b e w i t c h i n g

• Chapter One •

As if the night had said to me, 'You are the night, and the night alone understands you, and unfolds you in its arms.' One of the shadows. Without nightmare. An inexplicable peace.

It was a dark, soundless night. The weather was clear, not a cloud in sight, and the moon and stars shone brightly in the darkness. Natasha wrapped her fur cloak around herself tightly, as she walked along the snowy streets of Moscow.

"Come on, you're almost at Anatole's, you can do this..." she told herself, as she walked towards the Kuragin mansion shakily. She knew the way to Anatole's by heart, she could get there in her sleep if she needed to, and yet in this cold she found herself struggling to get there.

Looking up, she had reached the Kuragin house already, and, though her hands were quivering with cold, she knocked on the door, feeling the wood sting her cold, frozen knuckles as she knocked.

"Anatole?"

————

Anatole had been pacing his room for quite some time. He had been awaiting the arrival of his lover, Natasha Rostova, but he had a dirty secret, one so dark that he would never dare to tell Natasha.

He was a vampire. Still a fledgling, he didn't have full powers yet, but once he sucked the blood of a human, he would gain his full strength.

His vampire form and human form were the same, except for one difference:

Human Anatole was able to control his actions.

Vampire Anatole was not.

He was terrified of what he might do to Natasha if he turned while she was around. To harm his love would torture him beyond belief.

A knock at the door. A familiar voice calls his name.

Anatole straightens and descends the stairs to let her inside.

"Alright, Anatole. You can do this."