Fate Unchanged (Quinah & Norminah)

Chapter One

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DINAH

Dinah was always a woman of gratitude. She never questioned what life dealt her, always adapted to change – no matter how uncomfortable – and was a lot stronger than what most took her for. The young brunette was wise beyond her years, despite only being in her mid twenties. Which is why she was able to keep a low profile in life despite who she was. You see, Dinah is a vampire.

Vampires, up until about a decade ago, were thought of to be fictitious. But after many of them began to come out of hiding in various parts of the country, the government began to recognize that society had to start making some changes. There were new laws that had to be put in place to not only accommodate vampires, but to protect humans from their blood lust tendencies. To name a few, it was a law that vampires who were born during the recent decades of America, needed to attend assimilation programs in order to learn how to live amongst beings who were nothing like them. After graduating from said program, they would be required to enter the work force in any capacity that was proven legal.

For Dinah, assimilating into human society was easy. She graduated from a boarding school curated for young vampires at the age of eighteen. After turning twenty-one, she got hired to work as a bartender at an Asian fusion bar in Philadelphia called Tango. She balanced working part time while going to college for a few years, getting a degree in history. Once she graduated, she began working at the bar full time – becoming a customer favorite right away – which allowed for her to keep the position for quite a few years. The pay was great and allowed her to obtain a comfy apartment a couple blocks up the street. It wasn't anything too fancy, but it was perfect for her.

Dinah's life, for the most part, was amazing. But the icing on the cake was seeing one man come in for his daily glass of bourbon during the last few hours of her shift. In all her life, the twenty-six-year-old had never laid eyes on a more beautiful being. The guy appeared to be in his twenties, maybe a few years older than her. Their skin color was the same – a fair shade. His hair was jet black and always up in a man bun while the rest of his hair was closely shaved. He didn't have a lot of facial hair, but the little he did have complimented his handsome facial structure. His smile was endearing, his teeth pearly white. But what really made Dinah's heart swell was the smoothness of his voice.

His voice was like sweet honey. Any time he talked to her, her insides would just melt. Seeing him was the highlight of the brunette's day. But it was always a bittersweet moment. The one downside to being a vampire was that pining for a human was illegal. According to the government, there were too many factors that contributed to the potential dangers of such a union. If the brunette wasn't such a stickler for following rules, she would've thrown caution to the wind ages ago. But she knew better than to do such a thing. So, she settled with just having casual conversations with the man every day, coming up with romantic scenarios in her head of the two of them building a life together and not being scrutinized for it because of their opposing species.

Her mother, at first, thought it was a little pathetic for Dinah to pine for such a man for many obvious reasons. She had many words for the young woman when they had their weekly Sunday dinners. But after a while, she sympathized with her. She, of all people, knew that attraction had no rules – that no one could help who they fell for. Life had dealt her a surprising hand a few times, and in the moments of being a protective mother of her only child, she had forgotten how alike she and her daughter really were. So, after a while, their Sunday dinners often turned into therapeutic mother-daughter conversations about how difficult life could be being a vampire.

Dinah was grateful for having an understanding mother. But as much as she confided in her, the advice she internalized didn't help her whenever her eyes locked with his when he entered the bar. It didn't help her when she, sometimes, was too wound up to fall asleep and needed to relieve herself just thinking about him. Yes, she was a vampire, but she was still a woman. She had needs...desires. The biggest desire that she couldn't yet have, was him.

Like the good natured being she was, however, she persevered through it. She stayed strong and continued to do what was required of her. She smiled in his face, did some harmless flirting, even gave him a couple drinks on the house just because he always brightened up her day. But all the while, she secretly prayed that something in life would give – that maybe...just maybe...the two of them had a chance of being together.