When Sarah Solomon took refuge in an old cottage in the woods, she knew it would only be a matter of time before the monsters came a' calling.
Cursed with a power she neither wants, nor knows how to harness, Sarah has become a target, but who is he...
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The cold water hit my face, making me gasp, but it felt good, so I did it again, splashing it over my cheeks until it was dripping off my chin and onto the front of my hoodie.
'Sarah?' Maz's voice came through the bathroom door. 'Are you okay? I brought you some tea.'
Tea. Bloody Hell. The British always with the tea.
You fail your exams. Here, have some tea.
You prang your car on the way to work. Here, have some tea.
Someone mugs you for your purse. Here, have some tea.
A vampire born in 1888 breaks into your home, shoves you in the trunk of his car, brings you to another place full of his vampire friends and then tells you that you're the target of some crazy ancient vampires and that he's been dreaming of you for the past six months. Here, have some fucking tea.
I braced myself against the edge of the basin and concentrated on just breathing.
'Um, Sarah, look I know this whole thing must be freaking you out...'
'Oh, really? Do you think?' I said, hearing the heavy sarcasm lacing my tone and hating myself for biting back so hard. Maz had tea, after all. A vampire was bringing me tea to drink.
Taking a deep breath, I turned off the cold tap and unlocked the door to the bathroom.
Sure enough, Maz was standing in the hallway, holding a mug of tea and wearing a worried expression. The tea looked slightly too milky, but steam rose from the mug and my stomach grumbled, suddenly remembering I hadn't bothered to feed it anything since yesterday morning.
'You're hungry?' Maz said, clearly also having heard the rumble like it was some distant storm. 'I should have brought you something to eat, sorry.' She looked genuinely apologetic while I was still having a hard time getting my head around the concept of a vampire bringing me tea, let alone food.
'It's fine,' I said, gingerly accepting the mug. 'I'm not sure my stomach could cope with food right now. I'll try the tea first.'
I took a sip. Then another. Okay, it wasn't the worst cup of tea I'd ever had, and it was very sweet. Maybe three teaspoons sweet.
I gave her a shaky smile. 'Thanks. It's good.'
Maz beamed then, an overenthusiastic smile as if I'd just given her the keys to the kingdom and not just complimented her on her tea-making skills. 'Good. Um, maybe some food soon, yeah? You must be hungry. It's best you eat. Keep up your strength and all that.' She smiled again, even wider this time.
I nodded uncomfortably. 'Yeah, well, terrifying revelations have a habit of turning my stomach a little, you know?'
The grin faded. 'Yeah... of course. I can imagine.' She grimaced. 'I mean, obviously I can at least try to imagine. I can't actually imagine. I'm not you. I, uh... sorry. I'm not really used to having conversations with Sensors.' She trailed off with a nervous laugh.
