Darkness Falls

All copyright stuff applies because this is my story. Donate to Nifty. I would love to hear what you think at Pedogirllover@gmail.com

Darkness Falls

Susan's eyes fluttered in the darkness. She was lying on a floor somewhere and her head was killing her. She brought her hand up and winced in pain as she felt the bruise on her forehead. Her breaths coming deep and slow, she tried to get up; rolling onto her side and pushing up with her arm, but it was too much and she slipped back down with a choked cry. The pain was too much. Opening her eyes and looking about, all she saw was darkness with a faint light that seemed to come through a doorway. Closing her eyes again, she tried to remember what happened.

"Just one more ride!", Stacy begged.

"I have to be up at six-thirty tomorrow", Susan protested.

"So do I", Stacy reminded her.

"Yea, but you already finished grading your papers. I haven't."

"AAAgghh! Ok...I'll see you tomorrow", Stacy conceded.

Susan Swann and Stacy had known each other since they first met at the University of Texas, where they were both majoring in Applied Learning and Development. Four years later, they graduated and were both hired on at Webb Middle School. Stacy taught writing and Susan taught sixth-grade science.

Now twelve years later, they were always together. Stacy had gotten married soon after graduating, but Susan had never managed to find someone wonderful like Stacy had. Compared to Stacy, she was plain and a little chubby. Her shyness and being an introvert kept her from going out and was always a hindrance to being able to make friends. No one wanted to hang out with her outside of school, except Stacy, her only friend. When Megan, another 6th grade teacher, had gotten engaged, she had gone around to all the other teachers showing off her engagement ring, but never to Susan. Susan knew that Megan didn't have any ill-feelings towards her, but it was simply that she, along with everyone else, simply forgot that she was there. It was like she was invisible.

That was why she valued Stacy's friendship so much; because Stacy was the only one that actually cared and wanted to spend time with her. She jumped at every chance to hang out with Stacy, but Stacy's husband and kids often came first so that Susan spent many nights alone, watching other couples enviously who had someone. Now at thirty-five, it seemed that no one would ever be attracted to her and that she was destined to be alone the rest of her life. This was all too clear because she had never actually "been" with anyone. She had had a boyfriend in high school, but it didn't last long. Neither of them had really been attracted to the other and although they had made out a few times, that's as far as it went. So, a thirty-five year-old virgin with no boyfriend, no friends (except Stacy), and no life.

It was no wonder that when Stacy had invited her to the carnival, she jumped at the chance. She valued every second that she had with Stacy because she was her only company. But as the night grew later, she knew that she had to get back home. Although she wanted to stay, she had papers to grade and that always took too long.

"Do you need a ride home?", Stacy asked.

Susan looked in the direction of her apartment and replied, "No, I'll be okay."

"You sure? You know how scared you get."

Susan smiled in agreement, "I'm sure. It's just five minutes. Besides, I need the exercise."

Hugging Stacy goodbye and waving to her husband Greg, Susan turned and walked along the dark, empty streets, the warm night air feeling good on her skin. Normally, she never went out at night. Being very timid, she was scared of everything. But, it was so nice out here. She looked up at the full moon through the bare tree branches and marveled at its beauty. It was so bright and she was able to see the grey and white areas on it. She used to know which one of the grey areas was the Sea of Tranquility and...

"Wha're you doin out here all alone?", a voice slurred. Susan turned suddenly towards the voice. A haggard, disheveled man was leaning against the wall in front of her. Flinching, she stepped away to go around, when he also stepped in front of her, blocking her path. Suddenly coming to a stop, she turned around to go back and was startled to see a second man directly in front of her.

"My friend asked you a question." Susan tried to run, but he grabbed her arms. "Hey Earl, it looks like we got a wild one here." Susan pulled out her phone and opened her mouth to call for help, but a hand clamped over her mouth from behind.

They started pulling her when Earl cried out in pain, "OWW....FUCK!! SHE BIT MY HAND!" He smashed his fist against her head, causing her to drop her phone. "YOU FUCKIN BITCH!!"

Reeling from the blow, she felt herself being thrown towards the wall. Smacking her head against it, she collapsed on the ground. As she tried to get up, she felt a blow to her stomach and suddenly couldn't breathe. Dazed and gasping for breath, she felt herself being dragged along the ground. Her vision a blur, she tried to get up.

"Stop moving, bitch!" as she was shoved back down, smacking her head on the concrete. Blinded for a few seconds, the blurriness in her eyes cleared and she saw the wild-eyed man leering down at her maliciously. The other man beside him held her arms down with one hand while covering her mouth with his other hand. "Now if you'll cooperate, you may live to see tomorrow", the man on top of her sneered. Holding up a knife in front of her face, her eyes grew wide with terror. "Ohhh yesss...I'm going to enjoy you", he promised her. He proceeded to tear her dress open, then slipped the knife under her bra, cutting it open. Roughly grasping her breast, he grinned at the other man.

Staring at the knife in his hand, Susan froze in fear. Trembling, tears ran down her face as she wondered if she would survive this. Then...something caught Susan's eye, a movement in the darkness. Just behind the man. A small, black form creeping silently towards him, on all fours like an animal, then it disappeared from view behind him.

Seconds later, a face sprang up behind the man's shoulder and sank it's teeth into the side of his neck. He began screaming as his throat was ripped open, spraying blood across Susan. The other man gaped in fear than quickly staggered up onto his feet and began running. The creature raised up, blood dripping from it's mouth as it snarled at him, then dropping the lifeless body it was holding, it swiftly bounded after the fleeing man on all fours before springing onto his back and tearing open his neck. The man fell down, screaming hysterically for a few seconds and struggling wildly, then was silent.

In shock, Susan watched as it kneeled down, its face buried in the man's fallen body. Though in a lot of pain, Susan tried to get up, but couldn't focus through the haze in her eyes. Turning to look at the creature, she watched in horror as it stood up and began walking back toward her. Panicking, Susan tried get up...and then everything slowly faded to black as she lost consciousness.

Susan awoke. Gasping as she remembered the two men and the creature, she reared up, desperate to flee. But suddenly feeling dizzy, she fell back, panting for breath. Looking around wildly, she saw that there was only darkness. After several seconds, there was a faint light off to one side, illuminating a room that she was in. She was laying on the floor in a small carpeted, empty room.

She slowly raised up, her head still hurting. Grasping her forehead, she winced at the pain and looked around. Her dizziness seemed to be gone. Carefully getting up, she stumbled to the open doorway and looked out to behold a large empty warehouse before her; not just empty, but long abandoned. Where she had been laying was once an office. At a loss as to where she was, she slowly walked out into the cavernous warehouse. It was huge; bigger than a football field and completely empty. She looked all around and could only see one door that seemed to lead out.

Complete silence. At one time, this place was full of life with people and things moving, now it was dead and still. No sounds. No movement....

Something moved behind one of the steel columns in the middle of the floor. Susan stared at it in fright, wondering what it was. Then the small, pale face of a little girl peered at her from behind it. A little girl?! In a place like this in the middle of the night?! She walked towards the girl, calling out, "Hello. What are you doing here?"

Half hidden in the darkness, the girl didn't answer. Susan slowly came around the column trying not to scare her. "What's your name?", she quietly asked.

Still no answer. The girl, who appeared to be no older than the sixth-graders that Susan taught, continued to stare curiously at her as Susan came around the column. She was dressed in a dirty, torn blue t-shirt and jeans with shoulder-length dark hair. She looked homeless. No longer afraid by her surroundings, Susan's attention was completely on this girl. "What's your name?", Susan repeated.

"Elena."

"I'm Susan. What are you doing here?"

"Watching you", the girl replied.

Susan slowly asked her, "Do you know how I got here?"

"I brought you here."

Susan was stunned by this and looked at her silently. "How...Why did you bring me here?"

"You were hurt."

Susan felt goose bumps on her skin as she remembered what happened. Her mouth dry, she slowly asked, "Were...were you there?!"

Elena didn't say anything.

"What were you doing there?"

The girl answered in a low voice, "I was feeding."

"You were...what?" Then in Susan's memory, she remembered the face that appeared over the man's shoulder, biting his neck and spraying blood out. The face looked...like a girl. A girl that now stood before her. She blinked a few times.

Susan gasped, "That...That was you?! What the hell were you doing?!"

Elena said quietly, "I was hungry and needed to eat."

"You were hungry?!", Susan choked, "What the hell are you?!"

"I'm a vampire."

"A what?!", Susan asked, not believing what she just heard.

"A vampire", the girl replied calmly.

Susan asked, "You're not serious?!" Elena nodded. "You mean fangs and drinking blood?" Elena nodded again. "Elena, I'm not in the mood for jokes. Vampires aren't real."

"We are real."

"We?", Susan's eyebrows raised.

"There are others."

Susan sighed and told her, "Okay, look. I was dizzy and don't know what I saw, but it wasn't a vampire. I'm tired, my head is killing me and I need to figure out how to get back home."

"You don't believe me?", Elena asked.

"No. I don't believe in vampires or werewolves or Frankenstein. Now, I need to go home", Susan turned away and began walking towards the door, "And you need to go home too." She turned around to face her, "Your parents must be worri..."

The words died in her mouth. Elena wasn't there. She was gone; as if she had never existed. Susan looked all around; turning slowly in a circle. There was no place that Elena could have gone in the emptiness of the warehouse. Not the darkened office, not out the door, nowhere. In the silence, Susan suddenly felt chills go down her spine. "Okaaayy...This is getting creepy", she muttered. Looking all around one more time, she turned to head back toward the door...

"AIIGGHH...", she shrieked.

Elena was standing right in front of her, her lips slightly parted, exposing the two fangs hanging down half an inch. "Do you believe me now?"

Two days ago.

"Come on, Susan", Stacy begged, "It'll be fun! Everyone says this movie is really cool."

"I don't like horror movies."

"You're such a pussy! It's not scary", Stacy teased her.

"They are to me. There's already enough sickos and violence in the world", Susan told her emphatically, "I don't understand why you would want to watch such a thing."

"It's not real!..."

This was real. Susan's breaths started coming in gasps. The combination of the pain throbbing in her head along with the realization of something standing before her that used to only exist in horror movies overwhelmed her to the point that she suddenly felt light-headed. Susan stepped back, staring wide-eyed at the girl.

"I won't hurt you", Elena told her, "Please don't be afraid of me!"

She continued stepping back, keeping her eyes on Elena fearfully.

"Please don't go! I'm not gonna hurt you!", Elena beseeched her.

Susan paused, then asked "You won't hurt me?"

"No."

Suddenly feeling faint, Susan said, "I think I'm going to throw up." Seeing a couple of pallets stacked on top of each other nearby, she quickly went over and sat down, hunched over and breathing shallowly.

Elena asked, "Are you alright?"

Hunched over, she wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes. She took a few deep breaths to keep from vomiting.

Elena quietly told her, "I'm not the monster that books and movies portray me as."

Susan looked at her fearfully, "I saw what you did to those men!"

"I saw what those men did to you", Elena replied quietly.

Susan thought back to the men holding her down. It came back to her...being hit and held down, staring at the knife in his hand. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut, she drew in a shuddering breath as she remembered wondering if she was going to die.

She heard Elena's voice quietly in her ear, "Who is the monster? Me or them?"

Susan raised up her head to look at Elena and was shocked to see that she was still standing where she was, about twenty feet away. Distracted by how she did that, she had to admit that the little girl didn't seem...well, evil. She had saved her after all. Wringing her hands nervously, Susan asked, "How did you get to be this way? I mean...how did you become...", she took a deep breath, still not believing she was talking to, "...a vampire?"

Elena came over and sat down beside her. "I grew in a village called Tsenovgrad, in the Balkans. It doesn't exist anymore. Life was completely different back then; harder, more uncertain. Back then, everyone believed in various monsters. But to me, they were just tall tales that the superstitious and children told each other. I didn't believe any of them, though some of my friends did. Anyways, I was eleven years old when the plague came."

"Plague?", Susan wondered, "I don't remember seeing anything on the news about a plague."

Elena looked at her, "You wouldn't remember because it happened hundreds of years ago. It was the Black Death."

"Hundreds of years ago?!", Susan interrupted, "But you're only eleven."

"Actually...I'm almost 700 years old", Elena explained.

Susan's eyes and mouth dropped open as she felt a chill come over her and exclaimed, "700 years?!" to which Elena nodded. Susan stared off into space for several seconds trying to visualize this.

Elena continued, "Nobody in my village had heard of the plague until it was too late. Every day, more people died. Their bodies were carried outside the village and burned. My mother eventually got it and then my brothers and sisters. They got sicker and sicker and I wondered when I too would get it. Soon, they were gone. I carried their bodies outside the village to the pit where we burned them. For awhile, I thought that maybe I had been spared, but I had not. I knew it was just a matter of days, but I did not fear death anymore. After being surrounded by it, it was just another fact of life. Being alone, without my family, I almost welcomed it."

"Finally, it got to be that I was too weak to get out of bed and I could barely breathe. I knew it wouldn't be long before I would join my family in the afterlife, so I waited for the end." Susan wiped her eyes. "That night, a dark shape, like a shadow, appeared beside me. It looked like a ruddy, bloated man. It asked me if I wanted to live. Before, I thought that there was no choice. Now, this dark stranger was giving me a choice...and I took it. It leaned over me and I felt it biting me on the neck. I don't remember anything after that."

"When I woke up, the dark man was gone and I didn't feel sick anymore. In fact, I never felt as good as I did. I was somehow stronger, faster. But in the morning when I tried to go outside, the sun burned my skin as if I had been set on fire. I learned that I couldn't go out in the sun anymore. I had to wait for it to be night to go out."

Elena looked down at the ground as she whispered, "I was also hungry." She paused, then continued, "I had gone a full day without eating. I tried to eat some of the vegetables that we had in our garden, but they tasted awful and I had to spit them out. We also had some chickens. I killed one and tried cooking some of the meat, but it was like the vegetables, I threw it up. That's when I noticed the rest of the chicken with the blood in it. I tried some of the meat raw and I found out that I was able to take the blood as food, but it didn't taste very good. Over the next several days, I learned that I was no longer able to eat food anymore, but could only sustain myself by drinking the blood from our chickens. And if I went too long without drinking it, I would get weaker and weaker."

"Everything changed one night when a thief broke into my house. When he saw me, he came at me thinking I was alone. I fought back and easily killed him. Afterwards, I looked at his blood on my hands and licked it." Elena paused then said, "It was better than the chicken blood. Much better. In fact, it was delicious. I drank more of his blood. It filled me and made me feel..." She paused again, "It made me feel so good, almost giddy. I kept drinking it till I couldn't hold anymore."

Elena turned her head away from Susan so she couldn't see her face, "I changed that night. I no longer wanted chickens. I wanted people. But I didn't want to hurt anyone and so I had to learn to control my thirst."

Susan said, "How can you drink another person's blood?!"

Elena replied, "I have to. I need to eat, the same as you. Most of the time, I'm able to do it without killing anyone. Are you able to eat without killing plants or animals?"

Susan thought for several seconds before admitting, "No,...but it's not the same! What you do, it's...it's a curse and immoral."

"This thing that I am may seem immoral, but life before it was much worse. Every day was a constant struggle to fend off disease, starvation and evil people who wished to harm you. You had no control over your life. There was no medicine, no police, no cell phones, no social services,...nothing! It was up to fate whether you lived or died! Now, I am in control! Fate has no hold over me! This curse, as you call it, is not a curse at all. It saved me from the plague and from the man who tried to hurt me. And it has saved me hundreds of times from those who wanted to harm me because they thought I was a defenseless little girl."

Staring intensely at Susan and in a rebuking tone, Elena told her in a low, quiet voice, "You have no idea what it's like to have your life be in the hands of someone else...or do you?" Susan stared back blankly, condemned by her words. Elena asked, "Do you regret my saving you?"

"No", Susan whispered, shaking her head sadly and wiping her eyes. She felt nauseas as she realized that something this vile,...a parasite even, had saved her life because of what she was. If you had something that could keep you safe...from disease or accidents or evil people...well, how could that be a curse? Thinking back earlier, to the alley, as she was held down with her life in the hands of someone else, she realized that she too would have done anything to be safe. "I'm sorry....", she mumbled quietly.

Elena looked down sadly, "I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to be so stern. It's just...I've been feared and hated for centuries. I can't help who I am. In the past, I have feared people as much as they've feared me. That's how I came to America. In the eighteenth century, a mass panic over vampires in eastern Europe drove me from my village. People began hunting us down and even went as far as digging up graves of people who recently died and staking them through the heart. I had to head west, traveling at night and sleeping in caves during the day so I wouldn't be discovered."

They were silent for a few seconds, then Susan asked, "Where do you live now?"

"Here", Elena looked about the warehouse, "I've been here for the last two years. Before, I was at a closed textile plant, but they started tearing it down so I moved here."

"You live here?!", Susan asked, looking around at the dirty emptiness.

"Yes."

"But it's so dirty", Susan exclaimed, "and there's...nothing. No furniture...nothing..." As Susan looked around at the warehouse, she found her heart going out to this girl...despite what she was, "Don't you have any friends that you can stay with?"

She shook her head, "I don't have any human friends because of the whole stigma against vampires. And vampires are kinda solitary. We don't live together."

Susan's eyes felt heavy as the lateness of the evening began to take its toll. Noticing that it was probably really late and needing to get home, she stood up. She had lost her phone when the men grabbed her so she didn't know what time it was and she couldn't call anybody. "I need to go home and get some sleep." She walked toward the door, leading outside, with Elena trailing her. Opening the door, she saw a dark, empty parking lot surrounded by the silhouettes of trees and buildings. Still fearful, Susan was reluctant to leave and hesitated.

Feeling something touch her hand, she looked down. Elena smiled up at her, "I can walk you home if you like."

Susan smiled weakly and nodded. "Thank you. I'm already afraid of the dark and after what happened earlier...." She looked around the parking lot and with Elena by her side, she stepped out into the night and moved forward across the parking lot.

As they walked along, Elena asked, "What do you do?"

"I'm a teacher. I teach 6th grade science." Coming to a road and recognizing it, she now knew where she was. It was a closed down factory near her apartment. She began walking along the road, which was as silent and empty as the warehouse. She looked up at the sky and again saw the moon with its white and grey patches. Seeing this, she asked, "Do you miss the sun?"

"Yes", Elena answered sadly, "I can't remember what it's like anymore."

They walked along for a while and then Susan asked something she had been wondering for awhile, "Elena...why did you tell me all this; about you being a vampire?"

Elena didn't answer right away and when she did, her voice was sad and distant, "I left the human world when the dark man brought me into the night. I further stopped being human when I began to feed on people." Elena looked up into the black sky, "Since then, the night has made me...do things. Things that I have regretted."

"Humans and vampires have always had a mutual hate and disgust for each other", Elena's voice became more upbeat and hopeful, "but there has been a movement in the vampire community about integrating with and living in peace among humans. Not everyone wants it, but many do, although we still have to hide what we are. There are too many unaccepting people in the world. This is something that I've wanted for a very long time. I want to be able to talk to and interact with people like I used to before I was turned...I want to have a friend. A few decades ago, I began mainstreaming." Susan looked at her with a confused look. "It's another word for mixing with humans. I go into places where people are, such as a store, and I just hang out and talked to them. I love how it makes me feel...like I am one of them again. Then when I get hungry, I leave and go look for a stray dog or...", Elena saw Susan's shocked look and told her, "I have to eat. It's either an animal or a person. Animal blood can nourish me, except it doesn't taste as good."

"So...you've been feeding on dogs all this time?", Susan asked, her face wrinkling in disgust.

"And other animals, most of the time", Elena answered dejectedly, "Sometimes I can't find one, so I have to search the alleys for a homeless person that is passed out. I don't kill them, I just take a little blood from them as they sleep. They aren't even aware of me doing it."

Susan winced as she imagined Elena in a dark alley, kneeling over a sleeping man, blood running down her cheeks as he quietly bled into her mouth. Susan asked nervously, "What do you do if you can't find an animal or a homeless person?"

"Then I have to hunt as I've always done."

"People?!", Susan stared at her horrified, "How can you do something like that?!"

Elena looked down as she quietly said, "The night has its price. I'll never grow old and I'll never die...", she looked up at Susan, "but I must feed. I try to do it without hurting anyone."

They continued walking in silence until they came to Susan's apartment. As they approached, Susan found herself in a bit of a quandary. Over the past half-hour, she had actually found that she had grown really close to this little vampire girl. Elena wasn't just a vampire; she was also a little girl and she was nice. Someone that could be a friend to her. She hated the idea of Elena having to live in a dingy, dismal warehouse, especially since she wanted a friend too. And Susan knew how it felt to desperately want a friend. Susan was so desperately lonely herself that she was willing to give someone like Elena a chance.

After walking up to the door, Elena smiled, "I'm glad I met you Susan. I hope I'll see you again later." She turned and walked away.

Susan watched her leaving and then reached out through her loneliness and concern. "Elena?" Elena stopped and turned back. "Would you maybe...want to spend the night here...with me?"

Elena walked back, "Why?"

"I just...don't you to have to live in that warehouse, especially when you're wanting to have a friend", Susan smiled weakly, "I hardly have any friends myself and it would be nice to have company."

"Why would you trust me?"

"Because of everything you've told me."

Elena thought for a while, then said, "If I were to spend the night here, I would have to leave early to get back to the warehouse."

"If you want to, you could sleep here during the day while I'm at work, except...", then she asked questioningly, "Do you need a coffin to sleep in?"

Elena smiled as she said, "We don't sleep in coffins. That's just a myth. In the past, people thought that people who recently died became vampires and with that 1931 Dracula movie, people thought that we all slept in coffins. I just need someplace away from the sun."

Pulling her key from her pocket, Susan opened the door. She turned on the lamp nearby, revealing a small kitchen and living room. "It's small but you'll have your own room to sleep in and you can watch TV." She looked at the clock. 12:13. "Ugh...", she groaned. Just over six hours before she had to get up. Turning back to Elena, she closed the door and saw for the first time how pale she was. `So that's what happens when you don't get any sun', she thought.

Walking towards the second bedroom that she used as a storage closet, Susan told her, "I have to be up at six-thirty, so I need to go to bed now, but this is where you can sleep." When she reached the doorway, she saw that Elena was still standing back out in the living room, just inside the door leading outside and staring apprehensively at the kitchen.

"Elena...", Susan walked towards her, "What is it?"

"Could you put that away?", she whispered apprehensively, pointing at something just out of sight on the wall.

Confused, Susan walked over to see what Elena was pointing at. As she rounded the corner, she saw what it was. A cross hanging on the wall that her dad gave to her when she moved in. Susan looked at Elena and saw her staring intensely, almost fearfully at it. Her confusion turning into nervousness, Susan slowly and quietly mumbled, "Okaaayyy...", then went over and took the cross off the wall and took it to her room. Just before she entered her bedroom, she looked back at Elena and saw that she had walked further into the living room, no longer afraid. As Susan walked towards her closet to put it on the shelf, she stopped mid-stride and after thinking for a few seconds, she went over to the nightstand beside her bed and laid it down within easy reach. Coming back out, she asked, "Do you have any clothes or things?"

"Not really", Elena simply said.

"You mean, that's...", looking at the worn, dirty clothes she was wearing, "what you wear everyday?"

"I wash my clothes at the laundromat and I also search the clothes donation bins that are around town for new clothes."

"Ok. We'll have to remedy that. The bathroom is over here", Susan pointed to a door in the hall, "Oh, I just remembered I don't have a toothbrush for you. I'll have to get one."

"I don't get cavities."

Susan stared at her for a few seconds, then said, "Well, you still need to clean your mouth. I don't even want to imagine what your breath smells like." She walked in the second bedroom and moved some boxes off of the bed onto the floor. "You can sleep here. What time do you go to bed?"

"About seven in the morning", Elena replied as she went to the window and touched the curtain covering the window, "Do you have another curtain that's thicker than this?"

"Lemme see", Susan looked inside the closet, moving blankets aside and looking inside boxes. "Nooo...I have this blanket. Let me try hanging it up." She carried a dark blue blanket to the window and carefully draped it across the curtain rod, then tucked the sides in. Elena inspected the sides. "Will that work?", Susan asked.

"Yea, I think so. It can't let any light in." Looking around, Elena saw a large dresser with a tall mirror attached to it. "Is it okay if I move that in front of the window?"

"Yes, of course, except it's really heavy. I can't even budge it myself. My dad and brother had to put it there."

Elena walked over and stood in front of it, then as Susan watched, she grasped either end and easily picked it up, causing Susan to gasp in surprise, then she carried it over to the window and set it down so that the window was blocked.

It took a few seconds for Susan to find her voice, "H-how did you lift that by yourself?", to which Elena smiled shyly at her. Susan told her, "Well, okay,...I need to go to bed now. Would you like to watch TV or something?"

"Yes, thank you."

As Susan walked into the living room to turn on the TV, she caught a glimpse of Elena behind her in the mirror hanging on the wall. "Hey, I can see you in the mirror! I thought vampires didn't reflect in mirrors."

"That's another myth from that Dracula movie."

"Really? What other things are myths?", Susan asked surprised.

"I can't turn into a bat. That's from the Dracula movie too. In Twilight, the vampires were able to go into the sun and all that happened was that they sparkled." Sighing, she added, "I wish that was all that would happen to me if I were to go out into the sun."

"So, you don't like crosses or the sun. What else do you not like?"

"Silver, garlic, being staked and decapitated."

"I don't like being staked or decapitated either", Susan said jokingly. She went to the couch and handed Elena the remote, then stood there, looking at Elena, slightly smiling. "Are you ok?", Elena asked.

"Yes. It's just everything that's happened...being attacked, meeting you, then I go and invite you to spend the night", she chuckled nervously, "I hope I'm not losing it."

"I don't want you to be uncomfortable", Elena told her, "I can leave."

"No. You need a decent place to stay and I know you're good." She took a deep breath, then said, "Good night." Remembering that she still hadn't graded her papers, she sighed. She'll do it tomorrow. "If you need anything, be sure to tell me."

"Okay." As Susan turned to go into her bedroom, Elena called out, "Susan..." Susan stopped and turned. "Thank you for letting me stay here...and for trusting me. You don't know how much it means to me. No one has ever trusted me before."

Susan smiled, "You're welcome."

Susan went into her bedroom and closed the door. Going to her chest of drawers, she pulled out her nightgown and began getting undressed. A vampire!', she thought eerily, I actually have a real, live vampire with me! No one's ever going to believe this.' She couldn't wait to tell Stacy. `She won't believe this, but I'll bring her over and show her...' Suddenly Susan imagined Stacy telling others. And then people calling the police. The police coming over during the day when Elena was vulnerable. The news picking up the story, making her out to be a killer....Susan froze, staring off into space. She couldn't tell Stacy. She couldn't tell anyone.

She went into the bathroom and was stopped in her tracks by what she saw in the mirror. As the bloody, bruised reflection looked back at her, she cringed lightly touching the bruises on her face. It was a stark reminder of what had happened. Going over to turn on the shower, she undressed and stepped into it. After showering and brushing her teeth, she finally slipped on her nightgown and crawled into bed. She thought she wouldn't be able to sleep at all because of everything that happened, but ten minutes later, she was asleep.

Elena looked at the remote control as she tried out the various buttons. Though she had watched TV many times, she had never used a remote control or had a TV of her own for that matter, since she never lived anywhere that had a TV. She flipped through the channels for the first time and was amazed at the kinds of shows that were on. After about an hour, she had grown bored and turned it off. Rising off the couch, she walked around the small apartment and looked at the various things that Susan had: family pictures, books, CDs and DVDs. She seemed a quiet, simple woman and judging by her books and DVDs, she loved history and science.

As Elena looked around, the reality of having a comfortable place to sleep sank in. No one had ever willingly let her stay with them in their house before. Willingly...', she thought. There had been times..., when she was still feral, when she had simply taken what she wanted because she could. But, that was in the past. I'm not that way anymore', she reminded herself. Elena was grateful beyond words of what Susan had given her. Susan hadn't just given her a comfortable place to sleep in, she had given Elena her trust. For this, Elena was eternally grateful. It gave her hope of being able to mainstream with people.

A mother and father sleeping soundly in their room. Down the hall, a very young girl, perhaps five years old was also asleep, unaware of the window sliding up silently. A small black shape crawled noiselessly through the open window and along the floor, towards the bed. Susan's breathing quickened. She watched in horror as the black shape rose up above the little girl, it's eyes a dark red and fangs glistening in the dark. Susan tried to call out, to wake the little girl and warn her, but no sound came out. Her cries were as silent as the malevolent shape that knelt over the sleeping girl as it plunged it's fangs into her neck. As blood sprayed out and ran down the sleeping girl's neck in rivulets, Susan could only watch as the dark shape glanced up and looked at her, snarling. Leaping over the girl and onto Susan, it knocked her to the floor. Unable to move, Susan cried out as she clearly saw Elena's enraged face, just before she opened her mouth wide and plunged her fangs into Susan's own neck. Susan screamed...

...as she jerked up in bed. Her eyes opened wide as her breaths came in gasps, she looked around wildly, but there was nothing there. It was just her room. Still breathing hard, she stared at her door. Quickly snatching the cross on the nightstand, she got out of bed. Trying not to make a sound, she slowly and quietly walked to the door and opened it, then stepped out into the hall, tip-toeing slowly towards the living room so she could peek around the corner at the couch.

Elena was reading a book and looked up at her in surprise, then seeing the scared look on Susan's, her face became concerned as she laid down the book, "Susan...what's wrong?"

Susan didn't answer, but instead stared at Elena in fear. The dream had scared her so much, reminding her as to what Elena was. She backed away.

Elena rose up in concern, "Susan?..."

Susan kept backing away. The concern on Elena's face slowly replaced with sadness as she recognized the fear in Susan's eyes. The same fear that she had seen many times before on others who only saw her as a murderous monster. She looked down, saying quietly, "I'm sorry...I never wanted to frighten you." Turning, she went to the door, opened it and left, closing the door behind her.

Susan stared at the closed door, half scared, half relieved. She quickly went over and locked the door, then feeling faint, she went over to the couch and fell into it. Leaning her head back, she tried to calm down. Spying the book that Elena had been reading, she picked it up and looked at it. Strictly No Elephants. It was a book that she had in her classroom and though it was aimed at elementary age children, she loved it. It was about a boy's pet elephant that wasn't allowed in a club simply because it was different from all the other pets. The story was about accepting everyone, no matter how different they are.

`This is not the same. The elephant isn't some dangerous predator that kills people', she told her guilty conscious.

`She tries not to harm anyone', her conscious told her.

`She doesn't have to drink blood. Why can't she be normal like the rest of us?!', she retorted.

`*Why can't Matthew be normal like the rest of us. You remember Matthew...the boy in your class who is mentally disabled because of fetal alcohol syndrome?' *

`It's not his fault that he was born that way.'

`It's not her fault that she was made that way.'

`But she's dangerous. What is she going to do when she gets hungry?!', she argued.

`She told you that she seeks out animals instead of people.'

`She also told me that when she can't find an animal, she goes after people. I know I told her she could stay, but...she can't. What if she was just pretending so that she could...'

`Like transgender people are just pretending when they want to use the appropriate restroom.'

`God, I hate my conscious!'

Susan couldn't think of anything to say. Her reasons, though seemingly rational, were just as prejudiced as the club in Strictly No Elephants. Elena had put her faith in her just as much as she had in Elena. She had always thought that she could accept anyone who was good.

Was Elena good...or dangerous? She heard Elena's voice in her head: `I want to be able to talk to and interact with people like I used to before I was turned...I want to have a friend.'

Susan bit her lower lip, as again, Elena's voice spoke to her: `Why would you trust someone like me?'

Susan mouthed the answer that she had given Elena, `Because of everything you've told me.'

She got up and ran to her bedroom. Looking at the cross in her hand, she quickly put it on the shelf in the back of her closet. Quickly pulling off her nightgown, she threw on her clothes and grabbed her keys as she ran out the door. Looking quickly all around, she couldn't see anyone, so she began the long trek towards the warehouse. She didn't know if Elena would be there but she didn't know where else to look.

She walked quickly, the attack still fresh in her mind. More wary of her surroundings, she constantly looked around for any sign of danger as well as Elena. Fifteen minutes later, she was walking through the door and inside the warehouse.

"Elena!" Her call echoed like an explosion in the stillness. She listen and looked all around, but couldn't see anything. "Elena, are you here?" Still nothing. Turning slowly in a circle, not knowing where to face, she continued, "I'm sorry. I...had a bad dream and it scared me. This is all new to me. I mean...I don't know you and you're not supposed to be real anyways. All I know is what everyone says about vampires."

She walked towards the darkness of the office that she was in, but halfway there, her fear of the darkness within immobilized her. "I'm sorry!", she called out to the emptiness, "I didn't mean to...Please answer me!" Her hopes sank as she whispered, "You probably hate me."

"I don't hate you", a small voice came from behind her.

Susan shrieked. Quickly turning, she saw Elena right behind her. "Elena...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...say that you're....I had a really awful dream and I was scared."

"I know", Elena said quietly, "I don't want you to be scared of me. That's why I left." Elena looked into Susan's eyes, "I would never hurt you. I'm trusting you with my life during the daytime so please trust me with yours."

"I get scared really easily", Susan explained, "My friend Stacy is always teasing me about it."

"You don't need to be."

Susan nodded. Looking around at the emptiness, she asked, "Where were you when I was calling?"

"Up there", Elena pointed up at the steel support beam that ran along the ceiling some forty feet above them.

Susan's eyes widened, "How did you get up there?!"

"Like this." Elena jumped up onto a nearby steel support column that ran from the floor to the ceiling, and began quickly climbing up it by pulling herself up with her hands. In a matter of seconds, she crawled out onto the narrow ledge that ran the length of the ceiling. If Susan hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she never would have believed it. She was almost out of sight unless you were looking directly at her. Then to Susan's horror, she dropped off the ledge and plummeted to the ground. Susan's hands flew up to her mouth in horror, but Elena landing unharmed on her feet.

Once she recovered from her shock, Susan said, "Okay, I really need to go to bed. Elena, will you come back with me?"

"Yes."

They walked back, Susan much more comfortable with having Elena by her side in the dark. And when Susan finally went to bed, no dreams haunted her.

BEEP...BEEP...BEEP

Susan's eyes slowly opened. She looked at the clock. 6:30. "Uugh...", she groaned, reaching over to turn off the alarm before resting her hand on her forehead. She laid there for a minute, exhausted. `What kept me up so late?', she wondered. Elena! Susan's eyes flew open and she quickly got out of bed. Going to the closet and getting her bathrobe, she wrapped it around herself before opening the door and stepping out into the hall. Upon walking into the living room, she saw Elena reading a book.

Elena looked at her and smiled as she walked in, "Hi. Did you sleep well?"

Susan smiled, "Yes...no more bad dreams. How was your night?"

"Good. I've never been able to watch TV that much. But now, after looking through all the channels, there really isn't anything good on it."

"There's a few channels that I like", Susan said, "MeTV and COZI because they have really old TV shows from the sixties, seventies and eighties." Susan wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling out a frozen sausage and egg biscuit sandwich. Looking across the counter, she asked, "Can I make you anything?"

"No, thanks."

Susan put the sandwich in the microwave, set the timer and while it was defrosting it, she poured herself some orange juice. "Is blood all you can eat?", she asked.

"Yea, food makes me throw up", Elena replied, "It's why vampires are so hated, though we really don't have a choice."

Susan went over to check her shoulder bag that she carried her school work in and put the homework papers that she had meant to grade, inside it. The microwave beeped, telling her the sandwich was ready. She went over and pulled it out, then brought it and her orange juice over to the couch and sat down beside Elena.

"What are you reading?", she asked.

"The Prince and the Pauper"

"What do you think of it?"

"It's kinda what we're doing", Elena said, "Learning about each other's life, except we're doing it together."

"I never thought about it that way, but I guess we are learning about each other. I'm sure learning about vampires anyways."

Elena yawned, "Now *I *need to go to bed." She stood up and walked to the bookshelf, placing the book back in its spot, then walking back to Susan. "I'll be asleep till sunset. But don't worry about having to be quiet. I'm a deep sleeper. It's part of the package. I'll see you tonight."

"Goodnight...I mean uh...good day, I guess", Susan snickered. Elena smiled and went into her room, closing the door behind her. Susan finished her breakfast, thinking about the little vampire girl sleeping in the spare bedroom. When she finished, she took a shower, got dressed and left for work.

As she headed out of the parking lot, she drove in the direction of the street where she was attacked. She saw several police cars up ahead and an area marked off by yellow police tape and white sheets covering two bodies on the ground. As she slowly drove past, the sight became surreal as the memory of what happen returned. It really did happen. Those men really did attack her. And now, they were dead. She didn't know how to feel. Elena had brutally murdered them. But at the same time, she had saved her life by doing so.

That afternoon after school had let out, Susan walked through the door of her apartment at about 4:30, dropping her shoulder bag on the table by the door. She was exhausted. She had only had about five and a half hours of sleep last night and had to work through lunch grading the papers that she hadn't been able to get to. Curious to see if Elena was still asleep, she walked over to her room and slowly opened the door. The room was pitch black, faintly illuminated only by the light coming through the door. She could see Elena, her eyes closed and breathing really fast, several times faster than normal. It was like she was hyperventilating. It seemed so strange for a person to sleep like that, but then again, she wasn't really human anyways.

Closing the door again, Susan went over to the couch and dropped onto it. She was so tired. She closed her eyes, thinking how good she was going to sleep tonight. After a while, she opened her eyes and something in her peripheral vision caught her attention. Turning to see, she jumped in surprise. Elena was sitting at the end of the couch, her legs pulled up, watching her.

"Elena?! What are you doing here?! It's still daylight!"

"No, it's not", Elena replied, ""It's been dark for almost half an hour."

Susan's eyes grew big as she looked at the clock. Sure enough, it was just past seven o'clock. Stretching her arms, she asked, "Have you been watching me all this time?" Elena smiled and nodded. Noticing her clothes, Susan remembered, "Oh yea...We need to get you some new clothes...and a toothbrush." Standing up, she went to her purse, then remembered something very important. Turning to Elena with a concerned expression, she asked, "Do you uh...need to eat first?"

"I'm not hungry right now. I'll feed later."

"Okay...", Susan quietly mumbled to herself, her eyes shifting nervously.

Standing, Elena assured her, "Please don't worry."

Susan gave a slight smile, "Okay." Grabbing her purse, she asked, "Are you ready to go?"

"Mmm-hmm"

They went to Susan's car and drove to Highland Mall. Walking inside the JC Penny's store, they went down the escalator and turned to the right where the children's department was. When they got to the girls' clothing section, Susan stopped and told her, "Go pick some clothes that you like."

To Susan's surprise, Elena left the girls' section that they were in and instead went to the boys' section. Susan followed curiously. Going to where the jeans were, Elena went past the blue and grey jeans stuffed in the bins to the black jeans along the back wall. As she began holding the black jeans to her waist to see how they fit, Susan finally had to ask, "Why are you looking here instead of in the girls' clothes."

"Girl clothes are easily torn. That's why I don't wear dresses, just jeans, because they're more durable. I'm not looking for fashionable, but practical."

Not understanding, Susan asked, "Why would a dress get torn up?"

"When I'm hunting. If I'm trying to bring down something big, like a deer, they sometimes struggle a lot and a dress would get torn up. And I need it to be black so I can't be seen in the dark and also because it hides any blood that gets on me."

"Okay, I don't want to hear any more!", Susan quickly interrupted as she began to feel nauseous.

Elena grabbed three pairs of black jeans and carried them to where the shirts were. Like the jeans, she only looked at dark colored T-shirts and picked out several. "Is this too many?", she asked.

"No. Is there anything else...", Susan looked her shoes, "How about some panties and some shoes?"

Elena looked at her dirty, ragged shoes, "I guess I could use some new ones." She went and picked out a package of plain white cotton panties, then they went to the shoe department and as with her clothes, she chose black tennis shoes as well as some black socks.

Susan told her, "These aren't exactly flattering. You don't look pretty."

"I'm not trying to look pretty", Elena explained, "They're more like...work clothes." They took everything to a register and laid it down on the counter. The cashier gave them a funny look, seeing how everything was black.

"It's for Halloween", Susan tried to explain.

After Susan had paid for everything and they were walking away, Elena smiled up at her, "Imagine if you had told her the real reason."

"I would have been too mortified to. I'm still trying to accept it myself."

As they were walking back towards the escalator, Elena looked at her, "Thank you for getting these for me Susan. Everything you've done,...it means the world to me. No one has ever..."

Suddenly Elena drew in a sharp breath and stopped, an intense look on her face and then she began walking away from the escalator that they were heading towards, while looking at it apprehensively and frowning. Walking up to her, Susan asked, "Where are you going?"

"Towards the escalator, but I can't go past that jewelry counter."

"Why not?", Susan asked.

"Some of those necklaces have crosses on them."

Susan looked at the jewelry counter, still several feet away. Elena kept a wide distance from the jewelry until they got onto the escalator. Elena glared down at the displays of necklaces below as they rode up. Susan asked, "You sure don't like crosses. Why can't you go near them?"

"I just can't. This feeling of dread comes over me."

"They make you afraid?", Susan asked.

"It's a mix of hate and fear", Elena said quietly, "It's kinda hard to explain why. I can't stand even being close to one. It gives me this harsh feeling, you know, kinda like the feeling you get when someone runs their fingernails across a chalkboard. Like that, only a lot stronger. If it touches me, it will burn really bad."

"Wow. No wonder people think that vampires are evil", Susan muttered under her breath, then to Elena, "I'm not saying you are. It's just that it makes you seem like...I don't know, like the anti-Christ."

"I know. That and our diet certainly hasn't helped our reputation", Elena explained, then she smiled up at Susan, "It's why I'm so grateful to you for seeing me for who I am instead of what I am."

Susan sighed, "So, us going to my church together this Sunday evening is pretty much out of the question?"

Elena smiled remorsefully, saying quietly, "Sorry."

Susan remembered that she needed to get a new phone since she lost hers during the attack last night. So, they went to the T-Mobile store and she picked one out. As they headed out of the store, Elena asked, "Were you wanting me to spend the night again?"

Susan looked at her, "I would like you to. I only have one friend whom I don't see that much. It's nice having someone to talk to and be with."

Elena agreed, "My sentiments too."

After they left the mall, Susan stopped by the HEB grocery store to get a toothbrush for Elena and a few groceries for herself, then they went back to the apartment.

After getting back, Elena went to her room to put her new clothes away in the chest of drawers near the closet. After her shirts and pants were put up, leaving out one pair of jeans and a shirt, she pulled off her old jeans, shirt and panties, and threw them on the floor. Opening the package of panties, she happily looked at how clean and white they were. Her old ones, though she washed them regularly at the laundromat, were kind of dingy from being stained with blood.

As this was happening, Susan, passing by on her way to the bathroom, caught sight of Elena standing naked. Without meaning to or even realizing it, she stopped and stared, mesmerized by the sight of this naked young girl standing not ten feet from her. There was something about Elena's pale supple skin, the smoothness of her slender bottom, the slight bulge of her breasts. She couldn't quite see her nipple....

Suddenly Elena turned around and saw Susan staring at her. Upon being caught, Susan furiously blushed and quickly went into the bathroom and closed the door. She sat on the toilet to pee and think about what just happened. Why was she staring at Elena like that? Not just staring, but leering. She wasn't gay and certainly wasn't attracted to kids. So what was it then? She remembered Elena's pale smooth body. Her cute little bottom...'STOP IT!', she told herself, "Why am I doing this?!'

Susan stood, flushed the toilet and walked out into the hallway, wondering if she should apologize to Elena for staring. As she passed by her room, Elena had just pulled her shirt over her head and was turning around. Covered completely in black, she looked part of a nighttime commando unit.

Elena told her. "I need to go out...."

"Ooh", Susan whispered, then said, "You mean you need to...?"

Elena nodded. Suddenly, the thought of this little girl killing some poor animal erased all thoughts of lust from her mind. "Please try to find an animal."

"I will", Elena assured her as she walked out of her room.

"And try not to hurt it."

"Okay." Elena turned and smiled meekly at Susan's concerned look as she open the door.

"Oh wait!", Susan suddenly called out. She went to the kitchen and opened a drawer, pulling out a key. "Here. In case it's really late and I'm asleep when you get back."

Elena smiled, "Thank you", then she opened the door and left.

As she walked across the parking lot, Elena smiled to herself at Susan's concerns for animals. She knew how kind-hearted Susan was, only wanting the best. Elena too was once as kind and gentle as Susan, back when she was human. But, that was centuries ago. She had quickly learned that if you want to feed, then you must be ruthless, hunting and killing your prey as quickly as possible. If that meant breaking its leg so it couldn't run, then so be it. If you didn't put aside your concern for its well-being, you didn't feed.

She quickly jogged to the field that was nearby, then beyond it into the woods. Moving silently, she scanned the darkness for movement or sounds. She had better night vision than humans so that the woods weren't nearly so dark. Not seeing anything, she continued slowly forward. After a few minutes, she suddenly leapt up onto one of the tree trunks, then quickly pulled herself up about a dozen feet off the ground and waited. Several seconds later, she looked down and watched as a hare scampered along below, then paused to nibble at something. Elena let go of the trunk, dropping down on top of the hare and snatching before it knew what happened. It squeaked furiously, but Elena went to work; quickly pulling off its head and flinging it aside, then holding it over her mouth, and squeezing the limp, furry body, so that a few trickles of blood poured into her mouth. Half a minute later, she gave it one last squeeze to make sure she got it all, then she dropped it and continued on. Unfortunately, a single hare didn't have enough blood to quench her thirst. She needed another.

A few minutes later, she heard a slight noise, but it wasn't an animal. Much too vocal. It was a person. She quietly headed towards the sound, not because it was a meal, but because she recognized it and wanted to watch. Soon, she came upon a young man and woman intertwined together. The man was laying on top of the woman, their hands groping each other as they frantically kissed.

She remembered Susan looking at her when she was changing clothes. Although Susan had been embarrassed by it, Elena liked it. There was something about Susan that she was attracted to. Her kindness, concern for others, her quiet demeanor and above all, her acceptance. That alone attracted Elena. As she continued to watch the young couple, she thought of Susan staring at her and liked it.

As silently as she crept in, Elena backed away, leaving the couple to their fervor. Shortly afterward, she managed to find another hare and with her thirst satisfied, she headed back to the apartment.

It was almost nine when Elena unlocked the door with her key. Susan looked up from eating her dinner on the couch to see Elena walking in, several spots of dried blood around her mouth and on her neck. Upon seeing the concerned look on Susan's face, Elena quickly told her, "Two hares. And they didn't suffer."

Susan smiled faintly, "I suppose it's better than people. I know you need to eat...and when I think about it, my food is no different than yours except that it's been processed so I don't realized it was once a living, breathing creature."

Walking to her, Elena asked, "Is it okay if I take a shower?"

"Of course. You don't need to ask me that?", Susan smirked, "Do your clothes need washing?"

Looking at her shirt, Elena told her, "It's only a few drops of blood."

"Then it needs washing. Let me find a basket for you to put it in." Susan got off the couch and went to her room to see if she had an extra basket in her closet. After digging through her stuff, she finally found one. She was carrying it into Elena's room just as Elena was pulling her shirt over her head. Susan's eyes automatically drifted down to Elena's tiny breasts, which because Elena perpetually had the body of an eleven year-old, were just buds.

As soon as the shirt came off her head, Elena saw Susan gazing at her. She slowly lowered her arms, holding on to her shirt in one hand, not wanting to alarm Susan into leaving, then...she just stood there, letting Susan admire her.

After several seconds, Susan came to with a jerk. Aware of how she had been openly gawking at this child, she quietly mumbled, "I'm sorry", dropped the basket on the bed, then quickly left the room. Elena followed her to the doorway, but Susan seemed unwilling to talk. With her mind on this, Elena finished getting undressed, grabbed her towel and went into the bathroom for her shower.

After her shower, she put on a clean pair of panties and shirt, then went into the living room to see what Susan was doing. She was sitting on the far end of the sofa, grading papers. Elena perched on the opposite end, her wet black hair hanging over her shoulder and her legs drawn up, facing her. Susan seemed to be really tense.

Wondering how she could put Susan's mind at ease, she asked, "Watcha doing?" She knew perfectly well what she was doing, but was simply trying to engage her.

"Oh, I'm just grading papers", she hastily said without even looking at her.

"Do you need any help?", she asked.

"No", Susan quietly replied.

Biting her lip for a few seconds, Elena said, "Susan...I didn't mind you looking at me."

Lowering the paper in her hand but keeping her eyes staring straight ahead at nothing, Susan murmured, "I shouldn't have done that."

"Why not?"

"Because...it was wrong."

"What was wrong about it?", Elena asked.

"Because you're a child", Susan, angry at herself, raised her voice more than she intended, "And I shouldn't be looking at you like that."

"I'm not a child", Elena retorted, "I'm older than the Renaissance!"

Susan shot a hurt look over at Elena, then slowly she looked back at the paper in her hand.

Susan was visibly upset and Elena didn't want to push things further than they already were, so she sat quietly for a few minutes. Not knowing what else to do, she went over to the book shelf to find something to read. After browsing several of the books, one caught her eye. A Tale of Two Cities. She took it off the shelf, looking at it. She had never read it, but she knew what it was about. Personally knew. She had lived through it when she lived in Paris briefly during the late eighteenth century after leaving the Balkans. With the chaos going on throughout the city, she had a seemingly endless supply of food. As well as a fitting home below the streets in the catacombs, surrounded by the remains of millions of Paris' former inhabitants.

That was a bad time for her,...when she had given in to the bloodlust and was completely feral. Being surrounded by death, both in the streets above and in the necropolis below, fueled her bloodlust so that she no longer looked for animals, just people. And it didn't matter who they were. They were all food for her.

The bloodlust controlled her like a drug, until one night it pushed her too far. She had been walking along an alleyway, looking for someone alone when she came upon a homeless family out on the street, clustered around a fire for warmth as they shared a few small potatoes for supper. She silently crept up closer and from the alleyway, she saw a small boy, perhaps five years old standing among them. She got his attention and motioned him to come, holding out a piece of bread to entice him. Hungry, but cautious, he came over and when he was within reach, she grabbed his arm, quickly pulling him in and before he could let out a cry, she had ripped his throat open. Picking up his body and holding it aloft so that his blood poured into her mouth, she didn't just drink it, she guzzled it and let it rain down upon her. Hearing his mother calling his name, she dropped his corpse and ran deeper into the alleyway. Stopping to peer back, she watched as the mother happened upon him and screamed. The father came running and fell upon his knees at the sight of his son's lifeless body. As Elena watched the boy's parents crying hysterically, for the first time, she saw what she had become, a monster. In every sense of the word. Looking down at her bloody hands, she regretted what she had done and what she had become.

Several hours later, she was deep in the hold of a ship headed for a country that wasn't relatively new, but it was to her. She had to get away from the place that Paris had become. She needed to get away from death and this life as a predator hunting humans for food. In this new country that she was headed to, America, she would start over and try to forget.

Elena put the book back and kept browsing until she saw Captains Courageous. Bringing it over to the couch, she opened it to the first page as Susan continued staring at her papers.

Susan had been staring at the homework in her hand for too long. She had told Elena that she was grading papers, but what she was really doing was replaying seeing her naked body in her mind as she wondered about this sudden fascination with her. Am I a pervert?', she asked herself worriedly, Though she is older than the Renaissance as she says, her body is still a child's. This is the second time that I've done this! Why do I like looking at her?' No matter how much she pondered, she couldn't figure it out. She knew she would never try to touch her inappropriately, but she shouldn't be having these thoughts to begin with anyway. She was a sixth-grade teacher, for crying out loud,...with a class full of kids!

After about an hour, Susan grew tired. She and Elena had not spoken to each other since their little argument and Susan didn't want to go to bed with hurt feelings between them. "Elena...I didn't mean to be upset with you earlier. It's just that I should not have been looking at you that way. I don't know why I did it and I'm sorry."

Elena set her book down and turned to her, "You didn't do anything to be sorry for. I wanted you to look at me...I liked it."

Susan quietly mulled this over, then said quietly, "I still should not have been looking at you like that. You're my guest and I should be treating you like one", Susan stood up, "It may not bother you, but it bothers me."

"But...", Elena began.

"Please...", Susan pleaded, "...I don't want to talk about it any more and I need to go to bed"

"Okay", Elena whispered disappointedly. Susan walked slowly down the hall to her room. "Good night", Elena called out reassuringly.

Susan turned and smiled weakly, "Good night", then she continued to her room with Elena's eyes following her.

For several minutes, Susan layed awake in bed, trying to reconcile her thoughts. At first, she told herself that all she was doing was looking, but then she realized that she didn't want to just look, she also wanted to touch her. After a long struggle, she finally had to admit that she was sexually attracted to Elena. That was a very hard thing to admit, but there was no denying it. She tried to think of why she was, but could only come up with that it was because she was so lonely that she had attached herself to the first person that wanted to spend some time with her.

She really is beautiful', she thought to herself, Especially the way her dark hair hangs down over one shoulder. And her skin...it's so smooth and...well, youthful. Not like mine.' She looked at her arms. And it's not like I'm wanting to take advantage of her to make her do something she doesn't want.' She sighed. For what it is, this seems to be something we both want.' Also, there was something else about her. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Not able to figure out what it could be, she turned over and went to sleep.

In the living room, Elena was trying to follow Harvey's coming of age in Captains Courageous, but she kept thinking back to how Susan was looking at her...and how much she enjoyed it. If only Susan wasn't hung up on her age. Feeling depressed, she laid down the book and wondered what to do. One thing about being a solitary vampire is that there wasn't much to do after feeding. All the stores were closed, the bars wouldn't let her in because she looked too young and nobody was out because they were all asleep.

She turned on the TV to see what was on. As she was going through the channels, she recognized the show, True Blood. One of the episodes from the first season. It was still a soap opera like every other vampire show, with the vampires being unrealistic in unrealistic situations. Being a vampire wasn't as exciting as TV shows made them out to be. The truth was that they were no different than people. There was no stereotypical vampire. They were all different just like people are all different. Some were boring, other's exciting; some were good, others evil. Elena considered herself the same as most other vampires. Simply trying to survive. Trying to find food at night and trying not to be discovered during the day, when you were completely vulnerable and could be easily killed.

These shows always glamorized vampires, either as suave and alluring,...or as powerful and dangerous. Well, the powerful and dangerous part was right, but not as powerful as a lot of the shows made them out to be. As a vampire, you couldn't come into a house unless invited, you're frighten by crosses, you're completely helpless during the daytime....

But what really hurt the most...what TV shows hardly showed...is how it was more difficult to feed if you didn't want to hurt anyone. And there was also the bloodlust. That uncontrollable urge that sometimes happened if you weren't careful to stay in control. That was the worst thing for Elena, when she would lose control and the bloodlust would take over. She had been under it's spell many times and she always hated it. It was detestable as well as her biggest fear.

Susan got out of bed and went into the living room. On the couch, Elena was sprawled on her back, completely naked, her head resting on top of her arm and her legs slightly askewed as she watched TV. Susan froze in mid-stride, hardly believing the sight before her. She gawked at her pale, nude body. She couldn't help it. Elena's body drew her in so that she just kept looking at it. Elena's buds stood up, her nipples a bright pink color. Her hand casually brushing along the bald slit at the V between her legs. As she stared, Elena slowly turned her head from the TV to face Susan and smiled. Sitting up, she held her arms outward, welcoming her. Everything became a blur as Susan's legs moved slowly forward on their own, towards the couch. Reaching it, she sat down as Elena slid up to her, gently taking one of her hands and placing it on her breast. Her breathing was quick and shallow as Elena, smiling seductively, slightly raised her mouth up and placed it upon Susan's.

Her eyes remained open as she continued to stare in complete disbelief that this was actually happening. But as she became aware of Elena's small, smooth body beneath her hands, they began roaming; slightly at first, then all over as her lust grew into a frenzy. She began kissing Elena more aggressively as her hand moved down to grip Elena's smooth, soft vulva....

BEEP...BEEP...BEEP

Susan awoke in her bed and opened her eyes. She stared at the ceiling as she realized it had been a dream. After reaching over to shut off the alarm, she fell back, looking back at the ceiling as she muttered, "What the hell is wrong with me!"

It had been so real. She just had to see, so getting out of bed, she went to the living room. Elena was laying down on the couch, watching TV, and completely clothed. When she saw Susan looking at her, she smiled.

"Good morning", Susan said shyly.

"Good morning", Elena echoed cheerfully. She didn't seemed to have any bad feelings towards her from last night. "Did you need something?", Elena asked.

"No...no, I was just checking on you."

Sighing softly to herself, she went to the bathroom to pee and shower. She wondered if she should continue last night's conversation with Elena, except that she didn't know how to do it. The dream certainly didn't help matters. In fact, it made it worse. There was no doubt that she was attracted to Elena sexually. `But why?' Realizing that she was a pedophile scared her. Did this make her a predator, the same as Elena? She didn't know, and that was probably what frightened her the worst.

After her shower, she got dressed and went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Taking out two biscuit sandwiches, she remembered that Elena couldn't eat food. Returning one back to the box, she popped the other one into the microwave and set the timer. She went over to her shoulder bag to make sure that her homework papers were there, then she went to get her sandwich from the microwave which just finished. Bringing the sandwich and a glass of orange juice to the couch, she sat beside Elena. "Have you been watching TV all night?", she asked.

"Yea, there's really nothing to do outside because everything's closed and everyone's asleep."

Susan finished her sandwich as Elena began yawning and looking tired. Susan asked, "You need to go to bed now?"

Elena smiled sleepily, "Yea."

"Is your bed comfortable? Do you need another pillow?"

"No, it's fine."

Elena got up as Susan told her, "Have a good night...I mean uh, sleep." Elena smiled and replied, "Have a good day at school." Then she went to her room and closed the door. Susan stood up, grabbed her shoulder bag and went to work.

After school let out, Susan walked into her apartment. After laying down her bag and purse, she gave into her curiosity and peeked into Elena's room. It was fascinating to watch Elena's rapid breathing. It made her look like she was possessed or something. Susan quietly pulled the door closed, then went to her room to change into something more comfortable.

Going to the fridge, she wondered what she could have for supper. Looking at the uninteresting things sitting on the shelves, she suddenly had a thought. "We could go to The Magic Time Machine", she wondered aloud. She never ate out because she didn't like going places alone. It was too depressing and only reminded her of how lonely she was. She closed the fridge. The Magic Time Machine was a theme restaurant south of the river. The waiters dressed like super-heroes, pirates and cartoon characters, the arcade was lit by black lights so white clothing glowed in the dark and there were all sorts of interesting things to look at. She had heard plenty of stories about it from her students and always wanted to go, but didn't want to go alone. With Elena, she could finally go and...

She suddenly stopped. Damn, she just remembered that Elena wouldn't be able to eat there. She couldn't drag Elena there just so Elena could watch her eat. Susan's brow creased as she thought if there was any other reason for Elena to go. There was the arcade, but she probably wasn't interested in games. Susan only had a vague idea of some of the things that decorated the place, none of which she was sure that Elena would like. She sighed. As soon as it looked likely that she would be able to go somewhere, suddenly it looks like she would be spending another boring evening at home. Well, at least she wouldn't be lonely.

She opened the fridge again, sighing a second time disappointedly. Nothing looked good so she closed it, poured herself a glass of wine, then went to her bag to get out her homework papers. Sitting down on the couch, she picked up the first one.

She had just finished her grading when Elena walking in, looking tired and with her hair tousled. Only wearing a t-shirt, she smiled when she saw Susan and came over, falling onto the couch sleepily. "Hi", she grinned at Susan.

Susan smiled back, "Hello. You look tired."

"I just woke up."

"What do you usually do at night? I mean, when you're not...um, feeding", Susan asked.

"Well, for the last few decades, I've been trying to hang out with people. Talk to them. Make friends. It's kinda hard, because at night, most people are either in a bar that I'm not allowed in or at a store and they're too busy shopping to wanna talk." She brushed aside a lock of hair that had fallen across her face. "It's actually pretty lonely", she remarked.

"I was wondering earlier if you would like to go to this restaurant called The Magic Time Machine. I've heard all kinds of really cool stories about it and I've been dying to go."

"I would love to go", Elena replied.

Susan beamed happily, "Oh, I'm so glad you do. I know you can't eat there, so are you okay with me wanting to eat there? Do you want to feed first?" She was getting more comfortable mentioning the word "feeding".

"No, I'm fine."

Susan smiled, "Oh good. I...really don't have any friends myself, except for Stacy. And I don't see her that much so there's all these places I want to go to but I don't have anyone to go with." Susan stopped then said, "I guess I'm rambling."

Elena smiled, "It's okay." She got up and went to her room to get dressed. Susan's eyes were glued to her tiny butt as she walked away, then when she realized what she was doing, she silently chastised herself.

Susan grabbed her purse and waited as Elena came out, still looking like a commando going out on a night-time raid, or maybe a Goth girl. Yea, she looked like a Goth girl with her black clothes and pale skin. Susan smiled to herself, then she opened the door and they left.

Pulling up into the parking lot, they both got out and walked inside. "Wow", Susan exclaimed. It was impressive. There were all kinds of crazy decorations on the walls and the waiters really were dressed up as different fictional characters. She saw a pirate, Indiana Jones and Snow White.

"How many is in your party?", the hostess asked them.

"Two", Susan replied then they followed her as she led them to a small booth along the wall. She handed them two menus, then asked, "Would you like something to drink?"

"Water", they both replied.

"Okay, your waitress will be Snow White and she'll be here shortly."

Susan looked at the menu while Elena looked around, watching what other people were doing. Soon their waitress, Snow White came over, "Hi. I'm Snow White and I'll..." Suddenly, Elena scrambled back in the booth against the wall, glaring angrily at her. Both Snow White's and Susan's eyes and mouth dropped open as they watched Elena, trying to push herself back as far as she could from the waitress.

"Elena?! What's wrong?!", Susan gasped.

"Get that away from me!", she whispered fiercely, her eyes narrowing at Snow White.

Dumbfounded, Susan asked, "What?!", then as she looked at where Elena was looking at Snow White, her eyes focused on Snow White's necklace, with its cross attached. "Ooh...uh, ma'am...I'm sorry, but she...doesn't like crosses. Could you put it away, please?"

Her eyes bigger than dinner plates, Snow White looked first at Susan then back at Elena, who continued to glare at her. Then, she reached back, unhooked her necklace and slipped it in to her pocket. At once, Elena calmed down and slowly lowered herself back into her seat as she released her breath and began breathing again. Still staring at the waitress suspiciously, she slowly slid back towards the center of her seat as both Susan and Snow White watched, unsure of what she might do next. To Susan, this sight beat anything else the restaurant had to offer.

When Snow White finally was able to find her voice, she asked nervously, "A-are you ready to order?"

"Uh...yea", Susan said, still staring at Elena who seemed absolutely mortified by what just happened and was looking down at her lap. "I'll have the chicken alfredo and a Time Machine Tea." Snow White looked apprehensively at Elena, who didn't even look at her, but continued looking down at her lap silently, her face a pink color as she blushed. When Snow White asked, "Ma'am?...", Elena simply shook her head faintly.

"She doesn't want anything", Susan told the waitress. Then, Snow White picked up their menus, saying, "I'll bring it out when it's ready", then she left.

Elena looked as if she was going to cry. "Elena?...Are you all right?", Susan asked.

Elena shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry", she whispered, "I-I couldn't help it." Laying her head in her hands, she said, "I am sooo embarrassed. I humiliated myself...and you! She's going to tell everyone that I'm some kind of freak."

"Elena...please don't beat yourself up", Susan tried to make her feel better, "It wasn't your fault. It's just that...thing you have with crosses"

Elena muttered angrily at herself, "It's hard enough for me to fit in already and then I go and do this!"

For the first time, Susan began to understand that it wasn't easy for Elena to assimilate into society. "I'm sorry, Elena. Please...try to enjoy the rest of the evening."

With her head resting in her hands, propped up on the table by her elbows, she stared at the table, grumbling, "Why do those damn crosses do that to me? Why can't I be normal?" She looked out at the restaurant, scanning the room till she saw their waitress at a register by the kitchen, talking to another waitress dressed as Cinderella. Elena groaned and looked back at the table.

"Elena...", Susan started then paused, as she tried to think of what to say, "I know you're embarrassed, but it doesn't change things to just mope around. We're here to have fun. And you want to be around people, right? So, let's just enjoy being here."

Elena, still staring at the table, sighed and said quietly, "Okay." She straightened up and half-heartedly smiled.

A few minutes later, Snow White brought Susan's chicken alfredo and tea over and set it on the table, all the while staring nervously at Elena. Elena tried to keep her eyes on Susan, but she kept glancing over at the waitress, just as nervous as she was. After the waitress left and Susan was able to engage Elena in conversation, Elena finally relaxed and began to enjoy being there.

"Susan!", a voice called out. Susan, her mouth half-full of chicken alfredo, looked up at the sound of her name and saw, to her surprise, Stacy coming over, with her husband and kids. "What are you doing here? I never expected to see you here."

Wiping her mouth with her napkin, Susan stared at Stacy, clearly not expecting to see her here either. After recovering from her surprise, she exclaimed, "Stacy!", then looking at her husband, Greg and the kids, five year-old son Michael and ten year-old daughter Julie, she thought, `Oh geez! The whole bunch is here.'

"So, who's your friend?", Stacy asked, looking at Elena.

Susan looked at Elena and faltered at what to say, "Oh she...uh, she's my cousin."

"Your cousin?"

"Yea, my cousin, Elena", Susan answered more confidently, "She's staying with me for a few days."

"Dad, can we go play some games?", Michael asked him.

"Sure", he handed some quarters to him and Julie.

"Did you want to play Hot Rod with us?", Julie asked Elena suddenly.

Elena, caught off guard, looked at Susan for a second then back at Julie and said, "Yea!". She started to slide out of her seat and then remembered that she didn't have any quarters. Looking back at Susan, she asked embarrassed, "Uh Susan, do you have a quarter that I could borrow?"

"Uh sure. Lemme look", Susan grabbed her purse and began fishing through it. Finding a few, she poured them into Elena's hand and then Elena followed Michael and Julie to the arcade. As Susan watched them go, she felt a twinge of nervousness, hoping that nothing would go wrong.

Stacy asked, "So, what's with all the black? And why is she so pale? Doesn't she get any sun?" As Susan tried to think of how to answer that, Stacy added, "I mean she looks like a vampire."

"Yeeaa...", Susan whispered uncomfortably to herself.

"So, did you enjoy yourself?", Susan asked Elena.

"Yea, I love Michael and Julie. They're so much fun."

They were in the car, driving back to the apartment. "I'm so glad you liked it. So did I. I never got to tell you...Stacy is my best friend. And till I met you, she was my only friend."

Elena looked at her, "Did you tell her about me."

Susan looked back at Elena, "No. She wouldn't believe me."

Pulling up to the apartment, they went inside. Susan looked at the clock, which read 10:03. "Ooh, it's getting late." She went over to the couch and collapsed on it. Elena followed, sitting next to her sideways so that she was facing Susan. Susan turned to look at Elena who was smiling at her, "What?"

Elena shrugged her shoulders, "I was just thinking how much fun I had." Her furrow creased into a scowl, "Well, that is until Snow White came."

"Yea", Susan's eyes raised, "That kinda scared me when you freaked out like that."

"Sorry", Elena smiled sheepishly, "Her cross kinda scared me."

"I had fun too", Susan said. Looking into Elena's eyes, Susan couldn't think of anything more to say and for several seconds, they just sat there, each subconsciously looking at the other's body. Elena gazing at Susan's ample breasts while Susan gazed at the less than ample bumps poking out of Elena's t-shirt.

Then, Susan became aware of what she was doing and glanced up to see Elena looking right at her. Knowing she had been caught yet again ogling her, she felt her face grow hot as she blushed and quickly stood up, saying, "I uh, need to go to bed now. I'll see you in the morning." Embarrassed, she quickly strode off to her room with Elena watching her as she left.

Alone in the living room, Elena was hungry, but for the first time, she wasn't thinking about feeding. She had watched Susan staring at her. She seemed to be as attracted to Elena as Elena was to her. After thinking about what she wanted and what Susan seem to want, Elena stood up and went to her room. She quickly got undressed and then went into the bathroom to take a shower.

In her bed, Susan had been trying to fall asleep but couldn't. She kept seeing Elena's cute face smiling at her, her buds poking through her shirt, her pale legs. She became aware of her hand sliding towards her vagina. She didn't mean to, it just happened. Moving the first three fingers slowly in a circle, she pressed down on her clit when she suddenly heard the door open.

She froze, quickly looking through the darkness of her room to the door as it closed. Suddenly anxious, she called out, "Elena?"

The bed squeaked as something pressed down on it. "It's me", Elena's voice came out of the dark.

"What's wrong?", Susan asked uneasily. She could feel the bed jostling as her pale form came closer and stopped right beside her. Susan looked at her sitting beside her in the dim light. There was something about the way she looked. Her clothes were too white. She reached her hand out towards Elena's chest and touched bare skin. "Are you naked?!" She felt the sheet being pulled back, then felt her breasts being gently grasped. "What are you doing?!", Susan asked fearfully.

"I've seen how you've looked at me." Elena's whisper sounded next to her ear, even though Elena was still upright beside her. "You can do more than just look."

"Elena...you shouldn't be doing this", Susan grasped Elena's hands.

"Why not", Elena answered, continuing to squeeze.

"Because..." Susan pulled her hands away from her breasts, "Because I shouldn't be having these thoughts about you."

"But I'm having thoughts about you too", Elena said, "I want to do this. How is it wrong?"

"We barely know each other."

"We trust each other with our lives."

Susan was running out of reasons for why they shouldn't do this. Elena layed down beside her. Susan turned to look at her, "Elena?"

"Yea."

"You really want to...for us to...make love?"

"Don't you?", Elena countered.

This made Susan think about what she really wanted. Susan bit her bottom lip while in thought, "But what will it mean for us? I mean we're friends, so if we do this...what will we be? Girlfriends?"

"I would like us to be."

"But I've never done this before. I don't know what to do", Susan told her worriedly.

"I'll show you."

Elena raised up and slowly leaned over. Susan stared wide-eyed as Elena came closer, thinking, Is she going to kiss me?' She pushed her head back into the pillow as Elena's lips pressed against hers. OhmyGod, she is kissing me!' As Elena's lips slowly caressed hers, Susan didn't move, partly out of shock and partly because she really didn't know what to do.

Elena pulled back and asked, "How was that?"

Susan thought for a few seconds, trying to put it into words and the only thing that came to mind was, "Nice."

Elena smiled as she leaned over and once again gently pressed her lips against Susan's. This time, it wasn't as shocking to Susan and she accepted it. Still not knowing what to do, she just layed still while Elena gently pinched her lips with her own and licked her lips. Then as Elena continued to kiss her, she began moving her lips slightly as she relaxed and let her feelings take over. Elena stretched out, laying her leg in between Susan's and laying partially on top of her.

Feeling Elena's body on top of hers, Susan slowly reached out with her hand and touched the bare skin of Elena's side. Her hand recoiled at first at the touch of her skin, still unsure as to whether this was right, but she reached out again. As her fingers felt Elena's body, they delicately traced along her contours ever so slowly. Coming to the swell of her bottom, her hand moved across and just inside her crack.

As she comprehended that her hand was on Elena's bare butt, that's when she gave into her lust and accepted what was happening. They were going to do it! They were actually going to have sex! Wrapping her other arm around Elena's back, she moaned as her breathing became heavier. Despite her limited experience in kissing, she went with her feelings and mouthed Elena's lips, trying to match what Elena was doing to her. Then Elena's lips moved away as she kissed her way down Susan's neck. Susan watched as Elena pulled her nightgown off her shoulder, exposing her left breast. Then as Susan watched, Elena leaned over and placed her mouth onto it.

"Oww!", Susan suddenly cried out as she jerked away in pain.

Elena swiftly pulled away, "I'm sorry!...I'm sorry! It's my stupid fangs!"

Seeing her worried look, Susan quickly told her, "I'm okay."

"I forgot about them", Elena said quietly.

"It didn't really hurt that much. It just surprised me." Susan felt sorry for Elena who was looking so remorseful. "Hey, uh...can I see them? Your fangs."

Elena looked surprised, "Really? You want to?"

Susan sniffed in embarrassment, nodding shyly. Elena smirked at her, then opened her mouth and raising her upper lip. Susan's eyes widened in astonishment, "Wooow...." In a whisper, she asked, "Can I...touch it?"

Elena suppressed a giggle at Susan's awe, "Sure!"

Susan reached out and gently poked the point of one of her fangs, then expressed, "Hey, you got fangs in your lower jaw also!"

Elena couldn't hold back her giggle at that comment, "I know."

Elena grasped Susan's breast again, then slowly lowered her mouth onto it, being careful not to bite it. Susan watched as she kissed and licked her breast creating a stirring in her loins. Elena slowly moved downward, kissing the beautiful woman before her while pulling her nightgown off. Susan scarcely breathed as her body was uncovered by this little girl who was gazing at it almost in reverence. Susan no longer felt ashamed of her feelings, only the lust which was quickly building within her. And when Elena laid her face between Susan's legs, it was too much. Almost immediately, her muscles tensed up and her breathing became heavier. The faint stirring in her loins swiftly became a overwhelming torrent, causing a warbling wail to erupt from her mouth, "UUUUUUUGGGHHHH!!...." She gripped the bedsheet tightly in her balled fists as her back arched in the air and continued to wail, then as Elena released her, she slowly sank back into the bed, completely drained.

Gasping for breath, she could only lay there for a minute until her strength returned. Elena rose up, her face wet with Susan's juices and grinning broadly, she crawled over and laid down beside Susan. Susan turned to look at her, but upon seeing Elena's sweet face wet with her juices, she winced, quickly apologizing, "OHMYGOD!!...I AM SO SORRY! I can't believe I did that..."

Elena licked it off her lips, "I like it."

"Here, let me wipe it off...". Susan reached over to the nightstand for a tissue.

Elena reached out, taking Susan's hand, "No, don't. I like it."

Susan looked at her face, still disgusted by it and said, "At least let me wipe your mouth." She reached over and grabbed a tissue before Elena could object, then wiped Elena's mouth like a mother tending to her baby. Then she looked at Elena, not knowing what to do and too embarrassed to say anything.

Elena asked, "Would you like to touch me?" Susan looked at her chest, then slowly put her hand out but stopped halfway. Taking Susan's hand, hovering in midair, Elena brought it to her breasts. Seeing the worried look in Susan's eyes, she quietly told her, "It's okay. Relax. I want you to touch me." As Susan's hand lightly brushed across her tiny buds, she pulled back at first, but Elena held it against her breasts, gently moving Susan's hand back and forth over it, letting her become accustomed to it.

Susan quickly got over her reluctance, staring longingly at the nipple that she so delicately traced circles around, while occasionally dragging her finger across it. Elena layed still, watching Susan in her exploration as she became bolder with each passing minute until finally, she slowly leaned over and kissed it. With her heart pounding, Susan kept kissing it, then kissed the other breast. Partly in lust, partly in veneration, she made love to Elena's breasts for the sheer beauty that they were; a pale white hill topped by a pink knob. She nuzzled against Elena's chest, sliding towards that secret spot that Susan had been longing to see.

Hardly daring to breathe, she gazed at Elena's sex as it layed before her. Then feeling more confident than ever, she touched it. She sucked in her breath and flinched at the thought of having touched a young girl's vagina, then she reached out a second time and touched it again. This time, she didn't pull back but held her finger, running it along the closed slit.

Elena's legs opened, allowing her to see more of it. Susan glanced at Elena, who was watching her with a slight smile. Suddenly feeling shy, Susan guiltily smiled back and turned back to the pale closed lips between Elena's legs that were opening up to reveal the soft pinkness inside. Susan reached in, feeling the soft, hot wetness. She ran her finger around, feeling every part of it. Looking up at Elena, she asked, "What did you do to mine?"

Elena answered, "I licked it."

Susan's face took on a look of disgust, "You licked it?"

"Yea. Don't worry. It's not dirty."

Susan lowered her face down to it and sniffed. It didn't smell bad so she gingerly stuck her tongue out and touched it. And found that it really didn't have much of a taste. It was warm, wet and a tiny bit salty, but that was it. So she gave it a small lick and looked at Elena for approval. Elena smiled, "Yea, just like that." Susan stretched herself out between Elena's legs with her mouth just inches from Elena's sex. She touched it with her finger, gliding along the inside, going deeper and then pulling her finger out to smell it. Not smelling anything disagreeable, she again cautiously leaned down and gave it a lick. Elena gave out a slight gasp, encouraging her to keep licking.

Susan licked it a few more times and watched as Elena's legs open up and her breathing quickened. Excited by how she was turning on this little girl, Susan began licking in earnest, then as her lust took over, she pushed her face firmly against Elena's vulva.

Elena threw back her head as her eyes squinched tightly shut. As she felt herself cumming, she opened her mouth wide, and uttered an unearthly scream. Susan suddenly flinched and jerked her head up to look at Elena, a terrified look on her face. Elena tightly gripped the wrought-iron bed frame behind her, twisting it so that it tore loose from the poles.

As Susan looked on in shock, Elena opened her eyes and saw Susan staring at her, terrified, then looking up at the iron bar in her hands, she gasped, "Oh damn...I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" Quickly jumping up, she turned around and looked at the bent bed frame and the torn piece in her hands. Wincing silently, she breathed out in frustration and laid the metal bar down on the bed. She turned to face Susan, "I'm sorry Susan, I shouldn't have grabbed it."

Susan could only stare at the bent and torn metal pieces that used to be her bed frame. "Jesus...", she mumbled under her breath. "I'm sorry", Elena repeated. Susan turned from looking at the pole to focusing on Elena's face, "It's okay...It's...I'm just surprised by how strong you are."

"You aren't mad that I broke it?", Elena anxiously asked, her face wincing.

"No...no...", Susan quickly told her then shyly asked, "So I made you orgasm?"

Elena smiled, walking over on her knees, then pulling Susan to her, "You made me cum...so hard." She gently pulled Susan down with her so that they were laying beside each other. As they laid on their sides, each facing the other, Elena gently poked Susan's breast.

"I can't believe we did that!", Susan exclaimed, "So, this means we're girlfriends?" Elena nodded. Susan stared off into space, "I'm a lesbian now...a pedophile lesbian."

"I don't see it that way", Elena told her, "You don't like women or little girls. You like me. And I like you."

They laid together for several minutes, enjoying each other's company, till Elena said, "I have to go feed now."

Susan's eyebrows raised in surprise, "I forgot...I was thinking how we were going to fall asleep here and I forgot that you still haven't eaten."

Elena raised up, telling her, "I'll be back in a little while." She began to get out of bed, but then she quickly turned around and knelt down and kissed Susan. Then she got up and went into her room to get dressed. Just before she stepped out, she poked her head in, "Bye."

"Bye", Susan smiled. As Elena left and the door closed, Susan reflected on everything that just happened. Her first sexual experience. Not with a man. Not with an adult. But a little girl. A little vampire girl. Was she in love? They had only known each other for two days, but in that two days, she had become so accustomed to Elena that she couldn't imagine being without her. Susan, the woman who was afraid of everything, in love with a vampire.

It was approaching midnight when Elena opened the door and walked inside the apartment. She had gone down to the train bridge nearby where she sometimes saw stray dogs. She had found one but it wasn't a quick kill and she had gotten pretty messy in the process. "Elena? Is that you?", she heard Susan's voice from the bedroom.

"Don't come out!", she warned.

"Why not?", Susan asked.

"Because I'm..."

"What...", Elena heard Susan say just as she stepped out, looked over at Elena and stifled a scream. Shutting her eyes, she quickly turned away.

Elena told her, "Lemme get in the bathroom!" As Susan went back in her room with her eyes still squeezed tightly shut, Elena quickly ran to the bathroom and pulled off her bloody clothes. Then turning on the shower, she washed the dried blood off her arms, face and hair, then after drying herself off, she was about to walk out when she saw the toothbrush on the sink and remembered about brushing her teeth. Looking at the mirror and opening her mouth, she saw the red streaks in between her teeth, "Yea, I guess I better brush them." After she finished, she stepped out naked, first carrying her clothes to the laundry basket in her room, then going into Susan's room.

Susan was sitting on the side of the bed, dressed in her nightgown and glanced up as Elena stepped in. "I'm clean again", she told Susan, walking towards her in the darkened room.

"OhmyGod! That was the grossest thing I have ever seen", Susan muttered, "I've never seen so much blood. I nearly upchucked my dinner."

"I'm sorry", Elena said quietly, "I guess I'm just used to it."

Elena came over and stood in front of Susan, who was still sitting on the side of the bed. As Susan gazed at the naked young girl before her, she quickly forgot the disgusting mess that Elena was just minutes ago. Taking hold of Susan's gown, she slowly pulled it up till it caught where Susan was sitting on it.

"Can you stand up?", Elena asked and as Susan stood, Elena continued pulling it off over her head, then dropped it on the floor. Using her hands, Elena gently guided Susan back down on the bed. Then she crawled up on the bed on her hands and knees, straddling Susan. Bending her head down, she laid gentle kisses on top of Susan's breasts and then her lips, before stretching out on top of her. Susan's arms came around her as each made love to the other using their hands and lips till they lost all sense of reason and became two rutting animals, grinding their bodies together.

With their gasping moans breaking the silence, they quickly worked themselves up into a frenzy and exploded together. As Susan came, she held Elena's body tightly together and pushed her vulva hard against Elena's thigh as she let out a whimpering moan. Then exhausted from her effort, her arms dropped listlessly onto the bed and she layed still, breathing heavily.

Elena slid off, keeping her arm and leg on top of Susan so she could hold her. Susan opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling for a few seconds, then whispered, "That was incredible." Turning her head to look at Elena, she asked, "How do you do that to me?", to which Elena smirked shyly.

BEEP...BEEP...BEEP

Susan looked over at the clock. 6:30. Groaning, she reached over and turned it off, then layed back. She had stayed up too late last night. Turning to her side, she saw Elena grinning at her. A smile broke out as Susan turned over, facing her. "Did you just stay up all night watching me?" Elena nodded happily. Susan sighed happily as she cupped Elena's cheek, "As much as I want to stay here with you, I need to go to work." She leaned over and kissed Elena, holding it. She felt Elena's arm come around her, than slide down her body till it stopped between her legs. Elena's hand instinctively pushed inwards and Susan's legs opened, seemingly with a mind of their own.

Susan giggled then pulled back, "Okay, we need to stop or I'm really going to be late." Elena groaned with a pouty look on her face. "We have tonight", Susan reminded her, then she threw back the sheet and got out of bed. Elena watched her for a few seconds then followed her to the bathroom.

"Where are you going?", Susan asked her.

"To take a shower with you."

"I need to go to the bathroom."

"I don't mind", Elena told her.

"Well, I do. Besides, I need to get think about getting to work, not playing around in the shower." Seeing the disappointed look on Elena's face, she reminded her, "I'll be home soon." Elena, somewhat satisfied, nodded and went back to the bedroom.

After her shower, Susan had made herself some breakfast and brought it to the bed to eat. After she finished, she suddenly became aware of her window. Even though the curtain was closed, she went to the closet and took a blanket that was folded neatly on the shelf and carried it over and cover it. Turning to Elena, she asked, "Is that good?" Elena nodded.

As Susan started getting dressed, she noticed Elena fighting to stay awake, but nodding off. Coming over and sitting down on the bed beside Elena, she stroked her hair and whispered, "Go to sleep. I'll be here when you wake up."

As Elena's eyes closed and she fell asleep, Susan looked down on her lovingly and smiled at the sight of her hyperventilating. She quietly stood up and finished getting dressed, then going to the door and turning out the light, she took a last look at her before leaving. As she watched her sleeping soundly, with her rapid breathing, she wondered as to this new relationship.

`Just a few days ago, I was alone in this world. And everyone was human. We only have a few hours together every day. With her being nocturnal, her diet and hoping there are no crosses nearby when we go out, this relationship will have its peculiarities. Other people have a man or a woman. I have a little girl...who happens to be a vampire. But despite what it is, I'm in love with her. And when I get back, I will come and wait for the darkness to fall so she will awake and we can be together again.'

I would love to hear what you think at Pedogirllover@gmail.com