A Few Sips Ch. 14

Domino slowly closed the door and picked up the carseat, "Let me put Faith in another room, she will start fussing if she can smell you."

"She is a beautiful baby." He said softly as she looked at her daughter, who already seemed to be looking at her with accusing eyes.

"Thank you, I think so." Domino walked into the living room and set the car seat down on the floor between the couch and the entry into the kitchen, which ran along the back of the house.

"Is this a service you usually provide?" She asked him as she walked back into the room, he was about mid-thirties in age, dressed in a suit, his hair closely cropped, he was former military, she was sure.

"When the need arises, though it doesn't very often." He nodded as she moved closer to him.

"Are you generally kept aware that you've been fed on?" She put a hand on the left side of his warm neck, feeling his pulse throb against her palm.

"I need to keep track of it so that I know when I can be of use again." He nodded as he looked down at her.

"All right." Domino pulled a little on his neck, he was a fair bit taller than she was, and he knelt down so that she could move her face in close to his throat, breathing in slowly, letting his scent fill her, she felt her teeth extend and knew her eyes would be molten as she looked at him for a moment. It was rather intoxicating to feed from someone else.

Keeping her right hand on his neck, she turned hers and opened her mouth, biting into his carotid artery carefully, so as not to shred it, and immediately intaking the blood that squirted out in pulses. It was quick this way, and she was licking the wound shut as his hands had dropped to cup her ass and pull her up against his body, which was the general reaction she got from those she fed from. The feed was intimate, arousing, but easily controlled because of the quickness of the way she'd fed. He would probably go home and have to take care of himself, if he made it that far before pulling over and doing it in his car.

Stepping back, she smiled up at him a little, running her hand around her mouth to make sure she didn't have any drops of blood visible. He was looking at her with passion filled eyes, but he let his hands fall to the sides of his body and nodded. Without a word, she watched him walk over to the door and open it, closing it behind him after he walked through it to the porch outside. Domino heard Faith let out an angry cry as she moved to the window by the door to watch as he walked to the sedan and he paused for just a moment, looking back at the house before sitting within it and slowly pulling away.

"Faith, sweetie, mommy is coming." Domino told her daughter as she came back into the room and unbuckled her baby from the carseat, holding her as she walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. There were a few bags of thawed blood inside, and a quick check of the freezer showed them many more bags. Jo had said that she would have it stocked, and she wasn't lying. She knew there would be even more in the freezer in the pantry.

The next two days were the weekend. Domino took the elixir both days so that she could have some time in the house without Faith being awake to interrupt her. She was busy getting her work area coordinated in one of the upstairs bedrooms, and she was rearranging a few bits and pieces around the house where she wanted them. She hadn't tried to go outside, Cooper vomiting for hours after he did it didn't give her a lot of reason to try, but just being able to be up for a while longer was a nice feeling. She didn't plan on using it all the time, but the option of having it was amazing.

The next week went by with Domino focusing on just being a mother. She found that she loved it more than anything. Even when Faith was comfortable, full and happy, she had a tendency to want to hold her close and talk to her, to run her hands over those flappy little wings that sometimes did what the infant wanted them to, but most of the time seemed to make the little one frustrated. She had a tendency to have one of them in her hand as she sucked on the upper ridge of it. Vampire babies apparently did not require a pacifier.

Jo, Cooper, and Fionna had stopped by one night, along with Jo's girlfriend, Marci. Domino wasn't sure what she'd expected, but a seventy-three year old woman with long gray hair and a happy smile hadn't been at the top of the list. Jo was obviously very taken with her, and they were very affectionate during the visit.

The four of them, or sometimes just a few would end up visiting every other weekend or so, to check in on Domino and restock her freezers. Domino didn't begrudge the visits, she was new to this vampire thing, and she had been able to have them answer questions from time to time. Cooper and Fionna were much more social vampires who liked to go into Madison and feed there, or simply shop and eat at restaurants like the other locals did. At least, when they weren't working in the lab with Jo, who was almost completely obsessed with her work.

Domino had only gone with them a few times, but about two months after she'd made the move, she found herself alone, walking down State Street in Madison, by herself in her long cloak as the night crowd made their way to and from their destinations. Jo and Marci had promised to stay in and watch Faith, who was inching closer to four months old and was desperate to start crawling, but her little arms and legs couldn't agree on what to do, and her wings were constantly in the way.

She'd already fed on a couple people already. A woman who she'd found alone in the bathroom at the restaurant where she'd eaten dinner, and then a little later, there'd been a man who'd snuck around to the side of a tavern to pee on the wall. She'd caught him before he'd even gotten his pants down and had fed from him before leaving him just as quickly. Domino had smiled to herself as she'd walked away, his zipper was already going down and he'd pissed without even realizing that she'd been there.

It was about thirty minutes later when she heard some movement in an alley about half a block down from where she was walking quietly, the streets were nearly empty at this point, and she knew it was getting close to when she would need to head back to her home. Domino frowned, though, hearing a feminine whimper as a woman was pushed hard up against the side of a brick wall. Biting her lip, she made her way towards the alley.

"Let me go!" A soft voice muttered, half muffled by the chest that was being pushed fully up against her.

Domino rounded the corner and saw the scene come into view. The man was big, not muscled, but fat, and he was holding what looked to be a very young woman against a wall. The girl still had her clothes on, thankfully, but the man was trying to lower the waistband of his sweatpants to bare himself, the thought of him doing so made Domino want to gag. She moved soundlessly over to him and grabbed him by the throat and one of his big meaty arms and he was thrown effortlessly against the wall on the other side of the alley. He crashed onto the ground with an extremely satisfying thud, and Domino walked over to him, crouching down and picking up one of his arms. He was out, but would live. Holding the underside of his wrist up, she bit into it and took what he unknowingly offered. A little more than a pint, though, it would keep him a little weaker for a few days, maybe make him think twice about attacking a woman in an alley.

"Th-thank you." The girl whispered in a breathless gasp and Domino licked the wound closed and then stood and turned towards the voice.

Long brown hair framed a heart-shaped face with big blue eyes and full, dark red lips. She had freckles over her nose, a nose that looked like it might have been broken once upon a time. The girl was wearing jeans that had seen better days, and a flannel shirt that had started smelling months ago, Domino sniffed, overall, the girl was pretty pungent. Domino realized that she wasn't quite as young as she'd first thought, and she was wearing black boots that once had been polished and new, but were now very scuffed and dirty.

"You live on the street." Domino stated as she tilted her head to the side a bit, taking in the way the young woman shook, she was scared, which Domino understood, she'd just watched her feed on the man.

The girl nodded, her eyes darting around her, "Yes."

"I'm not going to hurt you." Domino looked with a frown down at the unconscious man, "He was, though."

"What are you?" The girl's voice was trembling a little bit.

"Oh, you know what I am." Domino waved the question off with her hand as she looked a little farther down the alley and saw where the girl had dropped her backpack and other things.

"But you don't exist." The girl said again, this time, her voice was a little more clear, and she was standing up now and not leaning against the wall.

"Sure, if that is what works for you." Domino moved swiftly front of the girl, knowing that the movement made her cloak fly behind her shoulders and she was able to move her wings up into the air around them.

She heard the girl gasp and look at the big black wings and then she moved her eyes back down to the red ones mere inches from her face.

"It doesn't matter to me if you believe in me or not, but you won't remember any of this in a moment." Domino breathed in the girl's scent before moving her hand to the girl's neck to hold her still as she bit into her carotid, feeding only momentarily before she felt the need to gag. Domino licked the girl's neck and then backed away, spitting the small bit of blood she'd withdrawn from her mouth.

"You taste disgusting." Domino spat, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she looked in confusion at the girl.

The girl shrugged. "Maybe I should say 'thank you,' since that means you can't feed on me, which is obviously a little creepy to do. Don't you ask?"

"Sometimes, but generally speaking, I can take away the memory of the encounter. It isn't really necessary." Domino frowned, why the hell had the girl tasted so gross?

"Still, it's more polite to ask. Not everyone would tell you no. Then you wouldn't feel like such a jerk for taking their blood." The girl walked over to her bags and picked them up off of the ground.

"Who said I feel like a jerk?" Domino cocked her head to the side again as she watched the girl rummage through her bag for a moment.

"Well, I guess I would feel like one," The girl looked at her with her blue eyes and frowned with only one side of her mouth, "I'm Spencer."

"Domino."

"You've never had someone taste bad before?"

Domino shook her head, neither Jo nor Alexandru had ever said anything. They'd just said vampire blood was like poison and other than the foul taste, she didn't feel like she was getting sicker."

"I wonder if it's because I'm a mermaid." The girl's words made Domino drop her mouth open.

"Uh, ya think? You don't smell-well-you haven't actually bathed yourself in a while, have you? Maybe that's what has my senses all weirded out. Hmmmm, that could be it. But-wait. You're a mermaid and you don't believe in vampires?" Domino shook her head.

"I've never met one." Spencer shrugged and settled her bag over her back.

"Well, I've never met a mermaid, but I wouldn't say they don't exist, especially with all the nonhumans I have met." Domino told her.

"Well, I've never met any other nonhumans besides my mom and I. She died a few years ago, so it's just been me."

"And you can change your tail into human legs?" Domino looked down at the girl's jean-clad legs.

"Yeah. We have to be able to leave the water. Some of us live in areas where the water freezes, and we breathe air. If we can't get to the surface, we can die, so we have to be able to walk away from the water." Spencer explained to the vampire that was watching her very cautiously.

"So there are other mermaids out there, you just haven't met them?"

Spencer shrugged her shoulders again, "Yeah, I guess so. It's what my mom always said.

"So why are you alone, why don't you go find one of them?"

"Do all of you vampires go hunt each other down thinking you've got some bond that instantly makes you friends?" The girl's eyes were sharp, she definitely had her wits about her, that was for sure.

Domino shook her head, "No. I don't. I have a few close friends that are vampires but I don't go looking for more. Still, it'd be nice to know someone of your kind. Or not."

"I should get going, like you said, I stink, it's been a few weeks outside of water for me and I need to get back to it. I was headed out of town when this jerk caught me." Spencer glared down at the unconscious man.

"Well-you know, I have this house, and it's really close to a lake. I haven't been in the water myself, but it looks okay. You could probably go there. My land borders it on one side, so you'd be pretty safe." Domino was surprised at herself that she was suggesting it, but this girl looked like she had felt not all that long ago.

"Do you have a tub?" Spencer asked.

Domino nodded, "Yes, you're welcome to it. The upstairs bedrooms are empty, so you're more than welcome to stay."

Spencer smiled slowly, "First, you save me, then you feed from me, and now you're offering me a place to stay. This is a weird night."

"Tell me about it. I must be off my game."

"Well, how do we get to your place?"

Domino smiled and flapped her wings behind her back. Spencer looked up at them with wide eyes and then gave Domino a look of disbelief.

"Really weird night."

~*~*~*~

Domino took the elixir the next morning because she wanted to be up for a bit to watch the girl. When they'd arrived at her house, the girl had been shocked to see how 'normal' and 'quaint' it was. It was kind of unsettling to think that the mermaid thought she would be living in some gothic castle in a crypt of some sort. There may be vampires that do, and she imagined Klaus probably did, but she was normal. She'd been human, and her tastes hadn't changed that much. They had gone inside and Jo had been right by the door, having smelled Spencer's stench from quite a distance away.

"Jo, this is Spencer. Spencer, this is my friend, Jo. She's like me." Domino had explained, and then shrugged when Jo gave her a look, "She's a mermaid."

"And you tried to drink from her? Dom," Jo had chuckled and shook her head, "human blood. Not vampire, not mermaid, just human blood. Golly, you are just so new. I'm sorry, I forgot to really tell you that I suppose. Spencer, it's nice to meet you. Are you from the area? I don't know any local mermaids, just a few up near Superior."

Spencer had listened, her eyes open wide as she'd taken in the extremely chipper personality of the vampire before her. When Marci walked in with Faith flapping, irritated in her arms, the mermaid let out a gasp.

"Whoa, a baby vampire, that's weird."

"Spencer didn't believe in vampires earlier tonight." Domino had told her friends as she'd taken Faith from Marci and had pulled the ties of her cloak until the whole thing fell into a puddle on the floor. She'd then kicked it toward the hooks on the wall as she'd unbuttoned her shirt.

"A breastfeeding vampire? Really, how in the world do you actually think I would have believed that?" Spencer had shaken her head in wonder over the whole thing.

"Well, it's true." Domino had felt Faith latch on and had looked down at her, little red eyes had stared back accusingly.

"You smell really bad, that's not normal." Jo'd said to Spencer as she'd offered to take the girl's bag.

"Yeah, it kind of happens when you're homeless. Domino said that there was a bathroom I could wash up in?" Spencer had shaken her head, she would keep her things, she didn't trust these people just yet.

"Up the stairs and the first door on the right." Domino had pointed at the staircase.

She'd watched as the girl went up and disappeared inside the room. Grinning when she'd heard the lock slide into place. Jo had immediately crossed her arms in front of her chest and had looked at Domino with an arched brow.

"Taking in strays?"

"She's a non-human who needed help. It didn't seem harmful." Domino'd shrugged.

It wasn't harmful. The girl had spent hours in the bathroom before finally coming out, her hair washed and combed, now braided in a single thick braid behind one ear. Her skin was now clean and just mildly sparkly, now Domino knew why she let herself get so dirty. If a human looked at her too closely, it could be dangerous. She had a bit of a shimmer to her. Spencer had also changed into a pair of black leggings and a long, three-fourths sleeve peach colored sweater.

The three adult vampires had sat talking to her for a while before Jo and Marci had taken their leave. After that, Domino had gone to the basement with Faith to feed her once more from her breasts, and then one more bottle of blood before laying the baby down in her bed, knowing she would soon fall asleep as the sun rose. Her stash of elixir was in her bedroom, and she'd taken it just in time to stop herself from falling asleep. Back upstairs, she moved about the kitchen making her guest breakfast while Spencer sat on a bar stool at the island.

"So you were human when you got pregnant?"

"Yes."

"But now you can't have more vampire babies?"

"No, vampire women aren't fertile. I don't really know why, but I've been told." Domino had shrugged her shoulders, Faith was enough.

"But you got pregnant by a vampire, right?"

"Yes. Alexandru."

"So guy vamps are fertile?"

"Apparently." Domino had bit her lip for a moment after pouring waffle mix onto the waffle maker.

"Where is your guy vamp? Did he knock you up and take off?"

"Is that what your dad did to your mom?" Domino frowned at the girl, she didn't know her well enough to just tell her everything about herself.

"Basically, yeah." Spencer nodded, shrugging her shoulders.

"I'm sorry. I know what it's like to not have a parent. I didn't grow up with a mom or a dad. Man, that sees like ages ago, but it wasn't. I was just changed a few months ago." Domino closed the lid to the waffle maker and leaned back on the counter behind her.

"I'm sorry if I'm prying. I don't get to talk to people really, I'm kind of a loner."

"It's okay. Faith's father is in Belarus with his asshole of a sire. Women who get pregnant by vampires generally die from it, but his sire knew how to keep me alive and so Alexandru traded his freedom from his sire for my life." It sounded so simple but felt so very complex.

"That sucks, so sires can control their-?" Spencer stopped talking as she searched for the right word.

"Spawn? Yeah, they can."

"So when is he coming back?"

Domino shook her head and looked at Spencer, her red eyes boiling with emotion, "I don't think he is."

"So it's just you and Faith here?" Spencer looked around her.

"Yeah, it is."

"Would you mind a roommate? I have no money, but I can cook, and clean, and babysit. And Faith likes me."

"And she can't bite you."

"Nope."

"Maybe we can try it. For a few weeks, to see how it goes."

"Thank you, Dom. I haven't felt safe in a while. It feels safe here to me, I dunno." Spencer shrugged as she looked around them at the house Domino had instantly felt very much at home in.

"I understand wanting to feel safe, Spencer. We'll see how it goes."

~*~*~*~

"It's been four months," The hissed voice of the older vampire in the dingy, moist room made the only other occupant wince and start to shake again, "you can't hold out forever."

"I don't have to hold out forever," Alexandru's voice sounded weak, barely a whisper, but it still seemed to echo throughout the cavernous large room where he was chained, his hands raised and stretched to either side along a sharp edged wall of stones, his feet barely touched the floor, "I just have to live long enough for you to make a mistake and then I'm going to kill you."