There was a couple enjoying tea and biscuits at the linoleum brunch table by the backdoor. I ducked my head at them, then we politely ignored one another. While they returned to their conversation in French, I quietly unpacked my food and used the proffered Sharpie to write ‘yellow suite’ on every meal box as the sign on the fridge requested.
I felt more than saw when D’abel rounded the open door frame, still naked. I cleared my throat and he joined me so that we were shoulder to shoulder as I heated up a mac’n’cheese in the microwave.
“Did you enjoy your walk, mine Tessa?” he murmured.
“You’re not going to ask me what that is?” I diverted, motioning to the microwave to move his penetrating gaze away from me. He shook his head, unnerving eyes roving over my drying chestnut hair.
The other couple left with their mugs of tea and a cordial wave. I pressed the small of my back against the counter, curling my fingers around the lip.
“I saw metal tubes in the sky as well. Should I ask you about those?” When I crossed my arms and watched mutely as the timer ticked down, he sighed and slid my paper bag closer to inspect. “Humans have always been inventors.”
“The corner store has a fiend in it,” I informed him while he sniffed the cream cheese with slitted nostrils. He set it on the counter beside my palm and pulled out the crackers next.
“How do you know?” he asked, turning the box in his hands.
I shrugged, popping the microwave open with two seconds to spare. I pulled out my little black tray with excitement and tossed the plastic film into the trash. “They’re never a whole person when they’re human. Just the good parts.”
I left D’abel at the counter sifting through first-aid supplies and snacks while I sat at the table, brandishing my fork and spoon. He shook the whiskey bottle next.
“And how do you see them if your eyes deceive you?”
I shoved a hot spoonful of macaroni in my mouth and let it burn off my taste buds instead of telling him the shameful truth right away. But he waited, letting the silence stretch on.
“I don’t,” I said, swallowing my words with just as much fire as the mac’s lava temperature. “I just feel whatever they want me to feel. That’s how I decide if I’m right or not.”
D’abel creased his brow. “You said they’re only the good parts of humans.”
“That’s right.” Time to try the fish. I speared it on my fork and scooped up some mashed potato with more force than necessary.
“Love, adoration, safety, loyalty, lust, attention…”
“Bing bing bing. If they make me feel soft and cozy, it’s a pretty good sign.”
I shoved the fish in my mouth and hunched my shoulders, as if being crude would armor me from our conversation. D’abel felt the edge of my willingness to talk about it and settled for watching me eat instead. And what a show it must have been because I was truly ravenous for hot food. I dug in, forgetting to chew, and before I knew it, the meal was gone and I still felt empty. I stood, grabbed another meal from the freezer, and stuck it in the microwave without even looking at the contents. It whirred to life, and I parked myself against the counter again, drumming my fingers.
“These hollow foods,” he started, picking up the red box I’d discarded. Turns out I was microwaving a shepherd’s pie. “You cannot see or feel the presence of a thrall, so you refrain from eating fresh produce and meat.”
“That’s right.”
He grunted, and his long tail curled up between us at our feet while he contemplated my strategy. “You are clever.”
“It’s kept me safe so far,” I admitted. “But it won’t forever. Which is why I agreed to all this in the first place. I need better strategies–better tools–or else I’m going to make a mistake.”
“And it is not enough that when we finish our bloodbond, your spirit and mine will share all? My power, your will.”
“I don’t know what that means, D’abel,” I sighed with frustration.
We stared at each other for a long breath, then D’abel exhaled with a turn of his lips. “For all my millenia, I cannot find more crystalline words. You will have my all. My spirit is yours. Your spirit is mine. Our hearts will beat in sync and we will hunt theauftogether for as long as you will it.”
“Am I going to sprout a tail and fangs?” I asked, gesturing to the appendage slithering over my foot. It was heavier than it looked.
D’abel grinned. “No. I did say our spirits, not our bodies. Butthis,”he said, brushing his knuckles across my collarbone, “is not all you will be. You will heal faster, perceive more…”
“And you’ll be immune to iron.”
“Yes.”
I let out a slow breath.