A Beautiful Sacrifice

chapter two

He walked out of the trees where it seemed he had blended in. In the darkness his clothes had kept him hidden; a hooded, ankle length coat that flowed around him matching the dark night, perfectly. The closer he got the more she saw how very tall he was, towering over her and he had yet to fully close the gap between them. She swallowed as his size only reminded her how helpless and weak she was.

                His chiselled and dimpled chin with straight lined lips was a beauty she had not expected but did not fool her either. She knew what lay in that mouth of his and those hollowed cheeks pointed out to her that she was dinner.

                He looked angry, his long, paced strides made his procession a little too quick for her. Her heart was beating once again, erratically.

“Oh god, please don’t.” She pulled again with renewed energy, the chains sounding loud and her weeping desperate. She hated that about herself, the desperation in her voice. “Please.” But right at that moment, she didn’t try to change how she sounded. Her knees knocked as she shook and her legs began to give out but the shackles around her wrists held her up painfully as he approached her in a steady, controlled rhythm.

“Does it hurt?” she found herself asking. “Please don’t do this.” Tears fell down her face as he came in front of her. At last. She stifled a scream as his hand closed over her arm and her trembling became full blown body tremors.

                Tears rolled down her face and dripped off onto his skin as she looked in horror at his long musicians fingers circling her arm. His eyebrows were turned down into a frown and his fingers stroked over her skin whilst his eyes glanced at the chins holding her in place. He raised his other hand and she cowered away, the minute he touched her chin her legs gave out and he let go of her arm to wind his own arm around her waist – taking the weight off her wrists as the for a tiny second the shackles held her upright. “Please, please.” She whimpered, her eyes so wide on her face, taking over almost. She pleaded with him, watching that mouth of his, “Oh god please don’t”

“Ssh, sleep now.”

                As he said it she saw them, for the first time she saw the reason for her terror. Pearly white, sharp fangs, the ones she had been told would pierce her skin and take her life as he drank from her.

“No! No!” She cried out, struggling to break the hold on her, struggling to be free, she had a life to live! She was young, why was she not allowed to see old age?

“Please!” She screamed as he stopped her struggles easily, a look in his eyes caught her attention but her fear stopped her from being able to interpret it. The last thing she was aware of before she felt  darkness take her was the feel of fingertips brushing away her tears. Ever so gently, across her cheek.

*

Something soft was under her hands, curling her fingers she clutched the material trying to work out what exactly it was.

“I have found over the years that silk is the best on which to sleep on.”