Love all the reads and reviews! Thanks for reading my little vampire story. My plan is to get the next chapter out by Halloween so be on the lookout for that!
OOO
Nearly a fortnight had passed since the night of the party and Clara still did not remember much more of her life from before. Yet her friends took every moment to jab at her rich, older boyfriend so Clara could never get Vladimir Dracula cleared from her mind. Even in her dreams she'd think of him. He'd come to her window at night on occasion. It seemed he never wanted to be parted from her, and honestly Clara did not wish to be parted from him either. She'd always thought that the sign of an unhealthy relationship. She supposed it could be given a pass in these very peculiar circumstances.
For that is what this was: a very peculiar circumstance. Clara was certain no one else had ever had such circumstances, and if they did, she pitied them greatly.
All her friends wanted to meet him, but Clara couldn't think that appropriate. She wasn't entirely sure why. It seemed all her time now was spent hiding him for how was she meant explain any of this? Focus. Clara stared at the literature laid out in front of her. Some very old book that was originally in German and Clara couldn't even remember the title. She couldn't even focus. Focus was something she'd been having trouble with ever since…
"I'm too ready from rich boy's Halloween party." Katie sat down at the table, coffee in hand. Yes, that was the other source of stress. Christopher had deemed it perfectly all right to throw a Halloween party at his apartment even though Clara had thought that a bad plan. 'It shan't be large,' he'd insisted. 'It's for my colleagues at work. Invite your friends. I want to meet them.' Clara hadn't wanted to, but she did, and now it was three days away and she didn't want to think about any of it.
"I can't even think about that." Clara answered with the thought in her mind.
Katie smiled, "What's up?"
"Homework." She gestured to the table. "I don't even have a costume. And I don't know how to talk to his work colleagues. What do they even talk about? Is it like the comment sections of LinkedIn? I hate the comment sections of LinkedIn."
"It'll hopefully be less sexist than that." Samantha chimed in. She was a year younger than them and Katie's sorority little. The haunted house philanthropy had gone very well, so the two of them had been in exceptionally perky moods of late. "It'll be fine, Clara. You're smart. Talk about smart people things."
"Ah, yes. My anxiety is cured."
Samantha laughed, "And you're funny. It'll be fine."
"All right." Clara agreed absentmindedly. That seemed to be how she did all things now: absentmindedly. Her mind felt split in two ever since that night. One half was focusing, the other half trying to desperately to remember…
When the day was over, Clara went to work and then home. She made dinner, took a long bath, and then laid in bed, too tired to do much else. But she knew he would come. He always came to her. Clara didn't mind it: she liked having him near. She'd grown very accustomed to sleeping with him by her side. That night was no different. He appeared, she let him in, and he kissed her sweetly before they went to her bed.
"You smell delectable." He said as he kissed her neck. It seemed he wanted to inhale her skin and Clara smirked at the thought of that. Her mind drifted, thinking of how he had not fed from her since the first time and how she wondered when he would again. Which was weird, for she certainly should not have liked such a thing. The liking of such a thing was really fucking weird, and she didn't want to tell him that. Unless of course it was a normal thing. But how does one ask such a question without inclining towards a suggestion?
He pulled back, "Clara?"
She smiled, "Sorry. Lost in thought."
"That's all right," he kissed her again. "What were you thinking of, my darling?"
Again, a time where any normal girl would've said something seductive and laid herself upon the bed in a provocative manner. But Clara was not a normal girl and certainly not very provocative so she simply answered what he asked.
"I was wondering," she began, her hand brushing his face. "I was wondering how often you have to…to feed. I…" Clara felt him staring at her with his strange staring. "I don't mean… I'm just curious, that's all."
"As often as I will, I suppose." Christopher answered as though her question had not been strange. "I can go for long periods without it, though I always feel better if I have it frequently." Like he sensed her next question, he smiled at her smirkingly. "I did not wish to frighten you again."
"It didn't frighten me." Clara laid against her headboard and felt him gazing at her again. He made her feel absolutely naked when he looked at her like that. Half crawling, he came nearer to her as though to kiss her, but Clara spoke before he could. "And it did not hurt."
"It doesn't." He answered plainly, brushing her hair back from her neck. Oh, so he was going to do it again right now… Clara felt her pulse quicken and she didn't know why. It didn't scare her. It was just very sudden. And something in him seemed to change at the prospect of it. Something unfamiliar and animalistic grew out of him at the prospect of it. She could see the fangs coming from him gums and something else happening to the rest of him. Yes… yes! Something else was happening. He was changing. Changing like he had before and Clara had not noticed. He'd done this before! She remembered but… Yes, he would change. Change into something completely different.
Clara touched him, "Your skin." She remarked it as she tugged at his shirt. It was a strange thing to see and even stranger to describe. He was still himself but much different. Like himself but covered in shadows. Like himself but elongated and ridged. Himself he was, but a monstrous version of it.
In a moment, he moved away from her but Clara caught him by his sleeve. She smiled: she remembered this. Maybe not in its full context, but she remembered it. This monster. Yes, this strange monster was her own. It should've frightened her. It always should've frightened her but Clara did not care. It excited her, this strange form. It aroused her.
"Wait." Clara hooked her arm around his neck, bringing him back up close to her. She pressed her lips onto his and tried to pull him as close to her as she could.
"You're not scared?" Kisses trailed onto her neck, her jaw, and then she felt his teeth pulling on her ear.
Clara gasped, "Not at all."
"I want your blood," he told her heavily and Clara nodded without hesitation. She'd give him anything if he kept kissing her like this. To the bed he lowered her, his kisses reaching her breasts and chest before moving to her neck again. Before she could consider it, Clara felt his fangs protrude and stick into the side of her neck.
The feeling of it felt like a great boulder dropping into her chest. No, no: it felt like white hot lightening pouring in her veins. It felt like an electricity that spread from her chest and all out around her. It was a pleasure so acute that it was nearly pain. Clara could not understand it and she did not even care to. It was weird, certainly, but she liked this pain. She adored this pain. And she wanted him nearer like some desperate yearning being. She hardly even felt human with how much she wanted him. It was all consuming, turning her vision red and her senses up to a new level.
He pulled away and Clara instantly drew him to her lips. She tasted her metallic blood along his mouth but she did not care. It did not matter. Nothing mattered. They shared blood; there were no taboos. Clara wanted him, like something not human she wanted him, and that was all that was real.
Christopher pulled off her nightdress and her underwear, kissing her bare skin and biting into different bits of it but Clara did not care. He moved about so quickly that he had to have had a power over her. It felt like he was everywhere in one moment. Yes, yes: she remembered this. She remembered the feeling of this. Like making love but so, so much better. So very different from…from anything. And they had told her, they had all told her he was demon. They'd insisted something of the devil was in him but if this was the devil then Mina did not care…
She gasped: she was remembering. Just another piece, but she was remembering.
"Are you a demon?" Clara asked suddenly. Another moment where she probably shouldn't have said anything. She heard him smirking yet felt him moving inside of her and Clara could not make sense of anything. This was something not human at all, not in the slightest.
He nibbled her ear, "A little bit, my darling." Another bite. "Do you mind?"
Clara shook her head. There were many things she minded: her boyfriend being a demon was not one of them. Which was definitely number one on the "Reason's Clara is a Fucking Weirdo" list.
OOO
Mina heard a strange rapping at the window and knew it was him. Of course, of course it was him: he'd said he'd come to her. He'd said he'd come speak to her again and Mina had agreed for she has been too confused to not agree. Then he had caressed her face and called her his love again and everything had been so muddled she could just scream.
She need not let him in. No, no Mina could leave him there to rot if she wished it. He needed her invitation to enter and why should she give it? Not after this afternoon... Mina had no cause to let him in. That ridiculous proposal. Offering to marry her. Claiming he wished for her hand, it was nonsense. He was a monster. Her Count Dracula was something inhuman. Something that was not her Count Dracula. How greedily he had grasped her in his arms. How glutinously he kissed upon her hand, her wrist, her neck... Mina remembered the latter with a bright flush coming to her cheek. His lips had pressed to her neck then kissed up her jaw to bite upon her ear. It had been so remarkably passionate and...
Mina unlatched her window, finding him seemingly floating outside of it. For a moment she simply gazed at him, this odd peace residing in her. The night sky was speckled behind him, and in front of it he looked like some great bird.
"Come in," Mina said without being prompted. He did so easily, stepping down before her and shutting her window without moving his hand. Now it was he who gazed quietly and her. She spoke, "We must be quiet. John, Jack, and Quincey are nearby. They are watching Lucy." She blinked, "I wonder if she'll know that you're here."
Away from him she turned, moving further back into her bedroom. Count Dracula was still staring, she felt it, but she knew not what to say to him now. She stood in front of her mirror, watching her reflection flicker in the dim candlelight. Mina felt him move though his reflection did not show. He could not get to close. Mina would not allow him to get too close. Abruptly, she turned, stopping him though he was hardly an inch from her.
"You said you wanted to speak with me," she continued. "Speak."
His hand brushed her hair, "Mina..."
"Don't." She told him immediately. "Do not touch me. Speak."
"What do you wish me to speak upon?"
God, she could slap him he was so damnably coy. It was like she was doing a dance with him. A dance she did not much enjoy and did not wish to partake in. And he just kept staring at her. That awful stare from his red eyes like she were naked or bare in front of him. Like he knew every one of her secrets. Like he knew how she wanted to kiss him, yes kiss him. Kiss him and take him to her bed and let him do what...whatever he willed with her. He knew far more about such things than she, he would be the one to show her. All those strange, deep and black desires she possessed: he would sate them. Mina knew that. She knew that like she knew her own name and yet she... How was she to allow him near her? How was she to kiss him after all he'd done?
"The soulmates, the marriage, the love: whatever you deem easiest to explain to me." Mina's words were cold and biting. Good: she'd meant them to be. "For I don't understand the lot of it."
"I know you." He said like that answered her question. Mina met his dark red eyes with a visible smirk. No, she would not be frightened of this man. "Before I saw you, I knew you. You have my soul."
"You've said," Mina bit. "What do you mean, Vladimir?" It was the first time she'd uttered his name aloud. It shook her to realize such a thing.
"I know everything about you."
She tried to scoff, for that could not be true. These vampires were liars, the men had said. Master manipulators. They said and did whatever they wanted to achieve their ends. In fact, Mina should certainly not have one alone in her bedroom with her. Yet she'd come closer to this monster than any of the men had. She would not be fearful.
"I know you." He repeated, and Mina found she could not scoff. His eyes were... there was something about them now. "I know every bit of you. I know those things about you you've never told anyone. I know those feelings you have and cannot confess to any other: I know you."
She wanted to retort. She could give an easy 'do you?' and smirk and walk away. Mina could be coy and cold and leave him but she could not move. Maybe this was hypnosis. Maybe he was as masterful at that as she'd been told. As she gazed, his hands cupped her face, moving down her form slowly like he was analyzing every bit. Like it was a part of him.
"The darkness, Mina. I know about the darkness. Those thoughts you have. How the darkness does not terrify you like it's meant to. How it obsesses you. Arouses you. How you wait up every evening to greet the moon and share those thoughts you cannot think by day: I know that."
He kept speaking. He kept speaking and Mina felt her vision spiraling inwards. She felt her consciousness failing. He spoke and came nearer and held her like she were his lover.
"I know I do not frighten you though you've told yourself I should. I know you've considered what I said. I know you want to sate that desire inside of you that burns bright as an ember." He held her face like he was going to kiss her. God help her if he kissed her. "I know what you truly want is love, though you'd never dare admit it. That is your darkest secret of all. You want love, but no ordinary love. You want love that is dark, deep, and consuming. You want a love affair of passion, pain, and full on unspeakable things. I know all of this, Mina, because I know you. Because you are mine."
"I..."
"Be mine." Nearer he drew her, his lips brushing upon her temple. "Be blood of my blood and flesh of my flesh." The kisses trailed along all parts of her face and it was painfully intimate she wanted to cry and to scream and she wasn't sure which she desired more. She wanted it. God, how she wanted everything he was saying. "You shall be my queen and my wife for you are my soulmate. My immortal companion. I sensed the moment you were born. I've sensed every moment of your life."
He was good at this. He was so good at this…this seduction. Yes, seduction. Mina knew exactly what this was. In the moments before, she'd told herself she'd never be so idiotic as to fall for this. Never, never would she fall easily into a seduction. Of course not, she'd told herself. Mina was not weak like other women. And now… Now she realized how wrong she had been. Mina was not weak, but he was so very, very strong. Giving in would not only be easy, but wonderful. It would be devilishly wonderful.
His hands slid along the sides of her body in ways that no gentleman's hands should be sliding along her body. This was completely indecent of him but God help her if he stopped. I am yours, Mina wanted to confess. I am yours and have always been yours. The words she would not utter aloud, of that she was certain. But his hands drew her nearer as his lips pressed against her own.
She was gone now. All of the rest of her was gone and all that matter was her hands in his hair and his lips upon her own. They could not stop now. Mina would die if they stopped now.
But…
She pushed him back, "Vladimir-"
A kiss, "My Mina…"
"They are near," she whispered. Her mind was grasping for a reason to stop this. How she did not want to stop this. "They will know."
"I'll steal you away," he promised against her lips. "I'll steal you and they shan't ever find us."
"Vladimir…" Mina's protest was weak as she kissed him again. It grew weaker when his fingers brushed her breasts.
"You are my love," he said softly into her ear. Mina could die. She was going to die if he did not relieve her of this feeling in the pit of her chest. This feeling between her legs… "You are mine."
"Yes," Mina agreed. She kissed his lips greedily and they were upon her bed. That should've frightened her. It did not. "My love," Mina called him as his kisses trailed to her neck and his hands trailed down her form. "Please," she said and did not even know what she was asking for. Him, Mina wanted him. She wanted him to douse the fire burning deeply inside of her. And he touched her so well, yes so well. He trailed kisses from her stomach to her lips so softly that it hurt her.
His voice was low, "You are mine."
She agreed ardently.
A rush of light hit her. The bedroom door had been opened. The bedroom door had been opened and Mina's vision came back to her clearly. What was she doing? What was she doing? What was he doing to her? The man atop her hissed and retreated into the shadows with a hiss as the men in the doorway bellowed prayers in Latin. Mina could not breathe. Mina could not breathe as the man who'd been kissing her faded into mist and left her all alone.
John ran to Mina's side immediately, obviously thinking her set upon by some lustful villain. Yes, yes, he was right. The monster had seduced her. The monster had confused her. Mina was not seeing clearly and tears welled in her eyes. John took that as her wanting to embrace him. She did not much want to embrace him, but did it regardless.
He was gone. Her Dracula was gone. He was gone and they were found out.
Good. Good. Mina was not meant to be with him. A human could not be with a vampire. A mortal could not be with a beast. It was better this way. It was better.
Mina thought about kissing him again. She told herself to shut that thought. Shut it far, far away. It was better this way. It was better.
OOO
"What are you doing?" Clara laughed as he kept pressing his lips along her arm. It was like a cartoon, like something people didn't actually do, and Clara found it all to be rather amusing.
He smiled, "Kissing you." She rolled her eyes at his cheeky answer but did not want him to stop either. She wrapped the arm around him and drew his lips onto hers. They should just stay in bed all day. Well, maybe not just in bed. In fact, in his apartment, they'd had many wonderful moments in the bath, the shower, the living room...
It was two days until the party now. Two days until he met her friends and they would not doubt tease her for him. Her strange, older, vampire boyfriend. Not that they knew about that latter part. That would be hard to explain, seeing as Clara didn't know much of it herself. She knew that he looked weird when night came unless he was working weird hypnosis magic on people. She knew that he drank blood (obviously) and could go for periods without it. He did not sleep in a coffin, he did not burn in the sun (though prolonged exposure was undesirable) and garlic had no noticeable influence on him. Clara had not attempted to make him go to a church, but she did note the lack of any religious paraphernalia in the apartment. That wasn't weird she supposed: there wasn't any in hers either.
He spoke, "I love you."
"I love you," Clara replied. It always felt the strangest bit odd to say. That is to say, it was true when she said it, but still odd. Clara did love him. She loved him so much. But he loved her differently. He loved her for over a hundred years. He had over a century of love he'd been waiting to give her. The love he had was something she could not fathom. Perhaps that's why he was always kissing her, always touching her. Not that she minded it. Clara didn't mind it at all. Which was strange, for she should. Clara always hated people who were too tactile. She never hated it with him. It seemed he was always touching her in some way and never did she mind it. It was like...like he was just an extension of herself. Just another part of her.
A part of her she didn't know. Of course, it wasn't so bothersome sometimes but other times it irked her to no end. Like earlier in the week. They'd been in the shower and he'd been holding her and kissing her neck and suddenly he pulled back and looked at her. He looked at her in a way that she could not look at him. She could not look at him for she did not know him. He'd resumed what he'd been doing but that disappointment lingered on. Clara could not look at him like that. She could not look on his so adoringly. That's how he always looked at her: adoringly. Clara could not explain it. Even if they had been together before, Clara could not fathom how she deserved such a look.
"The party is tomorrow."
Clara groaned, falling back upon the pillows, sinking into them for they were far too fluffy for their own good. Christopher lay next to her, staring at her in confusion.
Clara spoke, "My friends are very eager to meet you."
"Are you afraid I'll disappoint them?"
She huffed, "Don't tease. I'm afraid it'll be…I don't know, weird."
"Weird?"
"Yes." Clara sat up for he was being damn coy and she did not like it. "How do I explain you?"
"You say, 'This is my boyfriend, Christopher'."
"Ha, ha," Clara roused.
He kissed her brow, "It'll be fine. It's just a business party. Nothing weird."
"Will there be wine?"
"Lot of wine."
"Ugh, fine," Clara relented and he laughed at her. "Now, when are we having dinner? I'm starved."
OOO
She pulled the pins from her hair very slowly, one and then the other. A room. A room with just one bed. God. God. Mina pressed her hands to her temples for they were cold and she thought they might soothe her. They did not. This was madness, madness. This had been her own plan. Mina had done this of her own accord. She had called to him, she had chosen him, and now she was frightened to be in a room alone with him?
It had not been so terrifying on the train. How quickly they had gotten onto the train. He'd already had bags for her. Bags packed with clothes that were new and for her and that alone was a bit eerie. He had prepared for this. He had prepared for their flight. New clothes. New clothes made just for her. Well, she needed them. Mina had not exactly had time to pack.
They'd masqueraded as husband and wife. Dracula already had papers for their passage. How ridiculous. How absolutely bizarre of him. Presumptuous. Presumptuous and conceited. The conceited and arrogant man. You let him in, she told herself. You let him kiss you that night. Kiss you and touch you and you called to him today. You flew with him. Do not blame him for all of your downfall.
He'd whispered to her sweetly on the train. They'd made it to Paris promptly and booked a hotel easily and now they were in a suite with one bed in it. One bed in it. It made everything in her sink to the floor if she thought about it and she kept thinking about it for she could see it reflected in her vanity mirror. A beautiful bed really, for the whole room was beautiful and certainly very expensive. He'd kissed her temple and said he'd be back soon before leaving. That was mere minutes ago. He'd gone to…to fetch the luggage boys, Mina remembered. The luggage he'd bought for her.
She pulled another pin from her hair and her curls cascaded down. One bed. The room had but one bed.
She was going to be sick.
