Living Heart Ch. 03

I slept through the day in the darkened room that Grace had offered me. I slept soundly, not having heard a cry from her all while I slept; she even managed to slip out to her day life without stirring me; I found that touching that she believed I was truly asleep in those precious hours we shared in her bed together. It allowed my thoughts to wander back to my first time.

The woman who had made me a vampire had been stunningly beautiful in a satin midnight blue dress. Her brown hair cascaded down her back, unlike the other women her age. I had barely been twenty, and almost depressed over the fact I was about to be married off to the great Lord Fairchild. I would have much rather grown old, alone. Lord Fairchild was a man with a strange idea of what courtship was. Now that I was engaged, he would often try to find me alone so he might grope and kiss me. He would press his body against mine; often I would find him aroused. I thought he was disgusting the way he would take his large floppy lips and press them against my ear and whisper details of the most graphic ways he intended to take my maidenhead.

But at the ball that evening three hundred years ago, she stood surrounded by a bevy of fine young men. She claimed widowhood, a feat not unusual, but she was subtle and demure. Men flocked to her and even women could not resist her. Her laughter had been calming. I wished for her freedom. And she even sensed it.

She parted the crowd and had selected me to join her. I was free of my chaperone, what threat would there be from such a well-cultured, older woman?

"Would you like to find your way through the maze?" she asked me.

"I have never been through these gardens." I looked at the darkened topiaries hesitantly. I had heard that the gardens at this particular home were spectacular at any time of the day. I had not been able to wander the maze yet and I had longed to have such a quiet solitary moment.

"Just show me the way." I said eagerly. I followed her into the juniper entrance.

In the gardens, alone deeply lost, she had kissed me in a way I believed only the Holy Mother could manage. It was tenderness that I had longed for and dreamed about through a variety of silly childish stories spun about love. My breathing became erratic in a manner I had never known. I had only heard the raspy breaths previously from Lord Fairchild. But now, in her arms, she was drawing my sexual want and I was unashamed of that simple fact. Her hands roamed and fondled my body and I responded in kind, suddenly liberated by her touch. Her hands pressed against my body as if cloth did not separate us. And in those heady moments, I felt her fangs pierce my lips drawing my life from me. I snapped from my complacency only long enough to give her access to my neck.

"No Pet," she murmured satisfied, the image of my blood cascading down the corners of her mouth still as clear today as it was that night, "You're much too pretty to leave to death."

She had secreted me away in an instant and laid me in her own coffin, weak as a newborn child. I lay in the coffin all day, tears streaming down my face until I was too exhausted to cry. She woke me the next evening and kissed me gently. I was still very delicate, but she showed me what I could do now that I had been 'freed' from my confines of life. She removed my clothes and made love to me on a dais above her coffin under an open skylight directly under the full moon. I danced with her, partially out of fear. I had already paid the devil's price for my curiosity. What followed in her touch of arousal surprised me, we were naked bathed in the blue light, tangled in eroticism that I never knew could exist.

And when the love making ended, she kissed me and said, "Never, ever let them pierce your heart and stay away from sunlight Pet."

Three nights later I was on my own. I no longer existed to anyone I had ever known. Thrown away like a tissue by my first and only lover. I cried for weeks, begging my lover to return to me. If she had heard me, she ignored me.

Until now.

You are playing with danger Pet.

I nearly sat up though it was midday.

How did you find me? I asked nervously.

Are you that naïve still Pet? I always know where you are. I turned you. We are joined for life.

Then how does Grace see into my thoughts?

The same way I knew you were going to follow me into the garden. She is just more aware of your thoughts. Your thoughts are too exposed Pet; others will find her and take her from you. You ooze the fact that she is your living heart. You would do better to guard your feelings to protect her.

Living heart?

There was a bit of a sigh from her as she began to chide me. Pet you should have paid more attention. There are only three ways for a vampire to die: a stake through the heart, exposure to natural sunlight, or a gift of life from their living heart.

I shook my head. But a gift of life wouldn't mean I would die.

I felt her mouth grow small. Time would steal your beauty, your body will age and eventually Death will come for you. She shrugged.

I was about to muse into the depth of the message when I heard her voice again.

I want you to be careful Pet. I know you are such a lover that will only want one heart. Protect her. Love her. If she chooses to free you from being a vampire, consider that gift very carefully

And then I could not resist the question that had burned in my heart for better part of three hundred years. Why did you leave me?

I wasn't destined to be your greatest love Pet.

I touched my cheek, as if she had kissed me. She is very beautiful. I envy that she gets to have you.