

I started, "I, I mean we-" A pause followed. "I'll explain everything down to the details. I think you must be very baffled right now." I finished.

Stacey's eyes scanned Darcia, then they jumped to Nicoli. She knew something was odd here. Her frowning look confirmed it.

"You two are weird." She finally spoke.

"This house, your mannerisms, the way you dress..." She continued.

"Have any problems with that??" Darcia suddenly threatened and raised up a little higher with me in her lap as she got uncomfortable regarding what she said.

I pushed on her shoulders with my hands so she would lean back against the couch. I turned my eyes back to Stacey, who looked concerned about her sudden rudeness.

I wanted to get up from her lap, but her hands attacked me instantly, grabbing me tight from behind.

"Why-y are your eyes red?" Stacey asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

I snapped my head to Darcia's face and saw her crimson-red eyes glaring at her.

"Because I am not a human. Simple as that." She burst out plainly in a low voice. I slapped my forehead in disbelief. It wasn't the best idea to bring Stacey here after all.

"What are you then? Some kind of a monster...Now that I think about it, only vampires have red eyes, don't they?" She asked.

"Yeah, we are vampires," Darcia confirmed, and she pointed her finger at Nicoli to reveal his existence as well.

Stacey nodded with a dull expression. She's usually scared of everything; however, for some reason, she looked calm as she gained acknowledge of this.

"Can you turn humans into vampires like in those scary tales'?" She wondered with eyebrows raised, grabbing the chair rest tighter and leaning closer over the wooden table.

"Pure blood can, but only male vampires have the ability to turn humans into vampires. Only they have venom. Female vampires remained 'pure', as some say." Nicoli answered.

I actually never wondered about the turning phase. Did Darcia ever think about turning me into one of them? It would be much easier for our relationship, though I guess I wouldn't smell so unique to her anymore.

Hearing Nicoli say female vampires remained pure sounded funny to me. Is killing the innocent 'pure' for female vampires as well?

"I'm not afraid of you at all. I've loved vampires since I read fairytales about them. Your secret I will take to the grave." She said with excitement, her fingers curled into a fist, and zero fear behind those eyes.

I had never seen her so happy regarding anything. She probably finds them fascinating. She was always like this. Getting to know every unusual object or living thing she found in the garden.

I hope they don't take her fascination the wrong way. She doesn't mean any harm. It's not like she could harm them other than with words.

"I-I can tell you stories about my long, eternal life if you wish to have knowledge of it..." Nicoli suggested to her. In spite of this, his eyes kept looking at the ground, and his fingers were entangled.

She focused on him, forming a small yet pleasant smile. "Sure," she agreed in a calm voice.

The beautiful weather that thankfully lasted most of the noon turned into a heavy rainstorm. All you could hear were the drops of water splashing against the window. The sound of it made you almost fall asleep. With every minute, the drops got heavier until the window was entirely covered in water.

I returned my gaze to reality as I got lost in the moment. I steadily got up from Darcia's lap, peering into her eyes, so she would not let me stop from getting up again.

"Let me show you my room, Stacey." I insisted confidently, stretching my hand towards her. She accepted it, and I gently pulled her from the leather chair.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Without a word, we walked up the stairs into my room. Most of my belongings were in Darcia's room, although I wanted to finally be alone with her.

Darcia did not allow me to spend a single second with Stacey, despite that we hadn't seen each other in months. We sat on my bed, which was a bit messy, yet we didn't mind it at all. When we were roommates, our room was constantly a big mess.

"I was more than worried about you, Tali. You didn't answer your phone or reply to my messages. But now I know why that wasn't a possibility. This woman owns you." She claimed with a serious look as we sat on the bed.

"Uhm, yeah, I guess she is." I laughed. "But I don't mind it at all. I like that I belong to someone. I hope you understand my weird liking for her behavior." I explained.

She smiled. "Yeah, I do understand although you need your freedom too. She has a lot to learn about human relations." She glanced at the closed door, thinking about many things. Darcia's behavior was the number one worry.

"But what exactly are you two?" She asserted as she returned her focus to me.

How was I supposed to answer that? She adopted me legally, so it looks really weird from a normal person's point of view, and most importantly, she's a vampire.

"Don't get me wrong, she's hot and older, I assume; however, she's not a human. I read a lot about vampires, even though those sayings are only fiction. It will never be easy if you stay human." She stated.

"Those creatures cannot think the same way nor emphasize the same way we do. There's always going to be something that you'll two disagree with."

"But- Stacey, why are you not scared of them? Both of them are beings who could easily feed on us. Yet, you look oddly calm." I wondered deeply. It didn't make any sense why she was so careless.

"I knew Nicoli was not a human when he came into my room and his eyes switched to red for a second. I figured that something was - different. Then seeing Darcia's eyes do the same confirmed my suspicion. I can see that those two care about you. I don't know what happened within those months; it probably wasn't easy. But if they wanted to kill us, they already would have a long time ago."

"I think I was more afraid that a strange man entered my room than that he wasn't a human." She chuckled.

"He was actually so cute when I first encountered him." I guess I'm starting to like him." She confessed.

I stared at her, shocked and surprised. She was right about the last part. If they wanted us both dead, they would kill us. They had plenty of time, yet they aren't such unemotional monsters as we think.

"No worry, Tali, I won't give him a hard time; just tease him a little." She gently tapped on my shoulder.

Did we just both take a liking to vampires?

"We say that any other beings apart from us are monsters, yet I think humans are more disgusting than those monsters. Humans are the most evil of all creatures." Stacey stated, looking into nowhere as she got lost in this truthful thought.

Darcia's pov

I immediately took Talia into my lap. Because that's where she belongs. It doesn't matter what part of the body she holds or sits on. If we're somehow intimately connected, I'm satisfied and happy. She examined my confusion and a bit of angriness for me doing so, still I did not care.

Her friend's face was really fun to look at. She didn't expect this behavior from me. I admit, I am full of surprises.

But then she hit the nerve when she said the two of us with Nicoli are weird.

"Have any problems with that??" I suddenly burst out, feeling the anger internally. I accepted Talia's request for Stacey to stay here until she finds a job and a place of her own. It was a hard decision to make because I didn't like this girl one bit.

Talia pushed down on me so I would calm down. She wanted to get up from my lap, but my hands stopped her from doing so instantly. My arms locked around her upper body. Almost creating pressure on her chest. I stared at Stacey with full hatred.

"Why-y are your eyes red?" She asked suddenly, furrowing her eyebrows.

After I confessed what I am, her reaction was disappointing. Extremely unfulfilling. The image of her face when I was saying it out loud should have been terrifying, except instead, she found my existence interesting. I was expecting her to be shocked and scared, but instead she seemed intrigued. I was taken aback by her reaction and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I wanted to make sure that she knew that her inaction had only made things worse.

One thing, though, that she asked sent me back to my deep thoughts.

Turning a human into a vampire is a dangerous and painful process for the individual. As the venom enters a human inside. It slowly changes their physiology, altering their cells and DNA.

Eventually, the individual is transformed into a vampire, with heightened senses and increased strength and speed. However, it cannot reach the strength of pure-blood vampires. That being said, it can be fatal if not done correctly. The transformation process may take several days and can be extremely difficult to handle for a human if the person is not strong enough to handle the venom.

Talia then decided to get up from my lap and take Stacey upstairs to her original room. I, however, was thinking about that question too deeply. Minutes passed by, and the unusual silence made me snap from my thoughts and turn my head to Nicoli, who was staring at the chair where Stacey sat.

The expected lessons he gave me after I made a hard time to Talia did not happen. The silence meant he was thinking about something as well.

"Do you like that girl?" I asked in a low, calm voice.

"W-What?" His eyes shifted on me instantly, rubbing his neck.

"No, of course not." He denied plainly after a second. "I-I will go feed now, but I won't take a long time." He announced as if I would miss him here.

I had no time to reply sarcastically, as per usual, because he left the next second after he finished the sentence.

It would be more than awful for him to experience the agony he lived through the last time because of a human girl. I am certain that's the reason he's behaving this way. He's fighting his feelings back, even though he knows too well it cannot be stopped from spreading.

I, myself, am risking a lot more than just exposing my existence. I am breaking our laws by loving a human girl.

I was guilty of many doings. Most of them I was proud of. Despite that, sometimes I think about my father and mother and what kind of punishments I would go through if they discovered this prohibited relationship.