I know it's been a long while since my last story everyone. But I hope that this one will wet your appetites.
Enjoy and please vote. All comments are welcome. :)
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She walked in the hot Vegas night air, her hair blazing red under the street lights as she passed them. Her face shadowed slightly in the darkness. In those passing lights, her face would glow a creamy white, almost making anyone looking believe that she had the moonlight in her skin. Her eyes would catch and then move on to each passing pedestrian or car, searching, reading their faces. She was looking for something, or someone, but she didn't know or understand what she was looking to find.
Her name is Deloria. She was born in Savona, Italy in 1326. She was just 26 when the Black Death spread relentlessly through Europe. That's right, Deloria is over seven hundred years old, and still looks the age of 26.
She had succumbed to the plague, and in a moment of desperation, she was offered the gift of life, of never being sick again, of living beautiful and ageless. She had only to agree to a kiss, a kiss that touched neither lip nor cheek, but her neck.
Fear and pain moved her to agree. The stranger, which later she learned had been with her throughout her sickness, moved in and caressed her cheek, then leaned in and touched his lips to her throat. She remembered thinking how cold his lips were moments before he bit down. She screamed at the instant pain, and then she settled as a kind of euphoria slid over her mind. Then her vision started to gray around the edges.
She heard him speaking to her, but could not understand was he was saying.
"Deloria," he whispered.
She looked up at him, her eyes still refused to focus.
"You can still refuse me, you have a choice. If you choose you can die now. No pain, no plague, but pure death. Or you can finish this, taste of my essence and be as I am. You will be free of it all, no sickness, no pain. You will be beautiful forever, never aging, and stronger and faster than ever before."
She heard him, understood what he was offering. A wave of pain hit her and she moaned and writhed from it. "Yes, I want to be free of all this. Make me as you are."
The decision made he quickly sliced his own neck and pulled her up to place her mouth over the wound. Deloria will always remember the sensations as his blood flowed into her mouth, of how it felt to drink it quickly. She felt warm and then a stronger rush of heat pounded into her body. He pulled her away and held her still as the heat faded to an icy chill throughout her. Then she was wracked with ripples of changes. Her eyes deepening to a truer blue, her hair brightening to a flame red, and her skin paling until she was a creamy white, then lastly her primary teeth growing to two fine points.
"Lay still Deloria. You will be weak for a few moments," the stranger said.
"What's your name?" Deloria asked.
"Julian," he answered as he stroked her hair.
"Why me?" she asked as she looked up at him.
He was simply the most handsome man she had ever seen, his eyes a deep brown, almost like a dark chocolate. His hair was so black it was nearly lost in the darkness of her room. His skin was as pale as hers. And he chose her to change.
"The answer to that is a long one. It may take a while to tell it."
She was feeling stronger, stronger then she had ever felt. She shifted and then stood. She looked around and saw more then she thought she should be able to see. It was dark as midnight in her little room, but she saw the small table next to the bed as clearly as if it were lit with light.
"There are things I must tell, that you must understand," Julian said as he stood and stepped to her.
Deloria turned to look at him. "There is more to this gift?" she asked.
"Much more, all of which I will teach you," he said as he trailed his finger down her cheek, then to the wound that he had made with his bite. It was instantly healed and gone. "First is that you must never go into the sunlight again. It is death for us, a very painful death. Second, crosses can hurt us, but not kill. It weakens our power."
Deloria turned into his touch. It was gentle and knowing.
"Next, you have power over men, as I do over women. You can feed, but not kill. To kill is to raise too many questions. The mortals will hunt you, if found, and likely kill you with the rising sun. Next, a stake of wood or silver will hurt you, but only can kill if thrust through your heart."
"So I will not get close enough to endure such a fate," Deloria said confidently.
"I will teach you all I know," he said and pulled her closer to him. "I chose you more than for your beauty Deloria. I have watched you for more than a year. At first as a feeding, then as I came to know you, I could not bear to see you suffer under that horrendous plague."
She watched his eyes change and become watchful.
"I love you Deloria," he whispered.
The tears sprang so quickly to her eyes that she had no time to try to stem them. "How can you love? You are the undead." Through her words she felt his emotions pouring from him.
"Oh I love," he said grasping her hand and bringing it to his chest where his heart lay still. "It may not beat with life, but I feel it swell when I look at you, when I hear your voice. And now as I feel you under my hands I feel as though if it did beat it would for you alone."
His words touched her deeper than any token grace from a gentlemen of leisure.
"Let me love you, teach you. Walk with me as my bride for the rest of eternity." As he spoke he leaned in to her, then his lips touched hers and gave her the most loving kiss she had ever received from any previous suitors.
"Yes Julian," she said as he pulled away. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him in return.
The memory always made her smile. He had been a gentle lover, and a commanding teacher. His goal was only to make her stronger, faster, and more powerful then she had ever been in life. For her own protection from the hunters, and from the dangers of other vampires that would try to claim her. Her smile faded as she then recalled how he had died at the hands of other vampires.
They wanted his home, his land, his money, and her. He had fought viciously, with her beside him. In the end there were too many of them and they had lost. Their enemies had tied Julian to an old dead tree, and then drug her off screaming and fighting. The next night, after she was beaten and raped repeatedly, they took her back out to the tree and they found only ashes where her beloved Julian was.
She cried bitterly for days as they continued to use her. Then one day she found the strength that Julian had instilled in her. She plotted for the time that she would be able to gain her revenge. After more than 3 weeks she watched and learned their patterns. Then she struck.
She killed her guards first, and then left a bloody trail behind her. Her anger and revenge held up in front of her like an invisible shield. She slashed and ravaged any vampire who got in her way until she reached the leader. He stood laughing as if she could even believe that she could defeat him. She attacked with a vicious howl and caught the surprised look in his eyes when she struck him with her clawed fingers, ripping open his shirt and the flesh underneath.
He retaliated and threw out his fist, catching her in the jaw, sending her flying across the floor. She bounced back up and dipped her head as she saw him trying to catch her again. She screeched as she swung around and again clawed him, this time in the face. He tumbled back a step, giving her the advantage.
Leaping forward she knocked him off his tenuous footing with a blow to the chest. He landed hard on his back and she pounced. She pinned his arms under him then growled as she sank her fangs into his neck, not for the feeding, but for the kill. She ripped his neck open and let the blood flow freely from the wound. And as she held him down, she watched as his face draw up and into itself. His body seemed to shrink and shrivel into nothing.
As she stood other vampires had surrounded her. She looked and waited for them to kill her, the blood of their leader dripping down her face and out of her mouth. But they stood there, watching as their leader evaporated before their eyes. Then fear seemed to grip the group as a whole and they moved away from her, then turn and escaped into the night.
She was left alone after that. Word had spread of her and what she had done. She and Julian had been together for nearly fifty years when she had lost him. She debated stepping into the sun on more than one occasion when her grief had been at its worst. But she felt that it would be better to remember him as he was for her. So she lived, and did her best to honor his memory.
Now, as Deloria walked the streets of Las Vegas seven hundred years later she smiled. Her heels clicked on the concrete sidewalk as she moved with and against the crowd. Her ankle-length black wrap flowed behind her with a seductive grace that only she could create, revealing her blood red gown. Men and women alike stared as she walked past. She could see clearly the lust in the men's eyes, and the envy in the women's. It amused her to see it, the wonder in their eyes, the questions, 'Who is she? Does she work in one of the shows?'
Then the unexpected happened. When Deloria turned to walk into one of the main strip hotels she saw him. If her heart was able to beat she was sure it would have very quickly. 'Julian!' she thought and move with lightning speed as the man turned and disappeared into the hotel. She followed and caught a glimpse of him again as he headed toward an elevator.
Just as she reached it the doors were closing, and she saw him. She stared as he looked up and his eyes locked on hers before the instant the doors shut. Her breath was catching in her chest. 'Think, think," she thought. Then she looked up and watched until the elevator stopped on the fifteenth floor. She raced to the stairwell and then flew up the stairs in the blink of an eye.
As she stepped out of the stairwell, she saw him step out of the elevator. When he looked down the hall and saw her standing there he blinked in surprise. He blinked again when she suddenly appeared next to him, staring at him.
"Julian," she whispered.
The man stepped back and shook his head. "I'm sorry no," he said. "My name's Kyle. I'm sorry, but you have me mistaken for someone else."
When he attempted to leave she reached out and stopped him with the lightest touch. She wasn't wrong, she couldn't be wrong when he had the same scent the same eyes, Julian's eyes. Then she heard it, the quick beating of his heart, then the quick intake of breath from mild fear. Her Julian never feared her.
"I'm sorry," she said and dropped her hand. "I thought..." then he turned to her fully.
The sadness in her eyes was what made him look again at her. When she realized he wasn't who she was looking for he saw the blanket of that sadness just shudder down and snap her eyes shut.
"Hey," he said getting her attention. "Why not come with me? I'll buy you a drink."
Deloria opened her eyes and looked at him. Questions raced through her mind as to how this man could be so much like her Julian. Then she remembered who and where she was. She smiled sweetly at him. "Thank you."
He led her back into the elevator then pushed the lobby button.
"Can I ask a question?" he said as he turned to look at her again.
"Yes."
"Who was Julian?"
She stared for a moment as to how he would know that Julian was gone.
"It's was in your eyes," he said as she continued to be silent. "The way you suddenly looked so sad. It was the only answer."
"He was my husband. He's been gone so long that it surprised me to see you. You could be him, you look so much alike," she said.
