Chapter 7

Stefano had heard her moving when she had awakened. He had been impatient for her to stir, and had been pacing the floor, listening for the tell tale change of her heart beat. This he could hear now. He could hear her gasp of breath when she saw the dress and the soft sniffles when she cried. He couldn't wait to go and claim his prize, but he had given her an hour, and he would stick to his word. For now.

Liz walked to the door to the room and tentatively put her hand to the door knob, testing to see if was locked or not. To her great surprise it swung open without any resistance revealing a very modern decorated living room. The TV was on with the sound turned off, and there was two glasses of red wine on the coffee table between a pair of leather settees and an arm chair

There was no one in sight, and a sudden hope sprung into her head. Maybe she could get out whilst he wasn't here. She ran to the door and yanked it open to find a long staircase which she immediately started to scramble down, pulling the dress up around her knees to run faster.

A sudden rush of air flew across her body as she found herself running straight down to the man whom she had feared. She had no idea where he had appeared from and with a shriek spun on the stair she was on and raced in the opposite direction towards the room she had just came from.

Another rush of air and he was then standing in front of her. She came to a stop on the stair she was on in puzzlement and terror, and realised she was staring into the blue eyes of Stefano. It was him. Suddenly everyone's words came crashing back. The warning from Chris, the idle gossip that she had ignored; everyone had been right about him.

Her instinct to trust him had been wrong. Yes, he had saved her twice, but that didn't mean he was a good person. She should have listened to everyone else.

For some reason she felt betrayed, as if she had given him a part of herself and he had thrown it back in her face. He was evil after all.

How had he moved so fast? She had known there was something wrong with him, from what she had seen in the cave, but how could he move that fast?

Questions swirled around Liz's head as she stood as still as a mouse, waiting for the predator to pounce. However he simply stepped aside and opened the door back into the modern living room for her.

"I believe you're meant to be in here, Elizabeth." He called to her.

She couldn't move, fixed to the spot on the stairs. She was hypnotised by his eyes, and suddenly embarrassed by the immodest dress she had on which had moved dangerously during her sprint.

Adjusting her dress she saw a smirk cross his beautiful features.

"I think you should come up here, Elizabeth, unless you would like me to come and help you." And he took a few steps down the stairs towards her, causing her to shunt forwards and trip over the dress, clambering up the staircase into the room before he had chance to touch her.

Backing away from the door, she kept her eyes on him as he ambled into the room, locking the door behind him with a key.

"Well at least that solves that problem," he grinned, pressing the key into his pocket.

"What do you want" She whispered, fear clutching at her heart.

"I want you, Elizabeth" He mumbled, taking a few steps towards her.

She took a shaky step back from his advance and felt the leather settee behind her knees.

"Why don't you take a seat? It would make things so much more comfortable if you weren't going to try and scream or escape every few minutes. Because let me assure you, there is no way you will either be heard, or escape successfully. If you were fortunate enough to get out of this house, you would be lost in the mountains for days, as there is no one around for 40 miles. So please take this as a warning for you not to try and make your get away, as things will be so much more fun for you here."

Through this speech she felt her shaking knees give way and she collapsed into the settee, white chiffon spreading around her. He took a chair across the table from her, and motioned to the glasses on the table.

"Drink" He pointed.

She looked at the wine and hesitated. She enjoyed the taste of wine, for when she was in England the alcohol drinking age had been 18, and with her being so close to becoming the legal age, her family had been quite lax and she often enjoyed a glass at dinner. But now, in this setting, she knew it was not wise to accept alcohol from a stranger, let alone a kidnapper. Even if he was the most attractive and mysterious man she had ever met in her life.

"Elizabeth if you and I are going to enjoy this, then it is best for you to loosen up a little as right now you are as up tight as a ducks arse."

She still hesitated in silence, not wanting to be spiked.

He seemed to realise her dilemma, took a sip from his glass, and offered it to her.

"You see, it is not drugged. Please enjoy." He placed the glass down in front of her, and swiped her own untouched glass from the table and sipped it, watching her reaction.

Taking his lead, she leaned forward and snagged the glass, drinking the rich red wine letting it trickle down her throat. It was a truly stunning wine, and must have cost an awful lot of money. She wondered on him wasting such a fine vintage on her, and saw his eyes flash at her appreciation.

"It is not every day a person so young realises the worth of a bottle. I suppose it must be something to do with the British and their ever obsessive wine fads. Tell me, are you a virgin Elizabeth?"

At his last question Liz's mouth fell open and she looked him in the eye seeing the smirk on his face. She felt a bubble of anger rise up in her chest and downed the rest of the wine in one chug.

Rising to her feet she could feel his gaze mocking her.

"How DARE you!" She bellowed. "How dare you force me to come here, and then ask me questions like that? What do you want with me? Why are you doing this?" She was working herself up into a flustered state and she felt a single tear drop down her face.

He sat there, calm as ever in the arm chair, gazing up at her whilst she had her tantrum.

"Please sit down Elizabeth" He motioned calmly.

"NO! Why should I? And why do you call me Elizabeth? No one calls me that! Why have you made me put on this stupid dress?"

She could see him getting angrier as his jaw clenched and he rose to his feet.

"SIT DOWN" He roared, shocking her and she felt that command again in her head forcing her to do his will.

Her knees collapsed not out of her own doing and he crossed the few feet to her chair.

"I have been very nice to you so far Elizabeth. I do not need to explain myself to you." He leant down now putting a hand either side of her head on the settee. Their faces were only a touch apart and she could feel his warm breath on her face.

She looked up into his rage filled eyes and felt a chill of fear run down her spine. He was so beautiful, and so intimidating at the same time. She felt transfixed as he moved his mouth closer as if to kiss her, and then stopped, just a centimetre away.

"I call you Elizabeth because you are mine, and only I call you it. I chose the dress because I wanted you to look perfect for me. I have taken you because I want you, and If I want something, I get it, and what I want with you...? Well, I'm sure you shall find out soon" He whispered.

Liz gulped, all her anger dissipating into apprehension.

"M..My parents will know I'm missing" She stuttered in a murmur, not able to break eye contact with him.

She saw his gaze look down at her mouth and then back to her eyes, studying her.

"I left them a note saying you'd gone to that boy Chris's to meet before school because you and he had formed an attachment and you wanted to spend time with him. You feel a lot better and will go to school with him this morning. You'll probably be going to his afterwards too."

She froze at his logic and wondered whether her mum would buy that. She had wanted her to fit in here so badly she probably would.

He gazed into her eyes a little longer causing her heart to beat a bit faster, and not just from fear. His gracefulness and pure beauty could not be ignored this close up, and she had the sudden urge to close the distance and kiss him. She was fully aware of his muscular tall body just hovering over her own and it seemed to be opening up a primitive desire in her.

STOP! Her brain yelled at her. He's kidnapped you and will most likely attack you, don't be pulled into his web!

He looked her up and down again and in a flash he was sitting where he had been before. It was like he had never moved.

Liz's mind reeled as she took in the sudden change of position. She gaped at him, unable to bring words to her mouth.

He smiled again and reached for the bottle of wine beside the chair and filled up both of their now empty glasses. He indicated her glass again, and before she knew what she was doing she was drinking from it, hoping the alcohol would calm her down and stop her hallucinating.

He smirked into his wine glass.

"I guess you'd like to know how I can do that." His confident tone was starting to irk her slightly. "Would you like me to show you?"

She made no movement and he growled under his breath. It was a feral growl that shook the windows.

His face contorted into a fixed scowl and his eyes seemed to sink, red veins popping out. His teeth appeared to grow in front of her eyes and his skin stretched back from his mouth. It was the same face she had seen in the caves. But now she was seeing it properly and close up, and what she saw made her tremble. The anger and hunger in his eyes radiated from him, bringing out her instinct to flee.

"NO...no... no..." She seemed to be able to say nothing else as she scrambled over the back of the settee to get away from him. She landed with a soft thud on her back, not caring now about the state of her dress, but listening to her basic instincts that the... thing... in front of her was dangerous, and she needed to get away from it. In another blur of colour he was standing over her, a leg on either side, his face now back to normal.

"Yes Elizabeth. I think we need to have a little chat. Because if we're going to do this properly, I'm not going to have you shrieking every time I show a little vampirism action."

"V...vampirism?"

"Yes my dearest Elizabeth. I'm a vampire. I feed off humans and I intend to feed off you, but do not be alarmed I do not wish to kill you as of yet. I'm a part of the Night World which includes witches, werewolves and shape shifters as they prefer to be called nowadays. It's a massive organisation that the whole of the human race do not know about, and hopefully after tonight you shall also be one of those vermin humans who are unaware." He said this little speech in a very bored tone of voice, as if he was rattling off a shopping list and waited for the information to sink in.

Liz was still struggling to get over the word vampire, but now that she looked at him and his cat like grace, his inhuman beauty, it seemed to all make more sense. This was the reason he could see in the dark and how he had known where she was in that cave.

She felt utterly defenceless on the floor like this, her dress bunched up at her thighs and his piercing stare following the curves of her body.

He wanted to feed from her? What if he killed her?

He seemed to sense her thought process and stepped away from her so that she could sit up.

In a much softer tone now, he knelt down beside her and looked into her large doe like eyes, "I don't want to kill you dearest Elizabeth. But if you struggle, I'm afraid that is exactly what will happen. If you comply I shall simply do as I please and then wipe your memory, return you to your family and you shall never even remember tonight."

He didn't wish to tell her that if her unusual resistance to telepathy caused a problem in his task to make her forget him, he would have to kill her anyway. For every vampire knew the two main rules of the Night World. Do not fall in love with a human, and do not tell a human about the night world. Both of which went mostly hand in hand, and the punishment for breaking them was death for all those concerned.