Sanguine Malediction

Chapter 14

Alice Richards

No attacks had been attempted against me all weekend. Whoever this vampire was, knew I was under the protection of Josephine and her vampire family. I had wondered if they gave up or if they were simply waiting for the right time. It was late. I needed to get enough sleep for my work shift tomorrow. I was still wearing the vintage night gown, looking and feeling like a woman from the 18th century. I closed the door, opened my bag and pulled out my black vest top and black tracksuit bottoms. I took the nightgown off and Josephine took it from me, I made sure to keep my stomach hidden from her, turning my front body away.

I stood there in underwear just as Leo opened the door, I didn't know what to do. Panicking, I just grabbed the voile and held it up to my body, attempting to cover it.

"Uh... sorry." He apologised - not so sincerely and grinning at me. "I'll come back later."

He closed the door and Josephine giggled at the embarrassing moment. I quickly got dressed in fear that Leo would enter unannounced again and sipped on my water as I sat on the bed.

"He is fond of you, not just sexually." Josephine said.

I almost choked on my water at her words. Not just sexually? What? "What!" I burst out.

"He's fond of you; you interest him. He sees beauty in you, inside and out. Which is very rare, if not impossible, for Leo to find in a woman. He usually sticks to being fond of the outside beauty." She said.

My mind began wondering what Leo had been saying about me for Josephine to mention such things. I tried to change the subject. "I should really get some rest."

"Does that make you uncomfortable?" She asked, tilting her head to the side in curiosity.

"No, it's just..."

"Nobody has ever looked at you the way Leo does?" Josephine interrupted.

"Yes, exactly." I hesitated. "Now I'm going to sleep."

"Okay, if you need anything... well, you know where we are." Josephine opened the door. "Goodnight."

I walked over to the dressing table and sat down on the chair. As I looked into my reflection, I couldn't help but think about Leo's intimidating presence whenever he was close to me. There was something so attractive about Leo that I just couldn't shake, it was constantly on my mind. I didn't know what Josephine meant when she said that she had never seen Leo look at a woman in the way he looks at me, but I wasn't sure whether I even wanted to find out what that meant. My face was oily, my hair was greasy and I needed to bathe. I told myself that it was too late, I was too tired but I would bathe tomorrow. I didn't know how, as the Georgian mansion had been unoccupied for at least a century.

I climbed into bed and closed my eyes. A moving image of Leo kissing that woman's breasts came into mind and the sounds of the way she moaned echoed in my ears. I rolled onto my side and huffed in frustration at how weirdly haunting that memory was to me. I finally managed to get to sleep.

I had the strangest dream, it was a dream like no other I ever recall experiencing. I was bathing in a bath tub inside an everything-white bathroom. The bathroom was dark though, with only candles lit in each corner. As I relaxed back in the tub, the water began to ripple and a strange tingle overcame every nerve in my body. I could feel everything, it was an overload of some sort of pleasure on my nerve system. Between my thighs, something began to rise out of the water and I was quickly surprised to find that it wasn't a something - it was a someone. A head rose from the water and it was no other than Leo himself. He gripped one hand on the edge of the bath tub and another on my jaw as he moved it to the side. Leo's hair was soaking wet with drips falling from his attractively wet tousles , he appeared to be naked although I could only see his body from the waist up. Although, I seemed to enjoy seeing his toned lines and his muscular pale chest as he slid himself up my body and appeared at first to be going to kiss my face, but he suddenly lunged his face into my neck.