Thankfully most of the skin on my arm had healed back to normal. It was only the skin around the bite mark that was still yellow, but no longer flaking. I applied the ointment and wrapped it in a clean bandage. Kacey and Dinah had been letting me borrow their clothes for the past few days, but there was only so few clothes that weren’t pink or purple in their wardrobes.

Elijah had promised to let the girls take me shopping for some clothes of my own, but he thought it would be best to wait until my arm had completely healed. Personally, I think it was to ensure that I stayed that long. I could tell by the way he spoke to me and tried to keep his distance. Elijah still thought I was a flight risk, and I was. The second trouble showed up, I planned to leave.

“Please, Dinah. You promised me yesterday that you would drive us to the library,” Kacey whined.

“You did promise her, Dinah.” Elijah agreed before he took a sip of his coffee.

With a roll of her eyes, Dinah grumbled, “fine! But you’d better be ready in five minutes.”

Elijah smirked as he leant against the counter top. Kacey dashed past me and up the stairs as I wandered into the kitchen. Dinah fiddled with her phone.

“Good morning Terra, how’s the arm looking?” Elijah asked.

“It’s definitely looking better,” I replied and grimly stared at the pot of tea that awaited me.

Elijah followed my line of sight and grimaced. “Yea, it’s a bit of a challenge to choke down, but it fights the infection-“

“-and stops the inflammation, I know.” I whined and pour myself a cup of the tea.

“Choke it down, you can do it. It’s almost been a week, you’re nearly there.”

I sighed with displeasure and stared at the bright yellow tea steaming in the cup. I felt like the more I drank the tea, the worse it tasted.

“Have you ever had to drink this stuff?” I asked. I heard the front door open and then close as someone entered the house. Dinah grinned as she abruptly left the kitchen to greet them.

“Once, when I was fourteen. Never got bitten by a fairy again, for obvious reasons.” Elijah gave me a tight smile and then gratefully took a sip of his coffee, savouring the flavour as Dinah returned with Claude in tow.

For a brief moment, our eyes locked, but I quickly looked away and took a sip of my tea.

“Hey,” Claude said to no one in particular as I nearly choked on the tea.

“Hello there, Claude,” Elijah replied stifling a smirk, “Terra, when I said choke it down, I meant figuratively, not literally.”

I coughed and tried to keep the tea down as I nodded. The intense sourness made me nauseous. I placed the cup on the bench and took a few deep breaths.

“So… what are we doing today?” Dinah chimed as she put her arms around Claude’s neck, Elijah rolled his eyes at them.

“Uh, I don’t mind, what do you want to do?” Claude replied as his eyes darted between Dinah and Elijah. I take another sip of the tea and manage to hold it down without choking this time.

“I don’t mind, we can do whatever you want to do.” Dinah’s word had a suggestive undertone that would make me want to vomit without the tea.

“As long as your bodies stay 30 centimetres apart, I don’t care what you do.” Elijah stated clearly and poured himself another coffee.

“Of course, Mr. Dante, sir.” Claude pressed his lips into a thin line, his whole body stiffened as Elijah slowly walked past them both. Dinah rolled her eyes at her father and Claude avoided eye contact by staring at the floor as Elijah walked into the hall.

“Ugh, I hate it when he does that, I’m so sorry.” Dinah let Claude go and then pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time.

“No, it’s fine, he just cares about you. He’s a dad, it’s his job to make his daughter’s boyfriends uncomfortable.” Claude held her arm gently and offered her an encouraging smile.

I wonder if my dad was like that.

I grabbed an apple off the counter and took the last gulp of my tea. Kacey came thumping down stairs with a bag on her shoulder. Upon seeing Dinah and Claude she immediately blurted “ew!” Dinah groans as Claude tried his best not to smile.

“Hey T, are you coming with me to the library?” Kacey asked as she grabbed an apple off the counter.

“Yea, sure, why not,” I replied with a shrug and bit into my apple.

Kacey grinned and then whirled around to Dinah. “Time to go then,” Kacey said as she walked into the hall. I absently followed Kacey as Dinah grumbled something to Claude.

We all climbed into Dinah’s cherry red Hyundai Gets so she could drive us to the public library. To get in and out of the car, Claude had to get out of the car and push the passenger seat forward so Kacey and I could climb in and out of the back seats. Kacey got out first and wandered towards the library as I climbed out.

“Thanks for the lift Dinah,” I called into the car.

“At least someone has manners,” I heard Dinah mumble as I walked away.

Claude’s fingertips grazed my arm, I flinched away as my attention immediately snapped toward him.

“Hey, uh,” Claude stared at me for a moment, like he was confused by my reaction.

I wonder if Elijah told him about the other night, when I thought he killed a fairy.

“Elijah said something about you seeing me the other night.”

Crap, he did say something.

“Yea, you pulled me out of the water, before I drowned. Except it wasn’t you, was it?” I tried my best not to make eye contact with him. Whatever or whoever that was that saved my life, they looked exactly like Claude.

“I have a twin brother, just so you know. Not that he would ever bother to tell me if he was around. We aren’t that close.”

Of course, a twin, how convenient.

“Huh, so are you both, like super strong and super fast?” I asked crossing my arm. I proceeded to watch him carefully, just incase.

Claude half-smiled and then stared at the floor again. “Yea, well, we are brothers, so it would make sense that we’re the same.”

I’ll believe the twin brother thing when I see you both standing in front of me.

“So, what, are you like Vampires or-“

Claude bursted out with laughter and shook his head, “god no! No, no, that’s so cliche. We’re not- we’re not vampires.”

“Well you’re not human either, so help me out here.” I replied as he tried to stifle a grin.

“Well, we are kind of hunted by Vampires, specifically.”

“So Werewolves?”

“No, not wolves. In case you haven’t noticed Dinah isn’t a fan of dogs.” Claude glanced back at Dinah in her car and chuckled. “No, we’re Incubus.”

Somehow, somewhere, some part of me knew what that was. Realisation crosses my face as I remembered and then I glanced anxiously between Claude and Dinah.

Claude followed my gaze and stammered before quickly saying, “it’s not like that. Incubus don’t exactly have the same powers that our Succubus counterparts have. We can’t make people fall in love with us.”

“Ah,” is all I can say to that.

There are other ways to manipulate people into loving you.

“T, are you coming?” Kacey called from across the courtyard.

“I promise I’m not using my powers or whatever to make her like me. Elijah would kick my ass, for one, and two, if I could make someone like me it would be Elijah.” Claude joked lightly.

“Elijah huh? I don’t get it, but if that’s what you’re into, good for you,” I replied with an understanding nod.

“Oh, no! Not like that! I didn’t mean it like that!” Claude stammered as he tried to explain.

“I don’t really remember a lot about your kind, but you’re supposed to have one of the most efficient circulatory system, or something. That’s why the vampires hunt you, right?” I changed the topic in an attempt to hide my amusement.

“Yes,” Claude answered sounding all too relieved for the change of topic. “We have an incredibly rare type of blood, apparently it is very tasty, and our blood replenishes faster than any other being known.”

“Which makes you the perfect blood bag.”

“Yea, which is kind of how I met Elijah. Anyway, I should probably go before Dinah starts yelling at me,” Claude glanced back to the car, “by the way, if you could just keep all of that a secret, I’d really appreciate that.”

“It’s not my secret to tell,” I replied with a soft shrug.

“Thanks,” Claude smiled weakly. “I’ll see you around, Terra. If you see my brother, can you tell him to call me?”