“Never touch this.”

I stared up at Christian in astonishment before nursing my aching side. “Was that really necessary?” I grunted, climbing to my feet. He said nothing, averting his gaze while still clutching the vase. Then it finally registered: vases didn’t have lids. It was an urn. It wasn’t empty, I’d felt something inside it. “What’s in there?” I asked gently. He looked down at it in silence, holding it to his chest protectively. “Who’s in there?”

He ignored me and went to sit on his sofa, fetching a cloth to polish the urn. I sat to his left, watching him rub it clean, as if my fingerprints had tarnished it. After a while I tried leaning into his field of view, but he continued unperturbed.

“Is it your three friends?” I prompted. Still nothing. He was just refusing to talk. He wasn’t even giving me orders, to leave him alone or get out of his house or anything. What was he expecting to happen here? Hmph, fine. I’d just pester him until he yielded. He’d thrown me to the ground so hard I’d almost bashed my head in, the least he could do was answer my questions. “But you said you buried them, so it shouldn’t be. Is it your captain? Forgot to count him among your kills? Or is it… Is it the vampire who turned you?”

“Christ, do you ever shut up?” he snapped. “Leave me alone, woman!”

“I was leaving you alone perfectly fine ’til you shoved me to the ground. All I did was look at that thing,” I retorted.

“And do you make it a habit to just go around touching other people’s belongings?” He threw the cloth to the side, finally looking me in the eyes.

“You’re the one who brought me here. You invited me in.” Didn’t think I’d get to rub that one in his face. “In fact, you were gonna keep me here as your sex slave for the rest of my natural life.”

“No, I let you go. Nobody asked you to come back here.”

“So you want me to leave? ‘Cause I’ll leave.”

We glared at each other, scowling like little children. He held steady when I stood up, when I went to collect my things, all the way until I went to open the elevator doors. “Wait.” When I turned around, he was looking away, both hands still on the urn. He shook his head slightly before looking down. “Don’t go.”

I swallowed and put my stuff back down, returning to my place by his side. Yet all he did was go back to how it was before, the silent treatment. I could see his thoughts were running rampant in his head, a storm of emotions swirling about and wreaking havoc. He was holding everything inside, and it was hurting him. Perhaps if he would just talk about it…

“I know you’ve been demonizing yourself for me, and who knows how long before that,” I said softly. “You don’t… have to push me away. Maybe you’ll feel better if–”

“Oh please, spare me your armchair psychology,” he spat. “Condescending bitch.”

I felt my lip curl at that. Okay, I guess I wasn’t exactly a wellspring of patience. “Why are you being so defensive when I’m trying to reach out to you? You don’t need to hide like–”

“I’m not hiding!” he roared, skewering me with a glare. He was panting hard, seething with unbridled rage as he continued in a snarl. “You… You don’t know anything!” Realizing he’d lost his cool again, he huffed and grit his teeth before standing to return the urn to its place on the shelf. He stared up at it with his back to me, as if reliving memories best left forgotten. It had to be torturous, to live with your memories forever. I was about to ruminate that argument in my favor regarding immortality when he spoke again, his voice soft. “Her name was Yelena.”

He turned so that he was facing me at an angle, not meeting my eyes with his somber gaze, then numbly walked over to the windows and opened the shutters. As they rolled up to reveal the dark sky and distant cityscape, he looked out into the night, one of his fists clenching. I walked over to him and took that arm in my hands, and his fist relaxed.

“She found me on the verge of death, being eaten alive and yet too weak to scream,” he croaked. I could see minute movements in his throat as he tried to stomach the horrors he’d experienced. Then he smiled. “I thought she was an angel, there to deliver mercy unto me. And I suppose I was right. The vermin scattered before her, and after slitting her wrist and telling me to drink, she asked me what I wanted. I wanted vengeance for myself. I wanted justice for the women they were hurting. But when I opened my mouth, all I could say was… ‘I want to live.’ And then she smiled at me before snapping my neck.

“When I woke up, she told me what I’d become. How to survive, what I was capable of, what it meant to be alive. She… didn’t approve of my vengeance after finding out what I’d done to my friends. She told me that vampires had a special place in the world.” He leaned forward and rested a forearm against the glass, horizontally above his head as he reflected on her words. “We were one of the only creatures who could survive without killing anything, not even plants. We just drank blood. We take what we need, and then compel our prey to forget, leaving with none the wiser. And she maintained that though we were superior to humans, they were not ours to rule or judge. I… disagreed.

“She was afraid I would wield my power in the name of justice, so she brought me away from my home, across the sea to the new world. She taught me about love, in every sense of the word. And we were happy, for a time.” Both the look in his eyes and the quiver in his voice carried hints of bittersweet emotion, and I watched him carefully, absorbed in his tale. “But to our misfortune, our fellow villagers began hunting witches. They… couldn’t tell a witch from a vampire.”

“But how did they manage to…?”

His voice was grim, filled with resentment. “They took action before we could decide to leave. They surrounded our cottage at twilight, pitchforks and torches at the ready. The pyre was already built. I reasoned with her, they didn’t know there were two of us. They only knew of the great beauty who lived at the edge of town, who never showed her face during the day. We could lure them inside one by one and either drain them or compel them to turn on each other. But she… She loved humanity too much. She refused to spill their blood like this.”

His fists clenched again as he got choked up, his face a hateful mask disguising his pain. I was afraid that anything I said to prompt him to continue would pull him out of the story, and instead opted to remain silent. I didn’t even dare move, lest he suddenly remembered I was here.

“She… told me to hide in the crawlspace under the cottage… like a rat. And I watched from under the floorboards as they broke into our home uninvited and seized her. As soon as they pulled her to the front door and into the setting sun, she began to burn. I… I can still hear her screams…” He swallowed past the lump in his throat, jaw clenched so hard I thought his teeth would shatter. “Those fools panicked. They’d found an actual demon. She was still burning when they all ran off to their chapel to pray for their miserable souls. As soon as the sun had finished setting, I broke out of my hiding place, but all that was left of her was ashes. I wanted to slaughter the lot of them! …But it wasn’t what she wanted. So I… I gathered her up… and I ran. I ran west, as far from the sunrise as I could, until I arrived here, this city of sunsets and lost angels.”

He turned back to look at Yelena’s urn again, now seeming lost and numb. His eyes unfocused, dipping us into silence as we both contemplated his past. I finally found the words, words to hopefully ease the pain if I could. “And you haven’t killed anybody since. She’d be proud of you.”

“Her mercy is what killed her,” he spat, yet still sounding mournful. “She… She was weak. And eventually I decided… to become a blight upon this world, to haunt the humans she loved so much that let her die. I drowned myself in earthly pleasures, trying to forget… I haven’t thought about her words in forever, until…” His eyes darted toward me before refocusing on his sofa.

“Is that why you refuse to kill me?” I asked quietly. A strange feeling settled in my chest. It wasn’t jealousy per se, but something similar that left me feeling hollow. “Do I look like her?”

“Not in the slightest,” he scoffed instantly, sounding almost offended. However, he peered over at me, locking eyes with me as if staring past my outer form. “But… your soul…” His brow quivered once as he turned to fully face me, reaching up to cup my face. “Anna…”

His eyes turned liquid gold, and like before, I couldn’t tear my gaze away. If I was being completely honest, after hearing his story, part of me would do just about anything for him. Yet the compulsion never came, and he quickly pulled away from me as if embarrassed. I tittered, appreciating this rare sight. “Don’t tell me the big bad vampire is afraid of his feelings?” I teased.

He scoffed. “I’m a vampire; I’m not afraid of anything, least of all my feelings.”

“Then c’mon.” I took him by the hands and led him to the elevator. “Let’s get out of this mausoleum. I could use some fresh air.”

He finally managed a smirk as I snatched up my purse when we passed it. “Taking my pet out for a walk. Seems surprisingly apt.”

“So you’re one of those guys who fucks their pets. Gross.” That one seemed to catch him off guard, causing him to scowl, yet he actually joined in on my laughter as we stepped into the cage together. He gave me a grudging smirk before closing the doors and plunging us into darkness. When we alighted on the ground floor and stepped outside, I bounded out and raised my arms, inhaling deeply. The warm evening air was… not as refreshing as I’d hoped, but the point was to get out of there and no longer thinking about his past.

It all made sense now. His hatred for humans, the understandable superiority he felt over them, the juxtaposed fear connected to his apparent obsession with rats – both in reference to humans and himself – and the meager hope to be proven wrong. I had my hands full with him. If I’d known I’d be in this position, I would’ve gotten a psych degree instead.

“So where to, pet?” he asked loftily, his hands in his pockets as he trailed after me.

I turned back to him, grinning impishly. “I thought nobody could tell you what to do,” I pointed out, and he grunted.

“I’m feeling generous,” he rumbled, tipping his chin up so that he was looking down his nose at me.

“Well, I’m thinking none of the places you usually go to, so how about…” I chewed on my lip as I pondered. I hadn’t planned anything ahead, so I had to improvise something. “Hm. The county fair is an option.”

“Ooh…” he growled, his expression turning sinister. “Are we going hunting?”

“Behave,” I said sternly, jabbing him in the chest for emphasis.

With casual ease, he took my wrist and pulled me close until I was pressed up against him. “And who is whom’s pet here?” He leaned in, hooking a finger under my chin while slightly arching a brow. Despite myself, I gulped and bit my lip.

“If you don’t bite anybody other than me… then I’m the pet,” I mumbled.

He smirked, chuckling once. “That’s my good girl,” he murmured, leaving me breathless. With that, he scooped me up in his arms so suddenly that I threw my arms around his neck. “Tuck your head in against my shoulder and hold on tight,” he instructed. As soon as I obeyed, I felt wind surging around us and the lurch of my stomach, and suddenly we were half a block away from the county fair. His voice was still soft as he gently set me down, making sure I found my balance from the breakneck speed. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I… Whoa. Still not used to that.” I glanced around to reorient myself before looking at him and laughing, slightly frazzled. “Couldn’t we have just… I dunno, driven here?”

“I don’t wanna deal with parking,” he reasoned, tucking his hands in his pockets and offering me his elbow. A little presumptuous of him, but I looped my arm in his regardless, and we walked the rest of the way.

There were tons of stalls and rides, the most notable of which was the ferris wheel. There was plenty of food, and we got some funnel cake to share as we wandered around. Seeing as he was able to travel so fast, I doubted he’d be interested in most of the rides, but I was feeling mischievous and there was one attraction that I wanted to take him to. Teasing him and invoking his dominant side was a surefire way to take his mind off things. We ate as we explored, tossing the paper plate in the trash when we arrived at our destination. He scowled up at the building, then down at me as I grinned back.

“Very funny,” he muttered.

“It kinda is,” I replied, giggling cheekily. “Wanna go in?”

“You’ll be properly punished for this, pet, I promise you.”

“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” I dragged him by the hand up to the house of mirrors, trying not to laugh my ass off.

As we passed by the attendant out front, a lanky teen in an ill-fitting uniform, Christian turned to him and uttered, “Mind giving us the place to ourselves?” The attendant nodded and placed a sign in front of the door indicating the attraction was closed, and Christian turned to follow me in.

“Try to keep up!” I teased, turning behind the first wall of mirrors. Immediately, I became disoriented myself, looking at multiple images of me at different angles. I heard Christian grunt behind me, and I turned to see he had already bumped into the first mirror and was rubbing his forehead indignantly. Just like I’d hoped, there was not a single reflection of his in sight.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was the most mean-spirited prank I’ve ever seen,” he groused.

“But you do know better, and you know I’m a total angel,” I lilted, backing away into another chamber.

“You’re being unusually bratty tonight. Ow.” He’d bumped into another mirror. Without a reflection, he was even more disoriented in here than the average person.

“That’s ‘cause you can only punish me if you can find me!”

With that, I turned and hurried further into the maze of mirrors, my hands out in front of me as I went to keep from crashing. I could hear Christians grunts of frustration as he slowly proceeded after me. To make matters worse, fog machines began spraying in a thin mist from the ceiling, lending both mystique and confusion to our adventure.

“When I get my hands on you…” he threatened, his voice echoing through the building. With multiple hard surfaces bouncing the sound every which way, it was hard to tell where exactly he was.

“Promises, promises,” I called back, but found myself trapped. I’d wandered into a ring of mirrors and couldn’t seem to find the way out. Bumping into one of the walls, I backed away and tried to ascertain which wall was actually a corridor. The mist wasn’t helping, and all I could hear was Christian’s huffing and puffing. Suddenly a whistle cut through the air, a somber and ominous melody that rebounded off the glass and seemed to come from everywhere. Between my various reflections, the mist, the disorientation, and the whistling, I was thoroughly unnerved. It felt like a scene out of a horror movie, and the dumb chick had gotten herself into a mess and was about to die.

I chuckled nervously to myself, then felt something brush my calves. I yelped and jumped away, spinning in the air to find nothing behind me except an image of my side profile. The whistling went on, seeming to bob in and out from everywhere at once. Something cool stroked me across the shoulders, and I ducked away, batting at the air. My hand left a trail in the mist, making it swirl from the motion. The whistling continued, and I realized Christian had stopped complaining about bumping into stuff. I’d… forgotten that vampires could supposedly transform into things. Like a bat with echolocation. Or mist.

Even if he was in his human form, I wouldn’t be able to see him through the mirrors. I continued to be assailed by light caresses, and I began to truly feel like prey. The hunter was toying with me, gradually closing in for the kill. I’d walked myself straight into this trap. A swish of my hair, a stroke on my arm. My heart was pounding as I awaited whatever he planned. A brush of my back, a touch on my neck. It was feeding time. And I couldn’t wait.

The mist swirled off to my left, and when I whirled to face it, his fangs were already in my neck. I gasped, my head tilted up by his attack, before relaxing into his firm embrace, moaning blissfully as he drank from me. My eyes rolled back before closing as I savored the feeling of weightlessness that his feeding brought me.

I found myself on the ground, clutching onto him as I peered at my reflection. I was wrapped around nothing, the most lustful expression painted on my face. An invisible force was stripping me out of my clothes, digging its fingers into my soft waist, sucking and nibbling my exposed nipples. Then his tongue touched me down there and I gasped with delight, arching my back as he delved into me.

“You… found me…” I whispered, fists clenching and unclenching reflexively as he brought me toe-curling pleasure. He said nothing, simply licking my nub and folds indulgently. Why wasn’t he taking me? I needed his cock. Right. Now.

As if he could read my mind, his massive rod slipped into me with embarrassing ease. I was on my side, my legs together and my cheeks spread as I watched myself get fucked by mist and shadows. It was strangely erotic, and I wondered if I would come to appreciate the mirror he had above his bed. He was going slow, the effect hypnotic and debilitating. With a sigh, I locked eyes with my reflection and let him make love to me, his mesmerizing words floating their way to my ears, romantic and nonsensical and resentful and longing.

I weaved in and out of lucidity, shifting between positions, the mirrors affording all kinds of angles of my nude form being ravished. It was like an out-of-body experience, a kaleidoscope of my body as my master used me. It was so different from yesterday, when he had enjoyed his fill of me like I was his plaything. This felt like… we were becoming one. It felt like all the pain of the past was being healed. Whether I was healing him or vice versa was hard to say, but it was nirvana all the same.

My orgasm was mind-numbing, plunging me into a trance that I didn’t want to surface from. It felt like I was floating on clouds, in the embrace of God. But it was the devil in disguise, and I liked it in his arms.