Chapter 8

Liz looked up into his eyes and searched for the evil behind them. The man sitting next to her on the floor seemed to soften before her, his eyes urging her to be calm.

Her knees shaking, she used the Settee to pull herself up off the floor, and watched as he backed away from her as if she was a skittish horse.

"Why don't we just sit down?" He soothed, in his deep masculine voice, motioning towards the settee.

Not wanting to take her eyes off him in case he made a move, she edged her way back from him and around to sit down at the far end of the sofa. She had decided it was best to obey him for now...

He also sat this time, just a few feet away from her, his long well shaped legs sprawled in front of him as if he was completely at ease with the situation.

Liz could feel the wine now in the pit of her stomach, causing her to also relax with him, which she knew was absurd. But there was something about him. Despite the fear he sent shivering down her spine, and the raw hunger that radiated from him, she felt almost as if she could trust him implicitly. He had already saved her life twice, she owed him a lot, and he must care at least somewhat to have done so.

Her opinion was quickly revised when he edged towards her, turning his body and straddled her, a knee either side of her thighs, barely grazing the white material. Her face was level with his chest, and seeing the hard outline of his muscles and small amount of chest hair this close sent warmth through her body.

Stop it! She commanded her body. She couldn't be attracted to someone who had kidnapped her, she needed her head clear so that she could make out an escape plan.

He lowered his bum down so he was sitting softly on her knees and his face was nearer to hers. She was shocked at the control he had, feeling his firm bottom just resting on her knees but not applying any force that may suggest a 6ft man was sitting on her. Again heat coursed through her and she tried to hide the blush that threatened to pink her cheeks.

"Tonight is going to be fun," He whispered, his mouth just a few centimetres from her ear.

Fighting back the haze of lust that was threatening to cover her, Liz took her chance and knew this was it. Now or never.

Pushing his clothed chest with all her might she sent him flying backwards onto the floor, catching the coffee table as he went. Not bothering to look at what had happened to him, she flew from the chair and straight to the window. She had spotted the trellis before when he had been pouring the wine, and now only hoped that it would support her weight.

Wrenching open the window, she practically threw herself across and out, grabbing hold of the vine covered trellis that adorned the walls of the house. It was through pure luck that she could now see it reached the bottom, and didn't just stop halfway like she had been dreading. She wondered where He was now. Surely with those reactions of his He couldn't be too far. Scrambling to find footholds further down she began her frantic descent, her dress catching on the twigs and scratching her body, but the pain right now was pointless. She hazarded a glance upwards to see His arrival at the window. He looked down at her and she saw a sigh of frustration, but also relief pass his face. He obviously thought she'd tried to kill herself, and ruin his fun, she thought bitterly.

"You realise that you're not going to get away, right?" He called down to her in a board voice. She knew he could run down the stairs and get to her in time, but his continued presence at the window gave her a small amount of hope.

She refrained from answering him and continued down the trellis that seemed relatively sturdy considering the age of it. She was about a foot from the bottom when one of the wooden foot holds snapped and she tumbled to the floor.

Hearing a laugh from above she glanced up to see him staring down still, obviously finding her small tumble amusing. Anger reached through her again and she scrambled to her feet, only to hear a soft thud just a foot behind her. Turning around mid crouch she saw him standing there beside her, arm raised as if to hit her.

She flinched away from him and fell to her knees, covering her head with her arms, a small whimper escaping her lips.

Stefano saw her flinch. Watched her reaction to him and looked at his raised arm. He had only gone to run it through his hair in exasperation, and she thought he had gone to hit her.

Bile rose in his throat and he looked at the girl shivering before him, afraid of only the smallest movements made by him. It hadn't meant to be like this. He was meant to seduce her, make her want to offer herself up to him. The dress had been to make her feel beautiful and wanted. But her strange resistance to the waves of warmth he'd been trying to send her had not blocked the terror that was now evident in her eyes.

It seemed he was going to have to do this the old fashioned way.

He came down to his knees in front of her shying body.

"Dearest Elizabeth, I'm not going to hurt you. Please open your eyes and look at me?"

He saw her flinch again at the nearness of his voice and he suddenly got impatient.

Raising his voice he ordered; "Elizabeth look at me now!"

She immediately snapped up her head and he saw the silver tears in the moonlight sliding down her face.

He could sense her heart pounding and lowered his head down to her soft lips, stopping just a breath away to gage her reaction. When she didn't flinch he moved down and pressed his lips against hers, tasting the salty tears, when he felt as if he had been punched in the stomach.

A blinding gold light burst behind his closed eye lids, surrounded them both, and he could feel her mind pressed against his, as if he was feeding from her. His senses were alive and every part of him was attuned to her.

He could a feel pull to her very core, and with his mind's eye, looked down and saw a golden cord reaching between them from where he had always imagined a soul to be, if he had one.

As his shock wore off, the acceptance flooded in. So the Soulmate Principle wasn't a legend. And through some ironic twist, his Soulmate was this beautiful human. The one species on earth he had sworn to hate.

He could feel her mind prodding at his, trying to get into his deepest secrets. He sensed that she already knew who he was, his family- or lack of, his human life, his vampire life, the secrets that surrounded the night world, his feelings towards her, everything. Well not everything, the things he kept closest to his heart she had not yet seen, nor would she ever. He knew that if she could see what he had done to pretty little girls like her, she'd run screaming from him, Soulmate or not.

In response to his barriers, he felt her also withdraw her mind, a shock of shame and hurt flowing from her. He could feel how venerable she felt with her mind of pure innocence opened to him, and he knew all of her secrets now, of her mild fancy for that Chris boy, and the moments they had stolen together. He felt a jealous anger curse through him when he saw in her mind her reaction to this Chris. He could remember himself, seeing from the window of the car, and then through her bedroom window the two events that sung in her memory. As he thought this he felt her understand.

"You were the one that knocked on the window" she seemed to be thinking, but not directly talking to him.

She seemed to be not angry, but pleased at this truth uncovered.

"Maybe he does care after all..." He heard her think. She didn't seem to know he could hear her, and her honest thoughts cut him to the core, knowing that he did care for this human. He cared more for her than anyone he had ever met, but they could never be together, or it would mean death for the both of them.

All she could feel was happiness. She'd found the one person in life that was destined for her. Yes he was a vampire, and he'd done dreadful things. She wasn't sure what dreadful things, but she'd seen in his memories people congratulating him for his deeds against humans. But she didn't care. She loved him implicitly. It was just a shame she could sense one of his earlier thoughts.

She had seen his thoughts from before he'd kissed her. He was going to have to kill her now that she knew all this, and he was doing it so that he wouldn't be killed himself.

And Liz accepted that. She knew now that she would lay her life down for him no matter what. She loved him, with her entire being.

It seemed that Stefano felt this and she felt a shock of horror pass over them.

"NO!" He roared in her mind, not seeming to move his lips as they were still connected with hers, almost in an alternative reality. "I can't kill her...what am I going to do? I can't be with her. Not when she's like this..."

Suddenly the voice stopped as he seemed to realise she could hear him, and she felt the warm arms around her body grip her a little tighter as he pulled away from their deep kiss.

Coming back to reality she began to sense again the hard gravel digging into her knees from the drive, the cool night air reminding her of her flimsy attire.

She opened her eyes to find them both lying on the floor, his arms wrapped around her supporting her head from the gravel, their legs entwined together.

He looked down at her and she saw the flash of love that passed over him as he took in her face, cradled in his arms.

But in a second's realisation, he released her and she went flying on her back away from him, head crashing into the gravel, and he sprang to his feet in one fluid motion.

"NO!" He roared into the night. He was pacing backwards and forwards before her whilst she gathered her wits and repositioned the now very dirty dress.

She couldn't understand his rage, when she had been feeling so utterly peaceful just moments ago, and she could still see the cord just faintly in the moonlight, connecting the two of them. With her mind she tugged on that cord to see what would happen and it immediately brought his attention to her.

"How could this be happening to me?", He looked down at her beseechingly, as if she could answer his question. "This was never meant to happen. You were meant to be good for one night only, and go home in the morning, and never remember a thing. I was going to pluck your virginity from you, and you'd never remember. And now! Now we are going to die. This is your entire fault!"

He was working himself up into a rage and she sat silently, watching him, unsure whether to say anything.

Then he turned to her, a light had gone on in his eyes, a menacing look as his teeth started to lengthen.

"I know a way to solve this." He whispered, advancing on her.