Feral Bonds

Chapter 6

Natania glanced over her shoulder, she couldn't see the vampires, but she could scent them. "If you're going to shadow me, you might as well come up here and talk." She was bored out of her mind anyway. They had spent the previous day going over her measurements and touring the house, but that morning Vincent had dismissed her with no indication of what she should be doing.

Lily appeared beside her and she resisted the urge to jump. "Just trying to give you some space. You're not exactly relaxed around here."

"Having a predator following me is not any more reassuring." Not that she expected Lily to cause her any harm, the vampire had been mostly kind and polite so far, thankfully not intruding on her bed again, but her instincts still didn't like creatures she couldn't see hanging around.

The vampire frowned. "Predator? We're not-"

Natania rolled her eyes. "You're certainly not a prey species."

Lily relaxed notably and Natania realized she'd thought she had meant the other kind of predator. "Your fangs aren't for chewing leaves," Natania added, spinning around and walking backwards. The house made her restless.

"You know I mostly still have human teeth, right? We only get a few fangs."

Natania shrugged. "I don't know much about vampires, and you heal your bites, so I don't know what those look like either." The one bite Vincent hadn't healed, when he was scolding her for her poor bargaining skills, had healed before she'd had a chance to see it.

Lily paused, bit her own wrist and held it out. Natania laughed and halted. "I wasn't asking for a demonstration." But she looked anyway. One deep set and one shallow on the top, and three small sets on the bottom. She had thought there would only be a top set.

Natania had larger canines, as a human and as a wolf. All of her teeth were sharper than normal humans as well, though they didn't all have points in human shape. She could hide them if she needed to.

The wound healed up after a minute and a half. Natania gave her a half grin. "And yet you're still not a herbivore." She started walking backwards again and waved a hand toward her. "Which makes you a predator."

"You should watch where you're going." Lily popped up behind her and Natania spun around again to keep her in sight. They moved ridiculously fast.

"I can hear and/or scent anything I might walk into," Natania replied. That and she had paced the hallway more than enough times to memorize the layout. "Don't you have a job to do?"

Lily smiled softly. "You're my job right now."

"I don't need a shadow. I doubt anyone is going to attack me in here, considering our bargain." Plus, she was fairly certain she could take any of the vampires, outside of Vincent, but she wasn't going to say that. She didn't want to antagonize them.

"Maybe it's not them the master is worried about."

Natania scoffed. "I'd have to be pretty fucking stupid to attack the people of the person who could force me to do anything. I'd rather not chew off my own fingers, or whatever he comes up with."

Lily snickered. "I don't recall anyone ever having to do that." She started to reach out a hand, but pulled back when Natania took a step back. Lily was nice enough, but she didn't like strangers touching her, and three days was not long enough to consider them friends. "He thinks you're volatile."

"Then why doesn't he order me not to hurt anyone?"

"You're already chafing under the orders he has given you," Lily pointed out. "Now you want more?"