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Liro is woken from a dead sleep by a growl. Her eyes pop open just in time to see the glint of fangs diving for her throat in the darkness. The heavy body crashes onto her a fraction of a second later, but Liro already has her arms up.
One forearm, thickly covered in a leather vambrace, goes between those supernaturally powerful jaws. Her other arm deflects and then grabs a clawed hand as it lashes out wildly. Liro heaves, and she and her attacker roll off the bed. They hit the floor with Liro on top.
“I asked if you were hungry!” Liro shouts. The creature under her yowls in reply, muffled by Liro’s arm in its jaw.
There’s a syringe on the bedside table. Liro gets the creature’s wrists in one hand, ignoring its desperate attempts at escape, and grabs the syringe. She stabs the creature in the thigh and depresses the syringe with the ease of long practice.
It screams. It writhes and jerks under Liro’s weights. It sobs as its struggles weaken. Eventually, it’s just crying under her.
Liro sighs and carefully dismounts. She wiggles her forearm where it’s still clamped between its teeth, but she can barely move it. She reaches awkwardly until she can pull the tab on the table lamp.
Grethe has tears trailing down her face. They don’t soak into the vambrace because it’s treated not to absorb any liquid. Her hands, the claws shrinking back into oblivion, dig into the carpet and she struggles for breath.
“Grethe. Darling, can you hear me?” Liro says gently.
Two shaky breaths later, Grethe’s jaw relaxes and Liro can take back her arm. She slides the vambrace off and throws it into the corner of the bedroom with the other ruined ones. Her arm is bruised, but not pierced, and she glances upwards for a moment of silent prayer.
Grethe is watching her when she finishes. Her eyes are no longer red with bloodlust, but back to her normal dark brown. They’re also wide and filled with tears.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, and then breaks down sobbing.
Liro gets them up on the bed and makes sure Grethe is covered with blankets. Her skin is ice-cold. Liro drags her pajamas off quickly and cuddles Grethe close and, for a minute, lets herself feel the terror of nearly dying at her girlfriend’s hands.
Or rather, her fangs.
“You said you weren’t hungry,” she says once Grethe has calmed down.
“I didn’t think I was,” Grethe sniffles. “I woke up and I, I thought I could wait until morning.”
“I’ve told you not to-”
“I don’t want to wake you up, too! You already made the silver solution to bring me back and you keep me from hurting anyone and you kept anyone from finding out about me and you’re still hunting for the vampire who turned me, and I don’t want you to- to.”
She buries her face in Liro’s neck and clutches at her, harder even than she does when vampire strength takes her over.
“I don’t want you to decide it’s not worth it. That I’m not worth it.”
Liro has to close her eyes as that rocks through her. She squeezes Grethe closer and buries her nose in her girlfriend’s sweet-smelling hair.
“Never,” she whispers.
Grethe isn’t done breaking her heart, though. “I know you hate. Things like me. I wouldn’t blame you.”
Liro rolls them until she’s on top, the blankets bunched around them, and looks down at Grethe’s shame-filled face. This position used to be familiar. Grethe used to love being blanketed by Liro’s larger form, heavy with muscle from years of vampire-hunting. Now, even when she’s not under the monster’s influence, Grethe is as strong as Liro. They haven’t had time to come to terms with how this new factor affects their relationship; everything else has been more pressing.
“I could never hate you, and I will never, ever give up on you,” Liro vows. “I couldn’t kill you even when I didn’t know there was a way to bring you back. And now that I know there is, I will not stop until I find a cure. Darling, you’re stuck with me, for better or worse.”
In the soft lamplight, Liro watches Grethe relax for the first time in what feels like forever. She even smiles, and Liro feels her heart throb, realizing how much they’ve lost, how she was too focused on fixing the problem to see how Grethe was struggling with more than bloodlust.
But this is something that can be, if not fixed, and least made better.
She lays back down and tugs Grethe until her smaller body is on top. She tilts her head back and resists the urge to laugh as Grethe’s gaze drops to her neck, the same way it used to drop to her chest when Liro would take off her silver-laced leather hunting top.
She didn’t realize she would be able to laugh about anything like this. Since Grethe was turned, there hasn’t been much laughter.
“Drink. So you don’t wake up hungry.”
“I can just get a blood bag,” Grethe says weakly, but she hasn’t looked away from the side of Liro’s neck.
“That’s not as good for you. Go on, I’ll stop you before you take too much. I trust you,” she promises, and that does drag Grethe’s eyes up to hers- for the length of a sweet smile.
“Even though I’m…”
“I trust you when you’re in your right mind,” Liro qualifies.
Grethe doesn’t answer and instead leans forward and slides her teeth into Liro’s neck.
It hurts. Liro gasps loudly and flinches, though she tries to keep her neck steady. Grethe’s hands clamp down on her shoulders and she’s held down firmly enough that she can’t move at all, even when she pushes curiously. Grethe’s hands are like iron.
Liro groans. She’s never had a partner who could hold her down like this, wouldn’t have known she wanted it if asked. But her beautiful girlfriend is sucking at her neck, which somehow remains sexy even though she’s drinking Liro’s blood, and she’s warming up, nearly hot now as her thin pajamas press down against Liro’s bare skin.
She feels the beginnings of light-headedness and taps on Grethe’s side. She gasps again as she feels the fangs leave her neck, and then groans when Grethe licks carefully over the punctures.
Grethe is looking at her strangely when she sits up, and Liro realizes she’s staring at the last droplets of her blood on Grethe’s lips as she licks them.
“Do you… like getting bitten?” Grethe asks, sounding deeply confused.
“No!” Liro insists. “But… it’s you. And. You’re stronger than me now,” she says, strangely shy about it.
Grethe’s eyes flash red, just for an instant.
“Yeah, I am.”
Liro shivers. Grethe surges to kiss her, and she’s blazing hot and Liro can taste the iron on her tongue, but it’s not scary anymore, and she’s not going to let it keep them apart any longer.
Liro lets go of her vigilance and lets Grethe take what she wants.