Alina stared at the Darkling, looking at her hands and then back at him. There was still blood underneath her nails. Alina couldn't remember when it had gotten there.

"So, let me see if I understood this correctly," She started, slowly, trying and failing to wrap her mind over the night's happenings. He stood still, eyes gray and bored, watching her reactions. "I'm - you're - we're vampires?"

"Correct." He drawled, adjusting himself better on his black velvet chair. She couldn't help but think he was something of a walking vampire cliche.

"And I'm - me, plain old me, right? - basically the only vampire who can walk under the sun?" Alina continued, and the Darkling - what a stupid, edgy name, Alina thought, bitter, his cape on her shoulders heavy and a reminder of what she was, now - nodded, stiff. "And you want to use my blood to create a miracle solution to the vampire photosensitivity?"

"Yes. The technical term is Sunwalker." He said, and Alina sensed he wasn't one for many words. She supposed not many people were, after living for so long. "Although we'd just take a few samples of your blood and study it, not, you know, draw and quarter you and use your body as food so we can walk under the sun. That'd be crude."

Because that was the problem, not that she was a bloodsucker. No, sir. Alina wasn't even sure how she'd become a vampire - all she knew was that one day she was drinking coffee, and the next one she was having to give Mal excuse upon excuse to not meet him (had that led to the end of her brief romance with him? Yes, but that wasn't the point right now) so that she wouldn't make his body into a bloodless husk, her throat parched for blood. No other drink seemed to quench her thirst, and after Mal had cut his finger on paper, she had felt like nothing else ever would.

Now, after some frantic Googling and a few meetings in some alleyways that probably hadn't seen the light of the sun ever since they were built, Alina was in front of the vampire king, the boy-king (he couldn't be a day older than twenty-three, at most, even though he probably was) staring at her with bored grey eyes. That was a facade, but Alina had more on her plate.

"I - Listen, I just want to know what's happening to me." Alina said, and he gave her a smirk - a smirk, infuriating. "I don't care about whether or not I'm some sort of vampire legend or whatever. I just want…"

Deliberately, he cut his neck with a nail, a small nick that otherwise wouldn't have made Alina stop her thoughts. But she was hungry, a deep pit forming itself on her stomach, and Alina's words came to a clumsy stop, eyeing the slow red trickle that made its way down his too pale neck. It smelled like home, like a long-missed comfort food Alina didn't know she was longing for.

The trickle made its way down his neck, tantalizing, bright against his pale skin. Alina could feel her eyes grow huge, pupils dilating. Was that normal? Probably not.

"Is that your blood?" Alina asked, and he chuckled. "Is it supposed to smell that nice?"

"I wasn't made king of vampires for some stupid reason, Alina." He all but purred her name, sweet-sounding on his tongue, and Alina suppressed a shudder. "If you want a drink, come and take it."

She had no need to be told twice. Moving faster than what she thought possible, her fangs soon found a home on his neck, perforating the skin and let her finally quench the thirst that had slowly been driving her insane. Alina had sat in his lap, without a care in the world, and she could feel the Darkling's hands on her waist, holding her safe as she drank deeply. It tasted - like a good wine, a summer night, like falling stars: a taste she longed for and never knew.

She heard the vibrations of a moan pass through his throat, dying on his tongue, and Aline kept drinking, taking her fill.

When she finished her meal, she separated from the Darkling's neck, dizzy, looking into his grey eyes; she could almost see herself in there. The wound was still present, though, so she leaned down and licked it, giving him a shudder.

Alina separated from his skin, but she didn't truly want to: there was quite a magnetic quality to it.

"There's some blood here." The Darkling said, putting a hand to Alina's face, with his thumb cleaning away the remaining of his blood on her face, his finger resting on her lips. His fangs appeared in his wry smile, and Alina stared at him through half-lidded eyes. "You're a new kid in this whole vampire business, but don't worry, I'm very good at guiding people. After all, vampires as special as y -"

Yeah, he was starting to talk too much for her liking. Alina enveloped his bloodied finger with her lips, finishing off what she hadn't been able to, and he got very quiet. Alina was sure he'd be blushing, were it possible, letting go of his thumb.

"You talk too much." Alina said, looking straight into his eyes. They didn't move for a long moment, seemingly eternal, and Alina cocked her head. "What, cat got your tongue?"

"Not exactly, no." His hand finally fell away to her hips, and the Darkling took a deep breath, which seemed kind of redundant in the grand scheme of things considering he was, you know, undead.

He then proceeded to kiss her, hungry and too wild,and Alina, surprised for a second, kissed him back, eyes closing on their own. The taste of blood coated her mouth, and when his fangs sunk in gently into the fleshy part of her lower lip, it only helped the taste to develop, deeper and richer.

That just led her to deepen the kiss, suddenly into a frenzy as her hands found a home in his dark hair, trying to bring him closer. Aline gently probbed his muth open, her tongue finding the fangs he had and trying to grab all the blood in his mouth she could.

When they separated, it felt like ten years had passed, and their mouths were coated in a mixture of each other's blood, red and dripping and tasting like the most delicious thing Alina had ever eaten.

Like coming off a high, Alina realized what she been doing, and all but jumped out of his lap, cleaning her mouth with the back of her hand. His cape was still heavy on her shoulders, but Alina didn't want to take it off.

"So, uh…" Alina started, stumbling into her words, which just seemed to amuse the Darkling. "When does, you know, vampire training start? Like, that's a thing, right?"

The Darkling smiled, enjoying her for a moment, and Alina brought the cape closer to her body, purposefully wiping her hands in the heavy fabric. That seemed to give a twitch to his eyes, which Alina appreciated.

"We can draw your blood in a few days, when mine disappears from your bloodstream." He seemed to be amused with all of this. "And when you're finished with that, you can have another drink. It seemed to have pleased you, after all."

She gave him a glare.

"Yeah, because you were totally not involved there, right?" With an eyeroll, she made a move to leave, dusting her clothes. She hoped there weren't blood splatters on her shirt; that would be difficult to explain.

"My cape?" The Darkling piped up, when Alina opened the door, and she looked back.

"If a vampire king can't find someone, are they a real vampire king? Find me if you want your cape back. Or your precious Sunwalker." Alina closed the door behind her with more strength than exactly necessary, and smiled as she went back home, imagining the Darkling with a gobsmacked face.


Alina was returning to her room, three days after her vampire tryst - her throat was starting to get parched again, and her feet itched to go down to where she had met the Darkling. Instead, she had gone down the road to get some candy. It tasted like ashes, but hey, it did its job.

"This place is terrible. Awful decor." The Darkling's voice commented, looking around her collection of old geography books. Alina let out a yelp, dropping the plastic bag she carried on the ground, and he looked at her over his shoulder. An infuriating smirk played on his lips. "What, weren't you the one to tell me that I should find you, Alina?"

Alina hoped he hadn't seem his cape, currently on her shoulders because it was cold outside. Alas, by the smirk his face sported, she didn't count herself so lucky.

"I mean, I didn't expect it to be so soon. You're just in time, though." She scratched her own throat, absentmindedly, feeling her fangs poke out of her mouth. The Darkling seemed pleased at that. "Oh, you shut the fuck up."

"I said nothing." He sat down on her bed, so out of place it would've been funny. Alina discarded his cape on a chair, closing the door and locking it behind her - it wouldn't do for her roommates to barge in and find her literally sucking off a mysterious stranger's (to them) blood. That would be the world's worst roommate meeting, and also the one with the most grilling on her choice of… Well, one night stands.

Alina huffed at that, using his lap as a seat once more. He hadn't even broken the skin, but she cared not: the smell of blood was there, tantalizingly sweet. As if it was a common thing, the Darkling put his hands on her waist, steading Alina.

"Shut up." She sank her fangs on his neck, and started drinking his blood.