My Twin Vampires

Chapter 5

Maya woke up from her sleep abruptly and with no warning. It could've been her eyes tricking her from just waking up, or it could've actually been Neil in her room at 10 pm but either way she screamed. "What the hell!" She clutched the sheets tightly, eyes wide as she stared into the barely lit room. 

He at least looked sheepish. "Sorry, I was trying to be quiet." 

She blinked a couple times. "Why are you here? How did you even get in?" His mouth opened. "Actually don't tell me." 

"It wasn't hard, surprisingly."

She had another heart attack when Elijah appeared from nowhere. "Holy f**k, you both just shaved 10 years off my life." After sitting up, she pushed her curls back and checked her phone. "What're you even doing here? Do you not realize how weird this is? Vampire or not." 

"We missed you." Neil winked at her. 

"You could've seen me tomorrow."

Elijah was suddenly sitting on her bed and leaning over to flick her forehead. "You were supposed to come over earlier. We were worried." Her mouth opened, ready to retort but quickly snapped shut. 

"Ah," She forced an awkward laugh, "that was tonight, huh?" She totally didn't face plant into her bed as soon and she got home from work and fell asleep, totally. 

He rolled his eyes. "Mhm, that was tonight." 

"What did you want to talk about?"

Neil pulled out the chair to her desk and sat down with the grace only a vampire would have. He looked serious, completely opposite from his usual calm and laid back appearance. "Before I start, you're probably going to be mad," he cringed, "which is understandable but please hear us out." 

Maya felt her nerves spike, already not liking where this was going. "What is it?" 

He scratched his cheek, dragging out the silence. "A few weeks you came to my apartment, yeah? You said you liked whatever was going on between us but you wanted more." She felt her cheeks go warm from the memory. "I know I didn't really give you an answer but I've been thinking about it since." He admitted softly. "It's complicated with you being human and I didn't want to get your hopes up for something that wasn't possible."

She chewed at her lip. "You don't think it's possible?" 

He made a small noise. "Not that exactly, just complicated. Eventually you're going to get older and we won't, then there's the things with us feeding-" He glanced at her, "we have to feed to survive." 

"I know." Though she didn't like it, she didn't want them to starve either. 

"Vampires also imprint which is just another complication since you're human."

"Imprint?"

"Basically marriage to humans but more important." Elijah explained from his spot next to her. "You wouldn't break it unless the person you imprinted died, it's very painful otherwise. It's like a silent claim on that person that other vampires respect." 

"What does that mean to be imprinted?" 

"We've never imprinted but it's like you're connected with that person. Say we imprinted on you, it would be wrong for us to drink from anyone but you."

"What's so complicated about it then?"

"When vampires imprint on each other, they just drink from the same human together. When a vampire imprints a human, they can only drink from them. That means us drinking from you regularly." 

Oh. Maybe that did make things more complicated.

Maya still didn't know if she was ready for her to bare her neck to them again. She didn't feel scared of what they could do anymore but the lingering fear of what had already happened was still there. 

"Do you have to imprint?"

The twins shared a glance, mirroring frowns on both of their faces. "Well, no." Neil supplied hesitantly. "It's not necessary but it's important to vampires." 

It was her turn to frown, feeling a bit bad. "You want to imprint on me?" 

The question seemed to catch them both off guard. "Well, not right now or anything." Neil assured quickly. "Imprinting is a forever thing for us, in the future that's another story- ah, this is not how I pictured this going." 

A small laugh spilled past her lips at his flustered state. "How did you picture breaking into my room and waking me up going?"

Elijah flicked her forehead again, making her smack his hand away with a scowl. "I realized it was rude of me to not give you an answer when you told me you wanted more a few weeks ago." She almost wanted to say 'you think' but somehow managed to refrain. "Maybe we could try out the whole dating thing you humans do until any big decisions." Her heart raced. 

Elijah brushed his hair back, a nervous habit Maya had noticed a few months ago. "Only if you want, of course. Or if you only want to be with one of us." The insecurity in his voice made her lips curls down. She read between the lines, it's okay if you only want to be with Neil. 

"Thought you two were a package deal?" 

Neil smiled, something lazy and slow. "Sadly. He's been copying me since we were kids. Whatever I want, he wants more." His eyes rolled. 

"Are you younger?" She looked to Elijah, amusement laced in her tone. 

He frowned. "Does it matter?"

"So you are." He looked away silently and she laughed. He was kind of cute. "Earlier you said I'd be mad?" 

Neil's smile fell, replaced with a grimace and Elijah was silent. "When I first saw you at the club, I didn't expect to like you as much I do. It was supposed to be a one time thing like always." Like always? "It just- it felt different with you." 

"What're you talking about? Us sleeping together?" 

Elijah spoke up softly beside her, "When we go out to feed, we usually sleep with the person we feed from so it's at least somewhat consensual as bad as it is." He admitted. 

She was quiet as she felt her stomach start to churn uncomfortably. "...You fed from me that night?" His silence was enough answer from her. "I don't remember, how-" Hurt painted her features, "you compelled me?" 

"Maya-"

"Seriously? You really did?" 

Neil sighed. "We're not proud of it but we didn't know we we're going to get involved with you like this. It was supposed to be a one time thing."

"And was it, was it just a one time thing or have you compelled me this time?"

Elijah turned towards her, obviously not pleased with the accusation. "We wouldn't do that."

"We fed from you that night at the club and then I did it another time you and I f****d alone." Neil answered. 

Maya's voice was caught in her throat. She didn't know what to feel or say. How was she supposed to respond to that? Thanks for telling me now? "...Why didn't you tell me before?" 

He bit his lip. "When we started to see each other more and I realized I liked you more than just to feed it got complicated. I kept putting off telling you because I didn't want you to react badly."

She swallowed harshly. "How else am I supposed to react? Thanks for telling me now after lying to me for months?" 

Elijah cut in, "Do you want to remember?" She turned to him, frown permanently set on her face. 

"You can do that?" She didn't flinch away when he brought his hands up to cup her cheeks and gently guided her forward. 

"Look at me." He commanded in a hushed voice. Forcing herself to stop gazing past him, Maya met his intense gaze and only had to wait a few seconds before a flush of memories washed over her like a tidal wave.

It didn't hurt but it was too much at one time. Feelings that didn't feel like hers but she apparently felt filled her body at an alarming pace. She felt the rush of adrenaline and excitement at getting to go home with both of them, the pleasure they made her feel, the fear she felt when they bit her, the panic, and then finally nothing. 

Maya pulled away from Elijah like he'd burned her. She swallowed the lump in her through after letting out a shaky breath. "You guys promised." She whispered. "You promised you'd never compel me." 

"We haven't since we said that. You were never supposed to know because we weren't meant to see each other after that." Elijah explained unhelpfully. 

"You took my memories," She frowned, "do you not think that's wrong?" 

"We don't want to do it, Maya." His expression was turning blank she noticed. "We know it's selfish but we need to do it to survive." And she didn't know what to say to that. How could she tell them wanting to live was selfish?

Chewing at her lip, she tried to understand where they came from and did to some degree. They had chances to tell her before this though, so many and they never did. "Why are you even telling me this now? Why not keep it a secret so you could avoid this?" 

Neil let out a small noise. "Elijah and I have been talking since you two started working things out again. Human relationships are built on trust and confessions, yeah?" 

Elijah continued, "I didn't expect you to take it well, especially since," he rubbed his neck awkwardly and Maya nodded, not wanting to talk about the time he fed from her again since they were finally working past it, "but it didn't feel right not telling you either. We hoped explaining why we did it would maybe help a little."

"It does help but," she trailed off quietly, "...it still hurts that you didn't tell me earlier. I handled you guys being vampires pretty well, I would've been more understanding of this if you would've told me straight up." 

"Yeah." They both agreed with similar grim expressions that showed their regret. 

Maya wrung her hands together, not knowing what to say. She didn't want to say it was okay, because it wasn't but she didn't think arguing would help at all either. 

At least they told me, she thought. but they could've told me earlier. She mentally sighed. They could've kept it a secret forever. "I think we should just sleep on this." She finally decided on. 

Sleep fixes all her problems, surely it could fix this. 

"But um," biting her lip, she watched them stop just before the door, "that dating thing doesn't sound too bad," she rubbed her arm nervously, "both of you. if we're honest from now." 

"Yeah?" Neil tilted his head, half smile on his face. 

"Yeah." She exhaled softly. "But full honestly and more communication."

"Done." He gave her a grin and Elijah hummed in response but a smile tugged at his lips. He honestly felt relieved. 

"And you have to text me more. You guys both suck at texting." 

"That's where we draw the line."

Maya rolled her eyes but gently relaxed, they'd be fine.