Living Darness

She could feel his presence, strong, menacing as she sat devouring the meager meal of stale bread and crumbled cheese, washed down with overly sweetened wine. She rose from the beer stained wooden table and made her way up the narrow stairs to the second floor of the small inn, her waist length raven hair slipping sensuously across her lean back as she moved. Natalia slipped quickly into the tiny bedchamber, the stale scent of too many bodies hanging heavy in the air around her, and bolted the door behind her. Moving to the small cot, the only furniture in the room, she considered just lying down and hoping the presence she had felt would simply leave her be, that the bolted door would keep her safe through the night.

***

Kaden crept silently up the stairs, having exited his hiding place in the shadows after watching the beauty glide up the stairs, skittishly looking over her shoulder, unseeingly, into the shadows where he sat drawing the darkness around him like a cloak. He moved noiselessly to the door she had thrown between them; he could smell her scent still lingering in the hall. He inhaled deeply then turned the knob on the door, crushing the lock with barely an effort.

***

Natalia jumped when she saw the shadows move beneath the door. She hurriedly replaced her few belongings into her knapsack and threw it over her slender shoulder as she heard the door rattle on its hinges. She looked frantically around for some weapon or avenue of escape. As she slipped out the second story window into the cold night, dropping lightly to the ground, she heard the wooden door creak open. Panicked she ran into the surrounding forest as the sun slipped behind the distant mountains. The woods closed in around her as Natalia shivered in the dense fog of a cold December evening. Her long midnight blue cloak fluttering about her ankles in the unnatural stillness, she peered over her shoulder, her too quick pulse thundering in her ears as she searched the shadows for the unseen eyes she could feel on her. She had been followed, she could feel him, watching, calculating, but no matter where she looked she saw nothing but moving and shifting shadows.

Suddenly he was there, behind her, his long arms pinning her to his steely body, one large hand splayed across her belly, the other clamped, vice-like over her mouth, muffling her terrified scream. Spinning her in his arms, he pressed her hard against a huge tree trunk, the rough bark scratching her back and bottom as she struggled against his hold. Steel blue eyes penetrated her fear, instantly stilling her struggles before he dipped his head to her hair and nuzzling the silky strands aside he found her bared neck with his icy cold lips, the shock wrenching a muffled cry from her covered lips. His scent wafted up around her. As her brain insisted she should continue to struggle or scream, something to stop this stranger's attack, Natalia's muscles refused to react, she softened and slumped into his strong arms as another muffled cry escaped her.

Her eyes slid closed as his lips began to move on her heated skin. Tiny sparks of pleasure ignited under the far too personal caresses the stranger pressed on her. One hand still over her mouth, his other hand boldly moved up her bodice to her ample breast. She moaned under his hand and he delved into her dress, pulling hard on the neckline to bare her breast to his ministrations. The cold air rushed around her suddenly bared skin, puckering the rose bud of her nipple beneath icy cold fingers. Diving his head lower he took her nipple into his mouth as his now free hand reached for her billowing skirts, hauling them up to her waist and searching for her petticoat ties. Fingers delved deeply inside her where no man had been before, the invasion at once painful and full of the promise of some unknown pleasure. Her knees failing her, Natalia slipped to the dense loam of the forest floor, her stranger relentlessly following her to the makeshift bed, his lips leaving her now painfully erect nipple to trace up her chest and replace his powerful hand on her own bruised lips. He kissed her deeply, commandingly. She responded almost at once, her arms wrapping around him, her fingers sliding into his thick hair, anchoring his mouth on hers. Feeling ashamed and wanton, she kissed him back.

***

Unable to hold himself in check any longer, Kaden plundered her sweet mouth as he struggled with the ties of his breeches. As he tugged them down, his ragging manhood sprung from his pants as if it had a life of its own. With a cry of triumph, Kaden plunged into this beauties tight, scorching body. She convulsed beneath him as he drank in her surprised cry. He began a slow, steady rhythm, pushing himself deep inside her again and again, driving himself and her on to the next plain of existence, until she tensed under him, her body clenching his member in a racking orgasm. As her body stilled, she felt a sting, vaguely, on her neck as he again nuzzled her there.

***

As expected, the shock of her orgasm; only the first of many if he had anything to say about it, and he had every intention of having a big say in that; stole her senses and she quickly passed into unconsciousness. Natalia barely registered his sharp fangs piercing the shin of her warm throat. Her scent was so intoxicating; Kaden was not surprised by the luscious taste of her blood. As he fed, he could sense her life waning. Before she became to weak, Kaden forced himself to stop sucking. He gently lapped at the two small wounds made by his fangs, helping Natalia's flesh to heal. Gathering her limp form in his arms, Kaden began running the five miles to his home.

***

From somewhere beyond the darkness that had wrapped itself tightly around her mind, Natalia felt a strange pulsing sensation like her consciousness was being pulled through the bright, sharp points she could feel at her neck. Then, so abruptly that she reeled at the sense of loss, the pulsing stopped, replaced by a warm wetness. She was saturated in a warm sense of safety as a scent so alluring and arousing that it nearly pulled her from the darkness enveloping her. She was shoved back into oblivion as the scent was whisked away by an icy blast of air.

***

It took only seconds for Kaden to reach Alspire Castle, the centuries old strong hold from where he had ruled the surrounding countryside for the past hundred and fifty years. He leapt the four stone steps leading to the front entrance to the castle as Stephan swung the huge oak door open for his Master.

***

"Is the chamber ready?" a velvety smooth voice slipped deeply into her unconsciousness. There was no answer to the query. As the liquid voice wound its way through the darkness, the alluring scent from before wrapped around it, Natalia began to follow the trail up out of unconsciousness. She began to feel the steely bands of muscle in the arms that supported her, realizing she was being held closely by the stranger and was no longer in the bitingly cold forest.

He carried her into an opulent bedchamber as her eyes blinked open. Natalia slowly took in her surroundings as he gently deposited her in the huge four poster bed that was the centerpiece of the room, pulling the coverings up around her. The room was large and the furnishings blatantly extravagant. The gold and crimson bed coverings were soft and warm and although part of her knew she should be terrified, she couldn't seem to find the fear, only fascination and exhaustion. She felt his impossibly smooth and cold fingers on her skin as he caressed her cheek. "Rest for now my love, all your questions will be answered when you awake." Natalia drifted into a dreamless sleep as this impossibly beautiful man glided out the door.

***