"So, basically you just twist the curling iron like this and voilà!" Kissy chirped and whipped the curling iron like a magician in the air, my hair falling down in a soft curl, rather than its normal frizz.

"Woah." I leaned forward, looking at myself in the mirror and ran my fingers over the warm lock of hair.

"Come on, let me do the rest," she said, her shoulders almost touching her ears as she flashed me a dimple filled smile.

"Can I borrow this?" Frej asked and waved a little flagon of nail polish around.

"Oui."Kissy returned her attention to my hair with a very concentrated look on her face. I battled down a snort and caught Frej's gaze in the mirror.

"You look weird today," he said and narrowed his eyes at me.

"Well, thanks?" I looked up at Kissy who just sent me a saying look.

"How's Dawid?" Frej asked and opened the nail polish. 

I rolled my eyes. Everyone knew Dawid had slept in my room for the past week. We liked sleeping together. Actually sleeping. Amazing how everyone was this up in arms about us having slumber parties... And... Drinking each other's blood. I didn't even know if I should be creeped out by that or just revel in how amazing it had felt.

Frej looked down at his newly painted fingernail and then flicked his eyes back at me. "Or is it supposed to be a secret? Because you're both shit at keeping it if that's the case."

"It's not a secret. I just don't feel like talking about it," I said and shrugged a shoulder.

"Is it because he doesn't have sex with people?" Frej asked totally nonchalantly.

"Uh..."

"I mean, it's not like he keeps that a secret." Frej shrugged and turned his attention back to his nails.

"And it's not like you don't just blabber on about people's private matters," Kissy chimed in.

"What? Aura and I are friends. Friends talk about potential boyfriends. And it's not like I'm judging. Dawid is just really dry and Aura isn't."

"Dawid isn't dry," I said. "He's... Special."

"He's special," both Kissy and Frej said, imitating me and doing it very over-dramatically, making me roll my eyes again.

"He is! I... I like him," I said a little sheepishly.

"So the whole 'no sex' thing doesn't bother you?" Frej asked. 

"No." I hated talking about this.

"Well, different strokes for different folks and all that." He shrugged and finished painting his nails on one hand, moving on to the next. "Xipe isn't big on it either."

"That's a lie if I've ever heard one." Kissy laughed melodically and finished one side of my head, the hair falling down in soft waves around my shoulders.

"Well, he likes it with me of course." He smiled a little wryly. "But then again, we did nothing but make love when we first met."

"Is it rude to ask how you were turned?" I asked.

"Of course not," he insured me and looked back up from his nails. "I woke up on my sacrificial pyre, still tied to the pole. Every inch of my body hurt. My skin was covered with scabs as it had melted and then dried again. But I was very much alive and I didn't understand why, before Xipe stood before me. He bit his lip until it bled and kissed me. Even though I was burnt, he kissed me. And I started healing." He took a deep breath and smiled a little. "And then he cut me down from the pole and took me on the pyre."

My jaw dropped. "What?!"

Frej laughed and shrugged. "He made love to me right there."

"But... Wasn't your body burnt?" I turned around.

"Oh no, his blood healed me. Then he took me to a little hut in the middle of the forest. Anyways, we were in love by the third day of my new life. After a couple of months he asked me to marry him. The rest is history."

"So, are you going to expand on Tec not being the most physical person or...?" Kissy asked.

"Oh right! Yeah, he isn't. He's more into the whole 'sharing blood' thing since he's a deity and all. Sex is for the mortals he says. And for me." He chuckled and his shoulders shook a bit in a cute way. "And he really isn't that much into it, but he knows I am and I think that makes him into it, you know?"

"What is the whole sharing blood thing?"

"Oh it's a thing for our kind," Kissy said. "You share each other's blood and that creates a bond between you. Not to mention, it's really hot. Our blood has a very different effect on us than just humans'. It's just good and nice."

I bit down on my lip to stop myself from saying anything. I didn't know how much Dawid wanted them to know. We hadn't even talked about the others and what we were gonna tell them. We hadn't even spoken about what we were, for crying out loud.It was so complicated and yet when I was just with Dawid, it wasn't complicated at all.

I knew I had to talk to him about it. Dawid. I knew I wanted to too. Because I didn't want to just... Fool around. But at the same time, I knew it hadn't been that long. It was way too early for this talk and yet I wanted to have it.

He looked so serene as he was tapping away on his laptop. I found him in the small office, figuring out Tec's finances.

I scratched the top of his head and he looked up at me, those beautiful round eyes narrowing as he smiled.

"Hey," he murmured and pursed his lips, right before I kissed him. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Just roaming around. I just came back from hunting with Tec."

He turned around in the spinning chair, spreading his legs and pulling me in between them.

"Was it good?"

"Yeah, it was fine."

He looked adorable as he looked up at my hair, gently tugging on a strand. I took his face in my hands and kissed him. I kind of forgot why I had sought him out as he gently bit down on my lip. His fang punctured the soft skin and he gently drew his tongue over it. He pulled back and turned his head, kissing my wrist. I quickly jerked back.

I tried to keep those scars hidden because I was the only one who had chosen death the way I had. And I didn't like it. I didn't like the constant reminder of those scars and what they meant.

Dawid took one look at me and then he rose to his full height, towering over me. He took my hand in his again, pulling the sleeve down with the other, exposing the scar.

It was jacked. Lumpy. I was the only one here who bore scars of their mortal death and I was embarrassed. These lumpy lines running vertically from under my hand were what made me different from the rest of the people in this house.

Dawid looked down at it, slowly running his thumb over the scar. Then he looked back up at me, catching my gaze.

"Don't hide from me," he murmured softly. "I don't hide these," he said and pointed to his implants, "From you."

I nodded, almost in a trance. I could only feel his thumb running over my wrist. Slowly. Gently.

"There's nothing wrong with you," he said very softly.

My stomach took a tumble like it always did around him. My heart rate picked up as the anticipation for him to kiss me again almost killed me.

He finally bent down, letting go of my wrist and gently cupping my cheeks instead.

"Nothing at all," he whispered and was just about to kiss me when the door flung open. Both of us jerked back, away from each other.

"Stealing kisses in offices, are we?" Tec asked, folding his arms over his chest, leaning against the frame of the door.

"Trying to, anyways," Dawid muttered and rolled his eyes, before returning to his laptop.

"Uh huh." Tec did not look amused. At all. "Have you finished your work yet?"

"More or less." Dawid clicked a couple of keys on the keyboard. "I've been doing this for years, Tec. Believe it or not, I do know how to do this without you breathing down my neck."

"Easy, tiger." Tec dumped down on the back of the couch, watching the computer over Dawid's shoulder.

"He didn't hear you," I said quietly.

Tec didn't respond to that but just proceeded to crouch down next to Dawid. They started talking about finances and I was so not in the mood for listening in on that. I was more in the mood for listening to music with Iwo, so I set out to find him.

I heard noises from one of the smaller living rooms and decided knocking was a city in Russia. I opened the door and got eye contact with Iwo right away. And he wasn't alone.

Wrapped around his hips was Kissy. And she was barely clothed. And neither was Iwo.

We were all staring at each other before I snapped out of it, pivoted around and closed the door behind me. I should not have seen that. I should so not have seen that.

I stiffly walked back towards my room but Frej found me. How did I run into everyone in this house today?

And he was chirpy and chatty and wanted us to have coffee in the kitchen, so before I knew it I was sitting by the very small table with my hands wrapped around a coffee mug.

I was just staring at his tattoos, snaking their way up his arms while he was talking about something I didn't even half-listen to.

"Aura? Are you okay? You're looking a little pale."

"I uh..." I finally snapped out of it. "Nothing. I'm just a little weird today."

"You're a little weird every day, Aura. That's why we all like you so much," he chirped happily and took a sip of his coffee. "Has Xipe told you about the spring equinox?"

"No?"

"It's a big thing for him. See it as his birthday.People used to serve offerings for him back in the day during this time. So now he has a small get-together instead. Like a small party with some of his old deity friends back from Mexico. It's also why there are so many parties right now in general. Because of the spring equinox."

"Are we just not invited to those parties or...?"

"We're invited to some. Xipe is invited to all of them, but he refuses to show up at the ones where I'm not welcome." His cheeks reddened a bit and he shrugged. "I've told him he should go. Those are his peers. His own kind. But he says; if they're too good for me, then they're not good enough for him."

"He's quite the romantic isn't he?"

"When he wants to be."

Speaking of the devil and he shall appear. Tec came into the kitchen, grabbed a fistful of Frej's hair. He bent down and softly kissed his husband before moving to the fridge.

"Dawid's free to play now," he said with his back still turned to me.

I wanted to throw my mug at him but I checked myself. "How lovely. Now I'm playing with Frej."

"Frej will be busy in a minute," Tec just said.

"What are we doing?" Frej asked and grabbed Tec's shirt, pulling him away from the fridge.

"You'll help me pick out something for that party next week. And then we'll both be naked."

I groaned loudly and rose from the table. "It's like no one ever thinks about anything else in this house."

"But we're immortal, Aura love. Nothing else to do but to make love and see the world change," Frej said in a dreamy voice, laughing as Tec grabbed his hair again. I turned before they probably ate each other's faces off and decided to find the only other sane person in this house; Dawid. And maybe forget that horrifying image of Iwo and Kissy. Ugh.