Mine

Part 23 (Colby's POV)

"If we all move in to this place, we wouldn't be able to stay." I say, staring at the large pool. "We can't pay for this."
Penny laughs. "Did you think I was going to have you guys pay for it's entirety?"
"I'm not letting you pay for this."
"Really, Colby. It wouldn't make much of a dent on money."
"What do you mean?"
"How do you think my clan has so many houses?" She asks. "We're vampires. We live for thousands upon thousands of years. We protect because we don't have any predators, really. We have more than enough money to help pay for another house."
"Yeah, but you can't continue to pay for us to live here."
"We'll manage, Colby." She replies. "Besides, money should be the least of your problems when your life is on the line." I look down, thinking it over. "Do you want to continue looking?"
"Yeah." I answer.
"This is one of the smaller one's. Thinking back on your past videos, you and your friends need a big space with how... rowdy you all are."
I blush, my face heating up, but I still grin. "Our fans liked it."
"I'd think so."
"Would it be wise to have the others look with us? So they can help make up the decision?" I ask. "I mean, sure they'd probably ask how you'd be able to help us, since they don't know that you're a vampire. Except Sam."
"Yes, they can come." Penny says. "I don't have to tell them how I have so much money. I can just say that I cam from a very rich family."
"What kind of stuff do you do?"
"We give protection to anyone who needs it. Within reason, of course. We get some money every now and then from the Regime. How they get it, I don't know. But we changed our way of accumulating money."
"What do you mean?"
"Vampires, before I was even born, would steal money."
"Have you ever stolen?" I ask, and I immediately think of a pick up line to accompany that question, but the time wasn't now.
Penny sighs. "My father left before I was born. My mother died when I was a teenager, and I became an orphan. But no one knew about me, so I wasn't brought to an orphanage. I lived on the streets, stealing food or clothes to survive. I found a family who took me in when I was eighteen, but a year later, I was bitten and I couldn't return."
"That's different though. You needed to steal."
"It doesn't change anything. Stealing is stealing." She shakes her head. "It was two years after I changed that I found James. The Regime was notified, and they killed the vampire that changed me. But because I was so young, James protected me and I was allowed to live. From then, I never stole." She shrugs. "I never really needed to anyways."
"Because you're a vampire?"
"Yes. I can charm any human into getting me what I want, but I don't. I pay for things. I don't take."
"How cam you charm someone?" I ask. "By your looks?"
"Partly. My voice really."
I scowl. "How your voice?"
Without taking her eyes off me, she points to a nearby flower. "Pick that flower and set it in my hand." Her voice changed to smooth and silky, and all I wanted to do was whatever she said. I move to the flower and pull it off its stem, then set it in the palm of her hand. She smiles.
I blink, then frown when I see the flower. I turn my head to the stem, then back to the flower. "How-"
"Vampires can convince anybody to do what we want."
I stare at the flower, then swallow. "Is that how we got to see the house?"
"Yep." Penny says. "Salina did it though. I prefer not to use it."
"Why not?"
"I have the power to make anyone do anything I want, including killing themselves."
I think back to when I first found out she was a vampire, and how she called herself a monster. "That doesn't make you a monster, if that's what you're thinking." I say quietly, looking down.
"I used to hate being a vampire, you know." She says. "But you make it bearable."
I look up and almost jump at how close she was. I could've sworn she was standing a little farther back. "You made me believe in the impossible." I say.
"Maybe we both are realizing things are not the way they seem." She whispers.
I couldn't help it, either because I liked her more than I wanted to admit, or because she was just so close, but I leaned down and pressed our lips together, feeling the familiar electricity from the first time we kissed. Yet somehow, it always seemed new. My worries and stress melted away, and when we pulled away, I was gasping for air, but wanting more.
Penny smiles, but then turns a second before the side door opens.
"Thought I'd find you two here." Salina says.
"You could hear us, Salina." Penny says, shaking her head.
Salina ignore her, instead looking at me. "You like this place?"
"I think we should keep looking, but I'll definitely keep it in mind." I tell her.