A/N-Special thanks to Bekki boo for beta reading this. And to those who read, review, and follow, fav. Thank you!


"I know the risk, Robin. I'm prepared to take them." Regina said.

"You don't know what you say." Robin said.

"I do, Robin! I want to risk it all to be with you. Why won't you let me?" Regina asked.

"Because, if we're wrong…you die, Regina." Robin answered.

"We all die, Robin." Regina said, then realizing he wouldn't, amended. "Some of us. But if we're right, look at all the good we can share together. Don't you want that? Don't you want me?"

"Of course, I want you! I want you more than anything else I have ever wanted." Robin admitted as he bent his head in a slow, steady march towards her lips. His mouth fell on hers, his tongue sliding between Regina's parted lips. He tasted so good, she found herself leaning into him, enjoying the closeness and connection he was giving her. She pushed back, wanting more, deepening the kiss. But he remained soft and lazy as Regina became urgent. It was like someone flipped a switch and her body was alive with excitement.

Regretfully, Robin broke off their embrace. "I have always wondered why kissing was such an entertaining pastime," he said. "I am finally beginning to understand why."

"Mmm,' she said, trying to gather her scattered wits. "Do all Vampires kiss as well as you, Robin? Or are you especially talented?"

She felt his smile. "I would like to claim that I am especially talented. Honesty compels me to admit that I have no special skill, except for pleasing you."

She smiled back at him, overcome by the happiness of being alive, of falling in love. "I'm very glad that we met."

"As am I." Robin said.

Regina knew she still had to convince Robin that they could safely spend the rest of their lives together. Just now, they had been able to kiss without any disastrous consequences. Robin had seemed confident and fully in control of himself. Surely, they would gradually be able to learn how to escalate their lovemaking without creating danger for either of them?

For no reason at all, or perhaps for every reason in the world, she flung her head back and hummed the triumphant melody that began the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. She could only remember the first dozen bars, so when she reached the end of them, she started all over again, louder than before. She imagined the music spiraling up into the sky, traveling through space.

"You sing quite splendidly." Robin commented as he listened to her.

Regina stopped immediately. "Thank you. I just felt like I was going to burst if I didn't, I feel that happy right now."

Robin smiled softly at her, then stopped suddenly. He turned and walked upstairs to his room, Regina following him. She walked in to find him standing in front of the windows, his mood changed obviously.

"What's wrong, Robin?" Regina asked.

"I can't." Robin whispered.

"Can't what?" Regina asked.

"I can't make you happy. I can't keep you safe." Robin said.

"How odd then, that I should find you the person whom I say does make me happy and one that I trust easily." Regina admitted.

"Yet, you know what I am?" Robin asked.

"Yes, a Vampire." Regina said.

"Someone who takes the life of innocents." Robin said.

"That may have been who you were once upon a time. But, when I look at you now, I see only a man of great honor." Regina said.

He turned to her then, the longing in his eyes overshadowed by the tortured knowledge of where he feared that longing would lead them.

I want you, Regina. His words filled her mind, and her body flooded with his desire.

I want you, too, she said.

His expression didn't change, but she felt the sad sweetness of his smile as he looked at her. He came to her, cradled her cheek in his hand. When she turned and pressed a kiss into his palm, he traced the curve of her lips with fingers that weren't quite steady.

You are the woman I have dreamed all my life of finding, he said. You are the gentle spring breeze that refreshes my soul. You are a fire that roars in my blood and consumesmy heart.

Robin, I've fallen in love with you. She could have found the courage to speak the words out loud. In the silent intimacy of their souls it was easier to acknowledge the truth. She felt his love envelop her, surround her, consume her. But he wouldn't declare it, and she knew that he fought to prevent the words taking shape in her mind.

You must leave me, he said. My power to resist is low. If you do not leave, I will make you mine. I will make love to you.

Then most certainly, I shall not leave.

His eyes darkened, and she could feel his despair. If I make love to you, Regina, you will die.

You can't know that.

I know it. Leave, Regina, while I still have the strength to let you leave me.

She couldn't, wouldn't accept that loving Robin would cause her death. Slowly, fully aware of what she was inviting, she kissed him on the mouth. The immediate leap of his hunger answered a craving deep inside of her. For a few seconds, Robin held himself aloof. Then, with a silent cry that echoed and reechoed inside her mind, he pulled her down on top of him on the bed, ravishing her body and soul with the passionate urgency of his kiss.

His hands tore at her clothes, ripping open ribbons that closed the gathered neck and tugging at the garment over her head. She opened her mind to him as he laid bare her body, letting him feel her passion and her love. In return, he gave her a glimpse of the driving, hammering pulse of his need for her.

His hands swept down over her body, shaping her breasts, pressing against the curve of her hips, seeking out the innermost secrets of her body. Her need for him was soft, liquid molten. His need for her was hot, savage, all-consuming. She drew his feelings deep inside her, drowning in the red mist of his desire. Her pleasure twisted and curled around him until it was impossible to distinguish between his driving need and her yearning ache.

Her body was flame. His was steel. Together they had the power to create something new and wonderful. Robin nuzzled her neck, ecstatic as he felt her jugular vein swell from the impact of the fluid dripping from his burgeoning sacs. She was moist, hot, ready for him, begging for fulfillment, for the climax she senses hovering just beyond the horizon. He felt her need with the same burning urgency that he felt his own, a glorious aphrodisiac, an exquisite mingling of the senses. Male, female. Hard, soft. Need, desire.

In a moment, after a second or two more of blissful anticipation, he would slip his fangs into her throat. Then, when her body was safely prepared with mating fluid, he would enter her.

Yes, she said. I am ready.

No, I will not permit myself to hurt you!

But, Robin.

No! I have sufficient guilt to bear without the addition of your death. With an anguished cry Robin threw himself off her and staggered away from the bed, leaning against the wall as his body shuddered under the impact of a denial almost too agonizing to bear. The arousal of all his mating instincts, without any hope of appeasement, left him hovering barely on the right side of sanity.

"Get out of this room," he said hoarsely, not trusting himself to survive the intimacy of speaking without words. "Go now, Regina." His command was thick and slurred with the impediment of swollen sacs and distended fangs. The sound of his own voice disgusted him. He was a beast, a creature of mindless lusts, incapable of controlling the reactions of his own body. And Regina was in mortal danger of becoming the next victim of those hideous lusts.

He turned away, unable to bear the sight of her leaving. Moments later, he heard the sounds of her getting up from the bed, but to his horror, he realized she was coming toward him, not leaving the room. He swung around, torn between the utter humiliation of letting her see his hideous, contorted features, and the desperate need to convince her that she must flee.

When she didn't immediately run screaming from the room, he bared his teeth in a frightening parody of the wild animal that he was. His fangs, glistening with mating fluid, protruded with pointed savagery over his lower lip.

Regina continued to approach him, and he felt no wave of revulsion flowing from her. Didn't she realize that his needs were bestial, appalling, consuming? That he was a monster who would tear out her throat at the first opportunity?

Even now, despite his fangs, his lust was so out of control that his fangs tingles and ached with the longing to sink into the beautiful smooth flesh of her neck. His sacs swelled painfully, completing the distortion of his features. He could guess how totally and utterly repulsive he must appear. Oddly, Regina looked at him without flinching, and her eyes were soft and misty, almost as if she found him desirable, although he knew that could be no more than the reflection of his own wistful fantasy. Her hair, the color of black silk, tumbled around her shoulders in a thick, tempting curtain. Robin closed his eyes, imaging that wonderful hair falling around his face in a soft cloud as he sank his fangs into her throat.

The image was too wonderful, too tempting, to be borne. Robin clung to the last, desperate reserves of his self-control, waiting with clenched fists and pounding heart for Regina to come to her senses and flee from the room.

"I love you, Robin." She spoke out loud because he still had just enough control to deny her access to his mind. As she spoke, she lifted her hair, piling it high on her head and holding it there with one hand. Then she closed the last few inches of space between them, and tilted her head to one side, exposing the exquisite perfection of her neck and shoulders.

"I want you," she said. "I want us to join blood and body and soul as Vampires are meant to join." Absurdly, crazily, she sounded as if she meant it.

The world spun and tilted around him. What are you doing? He demanded, incapable of adding sound to the question even though he dreaded the consequences of giving her access to his mind. By all that is holy, Regina, have you gone mad?

Perhaps, she said. Mad with desire, love.

Desire? She couldn't possibly mean that she genuinely desired him. Tolerated him, perhaps, for some crazy reason, but she could not feel desire for a creature who drowned his lust in blood. While he gulped and panted, she raised her hand and slowly pressed it against his mouth.

The ecstasy of her touch was indescribable. Robin's eyes drifted closed and he rubbed his fangs down and forth against the palm of her hand. The points were razor sharp, ready for insertion, but she held her hand very still, so he was able to avoid injuring her. She leaned close against him, her breasts pressed against his chest. Impossible as it seemed, he felt no hint of fear when he held her, only desire.

Overwhelmed by tenderness, he caressed the delicate length of her spine and the curve of her hips, all the while nuzzling his fangs against the softness of her hands. Her love flowed back to him. Before he could stop to question how it had happened, he was in bed again, lying next to Regina. And his fully distended fangs were no more than a quarter of an inch from her jugular vein.

For an endless moment, he stared at the woman he had come to love, and she stared back at him, her gaze clear and unafraid. He wanted to mate with her more than he wanted life itself. He wanted to drink her blood and give her the life-restoring fluid from his sacs in exchange. He wanted to ease into the tightness of her body, and pour out his seed from which his son would grow. But he was a Vampire, and she was human, and that meant they could never mate.

Slowly, wearily, he raised his head, turning away from temptation, striving to find the strength to move out of the bed for a second and final time. The effort to break away from her brought less physical anguish than he had expected. The sense of emotional loss was more devastating than he could have imagined in a thousand nightmares.

Finally, he managed to get his feet onto the floor and drag himself upright. Regina gave a little whimper of disappointment and frustration. When he tried to stand, she reached up and clasped her hands at the back of his neck, pulling him back down onto the bed.

I want you, she said. When will you get it into your stubborn Vampire head that I WANT YOU!

She had no idea what she was saying, of course. Shaking, his body convulsing, Robin managed to keep his head averted, shielded from any glimpse of her. But she made a small, impatient sound and grasped his head between her hands, forcing his head down toward her neck until the incredible, unforgettable moment when the points of his fangs actually slid into her jugular vein at her command.

As soon as he felt her blood against the sensitive tips of his fangs, he was lost. Desire streaked through his body in an arrow of hot, burning fire. Regina's desire, Robin realized incredulously, mingled in glorious confusion with his own. His fangs sank deeper into her throat and the warm salt taste of blood filled his mouth. Regina's blood.

The blood of the woman he loved.

His sacs burst instantly, sending mating fluid streaming into the tiny openings he had made in Regina's throat. His whole body pulsed with the power of her blood, and her body thrummed with the erotic impact of his mating fluid.

Passion, need, hunger, love, washed over him in giant waves. His hunger, her need, and their love.

Regina stirred restlessly beneath him, giving a new direction to his desire even as his fangs slowly retracted and his sacs shriveled. He fought to control the wild elation roaring through his veins so that they could prolong their pleasure, but when she arched her hips beneath him in an instinctive urge to join with him more closely, his control shattered.

Robin pushed inside her suddenly, shaft gliding through her walls until his body couldn't go any deeper. He moaned softly and gripped her tighter, steadying himself. He had to hold still for a few moments, letting her get used to his body and lovemaking.

Regina threw her head back, amazed at the sensation one stroke could bring; he pulled himself out slowly and thrust forward again, sending a wave of pleasure rolling through her. He held himself above her as he stroked, watching her breasts bounce and her hips buck to meet his movements – movements that were already becoming quick and frantic.

"Robin!" she called, feeling herself tighten around him as his thickness massaged each and every nerve ending she had. "Oh my god, Robin…"

He responded by slamming his hips into hers, the slick head of his member crashing over her senses, each thrust sending her into paroxysms of joy. One hand was gently cupping her breast, thumbing and tweaking her nipple; every few moments his mouth would dip down to suck the areola, deepening the pleasure radiating from her core.

Regina wasn't sure whose orgasm started first; she wasn't even sure how long they were making love – she just knew that suddenly, she was screaming, ecstasy seizing every cell in her body, while Robin pounded into her, shouting her name. She locked lips with him as her pleasure reached its peak, and a moment later, a strangled cry told her he'd reached his. Robin exploded inside her, still stroking weakly as they retreated from the edge of ecstasy.

The shivers of her pleasure, his pleasure, finally ceased. He withdrew from her, shoulders heaving, and turned to look at her, terrified of what he might see…

You are alive, he said in wonder. I didn't kill you.

Are you quite sure? I was convinced that I had gone to heaven. I'm so sleepy right now. He heard laughter in her voice. She yawned again, and he stared at her in disbelief. The world had turned on its axis, the stars had moved, and she was yawning? Is that all you have to say? He demanded. That you are sleepy?

Her laughter rippled over him like a warm silken covering. I could tell you that you are a magnificent lover, that I am happier than I have ever been in my life before, that I feel totally and utterly fulfilled. But that might make you too conceited, Robin So I shall go to sleep instead.

He ran the tips of his fangs over her throat. The tiny incisions where his fangs had cut into her flesh were already healed, restored by the balm of his mating fluid. I must have hurt you, he said. I cut into your flesh.

You know that you didn't hurt me in the least. You felt my feelings, just as I shared yours.

He took her into his arms, unable to believe the joy to be found in the simple act of holding his mate close to his heart. I love you, Regina, he said, amazed that it had taken him so many years to understand such a simple concept. His mouth curved unbidden into a purely human smile. I love you, so much Regina. I love you.

She yawned. I love you, too, Robin.

His euphoria was shaken by a sudden fear that was all the more terrible because it contrasted to starkly with the joy they had been feeling.

What is it? Regina shook off her lethargy and sat up in the bed. For God's sake, Robin, what's wrong?

I've made you pregnant, he said gloomily. Eleven months from now you will give birth to my son.

Oh, is that all? Regina flopped back against the pillow. Well, you know, I'm sorry if you feel trapped, but you would have had to marry me anyway.

Robin was exasperated by her refusal to acknowledge the danger that she faced in giving birth to a Vampire baby. He focused on his exasperation, because if he allowed himself to swell on what was ahead, he knew he would be frenzied, desperate, at the prospect of losing her during the birth.

Regina laid her hand against his cheek in a reassuring caress. Don't worry so much, Robin. You were convinced that I would die if you made love to me. Instead, I experienced greater joy than I had ever known. Can you not have faith that I will give birth to your child safely? And that we will go on to have many more of your Vampire sons?

For her sake, he wanted to believe that happiness was possible, and so he held her close and whispered the words he knew she wanted to hear. Regina had already brought him on miracle. Could he not allow himself to hope that she would survive the ordeal of bearing his son?

Regina kissed him softly, lingeringly, lovingly. Yes, she said. Trust me, Robin. You can believe in miracles because together we will make them come true.

Robin strode into the drawing room, his face twisted into one of those strange contortions that humans adopted to signify concern. Daniel and some other members of the staff were there, waiting on any news of the newest arrival as Regina had gone into labor a few hours ago. Regina had married their lord several months ago and they had adapted to her being the new lady quite well, as she treated them as her equals, and not just servants.

"Regina has gone into the final stage of labor." Robin said, his voice harsh with worry. "Anna has sent me from the room."

"Anna has children of her own," Daniel said mildly. "She will know what to do, and I am sure she will send for you if there is any need."

Robin paced the room, back and forth. "I felt her pain. She's only been in labor for eight hours and already the pain was almost her capacity to endure. My son was tearing her apart."

"Women suffer with every type of birth." Daniel offered the best comfort that he could.

"I left her only because she said my fear was making her pain worse." Robin turned to him, his eyes haunted. "If she dies, I don't know how I shall continue to live."

A servant appeared in the doorway. "Anna requests that you come at once, Excellency. The countess is asking for you."

Robin was out of the room and halfway to the stairs before the servant had finished speaking. Daniel and the others waited downstairs for news. Minutes later, Robin burst out of his wife's room, his expression distraught and his hair standing on end in wild disorder.

"My child is born!" Robin yelled. "Regina has safely delivered our baby and she is alive and well!"

"Congratulations, my lord." Daniel and the others called back to him. "What's his name?"

"I don't know." Robin still appeared half demented, and the others chuckled.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of time to consider names." Another servant spoke up.

"If you would all like to come up and see the baby, Regina would love it." Robin said.

They all headed upstairs, and once they entered the room, they found the new mother of the newborn propped up against half a dozen pillows. The baby was cradled in her arms, and sleeping the peaceful sleep of the very newborn.

"Congratulations, my lady," Daniel spoke for the group. "We are all very proud of you."

Robin sat down on the bed and put his arm around his wife and child. "How do you all like my offspring?"

"A splendid little fellow." Another servant said. "Will his name start with a R as well? Like Richard, Randall?"

Robin and Regina exchanged glances. "They are all excellent names, but there is one small problem with your suggestions."

"And what is that, may we ask?"

"Our baby is a girl," Robin said. "Regina and I have produced a baby daughter. Her name is Hope."

After all the holding of the newborn little girl was over, Robin and Regina shared a private moment with their little one. Robin kissed Regina's cheek, his heart overflowing with love and gratitude. "I have so much to be thankful for." He said. "The mother of my child, my wife, and the other half of my soul."

Regina laid the tips of her fingers against his lips.

We have each other, she said. For the rest of our lives, we have each other.

*The End*

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!