No longer in a rush to go to work or nervous about hanging out while he was asleep, she took her first look at the guy's place. It was sparse. A couch sat against a wall in the living room ahead, a television on a single stand across from it, and a coat rack hung next to a bookshelf near the door. That was it. There was barely anything on the shelves, just a few trinkets she didn't take the time to examine too well as she wandered over to the small kitchen. A fridge and stove existed in the regular spots, but she imagined the cabinets were as empty as the rest of the place. Vampires didn't eat food.

What he did have was expensive, so he didn't lack for money. The sleek black leather of the couch was softer against her skin than any faux leather could be as she flopped right onto it, and it was big enough to easily seat three. The television across from her was a mounted flat screen bigger than her dinner table, but she did have a small apartment table.

"You live here?" Silvia mumbled when she knew she shouldn't. Way to pry into the guy's private life, but this seemed more like a bare bones setup to show apartments than someplace someone inhabited. Did he allure a real estate agent to live in their demo?

"This is not my primary residence." Her new vampire associate positioned himself on the opposite wall by the television and gave her a once over. "It's more of a vacation home, and I used it because it was nearby. I own it, if that's what you're getting at. I certainly didn't steal someone's apartment."

"I didn't mean to imply that. Sorry. It's rude of me to criticize your accoutrements." Silvia mentally slapped herself. She should have known better to criticize anything with a vampire. Of course they would think she was imaging the worst as she sat like a tense brick, wondering if he was going to lunge for her throat at any second. Well, I'm glad you're awake. You passed out pretty hard this morning." Silvia changed the subject before she asked if there was blood in the fridge. So many questions buzzed around inside her head when she'd never spoken with one of vampire kind before.

"The daylight hours weigh on me something terrible. In order to stay awake during the day, I need to be rested during the night. I didn't do much resting." Right, sleeping next to a mage not exactly feasible. "It was by no fault of your own," he said, as if reading her mind, and his sharp crimson eyes had her dropping her gaze more out of reflex than anything. Vampire's eyes held power. "You were comfortable. I had just slept the prior day, so it was near impossible to pass out at night." A nervousness edged his voice as he tried to figure out just what to say to a mage, but it calmed her own trepidation.

They were both unsure about each other but open to interacting.

"You were pretty cute anyway, falling asleep against me this morning." Silvia chuckled and was surprised when a blush crept onto his cheeks, his crossed arms tightening. His jaw hung open as if he'd planned a reaction to anything she might spit at him, but that had not been on the list. "It's okay, really. I know younger, weaker vampires have a hard time in the sun at first."

"Weaker?" The man bristled, his nostrils flaring as he tightened his hands on his biceps, and Silvia couldn't shove her foot in her mouth harder on that one. A wisp of a thought had her measuring the distance to the door as he cut her off from it, leaning on the wall, and of course he narrowed his eyes as he noticed.

"You can run if you want. I'm not going to stop you." The words were meant to be reassuring, she thought, but the low growl wasn't at all indicative of that. It struck her more as see how far you get, mage. Nothing like calling a vampire weak to encourage him to dominate his prey.

"I wasn't trying to insult you," Silvia mumbled the words, wary that he might snap at her at any moment. The air in the room had shifted to hostility so easily when he'd felt slighted, but she couldn't blame him for that. People told her every day she was useless, and the hurt never lessened. "You're stronger than me either way. I'm a poor mage, at best," she tried, but he lifted his chin to look down at her over his nose, and her throat tightened.

"That's fine and dandy for you, I guess, but I'm not weak. I'm likely the strongest vampire you've encountered." In a flash, he was sitting next to her on the couch, and she jumped in place, having nowhere to go unless she planned to crawl over the arm rest. Her heart beat unevenly as he angled his ace closer to leered at her, still with his arms crossed, and she was only able to breath when he leaned on the opposite arm rest to give her space.

"Clearly," Silvia said, a bit sarcastically. It wasn't hard for a vampire to move faster than she could comprehend, so she wasn't impressed. More so, the large couch just reinforced how small he was. They were at a height and likely weighed about the same if she compared muscle mass, but for a guy it was so tiny.

"I'm serious." A whine trickled into his voice, accentuating his youth. Such things faded once men aged to a certain point, but she wasn't complaining at how adorable it made him. It eased the fear she should have at facing a predatory dark creature.

"I'm Silvia, by the way," she said, tired of thinking of him as a vampire because she didn't know his name.

He dropped his scowl for a strange look, arching a single eyebrow. "That doesn't sound much like a mage name," he said pointedly, and she snapped her mouth shut.

Dammit, she was supposed use her mage name. Mages never gave out their real names to vampires, and there were several reasons for that. Names held power, and one should never give an advantage to the enemy. Though this guy didn't seem so much like an adversary at the moment.

"That's all right. I suppose neither of us need for pretenses. I'm Neil." Just the small act of sharing her real name had the gentle smile she was used to gracing his face. It fit on his expression just as easily as a scowl though, so she wondered if he was not used to the latter expression more. With his stature, he likely got as much crap as she did for being a shoddy mage.

"Well, thank you for being a decent guy, Neil." Silvia calmed as he did, returning his smile with a soft one of her own from the other side of the couch. The flick of his eyes up and down her body heated her cheeks.

"I don't get that one often." Neil's smile spread, flashing his fangs in his amusement as he touched his chin in contemplation. "I'm unsure if I've ever been complimented. I'm somewhat of an asshole."

"If you're an asshole, I'm the devil," Silvia retorted, which had them both chuckling.

"I can be into that." Neil winked at her, prowling closer as he pulled himself into more of an upright position still two cushions down. It brought him that much closer, but he still remained distant out of caution. "Would you like to tell me why you were so plastered last night? You don't have to..." Neil hesitated, realizing that was asking a mage for personal information. If feigning concern and affection was his idea of interrogation tactics, then he was winning.

What harm could talking to him even do?

"Well, as I've stated, I'm a shitty mage. Not very powerful, and as you can tell, not great with judgement. So, since I don't contribute anything to the order, they cut my wages and threw me to the wolves. While the stipend from the mages will pay for food and necessities, it won't cover housing, so my apartment's going to kick me out. I'll have to pick up some part-time work just to barely make ends meet..." Silvia trailed off as she realized Neil's jaw was agape. "I-I'm sorry. You probably didn't care about any of that," Silvia sputtered, self-conscious of all of her complaining.

No guy wanted to hear a sob story from a girl right after meeting them. Asking about her drunken stupor had just been pleasantries, she was sure. She should have just said she had trouble at work, not spit her life story on his feet. Neil still had his arms crossed over his chest, but the grip had lessened, and Silvia wasn't sure if the cockeyed arrangement on his face was concern or just disbelief.

"I did care, or I would not have asked." Neil shut down her internal panic with an empathic smile that no vampire should be able to wear toward a mage. In a slow gesture, his eyes pinned to her expression and body, he unfolded his arms and allowed them to settle in his lap. It occurred to her only then, when he was watching her reaction, that he'd kept them tucked so she didn't feel accosted and not because he was closing himself off to her. "If you would like, you can use this apartment."

"What?" Silvia wasn't sure if she'd heard him right, her mind still wrapped around his fingers fidgeting on his lap, and the way he was slowly unfurling and inching closer to her like a lion slipping around ferns after a gazelle. Had he just offered her his apartment?

"What I mean is that it would inconvenience me little to offer you refuge," Neil said quickly as he watched the cogs in her brain screech against each other in malfunction. "This is a secondary home, and you seem to be in a bit of financial trouble. I don't usually spend my nights here, and on the off chance I sleep her during the day, I do so deeply, so you could move around and I'd stay passed out. It really would not bother me."

"You're a strangely kind vampire," Silvia said, catching her breath as he closed the distance between them in a movement so slick that his head didn't even bob.

"I'm really not." Neil's crimsons eyes darkened, as two cool fingers touched the bottom of chin and lifted it so their eyes sat level. "I just... enjoyed you holding me, is all. I can't say anyone has ever embraced me like that, nor sought comfort from my touch"

"Not ashamed to admit it either." Silvia chuckled, unable to take the words back as they crinkled eyes and lips. Man, she had to remember who she was talking to. The man was recently changed, so he likely had issues interacting with humans, and here she was making poor jabs at his not having been close to a woman before.

"Why should I be ashamed?" Neil's voice dropped an octave, and the words rumbled in his chest like a growl as he flashed his fangs. Silvia's breath sped up as he kept his face inches from hers, those iron fingers under her chin, and his crimson eyes boring into hers. "Do you think the opportunity has not arisen for me to indulge in such fleshly lusts?"

Silvia's face reddened as the words rolled off his tongue with such ease, his fingers taking a detour down the bottom of her chin before scraping the edge of his claws over the vulnerable skin of her throat just enough to suggest threat. The rest of his body was doing the opposite, slipping closer, bringing his dark magic flush to her body but keep himself just that distance away to avoid touch, all with his eyes locked on hers.

"There is nothing shameful about picking through fruit until you can pluck the sweetest from the high branches." Neil whispered the last with a slow smirk that had Silvia swallowing awkwardly. There was nothing sweet about her except what was flowing through he veins, and with Neil this close it would be easy to slip his fangs into her throat.

With a slow inhale of her scent, he removed his hands from her skin and scooted a foot away before planting himself into the couch back. Perhaps he'd sensed her underlying fear, or smelled it rather. Vampires could sense emotion through the physical reactions the human body made, translating them with their acute sense of smell as easily a human could identify a Cinnabon from a mile away. Despite claiming to be an asshole, as soon as he'd sensed fear, he'd backed off. That was more considerate than any vampire she'd met. Most go off on scaring mages.

"Might you want a repeat performance?" Silvia knew she shouldn't, but the night would soon be in full swing and she had no interest in returning to her own apartment to wallow. The offer had him assessing her with a tilt of his chin, but he kept himself firmly seated with his hands on his knees like he needed to grip them to keep his fingers off of her.

"Do I have to get you inebriated first?" Neil asked dismally, rolling a single set of fingers on his knee.

"Would that make you more comfortable with it?" Silvia asked honestly, and he tilted his head as if he didn't understand the meaning. "I'm a mage, and if you're unconscious around me, I could be dangerous," Silvia clarified to the slow rising on an eyebrow.

Neil scoffed, bringing a hand to his mouth to poorly stifle a laugh. "Silvia, you could probably cast spells on me in my sleep and they'd do nothing. No offense, but I can barely feel the faint magic energy coming off you, and I'm not frightened of you in any respect."

"Well, you're a midget and turn into a potato from a little sun, so I don't think you're the one to talk about being weak." Silvia angled herself toward him on the couch because she knew what spitting that at any vampire would earn her.

"I'm not weak," Neil said the words with complete calm, yet deadly threat as he leaned aggressively toward her. Against her better judgement, she met his challenge, squaring her shoulders and leering back. A hiss slipped through his teeth as his nostrils flared, but the smirk on her lips had him settling back down with a huff of breath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Word Count: 2474