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Heather had been hunting vampires for a while now.
Not that she had anything against them, but the reward money was really good and in this dog-eat-dog world she might as well climb to the top of the food chain by making a name for herself.
(Plus it meant she had to spend less time at home with her stupid family and doing almost any job was better than rotting away in her dead end town ever since her siblings squandered away the family fortune.)
Her newfound success in her atypical profession had then brought her to the city of Cadiluz. Folks around these parts had been talking about a vampire who would charm whoever was foolish enough to leave their houses alone during the late hours of night to the middle of the woods.
No one who had ever followed him returned, but witness said he was a handsome young (looking) man with a come-hither stare and a smooth silky voice that felt like honey to the ears.
They nicknamed him Don Juan de la medianoche, the midnight Don Juan…
Heather actually had the displeasure of meeting him about a year ago when she first arrived in the city. It usually took her about three weeks tops to kill a vampire, but this guy was something else. It’s like he could predict her every move and he still toyed with her along the way with his bad jokes and…urgh, his stupid flirts.
Every time she would go after him he couldn’t just battle her like a normal vampire, he just had to complement her looks, or her fighting skills, or her sharp tongue, and he had to look at her with those stupid beautiful green eyes and that punchable smirk and those… inviting lips…
Urgh!!!!!
The jerk even had the audacity to send flowers to the inn she was staying at after their first couple of encounters with a note that read:
To the clever little minx with the lovely death stare,
Congrats, you managed to last longer than the other hunters.
I had fun tonight, perhaps next time I can learn your name?
- Love, Alejandro
How.dare.he.
She hated how many times she would lie awake in her bed trying desperately to stop thinking about it, only to realize she had failed miserably when that furious blush coloring her face refused to disappear.
There was something else too. A thought that she wanted to let go of, but always stayed there in the back of her mind: it seemed like he never wanted to kill her.
It started one night when she ran after him inside the forest. It was a stupid idea, she hadn’t really gotten to know the terrain yet, but he was so close, she couldn’t let the opportunity pass. As she ran after him, however, a careless step led her to almost fall from a cliff, dangling from a root, in a great distance away from the ground. It was too dark and it seemed there was nothing stable enough she could use to climb.
As she began running out of strength she thought “This can’t be it!”, desperately touching the wall around her in search of an opening she hadn’t seen before, but to no avail.
She fell.
Yet, her screams were stopped when she felt something grab her and lift her away from her demise. Before she could take a look at what had caught her, she was already back at the top of the cliff, safe and sound.
A shadow passed her by going to the tress. It was only when it stopped moving and the figure turned towards her that she realized he had saved her.
“Why?” She asked, completely bewildered.
He smirked and replied, “If you shall receive the sweet kiss of death, let it come from my lips and my lips only.”
And he vanished into the darkness of the night.
Heather spent the whole walk back to her inn wondering why he didn’t do it then and there.
It wouldn’t be the last time things like love notes and rescues happened, Alejandro was filled with similarly strange behaviors that she could never quite explain. At first she thought he just wanted to play with his food, but after a full year that didn’t seem like the case anymore, which only made her even more confused.
She didn’t let those thoughts stop her from hunting him, though. Heather figured it was easier to destroy him than to make sense of all of this.
And now here they were in his dining room, after she found her way to his castle, in another one of their “trysts” as Alejandro liked to call it, with Heather using every weapon in her arsenal against him.
“Get back here you jerk!” She shouted as she shot one arrow after the other.
“Ai, mi amor, I cannot refuse your call!” He said, practically dancing around the room avoiding each shot effortlessly.
Heather let go of her bow and grabbed her kukri knife, but Alejandro wasn’t in her line of sight anymore. Feeling a gust of wind behind her, she turned around to see the bastard leaning against the large table twirling an arrow between his fingers. “What about we put this on pause and have dinner together?” He winked, jumping back as she tried to slash him.
“With me as the main course? As if!” She kept following him as he jumped around the room, avoiding her attacks.
He laughed. “I don’t doubt you must be delicious, but I was thinking of something more suited to your liking.”
“Oh yeah, like what?” Heather asked sarcastically between breaths.
“My servants can prepare anything you want. Something fancy perhaps? Oh!” Her knife hit the arrow out of his hand. He ignored it. “I could light some candles and spread rose petals around the room…after we clean this mess of course.”
Heather took a quick glance around the room at that. She had already broken a couple of glasses and knocked over more than one candelabra.
He took a step toward her, but she pointed her knife at him. “Yeah right. Why would I ever have dinner with you?”
He lifted his arms and eyed her expectantly. “Because I’m a very handsome romantic at heart who could sweep you off your feet metaphorically and literally.”
As she tried attacking him again, he flew to the ceiling, shouting from the chandelier. “And murder attempts aside, I think we are a pretty good match!”
Heather bawled her fists in anger. “Urgh! Why are you so weird?!”
“Please, like you don’t see the chemistry between us. Don’t think I don’t notice how flustered you get when I’m around!”
Her face was completely red by this point; Heather herself not being sure what was actual ire and what was being affected by his flirts.
“Shut up! You know damn well what I’m talking about: this!” She gestured around her. “All of this! This thing we’ve been doing for what feels like ages. It’s infuriating, you’re infuriating!” Heather gave herself the luxury of closing her eyes and rubbing her temples, something she would never had dreamed of doing in the middle of a battle before.
She heard a swoosh noise followed by the heavy sound of something landing very near her. Heather didn’t flinch this time or try to hit Alejandro. She just stood there while he looked at her with the most serious expression she had ever seen from him.
“You think you’re not infuriating too?” He replied.
Heather furrowed her eyebrows.
“I’m used to just killing whatever loser comes after me to try and get rid of me, but…” He chuckled. “You’re not a loser. You’re…pretty good actually.”
“Well...duh.” She tried seeming nonchalant.
“At first I was just playing with you; I thought you’d simply be a more challenging opponent, so I decided to have a little fun with it, but… I might have gotten used to our chats.” He placed his hands on his hips. “At some point I began leaving my home just to look for you just so we could have them, if it makes any sense.”
And it did, because as much as Heather tried to suppress it, she felt the same. But she was never going to tell him that! She just kept looking at him intently, not daring to utter something that could give her away.
He side eyed her for a long time. “I could have gotten rid of you a couple of times, you know?”
She humpfed and crossed her arms. Yes, she knew. But to her own surprise he walked closer until they were face to face and she wasn’t scared or weary. At least not in the way she should be.
“But I can’t.” He seemed to eye her in her entirety. “Every time I look at that cute face and …” Alejandro said as he delicately ran his sharp nails over her neck. Heather could see the tip of his fangs biting down his lower lip as his breathing grew heavier.
Why wasn’t she afraid?
Why did she want to stay?
Why did she want him to-
“I can’t.” He whispered, eyes finally meeting hers again. “I don’t want this to end.”
Heather searched his face. “What do you mean?”
He held her arms and Heather realized no one had ever looked at her with so much love in their eyes before. Was he going to finally kill her? Was this the moment he had been waiting for? Did she actually fall for his trap?
“Be with me.”
“What?”
“Let me turn you. Let’s stay together. Be with me.”
Was it her heart that was beating so loudly or was it his? Maybe it was the both of them?
“Why?” Was all she could muster in her shock. And yet, she did not recoil from his touch. She just stood there taking in the coldness of his hands that somehow gave her a kind of warmth that spread all over her body.
“Life has been joyless, tasteless, even since before I became a vampire. I only turned because I thought it would give me more time to find something truly worth living for.” He let go of her and began walking around. “And I found you!” He laughed. “I never met anyone like you. You make me hungry for life, Heather. Every day I have something to look forward to even if it is just to see you staring daggers at me.” He walked back to her and held her hands. “I can’t end this, not with your death or mine. Tell me you don’t feel the same.”
Without even realizing, she squeezed his hands. “This is crazy.”
“I know.”
God, she couldn’t let him go. She didn’t want to.
She never did.
She’d been with other men and women, but no one ever made her feel the way Alejandro did. He was really handsome, clearly rich enough to have a well taken care of castle and staff and, after everything they’d been through she couldn’t lie to herself anymore, he did have feelings her.
And seriously, what was trapping her in the mortal world? Her family sucked and she hated everyone else. They were all losers!
And in this dog-eat-dog world she might as well climb to the top of the food chain.
A smile tugged on the corner of her mouth as she put a hand around his neck bringing him closer to her and he met her lips without hesitation.
Alejandro was a good kisser for starters, that was a good sign, and she could feel him smiling when he placed gentle kisses along her face, her jawline, and of course…
“I dreamt about this neck for so long” He said, nuzzling her.
“Then do it already!” She laughed.
“Your wish is my command, mi reina.”
He kissed a spot on her neck lovingly before sinking his fangs on her. Heather thought it would hurt. Well, it did, but in a pleasurable way that may or may not have made her let out a noise in delight. Slowly, she melted in his arms, growing fainter as she lost more and more blood until, she realized, she was on the floor with Alejandro cradling her in his arms.
“Now,” She heard a tearing noise. “I need you to drink from me, cariño.” He handed her his bleeding wrist and to add to the long list of things that were surprising Heather that night…Alejandro actually tasted wonderful!
Heather wasn’t repulsed by the idea of drinking blood, per se, but she had never imagined it could taste like this. The feeling was that of finally being able to eat a specific food you had been thinking of all week long, or of drinking the finest glass of spiced wine by a fire after an exhausting day of work.
She felt her strength coming back twice as potent as his blood entered her system, her canines were now pointy and her hunger increased. Suddenly she let go of Alejandro’s wrist and jumped to his neck, sinking her teeth on his skin. He pressed her against him, letting her take control.
“Heather.” He moaned, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing each finger delicately, taking notice of the sharp nails that had recently grown in them.
Heather finally pushed away and smiled, letting him see the new her. Aside from the sharp teeth, her grey eyes were brighter and he could detect a tinge of red around the irises like he had in his.
She was going to remember the way Alejandro looked at her that night forever. His happiness, his excitement, his adoration...he wasn’t just seeing her, he was seeing the rest of his afterlife right there in front of him.
Their afterlives.
He kissed her again and again and again, reigniting the fire she had felt before. Heather then pushed his back against the floor and smirked.
“Eager to seal our unholy matrimony, mi amor?” He teased, the desire clear in his voice.
“Like you weren’t dying to do it.” They chuckled and she began taking off her blouse. “Is this a good time to tell you I have a biting kink?”
Alejandro grinned making work of his own clothes, the view in front of him already driving him crazy. “Only if it’s also a good time to tell you I love dominant women.”
Reaching for him, she playfully grazed his earlobe with her teeth before whispering:
“You were right. We make a pretty good match.”