Page 37 of Thirsty

“Do what?”

“Read people!”

“Hey!” Kevin objected, indignantly.

“Say creepy things,” Rachel corrected herself, her voice steely.

“I—okay, her human form is—whatever,” Kevin admitted, pleading mostly to his girlfriend. “But I wasn’t hitting on her!”

The wraith let out a wounded sob and ran out of the room crying. Kevin followed swiftly after her. Isolde watched them go and then said, curiously, “Huh.”

“Huh?” Rachel demanded. “You caused that, and all you’ve got ishuh?”

“I caused nothing,” Isolde said.

“You really don’t see what an unbelievably self-righteous—”

Before Rachel could land on a noun, Charlie jumped in. “Hey, why don’t we all cool down for a second?”

“Cool down?” Rachel seethed. “She’s being creepy. She needs to back the hell off.”

“I am not creepy,” Isolde said. “I know who is pure and who is not. It is my very essence.”

“Fucking—stipulated,” Rachel said. “But—”

Isolde had already turned to address Lorenzo. “You are a vampire and thus by your very nature you are carnally deviant. Also, you were unchaste even before you became a vampire, and you continued your sensual depravity once turned. Were I in my true form, you would never be able to detect me.”

A long pause followed. Rachel was the first to recover. “What the hell is your problem?”

“It is true,” Lorenzo added.

“Rachel,” one of her remaining friends was saying in a pained tone of voice, “it’s fine.”

“No, it’s not fine,” Rachel started, but Isolde cut her off once more.

“You have indulged in human sin,” she told Maggie, “but it has been so long since then that, by the standards of my people, you would be considered pure once more.”

“Alright!” Maggie said, pumping her fist happily.

“Stop it,” Rachel snapped, her dark gaze fixed on Isolde. “You can’t say things like that.”

“I came here to live among other supernatural creatures so I would not have to conceal my true nature,” Isolde said.

“Maybe you should conceal it.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, let’s all take a second, okay?” Charlie said. Lorenzo watched in surprise as he stood from the table, walking toward Rachel and Isolde with his arms outstretched. “Whatever your...true natures, you are roommates, so—let’s all calm down and talk this out.”

“I do not wish to talk,” Isolde spat, as Rachel yelled something similar over her.

“Well I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m actually writing a thesis on supernatural relationships,” Charlie said, “so I’m kind of an expert here. Please, just try.”

After an uneasy pause, Rachel and Isolde both backed away from each other and waited grudgingly for him to continue. “So,” Charlie started, “it sounds like what we need here is a compromise about topics we can agree to discuss and what’s off-limits.”

“I don’t wish to compromise,” Isolde said.

“Me neither,” Rachel said. “Because I’m right.”

“Well, everyonethinksthey’re right,” Charlie said with a chuckle.