Narrative P. O. V.
Cain sat at his desk, looking at nothing.
The tower was dark. Moonlight invaded his senses almost as much as the sunlight did but the thick stone walls kept the majority of the noise out in
addition to the light so he could actually think.
The only thing he didn’t like about where he sat was the fact that he would’ve rather been somewhere else. He was restless that night knowing that Ella slept only a few floors beneath his feet.
Cain still couldn’t believe she existed.
She certainly wasn’t supposed to… that’s what everyone had told him his entire life.
Looking at her, he thought he was dreaming. But standing next to her, he was reminded she was real. Whenever he touched her, she was a reminder of the fact that he wasn’t so different from everyone else and that he wasn’t so unlovable.
Selfishly, he liked being around Ella for that reason.
Cain knew monsters didn’t deserve mates. Maybe, just maybe, if he had one it meant that he wasn’t the
monster he’d been raised to believe he was. And that fleeting, naive optimism was brighter than any ray of
sunlight would ever be.
Cain sat in his desk chair for hours that night, thinking over every situation, every scenario, of how he could tell Ella. Not just about him, but about everything.
After the hours he spent contemplating, he was no more sure then of how to tell her than he was before he sat down. He became more conflicted the more he thought about it.
Cain heard someone approach the door at the bottom of the stairs before he heard the door open and close. Heavy footsteps echoed up the stairwell as the individual marched up the stairs.
Based on the slow heart rate, the minor creaking of the stairs under the pressure of each step, and the scent of sandalwood, Cain deduced it was Daniel who was walking up the stairs.
It wasn’t long before Daniel’s mop of brown hair peeked atop the staircase and he stomped into the room.
“Morning, sunshine,” Daniel said.
“Ya know, it’s creepy how you sit in the dark.” With that being said, Daniel walked over to a desk and turned on alamp.
The light cut through the room and nearly blinded Cain. He closed his eyes tight and blinked a few times.
“Sorry, man,” Daniel apologized. “I should’ve given you some time to adapt to my voice first.”
Cain stood up and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the migraine that was building with the sudden onslaught of his hyper-conscious senses.
“Don’t worry about it.”
He walked over to the wet bar and poured the last remaining liter of blood from the plastic bag into the stainless steel shaker.
“I’m out,” he said, showing Daniel the empty bag.
“Already?” Daniel asked incredulously.
“You’ve gone through five bags in two days…”
“I can start going through people if you’d like,” Cain said shortly.
He noticed how uncomfortable his comment made Daniel and he shook his head.
“It’s her,” he admitted.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s her scent,” Cain clarified, turning to look at Daniel. He could tell that Daniel was no more enlightened.
“Have you ever been completely content, and then someone starts eating and you’re suddenly starving?” Cain asked him.
Daniel thought for a moment, trying to gauge where Cain was going with his analogy.
“I satisfy myself only with what I need and then I stand next to her and this need, this lust, for blood washes over me.”
“So she makes you… hungry?”
Cain sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Horny?” Daniel asked, trying again to guess.
“Somewhere in between,” Cain said.
Daniel raised his eyebrows. “That’s somewhat concerning seeing as the two shouldn’t go together.”
Cain raised the stainless steel cup to his lips and took a long swig of the thick, bitter liquid.
“I’ll make sure you get some more of that,” Daniel said, backing away.
He began to walk out of the room before Cain stopped him.
“What did you come up here for?”
“To tell you she was awake,” Daniel said. “But I think you might need to finish that and compose yourself first, though.”