"You haven’t touched a thing on your plate, lovely," Meiying hummed, nuzzling her face into the crook of your neck. The urge to bite was there, as it always was, buzzing in the back of her mind. It was even worse around you. You were always her favorite treat to indulge in, however she’d already had dinner. Your blood in a lovely wine glass, seeing as you still got fussy when she drank directly from you. Now, she was trying very hard not to interrupt while you ate. Meiying did have manners. She wasn’t a complete barbarian like you had accused her of being on occasion.

Your anger was preferable to your silence, though. You'd been sulking all day after she'd gotten rid of that rat, and even pulling you into her lap and showering you with affection hadn't helped. You really were such a moody little thing. Maybe she had gone a bit far by gifting you the maid’s head in an ornate box, but surely you couldn’t have thought your plan to escape would go unpunished? You were smarter than that, it was what kept her so enthralled. Meiying had taken many pets over the years, she couldn’t deny that, yet none had half the gall you did. Last month you’d tried slipping hemlock into her meal. She’d been delighted to down the entire thing in one go as you watched.

“Being angry at me will do you no good. You have no one else but yourself to blame, either. I wouldn’t have had to kill that girl if it wasn’t for you.”

Meiying would never kill you. That did not mean anyone else in her proximity was extended the same kindness. You had caught her attention, earned her favor, won whatever was left of her shriveled heart that night you stumbled upon her house in the middle of a storm. You were a beacon of light where the sun had never managed to reach before. One day, you would understand she only kept you here to protect you. Another vampire, one like her sire, would have drained you dry or worse the first night they had you.

“My tolerance of your attitude will only last so long.”