After yesterday's Facebook grumpiness, I thought I would show my sweeter side. Recently, I shared the first chapters of two different books I'm working on for my alter ego. But I understand that not everyone likes historical romance. So ... I was thinking ... would you like to read the first chapter of the story I'm working on for Stefan?
If you haven't read the Dark Days series, Stefan is a nightwalker who likes to drive Mira insane. He is definitely a pain in the butt in the Dark Days series and I never really expected to write a story for him. But then Erin Prescott appeared in my head and she convinced me to take another look at Stefan. Stefan first appears in
Dawnbreaker and then comes back for more in
Wait for Dusk.
The snippet below is the first chapter of the story and is about 5,700 words long. It is told from Erin's point of view. Happy reading!
The thunder rumbled overhead and
lightning flickered, dancing behind thick clouds that rolled across the
heavens, blocking out the stars. I
glared up at the incoming storm, cursing it and my worsening luck as I waited
for the ferry to dock. I was still a
couple blocks from the apartment I was renting while in Venice and I knew the
sky was going to open up before I managed to reach sanctuary. That was just how my luck had been running
recently. The flood waters had finally
receded that afternoon at the Piazza San Marco, but I hadn't had any time to do
any sketches because I was too busy trying to track down my landlord regarding
the leaking ceiling and the lack of heat in my place. The spring air was cool and the nights were
dipping down close to freezing. I wanted
to get through a night without wearing four layers of clothes.
The ferry driver scowled at me,
anxious to have me off his boat. I was
his last passenger and he was ready to get back to his own home with the sun
having sunk beneath the horizon more than twenty minutes earlier. But that was everyone now that the world knew
that vampires were real. I wasn’t
particularly thrilled to be out walking around at night like I was a pizza
waiting to be picked up, but I figured that if they wanted to snack on me, they
could come in through my window with the broken latch at any time.
Before the boat even reached the
dock, the man was handing me up onto the sidewalk and starting to reverse
away. My balance wobbled and I reached
out for a railing of some kind to catch myself before I tumbled backward into
the canal. What I caught was a
hand. A very cold, strong hand. I looked up to see who the hand was attached
to and my heart skipped a beat.
Men were not supposed to be this
attractive. Straight, dark brown hair
hung down to his hard jawline, while piercing gray eyes held mine for a split
second. It was only because I wavered on
the edge in surprise, once again threatening to fall backward into the frigid
water that he broke his gaze, tugging me more firmly onto the sidewalk.
As I regained my footing, I gently
pulled my hand free of the man's, but there was a reluctance in his grip, as if
he didn't mean to immediately release me.
I didn't know if he thought I was so clumsy that I was going to fall
into the waters despite his repeated assistance.
"Grazie," I murmured, starting to backpedal away from him while
keeping my eyes lowered to the ground.
Something about his sharp gaze unnerved me. It was like ... I was afraid that if I met his
eyes again, I wouldn't be able to look away.
The man said something in a rush of
Italian that I didn't understand, but his voice was almost hypnotic. I shook my head as if to shake off the spell
he was trying to weave.
"Sorry. Americana. I don't speak much Italian," I said,
waving one hand at him with a little smile.
From my experience, most of the locals were happy to ignore you once
they discovered that you didn't speak the language — except for the
vendors. If they thought you were going
to buy something, they were a little more willing to try to communicate.
"Bien. I am not Italian. I said I am sorry that the ferry driver was
so careless that he nearly caused you harm," the strange man
translated. His accent surprised me,
drawing my eyes back to his face when I had been trying to avoid it. He was French, but his accent was different
from what I’d heard in Paris two months ago.
"No harm done. He's like everyone else; anxious to be inside
when the sun sets."
The man smiled and that initial frisson
of warning that had slipped through me at the first touch of his hand proved to
be right at the sight of his sharp fangs.
"And with very good reason,” he added.
"You're a vampire," I
whispered in shock. A heartbeat later,
my shoulders slumped. "And I'm
dinner."
"Oui, mademoiselle. But I
promise, you will not remember a thing."
It was on the tip of my tongue to say
that being a meal for someone wasn't something that I was likely to forget when
a large raindrop splatted right across the vampire's nose, causing him to jerk
in surprise. A loud bark of laughter
jumped from me and I clapped my hand over my mouth to stop any further noise
when he glowered down at me, though I wasn't quite sure if he was more
perturbed by my laughter or the rain that was coming down in fat drops. When a second one landed across his smooth
cheek, I didn't bother to hide my laughter any longer, letting it pour from me.
"I don't see the humor, mademoiselle," he said stiffly.
"It's just been that kind of
day," I laughed as the rain immediately sped up so that thick sheets of it
were now pouring down on us. I stared at
the man, my flash of fear subsiding. He
didn't look quite as menacing now that his hair was flattened to his head and
his designer shirt and pants were sticking to his frame. Hell, he looked pretty pathetic as he frowned
up at the sky, maybe cursing God for making it rain when he obviously had other
plans for the evening.
"Look, I would imagine that it's
going to be pretty hard to find a meal since it's supposed to rain all
night. You're not going to just let me
go, are you?" I said, nearly shouting over the pounding rain and the
rumble of thunder.
"No," he said sternly,
narrowing his eyes on me. He still
didn't look as intimidating as he should have with drops of rain hanging from
the ends of his long eyelashes and dripping from the tip of his straight
aquiline nose.
"Well, then would you mind
terribly if we did this in a somewhat drier location? I don't know about you, but I don't
personally care to eat while being rained on."
The vampire just stared at me with an
utterly perplexed expression on his lean, handsome face. But then, I didn't imagine that his meal
often bargained with him. When he didn't
immediately respond and the cold had sunk through my sodden clothes to reach
the very marrow of my bones, I threw up my hands in disgust and started to jog
in the direction my apartment building.
He'd either follow or he'd find someone else more appealing to dine
on. I was exhausted, drenched, irritated,
and nearly frozen. I wasn’t going to
wait on my would-be attacker to make up his mind.
The ancient palazzo I was staying in
had been converted into several apartments and was less than two blocks away. It didn't take me long to cut over to it from
where the ferry had dropped me. I heard
no other footsteps splashing along the wet pavement other than my own and I
didn't bother to look over my shoulder for my predator. For a moment, I thought that maybe he had
moved on and I was stunned that I was partially disappointed by the idea. It might have been nice to ask him a few
questions, though he'd already said I wouldn't remember anything. I didn't know if that meant I wasn't going to
survive or if would simply erase my memories.
That's what the vampires were always doing in those movies and books
that everyone loved.
As I crossed the last narrow bridge over
a canal, I slipped on the wet stone pavement and a strong hand caught my elbow,
helping me to keep my feet.
"You are not very steady,"
the vampire observed drily, instantly surprising me. I couldn't imagine anyone
moving with such stealth, but he had moved behind me with the silence of a
shadow.
I bit back an irritated retort about
the rain and tried to pull my elbow free of his grasp, but he refused to
release me until I was back on the sidewalk and away from the canal. All I could think was "Don't worry,
buster. I won't fall in the canal. I've already been lucky enough to win a date
with your fangs." But I kept my
comments to myself as I struggled to dig into my jeans pocket and pull out my
keys. The combination of the soaked
fabric and my half-frozen fingers made it a fight, but I finally got them free
and the door unlocked.
The vampire followed silently along, up
the narrow stairs to the third floor. I
paused long enough to wipe some of the water running down my face from my eyes
before inserting the key into the lock.
As I turned back after stepping across the threshold, a thought occurred
to me. Could he enter without being
invited? It was a favorite trope of all
the vampire books. Yet as I looked at him, the tall vampire was already stepped
into the apartment.
"Well, I guess that answers that
question," I muttered under my breath as I shut the door behind him.
A sinister grin slid across his
lips. "You were hoping I couldn't
enter without your invitation? Was that
your plan of escape?"
A little snort escaped me. "Actually, I didn't think of it until
just a second ago."
"And if I couldn't, would you have
invited me in?"
I paused in the act of locking the door,
my eyes focused on the deadbolt in my hands.
"Would you tell me the truth about something?"
"I will."
"Are you going to kill
me?"
“No.
There is no need."
"Will it hurt?"
The vampire took a step closer, crowding
me without actually touching me.
"Would you like it to?"
A sound of disgust rose from my throat
and I glared at the vampire over my shoulder for a second before pushing away
from the door. My shoulder bumped him
lightly but it was enough to get him to step back so that I could easily walk
past him. "I hope you don't mind
but your dinner would very much like to get dry and warm before you dig
in."
He said nothing, but I could feel his
eyes trained on me as I moved about. The
apartment had an open floor plan so that upon entering you could see the living
room, the small dining room, and the even smaller kitchen. I peeled off my soggy shoes and socks as I
crossed the room, my wet feet now slapping against the cold hardwood
floor. I paused at each of the three
buckets placed under the leaks to check that they weren't about to overflow.
"It is raining in your home,"
the vampire said with an air of confusion and wonder.
"No kidding," I grumbled as I
flipped over a small trash can, emptying wadded up paper and a couple candy bar
wrappers onto the floor, before placing it under a new leak that had appeared
with the storm. I started to head into
the bedroom off the kitchen and paused to look back at the vampire still
standing near the door. "Do you ...
I mean ... are you cold?"
"I don't feel cold or hot like
you do, but I cannot say that these wet clothes are particularly comfortable,”
he admitted. He held his arms out to
side, raining drops of water onto the floor.
There was just something very stiff and
proper about his tone that brought a smile to my lips. It was the first I'd had in a few days. My trip to Venice was not going well. With a shake of my head, I ducked into the
bathroom and grabbed a pair of towels.
Pressing one to my head, I threw the other one at the vampire. It was going to fall painfully short, but he
moved with amazing speed, closing the distance so that he could easily catch
the towel before it touched the floor.
And still, he moved without a whisper of sound. I jerked back, slamming my back into the
doorjamb behind me, my heart pounding in my chest like it was attempting to
break free. It was the first time I'd
seen him do anything to make me think that he was something other than a cold,
wet man.
The vampire lifted the towel toward
me and nodded, "Thank you." He
didn't take another step toward me but proceeded to rub the towel over his
hair.
"No problem," I whispered,
taking a shaking breath to try to calm my beating heart. "I'll see if I have anything that might
fit you."
My pulse only started to slow down
again when I escaped to the bedroom. I
started to shut the door, but considering that I was his meal, I was afraid
that he'd think I was trying to escape.
That didn't strike me as a wise idea, particularly after how fast I'd
seen him move already. So far, we were
both being civil about this whole exchange and I was really hoping to keep it
that way. I didn’t want to do anything
that might convince him that he needed to become violent.
Alone in my room, I was once again aware
of how cold I'd become. I stripped off
my clothes with trembling, numb fingers and left them on a pile on the floor,
before digging a pair of panties and a bra out of the large travel bag shoved
in one corner. I started to grab a pair
of jeans, but paused. Jeans might look
somewhat nice, but they’d be nowhere near as warm as a pair of cotton jogging
pants. With another sound of disgust, I
dropped the jeans and quickly pulled on the jogging pants. I was dinner, not a date. He could probably care less what I looked
like so long as my blood was warm.
"Hey!" I shouted as I dug for
a heavy sweatshirt. "Is it bad
etiquette for me to ask what your name is?"
"My name is Stefan."
His voice sounded incredibly close. Turning to look that the door hadn't swung
completely open from where I had partially closed it, I gasped to find him
standing in the bedroom just past the open door. "Hey!" I shouted, grabbing the
towel I'd dropped so I could cover my chest. It wasn't like he could see much,
but he didn't need to see anything as far as I was concerned. "I didn't
say you could come in here! Get
out!"
"You asked me a question. I thought you wished to speak." A smirk rose to this lips and I was tempted
to throw a shoe at his head, regardless of whether he was a vampire.
"Through the door,” I
snapped. “You could have answered
through the door. Now get out. I'll be out in a minute." I turned my back on him and pulled my
sweatshirt on. I couldn't hear him
moving, so it wasn't until I peeked under my arm behind me to find that he had
left the room and returned the door to its previously partially open
position. I sighed, my shoulders
slumping for a second. Someone needed to
put a bell around that man’s neck. But
then, I guess that would make hunting humans a little difficult.
After running the towel over my hair
one last time, I dropped it on the floor with my wet clothes and grabbed a
brush. I ran it quickly through my short blond hair as I searched for the large
men’s sweatshirt that had belonged to an ex.
I gave up after a minute when I couldn’t find it. Apparently I hadn’t packed it like I initially
thought.
“Sorry, but I don’t have anything
that would— Whoa.”
I had started talking before leaving
my bedroom, confident that my voice would easily carry to him but thought
completely left my brain as I stepped into the living room and my eyes fell on
the mostly naked vampire standing in the middle of my apartment. Stefan had stripped out of his wet clothes
and wrapped a towel around his narrow hips so that I was staring at a wide
muscular chest and lean strong arms.
The “Whoa” that had slipped
unchecked from my lips should have sounded more like a “Holy shit! What the
hell!” kind of angry. Instead, my voice
had dipped to a low, husky tone I didn’t know I possessed and sounded more like
a breathless “Wow” than “Whoa”, which could also be translated to “Yum.” It was only when he crossed his arms over
his chest that I even realized that I had been staring with my mouth hanging
open like an idiot. I jerked my eyes up
to his face only to find a smug smile on his full lips.
I jerked my gaze away from him
completely, preferring to stare at the scarred hardwood floor under my feet
until some kind of organized thought returned to my brain. What was more disturbing to me was the fact
that I obviously hadn’t accepted the fact that this person was planning to
snack on me! If I really believed that
this man was going to drink my blood and potentially kill me, I wouldn’t be
attracted to him, right? Dear God, I
hoped I wasn’t that kind of a masochistic sicko. I’d dated some less-than-stellar guys in my life,
but being attracted to a potential killer was another ball of wax.
“Sorry. I—” I
started again but stopped when I realized that I had no memory of what I had
been talking about when I walked into the room.
It was like my mind had been completely wiped clean. It was a blank slate. My cheeks burned and flamed bright red in my
humiliation, my mind churning for anything to say.
“I put my clothes on your heater to
dry but it doesn’t appear to be on,” Stefan said, amusement skipping through
his words. He wasn’t laughing outright
at me, but he didn’t sound far from it.
At least his comment succeeded in
snapping my brain from its trudge through nothingness. Keeping my head down, I walked over the cold
cast iron radiator and picked up the clothes he had neatly laid out there in
hopes of speeding their drying. “You
know who would be a good snack for you?” I demanded irritably as I swept past
him and stomped into the small kitchen.
“My landlord. And while you’re
draining him, maybe you could work your vampire magic and convince him to have
someone fix my heat. Or the roof. Or the hot water heater so that I can have a
hot shower at least once while I’m in town.”
I dropped his clothes in an empty
chair before I opened the oven and checked the pilot light. Satisfied that it was still lit, I turned the
heat up, leaving the door open so that it would chase away the chill in the
air. Very carefully, I laid Stefan’s
clothes across the two chairs that were tucked into the tiny dining room table
and positioned them before the oven so they would dry faster. I mentally shoved aside the realization that
I had not seen his underwear. Did vampires go commando?
“Why has this landlord not taken
care of these matters for you?” Stefan inquired. The word landlord sounded so foreign coming
from him, as if he’d never said it before.
“You mean other than the fact that
he’s a lazy asshole and he’s clinging to the hope that if he puts it off long
enough I’ll be gone before he has to actually fix anything?”
“Yes, other than that,” Stefan said
in a cool tone that forced my gaze back to his eyes. He was struggling to keep a straight face.
I picked up a dishtowel off the table
and flung it in his direction with a laugh.
There was something infectious about his amusement. It was like watching a shaft of sunlight
break through a bank of clouds. His
proper speech and just the stiff way he held his body made me think that he
wasn’t the teasing, laughing, joking type at all.
But too soon the silence grew between us
and it stopped being comfortable. There
was only the steady drip and plop of water as it leaked from the ceiling into
the buckets around the apartment. It was
on the tip of my tongue to offer him something to drink as I would anyone I was
entertaining in my home, but that something to drink was me and I wasn’t too
keen on the idea.
“Do you have to do this every night?”
“What is that?”
“Go out and … find …” I stumbled,
struggling to find the right words.
“Hunt for prey?” he easily supplied.
This time it was my turn to smirk at
him. “You cannot call what you’re doing
tonight hunting. I nearly pulled you
into the canal and then after discovering what you are, I invited you into my
home to take shelter from the storm. I
might as well have jumped on a platter and shoved an apple in my mouth. This is not hunting.”
Stefan chuckled softly, sending a shiver
through me that had nothing to do with the cold. Hell, I was starting to feel uncomfortably
warm, but I couldn’t decide if it was because I was standing so close to the
oven or from staring at the sexy naked man before me. I’m
gonna go with ‘Naked Vampire for $1,000,’ Alex.
“No, this is not hunting in the
traditional sense,” Stefan admitted. He
cocked his head slightly to the side, sending several strands of hair down to
hang before his eyes. “You have done
this before?”
“What?
Been dinner for a vampire? Hell
no!” I said sharply, my voice jumping before I could catch it. I walked over to sink and grabbed a glass I
had washed earlier in the day and carried it to where a bucket was nearly full
of water. Putting it under the dripping
water, I carried the bucket into the kitchen and dumped its contents. It hadn’t really needed it, but I felt better
doing something instead of just staring at the vampire.
“Then I am confused. Why are you so calm?”
I paused in my trek back with the bucket
and smiled at him. “What would you have
done if I had screamed and run?”
“Stopped you.” There was a coldness to his voice that I
hadn’t heard before, instantly reminding me that I was alone with a
predator.
I cleared my throat, holding desperately
onto my smile. “And if I had tried to
fight you?”
“You would not have had the chance.”
I gave a little shrug as I changed
places with the glass and bucket. “So
there you go. There wasn’t a shot in
hell I could get away. You won before
the fight even started. I just hoped
that you wouldn’t kill me.” I paused
there with the glass tightly clenched in my hand and met his gaze, waiting.
Some of the coldness that had filled his
eyes seemed to ease and he nodded, reaffirming his earlier statement that he
would not kill me.
“So why panic?” I said with a
shrug. “I’ve given blood to the Red
Cross before. I can donate a little to
you.”
He frowned in thought as he looked at
me. “If all humans thought like you,
hunting would become…”
“Obsolete,” I suggested.
“Boring,” he finished.
“Boring!” I repeated. “Oh my god, the man thinks I’m boring. Can you believe that, Venice?” I said, talking to the furniture as I placed
the glass on the coffee table before the small sofa. Moving as fast as I could, I snatched up a
pillow from the sofa and launched it at him.
He easily dodged it as I had expected, but I continued to throw pillows,
towels, and anything else soft I could find at him while giggling like a
lunatic. “There! How’s that for boring? Ever had dinner throw pillows at you?”
“No, I haven’t.” Stefan’s voice dance
around me, sounding extremely close. I
twisted around, trying to keep him in sight, but he was gone. My heart pounded in my chest as I searched
the apartment. But as I started to turn
back toward the kitchen, Stefan grabbed me by the waist from behind. I screamed in surprise and tried to dart away
from him, but his hands fastened on my upper arms, holding me in place. His grip didn’t hurt, but there was a tension
and strength that made me think that I hadn’t a chance at escaping.
“Don’t, ma petite,” he said in a harsh whisper, as if he were suddenly
straining, fighting something that I could not see. “I do not wish to hurt you, but you may come
to harm despite my wishes if you struggle.”
“Wait, Stefan. Not yet,” I said before I could stop myself. I hated the anxious pleading tone to my
voice. I had been handling this all so
calmly and rationally, but now that I was out of time, I could feel the panic
rising.
“It is best if we do not put this
off. I would rather have you smiling
than gripped with fear when you need not feel any.”
“Okay, but not from behind like
this. Let me face you. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life
afraid of what I can’t see behind me,” I said, proud that my voice was strong and
even.
Stefan seemed to hesitate for a moment
before his hands loosened from my arms.
Taking a deep breath, I turned around to face the vampire and
immediately took one step backward to put just a little breathing space between
us. Somehow in my momentary panic, I’d
forgotten that he was naked except for a towel and I was now staring directly
into his wide chest. Until that moment,
I had been sure I couldn’t be attracted to a pale man, preferring men with a
somewhat swarthy complexion, but Stefan made pale skin look good. Really, really
good.
While his physique was lean, his chest
was clearly defined with thick muscles.
His shoulders were impossibly wide and muscular; reminding me of
pictures I’d seen of Olympic swimmers.
His chest was completely hairless except for the most interesting trail
of dark hair that started at his belly button and disappeared under the
towel. I was desperately trying to keep
my eyes from that dark trail because it would lead me to think about where that
trail ended and … Wow, I really didn’t
need to be thinking about that when Stefan was about to snack on me!
Forcing a smile when I dragged my eyes
to his, I extended my arm out to him with my wrist turned up, confident that he
couldn’t tell I was shaking. I figured
he could easily take my blood from my wrist or the inside of my elbow. Stefan smiled, his fangs poking out as he gently
took my wrist in one hand. He pressed a
light kiss to the inside of my wrist and then shook his head at me. “I do not think so, ma petite.”
“Wh-what do you mean?” I stammered,
forcing my brain away from the goosebumps that were slipping along my arm at
the sweet touch of his lips.
“That is not my preferred spot,” he
murmured, his eyes dropping to my neck.
I instantly took a step backward, but he
stepped with me as if we were dancing, not allowing me to put any more distance
between us while at the same time not trapping me by halting my movement. “But doesn’t that seem a bit… intimate?” I frowned as soon as the words left my lips
and I stared up at Stefan. “Well, I
guess maybe not for you.”
A puzzled look crossed his face, wiping
away the heated look he had been giving me.
“Why do you say that?”
I shrugged, feeling the last of my fear
drain out of me. “I guess because I
never felt any kind of attraction for a steak.
That’s how you see me, right? A
nice big juicy steak?”
Stefan’s head snapped back on a loud
laugh. The sound filled the room,
bouncing off the walls so that it brushed against me and hugged me close. The vampire gave my wrist a little jerk and
I fell forward against him. My free hand
landed against his chest, but I couldn’t stop myself from completely crashing
into him. His other arm wrapped around
my waist, trapping me flush against his hard body. He was cool to the touch, but not uncomfortably
so.
"You are not a steak, ma petite," Stefan said gently.
"Erin," I corrected while
trying to remain stiff in his arms and not melt against him like a pat of
butter. "My name is Erin
Prescott." I figured if Stefan was
going to use me as a meal, he could at least know my name, not that I didn't
like him referring to me as "my little one" in French. I certainly felt small in his arms.
"Oui, Erin. You have proven
to be very interesting so I cannot see you as merely a meal," he murmured.
"That's a good thing, right?"
"Oui."
I relaxed a little more against him,
some of the tension finally easing from my arms. It sounded that he at least saw me as a human
being, not that I was entirely sure that such a thing was good, but I guess it
was better than being viewed as a cow.
Stefan lowered his head and took a deep breath, drawing in my
scent. I shivered and I didn't know if
it was out of fear or something else. It
certainly wasn't cold. I was feeling
incredibly warm already and the cool touch of his skin was a relief.
"Wait!" I said sharply when he
continued to lower his head to my neck.
A low chuckle shook Stefan's chest. He didn't lift his head but he stopped moving
forward. "We cannot keep putting
this off, Erin. It is inevitable. Your smell is intoxicating and I am
famished."
"Am I going to pass out?"
"Very likely."
"You're not going to just drop me
on the floor, right?"
Stefan lifted his head at this so that
he could glare at me in the eye. There
was no question that I'd insulted him. I
guess the vampire had manners of some sort.
I blinked at him, giving him wide
innocent eyes that didn't convince him in the least, but his lovely mouth did
twitch as if he were desperately fighting a smile. "I was just checking. I'm a bit heavy."
"No, you're not."
"If I'm not conscious when you
leave, could you turn off the oven so the apartment building doesn't burn down
around me?"
Stefan solemnly nodded and resumed his
pursuit of my neck. The hand on my wrist
slid down to my back to hold me close, while the hand my waist rose to move my
damp hair from my neck. His fingertips
brushed across my skin in a gentle caress as if he were exploring that tender
area. I flinched and drew in closer to
him as if seeking solace and protection from the man who was about to harm me.
His lips brushed over my warm flesh
next; just the faint touch of butterfly's wings. My muscles were taut with anticipation and my
stomach jumped with every touch. I tilted my head up, giving him better access
as his kisses grew firmer. The tip of
this tongue slid slowly along the throbbing vein and my fingers clenched on his
thick biceps.
I turned my face into his chest and when
I spoke, my lips brush against his skin in a tender caress. "Do I have to forget, Stefan?"
The vampire paused, his hands tightening
slightly as if he were suddenly afraid that I would disappear in a puff of
smoke. "I don't know." His voice was rough velvet.
His fangs plunged into my neck and my
whole body jerked. There was a whip-crack
of lightning and I wasn't sure if I'd merely seen the flash outside my window
or if I'd been struck. Pleasure and pain
scorched through me, burning nerve endings and frying away brain cells until I
was sure that I no longer knew my own name.
The first draw from the holes in my throat was painful and I winced, but
the pain was followed by all-consuming pleasure that immediately wiped away all
memory of the pain.
I moaned, holding him as tightly as
possible against me. There was some tiny
part of my brain that was telling me that none of it was real, but it felt too
damn good for me to care. Somehow I'd
gotten one hand up to bury it into his soft brown hair. It was like plunging my fingers into cool,
damp satin. For a moment, I was assailed
by the haunting scent of dried leaves and burned wood, as if he embodied the spirit
of Autumn. I turned my face into his
neck and kissed along the straining muscles I could reach. Flicking my tongue exact spot he was drinking
from me, I marveled at the sound of his deep moan. His hands tightened almost painfully while a
new wave of pleasure washed over me.
I wanted more. I wanted to be closer so that my skin was
touching all of his wonderfully cool skin.
I wanted to be closer so that we were both drowning in this feeling. But as soon as the thoughts formed, they
began to fade. A languid darkness was
crowding close and where there had been tension before, I now felt only a
welcoming lassitude. I managed to brush
one last kiss along Stefan's throat before a soft sigh escaped me and I sank
into the gentle embrace of the darkness.
