She

by Inkpot

‘…The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, the devil will come…’ (She comes and makes Draco her ‘china doll’.)

3. In

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. All the new characters and situations are mine, my own.

Warning: fic contains sexual situations, profanity and things not suitable for children under the age of thirteen.

A well thought out review will do me just fine. ;)

She

Part three:

We'd gone shopping that day. I thought we would go to Diagon Alley, but we went to Muggle London instead. When we walked into a store that obviously sold formal wear, it occurred to me that it was quite stupid to think that we would go to Diagon Alley for wizard clothes when I hadn't seen anybody dressed in wizard clothes since leaving Hogwarts. 

Hogwarts.

I hadn't thought of it all the previous day. It didn't matter to me that they were probably looking for me – the school and my parents – nor did it matter to me that I was missing out on school days. That I would probably be put on suspension for leaving school grounds without permission. Or that I didn't intend to go back, nor did it seem as if Annabel was giving me up anytime soon.

There was no further mention of her treatment of me the day before, I didn't want to mention it least she flare up again. The more that I thought about it, the more I realised that I had done nothing wrong. I had the right to ask her about her life, past and even love life like she'd asked me about mine. I left it at that though; I thought that to start trouble about it again would not be worth it. I would wait when the moment brought itself up. It was bound to.

I was slightly uncomfortable at having her buy me all these things, but when I offered to withdraw money from my Gringotts vault, she hit my forehead with the palm of her hand.  Nobody had ever done that before, I was too shocked to argue with her when she laid out the pros to going to Diagon alley from the first place.

She said that I was a known face, being a Malfoy and all, and since I had gone out of school without permission and that she'd taken me, there would be, by no doubt, Ministry officials on the look out. Even if we did manage to get in there unseen – which was impossible since Annabel was wearing a robe and mask with gloves – I would have to use my name to withdraw money from my vault. She said that she didn't doubt for a second that the Ministry had ordered the goblins to notify them when Draco withdrew money from his vault. Since they probably estimated that I would need money for survival at one point or another.

She bought me a couple of suits – black, green, blue, brown and other dark colours – shirts to match, capes, gloves, many pairs of shoes, cologne, hair products and underwear. She went to the men's department in a store and picked out my underwear. My mother had stopped doing that when I was eleven, but her doing it brought me thinking of buying her underwear, which made me think of her naked, with me on top. My thoughts sort of went downhill from there. To my enjoyment – and luck – she then went to the woman's department in a store named David Jones and bought herself underwear. Lingerie. I got to watch.

She picked a few sets and went into the dressing room and she took me with her. She would put one on and come outside, do a little walk for me and take my opinion. I didn't mind seeing her half naked, what I minded was the ever growing bulge in my pants that she seemed totally oblivious to. She came out in a sort of nightgown that was right under her panties. It was transparent and black. She wore panties but no brassiere. She stood admiring herself in the mirror as my eyes threatened to fall out of my face. She'd turned around unexpectedly and giggled when she caught me staring.

Another outfit – of the many that she had worn – was a red corset with black lace, a G-string, black stockings that finished inches away from her panties, kept up by garter clipped on to her G.

Her waist was small and her hips and thighs were like those of the islander women but in proportion with her body. She stood so close to me, I could just touch her and feel her skin. She was standing right in front of me, looking at her reflection and inspecting the price tag on the corset.  She had a leg in front of the other, which gave her hips a more rounded shape.

'What do you think, Draco?' she was asking but I wasn't really paying attention to her. I wanted to cup her bottom and squeeze. I was extremely aroused by the portion of her thighs that I could see between the black stockings and the G-string.

Fantasies began playing in my mind where I would grab her, sit her in my lap, move her G aside and drive into her. Fantasies where she would moan and cry out my name. Where I would peel off that corset and eat the rosy crown of her breast. Where she would arch her back, throw her head and give her neck so I could kiss and bite.

In my fantasies there was no place for soft and sensual love making. I was harsh, I got what I wanted and she liked it when I scratching the inside of her thighs or bit the side of her rounded breast. I wanted her, all of her, in my arms with me inside her. The need to feel her skin against mine and the moist warmth between her thighs, to taste that moist and smell it had me holding my head in my hand, closing my eyes tightly and taking deep calming breaths.

'Draco? What's wrong?' she was asking as she bent over, her maternal instincts kicking in as she put a hand on my forehead.

For fuck's sake, don't touch me! I remember thinking at the time as her scent – sex and mystery – clouded my mind. All I could do to prevent anything that would make me look stupid and have her angry at me again, was to swat her hand half-heartedly. She huffed and swatted my hand back. I was sweating from the effort of pinning my hands to my side especially when her breasts and cleavage were mere inches from my grasp.

I chanced opening my eyes and the look on her face – the one that was concerned and sympathetic – put fire in my heart. The kind that wanted to burn and eat like a mad dragon.

'I'm alright, I … felt dizzy…' was the best answer I could come up with.

'Do you want go home and sleep? Food? Water?' she asked. She stood up and looked down at me with worry.

'No, no. Let's just leave... put something on.' All this was said and I managed not to look at her once.

'Okay then, before we leave, tell me, what do you think of this? Should I get it?' she asked as she again started inspecting her image in the mirror. I made the mistake of looking at her again. Her arms were really very thin, I had seen them before but now I realised. So was her waist. But then she went out and my eyes followed that. Her thighs were full and just what every man wanted in a woman. Travelling back up, my eyes lingered on the strip of skin around the V of the front of her G-string. It became increasingly uncomfortable as I sat and tried to cover my erection.

Didn't she know that I'm made of flesh and red, warm blood? Didn't she know what she was doing to me? I knew she knew exactly what she was doing… what kind of seductive power her body had on me, but I don't think it mattered to her. Either because she was always checked out by men and complimented – which I knew to be true – or because she enjoyed torturing and playing with me – which I also knew to be true.

She was spinning to see herself from all angles. I got a quick bottom and front flash and I lost it. I grabbed her hips and she yelped in surprise when I snatched her and put my lips on the tender skin just on the inside of her hip. My greedy hands clutched her bottom just like I imagined I'd do and I squeezed, harder then was probably necessary.

I moved my mouth onto her slit and through the satiny material of her panties I used my tongue on her lips. Through the haze of my own desire I heard her cry out and I pulled her closer to me, nearly on my lap as my hand pulled down the barely there G from the back. Her hands were on mine as she pulled her undies back up. She grabbed my wrists and gently but firmly held them away from her. My mouth was still working on her front and I could now hear her ragged breathing even over the pounding blood in my ears.

She pulled away and I opened my eyes to see the wet spot were I had had my tongue and teeth. She dropped my hands and took a few steps back. I couldn't look at her, I couldn't see the anger in her eyes or even the disgust of having a much younger man – barely a man – groping her and clumsily trying to have her. I felt shame and my own disgust at how I acted. I had never been like this – wanted anybody like this – to know how to act around someone that I was madly in love with but had just made a complete fool out of my self in front.

All I could do was cover my face and hurry out of the change rooms. I heard her calling but I ignored her and hurried away into the crowed of shopping Muggles. I was almost positive that my face was the same colour as the corset that she'd been wearing.

I only stopped walking when I was completely out of the shopping centre. Outside was a seating area with a fountain in the middle. There was a statue of a seal, water sprouting from his mouth and two flippers. The water dampened the air and I pulled my coat tighter around me. The ground was cobbled with light brown stone faded from the thousands of people who scoffed across it everyday. Muggles were sitting on stone Roman style benches in couples, families and alone. There was a little boy sitting on the edge of the fountain, teasing the goldfish that swam there. His mother and father sat on a bench near by and they looked over their day's shopping. 

I took steps forward, closer to the boy. I watched him as he caught a fish in the water and then let go, watching it swim away. So innocent the boy seemed, and I tried to look back to find the time when I was like that. When all I wanted to do was catch fish and giggle as they struggled in my hold. When I didn't think of tasting a grown woman or feeling her skin moving under mine or imagining her hips rising up to meet my thrusts. When I didn't hate or want to hurt people for the joy of seeing that terrible split second expression on their faces.

I stood closer to the boy and tried imagining myself his age, doing the same thing. I couldn't. I couldn't imagine my innocence or the days when I was a child who gave my unquestioning trust to the first stranger that came off the street. I couldn't even get myself to remember them. I didn't want to, I was determined to believe that I was never innocent, in a way, to punish myself by convincing my mind that I'd always been impure. Tarnished, flawed, dirty and marked by time that revealed to everyone that I was really a devil – a demon, an unworthy – hiding under the skin of a baby, a child and then a man.

A man unworthy of a woman like Annabel. I wanted to convince myself that she'd rejected me because I was less then she deserved, because I was too tainted but not because she didn't love me. Couldn't bring herself to think about loving me in years to come.

I was convinced that I'd lost her. That my stupid hands, my stupid mouth, my stupid brain and my stupid lust had pushed her away from me. I was convinced that she'd come out of the shopping centre and tell me that I had to go back to school because she didn't want me anymore. That I could no longer keep the honour of being Annabel's china doll.

'I had a goldfish once,' the boy who I'd been watching looked up and then looked back down and giggled when the goldfish passed through the arch that he made with his fingers. 'It died.'

'Daddy said that all things die and that's for the best. Mommy said that one day she and daddy will die too, and I will die.' The boy looked up at me and considered, his blue eyes that seemed too large for his face, glittered with innocence. 'You'll probably die too but I don't think so… you don't look like someone who would die.'

'Lisa said that she'll get me another goldfish if I wanted one but I said no. She got me a turtle but that was boring. All it did was eat and hide inside its shell. It never wanted to play and I could never get it to chase me because it was too slow. I gave it to Mike, he liked it. He says the turtle chased him all the way down that street and up again because he knocked on its shell. He's lying though, I don't think it did. I think I'll tell Lisa to get me a lizard or a Koala, I was watching T.V and I saw that they had Koalas in Australia. Lisa said she'd get me one if I was real good…'

Lisa, I thought. Did this child love this Lisa as much as I love Annabel? No, he didn't, he couldn't. No one could love the way I do, as much as I do. I loved her so much I wanted to take pictures of her and stick them all over the walls so I could see her when she wasn't with me and enjoy her more when she was. I wanted to bind her to me, so she could never be with another man again.

Jealousy went through me at the thought of any other man doing what I had just did to her. I hated how she flirted with other men, how her coquettish manners attracted all those men to her. How I knew every other man around her wanted to touch her and fuck her. How I couldn't, but they all could. How she would let them but wouldn't let me. How she didn't want me that way.

Soon, the boy's mother came and took him, joining the father, they walked away. I watched them until they'd disappeared behind a pillar and out of sight. I realised that it was totally dark now, the street lights had gone on and the younger crowds had come out with their friends.

The girls dressed in short, form fitting clothes with boys trying to get as close to them as they can. Was everybody always thinking about sex? I'd wondered with irritation. I was always thinking about Annabel, and I knew very well were all my thoughts led me with her. So I was always thinking about sex too, I decided.

It didn't matter now because my shame would keep me from looking her in the eye again. The memory of the smell of her sex made me shiver with need. My temperature rose up a few notches and I allowed my coat to fall open to let the breeze cool me down. I looked up at the sky and the city lights made it difficult to spot any stars. I remembered the time when Annabel told me how mortals always looked up at the sky for answers. Why did they, I wondered. Why do I? I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The smell of honeysuckle filled my nostrils.

'Draco…' I turned to her. She'd taken off the robe and mask, she wore one of her puffy dresses, the colour of lime with red leaves designed on the bodice. Diamonds adorned her neck and ears.

'I'm sorry I…' but the look on her face wasn't angry and it certainly didn't need apologizing.

'Draco I shouldn't have made you sit there while I was changing, I'm sorry, it was wrong of me seeing how you're…'

'In love with you?' I asked, too tired to run around in circles.

'Yes, that's exactly it.'

'You're saying I'm excused because I'm in love with you?' It angered me that she was giving me pity and that she understood. I wanted her to be angry because if she was understanding then that would be the end of that, but if she was angry then she'd demand an explanation and I had more then ten ways of giving her one. Happily, they all included her melting under my touch and moaning.

'Yes.' She put a finger on my lips when I started to speak – I don't remember what I was going to say but I was glad that she stopped me, I'm pretty sure I would've ruined it again. 'It's okay, forget it.'

'I want to know, would you… consider…'

'Draco… I couldn't…'

I nodded, once, twice and turned to leave. Her hand shot out and she grabbed my wrist. I was surprised at her speed and that was why I didn't stop her when she brought me to her and wrapped her arms around me. She said that she was sorry that she couldn't ever do anything like what I wanted with me.

'Why do you let all those other men touch you and-'

'Shhh, china doll, shhh.'

And I did.

*

Days gave way to weeks and weeks let pass months. After only a few days in that enchanted castle that was the House of Time, I began losing track of the days. Nobody seemed to keep track of time or days there, it seemed unimportant whether one spent an hour on a task or a minute.

At the start of my stay, Annabel had introduced me personally to each of the house occupants. I got to know Tobias better just like I wanted to and he was always good company with his quick hands, witty mind and child-like facial expressions. There was a Japanese man named Chu-Ya, who seemed in his mid thirties, I found him wise and very timid but firm – he advised that I come to him and learn meditation and how to control my mind and temper. Mussa, a south African man, started teaching me a sort of spiritual magic that included a lot of metaphors and putting myself in the 'paws of a lion.'

Benjamin was good, light company, and his little brother, Egi was also friendly but more impulsive. There were also Sebastian, who swung both ways, and Annabel told me to be careful. Shawn never spoke, not to me anyway.

Ailionora, was a woman in her early twenties, with curly brown hair and matching eyes. She had childish complexions but a very husky voice that sounded oddly out of place – she spent a lot of time watching Mussa. Elva and Edith always teased her about it. Elva was a tall woman with light skin, dark hair and grey eyes, she was French and very seductive in her movements. Edith was Irish and very proud, with sandy hair, blue eyes and a wide smile. She and Benjamin spent a large amount of their time in each other's embrace. At last, there was Emma, a thirty year old who always held a cup of red wine and sat alone with a picture of her dead four-year-old daughter.

They treated each other politely and all answered to Marcus and took their problems to him. If they had any disagreements, he always played arbitrator, and they accepted his judgment without debate.

All of their lives consisted of balls, sex, talk, money, clothes, and, in Edith and Benjamin's, case many public displays of affection or reading and research for Marcus. Annabel did a little of all. She wasn't vain nor was she shallow, but I felt like it hadn't occurred to her that she could actually do more with her life. She seemed content with what she was doing already.

Many balls were held at the House of Time and in those balls, many men kept their eyes on Annabel as she circled the room with many others. She flirted and she let a handful of men grope at her. I already knew that she'd taken at least six men to her bed. She'd leave the party and I'd only see her late the next morning, I always smelled them on her.

During all this, I turned seventeen. On my birthday, Annabel woke me up in the morning and pulled me to the bathroom where those same two menservants washed me. They tied my hair that I'd let grow past my shoulders with a blue ribbon that Annabel had chosen.

'You're now higher up on the hierarchy in the House of Time, petal. You have power over the servants now, even though you still belong to me and have to do as I tell you.' She told me as we sat on my bed once I was dried and clothed. She must've saw a glitter of annoyance and anger in me because she squeezed me hand and held it to her cheek. 'Don't feel so, china doll, when I first entered the family, I had to go through the same thing. We all did, even Marcus was once a seventeen year old boy with only power over the servants too.'

More days ran by and I estimated that outside the House of time, it was late August. I questioned the irony of it: inside the House of Time, there really was no time. Time in itself, did not exist. Whether it really did or not, it was not acknowledged, therefore its questionable existence affected no one and nothing. So if it did exist or did not, it was all the same.

I never heard one of the occupants asking the time, the day or the month. The grandfather clock in the main hall was only heard during the many balls and banquets. None of the people that lived inside seemed to age or change. Outside the house, women mourned the years that passed them by and men never asked a woman's age because it was considered rude and impolite. Here, age was nothing, not feared and not dreaded.  No ball was held on New Year's Eve or Day. They did not even seem to notice that another year just passed them by as they plunged blindly into another.

I figured out a way to keep track of time, as I could not rely on the sun because the windows were all draped. It was out of my own obsession to get things done on time, be there at this many minutes past and do this before the dead line on that day.

I ignored how pointless it was to keep track of anything inside the house, I drew up a calendar. I figured that if I was off a day or two it would make no difference anyway so I estimated what day it was. When Annabel found out she was furious, she picked it up from the table in my room and ordered one of the servants to have it burned. When the servant took it from her, he held it out like it was diseased. I did not understand why she did this, nor would she really explain to me what was wrong.

She only said, 'It is forbidden to keep any such things inside this house! Never again will you make this mistake Draco, do you understand?' I nodded and she stormed out of the room.

I had gone wondering around the house, waiting for Annabel to calm down and seek me out herself as I had found was the best way to avoid another tantrum. I walked into the library, looking for someone to keep me company, as I was leaving I heard a sigh from the far corner. I squinted and across the enormous room, I saw Emma sitting with that same picture in her hands. I went over to her and sat on a chair to her side. She looked up and gave me a wary smile.

'What was her name?'

'Elizabeth, I had named her that.' She kissed the picture, a palm-sized portrait of a brown haired, fair-skinned child.

'How did she…'

'There was a plague, she was a victim. She was only four but she died…' She lost her gaze in the face of the small girl again and she seemed to forget that I was with her as she rocked. A plague? In the last thirty years, there had never been a plague in England and Emma couldn't be any older than that, let alone old enough to have a child. The door opened and Marcus came in.

'Emma!' he snapped and walked over to us. 'For heaven's sake woman! It's been two-' he cut himself off when he saw me and his expression softened. 'Emma, it's been a long time and yet you continue to mourn this child, won't you move on?' He kneeled down and held her hands in his, taking the portrait from her. Her eyes widened and he shook his head, a sad look covering his beautiful face. She began to sob and he sat next to her, taking her in his lap like a child, her head on his shoulder. I didn't know how to feel about this: he was the 'father' in the house and yet he cared enough to take Emma in his arms when she cried. He looked over the woman's shoulders and gave me a steady look. I nodded and rose, he mouthed a thank you and started whispering meaningless things to Emma.

It was the night of September the twenty fourth that another ball was held. As usual, Annabel left me to get dressed and then came back in her own elaborate gown. Her gown was black with orange spots around the breasts. She wore diamonds around her neck, on her ears and her wrists. On her right hip was the crest of the House of Time. She took from me the chain that held the hourglass and, on my right sleeve, with a brand, she burnt the crest neatly.

When we arrived at the double doors to be announced, I noticed how Marcus was holding Emma's hand, and he descended with her. Everybody else noticed as well, all the house occupants that is, for we all wore knowing smiles.

All the occupants of the house were as normal as they normally were at such balls. Except for me.

I had to watch as a dark man that I'd never seen before, chased Annabel around the room. They flirted wildly, and my temper rose many notches until I could no longer contain myself. Instead of going over and engaging in furious hand-to-hand combat with the man, I busied myself with my drink. Yet, over the rim of my glass, I could still see them.

This man would grab my Annabel, try to steal a kiss but she would giggle and push him away. In that way that women did when they were playing hard to get. I watched, I watched for more then two hours as he stole many kisses and pressed her body to his. Once, my glass shattered in my hand. Twice, I bumped into guests while my eyes ate them both up. Three times, that man put his hand under Annabel's dress and four times, she threw her head back in ecstasy. The last being when he pushed her up against the wall and rubbed himself against her through the skirts and petticoats that she wore.

My anger was apparently quite obvious on my features because Chu-Ya came up to me and reminded me of the techniques that he had taught me, to suppress my emotions. Marcus, who still held Emma's hand, whispered in my ear to get a hold of myself, he said that Annabel was only playing. Was I that obvious? Did they all know my insanity that is my love for this woman?

I found myself putting down my new acquired glass and pushing through the crowds towards her and that man. When I neared them, I got the shock of my life.

From afar, it only seemed that he was kissing her neck and she his, but from close… blood. Blood trickled down the man's neck as Annabel put her mouth to it and drank. The man had his hand on her buttocks, grinding her against him, as she took his blood like a dying man would greedily take water from an earn.  

What was she doing? There were bite marks on her neck too. Annabel pulled away as she and the man shared a kiss and he placed kisses on her jaw to her neck. In turn, the man sank his fangs into her neck and began sipping lazily.

I lost it then, my anger that had been suppressed since my arrival in this house broke free. It was like a dam breaking, all I saw was Annabel and that man hurting her. Annabel with her fangs sinking in the man's neck. My Annabel, in someone else's arms.

I didn't know when I'd decided, but I was moving towards them. Pushing people out of my way and seeing only my target. I reached them and they both looked at me in surprise. I only heard my name once from Annabel's bloodied lips before I grabbed her by the arm, punched the man in the jaw and dragged her away. As I hurried towards the steps that led out of the ballroom, I could hear Annabel yelling at me and asking me to stop. I was out the hall and dragging her to my room. Half way there, she'd given up and was just following as I my nails dug in her arm and I dragged her.

I threw the doors opened, passed through the small foyer, opened the single door and threw Annabel into my room. 

'What the fuck were you and that man doing?' I yelled, inches away from her face as I looked down into her eyes.

'What did it look like, petal?' she asked, her voice low, her lips hardly moving.

There was silence.

I couldn't hear the music from the ballroom or my own ragged breathing. There was so much silence my ears ached to hear it. Slowly, ever so slowly, Annabel let out a breath. I glared into her eyes, those green pools of sparkling emerald. There was defiance there and a challenge, but also, her eyes seemed to be begging me to make a wild guess. They begged so loud I couldn't hear them, they seemed to be begging on a whole different plane of existence. Just as that breath, that sustains her life, I understood. Just as I did, a chain of unanswered questions was broken.

'What are you?'

There was a moment and in another, she bared her fangs and hissed as a cat would at a threatening dog. I think she expected me to be afraid, to turn from her or step back in shock. One of my hands unclenched and I grabbed her upper arms, brining her closer and nearly lifting her off the ground. They were back in and she wore a defying expression, her chin held up as if telling me that how I judged her did not matter.

'Did you not guess before? Did your mind not once make the connection? Or are you too much in love to see?' She mocked me and my hands itched to hurt her. 'I'm a vampire, Draco. We all are. Marcus, Emma, Tobias, Mussa, Edith even that man that you hit. All the houses are families of vampires. Remember when I said that we live and things die, we live and things whether away with time. But we live with time. As long as here is time, here we are… Alfa and Omega… time and us. Us. Vampires!'

'Vampires….' I repeated.

'Remember at the first ball when I introduced you, remember what I said when the clock struck twelve… The times are changing. The world changes for us, each one of you, we must change with it. We change, accumulate but never lose the bonds that hold us together, that make us strong to endure… to endure time, my china doll. To endure-' she leaned in and whispered. '-immortality!'

'You lie….' I refused to believe her, even though the bigger part of me knew she was telling no lie. I pushed her away from me and took a step back. She burst into laughter, not because the situation was funny, but to mock me.

'Look at all the clues! I stand here in front of your eyes, a clue! Why do you think I wear these silly things when I got out under the sun? What vampire could endure sunlight? Skin disease my ass! Why do you think, for two years, I only came to you at night? It's because I did not want you to become suspicious that I might be something unnatural.'

'Your skin…' I said, 'the whiteness of it, it's almost like porcelain, all of you, it's unnatural. It's almost like a mirror. Your eyes, they suck up the light and colours… all these windows-'I gestured to the one that was framed in the wall near the bedside table. '-they're all draped and boarded shut.'

'Now you understand my china doll.' She walked towards me and took my face in her hands. 'We have no use for time either, for we live and will live forever.' She sounded insane with her own words. Her eyes were glittering with lunacy, her mouth was in half a smile, her cheeks were rosy. Gradually, I understood her and realisation dawned on me.

She wasn't what she'd led me to believe. Everything about her was a lie. She wasn't the woman that I'd fallen in love. I hadn't fallen in love with an immortal. The very idea of immortality seemed unreal, bigger then I am. As I looked at her and studied her face and her body like an eager student, I began to see the distance that was a gulf between us. A gulf of lies and trickery.

'You're a lie… everything that you are is lie…'

'No, my china doll, I am what've always told you I am, just a little different…'

'You're immortal…'

'Yes, an immortal vampire. Why does the concept seem so odd to you, petal? Were you not taught about vampires, werewolves, unicorns and centaurs at Hogwarts. You believe in giants and men who transform into wolves at full moon but you could not fathom the idea of my immortality….'

'You are not immortal… you're just Annabel…' She dropped her hands from my face and sighed. I could tell she was angry that I could not understand, irritated because I could not accept her as she really was. Annoyed at having to explain further. She walked from me and stopped in front of the dresser.

'Just Annabel?' she muttered at first. 'Just Annabel?' Her voice rose a couple of octaves and she repeated herself three more times. On the third, she sent the bottles of perfume crashing to the floor with one swipe of her arm that went out so fast I still doubt if I really saw it or not. 'What is Annabel? Who is this person?  Why can you believe that I am a woman with odd friends who lives in a big house that once reached out to a fourteen year old boy and made him her china doll but you can not believe that I am a vampire?' 

'Because,' I answered before I knew the answer myself. 'By being a rich woman who reached out to a fourteen year old boy you could pretend to normalcy. You could pretend you aren't a….'

'Monster?'

'Yes,'

'That I am. A monster. Monster Annabel. A monster that lives eternally and hunts humans for the metallic sweet taste of their blood.'

'Hunt?'

'Yes, and when I'm not hunting humans, I drink blood from those cups that the servants are always giving me. Red wine, you thought it was, no? I haven't drank wine for- do you know why I told you to only drink from the white wine? Because the red wine is blood.'

'Blood?'

'Oh, would you stop repeating every keyword in every sentence!' she snapped and walked towards me as she spoke.

'You say normalcy. For centuries, I have lived and seen mortals striving for normalcy. What is this normalcy? Why is it worth so much to you? What is it to be normal and like everybody else? Is it just the fear of being different and earning yourself criticism or is it some mutant gene that has been embedded into your DNA that makes you want it? Would you rather me live in a small house, behind a white piked fence, go to church every Sunday and barbeque every other Thursday? Would you love me more then? Admire and envy me for my normalcy? For the way that I fit in so much I'm almost part of the background, that it's all grey and dead in my world because I'm so normal it's boring. Everything always the same and routine that I live my life with sealed eyes because I know what will come next? Will you envy me then?' 

'You lied to me, Annabel, and for that you will pay. You've tricked me all this time. I don't care if you were a siren luring me to your rocks, you should have told me!'

'But I didn't! What will you do now? You love me too much to let go….'

'I do not love you, I love a lie, and now that I found out the truth, I can no longer strive for your affections when you're not the person that I thought you were. You are not the twenty four-year-old rich girl that I knew this morning-'

'And is a twenty four year old rich girl all you wanted? To a twenty four year old rich girl you would give your love when she is nothing but 'just another woman?' I lied to you when we first met and I told you I was twenty-two which makes me twenty-four today. I've been twenty-four for the last four hundred and seventy five years. Do not wish for normalcy, china doll-'

'Stop that! Stop calling me that!' I grabbed her by the upper arms and shook her. 'What is that meant to mean anyway?!'

'That you're mine, I've made you and you're precious to me. That you'll always be mine, and I'll take care of you like delicate china.'

'And put me back in your wall unite when you're bored or it's time for you to fuck?'

'Draco, my love life is not your concern nor do I have to ask you for permission-'

'How could you ask for permission? There's so many of them that you wouldn't have time to ask me about every single one!'

'How dare you!' she yelled and was ready to put her hands on my chest to push me away if I hadn't slapped her across the face instead. There was a shocked moment, on her side anyway, for I knew exactly what I was doing and what I had to do.

'If every other man could touch you and fuck you, then so can I Annabel!' with this final deceleration, I got a firm hold of the front of her dress and ripped the material open.

Under it, she wore a corset, I spun her around and I heard her surprised intake of breath. With my skilled fingers, I unpicked the first knot and the whole things came falling away. Under that, she wore a sort of white material dress that a woman might wear under her clothes. Like a petticoat, I suppose, or a shift. She was beginning to struggle when I gripped her waist and pushed her face down onto the bed. I did so her torso was on the bed and waist down was hanging off. She was turning around but I put a hand on her back and forced her to stay in the way that I had put her.

I dropped to my knees and lifted her skirts. She wore pantyhose that I pulled down with her panties. There, in front of me, was her bare buttocks and sex. I heard the faint noises that she was making and I felt my arousal strengthen. She sounded like a helpless woman begging for mercy. My mercy. Annabel was finally at my mercy.

I laid my hands on the clear white skin of her buttocks – slowly, as if it would burn me – and massaged. The more I did it, the more determined I became – as if learning that I wouldn't be burned, I was spurred on. My hands become more desperate, more demanding. I massaged in wider circles, squeezed harder and pulled her cheeks apart more. She cried out and clenched the sheets. I could see how her vagina began to moisten. I couldn't suppress my need any longer, I needed to taste her.

I licked my lips and then with that same tongue, I leaned in licked her once. She cried out as if she'd just cum.

I did this for me. I knew how much females enjoyed oral sex, but I wasn't doing it to please Annabel, I was doing it because I wanted to taste her. For me.

My tongue was in her slit, flicking, licking like a dog would lick milk from his bowl. Her hips were shaking and I could see her annas clenching and loosening, could feel as her opening contracted and gave way around my tongue. I brought my tongue to the front, as much as I can in her position, and reached her nub. As I flicked it, her hips made spasm movements to match me.

She tasted of salt, of the blood that she drank and of the sex that she often had. She smelt of sex and this pushed me more to make her smell of my sex.

I was so aroused that I was forced to stand up and drop my pants. I held my penis in my hand and rubbed it a few times, I wanted to be as aroused as I could be inside her. I wanted her to know that I was a man, not a fourteen-year-old child. Without mercy, I plunged into her with one clean stroke; I was too lustful to worry about hurting her. She cried out so loud that if I wasn't sure that it was from pleasure I would have believed I had hurt her. Her torso came up and she threw her head back, I pushed her face down again.

The feel of her – that wet, warm, sleek and slightly ragged texture – sent a shudder through me and it made my back prickle.

In a sensual rhythm, I began rocking in and out of her. With each stroke, I felt myself closer to the inevitable explosion, but I kept it off until she came. She was moaning, whimpering, her muscles were shaking and I could see the way she rubbed her breasts against the matters. I couldn't see them yet, for she still wore that shift. When she came, I did so with her and we both cried out in ecstasy. Now that I look back on it, I'm sure that anyone on the same floor would have heard us.

I fell to my knees and supported myself by holding her thighs. When we both finally regained ourselves, I stood up and what I had done crept in. Had I just raped her?

The thought drove me crazy. She was now lying on her back and staring at me, her legs parted and her skirts falling between her legs in a seductive manner.

'I'm sorry…' I whispered. 'I'm sorry Annabel…' 

'No…' She shook her head, 'Again.'

I didn't need to be told twice. I hadn't had my fill of her yet. I straddled her and caught her lips in a hungry kiss. She kissed back and moaned. I kissed her jaw, her nose, her eyelids, her neck and shoulders frantically. I kissed the soft skin of the nook of her arms and finally I came to her breasts.

I pulled down the shift that she wore and gasped. Her breasts were like bowls of upside down jelly topped with brown crowns. I was not one for sensual loving, I liked to be rough and I could tell she liked it rough too. I took the nipple of her left breasts in my mouth and sucked on it as a baby would to his mother's tit.

When my mouth found her breast, I let out a hot groan of pleasure. Here she was as soft as summer breeze and as potent as whiskey. As she withered beneath me, I dampened and tugged on the taut nipple, losing myself in the taste and texture while her heartbeat hammered against my mouth. All the while, my hands rubbed her arms and shoulders tightly.

After that, I removed all of her clothing, and pushed her up to the pillows. She lay in the middle, completely naked and sexy as I straddled her and kissed between the mounds of her breasts. Instead of entering her in a strictly Christian way, I turned her on her side and lay behind her. I slid into her slowly this time, I was in a position where my head was under her shoulders, my arms were around shaking and fondling her breasts and my top leg was in front of her hips.  We made sounds, oh, the sounds that we made. It was like music, like we sang together an age old song. We sounded beautiful, especially when it came to her part.

I came first and then as I was easing, she came and arched her back towards me. I did not wait for her to calm down, but slid back out, turned her on her back, and threw her legs onto my shoulders so that her thighs were near my face and her feet were hitting the middle of my back. I could tell she was struggling to catch her breath and an ounce of self-control. I liked it this way; she was defenceless against my needs.

My mouth was sucking, my tongue was licking, my lips were kissing. Annabel cried out and pushed her hips up to me. She would push up, I would lick her teasingly and then she'd pull away as if I'd burned her– burned her with pleasure, – I would then pull her back. She came and cried out so loud; I laughed into her sex and brought another cry from her.

Unlike the second time, I entered into her with such ferocity that even with her lack of breath she managed to cry out and arch her back.

I do not know where my energy had come from to take her three times in a row, but I was glad for it. Because even by the third time, the fire in me had not been dimmed. She was so aroused and wet I had to bite down on my lip with the effort not to slide out of her. She came first and the contraction of her muscles threw me into an ocean of pleasure when it was my turn.

Another time, I took her in the usual way. I lay between her legs and pumped her with clemency. She shook with the effort of my pelvic thrusts and I kept my eyes on her breasts as they wobbled sweetly with rhythm. 

I was exhausted by this stage, and so was she. Her breathing was coming out like a swimmer who'd been under the water for way too long. There was a crease in her left brow and her mouth was in an unchaste O. We were both sweating like pigs and this drove me on further. I liked the smell of her sweat; it was that definite female scent; that definite female scent, the pheromone called to me like a bee to pollen. I could feel beads of liquid rolling down my back and I did not stop even as my hair - that was well below my shoulders - spiked me. Some of it was stuck to my forehead and some was in my eyes, I didn't not stop to push it away. My thighs were gliding along hers and I liked the feeling.

We came together and I fell on to her in exhaustion. I was exhausted but my erection threatening to remount. I was ignited every time I looked at her naked body or the expression of vulnerability that was on her face as her eyes nearly closed with fatigue.

I had one more time in me.

I sat up, gathering her into my lap. She had her arms crossed on her breasts and her head was lolling around uncontrollably.

'Draco…' she moaned and the husky sound of her voice made my temperature rise. 'I can't anymore….' She almost sobbed when I hooked my hands under her buttocks and placed her on my erection. When I did so a racking orgasm went through her and she threw her head back as she whimpered and shuddered.

I would lift her, my muscles almost screaming in agony and then drop her with a loud smacking noise. She'd cry out every time with utter pleasure. It did not take long, as we were both aroused and tender tremendously. I knew she came at least three times and then one last time with me.

Before I could even release her, when we both came that one last time, she fell back onto the sheets and her breast was rising and falling so rapidly that I thought her chest would burst. I managed to crawl to the pillows and collapse next to her. She was moaning on her own and whimpering like a wounded puppy. I knew that she was sore but that she was also in a seventh heaven and that the orgasm was still dying away. My eyes began to close and before I fell asleep, I had one last look at her previously elaborate hair do that was now ruined. She reminded me of a kitchen lass after a tumble in a hay stack.

*

In the morning – not the morning really, for we woke up the night of the next day – I woke up when she rolled around and threw one of her legs across my back. I was still lying on my stomach as I had been when I'd fallen asleep. I turned my head and studied her face; her eyes were beginning to flutter opened. I didn't feel anxious for her reaction, I don't know why.

When she woke up, she rolled on to her back and stretched. The sheets that she'd covered us with at night, slid down to her nipples. I thought of last night an almost feline smile broke on my face.

'Hello,' she said… not really, she kind of rumbled. She'd lost her voice and I had to resist the urge to laugh. Suddenly very awake she sat bolt up right and put a hand to her throat.

'My voice… I lost my voice….' It's quite amusing how people always sate the obvious. Like when I hexed Potter, he said 'you hexed me!' Or when a Muggle gets shot, they always find it extremely necessary to state the obvious: 'you shot me, you bastard!' 

She was still holding her throat and attempting to cough herself out of it. I finally gave in and buried my head into the pillow as I laughed my lungs out. The next thing I felt was a pillow pounding my head and then her weight on top of me as she pulled my hair and yelled at me. I rolled around and she was thrown off me, bounced on the bed once and then fell to the ground. She didn't give me time to get up before she was back and strangling me. I was laughing all the time at the mad grin across her face. I got a firm hold of her naked torso and spun her around, pinning her under me.

She'd never been like this – Annabel was a lot of things, but never playful. I didn't mind this side to her, I'd seen many sides of her since arriving at this house and this was one of my favourites.

She tried to say something but gave up when her voice came out in half a whisper.

'Might as well from all the noises that you were making yesterday night.' I laughed and put my head between her breasts as my shoulders shook. She pulled my hair – hard – and bit my shoulder. 'Hey! No! Bad girl, bad! You no bites master! Bad girl!' she pouted and poked my chest. I laughed and took her lips in a furious kiss. I was happy, I could kiss her whenever I wanted now and it would be okay because she was mine.

It occurred to me that perhaps Annabel was the sort of person who would never do anything if not made to do it. If I hadn't gone about it like I had yesterday, I would have woken up alone in my bed again.

When I pulled away she held two hand fulls of my hair and tugged at it. She pointed to her throat and pouted again. Something occurred to me.

'If you fed, would you heal?' I asked. Now, after I'd slept on it, it didn't matter to me what she really was. I loved her too much to stay angry with her and I loved her too much to push her out of my bed. She paused for a second and frowned and then nodded. 'Annabel… it doesn't bother me any more…' I entwined a lock of her hair around my fingers and felt the texture. I shrugged. 'I want to know one thing… how old are you?'

She lifted an eyebrow, held my hands and put them on her bare breasts. She started massaging with her hands and I felt my groin hardening again. Her nipples were poking my palms and I felt a tingle down my back. She let go and brought my face to hers. We kissed. We kissed more and more then that. She had an interesting way of kissing. I supposed because of all the years that she'd been doing it. I should have been jealous at that, angry perhaps, but I wasn't. She was mine and I would sooner kill myself then let another man touch her the way I was doing now. I was still massaging her breasts when she shifted under me and opened her legs allowing me room in between.

Pushing myself in to her, she whimpered in my mouth. I was rocking back and forth, gently. As it got more intense, she wrapped her legs around my waist and urged me on faster and harder. I knew then how my Annabel preferred it. Rough, forced, dirty, hot, sweaty and fast! It didn't bother me.

When we both came she pushed against my chest with her clammy breasts. We broke apart and she held my face in her hands, I felt like she wanted to tell me something but she couldn't and not because she'd lost her voice either. I kissed her nose and slid out of her. She let me go and rolled on her side, moaning as she stretched. I watched her for a while and then walked to the bathroom.

*

The servants had come in to wash and dress me and upon finding Annabel still naked in my bed, one of them had smiled as if he'd won a bet. When I came out of the bathroom, Annabel had gone to her room to get dressed. I waited for another fifteen minutes – noting that my bed sheets were gone – until she came back. She was dressed in a light shade of pink – the usual sort of gown that she wore with the boots and jewellery – and her hair was left out to fly around her.

She took my hand. It wasn't as maternal or as older sisterish as she used to make it before, this seemed to be saying 'we did the naughty last night and I want to do it again!' We walked down to the library where, oddly enough, most the house occupants sat.

The first thing I noticed was that Marcus was sitting on a chair in front of a study table and Emma was sitting on his lap. They were kissing and Emma had her hands tangled in his hair. It was odd, I suppose, to see Marcus like that – in love. He hadn't struck me as a man who would keep company with a woman that he loved, I'd always thought that he was just the boss, he researched, held balls and read. I reason now that he'd had this part of him hidden, that he had been waiting for Emma to be ready for him.

The second thing I realised was that when we came in, everybody paused and then giving different grins of 'I know what you did last night. Naughty, naughty!' or 'Ha! I knew you would do it!'

Annabel seemed oblivious to them as she walked to Marcus and kissed his cheek good morning.  I waited near the door, not knowing what to do. I busied myself with looking around the room. When Edith caught my eyes, she giggled and Benjamin – who had been running his hand through her hair and whispering in her ear – gave me a thumbs up.

Tobias and Egi came to me and gave me honorary slaps on the back and shakes of hand. They were both giddy and their eyes were mocking in a friendly manner. Mussa who was seriously discussing with Chu-Ya, lifted an eyebrow and nodded, his companion said nothing – just smiled. Elva who sat at a table with Ailionora grinned at me and the latter blew me an air kiss. Shawn smiled – I think he smiled. Sebastian who was talking to the former, gave me a mocking bow of his head. Roxanna smirked.

Did everybody know? How did they all know? As much as I knew at the time, the last thing that they'd seen was me dragging Annabel out of the ballroom. How did they think that led to sex?

In five minutes, everybody had gone back to their previous tasks and I was conversing with Tobias and Egi. I found out that our voices – just like I'd guessed – were heard from most of the rooms in the castle. Egi told me that the walls were made of some material that didn't block out noise in the least.

'My dear Annabel, I remember that last time that you lost your voice. 1736 was it?' Marcus was laughing with Emma and Annabel was blushing. I'd never seen her blush before and, with the curse of red heads, she looked rather endearing.

A little while after, something happened that took the attention completely off us – for which I was grateful. Ailionora, the one that always watched Mussa, walked over to him and tapped him on the back. He looked down at her with curiosity and she asked him to step with her aside. I wasn't trying to listen, but their voices drifted over to me.

'Isn't it nice that Marcus and Emma finally got together? I mean, how long has it been? Over four hundred years?' Ailionora was saying.

'Yes, I believe we had all seen it sometime coming. It's good for both of them.' Mussa agreed and gave Ailionora a polite smile.

'And Annabel with Draco. I knew it from the moment that she brought him into this house that something like this would happen…'

Had my feelings been that obvious?

'Something needed to hold Annabel down I suppose.'

'Benjamin and Edith make a nice couple….'

'Mmmm,' 

'I've had my eye on someone for over fifty years now you know.' She prodded and Mussa raised his eyebrows.

'Have you?' He sounded a little amused and knowing.

'Yes, in fact, he's standing very close by… do you think he knows?' She smiled in a sultry manner and bumped her shoulder to his.  I remember thinking that if Mussa didn't pick up on that… urgh!

'Chu-Ya is a very agreeable man, Ailionora, I'm sure he'd make a very good husband for you…'

I'd never seen anyone's expression or manner change as fast as Ailionora's did then. Her body stiffened, her face paled and she took a step back. The couple failed to notice how every ear in the room seemed to be straining to hear them.

'Chu-Ya…' she repeated, her voice a whisper and her eyes softening in pain.

'Yes, I think he'll be very good for you.' Mussa nodded.

'Chu-Ya?' her voice hardened and she snapped her head up to look him in the eye. 'Chu-Ya!' blotches of red appeared on her porcelain skin and her fists clenched. 'Chu-Ya!' she was yelling now and Mussa looked truly ignorant to her source of anger. 

'I'm sorry, is it Egi? I don't really think he's your type-'

'Egi!' she screeched and advanced on him.

'Did I say something to offend you?'

'You stupid man!' she hissed. 'You stupid stupid man!' Mussa took a step back and his eyes narrowed as if he was sizing her up and considering how much damage she could to him.  'You're so stupid!' She hit his chest with her fists and let out oaths and curses in a language that I thought was German.

'What did I do?!' Mussa was protecting himself with raised hands.

'What did you do? What did you do? Nothing!' She stepped back, her face crimson and her body shaking in anger.

'I'm sorry?'

'Urgh!' She screeched – have you ever heard a vampire screech? It's terrible! – again and left the room. 'Fifty years waisted. Fifty years!' Her voice could be heard from down the hall.

There was long pause and then Marcus spoke.

'You're a very wise man, my friend, but I believe the ways of the heart are beyond you.' He hugged Emma to him as he spoke and she wrapped her arms around his neck, her head on his chest.

*

The next few weeks weren't routine. No balls were held as Marcus seemed too busy with Emma. I and Annabel were too busy to attend if any were  held.

From all the time spent with her, I learnt that the falling in love wasn't something that she understood. Human emotions weren't things that she understood. Normally, if a female started to cry, those around her would struggle to comfort her. Annabel would probably leave to catch up on some work that she'd missed. Not because she meant to insult or come off as insensitive but because she'd been detached so long ago from what it was to feel that she no longer remembered how it felt to want comfort or sweet words.

When I reacted in some way – laughed, snapped, smirked – she'd get that expression on her face that meant she didn't know what to do. Or she'd smile in a contemplative manner like a child seeing a dog run for the first time. I learnt soon enough not to be offended by her lack of interest in some things or her composed responses to situations where an average woman would be jumping up and down. 

As to the private time that we spent together, she reacted in just the right way. When we spent time in my bed, bath, on the tiled floor of the bathroom, carpeted floor in my bedroom, the swimming pool downstairs, on the leather coach in the library, in her bedroom, her bed, her shower or even her veranda that looked out on a courtyard shielded from the sun, she would react very ecstatically. She wasn't a silent lover or a boring one. Her years of experience in love making outmatched mine by leagues. She taught me how to pleasure her and taught me new ways of making love. With her, I was constantly surprised and happy, like a student learning what he loved to learn best.

Her age didn't bother me. Even if I couldn't ignore that she was over four hundred years my senior and pretend she was but twenty-four years of age, it wouldn't have bothered me. She never made me feel like it mattered, that I was less then she wanted because she was much more experienced in every field than I was. When we made love, we weren't anything but a male and a female sharing their bodies and pleasuring each other.

To me, it wasn't just about the physical pleasure or the joy of seeing her shaking under me or the feel of her taut nipples grazing my chest. Not that all these things didn't install in me a sort of delight, but just having her with me was a whole different feeling. I loved her. Till now, I still can't explain the feeling of being inside her or hearing her scream my name as I pleasure her, or that crease in her brow – a fraction between pleasure and pain – when I fill her. It truly did make me weak with emotion. With need. Not because the knowledge that I was brining such things to a woman more then twenty-eight times my age and experience but because I brought such things to a woman that I loved more then myself.

Once or twice over the long weeks did I think of Hogwarts and what I'd left behind. Had they stopped searching for me? By no doubt they had. Was my mother frantic with worry? Was my father having a hard time deciding who'd be the next Malfoy heir? Were they missing me? At school, was my name still included in the schedules and was I still counted in the classes? I figured that now and again, in common rooms and hallways, people still asked where Draco Malfoy had gone.

The trio probably came up with their own theory about it and they'd probably associated it with Voldemort. When I looked back on it then my enmity with them made me feel embarrassed at my behaviour. To an outsider it probably did seem stupid and immature. I found that I no longer cared about Harry's fame, Hermione's brains or Ronald's large family. I wasn't jealous or envious. All my fights and arguments with them seemed so very long ago that they were but a hazy memory. I'd forgotten what it was to hate them and I didn't care to try to recover the feeling. All that time before the end of my sixth year, felt like it was a whole other lifetime belonging to someone else.

It wasn't until early October that something happened to change the happiness that I was living.

A compony of Russian Vampires came to the House of Time begging for help. In their own convent – nova, translated from Russian – there was a blood feud for the crown. I learnt then, two things. The first being that the House of Time was the first house of pure vampires, and the second that, in a house of vampires, the males fought for the crown. Just like in a herd of wolves or deer, the males fought for the upper most position. The control of the females.

The old leader had exposed himself to the sun in a fit of anger with them all. Now they all fought for his position. During their fight, the lives of the two females in the family had been cut short because the eight males had fought furiously over them.

All in all, Marcus was telling us in private, The Nova, was doomed to extinction, which, he added, was what happened to a number of Vampire convents that boarded corruption and greed. And when the leader died without leaving a successor.

The two messengers that came from that convent begged Marcus to choose, from them, a leader to return their lives back to normal. They asked Marcus to come to Russia and sort things out.

When they had been given rooms for the night, the family had gotten together for council. Then, I realised how different Marcus was in his ways from other Vampires. Even though he was not human, and probably hadn't been for over a seven hundred years, he maintained the human qualities for kindness and impartiality.

There was danger for Marcus in travelling to another family. The members of that family could retaliate against his rule and have him killed. They could imprison him forever in a coffin where he wouldn't be dead but in a dream state where he heard the noises around him but was not able to distinguish them. Or they could even envy him his position in the House of Time and kill him out of jealousy.

After long debates and discussions they decided that Marcus would go but he would need to take another person with him.

Chu-Ya and Mussa were out of the question as they, in a joint rule, took the place of Marcus when he wasn't able. If either of them left, the house would be vulnerable to outside attacks. Marcus would not take Emma for reasons they would not share with the others. Edith wouldn't leave Benjamin, and the latter wasn't welcome in The Nova because of a past disagreement with one of the members. 

Tobias and Egi didn't have enough influence with any other house, because they simply had not wanted to work up any, so their accompanying Marcus would be pointless. Ailionora was afraid of going there because of the house's reputation for ravaging women and now that their two females had been killed, they were in dire need.  Plus, she and Mussa had finally gotten together and she didn't wish to leave him. Sebastian was the treasurer for the house so he needed to remain. Shawn's antisocial nature made him utterly useless to anyone who didn't know him quite well.

This left I, Annabel and Elva.

I wasn't considered a good choice since I was a mortal and easy pray for the Vampires there. Elva was due for a trip to Greenland. When she was still a mortal, she'd fallen in love with a man and conceived three children. Two boys and a girl. The father had been from Greenland so when Elva had turned Vampire the father had feared her and taken his children away. Five centuries later, she still watched over that line.

This only left Annabel.

There was silence. Marcus was standing, waiting for her answer and all members around the oval table, waited too.  

'We might be gone for over two years…' Marcus added.

'I'll come with you,' Annabel said, 'I'll come with you.'

And these words were my undoing. I couldn't wait to years for her return, I couldn't know that she would be in danger and wait for her to maybe come back or not, for two years.

'Annabel… you can't go,' I said from next to her.

'Hush, Draco.'

'Annabel!' I hit the smooth top of the mahogany table with my palm and she jumped in surprise. 'You won't go!'

'Do not tell me what I will and will not do,' she said in a steady and lethal voice. If I had paid attention I would have noticed that everybody on the table found everything, but us, extremely intriguing in that manner of awkwardness. 'You have no right.'

'I have every right!'

'Excuse us,' she said to the table and rose. I followed her and we shut the door to a side room behind us.

'Annabel, you can't go for two years-'

'Get this, Draco, you have no right – no power – to stop me from going. I will do as I choose.'

'It's not about forcing you to do anything or using my power over you, it's about wanting you here. What will I do for two years?'

'I can't remain next to you forever, Draco, I have to do things, there are times when I have duties that I must take care of. I can't stay next to you and babysit you forever. You won't die if I go-'

'Babysit me? Babysit me! What in the world gave you the impression that you ever had to babysit me?'

'Oh, quiet, you know what I mean.' She busied herself with picking up and replacing objects from the shelves around the small storage room.

'No, I don't, tell me.'

She sighed. 'You seem to have this idea that I belong to you. That we are a, some sort of, item. Who ever told you that?'

'Well, I assumed, since we have been spending every waking moment in each other's company, I assumed that we were something.'

'Don't just assume. You can't go through life assuming. I don't know where you get that. I certainly never taught you to assume.'

'We-'

'Just had sex. That's it. If I'd known that you would get so possessive about it, I wouldn't have let you from the first place.'

'Listen to yourself! Are you even thinking before opening your mouth? Just because we never wrote it down on paper, doesn't mean-'

'I'm not your girlfriend?'

'I wasn't going to say that.'

'I've never been anybody's girlfriend before and I'm certainly not yours. I'm not anybody's anything, Draco.'

'Hold on, why is this about you? Why are you acting like the tortured victim?  I'm the one who's going to be alone for two years and you couldn't even bring yourself to care the slightest about what I want from you. Did it occur to you that I might miss you, or might want to bloody fuck you? If you'll even come back and find me? Or were you so wrapped up in yourself, what I'm supposedly telling you to do, that you forgot about me? You know Annabel, just because you aren't human and don't have emotions like we do, doesn't mean you could be selfish and expect me to put it yo your lack of-'   

'Oh, shut up Draco, you sound like a school girl on her first crush.'

And this way we fought for hours. We insulted each other, yelled, tried to calm down, yelled some more, cursed, Annabel threw things at me, I pointed out why she should stay, she asked me to grow up, I told her she was selfish and self-involved, she said that I would still have been a stupid little boy if she hadn't taken time out of her day to spend it with me, we yelled, she slapped me, I pushed her, yelled, cursed, discussed and cursed some more.  

By the end of it, we were both at our wits' end. She was sitting on the dusty ground of the storage room and I was leaning on a line of shelves. The room had become unbearably hot and our excitement did nothing to stop it. At this stage, we were just throwing insults at each other, both too proud to let down first.

'You know Draco, the more you insult me and the more we fight, the more I'm determined to go,'

'Why do you really want to go?'

'I have a friend in The Nova and I want to see him.'

'A friend?'

'Yes , one attached to another by affection or esteem, you have friends don't you, petal? I mean, you had friends. If you could call them friends, the shits that you had.'

'Oh, that's real good, you're real smart with that one Annabel. Real mature of you.'

'Thank you.'

'Bitch.'

'Arsehole.'

'Whore.'

'Mortal.'

'Monster.'

'I'm not a monster, you whoreson of a bitch!' 

'Shut up! Just shut up, Annabel.'

I sank to the floor and held my head in my hand in the dark dusty room. There was a rustling of clothes and then I felt Annabel's hand on my shoulder. I looked up and she cocked her head to one side.

'You have nothing of the boy, the sixteen year old boy that came here last year.' She ran her hands through the hair that was to under my shoulder blades and, with her thumb, she smoothed my eyebrow. 'You've grown so much. You're a man now.'

'And even that, won't keep you with me…'

'My job is done china doll. You're all grown up. I can't do anything any more. It's time to move on…'

'No it isn't. Your job isn't done. How could it be done when I can't be without you? What will happen if you don't come back? If you die over there or find someone else. If that friend of yours tickles your fancy? Eh?'

'You'll find a nice mortal girl and spend the rest of your life with her…'

'You say it so easily.'

'Because you make it so hard,' she sobbed the last word, and I caught the wrist of the hand that sat on my shoulder. I pulled her into my lap and she came without protest. I suddenly ached for her and something about the forbidden darkness in the room made me harden to undress her in it. But I didn't undress her, she didn't let me.

Annabel settled in my lap where I had my legs crossed and back straight against the shelves. She put a hand between us and slid it down my chest, to my abdomen and then my belt. With both of her hands, she took hold of my grey shirt and pulled it out of my pants. She took off my coat and pulled the shirt over my head. I only watched her as she took what she wanted from me.

One hand was pinching my left nipple and with the other, she raked her nails on my chest and down to my abdomen. I felt her fingers on my lips and I licked them, tasting my own blood from under her nails. My skin stung when she licked it with her little pink tongue. I couldn't see her clearly in the dark but I knew her Vampire eyes could see every inch of my skin. The need to rely on my hearing and smelling more, enticed me further.

She used her fangs on my skin, making little scratches and licking them. They hurt, they stung but they also pleasured and awakened desires in me that I hadn't known existed. I pushed myself against the shelves as I wanted her to hurt me and at the same time wanted her to stop. The edge of the shelf dug into my back and a whole different sort of twisted thrill shook me. I was so aroused, I don't even think the first time I had sex with her, I'd been this aroused.

The material of my pants was threatening to make me cum. Sensing this, she undone my belt, unzipped my pants and pulled the garment over my waist and left it at me knees with my underwear. She slipped off me and instead sat between my knees. I thought she'd take me in her mouth but she didn't, she did something even better. She put her ten fingers at my waist and dragged them down my thighs. I could feel my skin ripping and gathering under her nails. I could feel as the sharps edges of her claws racked the freshly exposed skin. I cried out when she took one nail and went over one of the newly opened wounds on my thigh. There was a kick in that, a dark sort of arousal that burned through my loins. She put her mouth to the wounds and licked, sucked and pressed with her tongue. She bit too and this had me jumping.

I was beginning to ache with arousal when she wrapped her fingers around my cock and began to pump me. It was a release even as the pleasure built up. She had her mouth on the head while her hand went in a tight rhythm of up and down, back and forth. When I was near discharge she took her mouth away and kept her hand moving. I was oblivious to the sounds that I was making, or how I'd had my hand on her head urging her own.

When I finally came, I groaned loudly and arched my waist in the final gesture of release. I felt my seed stinging my thigh, my right thigh, as she held my penis to it and let me cum. It burned and stung, it hurt and I liked it. She was smearing my seaman with my blood into my wounds. She put her mouth to it and began sucking furiously. I felt as if my flesh would rip into her throat. She blew on it. God, she blew on it. My thigh shook uncontrollably and she increased her pressure on it.

At last I knew why she did it when I came again and my balls ached in some sweet pain.

I realised then, that I was naked and she was dressed. I didn't not see it but felt it when I ran my hands on her breasts and thighs to feel the material. She pushed my hands away impatiently and I knew she was pulling down her pantyhose and moving aside G that I knew she wore. She held my shoulders with her hands and I could feel her breath on my neck. The next thing I felt was a sting. Like a pin, except one that was thick and hot. Two of those pins were driven into my neck. They were her fangs. She was feeding on me. I tried to struggle but I was weakening. The clutches that she had on my shoulders had nails. Her nails pierced me as she drank. I knew what she was doing. She wasn't trying to suck me dry but enough to weaken me.

It was more than her just feeding. She was showing me something she'd never permitted me before. She'd never let me see her take down a prey, never let me see the monstrous side of her. But now she was, never mind that I was the pry. And it occurred to me then why she'd sought me out after the Qudditch match when I was fourteen. It was for this moment. She was doing what she came for before she left.

She pulled her fangs away and the air around us stung the two clean wounds on my neck. But I didn't have the pleasure of harbouring that pain for the moment because she rose, held my penis straight and came down until all of me was inside her. We cried out together. She rose and fell. Rose and fell. I gripped her hips and didn't manage to cut her, like she had cut me, through the material. The edge of the shelf was cutting at my skin and my sweat was making my wounds throb. I wanted to cum, but I didn't. It took at least eight minutes for her to properly orgasm and with that, I came with her.

Her nails made new wounds in my shoulders when she arched her back and bared her fangs with the unearthly shriek of a Vampire. 

When we were both calm again, she kissed me. I could taste my blood on her tongue and licked it off her teeth. I pushed her gently back.

'Will you still go?'

'Why do you keep thinking that when we have sex I make you some sort of silent promise to forever be with you? Just because we had sex doesn't mean I'm giving you my loyalty….'

My anger spurred up like it had never before. Suddenly, I put my hands on her torso, got a firm hold and threw her off me at the opposite shelf. The loss of her heat on me made me wince.

She hit the shelf, and fell to the ground. Many glass jars, cutlery, boxes and old books landed on her. When the last spoon fell I got up. She was pulling a knife out of her arm when I picked up my pants and slipped into it. Grimacing when the material grinded against my bleeding thighs. 

'Leave, I'm leaving too.' I put on my shirt, didn't bother with buttoning it and threw my coat on top of it.

'Where will you go? Nobody would want you. You can't go back to school, your parents probably don't want you either, I'm sure Lucius has done something about finding a new heir and I'm sure he froze your bank account. You don't even have anywhere to stay. You'll starve on the streets like a rat. You'll be a beggar!'

'I have my ways.  I don't need your charity to live, Annabel. Now I realise what a fool I've been. You've been working all these years to turn me into some slave that you feed on when it suits you. Or to make me one of you. A vampire. A monster. I'd rather go back and ask my father for a place to stay then remain here and be surrounded by filth.' 

'You're the filth, you Malfoy slob!' She picked up one of the forks that had fallen on her and threw it at me. I hadn't seen it in the dark, only heard its zing and then it pierced my chest. I pulled it out with difficulty, gritting my teeth against the pain. 'You think you could strive for my affections? You think I'll spend a true ounce life with you, a mere-' and when she said the last word, it stung me like an arrow smeared with poison. '-mortal.'

I took two strides forward to where she lay on the ground, grabbed her arm, hoisted her to her feet and brought her crashing back to the ground with a back handed slap across the face. She cried out and this pleased me.

I threw the fork at her and with another curse, I left the storeroom. I could hear her lunatic laughter echoing in the small space

They were all still sitting in the room around the table when I came out. I saw the shock in some of their eyes at my appearance. By no doubt, I looked messy, bloodied, sweating and furious. I ignored them and ignored those that called after me as I headed to the main door of the castle.

I threw the door open and the sun blinded me for a second. I walked out into the sun and it prickled my skin. I hadn't seen the sun for weeks.

By opening the door and stepping out into the sun – where Annabel can't go – I knew I had created a gulf betweens us, if it hadn't already been created in that storeroom.