Owning the Vampire King

Isn't He Lovely

William

I could still feel the tingle of her lips on mine as we left the large building. She thinks that the building, which is a place for her to relax, is the reason I'm calm now. In reality, she is the reason.

"Ugh, I'm so hungry all of a sudden. We gotta get some food. Pizza for me, blood for you. Sound good?"

I nod, still thinking about the encounter with the mutt from earlier. I would never see it as a bad thing that Lillian is human. Regardless of her species, she is made for me. Lillian is my mate, and I would never be ashamed of her or her existence.

She smiles at me, and I smile back, lost in her eyes and how carefree she seems in this moment. She leads us into a Domino's lobby, where she goes to the fridge that is kept off to the side.

I watch her grab two bags of blood and then place them on the counter before ordering a small pizza.

"Do you guys have a blood warmer by chance? He prefers it warm."

My eyes shoot up to the worker behind the counter, who is smiling between me and Lillian. His eyes soften as he glances at me.

She's not like the others. She treats him fairly. Such a sweet girl treating such an amazing creature with kindness. Would there were more like her...

I gave the man a half smile, appreciative of his thoughts toward my kind and toward Lillian.

"Of course, sweetheart. I'll just take those and heat them right up while they make your pizza. Your total is gonna be $10.68, and we'll have that right out for you."

As every human I've known, with the exception of Lillian and the librarian, is mean enough to start an argument in an empty house, his kindness threw me off guard. Lillian looks back to see my expression and looks shocked.

"I'm sorry, but did you just smile at that man?"

I shrugged, "he was nice."

"Yes he was, but you don't smile at people. Like ever."

"I smile at you."

She huffs. "That's different."

You have no idea how different it is, little angel.

She is such a light in this fucked up world and she doesn't even know it. People like her, the librarian, and the pizza man give me hope that people can be good. "I'll tell you later, Lillian."

"He thought something nice, didn't he."

At that, I broke out into a full smile. "You're too intelligent for your own good. I said that I'll tel you later."

Seemingly satisfied, she turned back to the counter to wait for the man to come back. When he did, she took a card out of her bag and swiped it on the fancy-looking machine on the counter. He handed her the bags, and she handed one to me, saying I could have it now.

I felt the elongation of my fangs and ran my tongue over them in content before piercing them into the bag. As the warm, red liquid gushed into my mouth, I closed my lips around the bag.

I groaned at the taste and feel, closing my eyes. After only having cold blood for so long, the warmth of it hitting my throat felt better than I could have imagined. It was only a couple of days old, too.

I opened my eyes to find them both grinning at me, and I suddenly didn't like the feeling of being watched as I ate. I slurped up the rest of it quickly, gulping before straining out a "thank you."

Lillian looked to the pizza man, "aren't his eyes just gorgeous?"

He nodded, "he's amazing."

I kept my face stony, uncomfortable being talked about as if I wasn't there, despite it being good things. For too long, the slave masters at the auction houses had discussed me, my attributes, and my situations as if I wasn't in the room. I knew that Lillian and the pizza man didn't mean anything by it, but it still made me feel stupid. And invisible.

Noticing my change in stature and how my jaw was clenched, Lillian furrows her brows before turning back to the pizza man. "We've got to get going, though. I have Miss Dennings next period and I don't want to get on her bad side by being late."

She takes the pizza in the hand that isn't holding my other bag and nods her head in the direction of the door before walking that way. I follow behind her, silent as usual.

I didn't notice that I was using my thumb to individually crack my knuckles until Lillian places her hand over mine as we walked. She set the second blood bag in my hand and looked at my eyes, worry etched onto her features.

"Whats wrong? You were half smiling and then suddenly you were cold and, dare I say, emotionless." She huffed.

"I dislike when people talk about me as if I'm not in the room."

"Noted. And I appreciate you telling me."

"Lillian, I'll always tell you what bothers me. Especially if it has anything to do with you."

She screwed her face up in mock annoyance, chuckling before saying, "you sure about that? 'Cause if my memory serves me correctly, there's something you haven't told me that very clearly bothers you."

I laughed wholeheartedly. "I said I'd tell you at your house. I don't want to say it in public."

Oooooh maybe it's something dirty like-

"Stop that."

She glanced down at the pizza box in her hands with a blush and a sheepish look. I shook my head and sank my fangs into the blood bag. It was less warm than the first bag, but still amazing and ten times better than blood straight from the fridge. I could tell it was cattle blood rather than human, but it tasted like type B cattle blood, which I would happily drink any day.

I kinda like it when he groans like that.

I suck down the rest of the blood and then turn to look at Lillian. "What?"

Her eyes went wide before she started frantically excusing her thought, "I didn't really mean to think that. I mean, it does sound nice, but I think it's creepy for me to like the s-"

She facepalmed and then sighed. "Don't worry," I laughed, "that was cute. And I suppose I'm glad you like the way I sound."

She shook her head, embarrassed at herself, and opened the pizza box, taking out a slice and beginning to eat it. I chuckled, looking back down at the ground while we walked.

"I think you're amazing, too."

She turned, humming out a "huh" from the midst of her bite of pizza. A blush began to creep up her neck and dust her cheeks. She finished chewing and swallowed the pizza.

"Thank you."