Fan Fiction ❯ Enchantment ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Enchantment

Prologue

She closed her soft brown eyes slowly, long, dark eyelashes lying gently against the soft skin of her cheeks. She was laying casually, sprawled across the dark maroon sheets of the large four poster bed, her head resting against her bent arm. Long dark curls fell from the golden coronet she wore, small scarlet slides sparkling with garnet holding her dark hair in loops. Slowly she spun one of the dark loops of hair around a long finger.

Slowly she looked around the room, making sure that everything was perfect. Her long, slender figure was adorned with a scarlet dress, low cut. Made from silk, embroidered down with bodice with golden thread in patterns of blooming lilies, the dress fell down to her feet. There was, however, a long split up the side of the dress that ran up to her thigh, revealing a long, slender leg. Frowning, she quickly slipped the scarlet velvet slippers from her feet, garnet encrusted anklets clanking slightly.

She smiled slightly, her crimson lips parting. The room was dark, the heavy curtains having been pulled across the windows to prevent the moonlight from entering the room. The only light was artificial, the bright flickering flames from the candles that she had casually but specifically placed around the room. The light reflected from the deep mahogany and for a moment she shivered, realising that in the light he dress was the same colour as freshly spilled blood.

She had no time to think such thoughts. He was here, close to her, and she could feel his presence long before he announced it. The door was locked, a large silver key seen from the inside of the room. No one had entered the room, but he was here. She smiled again, closing her eyes. She could feel hands, cold, light hands, gently being placed on her hair. Long fingers entwined themselves in her locks, wrapping the curls, sending shivers down her spine.

For a moment she felt scared and anxious, her blood seeming to freeze. She kept her soft brown eyes closed, shivering slightly at his cold touch. Had it always been this chilling when he was with her?

When he touched her gently on her bare arms, strong hands running down her skin, the feeling disappeared. For a moment she felt loved and secure. She felt needed. Suddenly, as if it hadn't been there before, she could feel his strong presence behind her. She slowly began to turn so that she could face him, but he stopped her by gently pushing her back. Hesitation ran though her, but she could feel his sweet breath on the breath of her neck and she was reassured.

She thought about the last time she had seen him as he slowly ran a hand down her stomach, embracing her, unseen. He had come to her the night before, when she had been standing alone on her balcony. He had scared her, apparently appearing from nowhere, but as soon as she had looked into his dark, strong eyes, she had forgotten her fears. He had kissed her, fiercely, and from then she had been enraptured.

The deadly seduction was exciting, and she could feel a warm sensation of excitement running through her nerves. His touch was so soft, as if he were barely touching her. It was like a whisper. He needed her and she needed him. From the moment she had seen him she knew such a need that she had never experienced before.

Desire slowly swept through her and she began to open her eyes. "No," he said softly, almost huskily. He gently kissed her eyelids as if to prevent her from opening her eyes. She obeyed, nodding slightly, and then felt his kiss. It was soft, sending shivers through her body. Slowly she returned the kiss with all the passion that was building up inside her. It was a deadly seduction and she knew it, but she didn't care. Slowly she wrapped her arms around his neck as he materialised, holding her back. She felt the bed move as he sat down beside her.

Slowly he moved his mouth away from her lips and began to plant small kisses on her face. He travelled down to her neck, kissing her gently, and then he ran his fingers across her skin. She gasped slightly as she felt the sharp pain in her neck, but kept her eyes closed obediently. She could feel the thick, warm blood running down her neck, mingling on her scarlet dress. Now it really was the colour of fresh blood.

She kissed him feverishly as he continued to kiss her neck, smiling at the sensation. Then he ran a hand up her exposed leg, slowly slipping his hand beneath her dress. It slipped away from her body easily and she gasped at the sudden chill, all the while keeping her eyes closed.

When she awoke hours later she was dizzy. The candles had all been extinguished and she was surrounded by an inky blackness. When she turned she saw him asleep beside her and gasped, realising that her eyes should still be shut. There he was, her lover, laying beside her with dried blood around his mouth and on his lips. He had drunk her blood, taken her life from her, and yet it wasn't a surprise. She realised that somehow she had always known, and she didn't care.

Slowly she closed her eyes and fell asleep in the embrace of her demon lover.

*

The tiny bundle wrapped up in the hands of a bent, dark figure began to move as the dark clouds grumbled with the heavy weight of rain. The dark November skies let in only pale moonlight that bathed the street in hues of blue. A noise, too quiet for the human ear to notice, stopped the figure in her tracks, a fear building up inside her that made her heart race and a knot of fear build inside her throat, almost preventing her from breathing. Her time had come . . .

She took a few more quiet steps and placed the bundle beside the empty milk bottles on the doorstep of a grand looking house. The bushes would hide the precious bundle. Without a thought, as if reacting, she picked a flower bending over the child's head. A lily, pale white like snow, a flower that she knew so well.

She placed the snow white flower, pure and almost holy, inside the ragged scarlet shawl with the child. The woman closed her eyes, feeling tears roll down her cheeks as she wrapped the scarlet material tightly around her child. Once she had worn that dress. Now she had given up the last two things that reminded her of him. It was time to face him. She was being hunted.

She departed then, as quickly as a shadow, so that any onlooker would have thought it was the wind that ran past him and not a person. There was so little that they knew about. That was why they were innocent, the people around her. She only hoped that her child could grow up to be as innocent as them.

No longer fearing for her own life she ran, her footsteps echoing on the concrete and the puddles of cool water soaking her skin. She ran, leading the hunter away from her child, and then was enveloped in black. She screamed, her haunting voice full of pain, and the noise was carried away in the wind, the harsh, unforgiving wind.

In that last moment of life, she wished that she hadn't let him take it. She had given her life to him and now it was gone. Closing her soft brown eyes, she only hoped that her child would be safe. Safe from the harsh reality of life.

Safe from him.

As the scream died away into the shadows, a tiny hand reached out of the blanket and a baby's voice began to cry.