Onwards. Be alone.


The following Tuesday, Melbourne called after receiving an urgent summons from Her Majesty . It was dark, the sky thick and oppressive with sombre grey clouds which threatened heavy rain and worse.

By the time he reached the Palace, the rain was fall ing relentlessly. He was damnably wet when he walked in and already at odds. He was met by a footman with a message.

'Her Majesty is unwell, Lord Melbourne. Yet she insists you call today as she has important business to discuss. You are to visit her in her bed chamber.'

He started at the surprising request. 'Her bedchamber?'

'Yes, My Lord.'

'Is her mother aware of this? Is t he Baroness Lehzen ?'

'They are not here, My Lord. They have gone out for the day.'

He indicated his wet clothing. 'In this weather?'

'Yes. Th ey informed us that they would re main at the Duchess of Lancaster 's all day if the weather worsened.'

'And were they aware I had been summoned to see the Queen?'

'No, My Lord . The Queen called for you after they had left.'

'I see.'

He searched the footman's eyes for a re action, but, as the man was a professional, he had none.

'How exactly is Her Majesty afflicted?'

'A slight headache, I believe, My Lord.'

'Ye t she can still attend to the dispatches?'

'She seemed most keen to attend to the dispatches, sir.'

'Very well. In that case, I … should attend upon her.'

'Follow me, sir.'

The footman led h im to a part of the Palace Melbourne had not set foot in since that first time he had shown Her Majesty around Buckingham House. Even he had not imagined returning to these rooms, although he had in his imagination many times, and for many purposes.

The footman knocked and he heard her voice call, 'Enter.' The door was opened for him and he was announced.

'Lord Melbourne, Your Majesty.'

'Thank you. Leave us. There is no need f or you to stand outside . We have tedious business to attend to and shall be some time.'

Melbourne entered. The door was closed behind him. At fi rst he couldn't see her , but soon enough something rustled off the bed and there she was, padding across to him.

His head swam immediately and he had to adjust his stance not to sway forward. She was wearing nothing but her nightgown. Her hair was undone and fell long and flowing about her, and alre ady he could practically see the blood in her veins with the flesh exposed at her neck and shoulders.

He swallowed hard and averted his eyes.

'Why have you been avoiding me?' Her annoyance remained, clearly.

'You know why.'

'I will not have it.'

He sighed briefly. 'Ma'am … I must protect you.'

'From what?'

'From … me.'

Victoria's voice was taut with grievance. 'I don't want protecting from you. How can I have protection from the very thing I crave above all else?'

'Then you need protecting from yourself.'

She stood, her breath coming fast. He could see the outline of her breasts through the thin cotton and it took all his willpower not to take her there and t hen, tear the material from her and sink into her, all of him into all of her . His cock was already stirring, the hint of his fangs tingling.

She said nothing, but her outrage defined her. He tried to diffuse matters.

'I am sorry to hear you are unwell, Ma'am.'

'I am not, y ou know it.'

'If your mother knew you h ad granted me audience in your bedchamber – '

'Damn my mother!'

Even Lord Melbourne's eyes widened at the words. He couldn't help but smile a little at her bold ness.

'I have thought of one thing only recently , ' she continued.

So had he.

'I cannot function while this thing occupies my mind.'

'What is that, Ma'am?' He need not ask, but supposed he should.

' I think only about being bitten. Being bitten by you.'

' I urge you not to think about that, Ma'am.'

She stepped into him, livid with passion. 'How can you say that? How can you say that after our kisses? After what you did to me in the woods? '

'I stopped your bleeding, that was all.'

'No.' She stepped into him and drew her hands with staggering sensuality up his chest . He tried to look everywhere but into her eyes but soon enough could not prevent himself. 'You did it for you . You did it because you wanted to drink from me, you wanted to feed on me. And you told me it was exquisite. I know it was, because it was for me too. I want that again. I need that again. '

He swallow ed hard, his resistance crumbling .

'Please don't say these things.'

'You have tasted me, Lord Melbourne … do you not want more?'

Oh Christ! This was agony. She was real and here and warmbefore him. Real pain gripped him, the agony of restraint.

'You know I do. But … I cannot. If I begin down that path …'

'You yourself said that you do not have to kill each time. You can take enough blood to provide sustenance and then stop. I will not tell a soul, you know I won't.'

He pulled away from her and paced over to the window. The rain was lashing against it now and the wind howled outside. It was early but so dark that it could well have been dusk.

' Your Majesty, you cannot say these things. It is possible … but it is far from desirable. The first time perhaps, but then you want more and more … and eventually, you must drink your fill.'

She ru shed to him and took hold of his arm to turn him round to her. 'But I crave it. I long for it.'

He pulled away from her again . 'You think I do not!? Ever since the first drop of your blood sank onto my tongue, I have thought of nothing else. It consumes me, it eats at me. And I practically see you every day . I long for you and cannot escape it! I can feel the warmth of you, sense your life force coursing through your veins , and I want it so much it destroys me!'

'Then have it!' She stepped up, pulling back the material of her nightgown and exposing yet more flesh to him. He closed his eyes against it.

'You do not know what you ask! If I begin this I will be unable to stop! I will want more and more of you until you are either dead or –'

'Or you turn me?'

'Yes!'

'But what will that mean t urning me? Surely, i t will mean we can be together. In this life, we must pretend, we must deny our love and our feelings and our very selves. I cannot do that.'

He shook his head ruefully. 'Victoria … you are so very young. How can you know your true self yet?'

She came up to him and if she had not been Queen of England she would have struck him, such was the anger consuming her .

'How dare you?' She was enraged, her eyes a light, her body rigid with fury. 'How dare you presume to tell me what I know or do not know ! ? I am the Queen . I have spent my life being guided and moulded and shaped and instructed an sick of it! Throughout it all, inside here – ' At this she pointed to her beating heart. '– there has always been me . Me! Screaming to get out! Screaming to live! Let me live, William! Let me live! Take me!'

But Melbourne shook himself off her and turned his back onher again, shaking his head vehemently. 'By asking that, you damn your soul, you damn your very self, and you consign yourself to a half-life.'

'You are telling me then that you too live a half-life.'

'I do.' He nodded, admitting his own truth.

'Why is that?'

'Because … it ensures that I am alone.'

She approached yet again, her arms reaching for him, her eyes wide and imploring. 'And if you made me like you, then you would never be alone . You need me as I need you. If you do this, I will be there with you … forever .'

'Victoria …'

'No, William. I know you, and I know myself, you have ensured that. Make me yours. Make me yours entirely.'

'I cannot do that.' Again, he drew back.

She stood tall, her eyes burning with conviction. 'I command it.'

'Please … Ma'am …'

'No more 'ma'am'! I am exhausted by this life. I am sick of commanding and demanding and yet living entirely within the constraint of others. Let me take control of who I am and what I want. And I want you. I want to be as much a part of you as it is possible to be, through my soul, my mind, my bones … and my blood.'

He looked over his shoulder at her and met her eyes. In them he saw only comp lete and utter conviction. And in that instant h esitation was vanquished. Duty was crushed. The inevitable was here and now.

Melbourne turned to her, and Victoria saw the reddening of his ey es, the t ension in his jaw. She felt it so acutely it nearly upended her : that tight clenching need which captured and twisted and wou ld not let go. Desire. She would find it through him. She would know it only through him.

He paced across to her , determination now his, and brought his hands to her arms, running them up with a sensual determination which took her breath away.

'Yes, touch ,' she sighed out . ' I want it all. I want all of you everywhere.'

He frowned a little, but did not take his eyes from her. His gaze seemed to absorb her, and she sensed the shift in him. She had him. His fingers stroked up and the tips moved under the cotton of her nightgown, pushing it back so that the pale skin of her neck was exposed. His mouth ticked at the corner, a smile of satisfaction, verging on wicked, which made her thrill to him.

'Don't stop, don't stop, my darling …'

'What you ask of me …' he murmured, and if her eyelids had not fluttered shut at that moment, she would have seen the sharp points emerging on his teeth.

'I do not ask it, I demand it. I expect it and need it. As do you. '

His hands were on her neck, his thumbs pushing to angle her head up and back, exposing the long line of skin to his gaze, to his desire.

She let out a little gasp of expectation and felt him shudder with his own. His fingers tightened on her shoulder. Even if she had wanted to escape now, she was sure he would hold her there, captive. She considered trying to run simply to experience recapture, as she knew it would be the most glorious thing – resistance yet capitulation, denial yet acceptance.

But h e suddenly pulled her in flush against him, and his arousal was evident, not only in the fangs which formed in his mouth, but from the f uriously hard force between his hips . She pushed onto it and he groaned, tightening his hold on her again.

'I want that too . You know I do. I want it all,' she said.

He moaned again and moved down to her, eyeing the pulse at her neck with darkened eyes. She ground against his livid erection and he moaned, low and rasping. 'Not yet.'

' But I want all of you.'

Victoria stared up at him and was almost burned by his beauty. She saw the sharp points of his teeth clearly now and was transfixed by them. His complexion seemed paler, his skin stretched tighter, it seemed, but it made his cheekbones even more striking, made the green of his eyes burn ferociously, made him so unfeasibly beautiful that she knew that when death came – in whatever form – she had never been so truly alive.

'Take all of me.'

He shook his head the slightest amount and when he spoke it was rough with intent . 'Not this time. This time it must be pure. Blood only.'

She gasped again. For as much as she hated the notion of not taking him inside her, he had with those wor ds confirmed his intent. They were ready.

'Yes … pure … '

He gripped her nec k again, angling it perfectly for him.

She sighed out the last of her prevarication . Her belly twisted almost painfully – desire, fear, need, compulsion – all combined to make her want and want and feel and feel.

'I give you one more chance, Victoria. Change your mind now or there shall be no return.'

She had never heard his voice so richly sensual.

'I don't want to return. I never want to return.'

'Then I will take you.'

'Yes. Claim me, William, now. Drink from me. Bite me.'

And at that, he was lost. His eyes rolled briefly upwards, as if seeking forgiveness and claiming supremacy at once. She saw the flicker of red run through the green and the rim of black surrounding the pupils thicken. Melbourne opened his mouth and his fangs showed sharp and brutal ly white . A moment of anxiety took hold, but her need overcame it.

'It begins,' he said, seemingly to the heavens, and cried out – a cry of anticipating triumph, low and guttural, and then he dropped his head.

It felt like a kiss at first, warm and wet and nourishing, and for a moment she forgot all fear and thought it would be only soft and tender. But then … he bit.

His teeth pierced her skin. His fangs sank into her flesh with a noise as if breaking into an apple. Pain struck. She let out a cry as the grip of agony took hold. Oh dear God, it hurt!

But such pain! Such sweet, sharp, exacting p ain that it was not pain at all but accomplishment and completion.

Deeper his fangs went , deeper through her flesh, into her very being. She felt them, the pointed sharpness of them sinking into her. He was attached to her, irrevocably and undeniably. His hands, stronger, more powerful than ever, gripped her, held her against him , bent her back so that he could shape his attachment to her perfectly . He had her. She was his.

His erect cock was still captured between them, and she could almost pretend it too was within her. For he had penetrated her. Pierced her.

And now he began. She felt it first as a curious tingling, a warming almost, which started at the point of attachment then spread through her veins as he began to draw on her blood, to suck on her and feast on her. And far from being drained, she had never felt so alive, never so connected to the life force of another human.

He sucked hard a nd as he did he drank. She felt him taking more and more of her, heard him swallowing, knew he was fee ding off her and awakening his own life more powerfully than ever . She had done that. She had given him her love and her life. She turned her head and he responded, pulling his teeth out the slightest amount only to renew the penetration, piercing again to draw more from her.

She clung to him. His muscles flexed under her fingers, muscles she had not felt before, muscles which spoke of a supernatural strength and power. He continued to suck, he continued to drink from her, and in that giving, with that transfer, she lived. From the exquisite agony at her neck, the pull of her veins fed into the twisting in her belly, which grew and grew with each rhythmical suck, with each gulp of her into him. She felt it, brewing, billowing: ecstasy.

Now she was dizzy. As her blood left her and fed into him, the faintness began, but beyond it rapture was taking hold. That perfect moment between life and death, between light and dark. Still he sucked, still he was attached to her, and as she clung to him she felt it in h im also – his own ecstasy. His gr oans, caught against her neck as he took from her, were now almost uncontainable .

And there it was. Pain which was only pleasure. The simmering heat in her belly tipped over. A wave of pure sensation rolled through her time and again as he continued to drink her in. She felt it in the pull of his mouth, she fe lt it in the grip of his hands , she felt it under her own fingertips. This was life. But as it left her, blackness claimed her instead and she knew she would go. At that moment, the last awareness she had was of him, pulling his mouth away from her, his lips dark red from her blood, a rivulet of crimson running from the corner of his mouth. He threw his head back and cried out as his own rapture took him. He had taken her and was complete again. His body gave the slightest judder as ecstasy overcame him.

With that, the darkness could no longer be held off, and she knew no more.

- xoOox -

Victoria was aware of thought creeping back to her, but was almost afraid to open her eyes. She was not entirely sure what she would see or where she would be.

But slowly, daringly, she did. She w as still in her bed chamber. Everything was how it had been. The rain still beat at the windows, the fire still glowed in the hearth . She was lying on her bed, propped up on several pillows. Dash approached her and sniffed at her hand. Out of habit, she ruffled his head, and was somewhat pleased to see she was as normal as ever. Perhaps she had dreamt it all.

But then something caught her eye. A dark figure sat in a chair by the embers of the fire. Melbourne.

He was staring across at her, his expression impenetrable.

Instinctively, her hand rose to her neck. She sucked in as pain caught her. T here indeed were several puncture wounds, but they felt dry with no further blood.

'Victoria,' he said, no more.

She tried to sit up.

'Do not move unduly.'

'Am I … Am I dead?' she asked, not out of fear but she could think of nothing more to say.

He shook his head a lit tle and offered a rueful smirk but not a mocking one. 'No.'

'But … should I not be?'

'It was not enough this time. I moved off you before it was too late. Perhaps … I am too selfish.'

'What do you mean?'

'It was too good.'

'Too good?'

'Too perfect. I want it again. And again. I will not let you go completely yet. But the path we have started down … there is only one way for it to end. But I will try to delay that as much as I can.

'Was I … no good?'

'What?' His brows creased in bewilderment

'Did you not like it?'

He came over and sat beside her, his expression dark with confusion. 'You think that? Victoria … I have never had anything so sensational . I could have drunk and drunk every drop of you. Your taste … the feel of you flowing into me … it was everything.'

'But I wish to join you.'

'One day that will happen as I cannot contain my thirst f orever, and then we will share in other ways, but for now … let me con tinue to feast on you as you are . Did it hurt, my love ?'

'Yes, but … also …'

'Go on.'

'It was … pure pleasure.'

He smiled and reached up a hand to stroke her . 'Yes. I sensed that pleasure . I f elt your rapture .'

'And I yours.'

Taking hold of her head, he kissed her, deep and hard. His fangs were withdrawn but she would not have minded had he bitten her again there and then.

'Next time … Will you enter me the other way too?'

' My God, the things you demand!' He let out a laugh.

'I am ready for it.'

He studied her and an expression came over him which was a strange mixture of admiration and regret. 'I have truly taken you beyond the bounds of morality.' Melbourne held her face and let his gaze take her in, as if he would find the answer he sought in her eyes. 'But, yes, I will have you completely, because I cannot stop myself. I have gone thus far and now, whether either of us likes it or not, I must take all of you.' He turned away. 'I am sorry.'

'Do not be. I want it.'

'You say that.'

'I do! Lord M, I do!'

'But you cannot fully know what will be on the other side.'

'Then show me.'

He smiled gently and bent to kiss her again, the longest, slowest, deepest kiss which resonated through her very being.

'When can we do it again … and when can you come into me?'

'Not for a few days. You are weak. You must recover. I have taken much from you. And the other thing requires complete energy and acceptance. '

'I accept it completely.' She smiled meekly. ' But I am not sure anything can be better than what I just experienced.'

'Oh, my love, believe me …' His face darkened and he ben t to her and murmured, 'It can.'


Next chapter will be up very soon. In the meantime, any thoughts hugely appreciated. x