Forbidden Fruit

Chapter 3: Laziness & Information

Thomas

Chloe's POV

I hear my alarm go off for the third time and I grumble to myself in annoyance at the shrilling noise that fills the room.

I go to slap the snooze button again when suddenly the door is thrown open, and annoyingly light steps cross my room only to pull the very warm blankets that I was in the middle of using, from off of me.

I groan in annoyance and reach for the sweet slice of heaven that was rudely snatched from me, but all I grab is air. The failure forcing me to roll over with my best scowl, glaring at my closet friend that I may just have to kill. Thomas looks at me with a raised brow and a twinge of annoyance he can't hide in his brow.

"I will kill you, Trouble. We were supposed to head out ten minutes ago." He tells me and I frown on confusion as I try to force my brain awake, my clock reading just after ten pm.

I try to figure out just why I would want to wake myself up so early on one of my few days off, but my mind comes up blank. "And why would we need to have left five minutes ago?" I ask, feeling like I got woken up for no reason, and I'm this close to putting him under the influence with my pheromones so I can kick him out and get some rest.

"Celeste, Chloe! Because Chan gave us a recon mission in Revelia to find the source of the Shadow rumors." He reminds me, his long white hair in a clearly intentionally messy look, his clothes clubbing ready for once. His stark red eyes striking against his pale skin.

I've asked him on many occasions if he wanted me to give him a Dagaz Rune, one that allows him to freely change his appearance at will, no matter how grand or small the change. While it's illegal for Enchanted to hide their Daemon attributes, and therefore pass as another Species, for everyone else, it's used freely and often. That is, if you have the money or connection to a Magi.

Lucky for me, if you're a glass half full kind of asshole, my very own father is a Warlock and passed down his magic affinity to me.

Not that I want anything from that petty bastard.

When I was young, he taught me how to apply the rune on paper again and again until I could administer it myself. At the time it was so that I could hide my fox features, evidence and a tell-tale sign that I was an Incubus. A nightly. A sex-daemon.

It was easier to hide that part of myself in shame and disgust than to ever teach me to appreciate both sides of myself.

Easier for them at least.

Now, I use the Dagaz Rune hidden on the base of my neck behind my reddish hair, to hide my Warlock genes, changing my cat like pupils into human ones and hiding the other runes I have permanently branded onto my skin. I don't carry my grimoire and except Thomas and Chandler, no one even knows I'm a Hybrid.

While Thomas is a pure blooded Vampire and Divine Child by right, his blood red eyes set him apart from most. Hundreds of years ago, Thomas disowned his Clan, rejected the Vampire ways before fleeing Roma. He hasn't returned since, and has been living among Nightlies for over two hundred and fifty years. Even so, he still gets dirty looks, name called and even assaulted for turning his back on his people. Vampires and Divine Children alike. There aren't many Unclaimed Vampires in Kaulike, most of them living across the Tagian Ocean in Vinshore.

I haven't used magic or studied it in over two hundred years, the knowledge, spells and culture that I was able to gather in the first half of my life fading away as time goes on.

Even still, I consider asking Thomas again if he would like me to make him the exception, hating seeing someone with such a large heart get so much hate. While most people only see a lethal, Unclaimed, terrifying Vampire, all I can see is the same man that I met in Ameden all those years ago where I didn't have anywhere to go. But as I go to, I change my mind, reminding myself of the answer I never fail to get.