My Vampire Queen
Chapter Nine

I was so glad JCPenny had carts. I was really trying to be good about not buying a ton of shoes because let’s be real. Once I hit the more designer stores I was going to go absolutely nuts. So I limited myself. I got two pairs of ankle booties, one in black and one in a nude color, I got two pairs of strappy wedges, one with blue, green, and white stripes, and a pair of white with a straw weave on the heel. The last pair I got from here are a pair of actual black leather boots. Caine picked out a few pairs of shoes for himself, now the bottom of the cart is covered in shoe boxes.

“It’s a good thing we are parked right outside.” I jab at Caine and he snorts. We head over to the men’s section, where I pick out more sweatpants in different colors and patterns, Caine picks out some for himself. The same ones I pick out just in a bigger size. There isn’t much past pajamas, in the men’s section at least, in the women’s section I take a quick look. A few things stand out from a sunflower yellow jumpsuit with thin tank top straps, a belt at the waist, and big brown buttons, to a wine-colored suede moto jacket. I picked out some simple dress pants in a few colors, then found a few spring-themed dresses I actually liked, most of them had a bunch of floral print or lots of lace. I picked out quite a few to try on. I added a few cardigans to the pile in ranging shades of nude and white.

I pick out a bunch of jeans and jean shorts and a couple of other things before heading to the changing room to try on what I can. At this point Caine was getting a little antsy, he wanted to see everything, mostly because he didn’t pick out anything that required trying on.

After trying things on, I grab a few sets of pantyhose and tights, then we head over to Sephora since we were already here.

Caine was weighed down with bags as we again walked to the car. He had all the shoes, and a large bag with clothes in it, I had the rest. Once everything was in the car, I took a second to sit on the edge of the trunk, Caine came up to me and hugged me, surprising me with his gesture. I felt his hands under my jacket against my back, and he took a deep breath. “Is there no way to hire someone for the back and forth?”

I shook my head. “For this mall, I don’t think so, when we go to the more high-end places we should be able to get someone to help us with everything.” I slip my own hands under his jacket and shirt to run my hands over the muscles on his back. Who knew back muscles would be sexy? “I’m not sure about Hollister or Macy’s, I got more clothes from JCPenny than I thought I would.”

“The trunk is only half full.” Caine points out and I put my face into his chest and sigh. “I have no problem walking back and forth, being here with you experiencing Earth again... I would do much more than hauling bags of clothes around for this.”

“That’s a very sweet thing.” I was shocked, between the hug and nice words, it was odd, to be honest. Definitely something I wasn’t used to. Thinking about it though, the hug could just be because he wanted skin-to-skin, to feed off my energy. That was a possibility, and maybe that was the main reason, the fact he was stroking his thumb on my back said that wasn’t the only reason.

“Do you want to check to see how far your new Blood are?” He questioned, that would probably be a good idea, so we can go home before they got too close. Closing my eyes I calm my breathing and open myself. This time it was a lot easier, I was able to push myself out into the world, I looked south and saw three little flames, much closer but still far.

“I think they are in Springfield, or maybe a city just south of that? There are many white lights around them, it looks like a bigger city.” It’s amazing how far I can see now, from the trees and population I can about guess where things are.

“How far is Springfield?” Caine asks.

Pulling myself back into my body and opening my eyes I look up to him. “Three or four hours depends on how bad the traffic is.”

Caine looks over to the main road, it being the middle of the day on Friday, it’s packed. “So we have plenty of time.”

“How many things do you think we can get in three hours?” I ask him and a small smile appears on his face.

“I don’t know, why don’t we go see?” With the trunk closed I was dragged off by Caine, straight to the first shoe store. In an hour we hit three of them, buying at least two pairs of shoes from each. A trip to the car and back to the mall where we hit Hollister. Some cute short denim dresses, jackets, hoodies, cardigans, and cropped tank tops with simple embroidery on them. I only tried on a few things, to make sure I got the right sizes in things.

With our few Hollister bags, we head over to Spencer’s, which lit up Caine’s face when he went into the small dark shop. Between the horrible ‘funny’ shirts, candy shaped like dicks, and posters of half-naked women, he loved it. I got some of those candies, Caine picked me out a t-shirt that said ‘Queen of everything’, and I picked out a shirt for him that said ‘Sell your soul’ with a picture of what looks like an older comic book scene of kids at a lemonade stand. There might have been a schoolgirl skirt thrown into the mix with some fishnets and a leopard print thong for men.

Okay so most of the items we ended up getting were gag items, it was funny.

After that I decided to go to the candy store, it’s only a few stores down and it would be our last for now. When we got in there it was like walking into Spencer’s for the first time all over again. I picked out a few of my favorites, Caine picked out things he wanted to try and we ended up with a shit ton of candy. Back to the car we went, where Caine noted the car wasn’t completely full. So I decided, we were going to the grocery store.

I pull into the parking lot and close my eyes to check where the Blood are. Close, not that far but moving very slowly. We had some time for groceries. When I open my eyes Caine is already out of the car, palms on the hood staring at me intently. I really wish that someday someone will love me as much as Caine loves food. Opening my door I tell him. “The other Blood are pretty close, but moving slowly.”

I felt a pang of sadness, but it wasn’t from me. Looking at Caine I don’t see anything on his face, he looked like he was just waiting to go into the store, but the underline of sadness was there. “Are you feeling sad about something? Or am I going crazy?”

Caines head tilts and regards me. “You are feeling my emotions, our energy is starting to bond.”

“So I’ll be able to feel your emotions?” I question shutting the car door.

“I have never been a Blood to a Queen before, I don’t know very much about the bonding and its limitations.” Caine takes my hand in his and leads me away from the car looking towards the grocery store. “I know that your bond with the other Blood that are Amina will form faster than ours.”

“Is that what your sad about?” I question and he doesn’t speak, I squeeze his hand to draw his attention. “I’m still processing everything, but you have been here from the beginning. Even if you’re a demon and our bond is slow, you have been nothing but helpful and amazing to be around. We haven’t been with each other long, but I’ve loved our time together and can’t wait to show you more things to experience.”

Caine stops just before the road in front of the store, turns to me, and pulls me to him. He bends down and places his lips to mine, giving me a kiss like I had never experienced before. It’s one of those toe-curling ones, where the guy leads the kiss, with expert lips and tongue. I have to try myself from panting when he pulls away, my face hot and my thighs rubbing together. His forehead is pressed to mine. “I’m not always going to be like this, fun, upbeat, and loving. I am a demon, I do very bad things.”

“The only thing I ask,” I said to him pressing a kiss to his chin. “Is that once I set a rule, you follow it. I’m not strict about things normally so I don’t think I’ll have many.”

“Your father had rules, I can live with having rules,” Caine said turning again to the store. “But know little Queen, I like causing trouble, but I’ll never go against a rule you specifically set.” He walks us to the front of the store, I grab a cart and he asks. “Is there any rule that you can think of now? A baseline?”

I had to think for a minute, about something I would draw a line about. “Killing or hurting someone innocent, if someone doesn’t pose a threat I don’t want them hurt.”

“Very respectable my Queen.” He said it softly so the older couple next to us doesn’t overhear him. I grin over at him and move the cart to the produce section, he walks off while I pull a bunch of fruits into the cart, and when he comes back it’s with two large bouquets one of white flowers, one of a pale pink flower. Caine mostly trails behind me as I pick out things, picking up things to inspect them closer.

“There are so many food options,” I tell him, I’m excited to cook for someone who has never had my cooking and has had very little experience with food in general. “Cooking in that big kitchen is going to be fun.”

“You like to cook?” Caine asks me, I nod.

“When I’m stressed out, upset, or just bored I love to cook, now that I have money I can try new things.” Like coming to this grocery store I’ve only been to twice because the prices are always so high compared to other places. I could see why they were more expensive with the amount of stuff I never see at other stores.

“Do you want to cook tonight? We can get that other fast food some other time.” Caine suggested and I thought about it.

“That would be nice,” I admitted. If I had some downtime to cook and prepare a nice meal for everyone, I wouldn’t have an anxiety attack about three new people in my life. “I’d love to test out the new kitchen, and eat something fresh.”

I avoided going into the snack aisle, and the candy aisle because it would have taken too long plus we still had snacks from last night. We got things for dinner, a few staple foods and drinks then headed out.

Caine takes in as many grocery bags as he can, I had to open the door for him. Tabitha’s car is still here, but seeing two black SUV’s parked on the side of the driveway made me curious. Then a man in khaki brown cargo pants and a black polo opened the gate for me, and I understood. She’s probably getting the security settled and used to the property. Grabbing the flowers and a few of the other grocery bags I shoulder the back door closed and head inside.

The grocery bags were dumped on the island counter, and Caine left to get the rest of the groceries. Tabitha helped me find two glass vases for the flowers, I split them in half and mixed them into the vases. One for the kitchen, one for the dining room table. Tabitha had called one of the men in as I started pulling groceries out of the bags.

“This is Steven McCoy, the owner of the security company.” Tabitha introduced him. “And this is Luna Morningstar Tyet.”

No Queen or any title beforehand, no explanation of who I am, just that I’m someone important enough for security. Steven doesn’t bat an eye at it, just gives me a nod and shakes my hand when I offered mine. He’s okay looking, reminds me so much of my dad, just more put together.

“The curly-haired guy is Caine, I guess kind of like my boyfriend? Labels are odd.” I said and Tabitha’s big smile told me she was holding back a laugh.

“Caine is also like a personal bodyguard, she has more on their way,” Tabitha tells him, he gives a nod and looks at me.

“Do you know how long? Or what they are driving? Just so I can tell my men you are expecting someone.”

I shook my head. “They should be here within an hour if traffic is better by then, but there will be three of them together. I think in two cars.”

“I’ll tell them to keep an eye out,” Steven said, taking out his phone he clicks a few things. “We are almost done with basic security checks, I’m just waiting on a few more items to be in.”

After he excuses himself to go talk to the other guys about what I said and to check on other things Tabitha comes up to the island with a laptop. “When you have the time I have a list of properties we can go through.”

“Descriptions, locations, and pictures?” I ask her and she nods. I continue unpacking as I think. “Do you want to go through them now while I’m cooking?”

“Sure.” Tabitha looks at all the things I bought and frowns. “Did you just go out to buy groceries and basic cooking utensils?”

I throw her a smile, putting all the fruit I bought into a pile. “No, this was our last stop. We went to that large mall that’s close to my uncle’s house and spent a long time there. I got basics and some everyday stuff there, but tomorrow I’m going into the city for more high-end stuff. I also might spend a lot of time looking at online stuff.”

Going to the cabinets I open and close them until I find the glass mixing bowl set I had seen, placing the medium-sized one on the counter I toss in the oranges, lemons, and limes. In the big one I put in the onions, shallots, garlic, and green bell peppers, that bowl goes into the fridge.

“Online is a great way to do some shopping, you can always find fun things online that you can’t in store.” Tabitha nods with her thinking face on, before turning to her laptop. I gather all the cheese and eggs and place them into the fridge. The only food or drink items in this place are the bottles of wine in the small wine fridge between the kitchen and dining room.

“Do you eat meat?” I ask, she looks at me startled for a moment.

“I do, red meat or fish, chicken and pork aren’t my favorites.” She answers and I give her a nod pulling the meats out of the bag. “Your cooking?”

Tabitha seemed genuinely confused. I had to laugh at that. “I love to cook, and I’d love for you to stay and try it.”

“I’d be honored.” The look on her face said otherwise, at my raised brow she shook her head. “I am, it’s just.. the only time I saw your mother cook she lit the food on fire, and what wasn’t burnt tasted awful.”

That made me laugh. Picturing the beautiful woman I had a short conversation with set a fire trying to cook something. It also made me feel a little better about myself in a way, because such a smart woman who built so much still had flaws, had things she didn’t know how to do. I managed to put away everything in record time, I guess having a large completely empty fridge helps with that.

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