Regal Renegades

Chapter 7

Daniels' POV:

Her smile was a drug, I'd decided.

One that acted immediately and mercilessly even on an advanced vampire like myself, and became more than just addictive.

Which was why it felt so good to see after she accepted my offer to join her.

I could feel she was still a tad worried about my intentions after my invitation and... intervention I guess you could call it.

My scrambled attempt at making sure my mistake didn't turn into something much, much worse.

Thankfully her words were filled with only truth and a little annoyance I wanted to make up for, and planned to.

She's so amazingly accepted me to join her once again during her rare day out, and again, I'd be damned to ruin it any further than I already have.

I took her to the place she was looking for, keeping mind of everything in the display window that she so much as looked at for more than a few seconds before ordering just one and a hot tea.

Then I took the liberty of ordering every other thing she didn't, and insisted on paying for all of it.

It took some back and forth, but she eventually agreed under the condition that she'd cover lunch.

Stopping my purr from making too much of a ruckus in this small space then quickly became a challenge, but I managed.

She lead us to a small seat in the back where we could face each other after organizing my- our wide assortment of pastries and other sweetened breakfast treats.

All of which she gleefully sampled after I made a dramatized show of 'accidentally ordering too much'.

Her laugh at the sight was worth any price, and that almost childish excitement as she indulged just made it that much more special.

That shine in her eyes while she explored the flavors...

It was like she'd never tasted things like this in her life, which was an absurd thought, but the only one I could draw to the scene before me.

The shuffling of her shoes finding mine beneath the table before she crossed one pulled me out of that thought long enough to start up another conversation.

"So, what time tonight do you need to head home?" I began.

"Sunset," She replied, stirring her drink with a small spoon, "I need to get back before it's fully dark."

Sunset... okay.

"Get back... where?" I not-so-subtly pressed.

I was curious. Probably a little too curious.

She blinked at me with an otherwise unreadable expression.

"Home," She said with a smile that said I wasn't getting any more information out of her, "Like you said."

"Like I said," I repeated, surrendering my efforts with a bow of my head.

Still, something within me stirred. I needed something else to go off of.

I wasn't ready to say goodbye to her this morning and I knew the same was going to go for later today.

"So would that be like," Her shoulders dropped in deadpanned annoyance, but I continued, "inVanderwood? Or in Bronwyn or Orpheayos or-"

My brain blanked on our other neighboring territory at the sound of her pity laugh.

She ended it with a sigh, intertwining her fingers on the table when she leaned forward, "It's in Vadnerwood," She concluded, "And that's all you're going to get out of me."