Or maybe a tall man in dark clothes will appear out of nowhere directly on top of her, put his hand over her mouth, pin her to her bed, and fasten his teeth in her throat.

No? She wasn't expecting that one? Well, why not?

Because she wasn't aware that that was a thing that could happen???

She tries to shove him off her.

It does not work. She might as well be wrestling with a block of granite.

The bite hurts, and - something more than hurts - it's like he's set his fangs in the heart of her power, the very substance of her life, and is draining her essence away. It goes in a rush, at first, but after a few swallows he slows down, and then the feeling of being pierced to the core and drunk dry is much less like pain and more like pleasure.

--Aaah.

It's good, but--she needs that--she manages to scrounge some power to put in her arms, until she's strong enough that if he was granite she could push him off her--

Still nothing, except that the stronger she gets, the more heavily his weight presses her into the bed. And then he drains her some more, and she doesn't have enough left to do magic, barely has enough left to move at all—

—and something else pours through her in a shuddering rush, drawn up from deep inside, a spark of life that isn't quite hers, lost down his throat in a single swallow—

—and he pulls his fangs from her neck, heals the marks they left, licks the blood away.

She is breathing hard and has no idea what just happened--but oh that felt so good--she whines softly when his teeth leave her throat, against her better judgement, and gasps a little when he licks her.

He laughs, and kisses her. His lips taste like blood.

She kisses back.

Mmm. Lovely.

"What are you?" she murmurs after a little while.

"Hadn't you guessed? I'm a vampire."

"...Didn't know vampires existed."

"Well. Now you know."

He kisses her again and then lies down next to her, which incidentally means he is no longer pinning her to the bed.

She snuggles up. "So why me?"

"Life tastes sweeter from someone who knows how to use it. I've been following you for a while, waiting for the right time."

"I guess that makes sense.

Wait, does that mean you were there when--"

"Mmhmm."

"And you didn't do anything about it? Jerk."

"I'm not a very nice person. And it was fun to watch."

"You could have interrupted halfway through," she suggests, "played the vigilante hero, swept me off my feet, and had me right there with my thighs still sticky with what they had done to me."

"Oh, if only I'd thought of that," he murmurs.

"And then maybe you could have helped me get home without my parents finding out what had happened. Win-win."

"Well. Too late now. Besides, would you have wanted me, if I'd said I could've stopped them sooner but I liked the look on your face?"

"Might depend on exactly what point you interrupted. And whether you pulled out the magic sex fangs first, because wow."

...he giggles.

"Though I admit I'm not thrilled with how draining it is."

"Oh, I can do it without draining you, but a man needs to eat. And it was starting to get uncomfortable turning my bones to solid gold just so you couldn't throw me across the room."

Giggle. "Is that what you were doing?"

"I can be pretty much as strong as I like without having to shift much, but if I want to be lighter or heavier and stay the same shape, I have to change what I'm made of."

"I guess that makes sense."

He smiles at her, thoughtfully, and then kisses her again.

Mmm yes good.

What a tasty treat she is.

She does not really have much in the way of ability to squirm right now but she can make soft pleased noises at the kissing.

They're some good noises.

Good.

"So," she murmurs eventually, "are you going to finish what you started?"

"Hmm?"

"The fangs were fun, but I didn't get to finish."

"Mmm. Do you want me to fuck you?"

"Yes."

"All right."

He kisses her again.

"If you're fond of that nightgown you might want to take it off before I get impatient."

She starts taking the nightgown off. She's moving fairly slowly, and she flops back down with a sigh of relief when it's done.

He kisses her and rolls on top of her, and his clothes dissolve into mist because being a vampire is very unfair that way.

That is unfair!

"Cheater," she mumbles against his lips.

"Well of course I am." Kiss. "Oh, you're lovely."

"If you've been stalking me I bet you already knew that."

"I'd seen you before, I hadn't—felt you—"

"Mm. Well. True."

"And you're beautiful this way." Kiss.

Kiss!!!

He kisses her deeply and passionately, hardly giving her a chance to breathe. Silver mist flows from his mouth to hers, filling her lungs, and somehow it's like the magic sex fangs but without the pain - he can touch her lifeforce this way, stroke it, cradle it, make her overflow with pleasure.

Oh.

Wow.

YES.

He's so glad she likes it.

She. So. Incredibly. Likes it.

Vampires are not subject to the limitations of mortal men. He can keep going like this for a while.

Oooooooh.

Eventually, he kisses her again and breathes himself back out of her and snuggles up at her side, nuzzling her shoulder.

"You're so warm," he murmurs contentedly.

"That is a trait that human beings have, yes," she says, snuggling back.

"It's nice." Kiss.

Kiss. "I'm glad. That was lovely."

He laughs and pets her hair.

Mm.

"--Oh, hey, what was that--spark thing--at the beginning?"

"The what—? Oh. You were pregnant," he says.

"...Yes, that was why my parents locked me up in here."

Pause.

"Were?"

"You aren't anymore."

"Oh. Awesome."

...he laughs. He kisses her.

Kiss. "What, did you think I wanted to bear a child conceived like that?"

"Well, no. It's just - the way you said it." Kiss.

Kiss. "Oh?"

"I don't know, it was funny!"

"Huh, okay."

Snuggle.

Snuggle. "Now I wait for my next period and convince my parents of the miscarriage, I suppose."

"Yeah, you could do that."

"That sounds like it had an or on the end."

"Do you actually want anything more to do with these people?"

"I do not fancy trying to live on the street."

"I have a castle."

"And it sounds like that's the or!"

Kiss.

"I don't often have guests, but I bet I'd manage."

"Works for me. Do you have a library?"

"I do!"

"Awesome." She is already hugging him and still doesn't have the energy for anything describable as "vigorous" but she can nuzzle him!

He kisses her.

"Is that a 'yes, please carry me off to your castle in the woods'?"

"Was I not clear enough? My bad. Please do that."

"Anything around here you want to take with you?"

"My books, if you don't mind carrying them."

"Happy to."

There are kind of a lot of books. Luckily, he has magic.

He kisses her and gets out of bed and goes to a bookshelf. It's hard to see what he's doing exactly - he has to be putting those books somewhere when he pulls them off the shelf, but it looks like he's just tucking them neatly into thin air.

Ooh. That is not a thing she can do with magic. She watches appreciatively (the magic is not the only thing she's appreciating; he hasn't exactly bothered getting dressed).

He does actually put clothes on - they seem to condense out of mist - after he's gone through a couple of shelves. One by one, he puts every book in the room away in his mysterious magic pocket. Apparently it's a very big pocket.

Aww, what'd he have to put on clothes for.

She appreciates that his pocket is large enough for her books!

Then he comes back to bed and scoops her up and kisses her.

"Think I missed any?"

Kiss! "I don't think so. What'd you have to put on clothes for, though, I was enjoying the view."

"I didn't feel like wandering around naked?" Kiss.

Kiss. "How dare you have valid preferences that conflict with my whims."

Giggle. Kiss. "Anything else before I carry you off to my castle in the middle of the woods?"

"Well, you could tell me your name."

"Tasfal."

"And I'm guessing you know mine from the stalking."

"Anantae." He kisses her forehead. "You have a pretty name."

"Yes I do."

So he scoops her up and kisses her forehead again and carries her to a window. The window is locked. It ceases to be locked. Tasfal ducks out with Anantae held securely in his arms, and an enormous pair of wings sprouts from his back, and wrapped in mist and shadows they fly away.

Oh.

Wow.

He climbs the sky until they're well above the haze of smoke that clouds the city. Up here, they can see for miles in every direction.

The city curls around the river like a dropped cloth, with its crumpled tangle of streets picked out in glowing golden stitches by the streetlamps shining through the fog. To the south and east, the tight-packed streets loosen gradually into sparsely-inhabited farmland; to the west, the land crumples into rocky hills, scarred by the occasional quarry and browsed by the occasional goat but mostly left to themselves; and to the north, where they're headed, the city gives way ungracefully to a wild wood, its trees so dense that the river winding through them is visible only as a long trail of scattered glimmers.

It's so beautiful!!!!

Tasfal laughs.

He levels out into a long glide, headed north into the forest. Their destination comes into view after a minute: a castle on a hill, tucked into the curve of a crescent lake. It's very pretty, in an ominous haunted sort of way.

She has regained enough strength to squirm happily in his arms.

He giggles and kisses her forehead.

She tilts her head upwards to capture his lips.

Awwww. Kiss!

Happy squirmy kisses.

Mmmm she's so kissable. If he has any trouble hanging onto his squirming armful of girl, he doesn't mention it.

And then, eventually, they land on a balcony overlooking the lake, and his vast shadowy wings fold up and disappear, and he kisses her some more and carries her inside. Tall candles in brackets on the walls light up at their approach and go dark after they pass by.

"Ooooooh," she breathes.

Kiss. "I take it you like the place so far?"

"Yes!"

"I should find somewhere to put all these books. And maybe give you some clothes, if you'd like clothes."

"At some point, yeah."

"No hurry, hmm?" Kiss.

Kiss. "None at all."

He carries her down a broad curved stair and through a grand vaulted hall to a room that looks somewhat like a cross between a smallish library and a largish study, where he appears all her books in stacks on the floor. They rather take over the room.

Ooh. Yes good.

And then he kisses her again and carries her off in search of a bedroom. A bedroom seems like a good place to be.

There's one! It is of course gorgeous!

"You're so good at pretty things," she sighs contentedly.

"Yes I am."

He carries her to the enormous curtained bed and lays her down on the soft cozy blanket and snuggles in next to her.

Snuggles! She wiggles in a little closer and wraps her arms around him in return.

Awwwww.

"You're so--so many good things."

"Am I really?"

"You're snuggly and you make pretty things and you have books and you got me out of my parents' house and you made me not have to be pregnant anymore!"

"Well. Yeah, I guess I did do all that."

He nuzzles her cheek, and then kisses her again.

Yes good.

She's so kissable!

He is a delight to kiss.

It's so good when she smiles.

Good because he causes it a lot.

Yes!! Good!!!

It's late and he did drain a bunch of life force out of her. She falls into a cozy cuddly sleep in short order.

He curls up around her and holds her for a while, finally drifting off when the sun is beginning to rise.

Asleep, he is almost completely motionless. He doesn't breathe, his heart doesn't beat.

She wakes up around noon, her stomach growling. It occurs to her that he probably doesn't keep normal food around. She sighs and gently disentangles herself and goes off to explore, looking especially for anything edible or readable.

Readable things include the giant pile of books he books he brought for her, and also the books that were already on the shelves of that study when they got there, and if she goes looking more after that she'll find that there are plenty more rooms with books in them scattered throughout this huge lovely well-decorated castle.

Edible things... maybe she should go wake up Tasfal.

Is it possible to wake him when the sun's up?

Well, only one way to find out. She makes the attempt.

He stirs, and yawns, and smiles at her. "Good morning."

(This castle does not have a whole lot of windows; there isn't any sun actually visible from this bedroom.)

"Good morning. Is there anything to eat?"

"Mm, yeah," he says, curling up cozily in her general direction. "I should feed you. Anything in particular you want?"

"Something that's good for blood recovery."

He giggles and hugs her.

"I like the way you think. All right."

He sits up, hugs her again, kisses her on the cheek, and - reaches into thin air. It gets hard to look at his hands, like they're wavering in and out of reality. Strange lights dance between them. Then space disentangles itself and he's holding a heavy wooden tray laden with a generous breakfast, which he sets down on the small round table that appears beneath it a moment later.

"Wow how'd you do that?"

"Magic, what else?" He nuzzles her shoulder. "Ask me later, I'm sleepy. But don't be afraid to wake me up if you get hungry again."

And he snuggles back down into a nest of blankets.

"Mkay."

She eats her delicious breakfast and then wanders off to investigate books.

Books: exist!

It's hard to tell whether she has in fact outright doubled the paper population of this castle, because he doesn't keep all his books in one place, they're scattered all around in a bunch of different rooms. But the selection is plenty respectable, either way.

Ooh. Anything on magic?

Surprisingly little, actually. Maybe there's more among the books in foreign languages, of which there are quite a few.

She speaks a couple of foreign languages, it's a Respectable thing for a young lady to learn. She investigates the books in those.

Overwhelmingly not about magic!

Oh well. She picks out some interesting-looking ones and goes back to the bedroom, curls up next to Tasfal and starts reading.

This collection of northern fairy tales will be happy to keep her company while her undead lover is sleeping!

Mm this is so nice. She considers reaching over and petting his hair and decides that his resemblance to a corpse might make it weird. Fairy tales!

He actually does move in his sleep a little, which if anything makes the resemblance to a corpse even weirder.

Sometime in the early afternoon - it's hard to tell exactly when, given the lack of windows - he yawns and stretches and opens his eyes and smiles affectionately at her.

"Good not-morning." Kiss. "It's a little odd how corpselike you are when you're asleep."

Kiss. "Really? I guess I don't breathe when I'm sleeping, but does it make that much of a difference?"

"That and the fact that you're cold." She snuggles up in an attempt to remedy the cold.

Aww. He wraps his arms around her and nuzzles the side of her neck.

She giggles. "Mm. Cuddliest vampire."

"Well, you're very cuddleable."

"Mm." She cuddles him some more, presumably in agreement. "Is it just the warmth?"

He giggles and nuzzles her again, affectionately. "Not just, no."

"Good. I'd hate to think I wasn't special."

"No fear of that." Mm. Cozy nuzzles.

Mm, cozy.

"So what do you do all day--well, night--when you're not stalking maidens?"

"Magic, flying, the occasional book..."

"Sounds like the life."

"It's nice!"

"Mhm.

How would you feel about taking me back to the city every now and then to continue my nightlife?"

"Oh, that sounds like fun."

"I'm glad.

And, you know. If something like what got me into that mess happens again. Having backup is a good thing."

Snuggle. "Mmhmm."

"I don't actually mind if you'd rather not intervene immediately but if you'd stop them if they try to break my arm again or whatever that would be grand."

...he laughs. "What, really?"

"That I don't mind?"

"Most people mind being gang-raped!"

"I mean, it sucked, but it would suck a lot less with someone watching to intervene if things got too nasty."

"Hmm."

He smiles and pets her hair.

"The really unpleasant part was the helplessness. The knowledge that they could do whatever they wanted to me and I couldn't stop them. They could break my other arm, they could break my legs, they could gut me and and laugh while I died. I don't care about the sex part. But I hated being that helpless."

He wraps his arms around her and presses a gentle kiss to her forehead.

She snuggles as far into his embrace as she can manage.

He curls up around her and grows wings, huge soft shadow-black bat's wings, so he can wrap her in those too.

--Oh goodness soft good.

Aw. Yes. That is just the reaction he was looking for.

Well he has it. She nuzzles a wing.

Cozy!!

Yes!

"Why do you ever not have wings?"

"Because sometimes I like to look human or wear shirts or both!"

"Shirts are overrated."

He laughs softly and kisses the top of her head.

Mm cozy snuggle. Yes good.

So cozy and snugglesome!

"--This isn't something you normally get to do, is it."

"It is not, no."

"Are these blankets even successfully cozy when you don't have a living human in bed with you to provide warmth?"

"I can make it warmer if I want to, but somehow it's really not the same."

"Well. I am happy to play heater." Snuggle.

Snuggle. Kiss.

Kiss. "And maybe sex with you will be a little less surreal if you're already warm when you get inside me."

...He giggles.

"I mean, I'm not saying it wasn't great, because it was, but still."

"I can be warm if you want me to be warm!"

"That would definitely be nice for sex. Otherwise I am perfectly happy to play heat source." Snuggle.

Snuggle. "I like having you as a heat source. It's very cozy."

"Yes, yes it is."

He nuzzles her. Cozily.

She lightly nips at his ear.

He giggles.

Ear nibbling can continue, then.

He must put a stop to this! But how?!

He kisses her. That should do it.

What a successful stratagem.

He is very clever.

So clever!

One of her hands comes up to toy with the lately-nibbled ear.

He laughs and kisses her some more.

That is an excellent plan and he has a happy Anantae to show for it.

Mmmmmmm what a good cozy happy Anantae he has. That's the best kind, you know.

She has some pretty direct experience on the topic, yes.

And kissable, she is also definitely kissable.

He gets warmer. There's something - not quite right about it, not quite human, not quite alive - but that is definitely an approximation of body heat going on there.

Ooh she suspects she knows why that might be. This seems like an occasion for even more enthusiastic kisses.

She is right! She is right about why that is!

Excellent.

He keeps the wings, since she likes them so much, but he changes them to soft black owl feathers. And he kisses her and fills her lungs with vampire mist and keeps it there the whole time, touching her lifeforce without taking from it.

It's amazing.

Afterward he cuddles her close and drapes a wing over her like a blanket.

"You cheat," she giggles, sounding almost drunk on the aftereffects of intense pleasure, "in all the best possible ways."

"I'm so glad you approve!"

"It feels so good."

"I like making you feel good."

"Good because you're really good at it." Smooch!

Ee!

"You're so pretty. Prettiest corpse ever."

Giggle. "I'm a very pretty corpse, it's true."

He can have so many kisses.

Good! He's fond of those!

Good.

"Now I'm kind of curious when the last time you got laid was before me."

"...why?"

"You seem kind of skin-hungry is all."

"The last time I had sex and the last time I snuggled someone who wanted to snuggle me are... different times. By a lot."

"Fair enough. So when was the latter?"

"...I'm not sure."

"Aww, you're a lonely little presumed-rapist, aren't you," she says, petting his hair.

...he laughs. "What?"

"Do you have, like, friends. Besides me."

"No."

"And skin hunger and the look on your face when you said you weren't sure--you seem really lonely." Hug. "Well. I'll just have to see what I can do about that."

"Thanks."

Snuggle. "I like you."

"I like you too." Kiss.

Kiss. "You're so good to me."

"Am I?"

"You rescued me from my parents' house and the sex is amazing and the books are fantastic."

"Well. I'm glad you like it here."

"I do!" Snuggle.

He beams and kisses her.

Kiss.

Mmmmmmm she's so cozy and gooooood.

Cozy and good and snuggable and kissable.

Yes!! Those things!!

"So," she says after a moment. "You said you liked watching?"

"Mm?"

"You liked watching, so you didn't intervene."

"Oh. Yes."

"Tell me about it?"

"...about...?"

"What you liked about it. How you behaved as a result of liking it."