A Lonely Prince with Fangs (completed)

Kissing Icy Lips

It was getting warmer. I began sitting outside while it rained and sipped hot chocolate or cozied up with a book on a bench.

Now, I was doing just that.

"Maggy?" I turned and found my furry friend.

"Yes, Lukas?"

"Why have you been sleeping with the count lately?" Lukas's rich accent had grown deeper within the months of knowing him. But his regularly smooth golden eyes were now piercing into my soul.

I didn't exactly know what to say. I felt my chest go tight and my face go warm.

Lukas detected my speechlessness and said more. "I hear you walk to your room every evening and I never hear you in the morning. But I haven't noticed anything different between you two in person."

"Alexandru ... I have been sleeping in Alexandru's chambers. But we aren't doing anything. He just helps me sleep," Lukas nodded. I wondered if he's wondering why I didn't go to him for rest. I know I was his help when he couldn't go to bed. But being with Alexandru and his cold body just made me feel safe and reassured that he was there.

"Do you love him?" The wolf leaned against a pillar outside on the porch and I gawked at him but felt my face fall into a look of 'maybe'.

"I'm only fifteen," I said. "I'm not sure I quite know what Love is," Lucas nodded.

"Well, I can tell you that that vampire does," Lukas smiled. "And I know he has feelings for you,"

"I know, I know, I heard you the first time, but—"

"No man, vampire or not, allows a girl to sleep in his bed unless he really likes her," I thought of Lukas allowing me to sleep in his bed and remembered his confession to me in the cabin.

"Careful, Lukas, you don't know if the Count's ears are listening in on us,"

"Oh, we both know he's listening," my face grew warm again and I clenched my teeth. I got up from my chair and went inside.

I put my mug in the sink and dropped my book off at the library. I then went to the ballroom to practice piano.

I sat at the keys and flipped open a music book filled with pieces that the vampire himself had composed.

I began playing a sinister song that I kept stumbling over, but I just kept pressing through it. I closed my eyes and felt the joining of violins, then cellos, then a bass, and soon a small orchestra. I opened my eyes and noticed the dissipating purple smoke around me. I was in the ballroom, and it was all lit up gold. I was no longer playing the keys but stood by it with Alexandru's fiancé from all those years ago. It was that same party where those hunters came and invaded. The count himself, however, was playing the piano. The piece came to an end and everyone clapped and cheered. The vampire stood up from the piano bench and wrapped his arm around the blond woman. She kissed his cheek and I hungered to kiss him myself. Suddenly I felt the memory distort into the blood bath from later that night. Alexandru stood all bloody wiping at his fangs looking down at all the torn bodies at his feet. I wanted to run up to him and comfort him but knew that he wouldn't feel a thing.

To live as long as he had. To have to go through the pain of having these kinds of memories.

Suddenly, a scene I had missed from my first time experiencing this moment, Alexandru's friend Octavian came running into the room.

"I came as soon as I could," he said as he walked to his devilish friend. Octavian grabbed Alexandru's wrist and sank his fangs into it. I witnessed the same healing ability that the prince himself had performed on Octavian hundreds of years ago.

"She wasn't the one," Alexandru impassively said in a low tone.

"You'll find the one," Octavian reassured Alexandru, "I promise,"

"No, no one would ever accept a monster like me," suddenly I thought back to the memory of being in America where Alexandru had allowed that woman to perish. What does he mean he'll find the one. Why is he looking for someone to love him? What is he going to do once he has? She will grow old and he'll be alone again. None of this is adding up.

"I'll be stuck like this forever," the purple smoke wrapped around me and brought me back to reality.

I nearly jumped and had a heart attack when I noticed the count was sitting beside me on the piano bench.

I was breathing hard and holding my chest but didn't exchange any words. The Count wasn't looking at me either. He was staring down at the ivory keys of the grand piano. Both of his hands were in between his legs, that is until he slithered his hand around my waist. I tensed up every muscle in my body and allowed a low gasp to escape my lips. The Count pulled me closer to him to where our thighs were touching. His arms were so long that his whole arm was around me circling back to his own waist.

I didn't know what to do!

The vampire bent down slightly and kissed my crown. I could feel my cheeks go red. I have been touched by men but never have I felt this way around one. I didn't know what I should do with my sweaty palms that were fiddling with each other in my lap. I wasn't looking at the vampire but his lips were still resting on my head. I averted my eyes down at his knee and yearned to touch it. So I did.

I placed my hand on the Count's knee and smoothed it over.

By now my heart was pumping fast. I knew the vampire could hear it.

I felt cold fingers touch my chin and my mouth slightly opened. The vampire turned my head up and I was looking into those gorgeous purple eyes of his. Thee Dracula. Maybe I do know what Love is. Maybe I do love Alexandru.

I am in love with ... .

He leaned down and our lips gently touched.

My first kiss. My first kiss and it's with a vampire ... .

We held the kiss. We held it to the point where it became deeper. And deeper. My hand was no longer on his knee, it slithered around his waist. And my other hand held on to his vest. His hand that was originally on my chin slid up the side of my face and I rested my head in the palm of his hand. His icy hand that cooled down my fiery cheeks.

I couldn't breathe. I stopped our kiss and I was breathing hard into his open mouth.

I wanted to kiss again but I didn't know the rules. The rules of any of this relationship stuff. The rules of what to do and what not to do after you kiss someone for the first time.
Did I even do it right? Did he like it?

I opened my eyes and the count was staring right at me with sad eyes. He closed his mouth and I felt like I lost my chance. But I was wrong. The count must have enjoyed my kiss. Maybe there aren't any real rules to this whole thing. Maybe, just maybe, the count could read my thoughts.

He slammed his lips against mine and pulled me tight against him.

I gripped his vest and didn't want this moment to end. Our heads turned and we kissed slowly. I remembered at this moment that Alexandru could be at this for hours because he doesn't breathe. But I do.

I pulled away gasping for air once again and looked down.

"Alexandru," I began, "I'm in love—" the vampire didn't allow me to finish my proclamation as he just pulled me into a hug. A tight hug. My head was buried in his chest and I savored the smell of him that had stained my own clothing from sleeping in his coffin with him these past few weeks.

"Shhh," he finally said. He stroked the hair on my head and I melted in his arms. "I just want to hold you," he admitted.

"That's all I want you to do," I muffled in his chest. I truly didn't want him to let go of me but knew that he would. And he did.

"Shall I teach you how to correctly play that piece?" He asked with a flirty smile.

"Yes, please," I teased. He sat up and I linked my arms around his. He played the melancholy song but I enjoyed it as I closed my eyes and put my face to his white sleeve and felt comforted by the thought that I might just have someone in this world who truly loves me.