Fangs of Desire (Book II) (Completed)

Chapter V

When she could see again, Emma felt glad that she had nothing to throw up in her stomach. Her feet hardly found the ground and she caught herself falling, using her hands to sommersault in an attemp to soften her fall. She half cursed and half whined while holding her head.

"You ok?"

She turned to the side to see Vihan emerge from a portal of shadows but his expression was amused rather than worried. Soon the shadows disappeared under his sleeves and added on to his tattoos, not leaving a single trace behind. Emma looked around, they seemed to be in some kind of an apartment, papers and items scattered around due to the force of the portal.

"I'll be fine."

She closed her eyes while waiting for her balance to get better and got on her feet, looking around the place. It was a simple room with a window and two connecting doors, one to the bathroom and other to the bedroom she guessed.

"Is this your house?"

"Not exactly, it's just where I reside in the underworld."

"Underworld?"

Emma looked at him in confusion.

"Basically a huge hangout place for the supernatural, White Heather is also located here. It would be a hassle to get you in from the front door so I warped us inside."

Another wave of nausea hit her stomach and Emma leaned on a counter, waiting for the feeling to go away.

"Motion sickness, happens to almost everyone the first time they use shadow travel."

He walked over to the kitchen area which wasn't far from where they stood and looked through the cupboards, taking out a cup and a paper pack. He seemed to fumble with the coffee maker for a while before talking to Emma again.

"So, how long has it been since you died?"

"Uh," Emma walked over to a nearby armchair and sat down, "Around six months I think, so not too long."

"Oh man, you're that new?"

He looked back with an expression between worried and amused, Emma just sighed and leaned on her hand.

"Sucks that I wasn't born about a hundred years ago I guess."

"I wouldn't say that," he took his finished coffee from the machine and sat on the sofa adjacent to the wall, casually throwing his legs on the coffee table, "You lack in experience, but you have a fresher view of the world. Don't get me wrong but kindred don't exactly age well."

Emma tilted her head,

"What do you mean by that?"

Vihan took a long sip from his coffee, seeming to look around the words in his mind.

"Vampirism might conserve your body but it won't conserve your mind. Thus it's not unheard of for kindred to have suicidal tendencies." He took another sip of his coffee, waving it around as he continued to talk, "I mean look around you, Kat is the most sensible kin I've met in decades and yet even she looks ready to die at times."

Emma kept quiet for a while at his words, from what she had experienced so far most of what he said sounded like the truth.

"Is that why there aren't many kindred here in the underworld?"

"Eeh, well not exactly. Yeah you dudes can be chaotic at times but there are freakier people down here. It's more the history that makes you unwelcome."

"Oh."

Emma leaned back on her chair and looked at the window, the drapes were pulled close.

"When I take you inside White Heather you have to be quick if you don't want anyone to catch up with your plan. Usually, it's crowded enough that they wouldn't care about a new face, but,"