AUTHOR'S NOTE: This fanfic is hugely inspired by Dark Shadows, a gothic television soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971 and was produced by Dan Curtis. Just so you know, I don't own ABC or Dark Shadows and I won't be receiving any payment whatsoever for this story.

~V~V~

Barnabas had stumbled blindly out of the mausoleum as intense bloodlust overwhelmed him. He needed to feed. With hunger gnawing at his gut, he neared the Old House where his beautiful wife lay sleeping in her bed. He wanted to see her. He wanted to touch her. He wanted to make sweet love to her... but more than anything, he wanted to FEED from her.

Josette woke up when the French doors leading out to her balcony burst open. The long white drapes flowed in the breeze as she sat up on her bed. "Is someone there?" she called out groggily.

"Josette!" came a haunting voice.

"Barnabas?" she said in a gasp. She crawled out of bed, wearing nothing more than a form-fitting lace nightie.

She walked toward the doors as the chilling wind hardened her nipples. There on the balcony, she saw her husband. "What are you doing here, Barnabas?" she asked as she gazed at him in the moonlight.

"I've missed you, Josette... and I long to make love to you," he stated.

"No," she said as she turned away from him. "You have her. You have Angelique."

"I sent her away from here. She's no longer in our employment. I love only YOU, Josette. You're the only woman I want. I swear it," he implored her. "Please let me come inside. Please let me make sweet love to you."

"I do want you, Barnabas... but you hurt me. You lied to me. Was our love only a lie?" she asked as quiet tears rolled down her cheeks.

"No, Josette. I never lied to you when I told you how much I love you..." Barnabas told her. "I have never loved a woman as I love you... and I never will again. You are my everything..."

"I want to be with you, Barnabas... but I am afraid."

Barnabas reached out and caressed Josette's beautiful dark curls. "Do not fear me, my heart. I would never hurt you. Let me inside. Let me make love to you."

Staring into his hypnotic eyes, Josette could not refuse him any longer. She loved him with every beat of her heart and she wanted him with all of her soul. With a little cry, Josette went into Barnabas's embrace. "Hold me," she spoke in a whisper. "I need you."

"I need you, too, my darling," he responded as he crushed her against him. Now that he had Josette back in his arms, he felt that all was right in the world... but all was not right. That witch had changed him into a monster. His hunger for Josette's blood made him ravenous. Tenderly, he began kissing her neck. He would make love to her, then he would feed. He would make it so pleasurable that his love would not even notice- at least he prayed she would not notice.

As his fangs began to lengthen, Barnabas lifted Josette into his arms. "Make love to me now. Please," she spoke in a whisper.

"I love you, Josette," Barnabas said as he carried her inside.

Barnabas lay his beloved in the center of the bed. His heart was bursting with the need to make love to her, but his bloodlust was stronger than his desire to make love. It consumed him, making him hungry. He needed to feed. Why not do both at once? His love would never know, would she? He prayed she wouldn't as he took off his clothes and lowered himself onto the bed.

"Barnabas, I need you so much," Josette whispered as she wrapped her arms around him and threaded her fingers into his dark hair.

"Do you need me inside you?" he asked as he longed to sink his cock as well as his fangs deep inside her flesh.

"Ohhhhh yes... please make love to me. What are you waiting for?" she asked.

Barnabas began to remove Josette's white lace nightie. He took it from her body, tearing it in his haste to undress her. He tore it off her and cast it aside, along with her undergarment. "You're lovely," he said as he drank in her sweetness. He spread his hot kisses all over her, starting with her silky breasts and working his way down to her slender thighs. He parted her legs and buried his face in her sweet center.

His tongue teased her delicate flesh as though he could not get enough. She let out a soft little scream, feeling his teeth as well as his tongue. Never before had the passion been them been this intense. She was going to go up in flames. She forgot everything as he teased her little clit with his tongue. Suddenly she was cumming harder than she ever had before and in that sweet moment of ecstasy, Barnabas sank his fangs into the tender flesh of her inner thigh. The pleasure was unlike anything she had ever known. She thought she would die as the sweet pain carried her way.

Barnabas drank and drank from his love until he was sated. When he retracted his fangs, he realized she had fainted. Thinking he had hurt her, he gathered her in his arms and tried to rouse her. "Josette ~ beloved, are you okay?" he asked her.

"I'm just fine..." she said as she opened her eyes and smiled at him.

"What did you do to me?" she asked as she carressed his cheek.

"I gave you the greatest pleasure you've ever known," he answered. "I love you so much. You're everything to me... and I never want to hurt you."

"You won't hurt me again. That horrid witch Angelique is out of our lives forever."

Josette didn't know it, but Angelique truly was a witch in every since of the word, and because of Angelique, now her husband was a vampire. She was totally oblivious to the fact that Barnabas had just fed from her. The pleasure of her orgasm had been so intense, she wasn't aware that he had drank her blood. Looking at the tiny wounds on Josette's inner thigh, Barnabas tenderly soothed them with his touch. How long could he keep his secret from her that he had become a creature of the night? Would she still love him when she discovered the truth? Or would she cast him aside, calling him a monster?

"Make love to me now," Josette urged Barnabas. She wrapped her fingers around his immense erection, coaxing him to enter her.

Barnabas groaned as she stroked his throbbing flesh. He needed to become one with her. As their bodies were joined in the dance of love, their souls exploded into ecstasy.