Original Publish Date: 5/28/2009

 I swung the scissors at him hard and couldn’t resist closing my eyes. I heard the exact moment when the blades tore through flesh and I let go instantly, fearful of what I had done and what he might do. In the darkness I could not see him, but I heard his heavy breathing and knew he wasn’t happy.

 I hesitated a moment longer and was across the room in seconds. My hand searched quickly for the string to turn on the lamp and all the while my pulse thundered in my ears like a roaring drum.

 I caught the string and yanked on the light faster than any vampire could have grabbed me and felt my knees go weak at what I saw. Lucian was kneeling on both knees in the middle of the bed, fangs fully extended, and the pair of scissors sticking out both sides of his right hand. I stood there, my heart racing and thundering in my ears, my palms starting to sweat, and my entire body trembling. Part of me wanted to run to him and make sure he was ok and apologize a hundred thousand times, while the other part wanted to run for my life and hide.

 Lucian’s eyes suddenly pinned me with their cold stare and I froze. “Come here.” He demanded darkly and all I could do was shake my head. I’d been afraid of Lucian before, but this beat everything I’d ever been afraid of combined.

 “Come. Here.” He pronounced each word thickly and surprisingly it was very seductive. I found myself taking a shaky step forward and quickly shoved myself against the wall again. “Don’t make me come over there.” I gulped hard.

 “I guess you’re going to have to.” I challenged and looked him straight in the eyes. I readied myself and started to run, but in one swift movement Lucian was across the room and pinning me to the wall before I’d gotten more than an inch. His large frame versus mine was not working so well. It seemed like he filled up every particle of air, like there was nothing but him, and I struggled to breathe right; fighting against claustrophobia was not something I did often.

 “The vampire blood has made you quick; hence you stabbing through my hand when I tried to stop you, but it hasn’t made you that quick.” Lucian’s lips descended on mine, but he suddenly stopped just before they touched. “I’m sorry if I have scared you Noelle, but I’m going insane fighting every urge within me to claim you. I don’t know how much longer I can stand as a sane man before I return to being sentenced to solitude once more. The world without you looks pretty fucking bleak. So here,” Lucian pulled the scissors from his hand with a hiss of pain and put them in my hands. “You make the decision. Live with me, or put me out of my misery before I do something I can’t live with anyways.”

 “No. Lucian you can’t make me do that. It’s not fair. I can’t give up my life. I already told you this.” I shook my head at him and he gave a sad smirk.

 “So then kill me. Noelle, you don’t understand how hard this is for me, and you might not ever find out. I’m not lying when I say I love you. There is no one else in the world as fascinating as you are and every time I get near you I feel like I’m a fucking teenager again; even if that was centuries ago.

 I’m a cruel man, I understand that much. When you live as long as I have, and have to drink blood to survive, you can’t exactly stay completely sane. There are many things you won’t like about me, and there are a lot of things I’m certain I won’t like about you, but that’s not keeping me from you. You can adjust to this life, and if it makes you squeamish you never have to drink blood from anyone else but me.” As Lucian said that a scary shadow flashed through his eyes of what I guessed to be along the lines of predatory. “Not that I would want you drinking from anyone else anyways.” He growled.

 “Calm down.” I whispered, and framed his face with my hands to make him look at me. “Lucian, this is all very romantic, and it’s probably the stuff normal girls fantasize about all the time, but I’m not normal in case you haven’t noticed. After a century, what is our relationship going to be like, huh? Love isn’t like that. It can’t possibly last forever, and I know it’s not always crazy, but you might find that you don’t like me in two hundred years.” It was awkward for me to say, since people don’t often think about themselves living for more than a hundred years – or at least I don’t – but I managed to pull it off in a serious tone.

 “See, that’s where you are wrong. Look at Ariella and Hunter. How long do you think they’ve been together?” He asked me seriously.

 “I don’t know, a few years? Maybe ten?” I shrugged.

 “They have been together for much longer than that. I’d say about one thousand five hundred years. They are still as in love with each other as when they first met.” Lucian flashed a smile and looked down at me. “What? Don’t look at me like that.” He complained as I stood there, crushed beneath him, gaping and wide-eyed. One thousand five hundred years was a very, very long time.

 “That’s amazing.” I muttered. Lucian nodded and I just stood there looking up at him.

 Lucian moved suddenly and rested his head on my shoulder, placing a small kiss on my collar bone. His lips brushing my skin sent a jolt of awareness through me and I struggled against both him and the shudder wracking my body. Lucian held onto me tightly for one more moment, then let me slide away from him to walk over and sit on the edge of the bed.

 “So, about this ball…do I have to do anything special since it’s partly for me? Or can I just try to enjoy myself?” I asked sort of sheepishly and Lucian smirked.

 “You can enjoy yourself. There was a ball thrown for Seilauna but I don’t recall that anyone stayed all that long. No speeches, no toasts, no traditions. Just vampires and their mates getting together to socialize. All the local ones anyways.” He said and strode over at an amazingly graceful gait. He sat down beside me and took his beautiful silver hair out of the messy ponytail it was in. The silken strands fell and slid against his hot skin so sensuously I caught myself reaching out to touch him. I quickly retracted my hand and reprimanded myself for my apparent lack of control.

 “Isn’t it a bad time though, considering how many hunters are out there after us?” I asked to distract myself from his beautiful silhouette.

 “Yes, but with so many vampires together they wouldn’t stand a chance. Who knows, you may actually have a lot of fun.” He smirked and glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

 “Hah, yeah, hanging with hundreds of vampires is starting to become the definition of fun for me. It’s all I ever get to do.” I rolled my eyes to emphasize the sarcasm.

 Lucian shifted and slowly put his arm around me. I flinched back from him but he shook his head lightly to indicate it was ok. I was still a little cautious about what he was doing, but he moved slowly and reassuringly. He moved until his face was but two inches from mine, one arm was around me, and the other was on my stomach slowly pushing me backwards.

 Soon I found myself laying flat on my back with Lucian leaning over me. He started to close the gap between our lips when something caught my eye and I stopped him. I quickly snatched up the shiny object dangling from his neck and felt myself stop breathing. I was shocked. The necklace draped on Lucian was in every way my necklace’s twin. I looked up at my vampire and smiled at him, genuinely smiled at him. For the first time I allowed myself to want nothing but Lucian.

 His mouth twisted slowly into the sexiest smirk I’d ever seen and he kissed me then, an aggressive, passionate kiss that seemed to last an eternity. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad living with him, if he did this all the time.

 Just as Lucian’s hand slid under the bottom of my shirt the door slammed open and I heard rushed footsteps on the carpet. Our guest squeaked from what I guessed was seeing what me and Lucian were currently doing, and I instantly knew who it was. Lucian drew away a little bit and shook his head with a small smile. “Glad to see you are feeling better.” He said to our guest.

 “Well, I would say the same to Noelle, but I’m sure there’s no need.” Ariella snapped. Lucian and I both started laughing and he kissed me one last time before drawing away to disappear into the bathroom. “Good to see you again. And might I add, you are positively glowing.” Ariella rolled her eyes at the sarcasm in her voice and I quirked an eyebrow at her.

 “I believe this is the first time I’ve seen you in a bad mood.”

 “Yes, well, this is the first time in about two hundred years that I’ve been wounded that badly. Puts people in a fowl mood ya know, almost being killed.” She growled.

 “I would know actually. I’m probably the only one who really understands at this point.” I said quietly and my eyes followed a shirtless Lucian as he walked out of the bathroom and across the room to the wardrobe.

 “Oh, would you mind if I borrowed your…?” Ariella trailed off and quirked an eyebrow at me. My gaze quickly snapped back to her and I smiled a little. Lucian glanced over his shoulder.

 “Mate.” I said with absolute certainty. I caught Lucian smirking just before he turned back to whatever it was he was doing and Ariella gave me a satisfied smile.

 “It’s nice to see you two have come to some sort of agreement. Anyways, is it all right if I borrow your mate for a little while Lucian? I have some things we must go over.” Ariella asked politely and stood as confident as ever. She had changed a lot.

 “I don’t care, take her. Just remember to bring her back to me, and preferably in the same condition as she is now.” Lucian growled low in his throat and Ariella took a respective step back. He closed the distance between us to give me a long, tender kiss and then disappear into the bathroom once again. I honestly had no clue what he was doing but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know anyways.

 Ariella took me by the forearm and practically dragged me to her room, rambling on and on about the ball that was coming up. I remained silent except for a comment here and there, and wondered if she was going to torture me with dresses galore.

 Ariella swung the door open and dragged me to the bed where she made me sit. She moved gracefully over to the wardrobe and I had to keep myself from groaning. Just as I had suspected. She swung around with two dresses in each hand and showed them to me with an evil grin on her face. “You didn’t honestly think I would let you get away with not choosing a dress did you?”

 “Actually, I have to say, I did expect this.”

 “Good, then we begin.” She nodded and hugged me in a very mom-like way.