The Atham Manor (Slow Updates)

Dinner

AN: Yall it's about to get real 😬

"Girl, he told you to behave," Jenn was saying as we all munched on snacks from the kitchen. We were sprawled out in my room, in our night clothes, watching Magic Mike, courtesy of Jenn's suggestion.

Anika faced away from the TV, having given up on trying to watch the movie and gorged out on vanilla wafers instead. "It wasn't flirting. It was a warning."

"That he was gonna tear your ass up!" Jenn said around an Oreo. The package was dwindling down to the final row, and I could practically feel Henry's dismay. "Tell her, Xania."

I perked up a bit, knees to my chest as I gave Anika's worried expression a reassuring smile, "It could be taken either way, honestly."

"Traitor!" Jenn yelled, jumping up to her socked feet and joining us on the bed. "He wants you, Anika! He wants to take you to a dark corner and dig out your guts! Rearrange them! Break your back. And you know he can do it! Look at me in my eyes and tell me he's not the type. I know he's a hair grabber, Anika, please fuck him for me!"

Anika shook her head, the halo of tight coils around her head shifting with her movement. "I doubt the mate bond is affecting him." Anika's mate bond was the transition into the conversation as soon as the boys left. She hadn't told him yet, fear of making him uncomfortable assuaging her from the topic altogether. Luckily, she hadn't experienced any heats so far. Not that I understood what heats were exactly. Anika would get too flustered to answer the question outright and Jenn just said sex with one of her too-eager, shit-eating grins. Neither answer felt reliable.

"And what about you, Jenn?" I asked, grinning at her as she sifted through the Oreos for one that wasn't broken.

"You know, actually, William and I are doing good now." She gave me a soft smile that melted her cool blue eyes. "Marking can go away with enough distance and time, and with all his trips in and out of the country, our mark started to fade... but the night of the attack, he marked me again. We also fucked like rabbits, and we talked about so much. He was apologetic and promised to put me first more, he even told me he loved me."

A sharp pain went through me as I remembered how Henry didn't reply to my confession. But I pushed it down, smiling at her genuinely as she went on. "Of course, I told him I loved him back... and that's when he marked me again, see?" She strained her neck toward us, flattening our bestie necklace for a better visual. The mark hadn't settled completely, still a little swollen and red, but my heart still warmed for her.

"Good. You had me worried for a while." I thought about her attempt to keep calm the last time we spoke about William. If she and her boyfriend would've broken it off, Jenn would've been in danger in Eastwood. No unmarked human walks around free, a law that I wasn't exactly excited about being still prevalent in modern times.

Anika nodded in agreement with me as Jenn's smile shuddered, "Stop guys, you're gonna make me sappy. Oh, sugar cookies, don't mind If I do." She bit down on an iced cookie, but she sniffed, her expression crumpling a bit. Me and Anika immediately moved closer, offering our support as Jenn broke down in tears. "I'm sorry, I was scared, you know? Like if he left me, I'd be fucked over. Probably dead somewhere."

We stayed that way, comforting, gossiping, laughing after the tears finally ran out, and then we finally got tired enough to sleep. Anika on one side of me, Jenn on the other. It felt like I was normal. No vampires, strigoi, stress, or complicated love lives. Just three teen girls having a sleepover together.

In the dark, behind the dim glow of the movie's credits, Anika murmured, "The vampire society isn't very safe for anyone that isn't their own. I hope when one of the brothers becomes King, they'll adjust things for other people. Hybrids and humans."