“Who is ‘Rea’?” Rea, Christina, asks me her gaze firmly stuck to me as if to pry the truth out of me by force of will alone. “Syr? Vael? Who. Is. Rea?”

“Rea,” I call to her, laying on the soft bed. I don’t know what it’s made of but it’s so much nicer than the beds I usually sleep on. I can’t even understand just how expensive all of this must be. It’s all so beautiful, but I’d be more distracted by it if I hadn’t just come from Rea’s place.

This room is closed off from the world, a place where people can lie together without the truth having to intrude on their moment of passion. Everything about this place seems suited to directing my eyes back towards the girl with me instead.

“Rea is you,” I say, taking a moment to explain how I came up with her nickname. How I wanted a name that no one else used for her. Through the explanation she shifts in place, gradually loosening from the momentary stiffness that had taken her body, a show of emotion that she usually wouldn’t allow.

She’s silent for a time after hearing my explanation, looking down at me where I lie in the bed.

“Rea…” she says the name again, her face still cold and stiff so that I can’t tell what she’s feeling.

She’s not offended, is she? Or is she thinking about something else?

Her attention falls away as she sinks into her own mind, so I sit up and reach out for her hands where they rest on her lap. The freezing cold reminds me of the ice that sometimes flows down the streams in spring. It’s numbing at first, but my own body heat warms her touch to where it no longer stings.

“Syr,” she says, her eyes lifting to me. Her gaze wonders, still expressionless as before, but just the act of looking at me as she is suggests at the thoughts in her mind. She opens her lips just a hair, breathing in, though her undead state should mean that she doesn’t need to. She’s hungry again, but the invisible chains she binds herself with have made sure she can’t express it properly.

“Rea, so um…” I stumble with the words, her hand warming in mine as she slowly eases into the bed closer to me. She’s not offended, and she’s relaxing her expression, the ice flaking from the cracks that form.

“What is it?” She asks, her weakened voice nearly breaking.

“So, ah, about the blood,” I say, shuffling closer and playing with her hands. Now that they’ve warmed up, she’s not breaking apart at the joints anymore, I bend each of her fingers slowly and carefully to bring her back to life. “How does it work?”

“There are two separate forms of feeding,” she explains, “There is the hunt, drinking from my prey until they are dead, and then there is… I have not a name for it. It is when someone such as yourself freely offers themselves to me, and it is something else. It’s another relationship entirely and I can’t fully describe it with words.

“I can promise that I won’t kill you, and if it hurts too much, I’ll stop immediately,” she’s speaking fast but her eyes are flicking about even faster, and it seems that her words are starting to loop back around as she reassures me that she’ll be careful of me.

“Okay,” I nod, cutting her off.

She startles, blinking as she meets my eyes. It’s already quite warm in this room, and I doubt that I’m going to need to be armoured for anything that comes next. It takes some effort to peel off my armoured top, and I’ve gathered a bit too much sweat underneath. I hope she doesn’t mind too much. I do stink a little.

Rea has her mouth open as she slowly breathes in and out, even though she shouldn’t need to. Her cold breath tickles at my skin, as I adjust my clothes.

“What?” I ask her as she continues to stare.

“You don’t dress like this outside, do you?” she asks. Her expression is frozen, and I can barely make out what she means with her words, but looking at her dress again, I figure it might be something to do with how she always wears such long sleeves.

Maybe her clothes have some sort of protective enchantment, it sounds like something rich people would have, and it would make sense that they’d want to have clothes that cover as much as their armour. It’s what I’d do if I had the money for it, that way I could always have pretty clothes that work as armour even when I’m not expecting a fight.

“Sometimes,” I reply with a shrug, running my hand over my shoulder and neck.

She drifts a little closer to me, hesitant to cross the last gap between us. The distance between us is shrinking moment by moment, and this deep within her cold aura, wearing it down, I wonder how long we can keep up this game.

“So, ah, do I cut myself? The neck?” I ask, trying to bury my nervousness. Lothar says that confidence is important with this sort of thing.

She shakes her head firmly, her stiff expression commanding me to obey as she holds out her hand, asking for mine. I lay my hand on hers, and I can feel her through my necromantic magics. With half a thought I could force her off of me, easily, even if she’s stronger than me, but I won’t need to do anything.

She won’t hurt me.

A flash of hunger flares to life in her eyes, a predatory desire that barely even shows through her frozen expression. She’s hesitating, holding herself back. She’s afraid to let herself go, and be honest with herself.

Her fingers are pressing into my arm as her eyes drift over me, but she does nothing to me, trembling in anticipation as she holds herself back. So, I take the next step for her.

I take her hand in mine and press my sharpened nail against my skin. It hurts, a harsh stinging pain but not nearly so much that I need to care. I’ve been through worse before, and this time there’s something to distract me from the stinging in my arm.

Rea’s eyes shine bright with excitement, an eager joy more honest than anything I’ve seen from her. Her frozen expression melts as she leans in closer, her hands cupping around mine as she captures dribbling blood. It’s only a small current, but she covets the red blood flowing from me like it’s an invaluable elixir.

She stares up at me, her eyes shivering as she cleans away the blood that’s gathering in my hand, her every freezing touch tickling me. Faint shivers run through her flesh as if she’s suddenly realizing the cold that’s consumed her body, and she clings to me in desperation. A sliver of warmth in a cold world.

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I am needed.

She knows exactly who I am, and what I am, and she doesn’t care. She still wants to hold onto me. She still looks at me with such sweet eyes, and she won’t run away from me. She won’t leave me. She won’t die.

She won’t turn me away when I tell her how I feel.

Her hair has slipped down in front of her face, so I gather it in my fingers and brush it back, but when I see her eyes and the deep wanting in her expression and the chains that are holding her back. I can’t let her stay like this. It’s a pitiful sight, someone chained down like this, just barely pulling her far enough to get a taste of the world that she cannot have.

I dig my fingers into her scalp, careful not to hurt her with my nails, stirring a new magic into her.

“Drink,” I order her, pulling away the chains that hold her back.

In one beautiful moment, I can see her become free. She pulls my arm down and sinks her fangs into me, some magic or power drawing out the blood faster than should be possible. Yet, it’s not like the predators that I’ve watched slaughter people in the streets before, she grips me tight but not so much that it hurts.

Her ice-cold touch burns through me, but it’s not like the frigid cold of winter, and more like a cold blanket on a summer day.

Her eyes, burning flames caught in the ice, lock onto my own, her grip on my arm shifting to get a better angle as she presses herself up against me. Her cold body is insulated by her thick dress but I can still feel the shape of her body pressing against mine, harder than it should be; frozen solid. I pull her closer as she bites at my arm again, a shiver passing through her as she gasps for air that she shouldn’t even need.

Her back arches and her teeth sink in deeper still, I look down at her where she’s gripping me, hiding her face. I can’t see her but the way she’s shivering in uncertainty, both desperate with hunger and tender with concern for me. She pushes herself onto me, even though we’re already in each other’s arms, she wants more.

“Cute,” I whisper, brushing my fingers through her hair but she presses herself down to avoid looking at me.

She shakes her head, growling as she freezes in place, but the growl dies into a whimper before she finds her strength again. There’s something she wants to say or do but she’s fighting to get it out.

“It’s okay,” I say, rubbing my hand through her hair as she finds the strength to say what she wants to say. My head is a little bit woozy, and I rush my healing magic through my body as my blood runs low. It’s rough to replace the blood in my body but it’s the sort of thing that I’ve been doing since the beginning, and so even now I can replace my blood a little.

I don’t have the same mastery as Anna over my æther use, but I have more sheer power, and I’m used to using it where I need to. I can keep going for a little longer.

Rea, however, is fighting, pulling herself off my arm. She pushes me away.

She tears her fangs from my arm, and it stings but it’s healed in a moment. A little of my blood sprays over her face as she takes a moment to breathe, huffing in and out as she bites at her lower lip. She pushes my arm aside and meets my gaze.

“Everything’s okay,” I say, rubbing at her shoulder. “Is something wrong? Is there something else I can do?”

“Stupid idiot,” she whispers, her lips still wet with my blood. Her face flashes with anguish and she trembles, leaning over herself and clutching at her stomach, looking down and away from me as a wave of frost floods over the bed from her. A pained keening moan escapes her lips, though she’s barely paying attention anymore.

“It’s okay,” I say, wrapping her up in my arms while she recovers from whatever is happening to her. Her own healing is enough to fix whatever it is, but just because a wound is healed, doesn’t mean that nothing is wrong.

The frost is thick enough to hurt, but that doesn’t matter. Rea is weak in my arms, and I have to pull up her head so that I can look her in the eyes. Tears are streaming down her cheeks, freezing before I can rub them away.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?” I ask.

Did I hurt her? Was it the healing magic? Or is there something else wrong?

Rea doesn’t reply instantly, taking time to gather herself before finding her words.

“Too much,” She shakes her head, deepening her frost magic as she scowls down and away from me. “You’ve giving me too much, you’re pale as a ghost. You need a healer.”

“Ah, oh,” that’s what it is. She was worried about me. Even while she was lost in drinking my blood, something which is clearly very satisfying for her, she still paused to think about me. Even betraying my orders to stop herself from hurting me.

She trembles in my arms.

“It’s fine. I can heal myself,” I say, rubbing at her back.

She looks up at me, her eyes shining as she slowly takes in my words, accepting them with a slight nod before sighing. Sometimes she seems so completely inhuman, not breathing, not shuffling around as people do, and not even blinking. She hides herself away under a mask of something inhuman, but right now she’s expressing herself so clearly that I can’t miss anything.

Her arms grip me tighter as she shudders a relieved breath.

As she winds down, she grips my bloody hand, her nostrils flaring as she sniffs at me. Her eyes turn up to me as she starts licking at my healed skin, her freezing tongue glimmering where it shatters, healing back until she’s warm enough to move without hurting herself. Once the blood on my wrist is gone, she moves on to my fingers, glancing up at me as I try not to let my ticklishness get to me.

She blinks slowly, her eyes drifting over me as her cold breath runs over my skin, covering me in goosebumps.

She smiles, knowing that her every touch and breath cuts down to the bone. She slowly runs her tongue along my arm and down to my hand, cleaning the blood from each finger in turn. She is thorough, and even though I squirm under her she doesn’t stop, smiling devilishly as she presses me down and continues. It seems like it’s less and less about the blood anymore.

Would now be the right time to say something?

Can I ask for a kiss? Or would that just ruin the moment?

I remember what happened with Adeleya, it’s not the same, but it still bothers me. It’s enough to make me stop before I can do anything stupid.

Rea is still watching my every expression, but she’s not stopping herself. She sits up and wraps her arm around my neck pulling us together. Her face is right before mine, not quite so close that we’re touching, but drifting closer with every breath. She whispers her wordless desires and they run along my lips, as I run my hand along her side and rest it on her back.

Our lips touch, and she moans.

Her eyes are pressed closed, so I copy her, focusing on the sensation of her freezing lips pressing against my own.

I didn’t know that cold could burn quite like this.

Her hard lips melt and soften as I press out my tongue to encourage the cold from her. With a shudder, she opens her lips and her tongue, hard and cold as ice, reaches out for me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but it feels right just to pull the cold out of her, and she doesn’t seem against it.

My teeth hit hard against her fangs as I push too hard against her face.

I pull away, only realizing as my head is filled with sparkling colours that I’ve forgotten to breathe. Rea is smiling and laughing, her chest moving up and down with excitement.

She’s beautiful.

My face is cold, verging on numb. Using my fire magics, I spark a fire in my mouth, bringing life back to me before I heal the burns that form along my tongue.

I grab Rea again and pull her close before she can stop me. I don’t want this moment to be broken or stolen away by anything.

Rea isn’t going to leave me. I can be honest with her, and I can say everything that I feel and she still won’t leave me. She can be a part of my new family.

I look into her face, her fine features as beautiful as anything I’ve ever known.

We could build a home together. A place where we belong.

A place we can be safe.

Her eyes drift away from me, staring at nothing in this room but at something beyond it. The energy with which she was gripping me a second ago is now gone and she’s only still sitting because I hold her up.

She shudders, not the same as before, a pitiful whine escapes her lips.

“Rea?” I ask, but she doesn’t hear me, her eyes flooding with tears that start to run down her cheeks, overflowing her eyes.

She whimpers and then cries out desperately in terrible pain.

“Rea, what’s happening? Are you okay?”

I wrap her up, pulling a blanket around us and holding her tight as she weeps, pressing her head up against my chest. I try to talk to her, but she can’t hear me, so I speak some soothing words to calm her down.

I hold her until she falls asleep, and then I stay the night by her side. I brush her hair and hold her hand. The ice that was filling her body fades to nothing as she warms, her glittering tears melting on the sheets.