Carmilla talks in her sleep.

Nothing with too much gravitas, and for the most part in a lilting medley of languages Laura could have no hope of identifying. And yet when Laura hears the vampire begin to mumble, she turns off her music, shuts her laptop and closes her eyes. In her very few non-waking hours, though Laura could understand little of what she was saying, the vampire wove such vivid pictures with her words that Laura felt transported – suspended in some kind of euphoric trance.

It was a sort of guilty pleasure, something she didn't quite let herself acknowledge. With everything that had been happening, it had been easy to push the late-night 'indiscretions' to the back of her mind. It had been far too simple to ignore the implications of the fact that she'd never slept quite as soundly as she did when Carmilla words were her lullaby.

But now, when it was all kisses and questions and new, bubbly feelings in her head and in her stomach, it was all she could think about. It was more than a guilty pleasure – it was as close to an addiction as Laura Hollis was ever going to get.

On afternoons like this one, when Carmilla slept soundly in her bed, wrapped almost entirely around Laura's pillow, it was downright embarrassing - that buzz of anticipation which would flood the small girl's body.

Laura lay on her side, mirroring her roommate as she let her eyes trace the gentle rise and fall of the vampire's chest. It still seemed strange to Laura, to see the vampire this vulnerable, this human. Her glasses, which she would deny wearing because 'Do you really think a vampirewould need prescription lenses?', had slid down to rest just past the bridge of her nose.A battered Camus lay beside her, no doubt an original, and so it came as no surprise when the languid sounds of French filled the room.

'Le froid, qui n'avait plus à lutter contre le soleil, avait envahi la nuit… Mais elle courait, à demi aveugle, dans l'obscurité…'

'La Femme Adultère'. Laura knew the work vaguely – a passage studied in high school which had once bored her endlessly came to life as each delicate syllable fell from her roommate's lips. There was a melody to her words, and Laura was hypnotised by it.

' Il lui sembla qu'une sorte de giration pesante entraînait le ciel au-dessus d'elle…'

Laura let herself be carried away. Behind her eyelids whole worlds came to life, vibrant in colour and vividly lifelike. She could smell spices and taste sweet fruits and feel silks and satins running through her fingers, and yet all of this paled in comparison to the soft voice which seemed to enfold her. A soft intake of air interrupted the vampire's recitation, and Laura heard the rustle of sheets. The world around her faded and, although she would later admonish herself for the cliché, she opened her eyes to a sight no less beautiful than the last. Glasses askew at an almost comical angle and a strand of hair trapped inelegantly between relentlessly moving lips, Carmilla lay on her side, her eyelids fluttering as she dreamed.

'… milliers d'étoiles se formaient sans trêve… commençaient de glisser insensiblement vers le horizon…'

It was too much for Laura. Those kisses, and the many which had come since, had changed things. There was more touching now, laying of heads upon laps and intertwining of fingers, but the boundaries and definitions and labels had yet to be clearly marked out. These were the thoughts running through the girl's head as she slipped out from under her duvet, bare feet padding softly across the cool floor to the bed opposite her own. The mattress dipped slightly as Laura's knee met the soft surface in the dark. Moving slowly so as not to wake the bed's original inhabitant, Laura crawled beneath the covers and as Carmilla shifted to accommodate her presence, in that way that only sleeping lovers can, found herself wrapped in the vampire's arms.

'Was I talking in my sleep again?' Carmilla's voice was tired and breathy as she pulled the small girl even closer still. Laura hummed in response. 'Did I wake you?'

Cold nose pressed into the hollow of Carmilla's throat, Laura felt herself begin to drift into sleep.

'Don't stop.'

Carmilla chuckled lowly, pressing warm lips to the shell of Laura's ear.

'Alors, avec une douceur insupportable, l'eau de la nuit commença d'emplir… monta peu à peu du centre obscur de son être et déborda en flots ininterrompus jusqu'à sa bouche pleine de gémissements…. le ciel entier s'étendait au-dessus d'elle…'