All Red

by xDreamlessx

Since the loss of her mate, Victoria has been single-mindedly focused on Bella. At first she only wanted to kill her, but in stalking her she also developed an intense attraction to her, and instead she finds herself abducting the young girl and maybe even keeping her. Bella/Victoria.

9. Chapter 9

AN: So many conflicting reviews, lol. I have people who said it was the most horrible chapter yet and others who said it was the fluffiest. But hey, at least you're all invested, right? That's the main thing. I wish I could please you all, but in the end, I guess all I can do is write and just hope for the best. Either way, thank you for the feedback. :)

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Chapter 9:

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That night while the girl slept I thought long and hard about how to proceed upon her awakening. I sat at the kitchen counter in the darkness and the silent house with the girl in bed upstairs as a feeling I wasn't sure I had ever felt before began to slowly steal over me:

Shame.

Yes. I had made a very grave mistake last night. First with the blowtorch. Then with Heidi. My anger and hurt had clouded my judgement and I had squandered yet another opportunity to make the right decision. For while it was true that she had tried to kill me yet again, it was also true that I completely deserved it, and instead of allowing my rage at the betrayal to fuel such an unthinkable retaliation, I should've just…forgiven her? Yes. It seemed so simple now, in hindsight. I wasn't even angry anymore and I could see very clearly how that night should've happened. Instead of hitting her I should've just hugged her. And whispered that she was right. That I was so sorry for everything I had done. That I promised to make it up to her.

But instead I had taken the blowtorch and branded the first letter of my name onto her back. And if that wasn't overkill, I then went out and stumbled upon old friend—whom I proceeded to fuck, bring home, and fuck again right in front of Ms Swan's furious brown eyes. How could I do such a thing? Well, I knew why—I'm a sadistic bitch. Despite the regret I was feeling I also couldn't deny the obscene thrill it had been. And surely the girl had felt a similar thrill herself or how could she have gotten wet? How could she have orgasmed directly afterward?

But no, the girl's body and her mind were two entirely different things and her heart was something else completely. Satisfying one of them did not satisfy all of them. On the contrary, the satisfaction of her body was often the very thing that repulsed her heart and mind. I needed to take this seriously and treat it for what it was—a betrayal. I had betrayed her and degraded her and humiliated her in a way that she might never be able to forgive. And it was all my fault. How, how could I do that? No matter how sadistic I pride myself on being, I'm also intelligent. I should've known what a mistake it was. I should've been able to see that her attempt on my life was not actually a betrayal at all—it was an opportunity. An opportunity to forgive her and break the pattern of abuse and finally prove myself worthy of her love.

What a dumb fucking whore I am. My ego prevented me from being too harsh on myself, of course, but if I was anyone else I would really condemn me right now.

By now it was approaching morning and a gray light was beginning to glower in the kitchen window. The girl would be up soon and I needed to make a decision about how I was going to handle this. I needed to learn from my many, many, mistakes and finally do the right thing. The only danger was my blasted pride. Would I really be able to admit that I was wrong and beg her forgiveness and promise to never treat her like that again? And what about her own stubborn pride? Even if I did prostrate myself and beg, what if she refused to forgive me anyway? Was it worth the risk of even trying?

I shook my head and rose from the stool and grabbed my handbag from the kitchen counter. The girl would wake at any minute and the least I could do was go grab her a coffee.

The morning was a bit brighter by the time I got to the coffeeshop and while I waited in line I realized that there was really no choice here. The fact that I even felt guilty at all was a clear indication that I had gone far too far and that some very drastic changes in my treatment of her were necessary. I would have to sit her down and explain to her that I was sorry and that such a thing would never happen again. And if she didn't want to believe me, well, I would just have to prove it to her.

By the time I got back to the house with a latte and a blueberry muffin she was already awake. She had put on some sweatpants and a sweatshirt and she was standing in the kitchen with one crutch under her arm. She looked at me as I came over and placed the papercup and the muffin bag on the kitchen counter. Her eyes were dark and slightly red and they glared at me in silence. I smiled and set down my handbag.

"Good morning, Ms Swan," I said with an attempt at cheerfulness. "How are you feeling?"

No answer. It was probably an insensitive question. My first words to her and I was already making mistakes. Thankfully it was only a minor mistake and it didn't provoke her too much.

I tilted my head at her and then I went around the kitchen counter toward her. She turned away slightly but that was okay because it was her back that I wanted to check. I lifted the sweatshirt very gently and examined the damage. The skin was red and flaking already but at least it wouldn't scar. I wondered how much it hurt but I knew better than to ask. I would have to put some more cream on it later but right now we really needed to talk.

I lowered the back of the sweatshirt and directed her by the arm to a stool at the kitchen counter. Then I went around and sat down opposite her on the other side. She watched me darkly and I actually took some comfort from it. There was a lot of tiredness in those eyes and a lot of willingness for the suffering to end—enough perhaps to even overcome any pride against forgiving me.

I slid the latte toward her and she looked at it for a moment before she removed the cap and smelled it and then took a sip. Her eyes closed for a moment and she sighed. She looked like she hadn't gotten enough sleep. I just hoped she wouldn't be grouchy. I smiled and slid the muffin toward her as well.

"I've been thinking all night," I said, "and I think me and you need to talk."

She snorted at that and took the muffin out of the paperbag without much enthusiasm. "About what? About how you're a sadistic cunt and I hate your guts?"

"Actually, yes," I said with a smile. "That's exactly what we need to talk about."

She bit the muffin and looked at me as she chewed. Her eyes were dark and droopy and her jaw moved with a sullen mechanicalness.

"I just woke up," she said. "I don't want to talk."

I smiled at that and settled with an elbow on the counter to watch her eat until she was ready to talk. She got uncomfortable at the silent stare almost immediately but she stubbornly refused to speak. She tore off bits of the muffin and popped them into her mouth and looked around the kitchen. The window over the sink was now bright and white and I gazed at her for a long time in that fresh morning light. No makeup. Her hair unbrushed and dry and darkly tangled around her head. So beautiful.

After a while she finished the muffin and took a drink from the latte, watching me over the rim of the cup, and then she lowered it and heaved a annoyed sigh.

"Fine," she said. "Talk."

I smiled and began with my pre-prepared statement. "Last night we both made mistakes," I said. "And—"

But I didn't get any further.

"We?" she interrupted, her eyes flashing into furiousness. "What the fuck mistake did I make?"

I hesitated slightly. Had she forgotten about her little blowtorch stunt? Or was I overestimating her culpability in that?

"You tried to kill me," I said.

I thought that might calm her down but it only made her snort in disgust.

"Yeah," she said. "And my only mistake was failing."

Well. This was not off to a good start. Her words had wounded me a little but this time there was no anger. Just the hurt. I gave her something of a sad smile.

"Do you honestly feel that way?" I asked her.

She glared at me steadily. "Yes. I do."

I looked at her a minute. At the smouldering anger in her eyes. But underneath that was her own share of hurt as well and part of me truly believed she would rather forgive me than kill me. In fact, I decided to put that notion to the test.

The blowtorch was still laying on the floor by the stairs and now I rose and went to fetch it. I picked it up and bought it back to the kitchen counter. It was about as small as a can of bugspray. A chill of fear had come into her eyes at the sight of it, as if she thought I meant to torture her again, but all I did was place the blowtorch down beside her latte.

"Here then," I said. "Fix your mistake."

Then I sat down again and looked at her calmly, like a chessplayer who has made a decisive move and now awaits their opponent's reaction.

She looked at the torch and looked at me again. Her glare had gone away and now she seem hesitant and off-guard. She took the torch in her hand and looked at it again and then she shook her head and put it back down.

"You'd just stop me anyway," she said.

I smiled, taking hope from her indecisiveness. "If you want me dead so badly, shouldn't you take any opportunity you can get?"

"Why, so you can punish me again?"

I didn't trust myself to answer that. I looked down and looked up again and she sipped from her latte sullenly and set it down again and looked across the kitchen at the cabinets in the wall.

I sighed and decided it was time to stop trying to outwit her. I was obviously very terrible at it. What I needed to do was be as honest as possible and leave the forgiveness up to her own feelings.

"Ms Swan," I said softly, no idea what I was going to say next. "I admit, perhaps I was a little excessive last night. I feel very badly about it. But at the same time I can't help but feel as if it was you who pushed me into it."

She snorted in disgust. "So it's my fault, is it?"

"In some ways. Play with fire and you get burnt."

"No," she said. "It was your fault. Everything is your fault. You're the one who pushed me into it. Not just last night, but all this. I never wanted any of it. None of this is anyone's fault but yours."

I nodded and kept my mouth closed for fear of saying anything else wrong. Gosh, why was this so hard? All I needed to do was apologize and yet—

"Fine," I said suddenly.

She looked up at me. I swallowed a very large lump in my throat that might have perhaps been pride and returned her look with those very strange emotions of guilt and remorse coursing through my body like adrenaline.

"If it'll help alleviate this tension between us, I'll apologize," I said. "I'm sorry."

She was surprised but she only snorted.

"Sorry for what?"

"Everything."

But again she only snorted and looked away.

"Like it fucking matters," she muttered.

I sighed and gazed at her sadly. Now that my pride was broken the emotions were only getting worse. I could feel them prickling at my eyes and I probably would've cried if my eyes were capable.

"I mean it, Ms Swan," I said softly. "I'm sorry. I can't change what's happened between us. All I can do is take responsibility and apologize."

Her eyes came back to mine. The look on my face seemed to soften her but she tried not to be effected.

"It won't change anything," she said.

"No," I agreed. "You're right. It won't change the past. But it can change what happens next."

She didn't answer that and I leaned forward onto the kitchen counter and lowered my voice as I gazed into her eyes.

"I'm going to be very serious with you, Ms Swan," I whispered. "If you don't submit to me, you will die."

My gentle and apologetic tone sorted oddly with my words and she didn't seem to know how to react. Finally she just shrugged stubbornly.

"Fine," she said. "I don't care."

"No," I whispered. "You don't understand."

She didn't and she seemed to realize she didn't. She looked at me quietly, only half-glaring, and waited for me to speak. I smiled at her and allowed my red eyes to roam over her face. No makeup. Bland lips, pallid skin, matted hair. And yet all so edible and delicious. I let her see my true feelings in my eyes and then I raised them up to hers.

"You weren't wrong when you called me a monster, Ms Swan," I said. "I am. These feelings I have for you are twisted and malevolent and voracious beyond anything you could imagine. I can't control them. I don't want to control them. There is only one person who can control them, and do you know who that person is?"

She didn't answer. I smiled.

"You," I said.

Her throat moved as if she swallowed. Her eyes flickered at my mouth. A small blush had come over her cheeks and I smiled as I went on.

"Your life is in danger, Ms Swan," I told her. "Very grave danger. Look how much you've suffered already. Your back, your poor leg. Your father."

She swallowed again and her eyes went wet. She had a hand sitting on the countertop and now I reached and clasped it with my own.

"There is only one way to stem the bleeding," I said. "You have to give up. You have to be mine. If you don't, I won't be able to control what I do to you. I wish I could. But I can't."

She sniffed and used her other hand to wipe briefly at one of her eyes. The emotions on her face were beautiful. So intricate and unique and complex. My own were so much more simple. I caressed her hand and smiled and spoke to her in a soft voice.

"Submit to me and love me and all the pain will stop," I said. Then my smile tilted into a smirk. "Well, not all of it. But at the very least any pain you experience afterward would be strictly of your own choosing and to your pleasure. I promise."

Her eyes hardened at that but perhaps what she was most angry at was how my words turned her on. I could it see in the blush under her wet cheeks. She looked down at our clasped hands on the countertop and then she pulled her own away and used the collar of her sweatshirt to dab her face dry.

I smiled and leaned back from the counter.

"Or you can die," I said. "It's entirely up to you. But if you do prefer to die, as you claim, then you'd be wise to do it yourself as quickly and painlessly as possible. You won't receive any such mercy from me."

Finally her brows knitted back into a frown and she glared at me across the counter. "So that's it? I don't have any choice?"

"I just explained your choice."

"That wasn't a choice."

I smiled and chuckled once to myself. "I know," I said. "But it is what it is. I thought I would be able to apologize and beg your forgiveness but I can't. All I can do is assure you that I do regret what happened last night and I do wish to make it up to you. But it's going to take a compromise. You will at least have to give me a chance."

She sniffed one final time and wiped her nose. I smiled and stood up from the stool.

"But don't worry, you don't need to decide this instant," I said. "You have plenty of time and I dare say the choice will soon become the easiest choice you ever made. I intend to earn your forgiveness and affection very thoroughly."

I came around behind her and put my arms around her middle—very gently so I wouldn't hurt her burns. She didn't resist and I placed a kiss into her hair and inhaled her scent, closing my eyes. Her hair always smelt so delicious in the morning before she washed it, stronger somehow, headier.

I smiled and continued to hold her as I whispered into her ear.

"All I ask from you right now is your cooperation in fixing up the house," I said. "I haven't lived as a human in a very long time and certainly not in this modern era. I'll need your help if we're going to make this place liveable for you. I don't want to overlook anything you may require. Okay?"

I released her and sidled to her side to look at her face. The expression on it was tentative and full of cautiousness. She took her latte from the countertop and sipped it and nodded at the question.

"Alright," she said.

I smiled and placed a kiss on her cheek.

Within the hour we were dressed and out shopping. The talk that morning hadn't gone precisely to plan but perhaps it had turned out better. I was able to both preserve my pride—well, most of it—and establish a truce. The truce was rather cold, of course, but at least the girl was speaking to me and not trying to kill me with a blowtorch. It was more than I could've hoped for last night. While she was asleep I had been worried that she might never speak to me again. But now I had a second chance and I was determined not to waste it. I needed to treat her as absolutely perfectly as possible or at the very least avoid torturing her and cheating on her right before her very eyes.

So far things were going very well. Aside from a bit of sullenness and sarcasm she had been quite cooperative in organizing a list of household items she would require. We decided to do the house room by room with priority on the bathroom and kitchen. We already had the basic essentials like toothbrushes and soap in our travelbags but now it was time to fit out whole cabinets with deodorant and toilet paper and cottonswaps and little chrome tools for nailcare.

The shopping trip reminded me of when I had gone shopping in Port Angeles but it was much easier with the girl along since she was so much more aware of her human needs than I was. Basically all I had to do was push the cart and pay for everything. By mid-morning we had the bathroom done and we set out again right away. Next was the kitchen. The girl needed cookware and dishwashing liquid and utensils, pots, pans, a toaster, a wafflemaker, a mixing machine together with measuring cups. I left most of that to her while I went to the bank next door and organized an basic debit account we could share. By the time we got home and stacked the dishes in the cupboards and hung the pans from hooks it was past noon. The girl made a sandwich with the groceries we had bought and sat down to eat while I watched her and silently felt so grateful for how well everything was going. Then we set out again.

We bought some basics for the living room, some shelves, a wall mount for the TV, and then we moved onto the bedroom. We needed another lamp and some extra sheets and covers and lots of clothes as well. The afternoon was well advanced by now and the girl was getting quite tired even though she hadn't complained once. She hadn't smiled either or seemed to enjoy any of it but I didn't expect her too right now. While we were clothes shopping we also swung by the sleepwear and she allowed me to buy her a frilly nightie and some shorts and a few cute little sleeptanks. There was a modest selection of lingerie there as well and I bought myself some red lace thongs and some black ones as well and some bras to match. I didn't tell her the black ones were for her.

By nightfall the house was almost completely outfitted with everything a young couple could want. We'd still need to pick up a few things as they occurred to us but for now the place was more than liveable. We had even purchased some art to go on the walls, modern compositions consisting of triangles in various colors and patterns. I had never been much of an aficionado but they seemed to reflect our new home very well.

Despite all our brand new kitchenware the girl was far too exhausted to cook and instead I ordered her some takeout. She ate on the sofa while we watched TV, still wearing the clothes she'd gone shopping in, and at this point she hadn't taken a proper shower in days. Luckily we had also picked up some garbage bags and after she ate I took her into the bathroom and helped her take off her clothes. She hesitated for a second as I put my hands on her, as if it occurred to her that she could do all this by herself, but she didn't make any objections. She took off her top and her bra as well and I gave her breasts a smile, grateful to even see them again after how appallingly I had behaved last night. Her eyes went cold at how I looked at them so unabashedly but she said nothing. I helped her with her panties as well, pulling them down and negotiating them away from the cast on her leg, and then I told her to sit on the rim of the bathtub. She did and I put the garbage over the cast and sealed it above her knee by wrapping tape around it. She watched me while I did it, looking down at me where I knelt at her feet, and I smiled at her when I was done. Her expression was still very cold but I could tell she was more eager to forgive me than she wanted to admit. Despite the enormity of my transgressions last night there would always be a flawed place in the fabric of her heart that was unable to process any of this as a big deal. It was the same flaw that allowed her to be cool with being kidnapped. Raped. Abused. There was simply something inside her that was broken before I had ever even laid hands on her.

I let her shower first while I turned down the bed and then I went for a shower of my own. The bathroom was down the hall and I left my hair damp as I came back down the corridor with the burn cream in my hand. The girl was sitting there on the edge of the bed, wearing nothing but the cast, and she looked up as I came in. I was completely naked as well and I flipped off the light before I came forward. The only light left in the room was the dimness of the bedside lamp. I sat down beside her and she turned her back slightly, almost coyly, for me to apply the cream to her burns. I did so very gently and then I capped the bottle and set it on the nightstand before turning back to her and placing a hand on her knee.

"I want to thank you," I said. "For giving me a chance today."

She looked at the hand on her knee. She knew I was going to seduce her and she didn't seem to care. "Yeah, well," she said. "Like you said, I don't have any choice, right?"

"You'd be surprised," I said, giving her knee a suggestive caress.

She didn't respond but her face softened as she gazed at me in that dim light. Her eyes were round and dark and they looked at me searchingly, as if all she needed to see was something redeeming. Something, anything, that would allow her to do this with her pride intact. So I cupped her face with my other hand and gave her the most gentle smile I could manage.

"You have a choice right now," I told her. "Vampires don't sleep, which means this bed is yours. You don't have to share it with me if you don't want. You could send me away right now. I'll do whatever you need. Whatever it takes to prove how much I love you."

Her eyes began to swim with emotion and her voice cracked when she spoke.

"I just don't want to fight anymore," she said.

I couldn't have agreed more and I smiled and placed a kiss on her lips. "Then let me stay and make love to you," I whispered into her mouth between kisses. "I think we both need it. It'll be therapeutic. It won't fix everything. But it'll be a good start."

She didn't answer but slowly she began to move her lips against mine and after a while she put her arms around my neck.

It felt like an eternity since I had kissed her last even though it had hardly been a day. Her face was so smooth and warm under my hand and her lips were so wonderfully soft. There was a slight taste of toothpaste in her mouth and it was so warm and wet. She gave a soft moan and slowly I lowered my hand to one of her breasts and cupped it and caressed it gently as I continued to tongue her mouth. She moaned again and began to lean into the kiss and push back with her tongue. I was lost in the kiss and the softness of her breast and I felt a sharp pang of guilt for everything I had done last night. How could I have possibly taken this girl for granted so much? How could I have forgotten how perfect she was?

Soon we were under the covers with our legs entwined, her cast heavy and rough but not uncomfortable. Eventually I rolled her onto her back and reached between her legs to rub her entrance. It was already wet and it soon got even wetter. She moaned and opened her legs under the covers, breaking the kiss to breathe heavily and look up at me. I smiled at her and slipped two fingers into that wet tightness between her legs, causing another moan to come out of her. I felt her vagina squeeze on my fingers tentatively and I kissed her again, softly on her lips, and then lower on her neck and finally her chest, pecking at her nipples with my lips and licking them and giving them little suckles. She was moaning very deeply by now, her entire body on fire, and eventually I moved down between her thighs and licked all around my fingers as I pumped them in and out. Her moans were beginning to tremble, as if she was scared of the climax that approached, and finally I licked at her clit and made her whimper before taking that stiff nub between my lips and sucking her to an orgasm.

The intensity of it made her sob as her back arched up and when I came back to her face I could see that she was crying. I cupped her face and gazed into it and she sniffled and looked at me. I wanted to ask her why she was crying but I thought I had a pretty good idea. The tension had broken. All the anger and resentment and hurt that had been building up inside her like a stormcloud were now opening up and releasing it all in a downpour of tears and relief. She didn't speak and I didn't either. I placed a kiss on those soft lips that I loved so much and she made a small moan into them and kissed me back and kissed me some more before suddenly grabbing my face and rolling me onto my back.

I smiled into the kiss, laying on my back now, and she arched her chest into mine aggressively as she tongued the inside of my mouth. I grabbed one of her buttocks and squeezed it and accepted her kiss very gratefully. My other hand was stroking her side and carefully avoiding the burns on her back. She kissed me some more, very urgently, and then she abandoned my mouth and began sucking my nipples instead. I flinched and gasped and smiled as she gripped the mounds of my breasts in her hands and licked and suckled at the stiff nipples on top of them. She was moaning as well. Her hair was still slightly damp and I had my fingers woven into it as she lowered her mouth further to my belly and finally between my legs. Her tongue lashed across my wet entrance and suddenly I arched and gasped and orgasmed. It had taken me completely by surprise and I cried out at its swiftness and then cried out again as she licked me to a second orgasm directly after the first, my face crumpling up in something like pain as my spine completely came off of the mattress. My eyes were closed and it still wasn't over. She was still licking and I could feel a third one coming. My chest was heaving and I was breathing loudly through my mouth, panting in desperation until I cried out a third time, my voice breaking off into a whimper as a third orgasm ravaged my satiated body and caused it to buckle up a final time.

My eyes stayed closed for a long time afterward. It was impossible for vampires to lose energy but the satisfaction I felt was almost the same as exhaustion. The girl was still between my thighs but her licks were softer now, loving almost, as her tongue guided me down from those incredible peaks of pleasure she had driven me too. Eventually I smiled and opened my eyes and watched her lick for a while until she lifted her head and looked at me. Her tears had gone away and all her passion and her face had once again resumed that cold mask she had been wearing all night. I smiled and stroked her hair. It seemed her forgiveness had only been temporary as her orgasm but that was okay. As I said earlier, making love was not going to solve our problems, it was merely a good start.

Still slightly breathless I asked her if she would let me hold her for a while before she slept. She thought about that for a moment and then wordlessly she laid her face against the pillow of one of my breasts while cupping the other breast in her hand like a teddy bear.

I wrapped my arms around her and sighed contently and held her in silence. I tried to think when was the last time we shared a moment of intimacy like this. It would've been back at the motel in Port Angeles. The last day before she found out what I did to her father. It felt so much longer ago. I remembered that final day at the motel so clearly. That was the day she had agreed to establish a relationship with me. The day she had admitted she liked me. The day that—

"Who was that woman last night?" asked the girl in my arms very quietly.

At first I wasn't even sure what she was talking about. "Who, Heidi?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, she's just an old friend," I told her, holding her under the covers and stroking her slim little waist very gently. "A coven mate from back in England. Before James. Quite a lovely woman, isn't she?"

She snorted at that. I smiled but perhaps it was unwise to tease her. I had to bear in mind the heinousness of those actions and remember to be guilty.

"Was she your mate?" she asked after a while.

I chuckled softly to myself. "No, no, no," I said. "Nothing like that. Heidi and I are merely friends. We were never under the illusion of anything more. She was simply one of the first vampires I ever met."

"Did she turn you?"

"No. I was turned by my sister. Anne."

"You have a sister?"

I nodded and smiled up at the ceiling in the dim light of the bedside lamp, recalling my sister's face and voice from almost five hundred years ago. "Back when I was human, my sister and I were sold to a whorehouse," I said. "One day my sister escaped and when she returned for me she was very pale and very cold. She turned me into a vampire as well and bought me back to the coven who had turned her—where I met Heidi."

She didn't move. She was silent for a while and after a while I spoke again.

"She died shortly after in an altercation with another coven," I said. "She would've lived longer if she never became a vampire at all. Heidi and I are the only two remaining from that coven. We've often been separated through the centuries but we always find a way back to each other. The world is too small to stretch the attraction between us too thin."

Again she was silent. I wondered if I should be silent as well but I felt she was entitled to know everything.

"Heidi was my first real lover," I admitted. "Before her, I had never been attracted to another woman before. I had never been attracted to a man either, but that hadn't occurred to me at the time. There was something about Heidi that was simply spellbinding to me. Not only her beauty, but her personality. I admired her seductiveness very much and I fell to it very easily. I still do, I suppose."

I sighed at the damage that seductiveness had caused last night and then I looked down at the girl's head on my chest and gave her body a playful squeeze.

"But, of course, none of that compares to how I feel about you," I said.

I thought the conversation had been rather well-received but I suppose I hadn't seen her face. I went to kiss the top of her head but instead she shrugged out of my arms and rolled away from me coldly.

"Whatever," she muttered.

The lamp was still on and I smiled at the back of her head.

"Careful, Ms Swan," I said teasingly. "Such obvious jealousy does nothing but prove that you do in fact have feelings for me."

She didn't answer and I continued to smile at the back of her head. Perhaps I should've left the bed and given her some time but I wasn't sure if time is what she needed. Perhaps she needed assurance more.

So I slithered a little closer to her under the covers and set a hand on her hip.

"Hm?" I murmured.

Still no reply. She was laying on her side and I shuffled even closer so that my breast brushed against her damaged back. I stoked my hand into the dip of her waist and then stroked it back up the hill of her hip and then I let it stroke over the soft round globes of her buttocks. My fingers slipped between the soft cleft of them and I stroked there for a little bit before my fingers moved forward into the warm crevasse between her thighs in search of the entrance hidden away in all that lovely softness.

I found it and rubbed it with my fingertips suggestively. It was dry but so warm and I smiled as I whispered to her in the dim bedroom.

"I know you were jealous last night," I said. "As much as you don't want to admit it, you hate the idea that another woman put her hands on me. Her mouth. Her tongue. How did it feel, Ms Swan? To sit there so helpless and watch another woman lick my vagina? To watch me lick hers?"

Again she didn't answer. Not with her mouth but my fingers did feel a small twitch inside all those soft and silky folds I was fondling.

"It's okay, you can admit it," I whispered. "Our relationship may be unconventional but it is a relationship. It's perfectly natural to be jealous. No woman likes to be disrespected. No woman likes to feel as if she is disposable."

She was beginning to moisten by now and I smiled and added:

"Well. Some women do. Does the inferiority excite you, Ms Swan? Does being degraded make you wet?"

I wriggled two fingers into her folds and slipped them into the tightness of her vagina. She made a soft gasp in the dimness and I smiled and pushed them in a little and withdrew and pushed them in again.

"But surely you realize that I'm only teasing you," I went on. "You're not disposable, Ms Swan. Not at all. I wasn't lying when I said Heidi is nothing compared to you. You are incredible to me. Your body is a delicacy. Your scent is a spell. Everything about you is amazing. I even like that waspish personality of yours."

These words made her even more aroused that the degrading ones and a soft moan came out of her as I took her shoulder with my other hand and rolled her onto her back.

She was breathing heavily by now and looking up in the lamplight with lust and helplessness on her face. My fingers were still buried inside her and I pushed them in deeper and made her moan again. I smiled and kissed her lips and then I lowered my face to kiss her nipples and breasts while I spoke.

"However dishonest you chose to be about your feelings, I don't think I can lie about my own anymore," I said. "I love you, Ms Swan. There is no woman in this world I would rather be with than you. I want to be with you forever. To keep you and hold you and do whatever you want me to do. My feelings are yours to exploit. If only you'll accept them…"

I removed my fingers from her and spread her entrance and shoved my tongue into it instead.

She gasped and bucked her hips gently and lay there moaning as I continued to lovingly eat her out.

That night didn't solve everything but it did change everything. I stayed with her all night and watched her sleep until the sunlight began to leak through the curtains and then I got up and went for a shower. I could not stop smiling. The declaration of my feelings last night had freed me from my pride and from now on I was positive that I would have no problems treating her the way she required to be treated. After the shower I left myself naked and went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, comparing the ingredients we had to several recipes I had researched on my phone. It turned out that we had exactly the ingredients for a nice omelette and I immediately set out making her one, chopping an onion and a green pepper, cracking eggs into a pan, humming to myself and swaying my naked butt in a gentle dance of happiness. I didn't have much experience cooking but it seemed simple enough to avoid burning it. When she emerged into the kitchen she was wearing those same sweatpants and sweatshirt and she had a crutch under one arm and a coy expression on her face under her dark and tangled hair. The sun had come out outside and the kitchen window was nice and bright. I smiled over my shoulder and told her it would be ready in just a second and she nodded and let her eyes roam over my naked form as I flipped the omelette and gave her a sexy wink. I must've looked exactly like a fantasy housewife, buxom and broad-hipped, naked, redhaired, and that's exactly what I was going to be for her from now on. She went over to the coffeemaker and got it going, still stealing glances at my body. The look in her eyes was excited but somewhat reserved as well, as if she wanted to forgive me but wasn't quite sure if I deserved it yet. I asked her if she liked omelettes and she said I looked so sexy like that. I raised my eyebrows at her forthrightness and she smiled and leaned her crutch against the kitchen counter and hobbled around behind me and sank to the floor. She was face to face with my butt while I stood at the stove and I giggled as she began to kiss it and lick it. It turned me on right away and I spread my feet just a little and bent at the hip to allow her access to my pussy. She found it and gripped my hips and munched me to a nice early morning climax and by then the coffee was done. She poured a cup and wiped the pussyjuice from her mouth and then smiled at me over the rim of the mug as she took a sip. I turned off the stove and transferred the omelette to a plate and told her it was ready while my heart fluttered like a bird trapped in my ribcage.

I sat with her while she ate, completely naked on the kitchen stool like an ornamental statue there, and she seemed to appreciate the view, glancing at my breasts as she popped little forkfuls of omelette in her mouth. I asked her how it turned out and she said it was alright even though I had forgotten the salt. I apologized to her for such a grievous oversight and promised it wouldn't happen again. She shrugged and kept eating, glancing at my tits.

I'd been monitoring her expression ever since she walked into the kitchen and everything about it seemed favourable. Last night seemed to have thawed much of her coldness and all that remained was a tentatively willingness to forgive me—not just yet, but soon. All I had to do was continue to earn it by not torturing her or fucking other women in front of her eyes. It seemed simple enough. I had already made it through one day without doing damage to our relationship and this morning was off to a wonderful start as well. We were discussing what we were going to do today but as fugitives our options were rather limited. The shopping was all taken care of and it wouldn't be wise to go out unnecessarily. She shrugged and asked what are we going to do then and I shrugged as well and smiled and said I suppose we could simply go back to bed for a while. She thought about that suggestion for a bit and then she finished the last of her orange juice and rose and took her crutch from the kitchen counter. She said she'd better go for a shower then. I smiled and gathered up her plate and told her to go ahead while I cleaned up. She did and while she was gone my phone rang. I dried my hands with a dishtowel and saw that it was Heidi.

A glimmer of misgiving pierced my morning glow but I answered it and spoke to her very cheerfully.

"Heidi, hello," I said. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Victoria dearest, I was just calling to see if you were available for one of our old rendezvous'. I know it's short notice, but it really has been so long since we've seen each other. We have a lot to catch up on, don't you think?"

"Indeed we do, Heidi my love, but I'm afraid I'm rather busy this morning."

"Good heavens, I didn't mean this instant, although I certainly wouldn't have objected to it. How about tonight? We could go out and perhaps even acquire a third to join us."

I winced to myself with the phone at my ear as the temptation washed over me in a warm wave of wrongness. I could hear the shower running in another part of the house and the sound reminded me that the girl was naked and wet in there and probably very disapproving of the woman I was on the phone. It was lucky I had fed so recently or I might not've have the strength to resist.

"Oh, Heidi, that is a very tempting offer, but…"

"But?"

"Well, I only fed very recently, and a woman of my distinctive description is still the subject of a very large police investigation. All things considered it might be best if I remain home tonight. You understand, don't you?"

There was a brief hesitation but then her voice came over the phone as pleasant as mine had been.

"Of course, my dear, of course. Think nothing of it. Not even centuries could keep us apart so I doubt mere days will. I'm sure we'll get together eventually. Perhaps next week?"

The shower turned off and I knew I better get off the phone as quickly as possible.

"Perhaps," I said. "I'll give you a call whenever I feel it's safe to go out. Thank you very much for calling, Heidi, it was wonderful to hear your voice. Auf Wiedersehen, meine liebe."

She chuckled at my German, her native tongue, and repeated a similar goodbye.

"Auf Wiedersehen, Viktoria," she said.

I smiled with a chuckle of my own and then I hung up.

After that I just stood there with the phone, my heart racing strangely. I wasn't sure what I was feeling but it felt like pride. Not my usual kind of pride but a cleaner, fresher, more honorable kind of pride. I was proud of myself because I had said no. I had consciously refused to do something that I knew would hurt Ms Swan. I had avoided a mistake. Perhaps it was only a small thing but it was still rather big progress for me and the realization gave me a surge of hope. But then my smile dimmed somewhat as I realized that eventually the thirst will begin to overpower me and I will have to go hunting with Heidi. By then I only hoped Ms Swan would be amenable enough to understand.

I was putting the plate away when the girl came hobbling into the kitchen, naked with her wet hair dangling. She smiled at me and asked if I was ready. I smiled as well and then I lifted her in my arms like a bride and carried her upstairs, letting the crutch fall over and clatter to the floor behind us.

I deposited her on the bed and then climbed on top and began to kiss her. She returned the kiss and stroked my back with her hands and reached to grab my ass. The consensualness of the encounter reminded me of that last day in the motel and my moans were very deep and very genuine from the love I was feeling in my chest. She had her head on the pillow and I kissed her and gazed into her eyes and kissed her again. She opened her mouth and extended her tongue and I licked it and flicked at it with my own tongue while cupping her face and then I sucked it and moaned and deepened the kiss once more. Soon she was very went between her legs and I went down them between and used my mouth there instead, plastering my lips to her pussy and eating it out with her legs wrapped around my head and her cast like a log across my back. She came with a cry and she was smiling afterward and I kissed her until she rolled me onto my back and shuffled down between my legs. I groaned as her tongue entered me and I had never felt anything quite like the gigantic swell of love and ecstasy that erupted in my heart as she licked me to climax.

We made love all day that day, stopping only for the girl to eat and drink. Her former frostiness towards me had completely melted and the reservation in her eyes was beginning to diminish as well. The sex helped a great deal. It reminded us both of how strong the affinity between us really was. How deep. How irresistible.

It was only toward dinner time that we put some clothes on. While she cooked I went out and bought her a bottle of wine, sort of like a celebration, and after she was finished eating we went back upstairs and took our clothes off again and crawled into each other's arms. We made love and she drank some more wine and we made love again and soon she was asleep in my arms as I held her and stroked her and listened to each soft snore in the darkness.

The next day was more of the same and the next day and the day after that. On the forth morning I woke her up by teasing my fingertips against her pussylips and she woke with a giggle and a smile as she opened her legs further. Over the next week we spent almost every waking moment together. The only times she left my sight were to use the bathroom or shower while I cleaned up and afterwards she would always hurry back to my side, coyly but teetering ever closer to full forgiveness. We made love in the kitchen, the living room, on the floor. She never made any advances on me herself but she was always eager to accept mine.

Heidi called again by the end of that first week and she sounded just a little annoyed that I hadn't bothered to call her back yet. In truth I had been so absorbed in Ms Swan that I had almost entirely forgotten about Heidi. It had been just over a week since I had fed last and this time I was even more tempted to accept her offer to go hunting. I even rationalized to myself that Ms Swan and I were secure enough that she wouldn't even be upset. But the call had come just before Ms Swan and I were going to bed and in the end I begged Heidi's pardon and promised her that I would take up her offer very soon. She was displeased at being rebuffed a second time but she carefully hid it behind a veneer of friendliness as she wished me a goodnight and hung up. She called again two days later but that time I didn't pick up.

By now Ms Swan and I were spending less time having sex and more time simply being together. She caught up on a lot of her favorite TV shows on the laptop and I watched them with her while she explained to me what was going on and which characters she liked. I smiled at how she seemed to favor the female villains. We watched a lot of movies as well. It had been a long time since I had lived in a house and I had decades worth of human culture to catch up on. So far she hadn't gotten bored of being cooped up in the house at all. I asked her if she missed school and she gave me a look as if I was stupid.

Heidi called again but again I didn't answer, hitting the ignore button with a pensive look on my face. It had been almost two weeks since I fed and I would have to do it very soon before Ms Swan herself was in danger. Already there were moments were I had to restrain myself from ripping her open during sex. But how would she react to me going hunting? Would she understand that Heidi was my friend and I liked to have her in my life? I hoped she would. Eventually I hoped they would become friends and lovers as well. Perhaps we could even form a coven together. There was safety in numbers and there were certain things about a vampire lifestyle that she was just going to have to accept. I felt like I should talk about this with her but I was afraid of upsetting her and ruining all the progress we had made. Our relationship seemed to be at its strongest point and yet the most fragile as well, tempered like steel and just as brittle.

Two days later we removed the cast from her leg. It would've been better to have her x-rayed as well to make sure it was healing properly and perhaps murder and feed from the doctor who treated her again but I was afraid of disrupting her feelings. I had to be absolutely certain of her forgiveness and understanding before I could do anything like that. I just hoped it would be soon. The thirst had become a constant soreness in my throat and it was enough to distract me even during sex.

I had gone to the pharmacy and bought her a leg brace which she wore around the house, happy to be off the crutches. By now a thin layer of dust had settled over the house and I realized we would have to clean. She was oddly eager to volunteer for chores but I wouldn't let her do it alone. We set out with vacuum cleaners and dust rags and furniture polish and soon the whole house was clean and sparkling. We did our first load of washing as well and heaped it into the dryer and by now she was quite exhausted. The tiny laundry had only a small lightbulb dangling from the ceiling and it contained nothing but a washer, a dryer, and a large water trough. The girl had tied back her hair with a bandana and now she took it off and wiped the sweat from her forehead. I cupped her face and she looked up at me, tired but happy. She smelt like sweat and furniture polish and I leaned to kiss her before grabbing her butt and hefting her onto the rumbling dryer and sinking to my knees to go down on her.

By the next morning she was almost perfectly healed. The burns on her back had faded and disappeared days ago and she was able to stand on her leg without the brace. I examined her calf in bed before we got up and then I placed kisses along her shinbone and then her kneecap and thigh before pressing my lips to her pussy itself. We were nearing the end of our little honeymoon and I was unsure what was going to happen next. We were going to have to talk about it and make some plans but there were so many things I was afraid to mention.

That night I insisted on making her dinner, just a simple pot of pasta and spaghetti sauce. My culinary skills weren't as sharp as the girl's but she agreed to merely keep an eye on me without helping. We had gone out to buy groceries and we both happened to be fully clothed, me in a white and red polkadot dress with an apron over it and her in the first pair of skinnyjeans she'd been able to wear in weeks. I lifted the lid of the spaghetti pot and stirred the contents, quite proud of myself. She observed all this from the kitchen counter and before I put the lid back she said:

"Did you put salt in the water?"

Rats. How could I forget?

The girl smiled and rose from the stool and came around the counter, gingerly on her newly healed leg, and added a handful of cooking salt to the pot of boiling pasta while I held the lid and smiled at her.

"How's your leg?" I asked her.

She looked down at it. She had no shoes on, only socks, and the jeans were very tight. "It's weird," she said. "It doesn't hurt, but it feels very fragile. Like it might break again if I walk too fast."

"We'll have to be very careful," I said, and then put the lid back on the pot and turned back to her. "How long will the pasta take, do you think?"

"About five minutes."

I smirked and reached for the button on her jeans. "Just long enough for a little quickie, hm?"

She smirked as well. "You think I can even get wet in five minutes?"

"We'll find out," I said, and then I pushed down her jeans and kissed her.

She moaned and instantly opened her mouth, letting my tongue spurn her into excitement. I grabbed her ass and groped it over her underwear and then I stuck my hand into her panties and groped it some more. She moaned and pushed her jeans down even further and then I lifted her by her ass and set her down again on the counter. She giggled at the coldness of the countertop on her buttcheeks and broke the kiss.

"I have to eat on this counter, you know," she said.

I grinned and sank to my knees.

"I don't mind eating off it," I said, and then proceeded to eat her out.

She moaned with her legs in the air and let my mouth wetten her further but then there was a hiss from the stove and she giggled and quickly tapped on my head.

"Shit, the water's boiling over, quick turn it down!"

I giggled as well and quickly untangled my head from her jeans and rose and turned off that side of the stove. The sauce was still simmering and the strainer was in the sink. I dumped the pot of pasta into the strainer in a huge cloud of steam and the girl giggled and waited with her legs dangling over the side of the counter and her jeans around her ankles.

I smiled and came back to her and gave her a big kiss before lowering again to my knees and sticking my head between her thighs. She moaned pleasurable as I resumed eating her out and I felt her hands weave into my hair.

"Mmm," she murmured. "You better hurry. The sauce'll burn."

I moaned in return and hooked my arms around her legs, my head smothered between her warm thighs, and pushed my tongue in deeper. She laughed and started breathing heavy and soon she came, squeezing my head and groaning happily at the ceiling.

I was looking up from between her thighs, her legs resting on my shoulders. I watched the orgasm ebb away over her face and smiled with my lips on her pussy and gave it a kiss when her eyes lowered to mine. She breathed out and swallowed and chuckled once.

"Wow," she said. "I guess that was your dinner, huh?"

"And desert too," I said, giving her a few more licks and kisses down there.

By now the sauce was bubbling pretty violently but we managed to save it before it did more than stick to the pan a little bit and soon the girl was seated at the kitchen counter with a plate of spaghetti covered over with rich red sauce dusted with parmesan and a side of salad.

"Mmm," she said after her first mouthful. "It's pretty good."

I was sitting on the other side of the counter, watching her, and I smiled. "I'm glad you like it."

She nodded and twirled her fork into the pasta and lifted it to her mouth. A loose strand dangled from her lips and she smiled at me as she sucked it down. I smiled as well, my heart completely glowing. We had made such amazing progress these last two weeks. I wasn't sure if she had entirely forgiven me but she was certainly willing to be with me and be happy.

I just hoped it would last.

I needed to feed so bad.

The girl had been glancing at my eyes as she ate and maybe the hunger was showing in those red orbs of mine because after a while her smile dimmed and she became serious and speculative. She took a sip from a glass of water and lowered it again.

"What about you?" she asked. "How long has it been since you actually fed?"

The mention of it gave me a jolt in my chest but I shrugged it off. "A while."

"Will you need to do it soon?"

I didn't answer. My throat began to burn. There was red spaghetti sauce on her lips, not the same shade as blood—not even close—but god it made me throb all over.

I had been afraid to talk about this but since she had bought it up perhaps it would be safe. I knew she was basically okay with me being a murderer but that was when she already had a very low opinion of me. During these last two weeks I had shown her a different side of myself. The tender side. The side that loved her and respected her and wanted to be with her no matter what. It was a side she very obviously liked and I was afraid to do damage to her new opinion of me.

But the look in her eyes was calm and curious and she had even stopped eating to wait for me to speak, so I opened my mouth and—

There was a knock on the door.

Both of us frowned and glanced toward the front of the house. Neither of us were expecting anyone, obviously, and we didn't exactly have any friends in town. Maybe it was the landlord or his daughter?

I slipped off the stool.

"That might be the landlord," I said. "I better check."

She nodded and turned on the stool to watch me go over to the front door. From the kitchen you could basically see the entire bottom floor of the apartment.

Another knock came as I reached for the doorknob and ceased again as I unlatched the doorchain. I opened the door and I was rather surprised to see Heidi.

"Heidi," I said, my mouth springing into a smile. "My, what a pleasant surprise. Come in, come in."

My warm welcome delighted her and she stepped into the apartment with a certain haughtiness, her heels clicking on the floorboard. She was wearing a stylish black dress with one sleeve that was fashioned from black lace and her thick dark reddish hair was in a full splendor of waves and curls over one shoulder. She carried a black leather clutch purse and she very clearly intended to go out tonight. I felt quite inferior in my plain polkadot house dress and that feeling had always turned me on for her.

Ms Swan was still sitting there at the kitchen counter and her face had gone completely cold. Heidi smiled at her and ignored her for the moment before turning back to me.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said. "I couldn't get you on the phone, so I decided to invite myself over."

A veiled accusation there and I felt the justice of it. Heidi was my dear friend and after our joyful reunion the other night it was quite abominable of me to avoid her for two weeks. Of course, it had been even more abominable to fuck her in front of Ms Swan during that joyful reunion but Ms Swan wasn't the only relationship of mine that seemed to require maintenance.

I chuckled and put a hand in the small of Heidi's back and led her into the kitchen area.

"Yes, I've been rather preoccupied nursing my little Bella back to health," I said. "Her leg is almost entirely healed. Bella, you remember Heidi?"

From the cold glare in her dark eyes it seemed she did remember her. Heidi smiled at her cockily and offered no greeting of her own and Ms Swan didn't either. She took her plate from the counter and slipped off the stool.

"I'll eat upstairs," she said.

Then she let her glare impale me as well for a moment before turning her back and marching up the stairs.

I sighed. I suppose it had been too much to expect them to simply forgive and forget but all things considered it could've been worse. A cold shoulder was much better than eruptions of emotion.

I chuckled awkwardly and turned to Heidi.

"Well," I said. "You and her perhaps got off on the wrong foot the other night, hm?"

She shrugged with a smile. "There's no injury on my side."

"No, you're sides are quite perfect," I said charmingly. "What brings you here, old friend?"

"Actually, I was hoping I could surprise you and take you to dinner with me. Something a little more palatable than pasta, although not quite as palatable as that girl upstairs."

I smiled and hesitated but the temptation was too great. Heidi was too beautiful and now that she was here in front of my eyes there was simply no way to resist, especially not combined with the temptation of blood. Ms Swan would understand. She knew I was a vampire and that things like this were necessary. And if she didn't, well, she would have to learn. I had done all I could to earn her love and now it was time for her to decide if she could accept me or not.

So I chuckled and placed a kiss on my old friend's gorgeously full lips.

"That sounds like a splendid idea," I said. "Allow me to get dressed, I'll be right back."

Then I turned and scampered upstairs like a girl excited for a date.

Ms Swan was in the bedroom, sitting crosslegged on the bed with the plate of pasta in her lap, and she looked up as I came in.

"Is she gone?" she asked me.

"Not quite," I said, striding over to the closet. "Actually, we're going out for a while. It's been a long time since I fed—you said so yourself—and…"

I trailed off, hoping casualness might prevent a scene.

It didn't work.

Ms Swan set the plate down on the bed and hopped off and came toward me with a frown.

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded.

I laughed gaily and selected some dresses from where they hung in the closet. "Getting dressed, silly. You can't expect me to go out like this, can you? Quick—which dress do you like better?"

I held two different dresses to my torso, one black, one green. It was a very indirect—and very transparent—way of begging for her approval but she wasn't fooled. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared.

"You're going out with that whore?"

I winced inwardly but outwardly I just laughed. "Oh, Bella, don't be so unfair. I know you might not have the best impression of her, but Heidi is my oldest friend. If you gave me another chance, I'm sure you can give her one too, can't you?"

She didn't answer, she just stood there with her arms crossed. I pulled the polkadot dress off and left it on the floor of the closet while I pulled on the black one. It was tight and short with very thin straps and I stepped into some black heels as well. I was tempted to put on some sexier underwear too but that might've been a bit much for the girl to tolerate. I'd just slip of my panties later on.

Finally I smiled at her and smoothed down the dress.

"Well? What do you think?"

She glared at me. "I think you should stay here."

I smiled and cupped her face. "I need to feed, Ms Swan," I said softly. "I'm a vampire. This is how vampires exist. I've tried so hard to impress you and win you over these past two weeks. Please don't let all that go to waste. I need you to understand, okay?"

She frowned and didn't answer. I gave her a kiss, softly but firmly, and then I smiled and hurried past her to put on some makeup.

She followed me all the way to the bathroom.

"Do you really have to, though?" she asked as I began applying lipstick to my mouth. "I mean, if you really need to feed, can't you steal some blood bags from a hospital or something?"

"I prefer fresh blood."

"I just don't think you should go out with her."

I smiled at her in the mirror and pursed my thick red lips. "Oh, Ms Swan. I must say I find it so charming that your jealousy so vastly outweighs any concern you might have for the innocent victim out there who's going to die tonight."

She glared at my reflection as I continued applying makeup. "I'm not jealous," she said. "I just think it's bullshit how she shows up here out of the blue and suddenly you're out the door without even talking to me about it. I mean, what the fuck is that?"

"Jealousy."

"Fuck you. Are you going to fuck her?"

"Who, the victim or Heidi?"

"Both."

"Well, yes."

She scoffed and shook her head at my face in the mirror in disbelief as I flicked my eyelashes with mascara. "I can't believe you," she said. "I thought you said you were going to try and earn my forgiveness and prove how much you love me or whatever bullshit you were talking about. That barely lasted two weeks, didn't it?"

That wounded me slightly. Those two weeks had meant everything to me and I really did try so hard.

I packed away the makeup and then turned to face her in that tiny bathroom we shared in this tiny house. She glared at my face, all covered now in sexy makeup, and I took her hands and spoke as gently as possible.

"I'm sorry, Ms Swan," I said. "But I'm not sure what to tell you."

"Tell me you won't go out with that slut downstairs."

"But, Bella. Heidi is my oldest friend. And I really do need to feed."

"Go tomorrow. By yourself."

"Bella…"

"Or with any other vampire in the world. Not her."

I didn't answer, I just looked at her and held her hands, and then she snatched her hands away from mine and glared at me furiously.

"I'm serious," she said. "You wanna stop making mistakes with me, then stop right now. Don't go. You need to work on making ME happy, not going out with some whore you used to fuck who suddenly shows up on the doorstep while we're trying to have dinner. You walk out on me right now and I swear to god I won't be here when you get back."

A pain came into my heart, as if it was being torn. Because I knew she was right. It was time to stop making mistakes. So far in our relationship I had managed to find a way to ruin every little bit of progress we made and if I went out with Heidi tonight I was going to not only ruin these last two weeks but perhaps destroy the entire thing.

But I did need to feed. I was desperate. And Heidi. Heidi was my…

Just then Heidi appeared in the doorway of the bathroom, silently, smiling, clad in that sexy black dress with that black lace sleeve stencilled over her pale and perfect skin. Ms Swan had her back to the door and she didn't realize Heidi was there until Heidi spoke.

"I heard yelling," she said. "Is everything alright?"

Ms Swan's face twisted in anger and she spun around. "Is it any of your business?"

Heidi raised an eyebrow at her innocently and then looked at me. I chuckled awkwardly and realized I had to get Heidi away from Ms Swan as quickly as possible. Ms Swan was in a very volatile mood and vampires could be no less volatile.

So I smiled and cleared my burning throat and then I moved past Ms Swan and took Heidi's arm and led her out into the corridor.

Ms Swan stayed upstairs.

I held my old friend's arm all the way to the front down and tried to make sense of the turmoil inside me. I was so confused. I was determined to do the right thing but I didn't know what that was. Was Ms Swan correct? Or was she being stubborn and childish? There was nothing unreasonable about wanting to spend an evening with an old friend, was there? Or were those simply the whisperings of my inner demons trying to trick me into another mistake?

I opened the front door and Heidi paused to smile at my dress.

"You look lovely tonight, Victoria," she said. "Just like old times, hm?"

Heidi looked so lovely too. With her lustrous mahogany hair, her amazing face, that sultry look in her dark red eyes. Her dress was slim and sexy and maddeningly black and figure-fitting and I wanted more than anything to go out with her and make love to her and share some lucky little victim between us.

But I couldn't.

It wasn't even a choice and perhaps that was the strangest thing. My feelings for Ms Swan seemed to have reached a point where I was simply incapable of deliberately doing anything that would hurt her and she had made it very clear upstairs that she would not put up with this. It was actually very humiliating. Five hundred year old vampire with immense power and evilness bested by teenage girl with angry eyes.

I sighed. Heidi had put her hands at my waist and now I gently took them away.

"I'm sorry, my dear," I said. "I'm afraid I can't go out tonight."

Heidi went absolutely still for a moment. Her eyes hardened. I felt terrible at disappointing her but also very relieved that I had remained true to Ms Swan. Heidi snorted and looked at my dress.

"Then why did you get dressed?" she asked dryly.

That was rather an unfair question, since it made it extremely obvious that I had been viciously pussy-whipped by a helpless human hostage who happened to be my girlfriend, but I chuckled it off and placed a hand on Heidi's back to lead her outside, down the small flight of stone steps and onto the sidewalk.

"I didn't realize that I would be busy tonight," I said. "Perhaps next time you could call ahead and make plans?"

She turned and looked at me coldly. "I've been calling all week but you haven't been interested in talking to me."

I chuckled again, to try and lighten the offence. "Yes, I've been rather preoccupied lately, haven't I? It's taken a while to get the house in order, humans require so much maintenance. Call me again sometime and I'll be sure to pick up."

She wasn't fooled by my levity. Her eyes darkened to a near black under the streetlamps and I could tell her pride was very wounded. She wasn't a woman who was used to rejection, particularly not from me. For five hundred years I had all but revelled in Heidi's superiority and seductiveness and never once had I turned her down.

Until now.

Heidi adjusted her purse in her hands but as angry as she was she wouldn't let it show too much. She looked across the street and back at me and let her eyes flicker over my dress before giving a flippant shrug.

"Actually, I don't think I'll bother calling again," she said. "I thought it would be worthwhile to renew our friendship but obviously you're not the same Victoria my old friend was. Farewell, my dear, perhaps a different decade will be kinder to us."

She turned and went to leave but I took her hand.

It was an impulse and again it cause my heart to tear from conflict. Because it occurred to me as I did it that I should've let her go. Heidi was a complication Ms Swan and I didn't need right now. But at the same time I just couldn't do it.

"Heidi," I said.

She turned back, looking at me coldly but willing to hear me out. I smiled at her and tugged her closer to me and then I cupped her face with my other hand.

"I'm sorry for being unavailable right now," I said. "Ms Swan is in a delicate state. I can't afford to upset her. Please understand that she is very important to me. You are as well. But I know I can count on your understanding more than I can count on hers right now. So please be patient with me, okay?"

Her eyes softened. She blinked them and looked away and looked back again.

"Why do you even put up with her?" she asked softly. "Why not just kill her and be done with it?"

I smiled and stroked her cheek under my hand. Clearly she didn't understand my feelings at all but she seemed at least willing to be patient.

"I'll call you myself as soon as I can," I told her. "I promise."

Then I kissed her lovingly on the mouth.

She accepted the kiss and kissed me back for a moment and then she gave me a sigh and smile before turning and continuing down the sidewalk. I watched her go, happy and only with a glimmer of misgiving. By refusing to go out with her I had avoided making another critical mistake with Ms Swan. But by promising to call her, perhaps I had only deferred that mistake to another day.

The front door was open and when I turned back to it I saw that Ms Swan was standing there in her jeans and tanktop. The night had a chill in the air and she was hugging her arms around her middle and looking at me with a very abashed look on her face.

"You're not going out?" she asked.

I smiled and shook my head.

She seemed surprised at that and unsure what to say. As if she hadn't thought I would actually jilt my friend for her and didn't know if she was supposed to be flattered or not. Finally she said:

"Are you sure?"

I chuckled and came up the steps and closed the door behind me. I cupped her face with both hands and gazed into her eyes as we stood in the warmth of this house we shared together.

"The only thing I'm sure about is that I love you."

She blinked at me emotionally. She looked like she wanted to say it back but just couldn't bring herself to do it. I understood perfectly. I had been at peace with my twistedness for a very long time. It was going to take her just as long to become as comfortable with it as I was.

Instead she surprised me by saying:

"You can feed from me if you really need to."

My mouth fell open slightly. My hands fell away from her face. Thirst flared across the back of my throat and my heart pounded and for a second I was struck absolutely dumb—not just from the offer but from the fact that such a thing had never even occurred to me. I had lost the desire to feed from her as soon as I realized how much I liked her alive.

But now that she mentioned it I realized that it was possible. Her scent was as intoxicating as it ever was but I was used to it by now. I was capable of controlling myself. It wasn't something we could do very often but tonight…tonight maybe we both needed it. To prove something to ourselves. To consummate the relationship.

"Are you willing to take that risk?" I asked her gently.

She gave me a smile and a nod. "I'm not afraid. I've thought about it a lot. And the longer you wait, the more risky it'll be. You'll be able to control yourself, won't you?"

I looked into her eyes to try and read her intentions. All I saw in those depthless black pools was willingness. She wanted to do this. She wanted me to do it. She might've forbidden me to go out but that was only because she had everything I needed right here—which was the same reason I had stayed.

So I returned her smile and nodded.

"I'll control myself," I said. "I'll never hurt you again, Ms Swan, I promise."

She smiled at that and then the smile turned coy.

"Well, I hope it hurts just a little," she said. "I kind of miss it when you hurt me."

Her words and the look in her dark and beautiful eyes sent an incredible rush of lust throughout my body and I was tempted to grab her head and bite into her face right then.

But I managed to control myself. My vision had blurred for a moment and I knew my eyes had gone pitch black and now she was gazing into them without a single bit of fear, bold as you please, and I released the breath I had inhaled very slowly.

"I'm glad to hear you say that," I said. Then I leaned to her mouth and whispered onto her lips. "Because I like to hurt you too."

I kissed her and bit her bottom lip playfully. Not hard enough to break the skin but hard enough to make her giggle and recoil and touch it with her fingers to check if it was bleeding. I smiled and gestured toward the kitchen with my head.

"Come, you still need to eat," I said. "Let's enjoy the rest of our evening together."

She nodded with a face full of impishness and sucked her bitten lip in anticipation.

The plate of pasta had been left upstairs but it had cooled down quite a bit. I heated it up in the oven for her and she resumed her seat at the kitchen counter beside the bowl of salad that had been left there and continued to eat. Normally I would sit at the counter with her but with so much lust coursing through my body I felt it was better to keep just a little distance. I leaned back against the cabinets with my arms folded under my breasts and watched her from across the small kitchen. She ate in silence and smiled and let her eyes roam over the slinky black cocktail dress that I wouldn't be going out in and I could tell she was just as turned on as I was.

After she was finished we washed the plates together at the sink together with the pots, me washing, her drying. I told her to take it easy on her leg, that it still wasn't fully healed yet, but she said it was fine as she crisscrossed around the kitchen putting the plates away, flirting, smiling, telling me to hurry. I pulled the plug in the sink and then I turned with a smile and wove a soapy hand into her hair before swooping to her mouth urgently. She moaned into the kiss and kissed me back and squeezed one of my boobs until it popped out of the dress. I laughed and told her to be patient and she smiled and licked the nipple to tease me before I took her hand and led her upstairs.

Together we undressed in the bathroom and together we stepped into the shower. By now we were each almost mad with lust and it took all our restrained not to ravish each other under the water as our naked bodies brushed and touched, wet and slick with soap and throbbing all over. I rubbed soap into her ass as I kissed her mouth and she hooked her leg around me and mashed her tits into mine. She was almost mewling like a kitten and I was almost growling like a tiger. I wanted her so much. Needed her. Abruptly she broke the kiss and dropped to her knees in the floor of the shower and pressed her forehead to my hipbone to try and restrain herself from eating my pussy. Finally she looked up and asked for the bar of soap and I gave it to her and watched as she soaped up her breasts and used them to wash my leg, rubbing them into me and heaving and staring up at me with those dark and lidded eyes.

After we got out the shower we dried off with towels and used the hairdryer to blowdry our hair and then we crossed the corridor naked and went into the bedroom. By now our bodies were practically humming with lust and the girl gasped as I grabbed her and shoved her toward the bed. She landed and bounced on the mattress and gasped again as I opened her legs and swooped to her pussy. Instantly she was moaning and writhing on the mattress and within minutes she twisted up in an orgasm that made her legs tighten around my neck like anacondas. She wheezed and told me that was amazing and then she sat up and kissed my lips and kissed them some more and smiled into them before pushing me down onto my back and lowering her head between my legs. A gasp came out of me as her tongue licked across my sensitive slit and slipped into it and licked inside and I climaxed with a low moan as my back arched off the bed. She was still licking me but I grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her into a kiss before rolling her over and pushing my hips at her entrance to make her moan and push back. Soon our legs were scissored and I was grinding my clit into hers, hard and fast, until she cried out and came and I came too. She was getting exhausted by now but she smiled as I opened her limp legs once more and started licking her vagina all over again, devouring it with a hunger that was absolute and ravenous and that only her blood could satisfy.

For over an hour we made love until finally she was covered in sweat and wheezing and curled up on her side with her eyes closed. I smiled at her and took her shoulder, so soft and warm under my hand, and eased her onto her back. Her eyes fluttered open about halfway and she smiled at me with such purity of satisfaction that my heart almost swelled out of my chest. I was laying at her side and I let my eyes drift to her breasts. Two soft mounds there. I touched one of them and stroked it and caressed it and then I lowered the hand between her legs. She smiled some more and moaned as I inserted some fingers into her vagina. It was hot inside, hot and wet, and I began to probe at her interior and pump them and kiss her mouth with my lips until she climaxed one more time.

She had panted the orgasm directly into my mouth and now I kissed her again and removed my fingers and touched her face with that same sticky hand. She moaned and smiled and waited for me to do what we had agreed I was going to do and finally I climbed between her legs and lowered my body across hers.

"Are you sure about this, Ms Swan?" I asked her, gazing in her eyes.

A smile came over her face and she nodded in satisfied exhaustion. "Yes," she said. "I'm so sick of fighting against it. Because you're right. I do belong to you. I belong to you so much, Victoria."

I smiled at her and allowed the smile to tilt into a smirk.

"No," I said. "I think it's me who belongs to you."

A sweet giggle came out of her and I lowered my lips to her neck. She moaned softly and turned her face aside and wrapped her arms around my back. Our breasts were connected and squashed together between us and I licked the skin of her throat and she moaned again.

"How much will it hurt?" she asked breathlessly.

I kissed her neck and murmured into it. "Just a little. The bite will be only a little snip and I'll make sure no venom enters your system. Are you ready?"

"Yes," she said in a hiss of anticipation. "Do it."

My throat was on fire by now but it was surprisingly easy to control myself. I took a tiny nibble of her skin between my teeth and then gave it a sharp gnash of my incisors.

The pain made her gasp and she gasped again as suddenly my hand clenched in her hair and my mouth fastened viciously to her neck. The blood flooded my mouth in a blinding swell of sweetness and that first mouthful caused my eyes to roll up into my head. An uncontrollable passion erupted from a split in my heart and yet the girl was in no danger at all. My grip on her was a grip to keep her. Not destroy her. More blood was leaking from the wound and I tightened my arms around her and raised up and sat in the bed with her in my lap, clutching her with all my love. She was so soft and so warm and she moaned and whimpered and wrapped her arms around me and her legs as well and held me just as tightly as I held her as I sucked at the gash in her slender neck and drank down her precious blood that I had never dared hoped to taste.

—

AN: This was the first chapter that spanned more than one day, lol. I admit I was very eager to get that cast off Bella's leg. To be honest, the normal length of time for a broken leg to heal is about five weeks, but that's far too long. It was only a fracture, anyway, so I don't think it's too unbelievable.

Anyway, hope it turned out good. This was sort of a milestone in their relationship. I felt it was time to break the pattern of two steps forward one step back and finally let their relationship solidify a little. It was also a very light and fluffy chapter compared to most. I felt it was a nice change of pace. I had a lot of fun writing it, but don't worry, it'll get dark again eventually. ;)

Anyway, hope you liked it. I'll be curious to see what people think, especially the people who had bad reactions to the previous chapter. I'd love to know if this seemed like a suitable follow up or if it felt kind of flat or false. Thanks for reading. :)