The Night

“Have you finally come to kill me, dove? Or shall we skip to the part of the night I know you'd prefer?” The vampire stood across the way, toying with her as he wiped its bloody mouth on the back of his hand and spoke with a smile on his fresh pink lips. The hunter held her crossbow tight in her sweaty hand, aiming at the back of her most wanted prize. A vampire as ancient and wise as the books she browsed in the sacred library, researching the vicious monsters he called his kin. Too long. She'd put this off for too long.

“I’m not under your spell anymore, you have no power over me” Her voice was steady, even as her head screamed it was a lie. Pushing through the shivers that ran down her spine as he slowly turned to face her, the face of beauty and elegance that never failed to make her heart turn at its sight. The wind picked up through the alley way they stood within, the old town quiet in slumber at this midnight hour. It was only them who were awake, a hunter and prey, a last stand.

“Is that what you're telling yourself? The boorish excuse as to why you wish to kiss me? Touch me? Let me touch you?” He spoke with an unconvinced tone before sharing a smile that made his green eyes flash under the moonlight “I cast a spell on you? How ordinarily boring, dove” He paced closer, a prowl in his step, a predator's stalk as he let his eyes graze her, devouring every inch. The hunter almost wished she had worn something different, that her corset was less suffocating as it hugged her waist, that her dress was loose and did not cause her to break a sweat under his stare.

“Yes” The only word she could conjure, feeling weaker than she had before he had spoken, had looked at her as he did now.

“This charade has been going on for too long to know that is simply not true” His voice dropped an octave, his playfulness dropping and his eyes met her amber gaze with a light she chose to ignore before, but now it was too hard to simply look away from, not as she felt her arm quiver with the weight of the weapon, as if her own body was begging for her to put it down.

“I have to kill you” Words felt weak on her tongue, but they were laced with the truth.

“I know” He simply said, words unspoken left hanging between them. So much to say and yet no words could gather the immense thoughts spiraling both their minds, and she hated as each memory they shared clouded her vision, her mission. She held strong despite everything telling her not to. The vampire moved closer, no caution in his step, no sense of danger, as if he truly knew how this night would end, like it had ended every night before, an unsuccessful kill and a night of vehemence and passion.

Too long she let him take her, swoon her and make her wish he was anything but what he was, a killer and someone she should hate, not let cloud her mind every waking hour. Too many nights did she let the words shared between them hold dear to her heart, let him lead her to places that made her smile and let him kiss her lips as if they simply belonged to him. She tried to ignore how they sang for him now as he stood there with that effortless beauty.

His dark hair swept over his moonlit skin, no blemish or imperfection against the pale complexion and she couldn't help but wonder to those lips, knowing he was looking at her own. She knew he too was thinking about the taste, remembering every sweet sound that escaped them in their nights of bliss. In truth, the hunter knew that it was not his own power that made her feel these immoral feelings, it was the lack of her own. Her weak mind, her relentless heart that had her perform acts of sin with utter joy. The feeling of pure electricity, that made her want to do it again right now.

As if he could hear her thoughts, he inched forward, placing his large fingers at the tip of the crossbow and placing it against his chest, where his frozen heart lay beneath.

“What are you doing?” It was all she could manage to say, coming out in a whispering breath, cold air escaping her lips as she spoke. The vampire looked only at her face and said “Making your wish come true” A soft voice, as low and breathy as her own, as if the moon could hear the words they exchanged. The hunter did not know what to say to his words, his actions, the monster that right now looked like an angel with his eyes alight and his skin glowing. The vampire's face gave a whisper of a smile, as if it would will her to share one too, seeing her face fill we dread at the sight at the end of the arrow and where it resided.

“You think it is my wish to kill you” She stated, rather than questioning.

“I know it is, my dove. '' He only spoke back, without hesitation. The hunter knew deep down he was wrong, for it was not a wish to kill him but it was something she had to do. He was a murderer, one who went from town to town, tormenting the inoccent and taking the lives of many and she was the fool who followed him, every night chancing that she will someday have his heart. She supposed now she did, looking at the way he gave it to her, with a stake against it. Willing her to take it all.

“I don't know anymore” She felt her skin grow cold as a tear slid from her eye, unsure why the tears started to flee, whether it was the fear of her own life or his. He reached up, a hand so soft that when it graced her cheek to wipe an escaping tear, she leaned into the touch.

“Don't cry, my dove” His soothing words didn't help her emotions as she felt herself crumble within, as if her own heart had given out at the thoughts that raced her mind, ones she could no longer call nonsense and useless. Lies her body was creating to put off the inevitable truth, that she too would give her heart to him. Willingly and unquestionably.

“I have to kill you, I can't let you live” Her words felt wrong, as they spat out her mouth with tears flowing along with them, but she knew it was right, that she had to end his life. She was a hunter, one trained to take the lives of ruthless and unnatural killers such as himself and it was her own fault that she had let him get too close, let those moonlit nights of pleasure and sweetness distract her, even as badly as she wanted to fall into his lips again, she knew she couldn't.

“I know” He spoke, not moving from his position, but his eyes flickered to her lips with a look of yearning, as if his emotions were parallel of her own. The hunter paused, her head finding a moment of clarity and she lowered her weapon, watching his face as she did so, and placed it on the ground between them. The feeling between the two sparked and she moved closer, until she could smell his familiar scent of rose and until his hands had reached to hold her face within them. They stood there for a moment, the wind blowing, causing her dress to wrap around their conjoined bodies, as if the night had been hoping for them to meet as it had willed every night.

“You’re as beautiful as the day you first tried to take my heart” His words a call she couldn't help but answer and the hunter let her body lead as she crashed her lips into his. They were cold as they always were, as if waiting for her own to warm them up. He moaned with such tenderness and held her tighter, deepening the kiss with a passionate pull around her waist that made her head spin, grateful his strong arms were there to catch the swoon. They became one in that alley way, their bodies in sync, in rhythm, in sweet blissful music, as they neglect their lives to their own hearts desires. He lifted her, holding her in his arms and leading her against the wall, fire burning in her chest that she wondered if it lit his soul as she let herself devour him. He met her neck, and she smiled at the feeling, but she did not punish herself for her weakness as she had once done, for this night was not a night of weakness but the first night she had truly felt strong, her head clear.

He clawed at her dress, pulling the skirt away so his hands could roam her shivering thighs, but did not let them rise higher, not tonight.

The night swept them into its hands, and she felt her body ignite with each kiss of devotion and each touch of gentleness, letting herself melt into his arms like they belonged to her. They did belong to her. He was hers and she was all his. Hearts of one.

They stopped, pulling away with breathlessness, even his perfect skin seemed to have deepened a shade of pink and she smiled at how beautiful he looked, how alive.

“My dove” A pet name she once detested, now she couldn't bear to hear anyone other than him speak it, as they could not say it as he does, with his heart laying clean along the cursive word. She knew what it meant, knew it held the words that they couldn't speak out loud. Two creatures who could only truly be as one in the shadows if they wished to share it, never a moment under the sun could be seen. They belonged solely to the night. As did the words they could never speak, only ever feel. As they felt now.

“I know” The hunter said, a mimic of the words she wished to speak hidden there and as his green eyes turned to sorrow and joy all at once, she knew he heard them.

I love you.

She hesitated, her thoughts at pause as those unspoken words filled the space between the two of them, as he lowered her, never looking away from her face, those words drifting to the gap between their chests, where their two hearts stitched to one with the threads of each letter. He held her then and time had truly stopped, even the winds howl was silent as they embraced each other under the stars that ceased to blink, but only shine. The hunter wondered if she would ever feel like this again, if her life had planned to meet her match in a man she would call a monster, had he not smiled at her the way he had when they first met. When she stood over him with a knife to his chest and all he did was smile. It was the first time she had understood all the stories she had heard, all the movement in songs that before were empty, suddenly filled her body with a tune she recognized. Even then, she knew if he had simply asked, she wouldn't kill him. If he asked, she would leave with him, forget it all and never dare to look back. If he asked.

But he never did, never in those nights they shared, never in her countless attempts to end his immortal existence, did he so much as inch to it. As if he too knew it was not possible, it was not what was to become of them. They had those nights and that would forever be theirs, that is what was given to them and they had lived it, together. The night now slowly faded, the sky lightning as the sun awakened, slowly but surely. The night was at its end.

The vampire did not let go, the hunter did not either, not wanting to leave just yet. Not as the moon still slept in the sky, casting their shadows as one, their bodies belonging to those shadows, a colliding of two souls who would fade with them as the sun swept it away.

He didn't move as she let her hand drift to her cloak, he didn't move even as the sword gleaming bright against the moon shone as she held it up against his back. The hunter did not dare move as she inched it to where his heart would be, connected with her own as they stayed wrapped up within each other. The blade lifted and only then did they move, peering at each other with nothing but love. Because that was what connected their souls and moved the nights that they made their own. Love was what made the moon shine on them as it did now and the stars sing with each tune their bodies lulled. Even as the blade furrowed between the both of them, through his back and out hers, they could only smile.

“My love” her only words, words that swept them to the shadows, to their end. And in the night hour, two souls become one, truly and honestly, one. A single heart beating till it didn't. Till all there were, was the night.