85 Years Ago....

Candles flickered at the edges of Meri’s vision as someone carried her through the doorway and into the parlor.  Half-conscious and cradled against a broad chest, his cool touch was closer than death. Silk brushed against her cheek as pain wracked her body.  Her long dress torn, her hands sticky and wet with blood, she reached out, searching.  A ruby droplet slid from a slender finger, quivering on her skin for a moment before falling away to the depths of the dark carpet.  "Julian...."

"We're still looking for Julian," said Antonio's familiar voice. "Can you tell us what happened? Who attacked you?" His voice seemed far away, and Meri opened her eyes.  She struggled to answer the question, but only remembered the sounds -- screaming -- wild, inhuman screaming from creatures who shouldn't have existed at all. "It had...four arms," she whispered. "The one that got away...we were fighting them off. We were so fast! It was easy, and then one scratched me...." He laid her down on the couch as the room tilted and blurred out of focus; her eyelids closed against the wavering candlelight.

 

The sudden sweet smell of copper drenched her senses.  Her eyes flew open wide and her fangs snicked out, pearly white in the semi-darkness.  She found a warm human wrist pressed to her mouth, and who it was didn't matter -- all that mattered was the blood.  All logical thought fled as she sank her teeth into the yielding flesh.

Her stomach muscles twitched as a slow burn began deep within her.  Deep tissue and torn skin began to knit itself together as her velvet-brown eyes opened to meet the ocean-blue of her sire's gaze.  A man knelt beside the couch, trying to stifle quiet moans as she fed at his wrist.  Antonio stayed still and let her feed, but heat filled his eyes now as she stared into them.  She watched his face and drank, reaching out, fingers twisting around a fistful of his silk shirt, trying to pull him closer….

“Meri,“ he said, voice husky in the heated almost-silence.  “Meri, you must stop.“

She should stop, but the sweetness of the man's blood sang to her.  She must have been more hurt than she had realized.  Somewhere deep down, a warning persisted -- she must stop -- but she didn't want to stop.  Then Antonio was prying her fingers from the man's arm, taking hold of her chin and turning her head.  She fought him, but not for long as her strength ebbed away with the effort.  She let go and went still.

"Julian...."

Meri slipped into dream.  It was a day she remembered well, when she'd been sixteen years old.  She stretched out on a little swinging bench at the edge of some swampy-looking water.  A book lay open across her dress, halfway finished, but the warm sunlight and the buzzing of dragonflies had set her daydreaming.  Sunlight was so beautiful! The air was thick with the humidity of a hot Louisiana summer.  Just as she was about to drift off, her brother sat down too and grinned.  "Your eyes will go really bad from all that reading," he said, pointing at the book. "You'll need glasses then, and boys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses!"

"Shut up, Julian. That's not true at all! That only happens when you read in the dark.  Besides, this book is interesting.  It tells all about the different parts of hell, and look at the illustrations! Aren't they dreadful?" She waved the copy of Dante's Divine Comedy about.

~~ to be continued ~~