Chapter 4

  Amelia 

  

  Truly alone at last I lay atop my large bed and think about him. The feel of his skin, the beauty of his features, my memory is perfect as a vampire but memories can not compete with flesh and blood. 

  

  I feel great sadness at what should have been ours before Damian destroyed us. My mind wanders back through the centuries back to the day before our wedding. I remember the joy I felt at that moment like it was yesterday. 

  

  My heart full and bursting with excitement to become Erik’s wife, to spend the rest of our lives together. I was gathering flowers beyond the castle wall in the early morning dew when I first laid eyes on Damian. 

  

  His black horse was huge and imposing he had stopped before me and there was a look in his eyes, a portent of the pain he brought, an unease gripped my soul as he smiled at me. 

  

  By that very afternoon he had captured me alone proposing his deal. I was to be his and Erik would be allowed to live. Turning a witch the greatest of all crimes, the irony that the King himself intended to do just this once he bartered for Erik’s life was not lost on me. 

  

  I had agreed without hesitation, I could not live with Erik’s death and the King would have taken me anyway after that. He was too powerful to fight. Broken I asked for one final night, some time to think and I would leave with him at the break of dawn. I never knew until many years later he had spread the word that he had killed me as Erik’s punishment for intending to turn a witch. 

  

  I had thought back then that it would have been kinder, a closure that would have allowed him to move on with his life but it seems he has been stuck in the same purgatory as I. 

  

  Devastated I had gone running to Papa but his face as I told him all was one of loss, I knew then there was no real way to defeat Damian. A glimmer, an idea from Papa to lessen the burden of my fate. A single night, a single gift from my true love. 

  

  We had prepared and readied and as night fell Papa snuck me safely to Erik’s room. His face had been full of delight at the sight of me, boldly I approached him in what was supposed to be my wedding undergarment, light and soft material leaving little to the imagination. 

  

  He had tried to look away and resist but I had given him no option, pressing myself into him letting him feel the curve of my body touch his, turning his face, his lips almost touching mine, it barely took anything to close that distance and taste him for the first time. 

  

  Hesitant at first he returned my kiss, I knew he was no virgin like me, he had been alive for hundreds of years before I was born but there was a sweetness and innocence to that kiss. 

  

  Breaking the kiss he placed his forehead to mine “Lia we can’t we’re not married yet” I smiled running my hand around his neck, tangling my fingers in his long hair dark hair, so soft so perfect. “Are you planning on leaving me at the alter?” I asked breathlessly. 

  

  He chuckled softly brushing my hair from my face with a reverence that I could never forget “Never my love, I will love you until my dying breath, I am yours for eternity” 

  

  Thankfully his lips claim mine so he can not see my heart breaking in my eyes. 

  

  His kiss becomes more confident, more needy and I respond with everything I have, I tug the back of his hair as he leaves a trail of blistering kisses from my mouth to the base of my neck “Yes my love” I whisper and he picks me up laying me gently on the bed. His eyes search mine “Are you sure?” I nod vigorously “Never more so” and I see his last shred of restraint evaporate. 

  

  His strong hands work under the hem of the night dress pulling it over my head leaving me fully exposed to him, his eyes hungrily devour every inch of me as he removes his own coverings. 

  

  I am shocked when he settles himself between my legs and a wicked smile spreads over his face as he disappears into my most private place. Jumping a little as his hot wet tongue licks me there but oh how good it felt, as he sucked and circled my clit, gently pushing inside of me with a finger at the same time, causing a pleasure I could never have imagined. Within moments a strange but wonderful fire had rocked through my body giving me a bliss that I could not have imagined possible. 

  

  He crawled up my body then and the feeling of him excited every part of me, deep passionate soul stealing kisses taken from me, his hot wet tongue sucking and nipping at my breasts and his hardness positioning at the opening he had just brought to life. 

  

  The questioning look for reassurance that I fully give and then the exquisite feeling of him slowly carefully beginning to fill me, a little at a time, almost so slow that I wanted to hurry him along, feeling him reach a barrier and the cry I gave as he pushes past it, the obstacle to true fulfilment gone. 

  

  How he stayed there letting me feel him as he kissed me and then the slow gentle movements building up, my legs wrapped around him needing to feel everything that I could. The pace, the passion building, my own instinct to move with him growing, as he made my body sing beneath him. The desire in his eyes as I guided him to the base of my neck encouraging him to drink from me, the intense feeling of fireworks once more rocking my body as he did and his last powerful thrust as he filled me with his own climax. 

  

  One perfect night, my virginity given to my heart, my gift to take with me the memory of us together in bliss. 

  

  He didn’t even notice the sleeping potion I slipped into the wine I handed him, didn’t wake up as I used the little knife and vial to pierce his vein and take his blood. Nor as I used his saliva to close both our wounds keeping my secret. He never blinked as I kissed his lips in a final goodbye. 

  

  Mercifully Damian was not a patient man and planned to take me and turn me as soon as he got his hands on me, he missed the little vial I swallowed right before he pulled me to him to claim me. The blood coursing through my veins turning me not his own, the change already triggered by that of my one true love.