Chapter 7 edit

Chapter 7




Once outside, Nick turned to Ana stretched up on tip-toe and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
“What was that for?”
“A friendly thank you for sticking it out, I know it couldn’t have been fun. I get so nervous on dates.”
“Yes. It was no picnic for me either.”
She turned and walked down the sidewalk, turned the corner without looking back, continued to walk down the sidewalk almost to the end. She pulled out her keys and pushed the button to unlock the doors. The alarm chirped, notifying her of its deactivation. She opened the door, sat on the edge of the seat, putting her purse on the passenger seat. Twisted around, pulling her legs into the car.
The hole inside her became a chasm and pain overwhelmed her. Not a physical pain but rather a throbbing pulsating pain. A sharp stabbing pain each time her heart beat.
She stopped suddenly. She felt as if something was missing in her and did not know what it may be. Something pulled at her and gave her pause, making her move as if on autopilot.
Compulsion suddenly came over her in a sudden wave of blackness that ran rampant through her. Feeling a strange need burning within her, almost an addiction… She picked up her purse once more, stood up and closed the door, without thought hit the button on the remote to lock the car again. Chirp, chirp. Ana sighed, not really sure why she felt she had to go back into the restaurant, or even why she had such a strong urge to.
She walked through the double doors once more…
“Right this way Ma’am.” The hostess led her to a table near the entryway.
Ana sat down, oblivious to the hostess as her eye caught his. Fire erupted inside her, coursing through her veins as she sat trying ever so hard not stare at him. She drooled with distant eyes, somewhere far away in the misty world of her own mind. Fantasies of him ran through her mind while her body burned, making her sweat profusely.
The hostess placed a menu in front of her and left with her with a comment, “Enjoy your meal.”
From across the room she looked a bit nervous. She sat perched on the edge of the chair, ready for flight, her posture was ramrod straight and she pushed out her chest. Her blouse looked a bit snug on her breasts and showed off her erect nipples.
A few seconds later, a waiter came up to the table. Her skin smooth and unblemished with small features, which made her look like a pixie.
He thought she was beautiful.
After few minutes, her stomach began to make noise and she ordered a diet coke and chips with fresh made salsa. She looked down at her hands, a little ashamed of the need burning within her, feeling positively sinful as he looked up from his plate. His eyes caught hers sending flames of desire raging through her. His eyes looked brown and lit from within with a piercing energy and spoke a thousand words that seemed to float away like ghosts.
The waiter was calm and stood with his body facing her. He spoke with a soft voice, “Are you ready to order, Ma’am?” His eyes searched her body for signs that she was aware of his attraction to her. He looked down the length of her body as far as the table would allow. Her lips were full and tinted a pretty shade of red from the lipstick she wore. She looked like one of those girls in the Robert Palmer video… actually prettier than them. His eyes continued down her body.
Ana raised a hand up to her neck to stroke it, nervously. The waiter’s eyes followed her hand to her neck, seeing her touch her neck sent fire racing through him, gathering in his loins.
The way he looked at her sent her skin crawling as the hair at the back of her neck stood on end and goose-bumps popped up. It was creepy and made her nervous. She got a hollow, empty feeling deep in her gut, like something was wrong. It was non-specific, just a general feeling of ickiness.
A burst of energy wafted of him, suddenly, burning through the air, consuming the oxygen. Lightheadedness descended on her and a wave of fear washed through her like a river, yet she was not scared. She suddenly became hot. Her hands sweated as fire crept through her body.
Every nerve ending in her body came alive, tingling and burning in an invisible fire. She felt heavy and light at the same time, confusing her. Her instinct was to run but she couldn’t. She couldn‘t even move, she nailed to the seat and her feet felt trapped in a cement block.
Ana tried stand up but was not able to. Her limbs were too heavy for her and she flopped back into the chair. She tried to stand again and her head spun.
She was falling headlong into blackness. The further she fell, the smaller she became until the blackness consumed her and flowed within her veins, encroaching on her consciousness.
A wave of nausea came over her and she fell into an abyss as her vision blackened. She lay back in the chair as unconsciousness washed through her like the ocean’s tides.
“Miss, are you alright?” the waiter sounded concerned as she heard his thoughts. What is wrong with women? He wondered. I am not Jack the Ripper!
Ana’s vision went black and she slumped in the chair.

The patrons seemed to ignore the unconscious woman lying on the floor, thinking she was in good hands. A scream of sheer terror rang out, yet the others did not hear it. No sound caught their ears. The restaurant went about business as usual.
Quickly he got up and ran to her to make certain she was alright. He kneeled over her putting a hand on her neck, checking her vitals. He went still like a statue as he averted his face.
She mumbled, under her breath “Erin, love me?”
The honey brown color of his eyes drained away leaving them white as he closed his eyes. His teeth elongated as pain gripped him. The pain of his insides burning, melting into bloody goo as knives shredded his flesh. His skin burned as the knives repeatedly sliced him and he silently screamed in agony.
His teeth elongated and he winced with the sudden pain. He was hungry, of that he was sure but his stomach was oddly calm. Yet fire burned inside him, raised his normally cool temperature. An urge to cradle her in his arms came over him and yet he wanted to taste her. His nature demanded it. It was like a sudden fever burning inside him.
He went still like a statue and averted his face as war raged inside him. His instinct was powerful but he fought for control of himself, to suppress his instincts. Confusion reigned inside him as something tugged on his mind, pulling it forcefully pulled him away from the physical world like a vacuum vortex. It pulled him down into darkness.
He felt a shift in the environment… A threshold being crossed and was in her mind...
The landscape of her mind was dark, a black formless void. He saw Ana floating in mid air, hovering above an abyss. As his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, the abyss reflected the black sky like a vast mirror.
A scream echoed through the pitch, slowly fading into nothingness. It pierced his shields, making his head pound. His heart began to beat faster and faster as fear gripped him. The air was thick with fear, so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was tangible, he could feel it like touching another person.
Without realizing what he was doing, he thought “Ana…” The thought took on substance and reverberated over and over again as one continuous sound.
Then she plummeted towards the black sea below. ”What?”
A voice reverberated in the darkness … “Do not fear.”
It sounded fearful and a bit unsure. It echoed with urgency and filled her with some type of emotion until it overflowed, spilling out in a river. A sense of familiarity settled in, making her heart thud like thunder.
In the pitch of her mind, she gasped as something stopped her descent. Suddenly she got the impression of pressure at her waist, a wide banded belt… a harness maybe? It tickled her skin in such a way that she became aware of its size. Being it was a bit loose. She had the faint hinted feeling of wires being attached to it and a sense of relief washed over her.
“Ana….” The voice echoed again, this time it was softer more intimate.
Once again she plummeted, down into the black sea. She thrashed wildly in the cold water though she knew how to swim. The shock of the cold water startled her and she panicked.
“NO!” He pulled her out of the water, up into his arms.
She shivered and he wrapped his arms around her trying to warm her. A peaceful feeling poured through her like water washing away the fear. At that moment she loved him as the tension in her body quickly drained away. It left her lightheaded and dizzy.
She felt like she was on the verge of passing out…But she already had. She knew that this was a dream, a creation of her mind in response to the familiarity of him.
He brushed a hand down the side of her face and her cheek tingled with a phantom sensation. Then her vision went blank. The pitch was gone, the sea of black reflecting back at her had vanished…

He pushed her hair out of her eyes as she lay with her head on his lap.
Confusion clouded her mind. She tried to speak but couldn’t move a muscle. She rolled her eyes up to look at him and in a second her neck muscle regained movement, allowing her to rotate her head. She gave him a questioning look.
“You are at Antony’s Restaurant.”
She sighed, letting out the breath she had been holding. She recognized him by the way he felt. Peace clung to him like a second skin. Then fear flooded in on her and drained away in a second as a piece of her unconscious dream came back to her.
The feeling of fear flooded her mind, infecting her heart. It drained away in a second, leaving a peaceful, serene feeling. It gave birth to a feeling of love so intense that it made her heart race. It pounded painfully in her chest, beating in an erratic rhythm. It felt like she was having a heart attack. She felt pain through her whole body, a throbbing, intense pain immobilizing her.
Strength slowly returned to her, enough to at least allow her diaphragm to move. It began working in sudden fits, unsure if it wanted to keep up the effort. She inhaled quickly, gasping for air. With her lungs burning from the exertion after nearly ten minutes of inactivity, and pain splitting her in half, Ana managed to gasp out in broken words, “What was that?”
“You lost consciousness.” He wiped her forehead with a handkerchief. “Are you alright?”
With no breath in her, she mouthed a few words as fear flooded in again. Then her vision went black once more and she passed from the real world into the realm of dreams.
As he touched her face, panic struck him again. A whisper ever so faint, unclear, mumbling his name. In his head, he said, What? The voice did not return but somehow he sensed it was Ana and knew what she wanted.
He laid a hundred dollar bill on the table as payment for her untouched order, picked her up. He carried her to her car, her head resting limply on his shoulder. Her breath warm on his neck as her breathing became shallow. He sighed as he looked into her face. Opened the door and set her gently on the seat.

A strange sense of loss flooded his senses as if he lost something precious and irreplaceable. After decades of solitude and denial, this kind of intimate contact made his arms ache and his skin prickled. It spread through his body
His skin erupted in a blaze. Fire burned him with thousands of forgotten sensations. He trembled as many sensory memories flooded in, confusing him. Pain crippled him. It came on the way it did when he needed to feed but it was not the usual empty stomach feelings and yet his stomach did speak to him. He was hungry…
The hunger’s sudden arrival tangled him in knots and left his mind screaming in agony. He thought it was a need of the stomach and yet there was no physical fire in his stomach driving him to feed. What would satisfy the hunger? He wondered.
At the question, fire coursed through his veins like a contagion of some immense virility. The fire burned deep inside him, with everything in him he wanted to taste her. He craved her and could taste her in his mouth.
She smelled sweet and fragrant like the most expensive wine mixed with a slightly floral bouquet. A sweet, deliciously appetizing scent that made his stomach speak filled his nostrils like perfume wafting off her skin. It reminded him of some baked desert, fresh from the oven, and made his mouth water in anticipation. With the taste of some type of vanilla flavored desert filling his taste-buds, he salivated like Pavlov’s dog.
An overwhelming urge to taste her blossomed, overpowering his restraint. The hunger made visions appear to him, visions of what he wanted to do to her, visions of how sweet it would be to taste her, to have her essence inside him, sustaining him.
Pain burned in his chest, flashing tendrils of heat through his body. Tendrils of heat and pain ran down his arms, through his legs, and burnt his lips too. He collapsed to the ground. On hands and knees, he clutched his chest. His senses sharpened and he was hyperaware of even a slight shift in temperature.
His senses expanded and stretched to their limits as his existence demanded her life. His throat burned as instinct took control of him. His eyes blazed with hunger, the color drained from them, leaving them translucent. His canines elongated A snarl tore from his throat as his teeth ripped through his gums. He opened his mouth wide, leaning over her with her neck bared to him. Tilted his head back slightly in preparation for the bite, quickly snapped his head forward, like a cobra, closing the distance.
At the last possible second he stopped, half an inch from her jugular vein and kissed her neck. The skin of her neck was soft as silk upon his lips. He trembled with the need to taste her as her scent drifted up to his nose. She smelled so delicious! It filled him with a sense of urgency… A need, so strong, it crippled him as daggers stabbed his abdomen and froze him mid-movement. Something inside him yearned for her in ways he couldn‘t fathom. He wondered, What was it about her that drew him in like a magnet?
He reached around her, hands softly resting on her back. He leaned close to her, the fresh baked vanilla desert, sweetness wafted off her skin. His lips met hers tentatively at first then something inside him snapped…
He pulled her close to his chest, nearly crushing her. His lips moved slowly and gently on hers, his tongue pushing her eager and willing lips apart as he probed her mouth.
A strange feeling came over her, flooding her, relaxing every muscle in her body. It was a sense of being safe that made her heart race. Blood rushed from her heart, filling her veins, stretching them to their limits and rushing to other more private areas, making them ache and throb with anticipation of what seemed inevitable.
His ears heard only her blood as it sped through her veins. Her pulse pounded in his head, filling it with the sweet rush of life. His teeth brushed the skin of her neck at the moment her carotid artery swelled with a sudden burst. He opened mouth suddenly, grazing her neck.
Ana gasped, a sharp inhale of breath as he thought, Don’t stop! Love me! She raised her hands to his face…
Suddenly he pulled away, breaking the kiss, turned away, hanging his head and spoke, “I am sorry, I must go.” He said as she grabbed and held onto his arm as though her life depended on it.
“What is wrong?” she asked worriedly.
He shrugged out of her grasp. “Everything.” He said in a breathless whisper, turned and disappeared.
Her heart sank as it too was torn in two and tears began streaming down her face. She sobbed with the pain. Her sobs reached his ears, his heart ceased its beating and burst into flames, burning to cinders. He heard her whisper, “Why?”
As he closed the apartment door, his heart sank in his chest as it began to ache.

The memory of her skin against his hands, a constant reminder of the desire she coaxed out of him. His lips tingled and prickled like needles ad punctured them repeatedly, a thousand times or more. His heart tore in two pieces as he walked away from her.
His eyes blazed with a honey colored light; he could not think straight as his mind wandered through all manner of scenarios in which she was the focal point. He looked into her eyes unashamed of the need that burned inside him and made his eyes glow with a subdued light.
She looked up into his face, got to her knees on the bed, kissed his cheek and with voice breaking between tears, said… “Stay.” She commanded of him.
His arms wrapped gently around her once again, his lips touching hers softly teasing. Then greedily claiming hers as her soft passion wrapped around him, making his strength wither into nothing as her lips slowly responded to his. Her tongue explored his mouth as he closed his eyes. A feeling of weightlessness suddenly made it feel like he ascended into the sky and soared with the birds. The freedom of unbound flight was sheer ecstasy.
A smile lit his face as he lay down beside her. He lay motionless and drifted on waves of consciousness as she explored his body with her tongue. She worked her way, slowly, back up to his lips then pressed her lips to his almost greedily. Her touch burned in every inch of him and lingered in those places she touched.
{?}
He thought about making her but the thought was revolting to him. Her smell was tantalizing, ending him into something akin to fever. It created a kind of frenzy, tempting his resolve which faltered.
At the last second before his teeth met the flesh of her neck, she opened her eyes. Still fast asleep her mind believed this beautiful face before had been imagined as part of her dream.
He could not condemn her to such a life as this. He was a monster, after all. To do so would be worse than any atrocity the world could conceive. Then he thought of watching her grow old and die when he remained ageless and pain seared him where his heart sat still and motionless. He clutched his chest, his knees became weak and he collapsed to the ground holding his chest. The pain tore at his heart, opening old wounds that had never fully healed.
She mumbled something in her sleep… “Erin?” picked her head up, saw him there by her side, the car door open and him on his knees looking at her. Pain distorted his angelic features. Her heart sank as a wave of unconsciousness enveloped her. Her vision quickly faded to black again. Once more, the writhing pitch swallowed her. The screams of fear and terror echoed dully in the distance but this time it felt different. She sensesd a presence in the darkness, heard the soft echoing whispers of his velvety voice soothing her, repeating, “Everything is O.K. I am here.” Then she felt the cold silken skin of his hand in hers as her strength returned.
She saw a distant light hovering in the blackness amidst the movement. She blocked out the screams and concentrated on the light. The light approached swiftly. It grew colder as it approached but, as her fear fell away from her, leaving her with a feeling of comfort, like she lay in a bed of the most expensive and softest silk. Peace ran through veins like a drug, making her drunk and giddy.
The light was upon her. It was not light but a flame that burnt cold as opposed to hot. The cold heat of the flame confused her because flames meant heat or warmth. Not this one…

The flame’s light blinded her and she shivered uncontrollably, though she felt neither warm nor cold. Then the light dimmed, almost dying completely, a face appeared in the dim glow. She was awestruck and her mind halted as her breathing ceased suddenly. Beams of light reached out to her and she shrunk away from them, undecided as to what to make of it and what to do. A breeze blew through the stifling stillness and the flame flickered with the motion, the beams of light fell away as if magically. Where the beams had been arms now appeared. She felt an urge, a strong pull as if she needed them to survive.
A sense of emptiness fell upon her, the writhing motion stilled in the space of one breath. The screams fell away from her ears as if repelled by some invisible shield. A feeling of loneliness enveloped her like a contagion. Hollowness deadened every nerve in her and weighed her down, so se had a sense of falling toward the writhing darkness below.
Her descent halted abruptly as she felt herself ascend once more into the relative safety of the air just out of reach of the blackness. How is this possible? What stopped my descent? Then her senses expanded to test the water, so to speak. Silken comfort waited for her, luxury like no other she had known. The feeling of being dead inside ad vanished, leaving a sense of euphoria in its place. Joy and jubilation abounded in such quantities that it overflowed her reservoirs. But it was not of a physical nature or even an emotional sort. Rather of a spiritual nature. It made her head spin and she lost focus. Her vision had blanked out then and her head filled with such softness. A single voice filled the space around her and inside her, like liquid filling a cup. It has to be magic. She thought as her heart soared higher than an eagle.
Bright light blinded Ana, she lifted her hand to her face only to fail miserably. Fear flitted through her mind but she could not hold onto it. It slipped farther away each time she approached, thinking… My god, I’m paralyzed!
The light receded but still she could not see. Tears had filled her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Suddenly darkness consumed the room, a match flared to life with a scratchy hiss and a candle flared as the wick caught fire, painting the room in a soft yellow glow. She tried once more to move and managed very shakily, like someone with Parkinson’s, to wipe the tears from her eyes and looked around the room with a limited visual field. There in the corner of the room, in a high-backed winged chair, sat a vision. The most beautiful vision she had laid eyes upon bathed in the soft light of the candle. She blinked in disbelief, her vision sat in her bedroom, shock widen her eyes making them water from the saturation of light and her jaw dropped.
“Welcome back. How do you feel?”
Sniff, sniff. “Like my head exploded,” She lifted her arm and it was too heavy for her muscles to handle and plopped back on the bed. Breathing heavily with the exertion, she added, “but better now that you’re here.” What? Why did I say that?
He smiled at her reply as he moved to the bed and sat down beside her. “Do you need anything?”
“No.” She lied.
He stood to leave and gave her one more, brief glance as he started to walk away.
With sudden anxiety and fear, she yelled, “NO! Don’t go?”
He stopped, turned to her with pain in his eyes.
“Stay with me tonight, please?” Ana threw the covers back and patted the bed beside her. She looked up at him as his eyes brightened and begun to shine with a light she knew was reflected in hers.
His face lit up like a Christmas tree, the corners of his mouth stretched wide in a huge grin as he walked back to her and sat down beside her. Quickly his arms began to ache and he stretched them. As he did she put her head on his chest, snuggling up closer to him. His body stiffened and he became hyper-aware of the tension in his body.
She began to quiver slightly as she put a hand on his chest, cuddling up to his side. Something surged through him like electricity, igniting every sensory nerve in his body at precisely the same time. He wanted so much to take her face in his hands, right then and there, and taste her luscious red lips. He had trouble controlling this desire and he began to tremble as his control slowly evaporated.
She looked up at him surprised that she had this effect on him. As she looked into his eyes, it dawned on him that he was feeding her need as she was feeding his desire. Her lips looked so irresistibly sweet… Without a single thought, he bent down and seized her lips, claiming them as he lost himself. Mmmmm! His mind screamed.
Her body suddenly came alive with sensation. Senses became hyper-vigilant and aware of everything but nothing could penetrate the shield her senses threw up around her. She felt her need growing… growing into something more than a physical need. It was like he was part of her, a memory of something lost and forgotten. How could I forget this? Something electric ran through her at that moment… then she got a cold spot on her arm and looked down to see his hand on her arm. She melted into his arms as her body gave a sigh of relief from the constant pain that tore her up inside.
Something inside him grew impatient and when he pressed his lips to hers again but something was different. It was more tentative embrace, as if he was uncertain of his actions.
His desire burned hot and relentless for so long. Now once he had her in his arms it scared him to want her this way. He could hear his body scream at him as he released her and turned away. His senses immediately became numb, revert6ing back to a well known path.
She put a hand on his arm stopping his departure, looked up at him, her eyes held something akin to pain. It shone bright and stole his heart as it ceased its beating. Suddenly it pained him to see such emotion in her eyes as she looked upon him and he thought he was having a heart attack but for the knowledge of his heart being, long ago, stilled.
He reached out and took her in his arm as he turned back to look upon her now softened features, softened in relief. He was careful to avoid direct eye contact. His eyes burned with a golden fire, the fire of centuries of need.
In his heart, he yearned for this ever-expanding hole to be filled, yet it was part of him now. As much as his soul yearned to be whole… ached for it, he always shied away from any intimate contact.
His arms had become numb with the decades of denial that he endured and grew ever colder. He became indifferent through the long years, denying himself the basic needs. He refused the comfort of another person. He cared not for others of his kind and loneliness set in.
turned to her, letting her see his eyes burning with fire, a fire the color of sapphires.
She gasped and pressed her lips to his in an embrace that said, Nothing matters. Her heart sank at his lack of reaction, then slowly his arms encircled her, pulling her close to him.
That part that had wanted to taste her, to feel her touch, just once… released a flurry of emotion that fed off her need. As strong he was he could not just walk away from her; so he stayed with her watching over her as she slept, cradled in his arms and head on his chest.
During the night she woke… Bolted upright as fear gripped her in its vice. She sat up but could not focus, her eye s remained sleep clouded as she heard, “What’s wrong?” The sound of his voice was like silk wrapping her every nerve, almost angelic.
It took her by surprise when he spoke. She jumped, whirling around to look at her dream in the flesh. She sighed as relief flooded washed over her, leaving her in a fog of dizziness, choking her senses until she became numb. She felt nothing and everything with hypersensitive senses. She lay back down beside him. The length of her body touching his and threw her arms around him as she slowly ran her delicate hand slowly down his chest and back up, lifting his shirt as she did. She sat up again and placed kisses on his chest, teasing him with what was to come.
As she placed the first of many enticing kisses upon his chest, he closed his eyes leaned his head back on the pillow, reveling in the feel of her lips on his skin. They felt like satin and he was in heaven. As he gasped for breath, a smile of pleasure spread his mouth wide and the tension in his body faded.
Then he suddenly sat up, pushing her down onto the bed, pinning her wrists down and kissing her delicately, lightly touching her lips. He was uncertain of this course of action.
Ana’s heart began to falter then sped up its rhythm, beating out an erratic pattern. She couldn’t remember how to breathe as he moved down over her chin, neck.
His lips were cold as they tenderly traced her collarbone. She shivered as something inside screamed, Yes! Take me. Make me yours… Such a feeling of elation descended upon her, like she was tripping on some illicit drug. She soared high above the clouds, looking down on it all and experiencing it second-hand. Living it vicariously, wishing she were this fortunate, but feeling the weight of his body as it pinned her down, immobile, and feeling everything as though it were being done to her. Her head spun, making her feel violently ill… sick to her stomach but her limbs refused motion. A minute passed and she could move an inch but her body felt heavy


Her breath came in ragged gasps
excite him

not wanting to give away her intentions,
Ana’s face turned bright red