Chapter Text
Briar likes to bite.
The first time Seraphine found that out wasn't the first time the vampire had bitten her. That moment had been wonderful frankly, a strange but beautiful union between them. Blood, freely offered, happily taken.
This time is much different, mostly because it wasn't planned. Seraphine simply awakes in the safehouse they are still confined to, with the feeling of sharp teeth around her neck. For a moment, when the sleep has not yet fully left her system, she is confused. Then panicked.
Then, Seraphine smells the familiar odor of Briar and can see her pale limbs wrapped around her. She knows that it is just her friend and that all is good.
That mindset doesn't stay for long, but it is still nice while it lasts. Because Seraphine quickly realizes that, while not in danger, she is sort of in trouble. For Briar has yet to wake up.
And while the pink-haired girl always enjoys physical contact between them, right now, she cannot move. At all. It feels like being trapped in a vice, one that is also currently gnawing on her neck.
Briar's teeth are moving. They go sideways, like a saw, and isn't that an image. However, they do not pierce skin, which is very surprising. Seraphine has experienced herself how easily Briar can draw blood and while she would trust her friend with her life, being asleep changes things.
Seraphine considers. There are two options right now, wake up Briar, or remain like this until Briar wakes up on her own. One carries the slight risk of exsanguination the moment her vampire friend tenses or twitches her jaw, the other the risk of startling Briar and doing the same thing that way. The singer almost considers simply lying here until she realizes another problem: the Enforcers. She can't see what time it is at the moment, but they are being checked on regularly. Explaining this would be extremely awkward, and the sudden entrance and alarm when an unwitting officer sees them like this would be even more likely to startle Briar.
So, with a heavy heart, Seraphine decides to wake her friend up manually.
"Briar, I need you to wake up now." She sings softly, lacing magic into her words. Just enough to spark a reaction in the vampire, who is already rather sensitive to such things. They had tested it, sort of. Now, giving her friend essentially a nudge with a bit of arcane sound is an easy and elegant solution to the current problem.
"Hrmph!" There is little it can do to Briar's mood however. Instead of releasing her, Seraphine can feel her friend's limbs restricting her even more. She wasn't even aware that that was possible. Especially without her feeling any pain or shortness of breath.
"No, Briar, please. Don't do this right now."
"Hrm!" Seraphine really doesn't want to do it, but it appears that she has to resort to less friendly means. She starts making a noise in the back of her throat, a sort of vibration, again backed up by her magic. It should be low enough to not be easily picked up outside of the room.
It is only audible to Briar. Who grumbles and groans as it languily picks up in intensity, but doesn't relinquish her victim. Inbetween, Seraphine constantly asks her to let go. Friendly of course, because the singer does not accept any other way of talking to her friend.
"Briar, you need to let me go. At least long enough so we can have breakfast and change!" She pleads again, this time with just a bit more force. Several things happen in that moment.
The vampire clenches, either because she is severely disgruntled or out of a reflex caused by Seraphine shifting in her arms.
As a result, her teeth dig deeper into the young woman's skin, still not drawing blood but intensifying the sensation.
Thusly, but entirely involuntarily, Seraphine lets out a rather suggestive sound.
And, of course in that exact moment, one of the enforcers opens the door to check up on them.
Fortunately, it is not one of the newer ones. Unfortunately, it is one of the monster hunters. So, naturally, everything devolves into chaos.
The hunter immediately assumes the worst despite having been on duty here for a couple of days and shouts for his colleagues to get here while running to the bed. Seraphine, horribly flustered from what just happened, tries to tell him that everything is okay and not in need of intervention. Briar is horribly ripped from her enjoyable state by shouting and, soon after, hands trying to seperate her and her friend. And she, of course, reacts accordingly.
What follows is simply put, a mess. One that fortunately gets resolved without too many problems. Nobody gets hurt and the girls are not admonished. Much. By all respect, Seraphine refuses to believe that the monster hunters shouldn't be used to being thrown around a room. Or getting punched by someone about twice as strong as a normal man. Perhaps other factors are inhibiting her usual care for people.
There are some words about Briar biting Seraphine outside of feeding, but since the vampire was asleep and neither is willing to rest in seperate beds, there is little to be done here. And it wasn't like Seraphine was hurt. Even that last bite only left some slightly red marks. Her dignity is more wounded by having the monster hunter hear her reaction.
At least Briar seems fine, though she hasn't really spoken since the whole ordeal.
-o0o-
Briar is lying on the bed doing something she has never really done before: relaxing. She is doing great. Extremely, wonderfully, absolutely great. Everything is so new!
First of all, she is lying in a normal bed. Well, Briar thinks this is a normal bed, or perhaps it is just a good bed. What she does know was that this bed was leagues above what she had been given by Vladimir and had to sleep in for years. This? A heavenly cloud in comparison.
Then, she didn't have to do anything! It was now her second day of freedom since her escape yesterday and there was absolutely nothing she had to do other than… well, Briar didn't know. Wait probably. For something, she couldn't really figure out what.
And then, there was Seraphine. She was just, so, absolutely, wonderfully… Briar mumbled more unintelligently. It is just so great, everything that has to do with that girl. Her hair, her smell, her blood.
Especially the blood, it had been so delicious. If she wasn't so attached to Seraphine's well-being, Briar would want to taste it every day! It was the best that she ever had tasted, like liquid bliss. And now, it is making Briar all warm and fuzzy. Her veins were thrumming with energy and power, it almost feels like her body is singing!
Briar giggled and wriggled around on the bed, getting somewhat tangled up in the sheets, growling lightly in delight and the after effect.
-o0o-
Seraphine carefully closes the door and looks over towards the bed. She sighs and shakes her head at the sight and steps closer to it and the sole occupant. Briar cracks open an eye and then smiles at her with her rows of sharp teeth, emitting a sound than is more closely to a squeal than a greeting.
"Still like that, huh?" Seraphine chuckles and sits down.
Immediately, Briar scrambles onto all four limps, which makes for a hilarious image as she gets even more tangled with the covers and tries to get closer to her friend. It ends with the vampire's head landing on Seraphine lap. Briar tries to move a couple of times but quickly decides to stay where she is. Especially once Seraphine starts petting her head.
"Look, I am not against giving you blood in the future." Seraphine says, more to herself because she doesn't know if Briar currently has the mental clarity to understand her. "But, well, I don't know if I feel comfortable effectively getting you high. Perhaps we have to figure out the dosage?"
One of her hands finds its way behind one of Briar's pointy ears. Almost immediately the vampire flips herself around to lean more into that particular touch. Her growling grows stronger, almost sounding like a cat purring.
"Well, at least you are happy." Seraphine says. "I don't think we are going to get to do much today, or for the week. So, might as well let you have this."
Seraphine lies down on the bed, her friend immediately trying to find the new best position besides her. The pink-haired girl has to suppress laughter at seeing a deadly vampire act more like a cat than her own Bao does.
She smiles. "Sleep well Briar."
-o0o-
As the sun slowly descends towards the horizon, Briar's mind is much more clear. She still feels the effects of Seraphine's blood, or as the pink-haired girl calls it, the "High". It is a fitting word for it, Briar thinks. But now at least she is not acting like a cat, all playful and purring and brain-fogged. Not that it was a bad experience, but the loss of absolute control wasn't exactly her favorite thing.
Briar does still want to drink from Seraphine. Perhaps not as much and not often, but she can imagine chasing this effect. For now however, she is content with the after effect slowly running its course, as the two of them try to use their time while waiting.
"How long do you think they are going to keep us here?" The human ponders out loud after dinner is over and they are sitting on the bed together. Briar would never ask, because she is fully aware of lucky she is to even be here. Asking for more feels weird, though she can also not deny wanting to go outside.
"Actually, now that I think about it, do you think they will let you go to school?" The vampire blanks and stars at her friend, surprised at the question.
"I don't know. I never wanted to, but I guess I also never had the choice." She mumbles out loud. "What would I even do there?"
"Well, you can learn things." Seraphine replies lamely. She mostly just had the thought because she herself is in college and remembered that she will have at least a week of stuff she needs to catch up on. "If you ever want to work a job…"
"What job can I even do? Who would even hire me?" Briar's question isn't meant to be pointed or undermine Seraphine's proposal, but it still shoots a large hole into her idea.
"Yeah… I mean I would love to say that it won't be a problem…" But they both know not everyone is so considerate. And Briar managed years without people bothering her too much because of how she looked, though that was mostly because she was trained to hide the most unsettling parts. People are not always open to Vastaya and those just have animal-like features.
Briar has eyes that look like they are blind and yet still make your blood run cold if you look at them directly. Her teeth are sharp like a mouth full of knives, with her four incisors being especially visible. Then there is the smell, always having the scent of blood and, if Seraphine were to be honest, danger.
She loves it. But others will not.
Briar's ears twitch as she hears Seraphine's resolve crumble and be usurped by sadness. On instinct, she leans over and wraps an arm around her shoulders. The other girl's warmth is comforting and she hears some of that happieness that she has already grown to love hearing come back.
It sounds like someone playing on a guitar…
"Mmmm, weird." The vampire mutters. Seraphine looks at her questioningly and for a moment Briar considers not saying anything about it because it could be weird.
Then, she suddenly realizes what is happening and her eyes grow wider. Seraphine, herself being capable of hearing Briar's soul and having turned her hearing aids down in strength, also looks back in alarm.
"So uh," Briar begins, stumbling over words as she tries to figure out how to phrase this. "Don't be alarmed but, well, I think that I can hear you. L-like you hear people, or I think at least."
Seraphine is shocked, she had not even considered such a possibility. It echoes in her own song for Briar, who hears it as if someone is ripping it on a high-pitched electric guitar. To her it is both grating as well as strangely fascinating.
"That… wow, I mean…" Seraphine stammers multiple things trying to be voiced from her mind but getting in the way of each other. Eventually she manages to get something coherent out. "That is so cool! I never had anyone have the same experience that I have! How is it, what does it sound like?"
"Like hearing a guitar play." Briar admits, doing her best to describe what she is experiencing. "It is probably because I drank your blood, never knew it would have these side effects." Not surprising though, since Vladimir only fed her bland, probably artificial stuff. And also likely skipped on teaching her a lot of stuff. Would Vayne have books about Vampires that she would be willing to share?
"I don't think it reaches very far because I haven't heard anyone other than you. I think. So, maybe the range isn't very large or maybe its just you because I drank your blood?" Somehow it feels lightly embarassing to say all this stuff. Or perhaps not embarassing. Maybe the word is… intimate. Nevertheless, it makes Briar feel warm in her face.
Seraphine for her part is eagerly taking it all in, nodding along. This is immensely exciting. Exciting enough for her to be able to ignore Briar's embarassment, because reacting to that would just create an emphatic feedback loop and her friend doesn't deserve that. Also, one if not both of them might pass out from embarassment-caused overheating.
"This is honestly so cool, I don't even know what to say." Seraphine giggles. "Who could have known how many side effects drinking my blood would cause you?"
"Yeah, he he…" Briar chuckles lamely, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. First she gets high and then she takes some of her friend's power.
Of course, the pink-haired girl notices this and puts a hand on the vampire's wrist. "Hey, don't feel bad about it. It isn't like we were planning for you to suck on me every other day."
That sentence lingers for a moment before both of them go red in the face and Seraphine scrambles to correct herself. But because both of them try to say something and are very flustered at the moment, it mostly results on them tripping over words into a verbal mess.
It doesn't take long for everything to just devolve into giggling and laughing, held back mostly because they do not want to alert the people outside their room. Seraphine lets herself fall backwards onto the bed, Briar following. The singer looks at the ceiling while the vampire drops all pretenses and looks at her friend.
"Even trapped in here," Briar starts speaking after a while. "Even while the Enforcers are basically keeping us in custody. This is the best I have felt ever."
"Its only going to get better." Seraphine promises her. "Sure, it won't be easy, but nothing is. We will figure it out. What you will do, if you can go to school, how we are going to do it with feeding you blood. Hey, maybe we can justify you living a life outside of their facilities if we document how vampires work? I don't know if they have all that much info on that subject."
The pink-haired girl gasps lightly as a thought strikes her. "We are going to have to figure out where you will live!"
Briar stays quiet, becauses she had hoped to just be able to live with Seraphine. But that is perhaps a bit too forward. Would it even be smart, to live together with your primary blood donor who has a very good taste and also could make you high? Well, she still wants to and will if Briar gets what she wants. But maybe not from the very start.
"Depends on if they have any regulations they wanna put on us." She mumbles. Seraphine nods, thinking about possibilities.
"But they will not seperate me from you. Ever."
At that, the young singer turns in surprise at her vampire friend. It was the conviction in her voice that surprised Seraphine so much. It makes her heart pound faster and her chest feel all warm. Briar in return can feel this emotional reaction and shuffles closer on the bed so that her head is lying on Seraphine's shoulder.
She nestles in until contend and closes her eyes. "You made me realize that I have not really been living. Just being near you makes me happy, because you're so bright and wonderful. Not gonna give you up, ever. Promise."
Seraphine smiles as she looks at her friend. Breathing in, she can smell the unique odor of metal and danger. Or perhaps, ferocity. But ferocity is not necessarily bad, she thinks. Sure, Briar is a bloodsucking menace, a being capable of tearing apart anyone who opposes her. But Briar is also curious, someone who wants to live life and experience the world.
Briar cares for her. "And I promise that I will always care for you."
Seraphine whispers these words and then she gently kisses Briar's forehead. The vampire twitches and shivers from the touch, but in a very excited and happy way. They lie like this, putting their arms around each other and fitting together like two puzzle pieces.
The pink-haired girl can feel Briar's breath on her throat and perhaps she is imagining it, but it feels quite eager.
"If you want, you can bite me again. Like this morning."
"R-really?" Briar carefully asks back, though she is already inching towards that wonderful neck.
Seraphine nods. "Yep! I trust that you won't draw blood. And if they walk in on that again, their fault."
That single nod was the last movement her head would be able to do for most of the night, as the rest is spent with two rows of very sharp teeth on her skin. But, though most would never understand it, Seraphine never felt safer.