AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is loosely based off several characters from the hit soap One Life to Live. Not all the parts of this story will contain erotic sex scenes as there is a plot. First and foremost, this story is a romance/drama, not a sex story.

Also, I'd like to note that I do not own ABC's One Life to Live or the characters and I will NOT be receiving any payment whatsoever for writing this story. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.

This story is AU with a supernatural twist.

***Chapter One : Half-Life***

In the space of just a few heartbeats, Suede had fallen, bashing his head against the stone column. His blood soaked the floor as he called out Marty's name with his last breaths. Todd didn't even realize the man had died. All of his attention was riveted on the woman who had fallen through the glass, the beautiful, infuriating woman who had his heart. "Marty!" he screamed, but he got no response. Even from two stories up, he could see she was lying in a puddle of bright red blood. Her dark-blue eyes were closed and he feared it would be for forever.

He stood there frozen in place, not able to move. He had to get to her, but his legs didn't want to carry him. He wanted to collapse to the ground, crying out from the injustice of it all. How could this have happened to her, the woman who had meant more to him than anyone ever? In that moment, he realized exactly what she had meant, although he had never told her. Screaming her name, he went running toward the door.

Meanwhile, a dark-cloaked figure had approached the fallen woman. The scent of her blood had beckoned him. He wrapped his cloak tighter around his tall, ivory figure as he came upon the half-naked young woman who was bleeding out upon the stones. He reached for her, taking her tiny broken body into his arms. Her scent appealed to him, so sweet, a mixture of blood, sex, and a dazzling fragrance which was all her own. He smiled wickedly, carrying her away in his dark embrace.

Lord Manning took the stairs two by two, urgent to get to the woman he loved. He nearly fell in the process as he had to get to her. He had to take her into his arms, heal her, and make everything alright. His fear for her blinded him, nearly making him lose his footing. He threw open the front door of the building, running toward the cobbelstone path where he had seen her fall. "Marty!" he cried out, his semi-long hair flying in the breeze.

There in the dying light of evening, he could not find her, just a huge puddle of blood where she had lain upon the stones. Where was she? She could not have just gotten up and walked away, not with her apparant injuries, so who had taken her? He screamed her name again and again like a man possessed. Her name echoed back to him, but she was no where to be found. He searched everywhere in the surrounding area, but came up with nothing. There was a trail of blood droplets on the ground leading away from the giant stain at the scene of the accident, but suddenly it just stopped, leading Todd to nothingness.

Eventually his throat was raw as his eyes swam with tears. She appeared to be gone, as though she had just vanished. He vowed he would find her. He would search to the ends of the earth, tearing it all apart at the seams if he must. He would find her and bring her back to him. Somehow, someway, he would find her. He left Suede's Pruitt's body where it lay and began walking down the cobblestone path toward the center of town. He wasn't giving up, just going home.

***V-V***

When she awakened, she was in a place unknown. Her mind was foggy and her body felt strangely exhillerated, as though every single nerve-ending had come to life. "It's about time you awakened," she heard in a sultry chuckle.

She looked over at a man who sat at her bedside with jet-black hair and the most magnificient, piercing blue eyes she had ever seen. "Wh-what happened?" Marty murmured. "Who are you?"

She looked frightened and dazed as she sat up in the bed, her long blond curls spilling all around her shoulders. It was then she realized she was completely naked, lying in this strange man's bed. A scream rose in her throat as she looked down at her pink-tipped naked breasts.

"Hey there, Darlin'," he chuckled as he held her in his hypnotic gaze. "No need to get all bent out of shape. I'm the one who saved you when you had that terrible fall. My name is John. John McBain."

"I fell..." she said softly as it all started coming back to her.

"From the second story of 'The Tabernacle of Joy," she spoke in remembrance.

"Yes, you did. You lay there crushed, broken, and bleeding... but I picked you up, and I brought you back here..."

Once again she looked down at her body, but she saw no blood and no sign of broken bones. She looked perfectly intact, and there was absolutely no pain, just this feeling of euphoria which she could not comprehend. What the hell had happened to her? Wrapping the sheet around her nakedness, she tried to get up and escape the man who looked at her like she was a tasty snack he longed to devour. She was half-way out of the bed when he grabbed her in his steely grip.

"Where do you think you are going?" he asked her, laughing softly.

"Todd... I need to get back to Todd," she said in a whisper, trying to break free of this beast who held her so tightly. His flesh was cold and unyeilding, and he scared the daylights of of her.

"Todd? Is he the one you fucked? The one who was screaming your name in agony? Or was he the other one?"

The other one? Then suddenly she remembered Suede and watching him fall. He had bashed his head against that column in almost the very same instant she had fallen backward through that window. Ohhh myyy God, how could he have survived? "Suede," she whimpered as tears filled her eyes.

"I'm afraid he's dead," said the man with absolutely no emotion.

"No, no! Ohhh God... Suede," Marty sobbed. "Todd killed him!"

"Todd killed the man I was supposed to marry!" she cried out as she fought the man's crushing embrace. All she wanted was to get away from this place and back to Todd. She wanted to hit him; she wanted to attack him and make him pay.

"Now wait a second," said the man as he held her from him a slight distance so he could look down into her beautiful face. "You haven't thanked me properly for saving you..."

Suddenly then his eyes seemed to glow with a eerie hypnotic light. Her eyes widened as his lips parted slightly and gleaming, razor-sharp fangs became visible at both corners of his lips. "Wh-what did you do to me?" she asked, her voice rising to the point of hysteria.

"When I brought you back here, there was little left of you," he murmured. "You were nearly bloodless and at the point of death..."

"I lay you down upon my bed and finished you off, drank what little blood remained within your nearly lifeless body. And then, when you were at death's door, I tore my fangs into my wrist, pressing it to your lips. Your desire to survive was strong and you suckled at my wrist like a hungry baby..."

"No!" Marty wept, shaking her head at the gruesome images he had presented to her. She hadn't done such an unspeakable thing had she? Was she like him now? Some sort of undead, horrid monster?

"Yes, you did," he said with a smile. "And you liked it very much. My cock got so hard, watching you sucking hungrily upon my wrist..."

Taking her small hand in his, he placed it upon his thick, throbbing organ. How he longed to shove it so deep and hard inside of her. It was the least she could do for him, considering he had saved her life so to speak and had given her his 'kiss of death.'

"I can't... I can't do this..." she whimpered, trying to escape his lustful embrace, but her defenses were breaking down. With her new, unbridled vampire powers coursing through her body, she wanted and needed sexual satisfaction with a violent rush that left her hot and breathless. The one she really wanted was Todd, but since he was no where in sight, this dark, sexy vampire would have to do.

"If I let you fuck me, will you teach me how to use my powers?" she asked him in a seductive voice, running a silken caress through his jet-black hair. "I want to return to Todd... and make him pay for how much he hurt me by murdering my beloved."

"Yes, I will teach you all there is to know. Then you can return to him and send his sorry ass down to the pits of hell for all I care," spoke John with a devilish smirk.

Pressing her mouth to his, she kissed him with dazzling hunger. They fucked like animals and when it was over, she sank her newborn fangs into his neck, taking a taste of his fiery blood. As she drank of his powerful vampiric blood, she vowed Todd would suffer for all the agony he had caused her. It was just a matter of time before she'd come for him.

***V-V***

Todd sat in his bedchamber, unshaven and dishevelled, only half-alive after having lost the one sweet thing that had for months been his obsession. She was gone, lost to him, and he may not ever see her again. Tears swam in his eyes, but he would not shed him. Everyone hated him. They called him a murderer and a raping monster. Suede's body had been found at 'The Tabernacle of Joy' along with the broken window and the puddle of blood below on the cobblestones. Marty's ripped dress had also been found at the scene. With the letter and Marty's aunt's testimony, the authorities were blaming Todd. It was believed that Todd had found Suede and Marty in an intimate embrace, and he had killed Marty's betrothed in a jealous rage. Since Marty was now missing, she too was feared to be dead. Her aunt Kiki had the whole town cursing Todd's name.

To Todd, none of it mattered. He had been born cursed, what did it matter if the whole world thought he was a murdering beast? And without Marty, it just didn't matter. He quietly just wished the claws of death would come and take him away. Anything would be better than this painful, half-existence without her. Staring into the flames of the fireplace, he whispered, "Marty, where are you? I need you. Please come back to me..."