Blood & Wine

3 | Dasher

The water remained clean, despite the dirt and grime covering me. In the living room, I could hear them speaking, but it was in hushed tones. The man—the half-vampire—had left, leaving the door with a laugh. He had taunted Eden, and she had responded with a much icier tone than she had used with me. Then the other one, whose name I didn't know or didn't remember, had offered to help her with something. That was when I dunked my head under the water and tried to drown myself.

My survival instincts kicked in, though, and I broke the surface, gasping for breath, my heart pounding in my chest.

You can't die, I thought, sudden and intrusive.

I inhaled short, shallow breaths, the pain I had hidden convulsing around my heart. It squeezed and squeezed until I felt like I'd nearly die from the hurt of it all. My eyes stung, and my skin started to turn red and t felt like I was dying. But I knew death was not this painful. It was immediate and—

"Take a whiff of this," said a steady, calming voice beside me.

She passed smoke around my face, and I inhaled it. It smelled like mint and chamomile tea. I held on to her voice, trying to use it to guide myself from the fire smothering me at the current moment.

I swore I heard my mom call my name.

I curled my fingers together under the water.

"You're safe," she said, and the smoke passed in front of my face. I didn't remember her voice, didn't think I really heard it, but she I knew it. I wasn't sure how. "It's okay, Dasher. Well, it's not okay, but you're alive and safe."

Alive and safe.

Her words, or maybe the smoke, had the effect they desired. It capped the lid on the fear coating my entire body. I leaned my head back against the wall and sucked in those soothing tuffs of smoke. "Yeah," I agreed sarcastically. "Alive and safe."

My family was not alive.

They always come after their own.

I wasn't really 'safe' either.

She smiled at me, pulling back a bundle of something. She blew on the tip of the smoking embers with pale pink lips, smiling kindly at me. "As long as you remain here with us, you can't be anywhere safer. Just stay out of the living room," she told me, perched on the counter. She pushed herself up completely, and I took her in without moving my head.

She was tall and skinny with breasts that didn't seem to match her. She had pale skin, white like a sheet of paper almost, and just as smooth and unblemished with a curtain of hair the same shade that brushed her sharp shoulders. Her eyes were dark brown, though, and framed by thick, white eyelashes. Her nose was straight and narrow, her cheekbones high, her chin coming into a point. She was definitely beautiful, although she had something... off about her. Like Eden's silver hair and eyes, there seemed to be a sense of magic running through her veins.

"The living room?" I questioned when I finished studying her with no shame.

She tugged her hoodie down past her thighs and got comfortable, leaning against the white walls. "Yes. Any supernatural creature can portal there and just there," she answered. "So it's unsafe because they may take you. Everything else is completely out of their realm."

Portal?

She saw the question on my face and explained further. "The Fae can open portals anywhere—well, most of them can. They're often here because Eden and the Fae have this weird friendship. They make everyone else edgy, but she loves them." She wrinkled her nose, and I thought of tiny Eden who couldn't tell a lie and laughed at Lillie, a lavender-haired Fae. "Some vampires can teleport, or portal, but they don't often show up here unless they have access to a witch that can give them the necessary tools. Werewolves don't come here unless they want to start shit, and they usually trade favors with the Fae for portals."