Samael POV
After arriving in California, it didn't take long to find what we were looking for. The scent reached me first, carried on the night wind from several miles out - a herd of elk, moving through a tree-lined valley. I angled my wings and descended.
Alice landed beside me as I pinned the nearest elk beneath one paw. For an instant, she hesitated. Not from unwillingness or pity for the animal, but because of me. I could see it in her eyes - that small flicker of awareness that she was about to do something most people would find horrifying, and that I would be right there to witness it.
Even though I'd tried to be careful pinning the elk down, care only went so far with claws this size. The takedown left a few minor wounds, and the moment the scent of blood reached the air, her hesitation vanished completely.
My Alice became a small, merciless predator.
Yet it wasn't surprising. If anything, it was exactly what I'd expected. Through the memories I'd absorbed, I had watched vampires feed hundreds of times, and compared to most of them, Alice was almost elegant about it. There was nothing savage in how she did it.
Relatively speaking, of course. The elk, if it had been in any position to offer an opinion, would probably have disagreed.
Not that I had any room to judge. The instant I committed to the hunt, the human part of me simply stepped aside, as if I'd spent my whole life under an African sun instead of growing up in a city.
When Alice finally straightened and stepped back, something else crossed her face. That wasn't a shame. Closer to awkwardness, like the particular discomfort of being the only one drinking at a party. Nothing wrong with it, technically, but it was still strange being the only one doing it.
So I solved the problem the simplest way I knew how.
The rest of the herd didn't last much longer.
…
Sometime later, I was stretched out on a flat rock a dozen metres from a mid-size lake, my mane in a state best described as post-battle. My tongue idly ran along the corners of my mouth - a lion's habit, apparently, that came bundled with the rest of the body. Alice sat cross-legged on one of my forepaws, watching me with an expression of patient amusement that was losing ground by the second.
Her mouth twitched, then curved into a smile.
I narrowed my eyes at her.
That only made it worse - her smile changed into a giggle.
"Would you like to share with the class?" I asked.
She covered her mouth with a hand. "I'm trying not to."
I was fairly sure I wasn't going to like what came next.
"It's just-" She lowered her hand just enough to speak, eyes bright, "you look so majestic, and then you eat like a toddler. It's very disorienting."
I stared at her. "A toddler?"
"A very large one. But still."
I looked down at myself, then back at her. "You might be right," I said, with complete calm.
Her smile widened as she folded her arms, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
I studied her a moment, considering. "I also know exactly how to fix it."
Her pleased smile immediately became suspicious. "What does that mean?"
I didn't answer. I simply rose to my feet and scooped her up in one paw.
"Samy?!"
"We're in this together, honey."
Understanding arrived about half a second too late to do her any good. I watched her work it out—her head turning toward the lake, eyes going wide.
"Oh no."
"Oh yes."
"Wait!" She put both hands flat against my fur. "Darling, there's no need for me, I'm perfectly clean."
"You know," I said thoughtfully, "I think I saw a drop of blood on your cheek."
"You absolutely did not!"
"Left cheek. Just here." I spread my wings and began gliding toward the water. "Small drop. Easy to miss."
"I did not miss anything!"
"You might be right." I tilted, lining us up with the centre of the lake. "Too late either way."
She didn't get another word out before I folded my wings.
We hit the middle of the lake a moment later, the splash impressive enough that birds abandoned the trees on three sides of the bank.
Alice surfaced looking deeply offended, an expression that lasted about three seconds before she sent an entire wave of water directly into my face.
Fair enough.
What followed was less a game and more a small natural disaster confined to one lake. She chased me first until she got a grip on my tail, at which point I sent her flying straight up into the air. Her startled laugh cut across the water before she came down in a long, spectacular arc. She liked that rather more than she had expected. From there, the chase slowly transformed into something closer to play, and it went on for hours before either of us was ready to stop.
When we finally did, the moon had shifted noticeably overhead. I walked out of the lake, Alice settled between my shoulders, both of us completely soaked. Water streamed off my mane, and the cool night air moved through it as we made our way back toward the tree line.
Her chin came to rest on top of my head.
"Darling," she said after a while, her voice warm despite the dripping hair and ruined clothes. "Although I had fun - next time, you'll need my full consent for things like this."
I let out something close to a laugh. "Sure, sure. But I'm glad you enjoyed it. Eventually."
She giggled and didn't push the point any further.
…
Alice and I were flying back toward Forks, or rather, toward my house. During the trip, a rather important detail resurfaced: I had forgotten to ask Alice to take my clothes when I shifted.
Usually, such carelessness would have irritated me. I could even feel the edge of irritation beginning to form, but then Alice shifted slightly and asked, without any particular urgency, what was wrong.
I told her.
Her response had nothing to do with my irritation or the missing clothes.
"Are we going to your house?" She asked.
I glanced back at her. Her face was bright with the simple pleasure of the idea. The mere thought of seeing where I lived was apparently enough to make her happy. Whatever anger had been building dissolved instantly.
I had noticed that multiple times - the effortless way she dissolved my anger without even trying. It wasn't the sole reason I couldn't picture leaving her side, but it was one more among an already overwhelming number.
…
My house came into view through the pre-dawn darkness. The world was still fully wrapped in shadow, the sun still below the horizon. I landed quietly in the backyard, and the moment Alice climbed down from my back, I shifted. Before she had even fully turned around, I scooped her into my arms.
"Eh?" She blinked at me. "Aren't you-"
I leaned down and kissed her cheek before she could finish.
"I am," I said. "Just don't look down, alright?"
She held my gaze for several seconds, then gave me a wavering nod.
I carried her towards the house. The spare key was under the large stone near the back porch. I retrieved it and turned towards the door, at which point I noticed Alice's attention had settled on something.
I followed her gaze, briefly unsure what had caught it.
Ah.
The glass door.
Human eyes wouldn't see much, especially in such darkness, but ours were another matter entirely. For us, it was effectively a mirror, and I hadn't thought to use invisibility when I shifted — the trees provided enough cover from far-away neighbours; it hadn't seemed necessary.
I hadn't planned for this particular consequence, but I saw no reason not to enjoy it.
A small smile appeared on my face as I leaned closer to her ear.
"You like what you see?" I whispered.
Alice went very still, turning her head away from both the door and me. Her attention was now fixed on the distant treeline. A subtle downward tilt of her chin served as an attempt to conceal her expression.
It wasn't working.
"So you don't?" I said.
A pause. Then, without turning her head, in a voice considerably quieter than her usual one: "...I do."
I found it completely endearing. My smile widened as I unlocked the door and carried her inside.
The house was still. I carried her upstairs to my room, grabbed the small blanket, arranged it around myself to cover the essentials, and settled her onto the bed.
"I'll go change," I said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
I didn't need to turn around to know her eyes stayed on me the whole way to the bathroom.
...
Several minutes later, I emerged fully dressed to discover that Alice had found another source of entertainment. One side of my wardrobe stood completely open, and she was intensely examining its contents. Shirts had been shifted aside, jackets inspected, and entire sections appeared to have been silently judged.
She glanced back when she heard me, then turned to the wardrobe again. "Samy," she said, "Do you own anything that isn't black, white...or grey?"
I walked over and peered over her shoulder. The wardrobe, objectively, was extremely monochromatic. In fairness, it wasn't that I lacked any sense of style - I had never struggled with dressing well. It was simply that most of my time went towards hunting, work, or the occasional quiet hour at one of my properties, and none of those had given me any particular reason to introduce colour.
"I have blue jeans," I said, reaching past her to indicate them. "And -" I scanned carefully, "some coloured ties."
Alice turned to look at me with an expression of great patience.
I sighed. "That bad?"
"Darling, I've seen chessboards with more colour."
I chuckled, shaking my head. "It might need some," I admitted.
"It might," she said, in a tone that made clear she considered that a meaningful understatement. She turned to face me fully, her hands settling around my neck. "We should get you some things. And honestly, this creates a problem for me as well. I'd like to have options, and that becomes quite difficult when the person standing next to me looks like he was dressed by a depressed penguin."
A grin escaped me. "How thoughtless of me."
"It really is." A warm, unrepentant smile accompanied her words.
I slipped my arms around her waist and pulled her a little closer.
"But to solve this, I may need guidance," I said.
"Fortunately for you, I'm exceptionally qualified." A smile tugged at her lips.
"I have no doubt," I said.
"So." I looked at her. "My love. Would you be so gracious?"
She smiled and slowly closed the distance into a soft, unhurried kiss.
When she pulled back, she asked simply, "When?"
"You know I have a meeting in San Mateo on Tuesday. It won't take long." I tilted my head. "San Francisco for the rest of the day after?"
Her expression brightened.
"You're asking me to skip school," she said, one brow lifting with delicate mischief, "less than a week into us actually dating."
"Is it not worth it?" I asked.
She looked at me for a moment.
"Completely worth it," she said, and kissed me again.
[Hello there!]
[I'm back to continue the story.]
[After a while, I realised that some misunderstanding had occurred after my announcement. The "stack" of chapters I prepared during my absence was meant for times when I simply cannot write due to imagination blocks, for example. So, I won't post it all at once.
The second thing is that I've decided to set a proper schedule. You probably won't like it, but it's the only viable way for me to finish the story. I will post one chapter per week, every Saturday.
I made this decision because I realised it balances my personal life and writing quite well. Writing is my hobby, and if it starts affecting my studies or work too much, I won't be able to continue it in the long run.
However, this doesn't mean I will strictly write only one chapter per week. I will try to do more, and once the number of stacked chapters exceeds 10, every additional one will be published as an extra.]