“Good morning sleepy fox.”

I let out a giggle as I feel Faith stir under me. I think I went too far yesterday, or maybe It was just what she needed. In the middle of her climax all nine tails poofed into existence and clamored to my body like a drop of water in an endless desert. She didn’t even let me go after she fell asleep, I hope she fell asleep, that I didn’t knock her unconscious, maybe I did.

“Mmm, good morning Nia.”

Faith draws me in closer with her tails, putting her hands around me and holding me in a tight embrace as she starts to purr. She’s so adorable. I like her mischievous side, her serious side, I love every part of her, but I think this side, that now is exclusive to me, that only I can see, is my favourite side of her.

Faith opens her eyes, yawning as she looks at me, remnants of sleep still glazing over her eyes.

“I love you.”

Oh. I was worried about surrendering control, giving her power. This isn’t what I expected. Just those three words, the emotion behind her voice, fills me with joy and euphoria I’ve never felt before. I give her lips some much needed attention. Sighing in satisfaction as I lay my head on her shoulder.

“I love you too, Faith. I love you too.”

“Mmm, breakfast?”

“Um, Faith, I don’t- oh.”

She accepted that quite fast. I thought she forgot about the fact that vampires can’t eat, or taste anything. Her raised eyebrow tells me she wasn’t thinking about human food. Mmm, I really want to, but I already took so much yesterday.

“Are you okay? I don’t think we should do this every day. I don’t know what will happen to your body if I drain too much life force from you, not to mention blood.”

“Mmm yeah. I’m fine. Athena and Khione had a long conversation about the future when we were uh, occupied last night. I should be able to give you uh, two meals a day without it affecting my body. Apparently I have an abundance of uh, this life force. You’ll have to explain to me what that is later, as Athena said you coined that term.”

Wait. Twice a day, without affecting her body? Oh my goddess. Is this heaven? No, scratch that. I don’t want to touch “heaven” while there are a shit ton of murderous gods there. Maybe one day I’ll go to that realm, visit Athena in person.

“I would like that, Ethenia, I really would. For now though you should focus on your new girlfriend, you have a tiny problem with a crazy murdering ex after her, I don’t think the attack was random.”

Ugh. You’re right, I’ll talk to her later, but for now, cuddles. I let my body go as I melt into Faith's embrace. Girlfriend huh.

 

---

 

“I can live for the rest of my life in bliss, knowing this is going to be breakfast and dinner every day. You don’t realize how good you taste. Imagine your favourite food, made to perfection, and you never grow tired of it. If you’re truly fine with this I won’t even have to drink that coffee out of necessity anymore.”

Faith turns around in the kitchen. I’ve gotten a small kitchen table since she started coming over. We also keep some food in the fridge because Faith likes to cook. Ugh I wish I could taste her cooking, sadly all I can taste are the grains and fibers, I shudder at the thought every time I have to eat human food, but I guess, maybe I don’t have to do that anymore? Faith looks at me while pondering something.

“I actually was curious about that. For someone so good at being a spy, you’re terrible at hiding that vial you drip into your coffee. Are you sure you’re even trying?”

“Honestly, no, I don’t think so. Consciously, yeah probably. Subconsciously? I think I wanted to leave clues for you to figure out, I don’t know.”

I pull out a vial of life essence, in it’s weird gas-liquid state squirming around inside.

“This is life essence. It’s sort of like your blood, except science couldn’t uncover it, well, at least until the shift. I don’t know if people know about it now or if it’s only something I can do. It’s what fuels your magic, your powers. It’s also what I drain when I feed, well, that and blood. They mix, but I can extract it into this, weird form. It’s not as good as feeding, as I think I need a combination of blood and life force. I don’t think I would die without it, but from the few tests we did, I think my body sort of goes into slumber if I don’t get enough. Anyways, it can keep me going for a bit, and I tend to mix it into my coffee since it makes it taste delicious.”

Faith looks at me with a perplexed expression. Did I say anything weird?

“My girlfriend has a power saving mode.”

She looks at me with a deadpan expression, before the facade breaks and she starts laughing uncontrollably. I never thought of it that way, but I guess she’s right? That is kinda funny.

Transforming into my vampire form I walk up to her as seductively as I can, place my arms around her waist and pull her into me as I stare into her eyes.

“Your girlfriend can also enthrall you, make you a slave knowing nothing but me.”

I give her a playful smirk and kiss her.

“Mmm, I do like that prospect. Wait, can you actually do that?”

Huh? That’s actually a good question.

“I think I can? I know it’s been done by the vampires of old, before they were, you know, eradicated.”

The look on her face makes me think she’s actually entertaining the idea. She quickly shakes her head and I giggle at what I assume went through her head. My fit of giggles end when her expression turns serious, leaving me wondering what’s going on.

“Rules. You are not allowed to bite anyone else anymore. I don’t like the idea. I understand you have to do it to avatars, but I still don’t want you to.”

Oh. That’s both cute and a problem. I don’t want to make her jealous, but I don’t think I’ll have a choice sometimes. Hmm. Oh.

“Okay. I’ll do my best. I can’t promise I’ll never have to, but if I can, I’ll try to either not take it in directly, or if I have to I promise I’ll bite from the hand. It works quicker when I have access to a pulse, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.”

Faith’s lips arcs into a smile, giving me a quick kiss before turning back to making her food. The nape of her neck glistening, inviting me in as her hair is tied up in a bun. I thought I had my urges under control, but something has changed, made it harder for me to control myself around her.

“Nia, I can feel your breathing down my neck. You’ve already had your fill you little hungry vampire.”

I guess that’s payback for me calling her fox all the time. I kinda like it though. She at least accepts me. I don’t know what Khione and Sigyn feel about it, but according to Athena they’re fine with our plans, and they won’t talk about me to anyone else.

 

---

 

“Wait, so you’re telling me all those times I went out looking for you. You basically had a biological tracking GPS on me? What did you call it? Marking?”

“Uh, yeah, essentially. I can mark anyone that I taste the blood or life essence from. With you it was sort of a bestial instinct, as I considered you prey in the moment.”

“Huh. So you marked me. Marked your territory, marking me as yours, before we started dating?”

Faith gives me a smug wink, obviously enjoying the honesty and learning about my abilities. Apparently vampire knowledge isn’t that widespread among the gods, as they tried to remove anything regarding them. I guess that explains how she didn’t know about my immortality. Wait, does that mean she actually wanted to kill me? Uh, yeah no let’s not entertain that thought.

I’m glad she seems happier though, last night made me want to cry when I saw her sitting on the floor. I really hate to do this when she’s happy, well, she’s probably just putting it off, but we need to get ahead of this.

“Faith…”

Faith looks at me as she sighs.

“I know.”

“We can talk about it another day if you want?”

“No. We have to figure out what we’re going to do.”

I stand up and walk over to her, picking her up from her chair and carrying her towards the couch. Setting her down on my lap as I transform to my goddess form, if I’m right I can project emotions I want through my aura, she needs calm right now. Pulling her in close as I stroke her ears, tails wrapping around us like a cocoon.

“There isn’t a lot we can do at the moment. We can tell Ingrid that someone very powerful is out there, and she already almost killed you. We just need to look out for her, but not engage. Once we find her I can mark her, and then we can deal with her. I’ll run some simulations to figure out how we can restrain her.”

“Thinking about it now, I’m not even sure it is her. I mean. Everything was different, the only thing I recognized was her face. What if that thing was some sort of shapeshifter?”

“We’ll figure it out, but Faith. If she keeps being a threat to you, and we can’t take her in. I will eliminate her. That is not up for debate. I’m sorry, but I don’t care if she is Helena or not. If there’s even a doubt about your safety, I’m not taking the risk, you’re worth more than her, both to me, and to the HDA. You are fairly popular on the internet after all, you even have your own fan base.”

Faith pulls back and stares into my eyes. Before closing them as she lets out a sigh.

“I guess I can’t talk you out of it, but please promise me that’s the last option. If it really is her, I want to know what happened.”

I’m not going to let her in on my theories at this point. I need more information before I can let her know. It won’t be long though. I promised no more lies and deceit. If she asks I’ll tell her.