Hideaway Strath Bloodsucker

mictec did not recoil from the defiance, nor did she rise to meet it. instead, she held envy in her gaze like a blade held just before the strike—measuring, calculating. the girl was all teeth and fire, a feral little thing wrapped in smugness like a wolf in too-loose fur. she saw the way envy wielded her words like a weapon, not to wound, but to ward off. a flimsy shield at best.  

hambre, she echoed, tasting the word, rolling it over her tongue like something half-remembered. hunger—wasn't that the root of it all? a gnawing thing, deeper than the stomach, something that hollowed you out and never quite let you be full.  

mictec’s lips curled, not quite a smile, but something knowing. entonces dime, she mused, voice smooth as dusk, laced with something sharper underneath. when will you have had your fill?  

she watched the girl, head tilted, not as a hunter sizing up prey, but as one beast recognizing another. envy’s barbs did not unsettle her, nor did her deflections amuse her—mictec had once worn that same mask, after all. and she knew well enough that hunger like this, the kind that lived beneath the skin, never truly left.