The Síochán Ch. 01

Summer opened her eyes slowly and looked up at him and the regret he saw in her eyes quickly quelled his thoughts of taking her with him. She was too beautiful, too fragile to live the life that he lived. Already his feral side was abating, having satisfied both his sexual lust and bloodlust. Now all that remained was his tender side and he felt regret for having taken her innocence even as he lay still sheathed within her tight body.

"What are you, Nathaniel?" Summer whispered, almost fearfully.

"A vampire," he answered slowly, shifting on the sofa until he was lying on his back and she was draped across the top of him. He arranged her long, golden tresses around them almost like a blanket and then stroked his hands down her back to her ass which he cupped firmly and pressed her against him.

Summer stared into his beautiful face, her thoughts in turmoil. She had allowed a creature of the night to take her and she had loved every moment of it. She would never find a good husband now she was no longer pure. Nathaniel had effectively ruined her and they both knew it. Even now, he was still inside her body and he was still hard. She should move away from him but she didn't know if he would let her go.

"Nathaniel," she said softly. "How am I to recover from this?

He frowned slowly and removed himself from her body, laying her back before he rose and proceeded to dress. "Abstain from lying with a man again until you marry," he said quietly as he closed his breeches. "Your body will tighten again from lack of use and your husband will not be able to tell that another has lain with you. If you are strong enough, keep a small dagger at hand and cut yourself unobtrusively after he enters you. Combine your blood with your fluids and mark your sheets. He will never know the truth."

He finished dressing and smoothed his unkempt hair back from his shoulders, pausing to lift her nightgown before he crossed back to the sofa. He helped her into it and lowered his head to give her a long, wet kiss. His tongue invaded her moist depths and tangled with hers in an erotic duel and he sighed his disappointment at having to leave her. It was almost dawn and he had to be safely home before the sun rose.

"You will not be back," Summer said quietly and he shook his head.

"I leave tomorrow night. I will not return this way for almost half a century, if not more. You will not see me again, Summer, though I will always remember you with great fondness. You gave me pleasure that no woman has ever given me before. I doubt any other woman will ever pleasure me as greatly again." He rose and headed to the door, glancing back once before he disappeared as quickly as he had arrived.

Summer lay on the sofa as her beautiful vampire disappeared into the night. She had performed such acts that were sinful but were so blissful too. She regretted her actions for the most part but deep down inside her she was glad that she had had this one night with Nathaniel. The heights of ecstasy he had taken her to would live on in her memory for as long as she drew breath.

Sighing deeply she rose from the sofa just as she heard the click of the front door opening. She stiffened in surprise, thinking Nathaniel had returned only to see her father's lodger, Frederick swaying drunkenly as he entered the house. She froze in fear and tried to step back so he wouldn't see her but she moved too slowly and his cold brown eyes fell on her and she shuddered deeply.

Frederick had been leering at her for months, ever since her father had accepted him as a lodger into their home. He was always trying to get her alone, trying to fondle her body when no one was looking. He was old, her father's age at least, with thinning hair and a thick gut from drinking too much ale. His personal hygiene left a lot to be desired and he frequently had an obnoxious odour coming from him.

Now he had her cornered and his leer was on his face as he steadily advanced towards her. "Were you waiting up for me, Summer?" he asked drunkenly. "Have you finally decided to spread your pretty thighs for me?"

Summer backed away in fright, her eyes going wide as she realised she was not going to be able to escape him. "Father," she screamed loudly, trying to dodge around Frederick but he reached out and caught her hair and pulled hard.

She had no idea that Nathaniel has placed her family in such a deep sleep. She was expecting her father to come down the stairs and rescue her so she fought him to buy her father time to arrive. She kicked him on the shin but only succeeded in hurting herself as she was barefoot. He groped at her breasts and she pushed against his chest to try and break free of his grasp.

Her push infuriated him and he lashed out, striking her across the face so hard she felt backwards with a startled scream, the back of her head striking the stone hearth as she went down. Lights danced before her eyes and pain lanced through her head and she felt herself starting to get light headed.

She was vaguely aware of hands on her body as she felt darkness rushing in. She tried to suck in a deep breath to scream but found she couldn't do so. She couldn't draw breath at all and she felt panic invade her mind. Her last thought was of Nathaniel's beautiful face before she succumbed to the lack of oxygen reaching her vital systems and the darkness rushed in and consumed her.

Nathaniel changed his mind. It was not often that he did so but the moment he woke after sunset his first thought was of Summer and their time together. He rose quickly, dressing and hurrying from his rented room towards her house.

He would convince her to leave with him. He would not use his compulsion on her. He didn't think he would need to anyway. He knew she had experienced the same level of pleasure as he had from their time together. He hoped it would be enough to convince her that she would have a future with him.

He stopped in surprise when he saw the blacked out windows of her house. Human's blacked out their windows when one of their own passed away. He felt a trickle of apprehension deep inside himself as he slowly stretched out his senses and entered the minds inside the house. He recoiled in shock from what he heard.

Summer was dead! Murdered after he left in the early hours of the morning. He stood rooted to the spot, trying to imagine a world where the angelic little woman didn't exist in. It seemed unthinkable. The more he traipsed through the minds within, the more his shock and sorrow grew. He felt the weight of guilt settle heavily on his shoulders as he learned that she had been murdered by the family's lodger. He remembered putting her family into their unnatural slumber. If she had called out for help, no one would have heard her.

Nathaniel turned from the house, his footsteps taking him quickly away from the horror he had unwittingly unleashed on the grieving family. He had killed sweet Summer just as surely as the man who had physically ended her life.

His heart felt heavy as he hurried back to his room and gathered his belongings and travelling provisions. He vowed never again to allow himself to come to care for any woman as he had allowed himself to care for Summer after their brief time together. Stifling down the pain he felt, he glanced once more around the town he had resided in for the last five years and then turned and began his long trek towards his next life.

******

All around Summer was a bright, pulsing light. She blinked in confusion, her muddled brain trying to understand what was before her. One moment she had been fighting with Frederick in the parlour and the next she was lying on the floor, unable to breathe as pain rocked her body after he had struck her. Now she was standing in her nightgown, in a completely alien environment, surrounded by a blinding light.

"Hello?" she called loudly, turning a full circle and seeing nothing but whiteness surrounding her. "Is anyone there?"

To be continued...