Chapter 12

When Elizabeth Bennet walked through the door of Longbourn and flashed a quick (yet totally fake) smile at the concerned faces of Jane and Mary as they rushed towards her, she was convinced that this horrible excuse for a day couldn't get any worse.

She was wrong. Very wrong.

Elizabeth first noticed that something was wrong when she saw that the concern on her sister's faces wasn't disappearing. Granted, it wasn't everyday that Elizabeth disappeared on a carriage ride due to a vampire, but it wasn't like this was the first time it had happened.

Then she heard the voices coming from underneath the door to her father's library. She recognized two of the voices immediately as they belonged to her parents. Yet it was the third voice that made her blood go cold with dread and caused her lip to curl in disgust.

"… I'm sure that you will love our Lizzie, Mr. Collins," Mrs. Bennet was saying enthusiastically. "She really is a rather brilliant girl, the perfect match for a man as accomplished as you are."

"Thank you, Mrs. Bennet, you are very kind," the third voice said with the silky tone of an experienced suck up. "I'm sure that I would love to meet the Miss Elizabeth. She sounds like the perfect companion for a man of my position."

Elizabeth thought she heard her father snort derisively, although he made no comment. She raised her eyebrows and looked over at Mary and Jane, who were hovering close by her side.

"Mr. Collins is a distant cousin of our father's," Mary whispered softly, trying to make her voice soft enough so that the people inside of the library couldn't hear her. "He is currently applying for a position as a pastor, although the lady of the parish will not allow him to have the position unless he is wed. He thinks that it would be… prudent to marry one of us since he is to inherit Longbourn upon the death of our father."

Elizabeth snorted at the thought of that thing as a pastor, although her eyebrows creased together in a frown at the thought of such a creature controlling their futures.

"Is there any chance of him… leaving?" she asked cautiously, being careful to choose her words carefully.

Mary shrugged and looked at Jane. Jane sighed and shook her head.

"No, chance," she whispered. "Bingley came earlier and invited him to a ball in a fortnight, so he's bound to stay until then."

Elizabeth cursed under her breath and knew for certain that at least one gentleman would not walk away from Bingley's party alive. Whether there was more than one gentleman would depend upon the mysterious Mr. Wickham.

That night, while the rest of the Bennet household was asleep, the door that led to the kitchen was left unlocked by a shadowy figure.

"Come in, my lord," a silky voice that was well accustomed to flattery whispered.

An eerily cool breeze swept past him into the silent household. It passed by the open doors to the Bennet parents and the two youngest sisters without interest, pausing instead by the only locked door in the house that led to the large bedroom of the three older sisters. The creature that paused by the door smiled coldly without a trace of humor. It seemed that these three girls were the only ones with sense in the entire household. Or, they had a little bit of sense; they had forgotten that, no matter how much garlic and silver they put on the door, a vampire could still enter the room if it had been invited inside by another vampire. Which, in this particular case, it had.

The vampire smiled again as it entered the room, passing with studied indifference over the bed of the plain Mary Bennet and the startlingly pretty Jane; he would deal with them once his main target was taken care of.

Mr. Wickham stopped by the bedside of Elizabeth Bennet, a wicked smile twisting his features. With practiced delicacy, he reached out with his mind and wrapped hers in a cocoon of peace. The sleeping girl sighed and rolled towards him, a distant smile on her face. Her passionate mouth parted to form a single word before she sighed again and drifted into the sleep Wickham's spell had created. Wickham's smile widened and he bit back a chuckle.

Well, this was going to be very fun.

With a grace that betrayed his nature, Wickham leaned over the sleeping girl, his fangs already extending.

When the vampire left a few minutes later, his hand brushing absently against his bloodstained mouth, he frowned up at the moon. Elizabeth Bennet, whether she liked it or not, had just become one of the most interesting pieces in his little chess game.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters! All of the credit belongs to the awesome Miss Austen. Thanks a lot to all of the people who reviewed. Your feedback and suggestions mean a lot to me.