A Taste Of A Vampire

What she couldn’t understand was how she could have fallen asleep in his arms in his bed, and woken in her own bed. Her car had been parked in her garage as if it had never left. She was in her nightgown, as if she had dressed herself and gone to bed. Yet, there was no time in her memory when she could recall leaving Nicholas and returning home. Try as she might, there was no unraveling the mystery, and there was no getting past the memories of the way that she had felt with him, and the passions that he had ignited in her. She had thought about it so many times that she wasn’t sure what was truly real and what wasn’t.

Claire stood there at the edge of the stand of trees, staring out at Nicholas’ home. Everything in her yearned for him, ached for him, and she whispered his name into the still air around her. “Nicholas… I need you.”

A cool breeze swirled around her, tugging gently at her blouse and moving through her hair. She closed her eyes for a moment and let herself feel it, and then she sighed and told herself that she had to let him go.

Claire was a stranger in a strange land. She wasn’t staying in England. She had no business letting herself desire anyone the way that she wanted him. She knew that if she continued, she would be leading herself into inevitable heartbreak, and that was something she had neither the time nor the inclination for.

Mounting her horse again, she rode back down the hill and through the grounds once more. She returned the horse to Hastings in the stable and went in for an early dinner alone in the breakfast nook.

When dinner was finished, she bade the staff goodnight and went to her room. She soaked in a luxurious hot bubble bath and enjoyed the cool air that drifted in from the open balcony doors in her room.

She slipped into a dark blue satin sheath that fell loosely to just below her hips and she closed the balcony doors. With a relaxed sigh, she sank into the depths of her bed, pulling only the duvet over her, as the summer air was warm around her. Sleep found her quickly, though her thoughts were a tangle.

Darkness enveloped her mind, and in her dreams, she felt as though she was somewhere unfamiliar, but she wasn’t afraid. She knew that she wasn’t alone. She could feel someone or something else there with her, and she was not threatened by it at all, but rather comforted.

She called out quietly, though she could not hear what it was that she said; her own voice was silent to her, but she knew that the word she had said over and over could be heard by whoever or whatever it was that she had called to.

Out of the darkness in her dream a figure formed, unclear at first as it was a little distance from her, but then it became clearer as it neared her. She tried hard to look at it to see who it was, but a shadowy mist separated them, and she couldn’t quite make out the person until he was directly before her.

It was Nicholas. His face was solemn, and he watched her in silence, reaching his hand to stroke her cheek.

She said his name, and as her lips formed the word, she realized that it was him who she had been calling out for. He smiled a little at her and as he did, there was something about his smile that both frightened and enthralled her, and though in her heart, she knew that she should run, she reached for him instead, begging him to kiss her.

He drew nearer to her, but instead of kissing her mouth, he leaned down slightly and touched his lips to her neck, kissing gently at first, but then the kissing turned to su*king and biting, and panic flooded her as she clamped her hands on his shoulders and a silent scream escaped her.

Claire sat bolt upright in bed, gasping for air, clutching the duvet and breathing hard. She realized that it had been a dream, and she covered her face with her hands, groaning a little as she thought to herself that she was spending far too much time thinking about him.

She took a long slow breath and lowered her hands, feeling a calmness flow through her. She shook her head and looked around her room, but her glance stopped short when she saw a dark figure in the corner near the closed balcony door.

Her heart began to race wildly in her and she gasped as fear froze her whole body. She wanted to run and scream, but she found that she couldn’t move. The figure stepped from the shadow and moved toward her, and as it came nearer to her, she could see from the moonlight that shone through the glass balcony doors, and from the flickering light of the fire, that it was Nicholas.

“I didn’t mean to startle you. Please don’t be frightened. You’ve nothing to fear from me,” he said in a quiet voice as he approached her.

Slowly her icy blood began to flow again and she found her voice. “What are you doing here?” she managed to ask incredulously. “How did you get in the house? How did you get in my room?”

Flinging the duvet from her, she stood up from the bed and faced him defiantly, though that defiance seemed to dissolve like sugar in water the closer he got to her. He stopped when he was not more than a few inches from her, gazing down at her with a fiery light in his green eyes.

“What does it matter? I’m here. You needed me… and I came,” he said in a low and steady voice, raising his hand up to stroke his fingers over her cheek.

Her breath caught in her throat at his touch and she forgot for a moment that she was astounded that he should be standing there before her in her own bedroom. She turned her face slightly and her lips brushed the backs of his fingers.

Drawing in a breath with some effort, she blinked and lifted her hand, closing it around his wrist and pushing his hand away from her face. “What are you talking about? What do you mean I needed you?”