Winter was certainly his favorite season. The nights were longer and the frost coated everything in diamonds. Tristian looked up into the sky, watching the snow swirling through the street lights. He wished winter would get on with it. While it had snowed, as of yet there had been no storms. The sky was growing heavy and dark, the wind picking up. He smiled to himself; he needed a storm to feel that winter had truly set in.
He leaned back against a lamp post and let his mind stretch and run like water, out among the holiday shoppers.
Their joy, anger, their pain and excitement pushed in all around him, whispered words into the deep of him. Something brushed against his mind, a need that triggered the
hunger
so powerfully that his shoulder slipped off the lamp post. It was so sudden and intense that for just a moment he couldn't move.
The sheer numbers of women around him pulled him from the edge of the familiar darkness. They pressed all around him, intent on their holiday shopping, despite the impending storm.
Fists clenched, he tried to pull his
need
in, hold it still enough to keep himself from grabbing the nearest woman and ravaging her.
Tristian could smell every person in the stores surrounding the park. Their scents were even clearer than their thoughts had been. This woman was gravely ill. That one was sleeping with two different men. Another was pregnant.
He forced himself to lean back against the pole to still his mind. He had to find someone..
now.
Something..
special
. He stretched his mind, searching for the hint of someone warm and dark. His black eyes scanned the park and shopping area, hunting through the curtain of falling snow. He stood so still in his careful search that a fine dusting of white settled on his shoulders and pale hair.
He set his entire mind to the hunt. He held every passing woman inside himself briefly, searching. No longer did he simply take what he needed; he searched for those who desired. Gave them something in return.
Ah… there. The sense of a strong desire again, an unfulfilled need. A carefully concealed soft darkness in someone who was at the moment standing in quiet reverie. The
hunger
sharpened his vision. Almost in the trees she stood, past the shops and shoppers, beyond the park, face up to the sky. Her pleasure came from the falling snow; her consciousness was filled with the uncomplicated joy of it. Underneath, though, were dreams that seared him.
He stilled everything inside him, the excitement and urges, and slowly moved forward. Cinnamon-colored hair fell down her back in large snow-frosted curls. Her skin was rosy from the cold, her full lips a brilliant scarlet. She wore a long coat of burnt-red cinched tightly around her waist, accentuating her shape.
He pulled her scent into him, made it a part of himself. He nearly laughed; more cinnamon. Carefully he wrapped himself around her consciousness, taking her thoughts into his own so he could easily swallow her mind when needed.
Tristian suddenly knew what he needed to do.
Moving more quickly than anyone could see, he came up behind her, drawing her awareness deep inside him, so she would not have the power to bolt. His fingers came up to tangle in the hair at the back of her neck. His touch completed the link that made her helpless, open to him.
He felt a strong bolt of shock and desire burn through her when he gently tugged those soft curls.
Yes
. Truly the right choice for him. She would feed his
hunger
nicely.
"Now, my lovely." He whispered softly. Delighting in the shiver that ran through her. "Shall we move on to somewhere a little more... dark?"
She had fallen into a foggy haze as his mind held hers captive, all thought of panic and fright locked out. Only his will kept her knees from turning to jelly.
Fingers still twined in her hair, he guided her further into the trees. He had intended for this to be a relatively simple feeding, carrying the girl into the wood to sate his
need
while he quickly sated hers. But those dark thoughts hidden in her head brought to him another hunger.
Deep into the trees they went, feet crunching in the snow. He kept her in a submissive state by careful tugs at her hair every dozen steps or so. They walked until the snow showed no scars but their own.
"Stop." His whisper was a shout in the cold silence. There were no other sounds but the creaking of the trees and a soft whimper from the girl . Her every exhalation left a brief plume of condensation in the air. He'd always loved that visual proof of life.
He could feel a soft warmth growing in her.
Definitely the right choice.
"Turn to face me."
As she moved to obey he felt her fear and quenched it before it had barely registered. He was not one to feed on
those
emotions. He wanted this to be a pleasant experience. Maybe even something to transform her.
Amber eyes. Very nice. Her autumn-and-gold colored clothes made them glow even in the dark.