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She flopped over me languidly, one bare leg draped over my thighs, her head and an arm flung across my chest. I stroked her smooth leg idly, unable to hold back a smile at the occasional explosion of shakes that signified her laughter.
“It might be a while before this stops.” I stroked her hair. “Would you like a bedtime story?”
Y-E-S, she signed, and if her hands were her voice, that voice was slurred and drunk.
Ancestors, next time I would use much less venom. My poor wife.
I thought of a story to tell her that would maybe give her a little insight into the people of the keep. My family, hopefully to be hers as well one day.
“Once upon a time, in the days when the vampires still lived Below, there was a bloodwitch who just couldn’t follow the rules and always wanted to test the patience of her elders…”
Cirri erupted into another small earthquake. As much as I enjoyed holding her this close, for her it was going to be a long night.
But as for me—my thirst was quenched, I had a gorgeous woman draped on me in bed, soon I would understand her, and… there was going to be a next time.
As I spoke, and the venom’s effects slowly mutated into a soporific grip on her, I didn’t let myself think about how I didn’t deserve this, or how it all seemed so unreal. Even later, when everything had been ripped away from me, I held onto this moment as the exact night that my life, my hopes, my dreams… they had all changed, suddenly taking an unknown path I had never considered before, a path that led to something I’d long since given up on.
I was going to grip this happiness with both claws and run with it. It was mine now.