Pain & Pleasure

Part 2: Revelations

Little by little, Esmeralda came back to her senses due to the warm sun that stroked her petite body. She felt so comfortable and secure – the nightgown that Gwyneth gave her kept her untouchable to the claws of frost at night. Later, she opened her eyes to be blinded by the brightness, but as she squinted and got used to the sight, a figure emerged from the light, standing by the window.

Esmeralda got seriously awed because the sun made it seem like there's an aureole around his tuft of dark bangs, and she truly thought that an angel came to visit her. With these thoughts, she couldn't control a little gasp of amazement that flew out of her mouth.

He turned his head towards her before his whole body faced her. She couldn't see him clearly due to the sun still firing behind him.

"Hello," He breathed out before he walked closer to the bed and sat himself on a loveseat.

His proximity made her sit up straight herself, to which he reacted with a twitch of the corners of his lips.

As Esmeralda stared at him astounded and seemed to be drowning in his intimidating yet beyond mesmerizing bloody orbs, a rose of almost the same color as his eyes appeared in her sight.

"For you, my Lady," He extended the rose to her which left her to do nothing more but to take it with her feeble trembling hands.

"T-Thank you," She thanked him and did seemingly impossible thing – she diverted her doe eyes from his and set them upon the blossom.

It was full and wide, as if welcoming the little girl with her ripe and vivid petals. She couldn't resist the temptation and brought the blossom to her tiny nose, afterwards drawing in a deep inhale.

She closed her eyes as the soft notes of the flower engulfed her, but seconds after it was disturbed by an unexpected sneeze. She blushed when she heard him chuckle deep within his chest.

"Bless you," She looked up at him and was going to thank him again, but he spoke first. "My name is Sebastian. May I know yours, my Lady?"

She couldn't cease blushing at how he called her, and at the very fact that he gave her a red rose – an act of true gentleman.

"Esmeralda." She evoked all strength in her and pronounced her name without stuttering, feeling extremely content afterwards.

"Esmeralda," He repeated and she couldn't even express how beautiful her name sounded rolling off his tongue. "A beautiful name for a beautiful girl."

Esmeralda didn't even feel the smile that grew on her lips.

"You must be hungry." Before Esmeralda had time to object, again, he spoke first. "I'll go and arrange your breakfast and return in a meantime."

He stood up from a loveseat and gave Esmeralda a half-smile before leaving her chambers.

She watched his every graceful step – as he walked it seemed almost inhuman for a person to move so freely and elegantly, with the aura of supremacy all over him.

Then, the realization hit Esmeralda as hard as a wet rag in the face, making her smile evaporate from her face and color drain from her cheeks.

She remembered her lovely mother bringing her an old, dusty and tattered book. There were many tales regarding the world and the creatures that lived in it, the diurnal and benign ones, and those of night and malevolency.

"A vampire," Esmeralda pondered in her mind.

These deep, crimson eyes and alabaster complexion, graceful movements and his behavior – all of it deemed him to be a vampire.