Fear. Very little had she experienced this emotion, but this night
was not like any other in her young existence. This night, she feared
for her life.
* * *
She noticed him across the crowded dance floor, a man, a tall man,
staring at her. She danced like she didn't notice, but she still felt
his eyes on her. No matter where she went, how much she let the music
flow into her being, she felt his eyes searing into her. However, she
was able to ignore him well enough that she didn't notice when he
began approaching.
His smooth voice invaded her reverie as she danced, "You dance
like one possessed by the music, child."
Startled, she blushed shyly and nodded at the man. "It is the
music that drives us all, the music of our souls... so, in a way, we
are all possessed by it..." Unconsciously, she took a step back from
him, as he approached uncomfortably close.
"Ahh, a philosopher as well. Tell me, child, what other talents do
you possess?" His carefully smooth voice flowed over her skin like a
soft velvet, entrancing in its quality.
She could not speak a word as he moved closer, her eyes locked in
his. Mesmerized, all she could do was stare into their endless depths.
As he reached her, her music was playing for him, for those eyes...
and still she was lost as he leaned in and gently bit into her neck.
To the unknowing eyes of those on the dance floor, they were merely
lovers, lost in an embrace.
* * *
"Tatiana..." the elf-lord whispered into her ear. "Tatiana... the
time for dreams is over, my love. Awake into the world. Tatiana...."
the voice whispered.
* * *
A voice assaulted her, invaded her dream, "Katia, who is that
jerk... Katia..." The voice continued, "Katia... wake up!"
Jolted back to consciousness, she discovered a man pressed against
her, biting painfully into her neck. Feeling woozy and weak, but with
enough fear to compensate, she managed to push the stranger from her,
causing an even greater pain in her neck. Then, hardly noticing as a
group of her peers, including the one that called to her, grabbed the
stranger, she bolted off, out of the club... and away from relative
safety. But she was like a frightened animal.. she wanted only to get
away, and get away fast.
Soon after Katia bolted, the calm stranger smiled once, threw a
few men off of him, then vanished. A pair of eyes watched all of this
from the crowd, and soon vanished as well.
*
He found her again, collapsed in an alley several blocks away,
panting against a wall while trying to hold her life-blood in with a
hand to her neck. "No...." she whispered as she saw him approach.
"No, dear? No, child? Are you begging for your life? But, love,
you will live forever." The stranger walked up to her, his heels
clicking on the concrete of the pavement. "Do you think that I would
kill one as precious as you? No..." He shook his head, his face a mask
of calm and contentment. "No, child. You will live forever, with me."
She looked up at him, perhaps even more fear in her eyes than
before. As she opened her mouth to whisper another word, a swoosh of
wind and the sound of flapping wings came to her ears. The stranger
noticed this as well and turned just in time to feel the claws of some
beast rip into his chest and knock him to the ground.
Growling with such savagery it almost seemed impossible that it
belonged to the same smooth voice as before, the stranger tried to
regain his feet. However, the shadow was faster as it relentlessly
tore at the flesh and bone of its victim, until the stranger felt his
own unbeating heart ripped from his torn chest.
Katia watched this all with wide and frightened eyes, not able to
believe what she was seeing... a winged devil.. her savior. Her mind,
unable to take the shock of this any longer, finally decided to shut
down. Just as she closed her eyes to unconsciousness, she saw the face
of her savior....