Should Have Walked Away | Aarmau Vampire AU

𝔣 𝔬 𝔲 𝔯 𝔱 𝔢 𝔢 𝔫

I glared and stuck my tongue out playfully, laughing afterwards.

Garroth was the first to speak, after he saw my fangs from my laugh. "Why do you have 4 fangs?"

I smiled jokingly to show off my teeth so everyone could see, and answered. "I'm royal, technically a princess - but I hate that I am. So please treat me as a normal person. I'm not 'special' apart from my genetics."

"So your mom is a queen?"

I made a face, and replied: "She's more bitch than Queen." That got a few laughs.

"Why?"

I simply told them of how I was mistreated as a kid with my other sisters and how I ran away when I had enough.

"If you don't hurt people, why do you dress like. . ." Travis trailed off.

"An assassin?" I suggested, and he nodded. I shrugged. "I get that a lot. But, it's because of this." I finished, sticking my hand out to the side of the tree, where sunlight was now revealed on the cobblestone.

My skin turned pink, smoked, and started to burn the flesh away but I pulled it back before there was any more damage. There were children present.

I shook it out and pulled it back to my lap. "I burn in sunlight, and having full coverage stops it. Plus living in the wild, you have to have enough easy storage."

They watched it heal, barely listening to what I said.

"Do that again!" A kid shouted, only to be shushed by his mother. I laughed, and looked to Garroth.

"Can I borrow that dagger?"

He looked skeptical and wary, and so I gave him a look of "really?" just as Aaron had given me.

He slowly passed me the knife, and everyone was tense as I grabbed it.

They watched my moves carefully, and I put the blade in my palm, closing my fingers around it and dragging it out.

Opening my hand, I found the long cut I had created and showed it off so everyone could see. The little boy was climbing on his mother to see over the guards.

"Another royal 'perk.'"

The blood ran back under my skin, the muscle and flesh pinched together and it closed as if nothing had happened.

I wiped the knife off and passed it back to Garroth.

"What, can't drink your own blood?"

Everyone laughed and giggled, but nobody expected my reply.

"Well I could - but it won't do anything for me. And I don't like blood, I drink it as little as possible."

"Why?"

I shrugged, and avoided their eyes. "I don't like pain. I don't like death, or war or hurting others. Blood reminds me of all of that - plus who I am. And I don't like it."

"Don't like who you are, or don't like that blood reminds you of those things?"

I looked up, and my line of sight met Aaron's for a moment, before I lost the courage and looked away. "Both."

"But, don't you like, have to have blood to survive?"

I nodded. "I don't drink human blood. Instead I use animal, but I make sure never to kill even a squirrel."

"Even I have to know this, Aphmau. How did you do what you did before? With the fire and everything?" Zoey pushed.

I looked at my wrist and tilted it so everyone could see. "Water, fire, air, and earth. The four elements. Thought I had this for nothing?" I joked. Then, I moved the skirt of my dress so the slit revealed my right leg where I displayed my abstract moon tattoo.

"Every full moon I can control the four elements, but don't ask how or why, because I have no clue," I finished with a laugh.

"And you're strong?"

I smiled, letting out a small laugh when I noticed another kid asking. "I am," their expression changed to awe. "And I can hear and see up to thirty feet away from me, and my reflexes are enhanced as well," because he most likely wouldn't know what reflexes were, I told the last bit to the adults.

Laurance's expression turned to anger. "Wait! That's how you beat me in that arm wrestling match!"

Once he said "beat me" I immediately knew what he meant, and burst out laughing. "The best part is," I giggled. "I barely tried, and that's the truth!"

"No fair!"

The people I've come to know started laughing with me as more questions popped up with my calm nature. I think they started to get the message that I didn't want to hurt them -- and if I did, I could have by now.

"What other tattoos do you have?"

I smirked and moved on to the next question.

Everyone kept asking different things, and I answered them all. At least by the end I could say that everyone trusted me even the slightest bit more.

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Word count: 1354
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