Road Trip with Vampires: one star, would not recommend.

Eviction (Not the nymph's fault. For real.)

Nix sat in the branches of a tree, her gaze trained on the setting sun, carefully keeping in the shadows of the leaves. The nymph was late. On the plus side, that gave her extra time to sharpen her sword. On the other hand, she was very, very bored. 

She took a few practice swings at a nearby branch, hissing when her hand came into contact with a small patch of sunlight. She looked again at the stream flowing below, bubbling, a reflection of the personality of the nymph that inhabited it. 

'You're here already?'

Nix rolled her eyes. Speak of the devil. The stream nymph was up. 

'You're...Minnie, aren't you?'

'Minerva.' The nymph placed her hands on her hips, scowling up at the vampire in the tree. 'Could you at least not...be such a bother when you settle your grudges?'

'This, my dear, is the most convenient location I can wait in.' Nix carefully stepped down from the tree, placing her sword on the ground. 'It's not my fault I burn up in the sun.'

'I do miss those days when you glorified mosquitoes weren't so entitled.' She danced out of reach of Nix's sword. 'When you'd just keep to yourselves, without bothering every single mythical creature within a fifty-mile radius—'

The stone thrown at her head did the trick. She dissolved into water droplets, those unsavoury last words melting with her. She would be back the next day, but now Nix had to figure out what to tell Tethis. Throwing a rock at your opponent's fellow nymph—not a good idea.

Nix sheathed her sword and continued waiting.

She expected screaming, a tidal wave of frogs, and maybe even an entire fridge's worth of ice cubes. Those were the best challenges. A sword against the powers of a very angry nymph—she liked those odds. Not that she had ever beat them in the past few years.

The temperature was pretty low tonight. Maybe the reservoir was frozen. She didn't know. She never did any research on reservoirs.

Nix bent down to brush a leaf off her shoe. Tethis wouldn't let her wear heels during their duels. Shame. She always wanted to go out in style.

She looked up, and staggered backwards.

Tethis was there, in her human form, arms crossed, showing no emotion on her face. Usually, that was a sign to run as far away as possible, if not for the dripping wet cardboard boxes by her feet. And the taste of defeat in the air.

Nix relaxed her grip on the sword hilt. 'What happened?'

Tethis ran her hand through her hair. 'I've been evicted.'

'What did you do?'

She scowled. 'Why is it always "what did you do?" and "who did you piss off?" I am my own landlord, and you may have noticed, but I am not allowed to evict myself. No, they're blowing up the dam.'

'Can't you—' Nix rubbed her hand over her face. 'Oh no. You're going to die. Oh no.'

'Why do you care? Don't you hate me more than anything else?'

Nix's brain caught up to the present. For a moment, she had a terrible feeling of falling down a (metaphorical!) hole that she had dug herself. 

Tethis smirked, tapping a foot, eyes glowing like a cat's in the dark. 'What is it you're going to tell me?'

Nix wanted to lie, to say that she still hated her more than ever. But that would be running from her problems. And the only way to outrun one was to sucker-punch it in the jaw.

This felt more like sucker-punching herself in the jaw. 

'Well, after all these years of, um, trying to hack you into pieces, and of you trying to poison me with frogs, I—uh—I—'

Tethis's smirk was growing wider by the moment. Nix took a deep breath.

'I-have-begun-to-see-you-as-a-companion.'

Tethis reached forward. Nix tried her hardest not to flinch when she patted her on the back. 'There. I knew you would admit it.'

Nix, cringing internally, straightened her coat. 'How does it work with nymphs? I mean, can you tie your life force-thingy to another body of water?'

Tethis shook her head. 'Can't. Once it's dried up or destroyed, the nymph is pretty much doomed. Judging by my calculations, I think I only have, uh, give me a minute—'

She unrolled her sleeves, muttering various Greek curses under her breath. Nix was unnerved at how calm she seemed. If she had gotten some announcement that she was going to die in a fixed period of time, she would have either burned up when she went running out of her house in daytime, out of panic.

'Ah, here they are.' Tethis showed the little numbers she had written on her wrist. 'I have about a year left to live.'

'How are you not panicking?'

Tethis shrugged. 'What comes along, comes along. A reservoir was never one of the better places to be created. Ah well. Just my luck. You want to go travelling the world with me?'

Nix blinked once, then twice. Perhaps it was the bluntness of the request. Perhaps it was the request itself. But that was enough to send her brain short-circuiting.

'Please?'

Oh joy, here goes, Nix thought. Tethis blinked, employing those large, puppy-dog eyes that were supposed to incite the 'awww' response in most people. Mostly, it frightened Nix. And the nymph knew it.

And before she knew what she was doing, she nodded.

Tethis's grin faded. 'Good. Take this for me.' She shoved the cardboard box into Nix's hands. 'All the family photos are in there.'

'Um, Tethis, you live alone.'

'There's no shame in being a shade self-indulgent,' said Tethis. 'Now, I've always wanted to visit the place with the fancy paintings.'

'Which one?'

'Don't play clever with me. The place.'

Nix put the box down and massaged her fingers. 'I hate to break it to you, Tethis, but half the world has places with fancy paintings.'

'Fine. All of them.'

Nix wanted to cry. But she had agreed to it. She would lose nothing from following along. After all, she had hundreds and hundreds of years after that, if the humans took care of global warming.

Besides, there was no shame in doing something good for a friendly rival, wasn't it?

Nix lifted the cardboard box, which was Nix holding together by sheer will and a long-cherished grudge against the Good God Above. 'Fine. Let me just take you home and buy a couple of plane tickets.'

'Oh, we're not going to do that,' said Tethis, flipping a hand over to check her nails. 'I can't travel by plane.'

'How else, then?'

Tethis grinned. 'I think it's time to pay my cousins in the Atlantic a visit.'