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It’s been over two weeks since Wumuti last fed, and she’s hungry.
She’s just arrived in a new town, which isn’t unusual. Wumuti travels around a lot – you have to, when you’re a vampire, or people start to realise that you don’t age, or that you’re the common denominator in the mysterious attacks and disappearances in the area. It was easier in the 1900s, when Wumuti was turned, and there were far fewer cameras and word didn’t travel so fast.
However, she has high hopes for this new seaside location. According to word on the street, there are already plenty of mysterious disappearances in this area, plenty of accidental injuries and deaths in the sea, mostly from holidaying drunks stumbling from the bars to the rocky beaches.
Wumuti doesn’t even always fully drain her prey anymore, now that she’s no longer an overeager fledgeling, so honestly if a drunkard were to find themselves alive on the beach in the morning – even with a few strange scrapes and significantly less blood than they started the night with – they would probably still consider themselves fortunate, in a place like this.
They’ll certainly never remember meeting Wumuti the night before. His powers of hypnosis will make sure of that. He hopes he’ll be able to keep a low profile here for at least a year or two – uprooting his life is so bothersome, after all. All of his things have been moved into the pretty seaside house at the very edge of town during the week, and now that it’s finally the weekend, Wumuti is finally ready for his first hunt.
She takes special care getting ready, choosing an attractive outfit and applying immaculate makeup – little red jewels on her face to match her hair, her eyes, and her lips. Not that she needs any of it to attract a human when she has the powers of hypnosis, but it’s more fun this way – Wumuti enjoys looking attractive, enjoys seeing how far she can get without having to use her power. Sometimes she can get all the way up to the moment of the bite itself without having to use so much as a basic glamour (although she often caves early if the human turns out to be too annoying, just to make them stop talking).
After one last sultry look in the mirror, Wumuti pulls on a dark red fur coat (for appearance’s sake only – they haven’t felt the cold in decades), and heads out.
Their chosen hunting ground is a popular bar on the beach front, with nice dim lighting and a big selection of both locals and tourists for them to choose from. Wumuti slips inside silently and finds a quiet spot at the end of the bar. They’ll get the lay of the land, buy something to pretend to drink, then find someone to leave with and actually drink from.
New location, same old strategy.
Wumuti orders a whisky, because that’s what he used to get when he was human and he can’t be bothered examining the other offerings on the menu when he can’t drink them anyway, and sits back to take stock of the patrons.
No one is immediately appealing, but that isn’t uncommon. Wumuti prefers the finer things in life, but he can’t always come by prey that meets his standards and usually needs to lower them. It looks like that will be the case tonight.
Since no one catches his eye on the first sweep of his hunting ground, he takes a second, slower look, examining each person covertly over the rim of his glass.
It’s then that a noise reaches Wumuti’s ears. Someone is singing, a soft beautiful voice echoing in the night.
They tilt their head and glance around the bar, but it’s not coming from in here, and no one else seems to have noticed it. Only Wumuti, with their enhanced senses, can hear the voice.
It’s a wordless melody, but somehow the message is still clear.
Come to me. Come and find me. Come to me.
Wumuti shakes her head slightly, as though to dislodge water from her ears. The voice is faint and far away, but oddly clear, as though on a different wavelength to everything else. It seems to drown out the much closer and louder ambient noise of the bar, until it’s all Wumuti can focus on, all she can hear.
As if in a trance, she finds herself rising to her feet, abandoning her drink and her plans, and moving like a sleepwalker out of the bar and into the night.
Once the door has closed behind her, it’s even easier to hear the entrancing voice, clear like a bell but soft, soft like gossamer floating in the crisp night air.
Come to me. Follow my voice.
Wumuti obeys without question, following it down to the beach, to the concrete walkway along the waterfront.
There, at the very end, past the last lamppost, is a figure dressed all in white.
Wumuti knows at once that this person is the source of the singing, and quickens their stride. Even from a distance, it’s clear that this person is beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful Wumuti has ever seen.
Long white-blonde hair falls in slightly damp waves down to their chest. They wear flowing white clothes, and there are strings of pearls around their neck, over their shoulders, in their hair.
Wumuti is entranced.
She keeps walking along the beach, swiftly approaching. The beautiful figure isn’t facing her, but is turned inland, seemingly focused on something else as they sing.
Come to me. I need you here.
With an effort, Wumuti tears her gaze from the stranger and glances over to see if there’s anything there. There’s certainly nothing of note, nothing as interesting as the singer, but her eyes do catch movement in the darkness.
There’s a human there, a man, stumbling towards them, no doubt attracted by the same song as Wumuti. The humans in the bar didn’t seem to have heard anything with their dull human ears, so this man must have been nearby. Whatever.
Wumuti turns away disinterestedly, redirecting his attention to the singer again. But the singer is smiling now, smiling out in the direction of the human as though pleased.
It’s then that, with a jolt, Wumuti realises the song isn’t for her. The human approaching is the one being called. Even now, as they draw closer, the beautiful stranger gracefully extends elegant, slender arms, beckoning them closer, as though for an embrace.
Anger and jealously tear through Wumuti’s chest at the sight – why does this human get to be the centre of the singer’s attention? What did they do to deserve this song, this invitation?
That should be me.
Seething, Wumuti looks more closely at the human. He’s a lumbering, stupid-looking man, wearing a baseball cap and a t-shirt with grease stains. There’s writing on the front, ‘women are like cars, they only…’ Wumuti rolls his eyes and refuses to bother reading the sexist punchline. This is the sort of person Wumuti would feed on if he were younger or more desperate and couldn’t guarantee his prey’s survival.
He doesn’t deserve this beautiful stranger’s attention, that’s for certain.
Putting of a burst of speed, Wumuti reaches the singer’s side and glares at the human, eyes glowing red to catch his attention. As soon as the stupid man’s gaze shifts bewilderedly, Wumuti unleashes the full force of her persuasive power on him.
“Leave this place immediately,” she says. “Go home.”
The effect is instantaneous – the human does an about-face and sets off back the way he came, still in that same sleepy, shuffling gait.
The singing cuts off abruptly and the beautiful stranger’s head snaps around, features pinched in in confusion and annoyance.
“What the…?”
Wumuti looks her in the eye – such pretty eyes, the iris is pale silver and Wumuti has never seen anything quite like it – and holds her gaze unblinkingly.
“You don’t want him,” she says firmly. “You want me.”
She uses a lot of power – too much power, possibly. The stranger’s eyes lose focus and they stumble slightly before recovering, as though hit with an invisible force.
“Oh,” they say softly, then shake their head briefly and regain a little composure. “Hello, beautiful. I'm Rui. What’s your name?”
Their speaking voice is just as enchanting as their singing.
“A pretty name for a pretty face,” says Wumuti smoothly. “A pleasure to meet you. I’m Wumuti.”
“Wumuti,” Rui repeats, almost reverently.
Wumuti is used to people she enthrals whispering her name like this, as though it’s a prayer, a precious gift they’ve been given. What she’s not used to is it affecting her so much. Something about hearing her name on the lips of this ethereal person sends a tremor through her whole body, and she sways slightly.
Rui clasps their delicate hands in front of their chest and tucks their chin, looking up at Wumuti through their lashes.
“Will you come and keep me company, Wumuti?” she asks. “It’s so dark and cold out here, and I’m so lonely.”
Emotions surge through Wumuti – joy, excitement, sympathy, the desire to protect, to have, to hold. Anything this beautiful person wants, anything they will allow.
They need Wumuti. And Wumuti needs them.
“Of course I will,” she says. “I’ll keep you company for as long as you like.”
Rui’s pretty eyes widen.
“Really?” she asks shyly.
“Of course,” says Wumuti again, then blinks when they realise that they’re suddenly much closer.
When did she walk forward? She doesn’t remember. She shakes her head. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that she can see Rui even better now, in all her mesmerising beauty. She has such sharp eyes, such a pretty nose, such full pink lips.
Wumuti sways closer, barely noticing that she’s doing it. She’s not averse to kissing her prey, especially when they’re good looking, but she’s never wanted it this badly before.
Rui is staring at Wumuti’s lips too, eyes drifting slightly out of focus again.
“Kiss me,” she says suddenly.
Wumuti does.
Their lips meet clumsily, but with a lot of fervour. Behind the all-consuming delight that she’s kissing this beautiful person, Wumuti has the nagging suspicion that she might be kissing a little too hard for a human – they’re such fragile things – but Rui is giving as good as she’s getting, so Wumuti doesn’t worry too much.
She wraps her hands around Rui’s slender waist, and Rui clings to Wumuti’s shoulders so tightly that Wumuti can feel her claws digging in through her coat.
…Claws? No, humans don’t have claws. She must just have those long false nails humans sometimes wear these days. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Rui is so close, so lovely, so sweet.
Wumuti makes a noise they feel a sudden prick of pain in their lower lip – odd, human teeth would never be strong enough to puncture a vampire’s flesh. Have they managed to somehow nick their lip with their own fang? They must have, there’s no other explanation.
Luckily, vampires heal very quickly, and they can feel the tiny cut already closing over and vanishing as they continue to kiss Rui.
Eventually the two separate and rest their foreheads together, both panting. After a moment, Wumuti gathers her thoughts enough to form words.
“Shall we go somewhere else?”
“Come home with me.”
She and Rui speak at the same moment, then both giggle.
“I see we’re on the same page,” says Wumuti. “Lead the way, then, beautiful.”
Rui nods at once, with an eagerness that makes Wumuti’s ego soar.
“Follow me.”
The walk to Rui’s place turns out to be a little messy.
Rui almost immediately walks into a post, then shortly after slips on a wet rock and almost falls over, which makes Wumuti giggle but doesn’t surprise her – people she hypnotises often lose coordination. It’s a lot like being drunk. What is stranger is that Wumuti seems to keep stumbling and tripping over things as well. It’s not like her to be uncoordinated, but it’s hard to watch where she’s going when she can’t tear her eyes from Rui.
Maybe she’s just hungry. She’s left it longer than usual in between feedings while moving house, after all. And hey, at least Rui is too besotted to notice a couple of little stumbles.
That is, until Wumuti trips over a piece of driftwood half-buried in the sand and collides hard with Rui. Rui cries out as he loses his balance too, and Wumuti manages to right himself just in time to catch Rui in his arms.
Smooth, he congratulates himself as Rui’s pretty eyes blink up at him in surprise, face inches from his own. He could almost pretend he planned that.
“Oh, you saved me!” says Rui, as if Wumuti hadn’t also been the one to crash into him and make him fall, and giggles sweetly. “Thank you.”
His words flow over Wumuti like wine and honey, sweet and intoxicating.
Wumuti tries to say something suave in return, like ‘don’t worry sweetheart, I’ve got you’ or ‘you can count on me’, but the words blur together in his mind.
“You smell really nice,” he ends up saying instead.
It’s true though. He drops his head to Rui’s throat and inhales deeply. He smells fresh and sweet, like flowers and the sea breeze. What will his blood taste like? Wumuti wants to find out, badly.
“Mm, you too.” Rui clumsily butts his head against Wumuti’s shoulder, as if trying to smell him back, and groans. “You’re going to taste so good.”
He blinks abruptly, like he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Wumuti just chuckles, endeared. He likes when humans talk about ‘biting’ and ‘eating’ in bed, not realising that Wumuti’s own version of such actions will be far more literal than theirs.
He helps Rui back to his feet with a smile, and the two set off again. Rui sings softly as they walk, almost just to themself. Wumuti is content to listen, smiling without thinking.
It’s not until they reach the cliff face at the far end of the dark beach that it occurs to him that this can’t be the way to someone’s house. This is odd.
“Through here,” says Rui in her soft, magical voice, and Wumuti follows automatically as she leads him through a dark gap in the rocks.
Wumuti looks around in confusion as they emerge into a… cave? It’s dark, dark enough that without Wumuti’s nocturnal vision, he’d struggle to see. He can hear the tide lapping nearby, and the cave is mostly featureless apart from the incongruous sight of a neatly-made low bed in the corner furthest from the water.
Wumuti frowns. Why are they here, in this cave? When Rui said they were going to take him home, this isn’t what he pictured.
“Where… where are we?” he asks, puzzled.
Rui just crosses the room with such grace that Wumuti stops thinking to watch her go, then takes a seat on the low bed.
“Will you join me?”
Wumuti glances around at the cave, still puzzled.
“But… what…?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” says Rui, with such conviction that Wumuti finds himself nodding in agreement.
He’s still puzzled, though, and it seems that Rui can tell, because she looks across at him and pouts.
“Don’t you want me?”
She leans seductively down on one side, one arm pillowing her cheek, one leg bent to show off the curve of her hip. Or she tries – halfway down her elbow gives out and she crashes into the mattress, then has to scramble back into position.
It doesn’t matter. She’s still so beautiful, so entrancing, so sexy. It’s enough to steal Wumuti’s breath away. She can’t think, can’t focus on anything else properly while Rui is there, even the strangeness of this cave.
Wumuti feels dizzy and hazy, a feeling she vaguely remembers from when she was human and used to buy whisky to drink rather than to blend in. Something is up, and she wishes she could just think, but her brain isn’t working properly.
“You… you’re too pretty,” she slurs, accusing.
Rui giggles.
“So I’ve been told,” she says.
“No,” Wumuti shakes her head. “You’re actually too pretty. You’re… it’s doing something to me. I don’t usually feel like this. Something’s off.”
Rui just keeps laughing, musical and joyful, and the sound wraps around Wumuti’s brain like golden fog, smoothing away all her worries.
“Don’t worry,” she sings. “Just come and sit by me. Don’t you want to kiss me?”
“I do,” Wumuti admits freely, walking over at once. “I really, really do. You’re gorgeous.”
“I want to kiss you too,” says Rui thoughtfully, flopping back onto the pillows and staring up at the ceiling. She wrinkles her nose. “That’s funny. I’m not usually so into this part. The kissing and stuff.”
Wumuti might wander what she means by that, but the way Rui is lying exposes even more of that beautiful, long, pale neck and he can’t control himself anymore.
He reaches the bed and crawls on top of her, mouth watering. Rui smiles up at him, angelic and adoring, as she wraps long arms around him.
“Wow, you really are so beautiful,” she says softly. “I could look at you forever.”
Wumuti preens. She knows she’s beautiful – she owns plenty of mirrors, and the idea that vampires don’t have reflections is a myth – but it’s different hearing it from Rui.
“Coming from you,” she says with a smile. “You’re exquisite.”
She leans down and presses her lips to Rui’s once more. It quickly becomes heated, mouths opening and tongues meeting. Wumuti gets lost in the feeling, brain fuzzy and filled with pleasure as she rolls her body down against Rui and feels her respond in kind. They pause only so Wumuti can free her arms from her coat and toss it blindly aside and out of the way.
When they finally break apart, breathless and connected by a string of saliva, Rui’s eyes are out of focus too. Wumuti gets lost in those beautiful silver eyes for a moment, then shakes herself and dives down to kiss her neck. She licks at the smooth, unblemished skin, then picks a spot and sucks a mark onto it, revelling in the little noises this pulls from Rui.
“Oh, that feels nice,” Rui breathes. “I don’t usually do this bit.”
Wumuti wonders distractedly what that means – that Rui doesn’t usually get intimate with strangers, or maybe that she usually skips straight to sex? The idea of other people being able to touch her makes a low, possessive growl escape Wumuti’s throat.
She busies herself sucking more marks onto Rui’s neck to quiet the jealous thoughts.
She’s the one here with Rui now. Rui is hers. Hers to kiss, to touch, to feed from.
God, she’s hungry.
Although the kissing is nice, she can’t hold back any longer. Her sharp teeth graze Rui’s pulse point, and she feels them stiffen suddenly underneath her.
“Oh, no, wait, what are you…?”
Wumuti sinks her fangs into their neck, and they break off with a sharp gasp of pain. Hands fly up and grip Wumuti’s shoulders with surprising strength, but they seem caught between pulling her closer and throwing her off. Wumuti takes the moment’s hesitation to take a deep drag of blood, gulping it down greedily. The hands gripping him loosen and drift away.
“Ow, that really hurts,” whines Rui, batting feebly at her. “You’re not meant to…”
Then the full euphoric effect of Wumuti’s venom kicks in and they trail off with a long, drawn-out sigh.
“Ohh,” she breathes. “Oh, that feels so good.”
She goes limp, arms dropping back to the mattress, head listing sideways to give Wumuti better access to her neck. She sighs again and gives a little shudder of pleasure.
Wumuti, however, does not feel good. Rui’s blood is strange – not at all the warm, sweet taste they’d been expecting. It’s oddly salty, and… not quite cold, but cooler than normal. They’ve never had prey that tastes like this before.
Numb to the pain, Rui just makes a little disappointed noise as Wumuti pulls away, brow furrowed in puzzlement at the strange flavour. Rui’s blood spills down to their collarbone, and Wumuti realises with a jolt that they forgot to close the wound. They don’t usually stop drinking this quickly, it’s muddling their usual process.
They quickly dip down and lick over the wound, using their saliva to stem the bleeding and heal the skin over before more blood is lost. Rui makes more little noises at the attention, but Wumuti can’t appreciate them as they stare at her freshly-healed neck, bewildered. They really don’t feel good.
A wave of nausea rolls over Wumuti and they groan, drawing back to sit at the edge of the mattress and put their head between their knees. What’s going on? Some humans’ blood is markedly nicer than others, but they’ve never encountered blood they didn’t like, blood that made them feel wrong like this.
Wumuti takes a moment to collect themselves and shake off the strange sick feeling. They stare at the sandy cave floor beneath their feet and listen to the soft sound of the water lapping nearby.
Still under the effects of Wumuti’s venom, Rui lies sprawled like a pretty ragdoll on the bed, blinking slowly.
“…Why did you bite me?” he says to the ceiling. “That’s wrong.”
“I didn’t bite you,” says Wumuti soothingly, layering hypnosis on every word. “Don’t worry. That never happened.”
“Oh…” A relaxed smile spreads over Rui’s face. “Good. That’s good. That would have been confusing.”
“There’s no need to be confused,” coos Wumuti, scooting over to sit beside her again and petting her soft hair. “Pretty girl. Gorgeous girl. You’re safe with me.”
Rui sighs blissfully under her attentions, then turns and nuzzles her face against Wumuti’s thigh.
“It’s funny,” she says dreamily, voice muffled. “That’s usually what I say. You’re safe with me. Haha. Works every time.”
Wumuti has no idea what she’s talking about, but it doesn’t matter. Not when she looks so ethereal in their lap like this. Rui could talk about anything in that soft, pretty voice and Wumuti would hang onto every sweet word.
“You’re so gorgeous,” they breathe, reverent.
“I don’t usually let this go on for so long,” Rui continues sleepily. “I suppose I should probably get on with it. I like you, though. You’re so beautiful.”
She sighs and stretches luxuriously.
“Maybe I’ll just stay here for a bit longer.”
“Stay as long as you like, princess,” says Wumuti at once.
She thinks she’s going to try drinking from Rui again. It can’t have actually been weird and salty and cold, right? No one has blood like that. Wumuti’s just feeling off right now, probably because she’s been so hungry recently.
She strokes Rui’s neck thoughtfully. It looks so tempting. Yes, she’s definitely going to have another try.
“Here, let’s lie together again,” she says, shifting a little down the bed. “I want to kiss you more.”
Rui sighs, not happy moving from his comfortable spot, but acquiesces.
“I suppose so,” he says drowsily, sitting up. “I do want to kiss you again. It’s just the rest… I don’t know. I almost feel bad. I like you. I don’t usually do this with people I like.”
Wumuti blinks, not following. Why is Rui conflicted?
“If you like me, there’s no problem, right?” she says.
Rui puts his head on one side, eyes distant, and frowns slightly.
“Yeah… yeah I guess so,” he says. “If you say so.”
Then he smiles, suddenly seductive once more.
“Well then, you’d better kiss me, hadn’t you?”
Wumuti sits up and does so without thinking, immediately lost in the feeling of Rui’s lips on hers. She wraps her hands around his waist to try and tug him closer, but Rui just moves back with a mischievous smile and puts his hand on her chest to stop her leaning in again.
“Lie down for me?” she asks, fluttering her eyelashes.
Wumuti isn’t going to say no to that. She goes easily, letting herself be pushed back down to the mattress. Rui settles on top of her, kissing her quickly and smiling down at her before moving lower. Wumuti lets out a little sigh as Rui begins kissing her neck, much the same way Wumuti had done for her before. She’s not usually on the receiving end of this sort of attention, and it does feel nice. She could almost get used to this.
“So beautiful,” Rui murmurs against her neck. “So gorgeous. You’re just perfect.”
Wumuti smiles, basking in her praise and attention, sinking further into hazy bliss.
“Just lie still for me,” Rui continues. “That’s it. It’ll be over soon.”
That’s a pity, thinks Wumuti. They never want this to end.
Then Wumuti’s eyes fly open as they feel sharp, unexpected pain slicing into their shoulder.
“Eugh!”
Before Wumuti can even react, Rui is recoiling. She rolls off Wumuti and leans over the side of the bed, gagging and retching.
Wumuti stares, then cranes her neck to stare down at her shoulder, at the bloody tear in her shirt and rapidly-healing wound underneath.
“You bit me!” she says, blinking stupidly. “I’m supposed to bite you!”
“What the fuck is wrong with your blood?” chokes Rui. “Why is it black?”
She retches and spits into the sand again.
“You taste disgusting, what the fuck! Like something died.”
“I did,” says Wumuti automatically. “You’re not supposed to be biting me.”
He shakes his head in an attempt to clear it. Strangely, it almost seems to work. Rui’s voice has lost its dreamy quality, he realises, and the golden mists cloaking his mind might slowly be receding.
“You’re not supposed to be biting me!” cries Rui. “But you did, didn’t you! And then you lied!”
She seems angrier about the lie than the bite. She glares at him, her eyes glowing silver in the darkness.
…Wait, glowing?
For some reason, it’s this detail which finally breaks through the last of the golden haze and makes Wumuti realise why everything seems off tonight.
“You…” Wumuti points an unsteady finger at Rui as they stagger to their feet. “You’re not a human! What are you?”
Rui hisses, and her mouth is suddenly full of long, needle-sharp teeth, dripping black with Wumuti’s undead blood.
Wumuti bears his own fangs and hisses right back, eyes glowing red in warning. Rui’s own glowing eyes widen in realisation.
“You’re a vampire,” they spit. “What have you done – have you fucking hypnotised me or something?”
“You must have hypnotised me first!” Wumuti accuses. “And what the hell are you?”
He looks around at the sea cave they’re standing in, remembers the song that got him here. The answer hits him like a truck.
“You’re a siren, aren’t you?”
He doesn’t need to wait for an answer – it’s obvious now. Wumuti could kick himself.
Without Rui’s lilting voice clouding his senses, their surroundings are ludicrously menacing. It’s damp and cold and horrible. Slime drips down the walls, and in every corner, glinting white, are bones – human bones. Lots of them, all picked clean, heaped in piles. How had she missed them all before?
Rui hisses again, drawing herself up to her full height. Wumuti responds in kind, although she hopes frantically that this isn’t going to turn into a full fight – she doesn’t know the first thing about sirens or their weaknesses.
Before she has time to think any further, Rui is leaping at her, claws and fangs bared.
Wumuti shrieks as Rui’s claws rake painfully down their chest, opening long wounds which spill their undead blood then close again just as quickly. In retaliation, Wumuti manages to get a grip on Rui’s broad shoulders and twists around with a cry, using all their vampiric strength to throw him across the cave. Rui goes flying and collides hard with the rocky wall.
It would be enough to knock out any human, but Rui sits up immediately and snarls, before leaping at Wumuti again. This time, he gets a grip of Wumuti’s shirt at the collar and waist and drags him bodily towards the gap in the rocks they entered through.
Wumuti braces himself, thinking for a moment that he’s going to get slammed against the stone wall, but…
“Get out!”
Instead, she finds herself propelled roughly through the cave entrance. She stumbles out and falls, landing on her front in the wet sand.
“And don’t come back!” Rui screams after him, and Wumuti can feel the hypnotism laced into her command, making it impossible to resist.
That’s fine, that’s so fine. Wumuti wants nothing more than to leave and never return.
“With pleasure!” she shouts furiously over her shoulder.
She clambers to her feet, checks that her wounds have healed over properly, straightens her clothes in a huff, and stalks away.
What a fucking night. This isn’t at all how she pictured her first hunt in the new town.
She doesn’t get far before another sudden wave of nausea rolls over her, and she bends and vomits into the sand, puking up dark red blood – not as dark as her own, but still the wrong colour for a human. Wumuti stares at the regurgitated puddle for a moment, hands on her knees, breathing heavily, until she feels ready to try walking again.
The beach is deserted, and the distant lights of the human bars have been switched off. Wumuti must have been in the cave for longer than she realised – maybe hours.
That’s good – it means there’s no one to see her like this. Her nice top is shredded now, between Rui attempting to eat her shoulder and then attacking with her claws. And her coat – oh, fucking hell, she left her favourite red fur coat in that monster’s den.
Wumuti lets out a string of curses and kicks a rock sulkily, sending it tumbling down the sand to the water’s edge. She follows it with her eyes, then blinks, realising that she’s not alone after all. Something – someone – is moving further down the beach, wandering in circles as though lost.
It takes her a second to recognise the human from earlier – Rui’s original prey. The beautiful creature’s inexplicable interest in such an unremarkable man makes a lot more sense now. Neither of them realised Wumuti was inadvertently saving his life when she sent him away.
He stares at her now, mouth open, as she approaches. Wumuti wonders if he’s still under her thrall and staring in admiration, or just staring in horror at this bedraggled creature emerging from the darkness with red eyes and two types of blood splattered over her tattered clothes.
“I told you to go home,” she says to him.
“I know,” says the man apologetically, “And I did! But I had to come back. I dunno why, I just… had to.”
Maybe Rui’s power is greater than Wumuti’s, or maybe it’s just because she got to the man first. Wumuti doesn’t really care.
She wipes her mouth on her arm, getting rid of the last traces of that cursed siren blood which did nothing to sate her weeks-long hunger.
“You shouldn’t have.”
It’s almost light by the time Wumuti finally returns home, now with three different types of blood spattered over her clothes.
She heaves a sigh of relief as she gets inside, shutting her door firmly against the first of the sun’s rays as they peek over the horizon. Daylight won’t kill a vampire, but it can cause a nasty burn.
She looks around at her living room, the comfort of her old things inside a new space. Then she looks down at herself, covered in blood and sand, and wrinkles her nose. The first thing she’s doing is running herself a nice long bath.
***
Wumuti sleeps through the day and spends the next night at sulking at home.
She could go out and explore more of the new town, but she has no enthusiasm for it anymore. The life she’d thought she could lead here for the next few years, perhaps even decades, feels like it’s already slipping away through her fingers.
It’s no fucking wonder there are so many mysterious disappearances in this area if there’s a siren actively luring people to their lair and eating them.
Wumuti looks around at all her things, all of it just unpacked from its many, many boxes, and wants to scream. She doesn’t want to go through all the rigmarole of finding another place already, goddamnit! But it’s hard to imagine living here peacefully now, knowing she’d be sharing her hunting ground with a hostile siren.
Wumuti sleeps restlessly through the next day. She can’t seem to rest properly, keeps waking up stressed and finding herself doom-scrolling real estate in other areas and getting discouraged. She likes this house, big enough to hold all the possessions she’s amassed over the years but small enough that she won’t be rattling around it feeling too lonely, close enough to town to find prey easily but far enough away that there won’t be neighbours peeking in the windows. She was lucky to find it, and she doesn’t want to have to move on already.
She sighs and flops onto her back, glancing at the clock to find that it’s only 1pm. At least she’s safe from the sun behind her blackout blinds, but the blinds just remind her of what a pain they always are to install, which she just finished doing, dammit, she doesn’t want to move again!
At some point she gives up on sleep altogether and sulks down to the living room to sit on the couch instead.
The sun is just setting when there’s a loud knock on the door, startling Wumuti out of her slump.
“I know you’re in here, vampire! Open the fucking door!”
Wumuti freezes. They know that voice. It’s different now, none of the lilting, sing-song quality which had entranced them the other night, but still unmistakable.
It’s the siren.
Instantly on high alert, Wumuti creeps over to the window facing the street and twitches the blinds aside. There’s a figure on the doorstep, bundled up in baggy trackpants and a hoodie. The hood is pulled low over their face, but a few locks of white-blonde hair escaping tell Wumuti they weren’t wrong about the voice.
But why are they here?
As Wumuti watches, Rui folds her arms huffily, looks up and down the street, then raises her fist to bang on the door again.
“Vampire! Open up!”
Wumuti cringes at her secret being shouted down the road for all to hear. The last thing she needs is suspicious neighbours.
She glances down at herself, still dressed in only her sleep shorts and red silk dressing gown, which is less than ideal for a confrontation, but there’s no time to run and change now.
With a quiet hiss of annoyance, they cross to the door and twist open the lock.
“Why the hell are you here?” they ask, as they open the door a crack to glare out. “What do you want?”
But the siren is already elbowing their way inside, pushing past Wumuti and striding into the kitchen beyond, where he whirls around and points an accusing finger at Wumuti.
“What’s happening to me?” he demands. “What did you do?”
Wumuti backs up against the fridge, wary and annoyed.
“What are you talking about?”
“The sun hurts,” snaps Rui, shaking back his hoodie sleeves to reveal angry blistered skin on his slender forearms. “And I’m hungry, I’m so fucking hungry, but I can’t eat. Everything makes me vomit. Is this because you bit me? Have you made me sick?”
Wumuti stares.
“No,” they say, mystified, “No, feeding from someone doesn’t have any lasting side effects, not unless you take too much.”
“Well, what’s going on, then?” demands Rui.
Their hood slips a little lower, obscuring their eyes, and they shove it back with a little tut of annoyance. Her hair is caught back in a knot at the back of her head today. It’s strange, seeing the ethereal siren from the other night in sweats and a messy bun, and it’s almost irritating that she’s still one of the prettiest people Wumuti has ever seen.
Wumuti blinks rapidly, pushing the thought aside and attempting to trawl through the strange muddle of golden-mist-blurred memories of the other night. The image comes back to her after a moment – the pain of Rui sinking her teeth into their shoulder, the image of Rui’s fangs dark with their blood.
Oh no.
“You drank some of my blood,” they say slowly. “When you bit me, you must have swallowed some.”
Rui glares.
“I spat it straight out again,” she says. “You tasted awful. What’s that got to do with anything?”
Wumuti shakes their head.
“It only takes a few drops.”
“To do what?”
“To turn someone.”
Silence settles over the room, heavy and filled with dread.
“No,” says Rui.
“I’m sorry,” begins Wumuti genuinely. “I really am…”
“No,” says Rui again, shaking their head. “This can’t be happening.”
“I think it must be,” says Wumuti. “If you’re already feeling sensitive to the sun and struggling to eat solid food…”
“But I’m a siren!” protests Rui. “I can’t be a vampire. Aren’t humans the only ones that can get turned?”
Wumuti shrugs helplessly.
“Usually,” he says, “I mean, I’ve been bitten by magical creatures before, and this doesn’t normally happen. But sometimes, in very rare cases…”
“Oh great, so I’m going to be some weird hybrid freak.” Rui folds his arms and turns his back sharply with a huff. “I can’t believe you tricked me into biting you. This is so unfair.”
“Hey, you hypnotised me first!” argues Wumuti. “I only tricked you into wanting me because I was already under your spell! I wasn’t trying to get eaten!”
“Well I didn’t know you were there! This is my hunting ground. I was here first!”
Wumuti can’t really argue with that. Neither of them had any idea that Wumuti would hear and be affected by Rui’s song that night.
She sighs. There’s really no point trying to assign blame.
“Here, let me look at you,” she says, beckoning. “Let’s see what’s going on.”
Rui looks mutinous at first, but eventually concedes and moves closer so Wumuti can check them over.
The sunburns are only minor and will heal within the next few hours, and Wumuti tells Rui as much to set their mind at ease.
“Is this going to happen every time I go in the sun now?” asks Rui, somewhere between peevish and genuinely concerned.
“It gets less severe the older you are,” says Wumuti. “You’ll be able to make quick little trips outside without burning once you have a couple of decades under your belt. It will always sting, though, I’m afraid.”
Rui sighs fussily, but there’s real disappointment in her eyes that makes Wumuti soften.
“I know, it’s really not great,” she says. “I’m sorry you have to go through this.”
Rui blinks, looking a little startled at Wumuti’s sympathy.
“Oh… thank you,” they say quietly after a moment.
Wumuti nods, and moves to check their teeth. They didn’t get a proper look at Rui’s fangs earlier, but the canines do seem to have elongated, whereas Wumuti vaguely remembers them being uniform length before. Their skin isn’t any paler, but then again, they’d already been pale. Next, Wumuti moves to check Rui’s iris, and pauses.
“Oh, your eyes are pink!” they exclaim. “I’ve never seen this before. We always have red eyes. I guess it must be because your eyes were white before, instead of dark. The colours are mixing.”
“Good,” says Rui petulantly. “I don’t want ugly red eyes. Pink is prettier.”
This startles a laugh from Wumuti.
“You know what? You’re right,” he says. “Pink is prettier. It suits you.”
Rui doesn’t seem to expect Wumuti to laugh instead of being insulted, but after a moment, her face breaks into a shy smile to match Wumuti’s. Then, just as quickly, it crumples.
The siren sinks down to the ground, back to one of the cupboards, and pulls her knees up to her chest, covering her face with her hands. When she looks up again, Wumuti is shocked to see tears in her eyes.
“What’s going to happen to me now?” she asks plaintively. “I’m… I’m scared.”
Wumuti has the sudden urge to gather the siren to her chest and hold her close, never mind that they almost tore each other’s throats out yesterday. Not knowing how Rui would react to that, however, she settles for sitting down on the kitchen floor beside her and laying a tentative hand on her shoulder as she starts to cry.
Obviously, the shock of the situation is starting to hit properly. Wumuti’s own memories of the time are a little vague now, but she still remembers the emotional rollercoaster that is being turned unexpectedly.
“Oh, sweetheart, it’ll be ok,” she says. “The first day of transformation is always the hardest, so the worst is behind you. And you were already living apart from society and feeding on humans, so it shouldn’t be as much of a hard adjustment compared to when humans get turned. I’m guessing you were already mostly nocturnal?”
Rui wipes her eyes and nods.
“Well, that’s good too,” says Wumuti. “You don’t need to worry about getting used to sleeping during the day. And you already know how to hunt, too. Most of us still think of ourselves as human in the beginning, so it can be hard to reconcile ourselves with them being our prey.”
Rui wrinkles her nose distastefully at the idea of being human, and Wumuti laughs again.
“See, you’ve already got so much in common with vampires!” she says. “I think you’ll really take to this.”
Taking a chance, he shuffles a little closer on the cold tile floor.
“And you won’t have to go through it all alone,” she adds. “I’ll help you.”
It’s a bit of a gamble – they’re not sure if Rui will appreciate the offer or not – but just Rui blinks big, sparkling eyes up at them.
“You will?”
“Of course!” says Wumuti. “I’ll be here every step of the way while you adjust.”
They look around the house, mind already whirring with possibilities.
“I’ll clear a room for you,” they tell Rui. “I mean, I don’t know if you need to live next to water? But you should have your own space here, at least. I have plenty of spare rooms in this house. You can take your pick of them, upstairs or downstairs.”
Rui tilts her head.
“You… want me to stay here?”
“Oh,” Wumuti fumbles, “I mean, only if you want to. But, technically, I am your sire now. I’m responsible for helping you adjust to the changes. And it’s… traditional, I suppose, for sires to provide a safe place to stay, at least in the beginning.”
“So we’ll be in the same pod?” Rui frowns slightly. “No, what is it called for vampires? A cove?”
“A coven,” says Wumuti. “And yes, if that’s something you’d want, we can definitely be covenmates.”
Rui stares at the floor for a few long moments, lips pressed together as he thinks about it.
“That… might be nice,” he says eventually. “I haven’t had a pod in a long time. It’s been… just a little bit lonely.”
Wumuti’s face must have turned a shade too sympathetic again, because Rui seems to catch himself and draws his shoulders up haughtily.
“I can take care of myself, obviously,” he clarifies, tossing his head. “It’s not like I need anyone else.”
“No, you were doing fine before I came along and messed everything up,” says Wumuti with a rueful smile. “But now this is happening… I’ll admit I wouldn’t mind some company either.”
Wumuti never really saw herself having a fledgeling, especially after her own sire had been so cold, abandoning Wumuti with little care almost as soon as she had developed enough self-control not to expose their existence.
Now, though, she finds herself oddly excited by the idea of having a companion, at least for a little while. Maybe she can be for Rui what she wishes her own sire had been for her.
“Let’s go hunting together tonight,” she says impulsively. “It can help to have someone with you while you figure out your new abilities.”
She wonders how Rui’s genetic ability to hypnotise with her voice will work with her new vampiric ability to enthral with words and her eyes. Can they be used simultaneously, or will they interrupt each other? Will they combine and make Rui even more powerful? It’s something they’ll have to explore together.
“I know how to catch a human,” says Rui, a little defensively.
“Oh, I know,” says Wumuti. “But it can be a bit weird, having a different level of strength and speed, and the hunger you feel in the first few months can be overwhelming. It can help to have a hunting companion, just so you know someone has your back until you’ve found your feet again. I can give you tips, too, like how much blood you can take without killing them.”
“You don’t kill them?” asks Rui, surprised.
“Not usually,” says Wumuti. “It’s easier to stay in one hunting ground for longer without avoiding detection.”
Rui tilts their head.
“But don’t they tell people?”
“Not if you hypnotise them well enough. They don’t even realise it’s happened.”
“Huh,” Rui sits back and looks at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Wow, that could be really helpful.”
“I can show you how,” says Wumuti, trying not to seem too eager.
He doesn’t want to be weird about it – to be honest it’s weirding himself out a little that this suddenly seems so appealing, the idea of suddenly having someone to share this strange lifestyle with.
Wow, I must have been more lonely than I realised.
“Well, you’ll need to eat soon anyway,” she goes on quickly, not wanting to dwell on that just yet. “You said you were starving. We can go once you’re feeling up to it. And…” she glances down at herself again, “Once I’ve had a chance to get dressed.”
Rui chuckles weakly at that, then they lapse back into silence.
“…I’m sorry I said your red eyes are ugly,” says Rui after a moment. “They actually look very nice. I was just mad.”
There’s something so unexpected earnest about the admission that Wumuti is again overwhelmed with endearment. She has to hold back a smile and a coo.
“It’s fair to be mad,” she says gently instead. “And again, I really am so sorry I turned you, even if it was by accident.”
“I was kind of hoping you’d be really ugly without the hypnosis,” admits Rui. “Kind of unfair of you to just look this good all the time.”
This time Wumuti doesn’t bother hiding the laugh that brings forth.
“Well, thank you,” she says. “And you’re one to talk. You’re still just as beautiful as the other night, somehow.”
Rui looks down at herself and scoffs.
“I’m a mess,” he says.
“Prettiest mess I’ve ever seen,” says Wumuti without hesitating.
He sees Rui’s eyes dart sideway and regard him suspiciously for a moment, as if evaluating his sincerity. He is sincere, and Rui seems to see this, because they don’t try to argue.
“…Thank you,” they say quietly.
Something else long-dormant sparks in Wumuti’s chest. Affection? Surely not. She’s had flings with other vampires, but never found anyone she’d want to spend much time with.
No, this is just… potential, Wumuti supposes. The relationship between sire and fledgeling can take many forms, after all. Romance certainly isn’t what Wumuti had with their own sire, but it’s not uncommon.
For now, they’ll just have to work together to get Rui through this transition period, and get to know each other in the process. Maybe they’ll enjoy each other’s company enough to stay together beyond that, maybe they won’t.
Wumuti smiles at Rui, and is pleased to find Rui smiling back.
They’ll just have to wait and see.