Vampires in Lust (Giselle)

[don]

Don opened the door to his apartment and ushered Giselle in just as the sun rose in the distance. He closed the door behind them, and they were safe in the darkness of the hall. The apartment reeked of wet dog and the dirty tiles were grimy with mud. One narrow stair way led to the second level and if you by passed the stair well, you would find two doors on each side of the hall. The wallpaper, a sick yellow, was stained by coffee and other out-of-place liquids. Don led Giselle past these shameful touches of poverty to his door, where he bent down and replaced a number 3 that fell to the floor. A flowery welcome matt had been placed at his doorstep and he picked it up, throwing it into the garbage once he unlocked the door and pushed it open for Giselle. It was completely black in the room, and once he flicked on the light, the horrible conditions of the room sprung out at them.
It was a three room apartment, one bedroom, one bathroom, and the rest of it. In the main room, a kitchen took up the corner, and in the center were a couch and two chairs directed towards the bulky television. Two wooden doors led into the more exclusive areas. Don went to the fridge and took out two bottles of blood. He pulled open the microwave door and watched the light as the bottles went around and around on its tray. Once the shrilling beep went off, cut off before it could give him a headache, he popped the tops open on the table and handed one to Giselle.
“I got these from a guy at this vampire club,” he told her, “But I only go to him once and while to restock, in case I get home and I’m hungry.” Some night, like this one, something kept him occupied and did not get a regular meal. If he didn’t feed, he began to get moody and temperamental.
When he first got the apartment, he had just spent the night in the jail because he had hitched a ride with a drunk mortal. A cop picked them up and he had been fined for allowing his friend to drink and drive. Not only did he not get the drink he had expected, but he almost got tested for alcohol, and just narrowly escaped making the cops official vampire catchers. When he finally got home, it was too close to dawn for him to steal a drink, and he stumbled into his apartment building a complete mess. Slobber dipped from his mouth and the veins in his temple pulsed under thin, white skin. Just as he was about unlock his door, he heard a gasp, and he turned to face his old neighbor, Margaret Leopon, with her hands over her eyes and leaning against the door frame. He almost attacked her, but was stopped when her daughter came to the door and started yelling at him for being drunk and terrorizing the elderly. He slunk into his apartment, more concentrated on getting that woman’s shrieking out his head than getting a drink. One of the bottles of blood saved him that day, just when he was about to change his mind and go next door to kill Mrs. Leopon and Ms. Leopon.
“So, what do you think of my apartment?” he leered, taking a gulp of his blood, the thick droplets rolling down his chin. He grinned, a new rush of adrenaline throbbing through his mind, like a jogger who feels his heart thumping in his chest. Eyes shining with bitter humor and mouth grinning, he walked towards Giselle and bent down to kiss her, trapping her lips under his. Pulling away just as abruptly as he had gone forward, Don walked towards the television as if nothing had happened, switching it on and falling onto the couch with the bottle of blood grasped in one hand. The blood high would soon end, and he would realize his actions. Then his instincts would be overshadowed once again, and what he wanted to do would be replaced with what he should do. Blood freed him, yet, like a drug, it could not keep him for long.

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle found herself obeying Don's orders, following him to his apartment. It was almost like she was in a trance. It felt like she didn't have any control over her legs. She wanted to go with Don but she didn't. She like Don a lot but she didn't. She might love Don but she couldn't admit it. Now she was going to his apartment. She was in her mansion before and now she would get to be in his home. What was next, visiting his parent's grave?

True, the sun was rising so she really had no choice. But it didn't feel like she was going just because of the sun. Maybe it was something else. How could she let this happen to herself? Why did she let this happen? She vowed long ago that she wouldn't go through this again, ever. She knew the risks. She knew what might happen. She knew what she might have to go through again.

Finally, they reached the apartment just before the sun hit the pavement. She was led through a hall which was in terrible condition. She hated this kind of place, dark and dank. She didn't care, though. If Don was there the apperance of his apartment didn't matter. But she was going to spend the whole morning there, what if it was really bad? Still, Don himself made up for it. What was she thinking? Why would Don make a difference in an apartment? Was this vampire love? How would she know, she forgot to remember.

When she finally stepped into the apartment, Giselle swallowed hard and looked about nervously. This was nothing like her mansion. This was small. This place wasn't even like the human girl's apartment, at least her's was clean? Brighter in color and more welcome. Still, Don lived here. If, and that was a major if, they ever came to be together, her place was the elected place to stay.

Come to think of it, Giselle should be doing some redecoration in her mansion. It was mostly gothic styled, black and red all around. She had the strange urge to add pink somewhere and make it look more warm than cold. Maybe she'd change the whole place and leave her bedroom the way it was. Maybe she should make up a second bedroom, make it floral with all sorts of colors. She could change rooms according to mood.

Thoughts drifting back to Don's place, it was tiny and it smelled bad. She didn't even want to know what germs lurked about. She'd have to remember to give him clorox wipes or something to sanitize this place. Actually, the place didn't need sanitizing, it needed everything replaced. The option of just asking Don to move in with her still hung in the air IF they were to get together. Damn, why was she thinking this?

When Don brought out the bottles of blood, Giselle took hers silently and gingerly sipped the bottled blood. The taste sent chills up her spine. It was just the fact that she was drinking blood from a bottle and not drinking it from a vein with her fangs. There was a major difference and she never tried this before. As long as the blood came from a human that died, she was alright with it for now.

Giselle opened her mouth to answer Don's question but was cut off from Don's kiss. Giselle's eyes widened and she gasped. She has kissed other male vampires before because she was flirting but now with Don? The man who took her to his apartment and previously had a conversation with her in her mansion? This kiss was different than the other flirty kisses, this meant something. It meant something and Giselle didn't know what. She didn't want to know what.

Giselle sat down next to Don on the couch. She sat her hip to his hip, mesmerized at what just happened. Why she was sitting so close to him she didn't know. She just wanted to be close to him... odd. This couldn't be right. She didn't move her position and she hoped Don wouldn't mind, She didn't want him to move. His cold body beside her’s made her feel like she had a companion for as long as he stayed there.

[don]

Don knew there were different forms of love, but surely this absurd happiness he felt had to be caused by something. He felt complete trust in Giselle, as if they had known eachother for millions of years. In a way, maybe they had. Don did not completely understand her, but he knew that he had experienced things that she did. The first kill, the first love, the first heart ache, the first death. He felt oddly happy lying next to her, and the feeling continued even after the blood high had receded. The sofa was uncomfortable, the apartment stuck, and the bad reception overcame the game they were watching, but still he felt happy. Then he remembered Elizabeth, and he began to feel restless. He became so fidgety that he had to stand up and go to a kitchen draw for a cigarette.
“You know,” he said, as he caught the cigarette between his teeth and lit it, “I think this smoking thing is becoming a habit.” He leaned against the tabletop and sucked in, looking at Giselle. The television sent blue highlights against the dark red of her hair and fell onto her fair skin. Beautiful skin, Don thought, if I could paint, I would paint her. Ironically, painting was one of the things his family tried to teach him in his youth, but that he never accomplished in his vampire life. After he died, he learned to play the harp and the guitar, and even to dance, but he also showed ineptitude with art. He could color between the lines, but not much else.
“I wish you were marble,” Don said, “Then I could keep you here forever and just stare.” He laughed at himself, smearing the butt of the cigarette into an ashtray. “See what you do to me?” he jested, “You’ll make me into a complete fool before you leave here.”
Don used to act similarly with his wife, when they first were married. Elizabeth pretended to hate him for it, but he knew she adored the ridiculous little things he said to her. It made him feel like an amateur version of Shakespeare, throwing clichés around like pennies, leaving them to be picked up again for good use.

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle was only half listening to Don. He said something about a marble and a cigarette. Giselle tried pathetically to link the two together but got nothing. What was he saying? Don's voice sounded far away. It was like Giselle didn't deserve to be near him, would rather be in a dark alley until the sun went down but she didn't. The truth slapped her in the face and it hurt. Giselle liked Don, she was actually falling for a vampire again.

Everything Don did made Giselle want to take a picture; to save every moment and memory of everything he did, every word, every movement or gesture. She felt complete jealously over Elizabeth, her eyes might as well be glowing green radioactively. Giselle liked Don. She might even love him. She now had a longing for his companionship. She had to say something. She had to be truthful.

"Don, are you feeling anything between us? I've known you for how long now, two nights? Such a short time can heal so many wounds inflicted in one night long ago. Do you think that the relationship we have now is going to blossom into something for an eternity?" Giselle scooted away from him and stayed on the other end of the couch. She put her hand on her head and rested her elbow on her knee.

"I don't know what to do now. I don't know how I'm supposed to behave. Everything was blood and murder before and it kept me perfectly happy but now nothing is. After the other mansion and then the apartment with the mortal, I've been questioning a vampire's existence. I know that we live to be lonely and we have to. Vampires can't be happy, it's our punishment for murdering mortals. No good deed goes unpunished. Please tell me now that you have something for me. I need to know."

[don]

Don had to face the facts. It wasn’t hard. He obviously felt attracted to Giselle, but when he thought about it (and he often tried not to) he found he felt differently about this vampire. She had something that made him feel secure again, as if he were back home in London with his sister beating him in poker and his mother tipping her off with signals they arranged. And the funny thing was that Elizabeth wasn’t in this picture. Or even lurking around the corner. Giselle over shadowed her like an eclipse, and he felt that he had finally found something to rid himself of Elizabeth and her dead memory.

Don felt his realization of her create lightness in his heart. He did love her. Not in that sickly sweet devotion that fades over time, but strong and deep like a city buried in desert sand, never to be rooted up from its safe hiding place. Don mocked men who followed their lover, throwing cliché love poems and romantic gestures. Love itself, completely separate from the actual expression, should be dealt in rations, lest the lovers become sick of eachother. He had to be realistic about it, as he had been the first time he fell in love. To loose hold of it would be chaos. He was, first and foremost, a vampire and a man, and secondly a lover.

Suddenly it all seemed black and white, and perfectly full of order. He could have been tricking himself, with all the garbage of his roles as a man, but it made him feel secure. Faced with such a difficult thing as love, he had to find a parachute to hold him back a bit.

“I do not believe vampires are meant for a world of hell,” Don began carefully, “We feed on prey, just like any animal, except that we choose our own species as food. We love, like humans do, but perhaps even deeper, because we understand life and have experienced its nuances.” Don did not move from his place. He could barely speak for a moment, but then regained his words and said the final thing he meant to, trying not to crack any jokes in his futile attempt to cushion the sentence.

“I love you.”

He sat in tense silence, wondering if he had said to much too soon.

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle tensed and what was left of her heart fell into her stomach. So that was it, Don loved her. She remembered what it felt like to be loved by a companion. Nothing mattered anymore. All you needed was him. But when he left, it felt like there was nothing left but her. Don was very honest with Giselle but he knew nothing about her other than the fact that something bad happened. She told the story many times because she wanted to and maybe help another vampire in the future.

Giselle was too needy anyway. If this could work out she would become more and more paranoid. No one would want to put up with her. She wanted to save Don from herself. She knew an eternity with herself was just too long and not necessary. Giselle knew her personality and how she behaved and two nights with Don didn’t show him anything. She wasn’t acting like herself ever since she met him and she feared that if they kept seeing each other, Don would finally see the real Giselle and that was too much to handle.

“Well then you love me. I’m attracted to you, too but I don’t know what to call it. How could you know me for two nights and say that much about me? When I’m around you I don’t act like myself. If you remember back in the garden, my massacre with all the mortals? That’s the sort of thing I do on a daily basis. I’m cruel and evil. I sired a mortal who said I was a psycho so I could torture him for all eternity. I keep him in the woods in a cave. I take my stress out on him. That vampire is in terrible shape, can’t even heal enough to go out for a hunt. When I first became a vampire, I killed everyone in the mansion I lived in and stole their money. When I cleaned out one mansion full of maids and butlers I moved onto the next one. I got chased out of a town because I destroyed it, killed half of it. I’m filthy rich and I’m so unhappy. And then there was Jack,” Giselle paused and was silent for a moment.

“I wanted to become a vampire and I found this 2,000 something year old one who wanted to kill himself. He admired me because of my cruelty, uncaring for other people, just saw something I wanted and took it. If anyone objected I just killed them. My foster parent’s were my first victims. They gave me everything I wanted but I hated them. They were dead so fast and I didn’t care. They were the people who took care of me since I was eight. I’m 30 years old and I’m trapped in a 21 year old body.

“So there was Jack. In my parent’s mansion I finished every mortal there but one. He was everything I could ask for, handsome and attractive. He was just like me but better. I sired him and everything was perfect for four years. We were so happy together and we wanted nothing else but each other. But then he grew tired of me and he wanted to see the world – taste new blood, see someone else. I couldn’t understand why he left. I woke up one night and he was gone. I starved myself in the woods for three weeks. I was devastated and tried to figure out what I did wrong but in the end, I know it was him but I still can’t accept it.

“Sure, I love men, flirting with them, maybe even kissing them. But I could never have another relationship. I didn’t have the strength to put myself through that again. And then you came! In the garden I met you and everything began to change and I didn’t want to start it again. I tried so hard to keep myself away from you but I can’t. And here you are now, saying that you love me. I’m a mistake. You can’t have anything to do with me. I’m a cold blooded monster who likes to invite mortals into her home just for the sake of torturing them for entertainment. If you want me as a companion you won’t be able to stand me for more than a week. I’m too paranoid I’m too needy and you can’t provide me with everything I want. You can save your strength now, I’m just too much to care for.

[don]

Don couldn't care less what Giselle did, or how cruel she was, and he didn’t care if she loved him either. He knew how it was to love, and he knew his particular style. His lost true lover was Elizabeth, but she had changed and his love disappeared because he could not overlook the transformation. No vampire could reasonably say he never changed after becoming a vampire, and that’s why Don never fell in love with a human. They simply could not understand, and never would. Of course, they could empathize, but could only experience one part of the vampire life. The victim part.

“I only want you to love me if you are happy doing so,” Don told her, “If it makes you miserable, than I will leave, but I won’t stop loving you. It’s not something one can control. At least not with me. I couldn’t care less if you returned my love, because it’s just how it is. Don’t bother to reason with me. It won’t change anything. When I started to love Elizabeth, she was a student at the school I taught at. You have some idea about how inappropriate that is, don’t you? I didn’t think she even liked me, so I didn’t act on it. She had a lot of attention from good-looking boys and she flirted with all of them, right in front of me. I ignored her of course, but it never failed to bother me, so I often eavesdropped in while my coworkers spoke and expected me to listen.”

Don took a drink of his bottle of blood and closed his eyes at the reassuring, if cold, flow of blood that coursed down his throat. Crimson creased down from his lip and wiped it away, resting his arms across the back of the couch. He felt more assured now, and ready to continue again. He detached himself from the story, closing off the memories of his human bride and trying with difficulty not to rouse any emotions.

“The first day she actually paid any attention to me was when I was standing at the door, waiting for the students to flood down the hall at the bell, and when they did, she stopped in front of my room instead of hers. She asked me if I would speak to her my next free period, and I agreed while trying not to reveal how enamored I was with her. I think she saw right through me. The next period, she entered my empty classroom and told me her feelings, as truthful as I had ever heard them. I never saw such a straight-forward woman, at least not in that century, when most women smiled and looked down. We dated for a few months, and I proposed the night she graduated. She did not make a big fuss at our wedding. She seemed glad to marry me, but ignored the fuss each of our parents decided to make over it. We had to be married in a large white church, with all of our acquaintances and friends around us. We would have escaped during the party if not for her school mates. They thought if a fine joke. Professor Formen and their good friend, married. Those that came were well liked by me, most of them former students, so I gladly accepted their teasing. I loved teaching. God knows how I’ve changed.”

Don laughed bitterly, taking another swallow of his drink.

“Well, you understand how I feel. I’m a stubborn vampire. I don’t write poetry, I don’t give special gifts, and I don’t play head games. If I went to get rid of you, I’ll tell you straight out. But love doesn’t escape me easily. I obsessed over Elizabeth for all my years, even into my vampire old age, until I recently was able to face that all that is dead. See here, we don’t have to get married if you don’t want. You don’t even have to love me. But just know that none of that will change how I feel.”

[Giselle Audley]

Giselle remained quiet as Don spoke about Elizabeth. He loved her just like he loved Giselle now, but it had to be different somehow. Should she deny herself some happiness when it was sitting right next to her? She knew she shouldn’t and she should get over what happened before but she couldn’t. If there was one thing that scared her, one weakness that she had, it was getting involved with someone, have a few happy years together and then suddenly break up. Nothing was worse than having a loved one leave you.

Giselle got up and turned away from Don. “I don’t want you to leave. So you love me. But I’m not ready to return that much to you. All I know is that I need you which is like saying I’m using you to hold myself together and that is wrong to ask. I can’t use you like that, but you are the one vampire I’ve met who has dragged so much out of me. I just really want you to stay and maybe when I’m ready, this can turn out into something completely different. I just need to know if you would be there beside me for all of eternity and never leave. That is a lot to ask but if you love me, it is possible. I’m waiting for something to prove that, that you will never leave me,” Giselle said in nearly a whisper.

It was all she needed from Don, him to be chained to her as a prisoner forever. That was much too much to ask. Giselle sat against the wall facing Don but she didn’t look at his face, she didn’t want to see his reaction to that.

[don]

“I love you, and I won’t leave you,” Don said simply, as if there could never be another answer.
He tried to think of something that would prove it to her, but only little things came to mind like cutting his hair, and other acts which became meaningless in a vampire’s lifetime. So he said nothing, sitting there for a moment at a complete loss, and feeling frustrated at his own incapability to convince her. There was no way that she could immediately know if he would be faithful. If she looked into his eyes, she would see no other truth besides darkness and shadow, but still, he thought, she had to sense the sincerity of his statement.
Don stood and walked trance-like into his bedroom, flicking on the dull light hanging from the ceiling. He ran a hand through his hair, the soft mane lying across his shoulders with night shining on every silken strand, and took a string from his nigh table to tie it into a long ponytail. He pulled the shirt over his head and stretched lithe muscles, enjoying the feel of the cool air against his skin. His longed to sleep, but the promise of Giselle waiting in the living room was a stronger lure to follow. He took a couple of minutes to pull on a black band-t-shirt and picked out baggy, grey jeans, then went back out to meet Giselle. He stood, looking at her, not sure if he should go as close as he had been a few minutes ago.
“I’d like to prove it to you, but I don’t know how, and I can’t help but feel you should just believe me just from faith.”

[Giselle Audley]

He was frustrated. Giselle knew the feeling. He wanted something that he couldn’t have yet. She stayed silent and watched him. Wondering shone in his eyes and she knew what he was thinking. Giselle didn’t know what he had to do to gain her trust but it had to be meaningful. She’d know when he accomplished it.

Giselle leaned back into the sofa when Don exited the room. She lowered her eyes to her lap. He was disappointed and she hoped he understood. If he shackled himself to Giselle for the rest of their lives, he’d be miserable. He didn’t know what he was getting into but she did. Day after day of arguments despite if they were in love or not. Giselle and Don have a lot of things in common but also a lot of differences.

Don came back in the room, but Giselle didn’t look at him. She kept her gaze on the denim of her jeans, staring so intently to make it look like she was trying to see something that wasn’t there. She tried to see things in Don that weren’t there, too. After he’d spoken, she finally looked up, but didn’t look in his eyes.

“You’re making a mistake. I would be better if you didn’t go through the trouble of trying to prove yourself. I don’t deserve you, I really don’t,” she diverted her eyes back to her lap. “I don’t deserve a lot of things. It’s too hard for me to leave now. You would have to do it and never see me again. I think that would be the wisest choice. But now look what happened. All we can both do is wait around for something to happen that will prove you won’t betray me. Now we can only wait.”

[don]

Don sighed, a sound which came from a heaving in his chest and rattled through his throat. He had not expected to get over Elizabeth, if he had and it wasn’t some trick of the mind. Emotions had never been so complicated and suddenly, he felt sick of the whole lot of it. Love had always been for the romantic at heart, and he did not believe he did not qualify for that label. If he had once been romantic, he was not any more. Yes, that had all ended with Elizabeth, and he knew that when she left, she took valuable things with her. So many vampires, it seemed, had been hurt in one way or another, and however much they claimed to be done with it, they never were. With age comes pain, and with pain comes mistakes that you never learn from.
Don fell into the chair and raised dark eyes to Giselle’s.
“You can sleep in my bed if you’d like,” he offered, “Or on the couch. The sun is high, but when night falls, you can leave.”
He closed his eyes and closed out any response she could give. He felt tired. More tired than he had ever been before, and sleep came like a wave of relief. The humanity in him died for those few hours, leaving him pure. He dreamt of roses, red hair, and blood.

[Giselle Audley]

OOC: I have sent you a PM