Brynn
Being a vampire is exhausting. All of the books and movies I’ve seen and read make it out to be sexy and exciting and dangerous, but after eight years of draining people’s emotions—not blood—the only thing I felt was tired.
Tired of life, and tired of waiting on my eternal.
“I’m a woman, I shouldn’t feel awkward in the tampon aisle.” I muttered into my phone, glancing around to make sure no one heard me. It was 1 AM and there were only two other cars in the Walmart parking lot, so my chances of running into anyone were slim.
“No you shouldn’t. Be proud of your womanhood.” Mallory chastised me. She was the reason I was braving the tampon aisle anyway; I’d never even been in that aisle before. Being a vampire didn’t have many perks, but no periods was one of them.
“If periods make you womanly, I’ve never been a woman and you won’t be one much longer.” I grimaced, scanning the many different feminine hygiene product options. “Which ones did you say you want?”
“I read about a new kind of tampon that’s supposed to reduce period pain. Find that one.” Mallory instructed.
“How am I supposed to know which ones are new?” I looked around again, making sure there was still no one else there.
“When I saw the picture on Pinterest, it was in a light blue box.” Mal offered.
I scanned the aisle, and what do you know, 50% of the boxes were one shade of light blue or another.
“I’m just going to pick one and be done with it.” I finally decided. “Tell Jared to come pick me up, I don’t want to deal with another Uber driver.”
“Okay. Thanks boo.” Mal sang into the phone.
“I got you baby.” I grinned as I hung up. There definitely weren’t any romantic feelings between Me and Mal, but it was fun to have a best friend who was a girl. I’d been close with Jared my whole life, but Mallory was like a breath of fresh air after his intensely introverted ways.
I slipped my phone into my back pocket and pulled my sweater tight around me as I surveyed the shelves again. I’d become a vampire before I’d started my period, so I had never even experienced that aspect of womanhood.
“I think you’re looking for these.” A deep voice said from behind me, reaching past me to grab a tampon box.
I screamed, thrashing out with my elbow as I ducked away. He grabbed my elbow to stop it from slamming into his face and then let me go and held up his hands. My heart jumped in my chest as I realized that I was okay.
If the guy had been a human, I would’ve felt him coming before he even got to the aisle. The fact that he’d made it all the way behind me without me getting any emotions off of him could only mean one of two things:
He was a vampire or an eternal.
Other supernaturals were easy to identify because we could feel their emotions but there was no way to drink them in. Humans were easy to identify because we were black holes that sucked up all their negative emotions.
Vampires and eternals… they were harder because even if the eternal had no idea what they were, we wouldn’t be able to feel anything from them.
“Easy.” He tried to calm me down, but my heart was already slowing itself. Vampirism had perfected my body, and one aspect of that perfection was how quickly it regulated itself.
His dark hair and the stubble on his chin, along with his bright blue eyes, were enough to make a girl’s world spin a little. When you added the white tank top that showed off his sculpted arms and the artfully ripped jeans, there was no doubt that this guy could be a heart breaker.
“Sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.” I apologized, reaching up to rub the back of my neck.
I wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes myself. Being a vampire meant my body was in tiptop shape even though I spent much of my time just sleeping and eating, and I played that to my advantage.
With flawless makeup and tight clothing, I used my look to buffer the emotions pointed at me. I drained negative human emotions automatically and uncontrollably, and the way I looked help reduce the negative emotions which made it easier to go out among humans.
“It’s my fault, I should’ve warned you that I was here.” He apologized too.
“What are you doing in this aisle in the middle of the night?” I wondered, gesturing to the wall of pads and tampons of all varieties. “Did your girlfriend send you on a rescue mission or something?”
He grinned.
“Nah, I’m single. I actually own the company that makes these.” He lifted the box of tampons he’d grabbed for me. It was light blue and said “true colors” on the front.
“You run a tampon company?” I raised my eyebrows. “You do realize that they go in vaginas, right?”
As soon as I said the words, the back of my neck heated and I felt a wave of embarrassment rush through me.
“Wow, I’m sorry again.” I grimaced, pulling my sweater tight around me again. “I should be sleeping right now.”
“No, I like your honesty.” He laughed. “Most people just say what they think I want to hear.”
“Well you don’t have to worry about that with me.” I bit my lip. “Are your tampons any good?”
“I haven’t tried them for myself, but from what I hear they’re the best.” He winked.
I had to wonder, just for a second, if this guy was my eternal. I mean, every vampire has one. Vampires typically ran into their eternal sometime in the first or second year after they turned, but I was going on eight years and mine was nowhere to be found.
“So you had to come and check out your product at the time it was most-likely no one would be here to see you?” I checked.
“Exactly.” He grinned again. “You couldn’t get your boyfriend to make this trip for you?”
I saw right through his question.
“I’m here for a friend.”
I fought back a smirk as he studied me, trying to figure out what that meant.
“Are you going to make me come out and ask you if you’re single?” he finally asked, a bit of a grin still on his face.
Honestly, I’d been hoping he wouldn’t ask. While I was 100% single, I wasn’t up for dating anyone who wasn’t my eternal, a fact that had put me and my friend Jared in a tough situation a few years earlier.
“I’m single, I’m just not looking for a relationship.”
“Ah, I see. If your friend likes my tampons, maybe you’ll reconsider.” He held out his arms, waiting for my response.
I knew he was either a vampire or an eternal, and if he was a vampire or someone else’s eternal, he probably wouldn’t have been flirting with me. My eternal was supposed to be attracted to me, so there was a chance he was mine.
The only way to really know would be if I touched his skin.
And well, that would be awkward.
“Maybe.” I nodded. A wave of worry washed over me, and I looked for the human who it belonged to. A male Walmart employee stopped running and walked toward me and the tampon guy, calm as I took all of his negative emotions.
“I thought I heard a scream.” He walked with a bounce in his step, despite the bags under his eyes. With his exhaustion now weighing me down instead of him, I wasn’t surprised he was happy.
“You did.” I covered my mouth with my hand as I yawned. “But I’m fine, this guy just scared me.”
I looked over at the tampon guy again, and it hit me again just how attractive he was. I’d never thought ripped jeans were sexy, but he’d definitely changed my mind about that.
“Well I’m glad to see everything is okay. Let me know if you need anything.” He offered.
“Thanks.” I followed the Walmart guy out of the aisle, and tampon dude followed me.
“Don’t forget this.” He handed me the tampons.
“Oh, right. Thanks.” I met his blue-eyed gaze, and something inside me seemed to click into place.
This guy, the tampon-maker who had scared me in the middle of Walmart, whose name I didn’t even know, he was my eternal.
If only I had an idea what the crap I was supposed to do about it.
I walked toward the self-checkout, expecting tampon guy to just head back to the “feminine hygiene” aisle, but instead he kept pace with me.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
Part of me wanted to just tell him and grab his arm and let him take away the pent-up emotions I’d drained from that Walmart worker. But if he was really my eternal that meant he thought he was human, and Walmart wasn’t exactly the perfect place to tell someone that they’re soulmates with a vampire.
Not that there was a perfect place for that.
I mean, maybe a cemetery? Where we could point to the gravestones of the family members who had died in whatever tragedy had turned us?
Yeah, I wasn’t going with that one either.
“I’d tell you but we’ve only known each other for like, two minutes?” I feigned checking the time on my phone and he grinned again. What was it with Tampon guy and his cheeriness? How could my eternal be so happy when I was so full of other people’s crappy emotions? “I don’t just go around giving my name to strangers.”
“It’s not like I can stalk you with your first name.” He pointed out.
And while he had a point, I wasn’t just going to let him win.
“How do I know you haven’t already snapped a picture of this lovely face? With a first name and a picture of my face, I’m sure a rich tampon guy can find out more.”
My reasoning only made his grin broader.
“Come on, I wouldn’t stoop to that.”
I studied him for a second, stopping at the entrance to the self-checkout area.
“I don’t believe you.”
With a slight shrug, I walked to the furthest self-checkout station and scanned the barcode, acting like I couldn’t feel tampon guy’s grin still pointed straight at me.