Stain

She pushed her hair out of her eyes and stared back into the eyes of her reflection, pondering through her mind. How could she have forgotten her entire past just because something bit her? It was almost ridiculous, illogical. It didn’t make any sense. Well…nothing necessarily made since anymore.

Taking a deep breath in, she made her way out the door and down the stairs, Aleksander was leaning against the front door, “Wow.”

Alena looked down at the floor, pushing her hair behind her ear and smiling when a soft pink rouge came over her cheeks. “Its not anything special.”

“Of course it is, darling.”

She looked up, a soft smile forming on her beautiful face, “How so?”

Looking into her eyes, he practically whispered, “Because its you.”

He got down on one knee with one hand over his heart and the other stretched out, awaiting for her to take his hand. When her hand lightly fell into place with his, he stood up, staring into her purple eyes that reminded him of never ending amethyst skies. They spoke to him, he could keep looking into them forever. Days on end. They weren’t the typical royal purple that most Nymphs had. They were a sparkling purple colour that almost perfectly resembled gems.

“Shall we go, krasivaya zhenshchina?” Aleksander said to her, a smirk on his face, she nodded quickly.

Aleksander had made reservations at a well known restaurant that was in the middle of the city for him and Alena the day before, hoping he’d agree to go with her. If not, he’d probably end up taking Klara or Cisily. Preferably Cisily, since he already couldn’t get Klara off his back.

As he got out of the car, Aleksander breathed in the scent of all of the blood he could smell pulsing through human veins. It almost had an electric current running through it, almost sending him into a maddening hunger. Vampire blood had no affect whatsoever on vampires, obviously, since they were around it almost 24/7. Looking to his right, he saw Alena standing by his side, a worried expression on her face.

“What?” He almost growled through his gritted teeth, his response causing her eyes to go wide.

“You look terrifying, Alek.” She almost whispered as he put his arm around her waist and dug his nails into her waist, causing her to breathe in sharply.

As he replaced his hungry, manic, and bloodthirsty deposition with a soft smirk and discerning eyes that cast a ghostly look across the room.

“Did I hurt you?” he whispered, chuckling softly. Giving him a sideways glance while biting her lip, she whispered, “No.”

“Hello and welcome to Le Cygne, smoking or non smoking?”

“Smoking, please.” Aleksander replied with a smile. The pretty hostess smiled at him and beckoned them to follow her to a section of the restaurant.

Alena looked at him, confused. “Old habit.”

Nodding, she watched him gesture to the pack of cigarettes that were in his back pocket. The hostess placed down two menus that looked like black leather with silver engraving with the restaurant’s name on them as the two archfiend looking characters sat down across from each other.

“Your waiter should be here any minute, thank you for coming to Le Cygne, have a good night.”

Aleksander smiled and gave her a slight nod before she was off. Looking at Alena he said, “You know, I only came here because well, for one, its nice, for two, I wanted to spend an evening with you, and for three if we stayed at the house Silvan would be following us around like a small puppy. I don‘t think restaurants apply to vampires very well.” She laughed at his joke slightly, smiling and looking down.

As he took out his cigarettes and lighter he looked at her, smiling, “You are so beautiful, Alena.”

“Thank you.” She slightly whispered, the familiar soft sanguine complexion overtook her stone white cheeks. Whenever he complimented her, touched her, brushed against her, said her name, anything like that…her heart soared and she got a slight knot in her stomach and blushed madly. “So, are we just going to sit here and drink wine?”

He smiled at her, “Well. The blue rare sirloin with some blood left in it is quite delightful, actually.” Noticing her questioning look he quickly added, “A piece of beef that is about medium sized and is barely cooked. You used to be able to order steak raw, but nowadays I believe that is against health code and will get you very odd stares and accusations.”

“Why?”

“Well, darling. If you eat raw meat, sometimes there are unhealthy things in it, which would normally be cooked out. Like salmonella poisoning. And you will get very sick. Well…mortals will. Not us though, because we’re the undead.”

“Oh. I see. So we came here to sit here and drink wine, smoke cigarettes, and eat basically raw meat?” She questioned, laughing.

He looked at her and rolled his eyes as he lit the nicotine torch that was hanging out of this mouth, inhaling the smoke he replied, “Sure.”

“Does that even have any affect on you?”

“Slightly. But not as much as when I was a Nymph. As of now its just a terrible habit. Want one?”

Smiling, she nodded.

“Well c’mere then!” He said, smiling.

She leaned over the table, her chest nearly falling out of her dress. Aleksander took note of this and smiled, laughing to himself. Handing her the cigarette she placed it in her mouth and he lit it, watching her inhale and lean back into the booth on her side of the table.

“Like it?”

Her eyes were closed, “This is so familiar to me.”

“What? The cigarette?”

“Yeah. Like…I’ve felt this feeling before, Aleksander. I know I have.”

He looked at her, eyebrows raised. It was normal for Nymphs to recall certain places or faces, but never sensations as small as the feeling of nicotine entering your system. “Well…that’s odd. But you’re special, so, yeah.”

She smiled, about to respond when a tall, lanky red haired waiter with an eyebrow piercing took place in front of them, “Ello, my name is Jet and I’ll be your waiter tonight. Can I start yeh off with a ‘round o’ drinks?”

“Sure you can. I’ll have a glass of red wine, and she’ll have..?”

“Same.”

“Alright, that sounds mint. Do yeh want a bottle or just the drinks?”

Aleksander glanced at Alena, looking her up and down for almost the fifth time. “Bring the damn bottle, why not. The one that can get you trashed the fastest.”

The waiter laughed replying with a quick, “Alright, I’ll bring it ‘round in a tad.” As he walked off Aleksander looked at his love interest with raised eyebrows and an excited expression on his face, “I wonder how long it will take us to get mighty trashed.”

Chuckling Alena replied with, “One bottle?”

“Oh no no no m’dear. See, alcohol works the same way as nicotine. It takes more to get you messed up. I’m a pretty strong drinker myself and so is Silvan, so we decided to play a game of drink all of the booze in the manor. It took us five bottles of vodka to get blotto.”

“And how did you manage that?”

“Literally chugging the bottles.”

She didn’t respond, instead she looked at him with raised eyebrows and a smile on her face.

“What? We’re a pair of Russians, of course we’re going to try our first week out of Nymphood!”

Alena laughed, “And what is the affect on the Nymphs?”

Looking into her violet eyes he took a deep breath, realizing how much he cared for her. “Alcohol is like blood almost. Three glasses can get you drunk.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

A sudden tension filled the air that was so thick you could almost bite into it. Luckily, the cockney punk waiter came around with a tray with two glasses of red wine and a bottle. “Here are ya drinks, thou ready to order?”

“Um yes. I’ll have the blue rare bloody sirloin and she’ll have the same, I believe?” Alena nodded, Aleksander smiled at the waiter who gave him a questioning look, “How bloody?”

“As bloody as they come?”

“Uh…alright. I’ll have that with yeh in a tad.”

As soon as Jet was out of ear shot the two looked at each other and burst into uncontrollable laughter, everyone else around them staring at them.

But who cares?