There is a rustling in the trees. 

A little boy emerges from the foliage. His skin looks like woven starlight, and his hair and eyes are dark as black. He’s naked, and apparently as utterly unashamed as a nature spirit. 

He’s also holding a bundle of weeds and wildflowers in his hand. He rocks on his heels. “Uh, hi,” he says with a shy smile.

She looks up from the fire at the sound, and blinks in surprise at what she sees. 

"Um... hi!" She offers in return. "...Did someone take your clothes?" She asks, concerned, but not bothered by the nudity itself. She is wearing jeans and has a big hoodie wrapped around herself, but has no shoes or socks on.

He glances down at his bare skin. “Oh, nah, I don’t wear clothes. They’re sucky human crap.” He offers his bouquet. “This is for you, Angela.”

Another surprised blink, but then she smiles, "Oh, pretty!" She takes them, and then... sniffs them? That's what you do with flowers, right? They do smell nice. Sweet and like plants and dirt and nature.

"You're not human?" She asks once she's done smelling them. 

Zeke remembers that humans sometimes... react to his true nature. “Ah, no. It’s way better. I’m really strong and fast and I’m going to live forever and stuff. And I don’t have to wear clothes or go to school or get a job!”

"That does sound nice," she agrees with a giggle. "School is awful, and all that boring stuff adults do to get money sounds awful, too. Are you some kind of forest spirit?" She asks. 

“I’m a... son of Lilith,” he says. “I’m Zeke...” Zeke can’t hold it in. “Wanna be like me?” he blurts. “We could live forever and be mates and stuff. You’re really pretty and nice and—and—yeah.”

Her eyes widen, "You can - make people like you?" And then she registers the second bit, and giggles, charmed. "Um, thank you? What's, um. What's mates?" 

“Sure can! And mates... you know what a boyfriend and girlfriend are?”

"Kind of... An older girl told me once that it's when a boy and a girl like each other a lot and kiss and stuff. She said it's not like me and my twin, though, even though I like him a lot..." She shrugs. "She was kind of confusing."

“It’ll make sense later, promise! So, wanna be like me?”

"...It sounds nice, but..." She hugs the hoodie tighter, "I've gotta find my brother," she explains, "I could still do that, right? Could you make him like you too?" 

"Sure thing!" chirps Zeke. "My sister would like that."

"Okay," she nods, "Maybe they'll like each other and they can be mates, too?" Though she still doesn't quite know what that means. She stands, letting the hoodie fall like a cape around her shoulders, wincing slightly as the cold air hits her belly, "...So how does this work?" She asks, tilting her head curiously.

"Um, you need to drink my blood. It'll taste gross at first but then be really nice, then you'll fall asleep."

Blink, "Like a vampire? Huh. I can do that," she nods.

"Ah, yeah, that's what I am. You don't mind?"

"Don't think so," she hums, nibbling on her lip as she thinks, "It sounds like being a vampire is better than being a human. And I don't mind blood even now."

Oh, this is so much better than he was expecting. "Um... you like kissing?"

"I guess it's kind of nice? We tried it a couple times." It mostly just felt like being close and maybe a bit like when he pet her hair. Soothing. But maybe that was just cause they were also hugging. It's hard to tell! 

Anyway, why does he want to know? "Oh," she giggles, "Mates kiss, right? Okay," she leans in to kiss him. 

Zeke bits his lip and kisses Angela.

And she sucks his blood into her mouth, and drinks it. It's not that bad, at first, it mostly just tastes like when she bites her lip too hard, or sucks on a cut or scrape. Then it gets better. Much better, better than anything she's ever tasted. She drinks and drinks until she can't keep drinking, and then she passes out in his arms. 

Zeke lays her gently on the grass, slipping the hoodie under head after stripping her off. Now, off to get that first meal for her.

She dreams of flight. The whole world is open to her, not a single place forbidden, not a cage that can hold her, and she wings her way from place to place, forever going onward. Others fly beside her, and drop behind her, and fly ahead, and they chase each other, but no one can catch her - she only lets herself be caught. She looks down from her place in the sky and sees a shadow in the water, and she dives to catch it. She closes her claws around her wriggling prey and rips into it, feasting on its flesh, its blood staining the water around her red. Hunger sated for now, she returns to the air, screaming her joy to the sky. She is free. 

When she wakes, everything is different. She stares up at the sky, entranced by the stars, and takes a deep breath, letting in the scents of the forest around her. 

The forest, and... something else. There's Zeke, but more important is the warm, red scent of food. And suddenly, she notices that she is starving. 

Scrambling up to her hands and knees, she lunges for it, ripping into it like the prey in her dream, and drains it dry. 

Once she's full, she blinks down at the corpse underneath her, and then looks up at Zeke, licking the blood from her lips, "Who was he?" She asks, idly curious but unconcerned. She notices the blood on her hands and starts licking that, too.