9 – Of Cats and Bags

I was playing around with my new pendant in the meeting room.

Lars had returned to guarding the tower, so Mia was the only person with me.

To my delight, the blessed object only mildly irritated my skin. It was similar to when I’d handled silver coins before, the worst they could give me was a skin irritation. There was a reason I didn’t have the pendant made from silver though. If the effects of the material and blessing stacked, it might become noticeable to any observers.

Gold was fine.

I was unsure how exactly wounds inflicted by silver or blessed weapons would react, but didn’t feel like testing it currently.

The priest couldn’t tell me exactly which gods decided to bestow their blessings on my trinket, but he was certain none of the light-attributed ones did. That was, aside from Noctin and Regis, Lady and Lord of the Twin Moons.

I hadn’t paid much attention to it before, but this world had three moons. Two were called, fittingly, Noctin and Regis, or the Twin Moons. The third, smaller one was Umbra, the Dark Moon. Umbra was in a fascinating position, astronomically speaking, in that it was always in the planet’s shadow. Thus the name, Dark Moon. It was only rarely visible.

At least that was my explanation for it, the reality might be something else. Like magic.

Interestingly, none of the three were tidally locked, meaning they didn’t always show the same side.

Whether Umbra had blessed me as well was unknown.

The pendant had gained a slight iridescent quality to it after the ceremony. It reminded me a little of an oil smear or a soap bubble, the way certain angles reflected the light in different hues.

Predominantly the new color was silvery white. Some other colors appeared sometimes, most notably to me a red streak. The priest couldn’t tell me any gods besides the two moon siblings, but I had the sneaking suspicion that at least one god associated with blood had taken an interest in me.

The main reason I’d chosen Noctin as the primary goddess for the blessing was that she was one of very few light-attributed gods whose domain didn’t burn me. Importantly, one of her associated powers was healing. Having the blessing of such a god was useful for the deception I was working on. It also worked with the pendant’s design, though Tristan was correct that silver would have been better.

Also, Noctin was known to be a very relaxed minor goddess. I didn’t want to one night wake up only for the moon to smite me for using her name.

As for Regis, he was more of a hanger-on of Noctin’s. This was due to him always following close behind her in the sky. I wasn’t sure how that worked astronomically, but maybe it was magic.

Thank you for your aid, I thought, holding the pendant tightly. It might have been just my imagination, but it felt warm to the touch.

I was done here for now, so I hung the pendant around my neck on the fine chain it came with. It laid on top of my shirt, well visible. Hopefully it would have the intended effect on others. I’d have to check in the mirror.

“I will be going to my room, please bring the mirror from yesterday.”

Mia nodded and we split at the door.

***

A few minutes later she knocks on my room’s door. I’ve been able to not only feel her heartbeat from far away, but I smelled the girl when she was still two bends in the corridor away.

My mouth is watering. We’ve only been apart for a short moment, why is it suddenly so bad? It takes active effort not to extend my fangs.

When I have myself a little better under control, I open the door.

Mia stands there, mirror in hand. I usher her in.

For the second time today, she steps into my pitch black room and stands there, lost.

Ah, I forgot the lamp again.

My brain isn’t working properly. The enclosed space is worsening the smell. I take a deep breath. Have I been breathing the past few minutes? I can’t remember. It’s not important.

I’m hungry. There’s a meal right there.

It happens before I even realize it.

One moment, Mia is turning her head back and forth in the dark, a slightly anxious look on her face, mouth opening to say something.

The next, I have a tasty meal pinned against the wall by the door. The look on its face is a delightfully shocked one. Weak little mortal arms try to push me away.

Useless. I will feast in the all-encompassing dark. My fangs extend.

Something shatters with a loud crash.

The mirror!

Mia was holding the mirror and she let it go!

I’m shocked back to awareness. A new smell fills my nostrils. Clogs my throat.

Fresh blood. Spilled blood.

I hastily back away. The chair I hit doesn’t survive the collision with the far wall and breaks apart.

Clumsily I manage to turn on the lamp. I overdo it with the brightness and burn my retinas. Furiously blinking the tears away, I turn the light to a more reasonable level. At least my healing restores my vision quickly.

Mia is still standing, frozen, next to the door. Shattered pieces of mirrored glass lie at her feet. One pierced her foot.

I bite my lip to maintain focus over the smell.

Mia’s brain seems to finally unfreeze. Tears well in her eyes as she does her best not to collapse into the pile of shards.

I move over to help her and she jerks away, blubbering something unintelligible.

No words form, even though I really want to say something.

Looking down, I lock eyes with my reflection in the mirror shards. The image of myself in the mirror appears slightly transparent. My fangs are still partially extended. My face looks like I’m snarling.

I sit down on the floor and try to gather myself.

Deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.

***

It took a few minutes, but I finally regained some control over my body.

Mia had been steadily bleeding from her foot the entire time. The poor girl huddled up in the corner of the room, shaking. Her face grew pale from blood loss in addition to the fear.

Once I reorganized myself, I slowly stood up.

“Are you okay? I’m sorry about what happened.” Though I tried my best to be calm and soothing, my voice came out scratchy.

The girl jolted out of her stupor. Looking around, she fixed her eyes on the shards of glass on the ground.

“Ah. I’m sorry, I dropped the mirror! I’ll clean it up right away.” Mia’s tone was incredibly unnatural, almost cheerful. Her eyes were unfocused.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She jumped to her feet, only to almost face-plant when she put pressure on her injured foot and it buckled.

I jumped forward to catch her. Luckily I had myself well enough under control by now to push back against the gnawing emptiness in my body.

When did my stock of blood get so low? My veins weren’t even full now, nothing at all like the twice-ish normal human amount of blood just a few hours ago.