Dark Romance

Ana’ s fantasy…

Ana’ s fantasy…
         Ana sat in her favorite chair in the living room, reading a book. The sun light slowly faded and night fell. The temperature plummeted and she began to feel the air nipping at her, distracting her from the book. She got up went to the den, got some newspaper to build a fire with. Crumpled up the newspaper, twisting it into long spirals and placed it the fireplace rack, then a log went in next, some fat lighter, strategically placed for fast ignition and an even burn.
         She lit a match, one of those long ones you buy special for an indoor fire, touched to the newspaper at the back. Then put the match to the paper hanging out the front.  She pivoted back, off her knees, waited for a little bit to see if the fire was going to fizzle out, she looked pleased at the way the fire was burning.
         Smiling, obviously in a good mood, Ana stood up and walked into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator, reached in pulled out a bottle of red wine. Turned around, took down a glass from the rack above the range-island. She lazily walked back into the living room with a wine glass and the bottle, set them down on the coffee table, spread out a blanket to sit on and one to cover her legs. Sat down on top of the blanket, poured a glass of wine, picked it up and turned around to stretch out on the blanket and read her book.
The flames grew higher, completely engulfing the log, as the flickering light cast shadows over everything in the darkened living room, lengthening the shadows. Smoke started pouring out into the room. Choking and lungs burning from inhalation of the acrid smoke, Ana ran around opening all the windows down stairs. She opened the front door before heading to the back of the house and opened the back door as well. She walked back to the living room, cursing the faulty flue and promising herself to get it fixed but she would have to wait until Monday to call about it.
Movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She glanced up and there in the middle of the room stood a strange man. Ana jumped, “What are doing in my house….. GET OUT!” She screamed, picking up a candle stick from a table near the fireplace, holding it, one handed, like one holds a bat, ready to swing if he came any closer to her.
         “My apologies, Miss. I didn’t mean to scare you, the door was open… “He looked at the fireplace and grinned. He saw the blanket spread on the floor, the blanket piled to the side, the glass of wine, the pillow and the book, suddenly the picture was clear. He raised an eyebrow questioningly… “What happened here?” He pictured her sitting by the fire, bathed in the flickering light that flooded the room, casually sipping a glass of red wine.
         She coughed as smoke continued pouring into the room. “A faulty flue.” Ana held a wet rag on her hand in an attempt to cool the heat of the burn and keep the swelling down.
         He took note of the wet rag and asked, “Are you alright? Do you need medical attention?”
         “No, just a minor burn… I’ll be alright.”
         He hung his head, turned and walked to the front door. He had no desire to leave. After years of watching over her, remaining in the shadows, he wanted to enjoy the fire with her. Most of all he wanted her to know him. It drove him crazy not being able to have her look upon him with those beautiful brown eyes. He missed that look women get when they sit and stare at their lover. Their eyes soften and begin glowing as their face changes from the hard daily mask to one of softness and diffused light-heartedness, like they have no worries at all. You can see the passion in their eyes and the way they move is hypnotic. Something that is almost tangible but never quite touchable, hints of something teasingly erotic.
         “Wait?” She said suddenly, not really knowing why.
         He stopped at the door as his heart quickly found its voice and began to beating inside his chest, it sped like a race horse. His desire showed on his face as he turned toward her. He looked at her, his eyes bright with something unidentifiable.
         She stood motionless, entranced by his power burning through her. She opened her mouth to speak and suddenly lost her voice. Hunger burned through her, she wanted to touch his soft skin, run her hands through his long black/brown hair.
He turned to look at her, his hazel eyes looked impossibly gray in the firelight and twinkled with some emotion she didn’t recognize. He longed to bury his nose in her hair and inhale her scent. He tried to imagine touching her but he couldn’t, something blocked the path to that particular fantasy. It drove him absolutely bonkers. He could not sleep, could not dream of her when he did. His dreams were blank and formless. He realized they had been that way for nearly a century now. He thought they were a reflection of his life and it had been blank and meaningless.
Her long wavy brown hair fell down around her face in soft earthen rivers, confusing him. His normally clear head became foggy with fantasies of her lying pale and perfect on his bed, enticing him to join her for a night of fun. He wanted more than anything to taste her sweet pink lips. He was nervous and a bit overwhelmed by her proximity.
Light flared in his eyes, burning bright and red, like some sort of fire. His hunger burned in them, dazzling her into confusion as her heart stopped and then picked up rhythm again. Ana looked at him with innocence written on her face and secretly hoping that he touch her. She wanted to feel his touch, his love, as much as she needed air to breathe. She hadn’t realized her breath had ceased billowing in plumes of invisible warmth as she stood staring at him. Her vision began to swirl in spirals of blurred color, ever increasing in speed, she let out the breath she had been holding in order to stop the world from spinning.
Suddenly she was aware of a hunger burning through her like the fire in the fireplace and she looked down and turned away from him. She blushed with the assumption that he saw her hunger reflected in her eyes. After a minute or so she turned back to him but did not look him in the eyes.
Without thought, he reached out a hand to her, pleading with her in unspoken words. As she looked up, his face seemed to grow pale. His eyes sparkled and seemed hold a light brighter than the stars, held the beginnings of a question…
Ana looked up at him again, his eyes captured her gaze and held them. The brightness in his eyes mystified her and thrilled her at the same time. It confused her, made her agree with everything; she could not say NO to him. Looking deep into his eyes, she began to yearn for his touch, longing to be warmed by his touch. Thinking about it made her burn as if with fever. Why? Why did it make her body tingle as if he touched her? She swore he touched more than her skin.
The room spun, her knees became weak suddenly and she fell to the floor. He took a step forward and caught her before she hit the floor. He held her against his chest, inhaling her scent. Ana felt herself sinking into darkness. Instead of black, blankness her vision was bombarded with images of perfect beauty. Pale eyes that shifted in color with different moods, hair long with tendrils hanging in a face so perfectly pale and pink cheeked as if blushing. A face with a somewhat feminine look to it. Rounded jaw-line, small, slightly upturned nose with nicely rounded eyes framed by lush thick brown/black lashes, plump and perfectly colored red lips stretched into a smile, big and broad. ” Beautiful”, she thought as it disarmed her.
A warm feeling washed over her, making her feel intensely peaceful. She instinctively gave herself over to the feeling and sunk into those mesmerizing eyes. She wondered who this person was, but by the thick luscious frame of lashes she could tell the person was male. The face became permanently etched upon the darkness and she was intrigued by the mask worn.
When she did not regain consciousness, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs to her bedroom, laid her gently on the bed. Stepped back a step or two, gazing upon her as she lay prone, unconscious, his eyes twinkled with mischief and a grin pulled at the corners of his mouth. An urge suddenly burned in his gut… It would be so easy! The thought was delicious and made his mouth water for a taste of her but it pained him to think of her cold like he is.
At that moment he heard someone yelling… “Ana!” It was her ex-boyfriend, Mick. Had seen the smoke coming from the house he ran in the house, thinking the worst. The front door stood open, wide open….. Inviting anyone to walk in and help themselves. Mick walked through the open door, looked around downstairs for Ana. With no luck and concern growing, he raced up the stairs, heading straight for the master bedroom. He burst through the door, calling her name. She lay on the bed, unconscious. He went to the side of the bed, quietly shutting the door as he moved to her side.
Someone had obviously been here when the house filled with the acrid lung starving smoke. He was grateful for this person’s actions. He had a strange feeling that he as not alone here but he heard nothing... No noises, no breathing he could detect… He dismissed it and went downstairs. With ideas drifting in and out of his head, he tried to write a few songs…. to no avail. His words became confused as he put them down. They made no sense and he grew angry at this latest setback. He felt like a failure and resigned his retirement from the world he loved.
Mick stole quietly back up the stairs, opened the bedroom door and stood staring at her.  Ana was lying on the bed, curled up on her side. It looked as though she was sleeping. The sight of her lying on the bed, looking so peaceful, drifting upon the waves of slumber’s delight, broke his heart and stood staring at her for hours...
No turning back now… Having made the hardest decision of his life, he walked slowly down the stairs in a fog of regret. Plopped on the couch, immediately images flashed through his mind of all that he’d miss. He couldn’t imagine not hearing her voice, always so warm and caring, seeing her smile, and the way she greeted him, every morning. An image of the way she tilted her head to the right, so imperceptibly, inviting his investigations and the way she responded to them.
He sat lost in memories of Ana for what had seemed like hours. He woke a few hours later. He had fallen asleep. Mick quickly came to the decision that he would not be there when she woke up. He grabbed the pen and paper by the phone, sat at the kitchen table to write Ana a “goodbye” letter, but no words came to mind…
He was blank, wordless in a world where words were a constant. He gave up hope of trying to say “Goodbye”, and just walked out the door, not looking back. He could not afford the remorse of his leaving in this manner. If he looked back now he knew he’d never be able to leave her.
                             *******************************
         This man who had been somewhat of a savior to her this night, reappeared from nowhere just as Ana regained consciousness. She let out a low moan and coughed. Her throat was dry as she quickly spit out, “You stayed.” Her eyes widened with surprise as he handed her a glass of water, “Thank you” she said hoarsely.
         He smiled and heat tore through her. She pushed the covers off her, rolling them into a pile at the foot of the bed. His eyes flashed with excitement. She looked up at him as his eyes widened and shifted color into a deep gray. She wore the shortest lace night gown, in a dark red color. She did not remember putting it on tonight as s0he looked down at herself. As she looked into his color shifting eyes, they shifted again into a deep mesmerizing blue.
Ana blushed with embarrassment as her body reacted to the change in him. She looked away to give herself time to calm down. What was that? Why do I want to rip his clothes off? Where is my self-control? She thought and instinctively looked up only to be met by deep hazel eyes.
He sat on the edge of the bed, raised a hand to her cheek and leaned in close to her. She thought that she would get to, finally, taste those perfectly red lips but at the last possible second the mood changed. With a mere few inches between them, he whispered, “Rest now.” His breath cold and slightly sweet scented as it filled her nostrils and plumed around her face as if hugging it. Ana leaned forward putting her head in her hands and suddenly tears rolled down her face.
Her sudden sobs caught his attention as he stood. He turned back to her leaned down and kissed the top of her head. He inhaled the scent of her shampoo and stroked her hair in a comforting gesture.
She looked up into his eyes, a mistake because they drew her in. His hazel eyes grew bright with some emotion. It electrified the air around her. The hair on the back of her neck prickled and the hair on her arms stood up. Her skin tingled as if his hand brushed her ever so lightly, leaving her senses confused… Did he brush my arm? Why do I have this irresistible urge to touch him?
His eyes captured hers and she could not look away. Ana felt herself sinking into the cold comfort of his arms as he lay down on the bed. Slowly she drifted upon peaceful waters, entering into slumbering fantasy.

It was dark. A little light shone through the blackened windows as her heart began racing and her eyes adjusted to the low level of light.
The bed moved and the sheets rustled. She turned her head, afraid to look, afraid it was just her imagination again. He laid there, next to her, sheets covering the lower half of his body. His abdomen with its tight, tone muscles, his broad, powerful shoulders, and well muscled arms with the face of a model, made her gasp as a warm feeling raced up and down her body.
The sight of him, laying in her bed, bathed by the dawn’s light and the memory of his voice echoing in her ears made her want to touch him just to be certain he was real. She rolled over and softly kissed his lips, then got out of bed, heading toward the bathroom.
He stirred and finally woke, saw she was leaving him. He sat up, maneuvered onto his knees in a blur of movement made lazy by his desire. He leaned over the edge of the bed, grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back to the bed. Roughly threw her down on the bed while he moved with such speed she had never witnessed before.
He straddled her, hunger growing quickly, making him a little weak. He grabbed her wrists, pinning her to the bed, kissing her lips and slowly moving down over her neck, down over her breasts. He kissed each nipple and moved down to her abdomen as he lay down on the bed beside her.
“Erin, Stop!” She commanded as he kissed her lips once more. “I have to pee.” She felt something low in her body tighten as fire crept through her. She fought the need that burned in her making her put a hand on each side of his face, creating a frame for his boyish looks. The fire raged hotter with each minute her bare skin was in contact with his.
His eyes looked solid blue, like a blue flamed fire had been captured in them. It was hard to resist their effect and she didn’t want to. Eventually she wiggled out from under him and fell to the floor with a muffled thud. She winced as she stood up.

Then blackness hit her, making her fall to the floor unconscious.  He picked her up and put her gently on the bed, pulling the covers over her. He pulled up a chair and sat by her bed, in case she woke up, wondering where she was. He sat there ’til morning.
Just after dawn she woke, sat up in bed and saw him sitting there. Head slumped over, obviously asleep. She got up tiptoed to the bathroom. When she came out, he sat in the chair wide awake and grinning.
“You didn’t have to stay.” She climbed back into bed, pulling the covers over her body again.
“I wanted to keep an eye on you.” You are so beautiful… I wanted to look upon your beauty without interruption.
Ana pulled the covers off her, rolling them up near the foot of the bed. She looked down at her apparel and asked, “How did I get into this?” She pulled at her night gown with forefinger and thumb in a pinching gesture. Her pale alabaster skin shined in the light from the hallway, perfect and flawless. He wanted to touch her, to caress her like a lover would but he turned away and stood up.
She jumped up quickly, ran to where he stood, moved in front of him, blocking his path. She looked up at him with open mouth, preparing to speak. Instead she reached up, on tiptoe and met his lips with hers in an attempt to get him to stay.
He tried to walk away but she would not move out of his way.  Ana tentatively raised a hand to his face but something in his eyes changed her mind. His eyes pleaded with her not to touch him and also begged for her touch. His voice whispered in her head pleading for her to run as fast as she could from him. Her proximity to him at this moment was putting her in danger.
Standing in front of him, enticing him, she took off the red lace gown and dropped it on the floor beside her. Chill-bumps covered her body from head to toe and she shivered with the cool air from the air-conditioning.
The color drained from his eyes and his skin turned translucently pale. His veins showed purple just under the thin veil of his skin, his teeth elongated as hunger flared hot as Hades fire inside him. He turned away quickly avoiding her eyes. He did not want her to see him in this state. He worried about her safety when hunger was upon him. He asked himself time and again, Could he control it? How? Control came with time and he was still so young.
She walked forward, stood a mere inch away from him. Her nipples were suddenly hard and she used them to her advantage. She gently pushed him down on the edge of the bed and sat on his lap straddling him.
Suddenly his hunger was in full swing and he felt ill. It confused him, he didn’t need to feed but the hunger gnawed at him like a demon trying to escape its prison. Tired and without thought, he raised his hands to her cheeks, framing her face, leaned forward, pressed his lips to hers, kissing her like he would devour her. His hands dropped away from her cheeks and slowly slid down her back, coming to rest on her lower back. He pulled her closer to him and then leaned back on the bed, pulling her with him.

Her nipples suddenly hard, brushed lightly against his chest as he leaned back. A tremor ran through his body, making her grin with mischievous delight. Something inside him which had lain dormant for nearly a century had been awakened, like an explosion. His senses screamed at him, overloading already foggy mind.
Aware of his heightened state of arousal, her body became sensitive to every little movement he made.
She noticed that he was not breathing, it appeared he was holding his breath as he waited for the images of her to leave him be. Images of lying nude on his large four-poster bed drowsy from the night’s passion.

His eyes filled with images of her perfect, nude form still and motionless. He could not see her chest rise and fall with the intake of air, nor could he hear her heart beat. He investigated her body, her skin pale and warm. He looked over her body carefully and saw there on her neck, two red wounds. Puncture marks an inch apart, on her inner thigh, his hands explored the rest of her rapidly cooling body but they missed the twin holes around her nipples on her left breast, oozing with blood as she lay trapped in death with no escape. His hazel eyes scanned the remainder of her body.  Then they lighted upon the neck wound. Two neat and clean punctures decorated her neck.
His eyes bled black as horror struck him with force, like a hurricane tearing through him. He leaned down cradling her lifeless form as a mother would cradle her dead offspring. Something wet trickled down his cheeks. He raised a hand to his face and wiped his cheek, pulled his hand away and noticed it was covered in blood. The guilt of his actions tore threw him and he screamed in rage with eyes wide in surprise and horror, staring at the rapidly cooling corpse of his beloved, followed by tremors of shock and disbelief as rage burned him. His eyes glowed ferocity of regret and quickly he sliced his wrist open, put it to her mouth, dripping  with life… Cold life.
DEAD... Ana, his beloved, was dead. DEAD! DEAD!
The images cleared and she lay on her side, curled up in a ball with her long brown waves falling down around her neck. Her skin glistened with sweat in the new rays of dawn. The sight of her lying there like that reminded him of how fragile she was.
Far gripped him and the daemon tore at his still heart. He was dead! How could he ever expect her to understand his world? He knew the time would come when she become one of his kind whether upon accident or with malicious intent. He swore to himself that he would not be the source of her conversion. And with that declaration and the fire of remorse burning within his still heart, He grew hardhearted and distant.

Her skin, where it touched him, felt hot and it burned against his skin, like a fire on a cold night. Ana burned with that fire and moved without thought as she looked into his eyes and saw they had clouded over with some long passed memory.
She sat up wondering what the memory was about. With the movement, she felt the tremor run through him and his grip, where his hands held her arms, tighten. She smiled with the knowledge that he wanted her as much as she wanted him and the next minute winced with the pressure his hands exerted on her arms.
The movement of her pelvis, caused her pussy to rub against his jeans, causing him to ache for her warmth and he jumped like she had bit him or something as equally painful. His eyes still clouded with the remnants of memory as he pushed her away.
She slid off his lap to the floor. She groaned with the impact and put her hands on his knees as she picked herself up off the floor as she saw the change in his expression as he released her arms automatically. His face contorted in an unspoken apology as he turned his face away from her so she would not see the fear in his eyes.
Now she was not sure of the appropriateness of her actions. She slowly unbuttoned his shirt, softly kissed his chest, then reached up and kissed his lips.

He reclined on the bed, as the movement made her rub against him again. He tilted his head back, his eyes burned bright with delight for an instant as a tremor of delight ran threw his body, making him forget, for a moment, about his fears. Lazily, and with deliberately slow movements, he puts a hand on her shoulder, pushes her to his right and off his lap.
Ana caught a glimpse of his eye. They were drained of their usual color, and his skin was as cold as the snow on the ground.

Ana’s vision went black and was replaced by images of a woman with brunette hair. She walked back and forth in a small area of a poorly lit street. She held her breath as a violent tremor ran through her. It ripped through her like a fast moving train. In the silence, Ana heard a voice whisper directly in her ear… “Do not fear, my love.”
It felt like a mental echo, a faded echo of events passed, but she could not be certain of it. The voice conjured up images in Ana’s mind of a large breasted woman wearing a poorly made dress. The dress looked to be hand-sewn and extremely low cut, with a front lace-up bodice. She guessed eighteenth century garb, probably a woman of low social standing.
It was a cold, dark and wet night, the woman stood on the corner of the poorly lit street. What light there was came from the windows of the houses lining the street and one street lamp 50 yards away on the other side of the street. Footsteps sounded on the cobblestone walk, the woman turned to look down the street but there was no one in sight. She turned away, the click-clack of hard soled shoes pounding the cobblestones echoed through the night again. She stopped walking. Still the footsteps echoed off the buildings. Her heart quickened its pace and her mind began to race through different scenarios of possibility.
She turned and looked at the empty street behind her, turned back the way going in the first place, took one step and was grabbed by someone in front of her with an arm around her waist, hand over her mouth. The assailant pulled her into the cover of shadow. The person was male judging by the strength he exerted in this task. The woman struggled, trying to fight this stranger off but a sharp prick on her neck and she was rendered immobile. Her knees folded under her and she sank to the ground. He dropped everything to catch her and lowered her to the ground.
Suddenly he became like a mannequin, as someone walked by the shadowed corner where he waited. Her heart pounded with fear as the person passed by and for a minute she felt relief, this person would save her. As fate would have it her attacker was much too smart to let anyone interfere with his plans for her.
He posed her paralyzed body into a prone position, pulled her skirt up to her waist and carved up her abdomen like a Christmas turkey, removing her intestines and uterus, placing them on her shoulders, after stabbing her nearly forty times. Her throat had been cut, cut down to her vertebrae in an attempt at decapitation.

The images faded then like a bad dream, leaving a foul taste in Ana’s mouth. The scene she glimpsed frightened her as it did the woman in the vision.
When the images had faded from her mind completely and she regained her vision, he sat on the bed next to her, holding her and trying to comfort her. Ana looked up, eyes wild with fear and gasping for breath.
He inhaled sharply, worried about her as she collapsed on top of him. Ana’s head lay on his chest above his still heart. Everything seemed somehow unreal and her head pounded. She saw the room, saw him and his apparent concern for her mixed with the arousal showing on his face. She saw everything through a haze of black, like looking through acrid smoke. It seemed that the place she was in at that second was a black void and nothing her eyes beheld registered.
He intruded on her mind just as the images solidified in her mind. Her fear tore at him like a demon clawing its way out of a box. It left an open wound in his heart. It bled profusely as if it were a mortal wound but given he was vampire he would survive its devastating effects. He could do nothing to help her, only reassure her of her safety.
First he asked a question, “What was that?”
Ana replied, “I’m not sure. That is new to me.”
Ana looked up at him, her eyes were dull and lifeless. Drained of everything that he had come to love over the years he remained close to her watching over her like a guardian angel. He held her close to his chest, whispering smoothly to her. “Who is the woman?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you get her name?”
“No, just the event and her fear.”
         Erin stroked her hair as if she were a cat and sighed. She stopped trembling and seemed at ease, finally. Exhausted she had fallen asleep with her head laying on his chest. He very carefully picked her up as he stood up and carried her across the room, laid her on her bed once more, pulled the covers up over her semi-naked body. He wished he was not such a chicken shit! He looked down at her while she slept, admiring her strength.
         Something came over him and he could not leave her alone. What if the vision returned? What if it revealed more of the event to her? What if it scared her worse than before? What if she woke to find him gone? He pulled the curtains closed and laid down beside her on top of the covers. He soon fell asleep and dreamt of her.



She heard him gasp, Don’t!, though he hadn’t uttered a syllable. It was her turn to comfort him but as soon as she touched him, he woke with a start and simply pushed her away from him, looking down at the floor. She didn’t understand why he refused her. He had been aroused she could feel it. She wanted him and he wanted her…..
He kicked himself for turning her away and asked himself… Why did I refuse her? He did not trust that he could stop and he would regret giving in to his desire to have her, to make her his. That part of him that still felt things like a mortal wanted her to be with him in all ways and beseeched his immortal side to turn her. That is where the immortal in him blatantly refused to even listen to the cries of the lonely mortal.
He, the immortal, would not condemn her to such an existence. Life beyond death was great… The strength, invulnerability, the power, and the agelessness was the greatest thing about what he is. But he could not condemn her to the solitary life of his kind. The years of watching those you love wither and eventually die while you remain unchanged is something he did not want for her. After the newness wore off, the initial excitement and thrill grew old, she would hate it and spend the rest of her immortality regretting it and hating him for turning her. That was the one thing he could not bear.