“Yeah.” Casey offered quietly and sidered how she’d been turned. “It’s a fine liaini. Vivienne was taken in her sleep. You went to a friend, arayed a trust.”

  Blinking her cheshire-cat moonlit eyes, Sylvie shook her head. “I set for about five seds. I had long known what Amos was. I mean once he knew I wanted his fangs all over my body, he told me.” Sylvie scooted closer to Casey and poked her long fingernails along her partner’s arm. “Before you ask, yes, he’s bitten me everywhere…though it wasn’t the least bit sexual for me. I just wao feel that…that slice, the sometimes hard puncture.”

  Shivering as the skin on her arm ressed to its limit, Casey frantically nodded and took in a few hitched breaths. “Yeah babe, I know…trust me, I know. I am thinking about that very thing right now.” Casey distracted herself, “So he would have sex with you as he bit you?”

  “Yes, Cassiopeia above…yes.” She ughed, “Oddly it made him work harder and bite more frequently in the moment.” Sylvie shrugged, “Which worked for me. You get it, cum where you want…just don’t stop driving your fangs in my ass.”

  Casey bent hing, “I swear you are as vulgar as I am at times, my psma-peanut.” She refused to look up so she could stop ughing. “Go on, Taini. You’ve successfully staunched my vibe with that visual.”

  “Sorry, Casey.” Sylvie pyfully bantered. “You did ask for a distra…” She took a breath, “...When he opened his wrist for me, it was like a miracle. I’ve not had the same taste in blood sinbsp; There was just something unhinged in the fvor, something I couldn’t quite uand and k was gi just into a vampire, but almost like rewriting a book.” She shook Casey, “Does that make sense, love?”

  “I guess.” Casey finally looked up after being shaken like a pair of dice. “Sounds like you had quite the experience when you became a vampire, I mean you felt your body ge?” Casey Inquired and thought about her own experience via dang. “I felt like I was being freed from all the burdens around me, faced my biggest fear and literally came out golden oher side. We’ve not seen any darkness or demon in me, so I don’t think I have one.” Casey set the box tht, “You make it sound like you could feel everything…like what? On a cellur level?”

  Finally sick of the unopened box, Sylvie attempted to reach over Casey and was instantly blocked. “I’ll tell the rest if you tell me what’s in the box. I mean you are holding that thing like you hug me.”

  “Oh, hell no.” Casey put the box behind her bad tucked it under a pillow. “Everything iime, Taini.” She kissed Sylvie’s hand. “It isn’t the right time, trust me.” She entwiheir fingers and pulled Sylvie closer to her. “You’ll just have to trust me a me do this in my own time, okay?” Casey pressed their foreheads together and mewled softly. “We were discussing your ge, Taini.”

  “I have to ask why you are using Taini, sweetheart. I love that you are, but it’s a little odd since you’ve called me Sylvie for about a year now.” Sylvie squished their lips together for a couple of seds, and breathed in softly. “I trust you, Casey.”

  Opening Sylvie’s hand and kissing her palm softly, Casey expined why she was using her lover’s priven name. “Love, we are in your aral home, the pce where you were born and ultimately died, then were reborn. I think it’s a sacred pce, I mean you have pictures of your former life all over the house.” She poio the three rge dream catchers on the wall above their bed. “So, I feel like I should use yiven name, not your niame.” Casey whispered, “I love you, girlie.”

  “You have given me a bunch to address, Casey.” Sylvie gave her partner a kiss on the forehead and then sat up. “The easiest one is my name.” Sylvie grabbed one of the dream catchers above them and crushed the artwork until there was nothing but small ks of splintered wood left. “I didn’t mean to give you the idea that I wahis pce to be some memorial for you.” Sylvie patted her hands-free and resumed, “I mean, yes. It is a memorial to the past, but not like you think.” Sylvie pced her hand over her heart. “I wahe world to see what was lost here, that’s all. The paintings on the wall are like you having pictures of your family over a hearth or something.” Sylvie scooted up and took the other two dream catchers down ahem aside. “That wall isn’t my own anymore. This room is ours, let’s pick out something together.”

  “Taini, I really don’t min-” Casey tried to say before a lovely finger ressed to her lips and she went silent.

  “Allow me to finish what I was saying, my treasure-muffin.” Sylvie wiggled her eyebrows, happy with herself on their name py. “You see my artwork out there as some…” She waved her hands, “...something that I wanted everyohat came here to revere.” Shaking her head lightly, the blue bows in her hair moved slow enough that they didn’t make a sound. “I didn’t do it for that, I did it because…I felt good when I paihem and wahe others close to me.” She shrugged, “The paintings of me? It’s like how you would keep your own pictures of yourself younger in your house or something.” Sylvie dropped her finger. “While I appreciate the gesture, you didn’t fall in love with the woman on the wall, you fell in love with me.” Sylvie reached out and pced Casey’s hand over her heart. “You fell in love with Sylvie, not Taini. I want you to use my given name because you feel you want to, not o out of some mispced idea of respect.”

  Casey mao kiss the dainty little finger as it dropped from her rosy lips. “I like being the only ohat you let call you Taini.” Casey grabbed one of the dream catchers, “At least one should stay up, I think they are pretty.” She looked up at the wall and spotted the three nails. “It looks so empty now, yeah…” Casey flipped onto her knees and crawled over the pillows and hung the one dream catcher on the wall. “That looks a little better.” Half-twisting to look at Sylvie, Casey blew her a kiss. “Fine, I will use Taini when I feel like it.” She shook a fi Sylvie, “I still don’t want anyone else using your real name, deal?”

  “Deal.” Sylvie hopped off the bed and ed her arms around herself, “Now es the hard part for me to discuss.” Sylvie began to pace the floor a looking away from Casey as she spoke. “So there I was a vampire, turned and under Amos’s trol.” Sylvie pressed her fangs into her lip and took a deep breath. “He was like any uy, really. With the fact he could finally trol me, the jackass did it quite a bit.” She dropped her arms and balled up her fists, “Not just for sex either. I was seriously his damned sve. I even hunted for him and brought back blood so he could drink.”

  When one spaghetti strap on her nightgown dropped off her shoulder, Casey reached behind her and adjusted the little length of fabrid slipped it back over her shoulder. “Was he really that zy? Or was he doing it to prove he could?” Casey picked up the sed dream catcher and twirled the feathers between her fingers. “No, don’t ahat. I am furious enough at the sex.”