First I want to address the one part of this story that I admit is pretty fucked up: the fact that Cal admits she pretty much expected Lucas to attack her at some point and yet she's still with him anyway. Is that okay? No, it really isn't. In real life I would tell someone who felt like that about their partner to run away as fast as they can. That this is part of what drew Cal to Lucas doesn't mitigate that fact very much. However this is fantasy fiction with flawed characters and they have a relationship that will never be normal simply because of who they are. Sometimes it's sweet and romantic and sometimes it crosses that line into a darker place. Considering that I'm writing these stories it's more likely to be dark than romantic.
Of course, the whole story is a not-so-subtle metaphor for sex. Isn't that what vampiric blood lust is all about? More than that, I meant it to be about negotiating limits in a relationship. Even as messed up as their relationship is at this point it's still very much consensual and they talk about it. This is something I think is really important. So I've tried to draw on some of my own experience negotiating new activities with partners and discussions with other people about consent. Real life often bears little resemblance to fiction, in reality if you didn't immediately run away from someone who wanted to drink your blood you wouldn't just agree to let them bite into your carotid artery. I think most people would want to discuss it a bit and probably want to have at least a little bit of control over what happens. I enjoy writing these short stories where I try to take a very normal situation, like having sex for the first time with a new partner, and translating that to a fantastic scenario. How would someone who has accepted that all this stuff exists, who has lived in this world her whole life because she is a mage, actually react? It's a nice shift from the longer ones I have in the works that get even more fantastical.
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