Of Fangs & Fins ✔

11. Lean on Me

SR: Bring Me the Horizon – Medicine

Eleven.

Marina.

"Pay no mind to her, she's acting like a child," Lance rolled his eyes and grabbed the glass, taking a sip for himself.

I sat in the chair, looking out the window. I watched as Eryn stood there with her hands in her pockets and had a grave expression on her face. She looked off in the distance at something I couldn't see and started heading towards it. I sighed, wondering why Eryn was so intent on only animal blood.

"Why doesn't she want to?" I asked, averting my gaze from the window and staring at the men in front of me.

Lance was definitely someone I was becoming fast friends with. He was friendly enough, offering me a fresh change of clothes and helping administer first aid. He didn't seem bothered by my blood at all, and he made quick work of removing any glass pieces embedded into my arms.

Lance stood up and walked towards the window. He sipped the glass. "She's afraid of herself."

"Or maybe it's because she doesn't want to scare you off," Chris's voice boomed, causing me to flinch a bit.

Scare me off?

"It's Eryn. She's afraid of losing herself again," Lance sighed, "Sybil, her sire, was a very restrained woman and she passed that onto Eryn. Sybil struggled with her control as well. It only makes sense for Eryn to be the same, but not every vampire can survive only on animal blood."

"I'm sure you aren't helping her, Marina. Especially given what you are," Chris leaned back on his chair casually, "Eryn feels as if she can barely handle human blood. Mer blood is on a completely different level. Think of it as a recovering drug addict is in front of the thing they were addicted to every day."

"Was Eryn previously addicted to mermaid blood?" I asked, looking at Chris intently.

His face was one of stone. Not one ounce of him gave me any indication if she was or not.

"I'm sure your people have vampire horror stories."

I nodded, remembering all those stories that were told to us as children. They were meant to keep us in the sea, but for Neri, she still went on land. She wasn't afraid of anything. She wanted to see what the rest of the world had to offer. I wanted to do live my life the same way, but I was beginning to understand that perhaps that's what got her killed.

"Enough of that. Eryn wouldn't come here unless something was going on. What happened?" Lance whirled around and sat on the chair Eryn was sitting on. He crossed his leg over the other and waited for me to speak.

"My friends, two mermaids, were taken from their apartment."

"Eryn told us there was vampire activity around where you guys are. She was afraid they were tracking you. I'm pretty sure they were," Chris replied, a deep moment of thought crossing between him.

"Two mermaids!? You're telling me Eryn was around all of you?" Lance's brow shot up. He cast a glance at Chris and he frowned. I had no idea what they were thinking about, but no doubt it couldn't' be good.

Chris took a long deep breath before speaking again. "Your friends were taken, not killed?"

I nodded, afraid to speak. These two vampires made me nervous, but not in a way that I feared they would hurt me. Weirdly enough, they seemed wary of me.