The Vampire's Promise

It had been a week since then. Vladimir had still been with me in the morning, gently stroking my hair. He stayed with me every night after long days of controlling what and who I opened my mind to, holding me close to the warmth of his body, waking me from nightmares and comforting me until I fell back asleep.

The training wasn't so difficult. Everything began to come almost naturally, after that first day with Vladimir in the library. He would occasionally slip into my head to make sure I had my mind closed off to evil. The corners of his lips would always turn upward afterward; a job well done, he would congratulate me.

This night of training was different. Vladimir wanted me to try and manipulate an object, to try and lift it a few inches off a table without physically touching it.

"I don't know if I can do this," I told him, focusing hard on the vase in front of me. Vladimir placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You can, Carol," he encouraged quietly. "It's just like when you were opening and closing your mind's doors; you can do this just as easily."

"How?" My eyebrows furrowed, and I placed my hands on the table.

"Focus on the vase," he instructed, "and clear your mind of everything else."

I sighed and closed my eyes, seeing the vase with my mind's eye. Very slowly, I imagined it lifting into the air. There was a puff of air that brushed against my ear as Vladimir gasped. When I opened my eyes to see why, the vase fell to the floor and shattered.

"You did it, Carol!" Vladimir placed his free hand on my other shoulder, massaging both lightly for a moment. My hands flew up to cover his, a grin stretching across my face.

"I did? You didn't do anything to help?" I turned my head slightly to look at him out of the corner of my eye. The smile he bore made me feel giddy.

"I didn't do anything; this was all you," he assured me. He squeezed my shoulders and turned me around. I laughed, pulling his hands from my shoulders.

"Let's call it a night, huh?" the suggestion sounded perfect to me as it rolled off his tongue.

"Yeah, let's go," I nodded.

We changed into comfortable nightwear in separate rooms, then crawled under the covers of the bed. I truly felt as if I was his queen as he held me close. I wondered if he only thought of this as a way of protecting me, and then stopped. Why did I care about how he saw the situation? It was probably because he had saved my life twice, and I felt as if I owed him something. I felt a weird connection to him, as well.

I rolled over on the bed, facing him and searching his eyes like he had mine so many times. Whatever he had been looking for was probably entirely different to what I was looking for then. I thought I could see a loneliness in them that caused my heart to ache a bit, before he broke the silence.

"What?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. I let out a breath, smiling and looking down at my pillow.

"Nothing," I replied. A thought occurred to me then, and I glanced back up into his eyes. "Do you ever feed? You know, like drink blood... seeing as you're a vampire."

Vladimir's gaze dropped lower. I shivered as his fingertips brushed lightly against my neck. He met my gaze again as he asked, "Are you offering?"

My eyes widened and I moved back on the bed a little, away from him.

"Relax!" Vladimir chuckled. "I was joking. I... can't feed on you, until you've accepted that you're my queen." I closed my eyes while he moved closer, continuing to caress my neck. He pressed a soft kiss against my neck.

"Vladimir, don't..." I muttered.

He whispered against my neck, "To answer your question: yes, I do feed."

"When?" I breathed out, trying to push him back after he kissed my neck again. His arms wound tightly around me, keeping me from escaping.

"While you eat breakfast," he murmured. More soft, slow kisses were placed over my neck.

"Vlad- Vladimir, stop," I pushed at him again.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Your scent... I'll stop."

He kept his face buried against his neck, but didn't kiss it anymore for the rest of the night, my heart beating wildly within my chest. I had no nightmares that night, only strange dreams of Vladimir laying cold in a coffin, his chest slowly rising and falling as he slept.

While eating breakfast the next morning, I wondered whose blood Vladimir was drinking at that moment. I thought about why he could only drink from me if I accepted that I was his queen. Maybe it would be like validating a marriage in some strange way?

I sighed, and thought about asking him once we were alone, training again.

He did not collect me after breakfast, so I found my own way to the library. I gazed around at all of the books that were in there. The place looked so beautiful now that I was open to it. What a special room it was, indeed.

I frowned when I discovered that Vladimir wasn't in the library, and took a seat in one of the chairs while I waited. There was a book on the table next to me, laying open on its pages. What could be the harm? I thought and lifted it up, quickly becoming lost in its contents.

I don't know how long I had been reading for until Vladimir stepped through the door of the library, but I had reached page one-hundred and ninety-three.

"You're late," I scolded, not looking up from my book.

"Sorry about that..." he sounded a little upset, so I raised my head. His eyes were on the floor, and his expression appeared to be twisted from pain.

"Are you alright, Vladimir?" I set the book down and stood up, walking over to him. He balled his hands into fists at his sides.

"Yes, I just..." he still refused to look at me as he spoke. "Last night, Carol... when you asked that question, it drove me crazy... Your scent just- I killed a few people just now."

"Oh," I fell back into my chair. It was then that he chose to return my gaze.

"I- I'm sorry, you just smell so good..." His hands flew up to grip his head, and I noticed his hair wasn't tied back like it usually was.

"I needed a lot of blood," his voice shook. "I get so damn thirsty, being around you. You tease me just by being around me, and you don't even realize it!"

A shiver of fear went up my spine and Vladimir began to pace in front of me, still gripping at his head- tugging at his hair.

"Do you know what it's like?" he asked, stopping his movements and falling to his knees in front of me, placing his hands on the armrests of my chair.

"No, I-"

"No, you don't!" he agreed. "You're not a vampire; you don't understand the eternal hunger for blood. I'm a monster, Carol, and don't try to tell me that I'm not. I was born this way; born to crave the blood of the living- innocent or not.

"I'm a monster... A blood-thirsty, murderous animal. And I'm even frightening you! I can see it in your eyes," he shook his head. I flinched slightly when he raised his hand to stroke my cheek. "I'm frightening the one person I don't want to frighten. But you know what, Carol?"

"W-what?"

"I can't hurt you," he whispered, gaze falling. "Thank a possibly non-existing god for it, because I don't want to hurt you. Thank me for offering to make you my queen, and thank you for unknowingly accepting."

I took his head in my hands and pulled it to my shoulder, gently petting his hair. His arms wrapped around me and tugged me closer to his body.

"Thank you, Carol," he whispered against my shoulder. "The scent of you drives me crazy, you know. It's quite unlike anything I've ever smelled. Such a heavenly scent..."

His teeth lightly grazed my shoulder and I gasped. My heart began pounding again. A low groan escaped him as he bit slightly harder, and I pushed his head away from me.

"I'm sorry." A small smile rested on his lips. "I wouldn't have been able to, you know; not until you truly want to be my queen."

"Let's... let's get on with the training," I nodded, as if to assure myself that was what I wanted to do. I could never admit that by the day, a tiny part of me that was attracted to him grew.