A note from the author

This story began as a dream that stayed with me long after I woke.

Rather than expanding it into a novel, I wanted to preserve it exactly as it first arrived.

The two paper cups warm my hands pleasantly as I ascend the stairs to her studio apartment. Honey matcha with milk for her, black coffee for me. 

I could have taken the elevator, but I haven’t grown that comfortable in the human realm to forgo the occasional bout of exercise. Even beneath a human glamour, a warrior grows soft if he forgets to train.

Julia has never understood why I always take the stairs. Whenever we're together, she insists on "racing" me the six floors to her apartment via the elevator.

Sometimes I let her win just to see her shine.

I sigh to myself through the minor exertion.

Julia

Shuffling both cups into one hand, I knock on her door with the other, careful not to disturb the spring wreath she made herself using fake flowers she bought at a nearby human store called Dollar Tree. 

The fairies back home would have lit it on fire for the gaudiness of the colors, the clashing floral meanings, and the general inaccuracies in the blooms themselves, but I smile at the familiar, ugly thing, waiting patiently for her to answer the door. 

“Killian!” she squeals, throwing the door wide. “You’re back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” 

I take a step inside and quickly put the drinks on the hanging shelf next to the door, leaving my arms open to catch her in an embrace.  

“I’ve missed you, darling,” I murmur into her hair, unashamedly taking a deep whiff. 

Lavender, or a close recreation of it, fills my lungs from the cheap shampoo she buys at the same store where she buys the flowers.  

If only she’d let me bring her home to my castle. I would bathe her myself in pure lavender extract every day. 

She takes a step out of my hug, and I catch a slight flush in her cheeks that makes my cock twitch. She’s dressed in an oversized university T-shirt with a hole near the bottom where I can see a peek of her sweet flesh. She has on shorts, no shoes, and despite the hour, her hair is mussed as if she has just gotten up. A quick peek in that direction tells me I was almost correct. Her book, notes, pens, highlighters, sticky notes, and notecards are strewn about the bed. 

“Studying?” I ask. 

She perches her reading glasses on top of her head, where they are immediately swallowed by a mass of brown curls. 

“Ugh, yes,” she says, rubbing her face. 

“How long have you been studying?” 

“I don’t want to talk about it. Tell me, how was your trip?” 

A fucking idiotic waste of time my mother insists we take to maintain relations with neighboring clans. 

“Too long,” I say instead. “I’m worried how far behind I’ve gotten since I’ve been away.” 

“Kill, it’s only been a week. Don’t worry. I took notes in all our classes for you,” she says, waving in the direction of her bed. 

I love her nickname for me. I’ve never had a nickname before. No one would dare. If only she knew how accurate a name it truly is. 

She stretches, and I notice she isn’t wearing a bra under that thin T-shirt. I avert my eyes before I need to excuse myself to the bathroom to relieve a certain pressure that’s been growing in my pants since I arrived.  

Julia wants to take things slow, so slow is what I’m giving her. She says she needs to focus on school. She doesn’t need a boyfriend or any distractions right now. I can give her slow. I can give her whatever she needs. I could fuck her brains out so good that she would never stress about anything ever again, but she doesn’t know that. I suspect she doesn’t know it’s possible. 

Maybe some day. 

I feel a small tingle at the edge of my perception, and I whip around, shielding Julia behind me so fast that it’s likely she doesn’t see me move at all. 

“Kill, what are you–?”

“Shhh,” I say quietly, staring at the door.

Something is coming. 

My hands itch for a weapon, but I remain still, waiting for the threat to materialize. 

Someone knocks at the door. 

A human? Could a human’s aura be that powerful that I would sense their approach? 

“I wonder who that is?” Julia asks, trying to maneuver around me to get to the door. 

“So you’re not expecting anyone?” I ask quietly, holding her arm to prevent her from reaching the handle. 

She shakes her head, sensing my apprehension. Well, what she has likely deemed as apprehension, which is actually murderous intent on my part. 

I gently pull her back to me and go to answer the door. 

I’m met by a flash of red eyes, and I have him pinned to the wall with my forearm on his jugular before he can move or speak. 

What is this filth doing here?

“What are you doing here?” I ground out.

He sputters, unable to speak.

“Killian!” Julia squeals behind me. “Let him go! That’s my lab partner!”

I stare into his eyes, attempting to search his soul. Lab partner my ass. What game is this bastard playing at? 

Surprisingly, he holds my gaze for longer than most are capable of doing, but then shifts it to Julia, pleading with her. 

“Help,” he croaks out.

Vaguely, I can feel Julia pulling on my belt, my shirt, my arm, trying to pull me off him. 

Seeing nothing else I can do, I release him, allowing him to fall inelegantly to the floor, which is maybe a miscalculation on my part because he plays up the fall, slumping against the wall as though truly wounded, and Julia rushes to him, ever soft-hearted. 

“I am so sorry, Julian!” she says, bending down to see if he’s okay. 

Julian? Julian? That’s the human name he ended up with? Did he pick it after he found out her name was Julia? 

I glower at him over her head, promising pain later.

He ignores me, paying full attention to Julia’s fawning. I catch him glance down the neck of her shirt, and my talons strain to emerge.

He's going to lose those eyeballs later for that. Maybe I’ll eat them, one at a time, like maraschino cherries in front of him. 

“Here, let me help you up,” she says finally, attempting to pull him up by the arm. 

There’s no way her slight frame could support one-tenth of his body weight, even his mortal body, but he pretends to let her help him up. 

When she bends to pick up a backpack I hadn’t noticed he’d been carrying, he smirks at me over her back. 

Those dimples will be mine later, too, I decide.

“Thank you so much, Jules,” he says, slinging his backpack over one arm. 

Really? One arm? Learn current human culture, you prick. No one does that anymore. 

Then he steps forward as if to give Julia a hug, and it’s my turn to smirk. 

As expected, she freezes and takes a few awkward steps away from him. 

“I’m sorry,” she stutters, stepping right into my chest. 

I move my hands to her bare arms and rub them gently to comfort her, holding her protectively.

“I’m not much of a hugger,” she says again, apologetically. 

Darling, you have nothing to apologize for.

Julian tries to shrug it off. 

“Oh, no worries,” he says, readjusting his backpack. 

It took me months to get around the invisible guard she has placed on her body, almost as strong as any spell they would have in my realm, the result of the physical, sexual assault she suffered sometime in her past. She doesn’t know it, but her assailant died a painful death in my castle dungeon. It wasn’t hard tracking him down, despite what the human police told her. 

Wait, did he die? I can’t remember. I think I finally killed him. Hmm, I should double-check. 

I refocus on the here and now and realize Julian’s lame-ass excuse for darkening my darling’s doorstep is under the guise of needing notes for something or another. 

“Oh, you should have just texted me, and I could have emailed them to you,” she says, glancing over her shoulder at the open door of her apartment. 

We both follow her gaze. I know what she’s thinking. Her apartment is a mess, and she hates unexpected visitors. I meet Julian’s gaze only to sense hunger there as he stares over the threshold. 

My eyes narrow at him. 

There will be blood tonight.

Julia tenses in my arms, and I catch her now looking down at herself. 

“Oh!” she exclaims quietly. 

No doubt she’s just realized she’s standing in the hall in her pajamas, barefoot. Knowing her, her mind has already moved on to the hole in her shirt and stubble on her legs from not shaving for a few days. The delicate yellow paint has all but come off her toes. She gets like this when studying. I don’t mind it at all, and I know the bastard in front of me couldn’t care less about these human grooming habits, but Julia would care. 

She pulls away from me, crossing her arms over her chest, and I feel the absence of her warmth immediately.  

“Yeah, so do you need anything else?” she asks, clearly trying to hurry the conversation along. 

I slip inside her apartment to grab her tea, moving quickly enough that Julia barely notices. Normally I make a point of slowing myself for her, but I’m not about to leave her alone with the bastard. 

I hand her the cup because I know having something warm in her hands will help with her anxiety. 

She takes it, smiles up at me gratefully, then sips. 

“Mmmm, honey,” she says, rewarding me with another smile. 

I inhale her scent.

Honey and lavender.

Then I catch the bastard looking between the two of us, as though trying to guess what my relationship is to her. 

I take a step closer towards her.

What does it matter what my relationship is? She is mine. Not yours.

He blinks.

“Anyway,” he says, “do you have my email numbers?” 

Email numbers? Email numbers? Go back to Human Basics 101, you poor creature. 

Julia smiles. “Email address? Yes, I have it. I’ll send you the notes soon.” 

“Great,” he says, smiling, hopefully learning that it’s email address, not email numbers, though the information won’t do him any good after I get through with him. 

Come to think of it, I think Julia’s assailant is still alive. Maybe I could make his death even more gruesome by eating his brains in front of him while he’s still alive? I smile to myself. I’ve never had human brains before, but surely Mother would know how to prepare them. 

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Julia groans. 

The sound snaps me back to attention.

What did the bastard say while I was distracted? 

“It’s okay,” he reassures her. Then he reaches a hand forward and pats her arm, and she lets him! 

I growl so low that only he can hear me, and he quickly retracts his hand. 

That hand will be mine later. I think I’ll keep it as a trophy.

“Our midterm lab is worth just as much as the test, so we can bring your grade up easily,” he says, smiling at her and obviously trying to forget that I am here. 

“Thank you,” she says earnestly, and her glow returns, the first I’ve seen it since Julian showed up on her doorstep. 

I watch his reaction, and he tries very hard to rein in how far his jaw has dropped. 

Is this the first time he’s seen it? Well, clearly he’s never made her genuinely happy before. Anger brings it out a little, but nothing compares to this hue. 

I can’t really blame him.

No, sure I can. She’s mine. Get lost. 

“Julia,” I ask politely, “don’t you have more studying you need to get done?” 

I hold my arm out for her to go back inside her apartment. 

“Yes,” she sighs, “and sorry again, for…” She looks from me to Julian. “Earlier,” she finishes, then pointedly moves her head and eyebrows in Julian’s direction as though expecting something from me. 

I turn until I’m fully facing Julian. 

“Yes, sorry for… earlier,” I say, refusing to use his bullshit, made-up human name. “I’ll have to pay you back sometime,” I promise. 

Pain. Lots of pain.

He gulps. He seems to understand the threat, but is it enough now that he’s seen Julia’s light? 

“I’ll be going,” he says unnecessarily, then turns to leave. 

I follow Julia inside the door and shut it, waiting until the other man’s presence passes beyond the limits of my perception. 

Julia sighs and looks around her apartment. 

“This place is a mess. I’m kind of glad he didn’t make it inside.” Then she looks at me, remembering. “And what the fuck, Killian? Why did you attack him like that? I’ve never seen you do that before!” 

I take the drink from her and set it down before she can spill it. She flinches at the brush of our fingers. Her boundaries come back in full effect whenever she’s angry, and she has no idea how much that flenses my soul. 

“I’m sorry,” I say honestly, because I would never do anything to willingly upset her. Not unless it kept her safe.

It’s not good enough, though. I can tell she’s looking for a better explanation. She isn’t, after all, an idiot. 

I grasp at straws.

“I thought he was here to hurt you,” I say honestly. 

“A student?” she asks. “With a backpack? Would knock on my door to hurt me?” 

“It seemed a good disguise,” I answer truthfully. “He wouldn’t have gotten very far if he’d been dressed like a burglar at ten in the morning, walking around a campus neighborhood.” 

She frowns, mulling it over. 

“I guess you’re right…” 

“I saw a news alert,” I say, suddenly remembering something I overheard at the coffee shop that morning, “about a person pretending to get a flat tire and then abducting the person who stopped to help them fix it.” 

I’m triumphant in my explanation, which I quickly regret once I see the horror eclipse her face. 

“That’s horrible!” she says, then looks out her window as if boogeymen are lurking in every shadow, ready to accost her. 

I am such an ass. No doubt she’s remembering her own misfortunes. If only she knew that man was dead. Or mostly dead. Maybe I can leave him somewhere to be found once I’m done with him. Hmmm… but questions might be raised by the humans as to the condition of his corpse. I’ll ponder this later. 

She takes a slow breath. “No,” she says, more to herself than to me. “It’s okay. That’s one of the reasons I chose this apartment. There are security cameras all through the lobby, and you can’t access my floor without going through the lobby first.”

I blink.

“You're right. How silly of me. I overreacted,” I say, backtracking. I open my arms. “You're quite safe after all.” 

I’m rewarded with a hug, and I sigh into her. 

Security cameras, of course, would do absolutely nothing to stop me and my kind, but no one will ever harm a hair on Julia’s head as long as life animates me. 

She breaks the hug and grabs her tea, moving back to her bed. 

“So,” I say, trying to act casual, “how long have you known… Julian?” I try not to gag on the name. 

She smiles. “I met him just after you left for your trip, actually.” 

How convenient.

“My lab partner didn’t show up, and he asked if I wanted to partner up. Once we realized how similar our names were, we thought we’d make the perfect team! Julia and Julian!” 

Vomit. No doubt he killed her former partner to get closer to her, but how did he find her to begin with? 

“Why,” she asks slyly, looking at me, “you’re not jealous of him, are you?” 

“No.”

No.

Yes.

No. 

I look around her apartment to distract myself. It’s smaller than my closet back at the castle. There is no furniture besides the bed and a few hanging shelves for books, plants, and knickknacks. It’s no messier or cleaner than when I left her a week ago. She must have been hitting the books hard while I was away. 

She moves her reading glasses back onto her face, resuming serious study mode. 

“Want to help me study?” she asks, patting the bed next to her. 

Bless her.

I stride over and lie down next to her, content. 

“You know,” I say casually, “maybe I should stay here a few nights.” To protect you. “You live closer to campus.” From Julian. “And it would save me an extra half hour of walking each day.” And protect you from anyone else. “I could get to the library earlier to help catch up from being out.” To protect you from anyone he might tell about your light. “I could obviously sleep on the floor.” I’ll stay up all night on the roof if I have to. I don’t trust that creature. 

She laughs. “That’s a great idea! And we can share the bed. I trust you, Kill,” she says, reaching over to squeeze my hand. 

Oh darling, you really shouldn’t, I think, but at the same time I know I’d burn down this world and the afterlife with me in it if it meant keeping her safe.