Meredith had always known about magic. Her family was magic, one of the most powerful mage lines out there. Having lost her parents to all the fighting though, she stayed far away from it, focusing on school and lading a primarily normal life.
Unti...
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Mer peeked out of the corner of her eye at the man who'd saved her from a worse fate as he sipped a drink from a short round glass. The drink had an unavoidable fragrant aroma, sweet yet sharp in her nose. It smelled good, and her stomach turned as she imagined it was some blood laced mess of a vampire concoction. It was brown so it could be part blood if it was all nasty. In an act worse than Judas's betrayal, her stomach grumbled in hunger. If only she hadn't been so picky about the food Rush had given her.
"Do you want one?" The vampire raised his hand to the bartender before she could sputter a hard no, and it wasn't long before the guy set a glass in front of her.
Oh dear, what had she just signed on for. This guy had to know she wasn't a vampire, and this was a vampire bar, so what exactly did he expect her to consume? She was nervous to decline after he'd saved her, and she smelled it again—still sweet but sharp like coffee almost. Did she risk taking a sip only to have him cackle about how she'd just consumed her own kind? Cannibalism was not on her bucket list.
"It's hot chocolate." The vampire chuckled lightly, taking another swallow of his.
The amusement and smile on his face didn't really resemble Mark's or Neil's at all. It was soft like Rush's smiles, but she'd been told not to trust anyone, no matter how nice they seemed.
"There's also more caffeine in it than any drink has a right to have. I used to drink it as a human, and I never kicked the habit. Might knock your socks off if you aren't used to caffeine." He nudged it toward her when she hadn't touched it.
Placing her bets that this guy wouldn't be deranged enough to save her then feed her blood, she just barely sipped it before setting it back on the counter. Warmth coursed through her with a charge of energy, and it was so much like the coffee that Paul made for her each morning that she eased into her chair with a smile.
"Thank you," Mer managed, and he nodded, drinking his hot chocolate with a strange smile plastered on his face. It wasn't like Rush's smiles, she decided as she looked again. It stretched the man's face like he was gregariously happy, unlike Rush's tepid amusement. The only question was why. Was this guy happy to have company? Or was this amusing to him before he planted her face on the bar and drank her.
"No problem. That guy disgusts me." He waved a hand to dismiss her thanks as he drank
They sat in silence for so long that she nearly knocked her hot chocolate over when he touched the side of her head and pulled her against his shoulder. He continued to wrap his arm around her neck like they were old friends, hanging it off her shoulder, and her breath stuttered.
"You're so afraid of me. You know I did you a favor." His dark eyes bored into hers just as predatorily as Neil Arc's had, and she trembled under his hold.
"You're a vampire," Mer said. There was no other reason necessary to fear him.
"Yep. Creature of darkness, savage monster, scourge of the earth, whatever." The man laughed so loudly that she was nervous he might be nuts. "And you're an adorable little mage, Dusk." That one word rolled through her mind and clicked as if it had been a key to a lock in her mind.
