Every passing second with my girlfriends in front of me, I got more aware of my thirst. But it didn’t make the choice in front of me any easier. I was going to feed on both of them. At this point, there was no denying that. The question was, however, who to bite first. It was as if your two favourite dishes were presented in front of you… Which one do you start with?

My girlfriends must’ve seen my conundrum as they smiled to each other and Em gave Ria a nod. To which Ria moved forward a little, her neck only a couple of centimeters away from my mouth.

I was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and licked my lips, after which I slowly brought my mouth closer to her neck till my lips touched her skin.

Em put her hand on Ria’s back, as Ria herself supported herself by putting her hands on my left thigh.

When I finally opened my mouth and dug my teeth into her soft skin, she gasped and her hands tightened. For me, the quenching of my thirst felt just divine. Her sweet taste made me feel intoxicated. I couldn’t think about anything else other than her.

Ria weakly managed to push me back from her as she was breathing heavily. The look on her face… It was abundantly clear she had enjoyed every moment.

But now the both of them had decided that it was Em’s turn. Em pushed me with my back against the frame of her bed, and then practically forced her neck onto me. It was a bit rougher than I expected, but I definitely didn’t dislike it.

I accepted her offer with open hands, or better said, open fangs as I bit down onto her. And just as I had experienced with Ria, I just got overwhelmed by her flavor. I relished in it. Let myself get submerged in the experience.

I’m pretty sure Em and Ria swapped at least one more time, but I honestly couldn’t tell you how many times exactly. I was drunk, so amazingly out of this world, because of my girlfriends. All I could tell was that my thirst had well and truly subsided when I came to. Em was just dabbing off my mouth with a paper tissue, while Ria just looked at me with a bright smile.

“Are you okay?” Em chuckled. “You looked out of it for a while. You were just smiling like an idiot at the ceiling for a minute.”

“I was.” I laughed back. “How are you? I don’t remember how much I drank.”

“You drank quite a lot.” Ria nodded. “But there were two of us, so we are more than fine.”

Em nodded to that. “If there had been only one of us, we might have been in some trouble, though. Not that I think you would hurt us.”

“We would probably just have felt a bit more… drained.”

Em stopped what she was doing and looked over her shoulder at Ria.

Ria just grinned, to which both Em and I started laughing loudly.

“That was pretty funny.”

“Yeah, that was very on-point.” Emma agreed with my judgment. Then she looked back at me and just passed the paper towel one last time over the corner of my mouth. “There, now you aren’t leaking anymore either.”

“Was it that bad?”

She showed the paper towel to me. There was quite a bit of blood on it.

“Oh.”

“Looks like you are quite the drooler.” She winked.

“I didn’t spill anything on my shirt or anything, right?”

“Almost.” Ria giggled. “But Em was fast enough.”

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“Phew.” Blood was still really hard to get out of clothes, even if I could drink it.

“Emma! Aurora! Corelia!” I could hear the faint sound of Em’s mom’s voice in the distance.

“Right on time.” Em chuckled and threw the paper towel in the bin from where she was sitting. “Ready to go and eat some soup?”

“I’m not really thirsty right now, but I’ll try.” I scratched my cheek. “Well, I’m not thirsty in that way.”

Em rolled her eyes and Ria threw a little pillow at me, which I didn’t even bother to dodge.

Once we arrived downstairs, Em’s dad had just finished putting the deep plates for the soup on top of the table. As it looked like all the spoons had already been distributed, we didn’t really have to do anything else. Then Em’s mom and Karin walked into the living room with a trolley with on top of it a big pot of soup. The soup smelled great.

“Is that chicken soup?” I asked.

“It is. It’s chicken noodle soup.” Ilse smiled. “Do you like it?”

“I sure do.” I smiled back. “And this one in particular smells incredibly delicious.”

We all took turns to get ourselves some soup in our plates and then sat down together at the table. The first spoonful of it proved that it tasted just as good as the smell had betrayed.

“Isn’t it hard for you to eat?” Em’s dad asked. “You said you don’t really get hungry like normal people do.”

“It definitely needed some getting used to.” I nodded. “It’s still hard at times, especially if I don’t particularly like the food. But when the food is genuinely tasty, it goes down just as easily.”

“That’s a very nice compliment, dear. I appreciate it.” Ilse reached across the table and put her hand on mine with a big smile. “I hope you slept well?”

“It was an emotional evening.” I didn’t bother lying. “But I will be fine in the end.”

“And a good cup of warm soup always helps to comfort as well!” Ria added.

“That’s true.” I smiled. There were not many things that could beat a tasty warm beverage on a cold winter day.

After lunch, we all worked together to clean up the dishes from yesterday and today as well. Even cleaning up a big part of the kitchen so the chef could return to a workplace that was spick and span. When we had just finished cleaning, the doorbell of the mansion rang.

“Are we expecting anyone, hon?” Paul asked.

“Not that I know…” Ilse shook her head.

I immediately shot up in attention.

“Should we… open the door…?” Ilse asked, even more hesitant now that I had reacted.

The bell rang again.

“It could also just be a signed letter or something…” Em replied.

Em’s mom sighed. “Let’s just go see who it is. Your friend told us she would keep us safe, and I don’t want to live in fear.” She stepped forward. “Lives, even the immortal ones, are too short and too valuable for that.”

While I admired her confidence, I still insisted on standing in front of her as she would open the door.

Right as the bell rang for a third time. I opened up the front door, and after a second of nervousness, I got greeted by a familiar face.

Alessia was standing in front of me in a dark blue long coat, paired with some black, from what I could tell, thigh high-heeled boots.

“Alessia? What are you doing here?” I immediately lowered my guard. Didn’t Aileen say that it would be best to meet her together with Viktor back at the castle?

Alessia looked rather surprised at my question. “Didn’t you get my message?”

I felt around my pockets to look for my phone. “Ah… It must still be in Em’s room… I haven’t been awake for too long.“

“Aurora?” Ilse prodded me. “Is this your mother?”

I nodded. “It is. This is the Alessia we talked about yesterday.”

“It’s lovely to meet you.” Alessia smiled and extended her hand towards Em’s mom, who shook it without much hesitation.

Alessia explained that she had talked to Aileen yesterday about what had happened and what we had agreed upon when it came to dinner arrangements. While she hadn’t disagreed on hosting a dinner back at the castle, she also stood on the fact that she wanted to come and personally talk to the family as fast as she possibly could, which is why she had sent me a couple of messages. Messages that I hadn’t seen as I had been too busy either crying or sleeping, and I hadn’t really touched my phone since.

“My apologies for that, I should’ve kept a closer eye on my phone.”

“Don’t worry too much about it, Aurora.” Ilse rubbed my back as Alessia walked into the mansion.

“In hindsight, I should have sent a message to Emma or Ria as well.” Alessia added and then turned herself to Ilse. “Thank you for inviting me into your lovely home.”

“That’s no problem at all.”

The rest of the family had been keeping a close eye on us as we had walked to the front door, so it was not a big surprise when Em and Ria came forward to greet Alessia first as we walked into the living room.