Chapter 15: Beverages And Blood

Mia's POV We both turned our heads at the sound of feet coming toward us and saw that it was Kaya. She held her phone in one hand and her bag in the other as she waved at us descending from the stairs. "Hey, so um…" I walked toward her when she began speaking. "I just went ahead and called a taxi." I crossed my brows together in confusion. "You didn't need to do that. I could have taken you home." "Yeah, thank you, I know you offered, but…" She waved me off. "It's late, and I'm sure you're both tired. Plus, I have to hand in this report." She waved a flash drive in front of me. "I was supposed to take it in last night, but I ended up going into that club instead." Sol stepped forward and asked her something I was shocked by. "Do you still not remember how you got to the club or who took you there last night?" He was standing directly next to me now. I tried not to think about the way his arm was brushing mine. Kaya shrugged as she placed her phone and drove inside of her purse. "Like I told Mia, I don't really know. It was just some random guy I'd never met before." When she looked up, I saw her eyes widen. She laughed at the looks on our faces. "Woah, guys, why do you all look so tense? Look, I'm fine." She spun around a little in front of us. "I appreciate the concern, but I'm an adult, you know." A hooting from outside caught our attention. I looked out of the window to see it was the taxi driver Kaya had called. "Is it for me?" I nodded my head at her question and went to open the door for her. "Well, I'll get going then. Sol, thank you so much for letting me stay here. I really appreciate all your help with the hero stuff." She shot him a wide grin. To my surprise, Sol gave a soft smile in return. I hadn't seen him smile like that with anyone besides Serin and Sarah. Although it was ridiculous, a part of me fluttered to see how well he got on with my best friend. "No problem, Kaya. Since Mia is staying here for the time being, you can come over as well. I'm sure she'd appreciate your company." Sol shocked me even more when he extended the invitation to Kaya. "Oh, I definitely will take you up on that offer," she promised. "You have a lovely home here, buddy. Take good care of my friend now, okay?" She winked at us. I slapped her arm as she passed me and went through the door, giggling as she left. "She's…" I made a lazy motion to Kaya as she ran up to the taxi car. "Yeah. Sorry about her." "Don't say that." Sol laughed, "She seems like a humorous girl." I nodded as I closed the door behind us. We walked back into the house. "Why did you ask her the questions about the club and who took her?" "Do you want some tea?" I faltered in my step when Sol offered to make tea for me. He ignored my question and just turned to me, waiting for my response. "Sure. Why not?" I followed him into the kitchen, where he set some water to boil on the stove. "I wanted to know if she could identify the men who invited her last night," Sol said as he took out the mug and teabags from the cupboard, "so that I could interrogate them." I was shocked at his admission. "Why? I mean, I appreciate you following up, but Kaya is fine, and no harm was done." "Maybe she is not the only girl." Sol shook his head. "Do you remember that vampire hunter Francis once mentioned human girls were missing? He's right. This is the first lead I've had in a while." "Any vampire knows not to invite a human into a vampire bar for those human-turned vampires. Usually, they would be managed by the pure-bloods who changed them. They didn't dare to do it." I bit my lip in concentration as I stared at the counter in front of me and thought over what he was saying. I shuddered to think that Kaya could have been one of those missing girls if she hadn't called me. A strange rip pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up to see Sol tearing the teabag open and pouring its contents into a mug. I gasped when he poured water over it and began to stir the mixture together. "What?" he asked innocently as he looked at me and continued to stir. I couldn't do anything but gape at him in shock. "What in God's name are you doing?" I asked him, mortified. I went to stand next to him to see the full damage of what he'd done. "I'm making you a cup of tea?" He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at me, somewhat frustrated. "If you didn't want any, you could have just said no. There's no need to get so dramatic." Before I knew it, I was gasping for air as I clutched my stomach, laughing so hard that no sound came out of me for a few moments. I could barely hear anything as the laughter escaped from me, and the pain in my sides became unbearable. "Stop it," Sol said as he poked my arm. "Stop it, you're hurting my feelings!" I waved my hand in front of me to get him to stop talking. Everything he said only heightened the hilarity of the situation, and I couldn't control my breathing. I heard him mutter something about evil human women before he went to leave. Before he could, I grabbed onto his shirt and saw the pout that adorned his face. I rested my forehead against his chest as I controlled my breathing again. "Hoooo," I let out a deep breath. "I haven't laughed like that in a while." Sniffling, I wiped away my tears and lifted the teabag box to get another cup out before throwing the cup of hot leaves away. "Here," I made a motion of throwing the entire bag into the cup, "now pour the water over it." "So… You make tea by using that teabag?" I giggled lightly as I scooped it out and threw it into the trash can. "But that's such a waste!" Sol interjected. "It isn't a waste, Sol. It's how this is supposed to be done. You don't learn the human foods contained in your blood, do you?" He scrunched up his nose at the thought. "That's disgusting. Why would I eat the wrapper?" My mouth fell open at his question, and I hit his arm. "Sol, you can't call people wrappers!" "What?" he asked, confused, and then realization dawned on him. "No, I mean actual wrappers. Plastic bags. I don't drink straight from the source." I blinked at him once. I realized I had never seen him drink from a person. I tilted my head at him as I noticed I hadn't seen him drink anything at all besides the small incident some days prior. "Sol," I called out to him, "where do you get your food?" I was genuinely curious about it as I had never seen him drink before. A wide grin opened up across his mouth at the question. "Would you like to see?" He grabbed my hand and pulled me to a door located near the kitchen after hearing my answer. Once we were there, Sol opened it to reveal an empty room. Once inside, he pressed onto a false panel in the door. A compartment slid open. Inside was a safe of sorts where he had to input a code and wrench the heavy metal open. Cold air came rushing out of it as he opened it. Inside there were small vials of blood, blood bags, and even blood tablets and blood bars, similar to those ice bars we had in summer. My jaw fell open at the revelation. ###