This is Book 1 of the Arcelia Series.* Book 2 is in the works!
*Can be read as a stand-alone
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Malik Jackson needed help. After being exiled from the ocean, he washed up on the beach covered in injuries and missi...
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~ ~ Xander ~ ~
I slept in Malik's guest bedroom that night. I wanted to watch over him, and ended up falling asleep for a few hours on the couch. Being a vampire, a few hours was all I needed.
I woke up when he did. As I sat up and stretched he said, "good morning."
I gave him a little smile and said, "good morning, Malik." I saw how he shivered when I spoke. "I noticed you didn't have dinner last night. Are you hungry?"
"Yeah, actually," he replied. I could tell he was surprised that I noticed that, and a little touched.
"Good, I'm getting you something to eat." As I stood up, I felt the knots in my neck and tilted my head until it cracked to hopefully relieve the pain. It didn't work. "Ugh. Remind me to never sleep on a couch again."
He giggled at me and said, "dummy." I knew he was just teasing me, so I gave him a small smirk, letting him know I was about to tease back.
"Oh, that's how it is. I'll just sleep in your bed with you next time," I winked at him before walking out of the room.
I can't believe I just said that. Was that too cheesy? Gods, who even am I?! Did he cringe? I didn't feel anything negative in our souls, so I did my best to shake it off, but that was.. weird. Not good, not bad. Just weird.
I made my way to the kitchen, spotting Virgil sipping his morning coffee at the table. He only really had black coffee in the morning, if not blood. He said he preferred the dull taste to anything sweet or sour. He immediately noticed my slightly flushed cheeks and was quick to point it out.
"Who's got you blushing like that? Is it the merman?" He sent me a teasing smirk.
"Of course it's the merman," I snapped, rolling my eyes. I opened the fridge to hopefully find something Malik could eat, and then realized I really knew nothing about merpeople. "Not that I'm blushing at all. I'm totally not," that didn't sound convincing in the slightest.
"Mhm," Virgil chuckled. "Sure."
"Hey, totally unrelated," I closed the fridge and turned to Virgil. "What do merpeople eat?"
Virgil let out a bark of laughter after that and I crossed my arms, giving him my best glower.
"Is he teasing you?" Adrian walked in, already smiling at me. How could he be happy all the time? It just didn't make sense to me. He always has so much energy, meanwhile I can hardly get out of bed sometimes.
"Yes. My merman needs food. I don't know what he eats." I kept my explanation simple, trying to avoid further embarrassment.
"I see," Adrian brushed past me to open the fridge. "I think there's some sashimi left, but he already had that."
