The moon had sunk below the trees, enveloping the forest in an inky veil. All was still as I gazed out my window into the darkness, lost in thoughts of - Her. Then, a flickering glow caught my eye. Two candles floated in the night, their flames dancing like will o' the wisps, beckoning me closer. I peered out and gasped.
Silhouetted against the candles' light, Her slender form emerged from the shadows. Moment had come. Her raven hair spilled over the shoulders of a gown as black as the night itself, and her pale skin seemed to glow in the dim light. Full crimson lips parted in a smile meant for me alone. My breath caught in my chest at the vision that haunted both my waking hours and dreams.
She had come at last, and I knew that I could deny her nothing. But her smile faded as quickly as it had come. Her bosom heaved with ragged breaths beneath her gown, and tendrils of raven hair clung to cheeks gone deathly pale. When at last she spoke, her blood-red lips trembled with a fear that cut me to my core.
"Please, you must help me," she pleaded, her usually hypnotic voice now raw and ragged. "The mob comes for me, torches blazing in the night. They mean to burn me alive, please, I don’t want to die. You must hide me ere they find us both."
Her crimson eyes, usually so darkly captivating, now shone with animal terror. Never had I seen my belle in such a state of distress. It tore at my heart even as it stirred my soul to protect her. I knew then that I would do anything to save my dark muse from the fate that awaited her this night. The shouts of the mob carried through the trees, growing louder with each passing second. "Witch! Demon! Give back our daughters, you monster!"
Panic swept past me into the house, the scent of night-blooming jasmine trailing in her wake. I closed and barred the door just as the mob emerged from the forest, their shouts filling the night. She turned to face me, and I was lost. Her raven hair fell in wild disarray around a face of unearthly beauty, pale as the moon above. Those swirling eyes, filled with terror moments before, now held me captive in their thrall once more.
Despite the mob's shouts and the murders that stained her hands, I could not deny this creature that haunted both my dreams and waking hours. From the first moment I saw her emerge from the carriage shadows, I had been hers. Now, with the mob clamoring at my door and my doves life in my hands, I knew myself to be quixotic.
"Thank you," she breathed, her lips curving in a smile both sinister and sublime. I nodded, mute before her loveliness. Motioning her deeper into the shadows, I led her further into my manor, drawn as helplessly as any moth to her dark flame. My judgment had fled; only this goddess of night remained, and I was lost to her power once more, what was it I adored?.
The mob's cries echoed through the house as my dove turned to me. Her crimson gaze held mine fast as she stepped closer, until her lithe form pressed against mine. My traitorous heart raced at her nearness, breath hitched, I light coo left my lips.
“Swear to keep me safe,” she breathed, her lips hovering so close I tasted the wine-dark promise of her kiss upon my tongue. “Swear you'll keep me secret, no matter what horrors they accuse me of.”
The mob's fury pounded in my ears, but I heard only the call of her mellifluous song. “I am yours, my crimson dove,” I vowed. “Your secret, and your life, is mine to protect, if you allow me to.”
A smile like the slash of a blade curved her lips, and then they were upon mine. Her kiss stole my soul as surely as it sealed my oath. I was lost—willingly damned and doomed to walk her night-shrouded path forevermore.
Garnet lips parted releasing her eel tongue, it bore in with fervent oscillation, and the world fell away. Soft and chill as petals of black rose, her mouth moved against mine with a hunger that set my yonic ablaze. All thought fled before the dark desire that consumed me;
Through the haze of bliss, I felt her press closer, molding her lithe form to my longing flesh. Her kiss deepened, tasting of wine and sin, and I drowned willingly in that intoxicating darkness. Cool fingers tangled in my hair, holding me captive as she ravaged my lips with slow, drugging passion. Hips undulating against mine, I was seeing diamonds and felt light headed and faint.
When at last she drew back, I stood reeling, senses awash in scarlet tide. Her eyes, twin flames of damnation, held me in thrall once more. "You are mine now, and I am yours," she breathed, and I knew nothing but the truth of that vow, a smile washed over my visage with eyes welting, pure joy, the moment I had dreamt many moons.
My soul was lost to the night, claimed forever by my dark goddess and the bittersweet poison of her kiss. I was hers to command, to love, to damn—and gladly so I went. That night, as the mob's cries faded into the distance, I took up my pen once more. My fingers trembled not with fear but rapture as I set down the verses that would haunt my dreams hence:
Her lips were frost upon my flesh,
A chill embrace most finesse.
Within her mouth's dark recess
A tang of copper I could ravish,
The nectar that gives her sway.
Oh how she stole my soul away
With that long kiss's fell delight!
I drowned within her crimson gaze
And craved the cold caresses bite
That damned me to her dark delight.
My goddess, queen of shadow's night -
Your thrall I'll be, your call I'll heed
Lead me into Death's sweet rite
Take me as your lover, feast
This starving soul its dark reprieve.
Thus did I consecrate my fate,
Bound forever to my adore
By the raptures we did sate
Within her kiss's ruby-red gore.
I was hers; she was my dark Muse.
As I set down my blood-stained verses, the truth became clear. I had sworn my soul to a monster—a demon who preyed upon the townsfolk under cover of night. Yet when her crimson gaze found mine, all thought of her victims fled.
Only this woman remained, my dark goddess, my muse and my inevitable finale. I was complicit in her gruesome deeds, a willing accomplice to murder. But how could I resist the sylph that called to the shadows in my psyche? Already I had tasted of her kiss and craved more of its ripe succulents.
My duty was clear: I must protect this creature's lethal pulchritude, no matter the cost. Let the town call me witch-lover and devil's advocate. I cared not, so long as those velvets smiled upon me with those eyes like bloody pools, breasts of mountain peaks with veins of rivers that I longed to drink from. I was bound to her now, for better or worse, in life or death. My passion would be her willing slave, though it damned my soul for all eternity, I turned and she had vanished as quick as she had came. A pearl cascaded my cheek.
With trembling hand, I set more verses upon the page, teardrops hit parchment with ink:
My goddess, when will you return
To claim me as your own?
I ache with need that will not burn
Until you take this flesh and bone
I am your pet take me home.
Each night I lie awake and yearn -
For the chill kiss that damned my soul
Your beauty that has left me spurned -
By passion's sweet but lethal goal
To join you in Death's sanguine call -
Come to me in the moon's pale light -
With eyes aglow and lips like wine -
Steal into my chamber this night -
Bite deep and make this mortal shrine
Your immortal lover entwined;
Thus did I plead to my Dark Goddess come,
And seal our fates in an eternal kiss -
No more to writhe in passion's sanguine rum,
But as vampires twined, all the world to miss.
This, my soul's deepest desire and bliss.
I am yours and you are mine you vowed
Yet here I waste away and your gone
Bound to a harlot in a elegant gown
Like a feeble fawn - like a feeble fawn
All alone in the woods—
Puts quill down…
