A Change of Seasons

Chapter 1: Awareness

Karyn couldn’t believe that the professor had gone over again. It seemed he never finished on time. Lately she just didn’t like the walk back to her dorm. It was midway through her first semester and she’d been told all the stories about what happened to unescorted girls after dark on campus. It was getting entirely too dark too fast at night.

Her khakis, sweater, and fleece jacket covered a form, that caused more than a few missed notes in her classes, though she was unaware of this. Her male classmates saw a body that was decidedly feminine without being voluptuous. She was what most would call petite, and some would call sexy. She thought herself plain.

Her sparkling blue eyes scanned the grey overcast skies, and the early autumn wind tossed her almost blonde hair about her head like the branches of the leafless trees around the campus. The smell of snow still threatening, even this early in the season. The first clawing winds of a promised winter were trying to tear through her sweater and jacket. Icy talons of air slipping where proper fingers dare not.Soon, she thought to herself,winter,spring, then summer. Sunlight… these cloud-cast skies will be gone soon. I can’t say that I’ll miss them … These ideas rambled around in her head.

She was distracted enough with these musings that she almost didn’t see him. He stood off in the shadows, tucked in under the boughs of a hemlock. Just beneath the last tendrils of sunlight. She’d occaisionally studied under that tree in warmer weather, and knew that the lowest branches were nearly six and a half feet off the ground. He stood just under them, not touching, but within a few inches of them. Dressed in mostly black, a long trench coat, black shoes or boots, even the glasses he wore were jet black. His shirt though, that was different; deep blood red, astonishing it should even be discernable in the lavender light that preceded night. He seemed, not like he was hiding in the shadows but, rather like the shadows were a part of him. He was so still, almost invisible if you didn’t stare into the darkness he had cloaked himself in. She looked again. Boots, he definitely wore boots, with the trousers tucked in.Trousers? They’re called pants Karyn, her insecurities whispered in her head.

He was watching her. She looked at his face. Stared at it and, even though she couldn’t see through the lenses of his glasses,felt her eyes lock with his. The wind picked up and raked chilling fingers down her back. She reached out for the open flaps of her jacket and pulled them tighter together to keep the cold at bay.

Two people shouting at each other from the quad behind her jarred her attention away from his unseen stare. She turned to see what was happening. Nothing. Two friends, one yelling to the other about that night’s party. She turned back up the hill, thinking to hurry out of the wind back to her room. But first she looked back into the shadows. He was gone.

She didn’t know why but something inside her felt disappointed, almost… cheated. Another gust hit her and she finally moved back towards the doors of her dorm. As her foot touched the first step, she heard a voice. A cultured British accent spoke in her ear, “I am what you have always desired. You will learn this.”

She turned, almost dropping books and papers. Her pen slipped out of her books and skittered onto an empty sidewalk. No one was there. No one was anywhere, and certainly no one was close enough to have spoken those words into her ear. She knelt down and picked up her pen. Still kneeling she then, after looking up and down the walk, gaurdedly stood, turned and went up the stairs to her dorm’s entrance. As her peripheral view of the shaded area was cut off, she thought that she might have seen something move there.Don’t be stupid she chided herself, and walked into the lobby of her hall.

Days went by. The weather got worse then better then deteriorated again. She wished she would have gone to college in the south. She would think from time to time,Oh well, the Northeast has its perks, can’t recall any just now, but it seems to be alright. Tests were taken; some aced, some could have been better. Till recently, most nights were spent out. Why not? You only live once.Why not enjoy the night if the day had to be spent laboring to remember things I’ll never need to know again. This was what she told herself.

She thought about a lot of things. More and more her thoughts came back to that figure she had seen in the shadows. At least she thought that she had seen him.Maybe…maybe I was just too tired from the night before. That must be it. Maybe I should just forget about the whole scene. I’m obsessing about a dream… nightmare. Why nightmare? Where’d that thought come from? But it felt real. No, that’s not right. It felt too real. It’s been a week, drop it. Time and again she stumbled over the same litany in her mind, chasing it around in her head for days. It was even cutting into her studying.

A knock on her door jarred her morning studying, or at least what passed for studying lately. She got up from the open book and cold coffee that scented her desk with the almost burnt smell of too strong coffee and opened the door. There was Cheri. She’d taken to watching out for Karyn ever since a “misunderstanding” at a frat party at the beginning of the semester had made them instant friends. Cheri used to always say, “Karyn is a sweet girl but she’s too damn innocent for college.” And now, Cheri had that look on her face, the one that said she was worried about her again

Cheri’s soft voice entered the room with her, “Hi there. Where’ve you been? We missed you the other day for lunch. Everytime I see you you seem to be more and more… well… elsewhere. What’s up with you, girl?”

“Nothing.” Karyn didn’t even look up from where she fell back onto her bed.

Karyn heard the smile come across Cheri’s face, “Great, then there’s no reason for you not to come to the bar with us. You’ve been moping way to much. Come have fun.”

“I’m perfectly fine. But I know how that works, if I say no, you’re going to sit here and chatter till I cave in. Especially since then you’ll think I’m really not fine. So how about I just save the time and say I’ll go?” Karyn just sort of shook her head, amazed how she always let Cheri do this to her.

“Great! Meet us at Louie’s. You’d better be there, or else we’ll come get you.” Cheri shook her little fist at Karyn in mock threat.

“I’ll be there, don’t worry.” Karyn gently guided Cheri out of her room and went back to studying for a while.

It went like that the rest of the morning for Karyn. Friends would drop by and convince her to go out. It seemed to her that everyone was blowing this whole quiet phase out of proportion. With assurances that she was all right, she said that she would meet them at the bar that night. They agreed to meet there, and one or two friends asked again (half-heartedly) if she was okay. Patiently, she thought, she said… again… “I’m fine.” They went their different directions towards their final classes of the day.

Later that afternoon (or was that earlier that night?) she got ready to go to the bar. She fixed her hair, threw on a nice pair of earrings and a choker necklace. A loose satin blouse, comfortable jeans and a pair of flats finished off her attire. It was nothing spectacular. That summed it up: the outfit, the bar, the college… hell, even the state for all she cared for it.Admit it girl, that’s your life too… nothing spectacular.She forced these thoughts out of her mind and got into her car and drove to Louie’s.

She didn’t have to play this out as if everything was scripted out for her. She decided that tonight was going to be different.At least, she thought as her hand touched the firgid handle on Louie’s front door,I can hope that it will be.

Fate didn’t seem to want to cooperate with her. It was the same crowd of people doing the same things. That person getting drunk to forget, this one over here filling up on courage. Over there a young girl fights off the clumsy advances of a guy she doesn’t want to be around. The same clouds of cigarette smoke wreathed the light above the pool table. Colognes, and perfumes fought a war with the smoke in her nose. Drink in her hand, she looked around again and realized that she was starting to feel pretty good and that even this was the same as always.

Something in her mind shifted then and she looked again. Things were the same, but, subtly shifted. She looked out and saw everything as she had before, but this time realized that these were just generalizations. She could go into a hundred, maybe a thousand, other bars tonight and see the same people. The faces would be different, maybe even the languages spoken. But the soul, that would be the same. She was just wondering what she would look like, what her soul would be when she heard that British voice again.

“And so she sees again.”

She froze. Afraid to turn around. Afraid to make him — she knew it had to be him — vanish.Do I dare make him real? His touch lit upon her shoulder. It slid along her neck, letting his fingertips cup her chin and turn her face towards him. She let him draw her gaze around. Sounds of the bar vanished. She saw everyone still but heard only her own beating heart, her own gasped breath. His face filled her vision. The sights of the bar disappeared. The scent of Louie’s vanished in that shocked intake of air and was replaced with a haunting aroma of something aged, like the scent of clothing in the attic of ghost’s house.

She looked at him again. He still wore the glasses. She could see his hair; long, auburn, wavy. It framed his face perfectly, or so she thought. She was right, he was tall, but not as tall as she had expected. She thought he was attractive, but she couldn’t say why. He drew down his glasses and pulled them off his face to reveal closed eyes. As he slipped his glasses into his coat’s pocket he languidly opened his lids to reveal fey deep violet eyes.

“Your drink is empty. May I offer you another one?” The spell was broken and his words brought back the noise, colours and scents of the bar. She wanted to say yes, but somehow couldn’t get her throat to work.Breathe girl! She weakly nodded her head. She sat down and expected him to go to the bar for her drink. Instead, he sat next to her and handed her the chilled bottle.

She looked at it, then the gloved hand that offered it to her, then at him. She hesitated. Then murmured, “Thank you.” She put the bottle to her lips and drank, half fearing that it didn’t exist or that it was her empty one. The cool drink slipped down her throat, and the man still sat next to her. He just looked at her and waited. Not rudely, he didn’t stare. It was more a patience.

She looked around the bar again. The same people were still there. They still seemed like shadows of other souls doing the same things in other places. She looked back at the… the gentleman?… next to her. He was different. She was sure of it. If she went to another bar she could pick out everybody. Including herself, she sadly admitted. They would all be there, all except him, of this she was sure. Nothing about him was general. He was one uniqueness after another. All piled atop one another to create a soul and a being that could only exist alone. Everyone else in the bar was a shadow of someone from elsewhere.

Karyn finally found her voice, “I saw you the other day. Didn’t I?”

“Yes, I believe you might have at that. I did, after all, see you.” This he said with an eyebrow raised and a crooked grin on his mouth. She liked that. She believed that she could like a lot of things about this stranger.

She found herself falling into conversation with him easily, “Are you visiting someone here? I mean, I’ve never seen you on campus before or in the bar.”

“You could say that I’m looking for someone. You probably know them, they just haven’t arrived yet. It is my fondest hope that you’ll see this person soon.” This last part whispered as he leaned in to talk into her ear. His lips caressed her ear then gently kissed her just behind her ear. It chilled her, bringing goosebumps to her arm as well as a lazy smile to her lips.

She turned her head and looked at him. The noise from the jukebox was too loud for polite conversation. Rather than shout, she leaned into him to talk into his ear. She brushed aside his long hair.Lord isn’t there anyhting about this guy that isn’t gorgeous? She pressed her mouth close to his ear and breathed, “I doubt I know your friends. I’ve never seen anyone like you before.” She nipped at his ear and then pulled back, looking at him.What am I doing? This isn’t me… but why not… for tonight… he doesn’t know me. She looked at his eyes then. They seemed amused. They asked, ‘Is this what you want to do?’ She stared back, hoping that she wasn’t blushing. She felt like she was throwing herself at him. She found herself hoping that he would take her.

He didn’t move. He just looked at her again… waiting for her. “I mean, you don’t seem like someone from around here. The way you dress that is. Not that I don’t like it.” she couldn’t stop herself. The words gushed out of her mouth, meaningless and empty. She was blushing now, sure that she had made a total fool of herself. She was still babbling useless sentences when he leaned forward and kissed her.

It felt as if something drained her. Like he caught her as she was trying to breath. She leaned into him. When he broke off the kiss (was that a year or two later?) she was calmed enough to stop her rambling.

“Tell me of yourself. I want to know everything.” Those fey eyes set her instantly at ease. His voice was perfect. It was strong, and gentle. Patient and yearning. Knowing and inquisitive. It vibrated with many things that were not real opposites, yet seemed such at first glance. His request made the sights and sounds of the bar vanish again.

She found herself talking to him then. Of herself. Of what she wanted to be. Talking of things that she kept back from most people. How she never felt comfortable with guys. And how she never seemed to feel attractive enough to go out with anyone. She felt her life pouring from her body with her words. To be sure, he was a wonderful listener, but she wanted to be sure that his listening wasn’t wasted on her. She wanted him to understand her. To know her completely. It was suddenly all that she ever wanted. Finally, she finished, her story told.

She pulled her face away from his shoulder and looked around. The noise, the lights, the people… they were missing. Hell, the bar was missing, she wasn’t inside anymore. They were sitting outside, in the parking lot. She completely missed them walking outside. They used a corvette, black as Death’s carriage horses, as their bench. Off by itself in the now empty lot, her car was parked nearly thirty yards away. She looked up at him.

The bar was closed. The only light coming from a buzzing street lamp near by. It lit his features beautifully. He glowed like a ghost. He bent down and kissed her again and again. His lips caressing from her lips along her jaw and then along the curve of her throat. Teeth gently… teasingly scratching near her collar. He pulled her body against his, effortlessly lifting her off the ground. He pulled back her head, laying her throat bare. He showered kisses and gentle teasing bites along her graceful neck. She was breathless. She felt herself melting into his hands.

Then he stopped. He held her, but not with the same urgency she thought she felt in him before. He was looking over her shoulder at the night. Looking past the light of the lamp. She pulled back and looked at his face then. “You are so beautiful,” he said, ” I almost wish I didn’t love you.”

“You say that as if you are leaving. Didn’t you say you were meeting friends?” She was confused. She wanted him. She knew almost nothing about him, but she was sure that he was what would make her life complete. “Besides, we just met. You can’t leave yet. I don’t even know your name. And why are you so sure you love me. I’m flattered, but it doesn’t work that way.”

“I’m no longer so certain that I wish to meet the person who will be arriving.” He paused and appeared to think for a while then. “As for my name, you may call me Sylvaine. And as for what I feel towards you is for me to judge.” Again those mysterious violet eyes captured her, “You can not ever hope to understand the feelings I have or the knowledge of life I possess.”

His voice sounded sad.

A rough edge of anger crept into her voice, “What do you mean that I can’t understand? Tell me.”

“You couldn’t comprehend it even if I took the time to explain it.” He sounded resigned. It was as if she had asked him to abolish gravity.

She was beginning to feel tired. More to the point, she was beginning to feel aggravated with him.No. Not him. Sylvaine. He has a name I can focus on now. How dare he be so arrogant as to think that I wouldn’t understand. Her mind seethed. She snapped, her voice raising with each word, “Why? Am I too young to think? You say I’m beautiful. Is that it? I’m too beautiful to have a brain. Talk to me. I talked all night. It’s your turn. If you can’t explain it, then explain yourself.” She threw the words at him.

The peaceful visage slipped and in a shouted whisper he answered her, “You are young, beautiful, and spirited. You haven’t a clue what you ask. No! Not ask. Demand! You have not the right! I will not let you question me.”

Why? What have I said? her mind screamed at her. The edge of his words still seeming to cut through the night. His accent making it seem all the more ominous.

Karyn felt drained and robbed. “Then you’re just like all the others. I give. You take. Lord help me if I should want something. I thought you were different.”

She pulled herself away from him and walked towards her car. She collided with the taught darkness of his chest.God I must be wasted, I didn’t even see or hear him move she thought. He grabbed her by the shoulders and picked her up. He spun around, clutching her still, so the street lamp’s light fell on his head as he leaned over her. He still hadn’t let her feet touch the ground.God is he strong. Strong and pissed. Bad combination. An image of a young coed on a TV screen flashed through her mind as she heard the newscaster talk of rape and murder. A rib jarring thud in her chest, she felt her heart stop and her veins run cold.

“I’m more different than you know. You want. You need. You wish for me to give. I give you this!” His whisper deafened her. It was cold as steel, but much sharper. He pulled away so his face was in the light. And then for the first time that night. The first ever it seemed. He smiled. It didn’t show joy. It didn’t reveal peace. It screamed hunger. Evil. The light glinted off of flawless extended canines. A predators weapons. She screamed and tried to pull away. He held her long enough to make her see him for what he was. Then she broke free.

Karyn ran to her car, never looking back. Her hands felt numb as she fought with the keys to open the lock. She thought she heard his breathing. Suddenly cold hands wrenched open the door. Her body dove into the car. Keys skittered from trembling fingers to the floorboard. Arms and hands slammed the door closed. Locks were closed. She was sealed away. She was safe.

Her heart was pounding. Blood was tearing through her body faster than the veins could bear. She heard it all in her ears like a hurricane. She pressed her damp forehead against the coolness of the steering wheel as she grasped it with sweating palms. Holding on for her life. Slowly, she began to calm down. The reassuring smell and textures of her car, the sealed away security, calming her with their familiarity.I’m tired and I’m maybe a little drunk. Sylvaine was not… he couldn’t be a… he was just a guy. He had to be. Those creatures just don’t exist.

That was it of course, she was tired, kind of drunk. She just didn’t see him right. Or maybe she had, and it was just a weird birth defect. Whatever. She was alive. She looked out the windshield. The corvette still sat there. She was sure it had to be his. It would finish the image off. Whatever, she would leave him. Too risky to be with him. He might not be altogether upstairs.

She reached for her keys. “Where did they go?” she muttered under her breath. She found them sitting on the box on her front seat. Dawn’s lilac carress lit the interior of her car. Wasn’t it dark a second ago? Her skin iced over like a wasteland, the chill horror froze her veins again. She would have remembered putting a box in her car. Especially one gift-wrapped with a card and a rose on it. A black rose.

Chapter 2: Embrace

She just stared at it. A solitary black rose and a package wrapped in gold with a card on it. Karyn couldn’t remember if it was there when she dove into the car or not. I’d have remembered that… or would I? her thoughts were panicked… muddled. She reached for it then froze. Almost afraid to touch it for fear that it would bite her. She picked up the card. It was sealed with wax and a crest was pressed into it. Just like in those old movies. The wax imprint of the dragon cracked apart as she opened the letter. She glanced up from the piece of paper in her hands as she heard the Corvette’s engine roar out at the night. Soon even the tail lights could not be seen. She looked back at the letter. A flowing script wrote:

“My Dear,

I regret that we fought. It was, up till that point, a most enjoyable night. You were right, I did think you to be too young to understand. But you were also wrong. I am different. Your twentieth century mind will flood you with hundreds of reasons for what you saw. That I am a genetic freak. That the light was bad. That you hallucinated. It will try to obliterate the one true thought your instincts have. That I am a vampire. A predator. That I live on blood. These are the same truth. I was wrong to think you so incapable of understanding. You will believe what you want. I will tell you that I have lived through what your mind would call several eternities. I have done what is necessary for me to survive. I knew the instant I saw you that I loved you. When you live as long as I have, by yourself, you learn every last detail there is to know about yourself. You see with painful clarity that which is missing in your life. Gods. I speak of living and of life. I know nothing of either. I can not die. I am already dead. Yet undead also… or is it unliving. You are that piece of me which has been missing. I need you. In the package you will find a gift. If you want me. If you need me to come and visit you. Wear it and I will be there. I await your call.

 

Love,

 

Sylvaine”

With still cold, shaking hands she lifted the lid of the golden box. Nearly screaming as a spark of silver slipped to the car floor. Her keys. Lavender scented gauze wrapped whatever lay in the box. She parted the gauze and looked. Widening blue eyes fell on dark blue satin shot through with gold thread. Somehow she knew the thread was real gold. With trembling hands Karyn pulled it out of the box. The box was filled with lingerie. No, that isn’t quite right. It was all meant to be worn as an outfit. A costume.

Maybe he likes to play with his food came the sudden thought… terrifying and amusing at the same time. She marvelled at what the material felt like in her hands and wondered what it would be like to feel this gentle caress against her body. She almost craved it. Would his touch be as gentle? Would Sylvaine’s caress feel as unearthly? She let the fabric slide from her fingers back into the box, like liquid night pulling from the dawn. She closed the box. The spell seemed broken. All the revery over what his hands would feel like upon her seemingly sealed away within Pandora’s box.

She reached down and picked her keys up from the floorboard. They slipped into the ignition with a familiar click and with a flick of her wrist she turned over the engine. The clock on the dash read 5:55am as she pulled out of the bar’s parking lot.

What were her friends to think? She stumbled in the door at almost six-thirty in the morning. No one saw her leave the bar. “I was in the parking lot.” she said as she tried to get in her room. The other girls said she was out of her mind, they searched all over, including the parking lot. And where did she get the box anyway. What was in it? Isn’t black a kind of morbid colour for a rose? They barraged her with questions.

“I’m tired. I want to go to sleep.” She said quietly as she opened her door. Stepping into the room, she looked over at her roommate’s bed. It was empty. She probably went home for the weekend, came the unconscious thought. She could still hear her friends voices in the hallway, even after the door closed. Hushed so she wouldn’t hear them… supposedly.

“Do you figure she was with some guy?”

“She didn’t seem that drunk to me.”

“I’ll bet she doesn’t even know who she fucked.”

“Karyn? Fuck someone?! Get real!”

“I wonder what she got?”

The voices finally faded down the hall to another room.

She was so tired. Slow legs kicked her shoes off into the corner. Arms weighted with drowsiness unfastened her jeans and peeled them down her legs. She was at least awake enough to carefully unbutton the satin blouse and drape it across the back of a chair instead of just dumping it in the laundry basket. Karyn unfastened her bra, removed it and tossed it into the basket in the bottom of her closet along with her jeans and other laundry.

The room was cool and the smells of coffee, deodorant, and perfume were clipped and muted. She was almost completely naked. The sky was starting to get brighter. So was her room. The sound of dry hands on soft skin whispered as she crossed her arms over her naked breasts and rubbed her shoulders trying to stay warm. She looked down at the box and thought about what was inside it.

Her mind travelled over the offers and promises it implied. Maybe I should wear it. Then she pushed the thought aside. It didn’t feel right… not now. She dragged open a drawer and wrested a light peach night gown out from it. Fatigued limbs slipped it over her head. Throwing the comforter back on her bed, she slipped under the sheets and fell asleep almost instantly. Her last conscious thought was of Sylvaine’s glowing face in the lamplight. How his eyes seemed ancient. She lost herself then in slumber, and fitful, terrible, erotic dreams.

Karyn lay comatose in her bed till well after noon. The sun was pouring in through the shutters. A watery bright spot splashed on the ceiling. Her sleep clogged eyes traced the reflection back to the gold box on the floor. The rose and letter still sitting on the lid where she had left them… dreamt she had left them. At least she had been hoping… fearing… that it had been a dream.

She crawled out of her bed and pulled back the lid on the box, guarded cautious movements. It hadn’t changed. If anything, the garments were even more stunning than before. She slipped the lid back on the box and put it in her closet. Where the monsters live. She laid the letter and rose on her desk, grabbed a towel, soap, and the rest of what she needed to start the day, then she walked down the hall to the bathroom and took her shower and thought about the night before.

Strange, a hot shower usually unmuddles my brain. Things weren’t much clearer as she slipped the sweatshirt over her head. She was definite on one thing though. She didn’t want her friends to know. They wouldn’t believe her. Hell, I can’t believe it myself. She really didn’t feel like being laughed at. Not this time. She went down to the dining hall and grabbed some food. At least that was what they passed it off as. Actually, it wasn’t that bad, for something with the aroma of damp cardboard. It just seems like some unwritten law that you criticize cafeteria food. Her friends were there and they pried at her with questions about the night before.

“I really don’t remember anything.”

A few comments were made about being drunk enough to erase a night’s memories, and then the subject was dropped. By them at least. The same thoughts just slammed around in her head though. Sylvaine… a vampire. She ran through the rest of the night with her friends with her body on auto pilot while she kept thinking about Sylvaine. They all wanted to go out again.

“I don’t think so. Not tonight.”, she told them politely.

They said they understood, and let her off the hook. At least they did after a few jokes about alcohol at her expense.

She walked into her room and closed the door behind her. She left the light off. The full moon shone from a crystal midnight sky. It lit the room with a pure silver light. She walked over to the window. It had been a warm day and a gentle breeze still teased at the sheer curtains through the open windows. Hinted scents of “Indian Summer”-dampened soil trickling to her. She thought about Sylvaine. It was night.

He must be fierce to behold when he takes his prey… an animal… a killer. She thought about that. There was a wrongness to it that she couldn’t quite understand. She couldn’t get him out of her mind. Her eyes nervously flitted around the room and lit upon the box. Karyn remembered the feel of the satin in her hands. I want to know what his carresses feel like. Will he come? He said he would. I’m going to do it. He said if I wore it he’d come to me. If he talked that was fine. But this time she would take what she wanted. At least that was what she told herself.

She set the box on her bed, and looked at the gold colour of it in the moonlight. She stripped her clothes from her body as if she were in a trance. Denim and cotton almost misted from her body to the floor. For a long while she just stood in front of her bed looking at the box, letting the night winds stroke her nude flesh.

She let her thoughts drift over Sylvaine. Do I really want to see him tonight? Was she being a fool for believing he would come if she dressed in these pieces of satin? The more she thought about him, the more Karyn realized that she needed him to be with her tonight. Unconscious fingers traveled down her belly and then slipped between her legs. Her body was screaming for him. A gasp slipped from her suddenly moist lips and her left thigh spasmed with a delightful shudder. She still wasn’t sure her mind was up to it. Frightened fingers pulled the pieces of lingerie from the box.

As satin poured from the box the realization struck that all she had seen the night before was a satin robe. It couldn’t help but be noticed now that not everything was made of satin. There were laces and silks… all luxurious… all that deep midnight blue. When the last piece slipped from the box, she looked then at what he had given her.

There were silk stockings and a satin garter belt, delicate lace panties and bra. A lace edged silk camisole and the robe completed the contents of the box. One things for sure, she thought he sure thinks like a living man. Maybe he isn’t as dead as he likes to say he is? She thought about it for a moment. What does he want from me. How is he going to know that I’m wearing his gifts. Finally she decided that she didn’t care.

The lingerie was beautiful. She had to know what it was like to feel it against her skin. She fastened the garter around her waist, then slid the stockings over her legs. Next she slipped her arms into the straps of the bra and fastened the clasp where it hooked in front. Karyn picked up the small lace creation that were the panties. Holding them up to the moon she easily saw it’s silver eye through them. They were like gosamer midnight… so delicate. She stepped into them and pulled them up her legs. As she pulled the waistband over her hips she could tell without looking that the lace barely covered her soft golden brown pubic hair. Karyn looked over at her mirror as hands, unfamiliar with the garters, fastened the straps to the tops of the stockings.

The full moon gave enough light that she saw herself clearly. These undergarments were definitely not designed for function. They were created to make her the most desirable creature to walk the planet. The lace of the bra and panties concealed nothing. She could see every part of her body as if it were still naked in the moonlight. Her breasts got no support from the bra, not that they needed any. Her nipples stiffened as a chill breeze swept through the room. She reached for the camisole and pulled it on over her head; now she was covered… a sheath of night sky draped from shoulder to thigh. Yet, it subtracted nothing from her desirability.

Finally, reluctantly, Karyn put on the robe. The robe flowed over her like liquid nightshade. The occaisional flash of incandescent blue-white reflecting from the shining fabric. Almost seems a shame to cover all of this… hell, to cover me. She was wondering how long she would have to wait to find out if Sylvaine would try to contact her. Would he phone her, or would he call out to her from below. The dorms were locked now. No visitors. She finished belting the robe.

“You are still so very beautiful.”

She whirled towards the window. There he stood. Sylvaine had come just as he had promised. The moonlight made his skin glow like pearls. She ran past him, over to the window and looked down to the ground three floors below. There were no ladders, no ropes. Not above or below.

“How did you get here?” She asked.

“Why not ask what you really want to know.”

“I really want to know how the hell you got up here. It’s just not humanly pos…” her voice died… her eyes widened… she glanced over at him.

“And can you now accept this.” openly smiling now, his fangs a terrible white in the moonlight. “I will live past the deaths of your grandchildrens’ grandchild. I will remember everything. I am eternal. My memory painfully lucid. I will remember what it feels like to see your body exposed to me as those glorious wrappings are pulled from your body, to see the moonbeams bathe your breasts. I will remember the feast you will provide me. I won’t be able to forget any detail of it. Not even if I desparately wanted to.”

“Y-you sound so sure of what I will and won’t do.” caution had crept back into her voice.

“How can I not? I have seen you in hundreds of various faces and guises. Your soul craves me. It can not be whole without being forged in my evil.” seeing her expression cloud over “Oh yes. Don’t ever mistake me for anything other than a killer. It is the soul of my existance.”

“Then why do you wish to see me dressed as you requested?”, she found herself lapsing into the archaic English almost naturally.

“I thirst for blood. It is my life. Though others label it as a perversion of the natural order, I crave the passions of the flesh. There are those of my kind that would sooner die than visit again the hellish cravings of passion. I, on the other hand, am obsessed with them.”

“What are you saying? What do you want?”, her eyes started to get a wild cast.

“Don’t worry, I want only to bed you.” his voice was casual. His eyes, however, those were wrong. They looked at her as if she were something to be devoured.

“I won’t! I won’t let you do this to me. I don’t want this!” her mind shrieking… her voice a whisper.

“Yes!”, he hissed as he unbelted her robe “You will do this!”

Karyn reached down between them and grabed his hands. They weren’t warm like a normal man’s. She couldn’t even budge them. He grabed both her wrists and pushed her back against the wall of her room. She tried to struggle, but he effortlessly overpowered her. The breeze and moonlight both ran over her body… along with Sylvaine’s hunter’s eyes. He leaned into her, his mouth open… his tongue ran over his fangs. She gasped as she felt him brush those teeth against her throat. His lips slowly laid small kisses along her neck. Occaisionally, he teasingly bit at her neck, though not enough to break the skin. Damn those are sharp! Her breathing was becoming more and more ragged. Sylvaine still had her hands pinned against the wall above her head. And then something in Karyn changed.

Even she wasn’t sure when it happened. Arms that were, only moments ago struggling against Sylvaine’s shackling grasp, now tried to pull free to embrace him. She leaned her head back and gave him freedom to do whatever he wanted to her throat If he wants to kill me, she figured, he would have done it already. Again, those two sharp points trace their way along her neck. The vampire pressed his body against hers, his free hand slipping gently between her legs.

Sylvaine ran his fingers over the crotch of her panties. They were moist and hot. She couldn’t deny this to herself anymore. She really did desire him. When Karyn stopped struggling, he freed her hands and slipped the robe from her shoulders. As it hit the floor he drew her into his arms, and pulled her face towards his and kissed her deeply. Her tongue grazed over the fangs in his mouth she found herself getting more and more arroused. She began to grind her hips into his, an action that she had never done with any other man.

She could feel his erection through his pants. Unbuttoning his shirt she pushed it back off of his shoulders. Firmly, gentle hands lifted the hem of her camisole over her head and pulled it off her body to drop it on the floor near her robe. The image of her framed in the mirror flashed into her mind… a beautiful woman… clothed but thoroughly naked. She knew that Sylvaine could see her nipples and the light hair between her legs easily. A blush pulsed to her cheeks. My God, what do I look like to him?

Sylvaine gasped as the camisole touched the floor. The moon lit her body exquisitely. He could have seen her even if it were pitch black, but this was much better. Her nipples were stiffening. Hopefully not from the cold, he thought. The midnight lace of the bra and panties gave the illusion of clothed civility. She was nude though. She knew it too. He could see the blood flooding through her cheeks in a rush, colouring her cheeks.

His eyes saw like it was daylight. A predatorial gaze watched her firm breasts rise and fall with each gasped breath. Sylvaine easily saw the golden tuft of hair through her panties. Strong arms pulled her back into his body, his right hand finding its way back between her firm young thighs. Opening his mouth he kissed her again. He could feel her tongue dancing over the tips of his fangs. She seemed to be fascinated by them. They must arrouse also, I can feel her geting more and more moist between her legs. As he broke off the kiss he trailed his tongue, lips, and teeth in a graceful dance along her jaw to her throat. Again he was amazed at how excited she seemed to be getting.

The vampire reluctantly pulled his hand away from between her legs. Karyn ground her crotch into his body as his free hand unclasped her bra. The cups pulled back off of her breasts. One caught briefly on her nipple then even that almost covered piece of her body was completely exposed to him. His gentle hands pushed the straps off her shoulders and the bra fell to the floor where the rest of her clothing seemed to be heading.

Sylvaine pulled her into his embrace and lifted her slight body off of the floor. With arms enfolding her, he playfully kissed and nipped at her sensitive throat. Through the fabric of his silk shirt, her stiff nipples brushed against his chest. As he lowered her back to the floor, he reached around behind her and ran his hand over the cheeks of her firm bottom. The panties she was wearing, the ones he had given her, covered next to nothing. Long fingers slipped between her legs from behind, teasing her. Lips and teeth were never far from her mouth or ears or throat.