"So," she mumbled after watching me lick the blood off my fingers for a long minute.

"Mm?" I replied, feeling cocky. I had just taken another's life and given it to myself. Power flooded through my bloodless veins, and for the first time in my demonic, vampiric existence, I felt immortal. It was as if I had shrugged off a weight from my shoulders and aged in reverse. I may have been nineteen, barely an adult, but I could feel thousands of years of life threading through my bones.

"Are," she cleared her throat. "Are you... Human?"

Another one of those creepy, bloody grins hijacked my face. I hummed. "Maybe... Maybe not."

"Cryptic," she huffed, blinking a few more times than could be considered normal. "And mental. Wonderful.”

If I hadn't known any better, I would have missed the nervousness in her tone, her wavering breath. Even then her mask was in place. Cool, calm, and in control. What did I have to do to get to her?

I watched her shift uncomfortably away from the body on the floor, and I don't know how, but I could almost taste the fear in the air. It wafted off her like perfume. A sweet flavor, almost as good as blood. 

Had I maintained some form of control over my mind, I might have questioned my thought process, jumped out a window, and run away from my victims, fearing what I might do next.

Slowly, she reached for the hand mirror on her vanity, analyzing the holes in her smooth skin with interest. I watched her every move. The shallow rise and fall of her chest, in time with her rapidly beating heart, the uneasy flicker of her eyes, tentatively catching my gaze before snapping away again, and the deep crimson stain on her shaking fingers.

She was terrified, and I was mesmerized. Our relationship was off to a pretty rocky start.