THE MOMENT
Delilah felt weak again. This time, she could smile because she had a tired body. Not feeble from illness, it was the good kind of tiredness that followed a hard day of work. It was a new form that she'd never experienced before and she basked with aching muscles and heaving breath. The messy, dusty disarray was banished by her efforts and the tidy home was truly worthy of the vampire she served now.
It was a modest single-story house with only two bedrooms and a den. When she was first brought to it, she wondered why such a powerful vampire would settle for the cozy space. But now, after spending days in the space recovering, it had grown on her. And, she was glad it wasn't much bigger at that moment because she knew she would have pushed herself to sickness again trying to clean it all at once. Her vampire master had also proven to be unexpectedly kind. He refused to drink from her while she recovered completely from her illness. But now, she felt healthy enough to clean. She knew she was strong enough that he might decide to feed. With that thought in mind, she collected herself and moved to the shower to clean up.
As Delilah readied herself, her mind wandered over the last few days. They were supposed to be her last few days. But all at once, the veil was broken. News outlets reported, and the government gave official warnings; Fae creatures existed and they were ready to bargain. Apparently, they weren't ready for the crushing amount of requests they would receive. Delilah tried her luck and was put in a 'Queue' to wait for an appropriate bargain. But, she didn't have that kind of time and she sought out other fantastical methods. It was pure chance that she met a vampire online. She had already explained her predicament before knowing what he was, and he did not hesitate to volunteer his aid. She didn't have time to doubt and hastily threw herself into his service in exchange for another chance at life.
He took her in and cured her with magic instead of a cursed bite. He insisted she stay and recover fully, and went about his business, often out of the house. Of course, she had plenty of time to think, and her mind became clearer. It made sense that he wouldn't want to feed on an ill person; but, now she was confident he would.
She was as prepared as she was ever going to be, and she sat in the living room to wait. After some time she fell asleep; but, she jolted awake to the sound of heavy footsteps.
"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," the pale, bald, mountain of a vampire apologized. "I'll be gone in a moment; I'm just changing real quick," he said. He turned to continue past her but Delilah hopped off the couch and ran around to block him.
"Wait! I'm all better now! I cleaned everything for you," she said.
"Thanks," he half-nodded as he surveyed the organized living room. "You didn't have to; but, thanks," he said. "I'm glad you're feeling better. You can leave whenever you want," he added with a fanged smile. That was an unexpected gut punch.
"You want me ... to leave...?" she asked.
"Uh.., no, I guess not. If you don't want to, you can stay; sure that's fine," he nodded.
"Aren't you hungry?" Delilah looked up and exposed her bare neck with the question.
"Yeah, I'm starving," he replied. "I'm on my way to dinner. I wanted to dress up for my date, you know?' he chuckled. She knew exactly what he meant; but, she wanted to play along.
"Oh, you have a date, huh?" she asked as she reached for his arm.
"Yeah," he nodded and pulled away. "I'm gonna be late if I don't hurry; Minerva doesn't like waiting."
"Minerva? Who's Minerva?"
"My fiancee," he grinned.
"Fi... an...YOU'RE ENGAGED!?"
"Yeah," he nodded.
"But, you healed me....," she said. "I thought we... I thought you wanted to feed," she showed her neck again.
"You needed help, I was in a position to help," he shrugged.
"You made me your servant!" she said.
"You made you my servant," he replied. "To be fair, you were kind of delirious, don't sweat it," he said.
"But, you just said I can stay! What's that about??"
"I own over a dozen houses," he shrugged. "I don't need all of them, you can have this one if you like it that much. And, hey. It's already all cleaned up for you,” he chuckled as he walked away.
“I'll come back for the rest of my stuff later and move out of here completely for you. Right now, Minerva's waiting.”