Of Books And Kisses

Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine, but hope dies last. Roman Polanski's.

A/N: Some small parts of this chapter are based on the 'technical difficulties' during the show the 5th of March 2010 in Vienna.

"Books!" it took the Professor two seconds to reach the enormous bookshelves that were plastered to every wall of the room. Alfred had to admit that he himself was impressed too. Even the University didn't have this many books, and listening to the Professor rambling on about them, meant that they were probably rare and various. From the Greek philosophers to the early occultists, with every new writer his mentor found, Alfred could hear him squeal in joy, like a young schoolgirl.

Suddenly there was another sound, one that had nothing to do with books or Professors. It was a much sweeter sound. The song, three clear notes, was reverberating trough the air around them. Sarah! She was the only one who sang like that, maybe there would be a chance to save her after all. If he could just find her everything would be okay, they would flee this desperate, dark castle and have a fairytale ending. He looked around, only to see the Professor disappearing between the books, and snuck out of the library.

The corridors were gloomy and behind the windows he could see the last light of day disappear. He hurried past stone gargoyles and portraits that seemed to follow him with their eyes. The sound of Sarah's singing was the only thing guiding him but he wasn't afraid. Finally he could hear where the song came from; a closed door to his right. Carefully he laid his hand on the doorknob and pushed it down, it gave way and the door opened with a creaking sound that seemed typical for an old castle.

When he entered he noticed that he was in a bathroom, a very luxurious bathroom, but the thing that drew his attention away was Sarah, sitting in a richly decorated tub. She had heard him come in and looked up immediately as he closed the door. "It's you!" She sounded almost happy and Alfred's heart soared in his chest.

"Sarah!" He ran to her and knelt down next to the bath, she didn't have bite marks in her neck, he was still in time. "Thank God. You're alive."

She nodded, a happy smile gracing her beautiful features. "Have you been invited to the ball too?"

Didn't she have any idea about the vampires? Why would he want to be invited to dance with those monsters. "You have to flee with me! I'll save you, and you'll never have to be scared ever again. I promise I will protect you! Please Sarah!" He took her hand, his eyes pleading her to come with him. But she didn't seem to be impressed at all.

"Have you seen my gorgeous dress? The Count gives me all these things because he likes me." She pointed at a chair, a blood red dress was draped over it's seat. "I'll dance with you. Of course the first dance is for his Excellency, but I'm sure I'll have time to also dance with you."

At the one hand Alfred wanted to tell her again to run away with him, but her words convinced him that she was not going to come anyway. And dancing with her sounded great. With the music playing and romantic candlelight all around them.

"Please?" Sarah's hand reached up to him and cupped his cheek. A few seconds later their lips met in an innocent kiss. Kissing her was even better as Alfred had imagined, and he revered in the short time that he got what he wanted.

When they broke apart he couldn't do anything but make her happy, even if that meant going to a ball full of vampires. "Yes… yes… of course I'll dance with you." Her smile was enough of a reward for him.

"Now turn around, I'm getting out," Sarah said, twirling her finger around in the air to indicate that he was to turn his back to her.

Alfred wandered to the window, outside there was even more snow as last night but the sky was clear and silver stars were twinkling like diamonds. The moon seemed brighter then ever. Was this what love did to you? Turn your world upside down and change everything, only to make it better as it was. He didn't know and didn't care. He loved Sarah. He was sure of that now.

When he turned back to tell her that, the bathroom was empty. Where was she? Alfred felt panic rising up inside him. She had been in the bath only a few seconds ago.

Then the singing started again, it sounded not so far away this time and the young assistant dashed out of the bathroom to find his love. Again he ran trough the same hallways as before, following the heavenly voice. He didn't wait in front of the large double doors when he realised that was where the sound came from. He just pushed them open and dashed in. Halfway the huge room he stood still. He had arrived in a mirror ballroom, shining as if it had just been polished.

Instead of Sarah waiting for him there was a tall blonde man. The Count's son Herbert. He swallowed and tried to back away. "I'm sorry. I… I didn't want to…"

"Stay," In a few strides the vampire was next to him, "I just want to talk with you." Alfred felt a cool, slim hand on his cheek.

"But I really have to go back to the Professor." He tried to talk himself out of this conversation that Herbert had planned but the other wouldn't listen to him.

The hand moved from his cheek to his eyes, stroking the skin beneath them. "Your eyes!" It sounded as if the other man had never seen a pair of eyes before and Alfred was unsure of how to respond to this sudden exclamation.

"My… my eyes?"

"They have such dark circles under them. Didn't you sleep well? I know that first nights here in the castle are always difficult but I figured that after that first nightmare you would dream beautiful dreams."

Alfred didn't even realise, that there was no way that the Count's son could know about his nightmare. He was to busy with an escape plan to notice anything.

"I heard about a ball," The student tried to distract Herbert, who just continued stroking every piece of the boy's exposed skin. "A ball!" he tried to remind him again.

"Ah yes," with a soft kiss on the tip of Alfred's nose the Count's son moved away from him, "Tonight! It will be so romantic with you in my arms."

The assistant shivered involuntarily, the way the vampire looked at him made him feel highly uncomfortable. Suddenly he was pulled close to the other man and before he realised what was happening they were waltzing through the ballroom. Not able to run away he just followed Herbert's paces, the mirrors were spinning around them, but the strange thing was that only one person could be seen moving there. He stopped in the middle of the dance and stumbled backwards in shock.

"I'm not hurting you," was that just his imagination or did the vampire sound really hurt, "I showed that before didn't I?"

Alfred had no idea what he was talking about but was close enough to the door to escape. He started running back, trying to recognise the paintings he had passed earlier on. He heard his name being called out by Herbert, but the footsteps, he'd expected to hear chasing him, stayed away.

To his surprise he found the library without any trouble, the Professor was still bustling around and didn't seem to have noticed him leaving. For a moment his thought drifted back to the Count's son, why had he not tried to bite him. With his words he'd made clear that he wanted Alfred's blood, but he'd never tried. And he hadn't chased him afterwards, it didn't make sense to the student at all, but all too soon he was distracted by his mentor piling books up in his arms, reciting the names of all the authors. Dragging him back into the real world.