A/N: AHHHH FUCKFUCKFUCKINGFUCK. Ehh...Sorry, there were these big editor's note thingers and I didn't see them and I posted the chapter and blah. And then it happened again. So you aren't actually getting three new chapters... OK. I think they're all gone. If they aren't...deal with it. I'm not reposting this chapter again. -sigh-

A/N: Now, I know I'm not going to be able to churn out a chapter by Friday, so I'm going to tell you this now.

Twas a long time ago...

Longer now than it seems...

In a place that perhaps you've seen in your dreams...

Those random poetic lines are actually NOT a result of my insanity. IT'S THE OPENING LINES TO THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. -cough- REASON:

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS IS COMING OUT IN 3-D ON THE 20TH!!!

Only in select theatres though. Try and see it anyways. It's my favorite movie (that's a good enough reason). I just hope the 3-D-ness won't ruin it. Eh... I'm sure I'll love it anyways.

And you will too. If you watch it.

Now.

Disclaimer: Opening Lines To NBC equals Danny Elfman, Tim Burton, Touchstone Pictures, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I'm also not making any money off of this ad-ish type thing. So neh.

xxxx

Amira gasped and threw her head back as both blindingly painful and pleasurable feelings washed through her body, leaving her feeling weak and defenseless. She had no sense of time or where she was or even who she was, all that she knew was that she never wanted this feeling to stop, and yet she did at the same time. Her feelings always had to conflict with each other at the oddest of times. She wanted to cry and shriek for help, and at the same time she wanted to moan and beg for more. All she could really do was grasp tightly at Dracula's arms as he continued to suck the life giving blood out of her veins.

Dracula had wanted to savor every second of this moment, but nothing had planned him for this. As his fangs had broken through the tender skin of Amira's neck and pierced her jugular vein he had told himself to remain as conscious as possible. But as her warm, luxurious blood hit the roof of his mouth and washed down his throat he had been thrown into feelings he hadn't experienced in centuries. Wave after wave of pleasure beyond his wildest dreams ran over him. It was all he could do to remain upright as continued to drain Amira of her blood.

Every single vampire in the room had scooted to the edge of their seats and was watching the turning take place in eager anticipation. Zane had wanted to look away, he had thought that he would not be able to bear to see this spectacle, but he found that he simply could not tear his eyes away.

The pain had subsided somewhat, or the pleasure had heightened to such an extent that Amira could no longer really feel pain, she wasn't exactly sure which. Whatever it was, it had been replaced with sheer bliss. Amira felt as if she were floating, every color in the spectrum flashed brightly before fading, only to be replaced by yet another color. She was in ecstasy...

Dracula listened closely to Amira's heartbeat as he continued to drink her deliciously salty blood. He listened as it got quicker and quicker, desperately trying to fight this losing battle to circulate blood through it's body's veins. He did not let a single drop of her blood escape his hungry mouth; he did not want to waste any of it. Not a single drop...

Amira was in heaven... She wanted it to go on forever... She completely lost control of herself; her legs gave out from under her as she faded agonizingly slowly into unconsciousness. Dracula had to literally hold her up, all the while following her heartbeat as closely as possible. A small moan escaped her lips, her eyes rolled back into her head as blackness began to engulf her, swamp her mind.

Dracula knew that he was cutting it far too close, Amira was so close to death, but he didn't stop. He was submerged in her scent, her very essence, and it was overwhelming him. It would be so easy to just go on and allow her to die as he sucked her dry, but no! He could not! Dracula gasped and pulled back, and Amira let out the smallest of cries.

Her lungs wouldn't hold any air. Her limbs wouldn't move. Her heart was dying. She was dying...She didn't want to die...

She was plunged into the darkness, she was drowning in it. There was no light to guide her through this endless nothing. Amira was completely helpless. Amira tried to call out, her mind tried to cry out to someone, tell them to save her...

Please... Help me...

And then, when she thought all was lost, a voice called out to her in the darkness. Such a lovely voice... it must belong to an angel...

"Amira..." the voice said, "Amira. I have brought you mere inches from death itself." This heavenly voice was music to her ears. "I'm going to give you something that I have never given anyone I've ever turned before... A choice." The voice paused, as if contemplating this recent announcement, then it began again in that deep, lovely voice. "I am allowing you to choose whether you wish to become a creature of the night, or do you choose death, death and possibly eternal darkness. Do you choose me? Or do you choose to die?"

Amira was not aware of the consequences of choosing this man, this angel. All she knew was that if she did not choose him, she would die, and the only that would await her would be this eternal darkness.

Amira used the absolute last of her strength to whisper these three fateful three words in Dracula's ear, the three words that would change her forever, make her something she could barely imagine, give her power beyond her wildest dreams, but also a curse that would haunt her forever, in Dracula's ear she whispered these three words, "I choose you." And with those three words, Amira had truly sealed her fate. It was not like before, when she had accepted her fate right before she had walked into the wedding hall. No, this time she had chosen it. She had made the decision, even though she had been in a state of delirium when she had chosen it, it would not matter. She had chosen Dracula.

Dracula almost smiled, he almost wanted to jump up and down and whoop uproariously, but he forced himself to remain perfectly calm. He easily transferred all of Amira's weight to one of his arms and he sliced through his own deathly pale wrist easily with his fangs, fangs still red with the blood of his own bride. Before he allowed it to heal her lifted Amira's head up and brought his wrist to her lips. The first trickle of blood flowed into her slightly parted lips and down her throat. It was as if someone had suddenly switched the "On" button on her, Amira's eyelids fluttered open and she slowly she reached up to grasp Dracula's wrist. And all too quickly, she had latched onto with her now moist mouth and drank his blood. She let the deep rich taste swim in her mouth, throwing her once again to a place where reality was plausible. Her head swam, and all she knew was that she had to keep drinking this delightfully warm and salty liquid, because if she didn't she was surely die. My god, it was so good...

Dracula watched before his very eyes as Amira transformed so very dramatically. Her skin became pale as ivory, he felt her canines sharpen, they bit into his wrist, her entire character seemed to become more wild, but the most drastic change of all was her eyes, the eyes that had haunted him for so long, the deep impenetrable shade of green they had been was gone, only to be replaced with a startling emerald color Dracula had never seen before. Her eyes were now wide open as she continued to drink his delightfully rich blood.

And then he suddenly pulled his wrist away. Amira cried in anger and surprise at having her supposedly only source of life pulled away from her. Her fangs lengthened as she moved forward with absolutely inhuman speed, throwing herself at Dracula, or rather his neck. She had to have more blood. It was so good. Dracula barely reacted fast enough but he just managed to dodge her and wrap a strong arm around her waist. He pulled his bride close to him and whispered sweet soothing nothings into her ear. Amira calmed down, her fangs shortened and merely became sharpened canines, the pointed tips barely peeking out from under her upper lip. Her wild appearance was lost.

She looked into the face of the man that was holding her so tightly, so close. This man...this angel was her savior! She had been rescued from the cold hands of death by this person. But...who was he? He seemed so tantalizingly familiar, but everything had been sharpened and focused to such an extent that Amira had to shut her eyes. Everything had become so vibrant. And when she reopened her eyes, and she looked into the face of the man who was still holding her. He gazed down at Amira with such radiant blue eyes, every speck of color as bright as the next, and pupils as black as night, just like his hair. And then Amira recognized him. And she wanted him. She needed him.

"Oh Vladislaus..."

And Dracula smiled in triumph as he penetrated her soul so easily and felt the adoration Amira now felt for him. He allowed himself to bask in his glory, he had won. Won what? He wasn't exactly sure what, but he felt as if he had finally defeated some ancient beast and saved the damsel in distress. He was her prince, her dark angel.

Every feature on Dracula's face had been accentuated to the point that Amira felt as if she should be looking through a magnifying glass. Everything was so much clearer than before, so much brighter and more vibrant. She could see each and every individual strand of midnight black hair on his head, and she could see a speck of dust on his coat in her peripheral vision so clearly that she didn't understand how she ever could have missed it. Amira didn't know how she managed to live with everything looking so... dull... before. Suddenly, Amira could not remember a before, everything from her memory had faded into nothing, all she knew was that her dark angel was standing before her, and she had to have him for herself, for this man had saved her life.

Dracula stared back at his bride, so much about her was different, and yet she still looked exactly the same to him. He stared back at her, and he saw a hunger in her eyes that he had not seen in centuries. He grasped her waist a little tighter and pulled her a little closer. "Come." He whispered so softly, softly enough that Amira thought shouldn't have been able to hear, but it sounded as clear as if he had shouted it in her face. "We must feed." he whispered, his deep, smooth voice vibrating through his chest and in turn through Amira, and she felt sensations that she had never experienced before.

"Yes." She hissed back, her tongue exploring her own mouth, letting it feel with senses that had been dull for so long. How had she managed to survive? Amira didn't quite know what she had survived from, but she marveled in the fact that she had managed to live for so long with out the senses she had now.

Dracula whispered again, "I will not have you transform, not yet. After your first taste of mortal blood perhaps." He smiled, and Amira realized how absolutely beautiful her angel's lips were, how red and perfect they were.

She felt herself grow faint. "I...I'm so thirsty."

Dracula smiled and said, "Then let us quench this thirst of yours."

Everyone rose and waited almost impatiently for the sweet talk to end and for them to fly away into the night's sky, for they all knew that after one is first turned into a creature of the night, they are overcome with a thirst so deep, that if it is not satisfied soon after the turning the vampire would spiral out of control and attack countless people.

Dracula lifted his bride into his arms and then nodded almost mockingly, to his guests before transforming into his hell beast form and flying out of the wedding chapel and through a set of large open windows into the night sky.

And suddenly Zane was not so sure that everything was going to go nearly as well as the Powers That Be had planned...

xxxx

Dracula landed with Amira in his arms in a damp and dark alleyway and transformed back into his far more human form. If one were to come across the couple at that moment, they surely would have thought that the bride and groom had just walked straight out of some horror film, everything about them seemed so perfect, and yet at the same time it all looked so tainted, like these two people were never meant to be together. A groom dark as night and a bride white as light.

Dracula set Amira down on the ground. She turned her beautiful head upwards to gaze at Dracula with that complete adoration he had felt inside of her earlier that evening when he had looked into her soul. He couldn't quite believe how incredibly well this was turning out, and he knew that revenge had in fact been the way to go after all. Dracula almost wanted to laugh at how absurd he had been, doubting himself, the master of all vampires! No, he was wrong to ever doubt himself; this could not have gone better.

"Tonight will merely be a night for feeding, nothing more." Dracula told his bride as he set out on a brisk pace through the alleyway, looking for some innocent mortal for Amira to sink her teeth into. "I will teach you the dark arts of seduction later." Amira followed closely behind him, drinking in his every word. The continued walking for some time, Dracula was searching for something. What exactly he was searching for Amira wasn't sure. Dracula suddenly stopped and cocked his head to one said and asked, "Do you hear that?"

Amira looked questioningly at her angel. "Hear what?"

Dracula only smiled and replied vaguely, "Listen." Everything went silent, and then Amira could hear as clear as a bell, a steady beat echoing inside of her skull. She smiled and that hunger returned to her emerald eyes, giving her an almost deranged appearance. She looked back at Dracula, who nodded in silent consent. Amira vanished silently into the darkness. Dracula was startled; he had never seen any vampire other than himself move so incredibly fast. He walked forward at a slower pace and soon came upon Amira and a young man who she had backed into a wall. She suddenly bolted at him; the man gave out a small cry of horror before Amira grabbed hold of him by the shoulders and pierced his neck with her deadly sharp fangs. His eyes immediately rolled into the back of his head and he fell limp in her arms. Amira moaned against the man's neck, nothing had ever tasted as good as this.

Dracula found the whole scene incredibly erotic, and he suddenly wished that he was in the place of that dying man so he could feel Amira moaning against his own neck. Dracula got so caught up in his fantasies that he almost failed to see Amira carelessly drop the now dead man on the ground. Blood dripped from her fangs and dripped down her chin, but she wiped it off with her hand and then licked it up, not wishing to loose a drop. It was far too good to waste.

An unusual glow was emanating from her, giving her the far more angelic appearance she had had when she had first walked into the wedding hall. Dracula was entranced by her beauty. Amira turned and walked back to Dracula.

"I want more." She told her angel simply.

"Not tonight." Amira looked angry, but Dracula took a step forward. "I will not have you overindulge." Amira sighed and backed down. "Come. I will take you back to our castle." He lifted her effortlessly in his arms and then vanished into the night with no one but the crumpled dead body as a witness to what had just occurred.

xxxx

A/N: This chapter is late, I know. Homework is like a leech attached to my free time. Bleck.

This is the product of listening to The Deadfly Ensemble for three hours in a row. It may be just a tad bit dark. Yeahh.

And don't worry, why Amira is acting so weird will be explained in the next chapter. :

R&R