The kiss was gentle, but sincere and at that moment, it was the best thing that had happened to me in my 17 years of life. It sparked something deep within me, an insatiable, burning passion, which sizzled my skin with erotic fury.

After the kiss parted, Lestat stared at me for what felt like hours. The way he looked at me, made me feel sexy and excited. I had just experienced my first kiss and it was with the man of my dreams. For the first time ever, I felt special.

“If the daylight mirrored your beauty,” He whispered, “I would happily step out into the sun.”

His sweet charm caused my heart to thud and my mind to race. My usually cynical sensibility was silenced, as I grew lost in his eyes.

He took hold of my left hand and guided it gently to his lips, where he kissed and then licked the palm. He felt me shiver under his touch and chuckled.

“There’s no need to be nervous.” He reassured, “Never question something that feels right.”

With that, I felt myself leaning forward and capturing his lips. Slowly and confidently, I embraced his tongue with my own and stroked it gently. It was an indescribable sensual pleasure, which washed over my body as I wrapped my arms loosely around his neck.

Finally, the contact broke, but my body screamed out to feel his mouth on mine once more.

As I looked back at his face, he was smiling.

“Fantastic.” He said, almost to himself.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

Upon hearing my voice, he seemed to emerge from his own little world.

“What I meant, ma chère is that your kiss is fantastic, simply divine.” He replied, softly.

I was tempted to lunge at him again, I longed to feel the rush as I parted his lips, and I longed to taste his tongue once more. But I didn’t. I stayed totally still and watched him.

I watched how his words glided seamlessly from his tongue and how each gesture he made was so precise that it appeared to have been rehearsed over and over. I also noticed how beautiful and cat-like he was. So perfect.

He appeared to be watching me too and I longed to know what it was that he was thinking.

“How would you feel about…” He began.

I jumped slightly; his words had startled me and shocked me out of my thoughts.

“…Going somewhere a little more private?” He suggested.

My whole body trembled with excitement as we left the bar and stepped out into the darkness of the evening. He gently helped me up onto his motorbike and I clung to him tightly, my clothes flailing in the wind as we swept through the back streets of the town.

We finally came to an old house, somewhere on the suburbs. It was a large, semi-detached house with big bay windows at the front.

“Welcome to my home.” Lestat said, as he led me inside.

From the outside, the house had looked like any other home, but inside, it was decorated in a gothic, Victorian style. The walls were dark colours and the furnishings were covered with velvet.

I secretly wondered why he’d chosen to live in this small town and not somewhere a little more exotic.

“I chose this place because it holds so much life and so much history. It echoes of all the old factories, all of the smoke and all of the tired souls trying to escape normality.” He replied, reading my thoughts.

I nodded, though I didn’t totally understand. I suppose he spoke of life and normality in the same way that mortals talk about vampires.

“If a town is filled with people, does it have a heartbeat?” He asked.

I stared at him quizzically. It was definitely something that I’d never thought about before, let alone discussed.

He gave me time to mull it over as he led me into his extravagant living room and sat down with me on an old, antique sofa. I stared around the room. The ceiling was high and from it hung a candle chandelier. The walls were painted a dark red and were covered with impressionist paintings, framed with modern, wrought iron frames. The old paintings looked quite strange in their new frames and I wondered what it was that had held them at the time they were first painted. I couldn’t help but imagine them being displayed in a wealthy Victorian household, in large, oak frames.

There was a grandfather clock on one side of the fireplace and as I listened to it tick, I realised how long I had been silent.

Lestat spoke.

“Do you have an answer?” He asked. “Does the town have heartbeat?”

I don’t know why I even attempted to hide it; he knew that I couldn’t answer.

“Yes, er, no, er, well, it depends.” I stuttered.

He laughed mockingly.

“Hush, ma chère.” He whispered into my ear as he drew me close to him, “Such questions you cannot begin to answer in your short time on Earth.”

He cuddled me close to him and despite how cool he was to touch, I was sure that I had never felt so comfortable.

“You see,” He went on, still in a whisper, “You are the heartbeat of this place. Every heart pounds in every chest, but it is yours,” He held his hand to my left breast, “It is yours that thunders with a ferocity like no other. It is you that I knew was destined to cross my path.”

I shuddered. I’m unsure whether it was because of his words or because I realised that I was slowly falling for a creature that was as cold as death.

“You know you want it, Mary.”

I decided to play innocent.

“Want what, exactly?” I asked, trying hard to sound angelic.

He smiled slightly and his fangs became visible. The image caused a wave of arousal to flow through my body.

“You know you want to make love, my sweet virgin.” He replied, kissing my forehead softly.

I suddenly felt uneasy. The prospect of making love to the fine, sweet creature filled my body with a promise of ecstasy, but I couldn’t help but feel ashamed that he knew I was pure.

Lestat, however, didn’t appear to notice my embarrassment. Either that or he hid it well.

“It smacks of irony, don’t you think? The Virgin Mary.” He gave a short laugh, “The virgin Mary, about to make love to the one true evil.”

I felt an anger rising up in my veins, but it was calmed when I realised that Lestat’s teasing was all in good humour. He didn’t intend to make me feel worthless or cause me to cry. He felt something deeper for me. He understood the loneliness and the pain of being the outsider. I decided to join in his little joke, show him that I could take it in good humour.

“Though surely that fact that Mary agreed to accompany evil home suggests that Mary is more than happy to discard her halo.” I challenged.

He smiled and showed his fangs once more. My heart skipped a beat and once again, as I fantasised.

He leaned his head close so that his eyes were staring deep into mine.

“Does Mary care to join with evil? Does Mary desire evil to use the key needed to unlock her sweet heart?” He asked, in a whisper.

My heart skipped a beat for the second time in such a short interval.

“Yes.” I breathed, feeling my body grow ready to meet with his.

He shifted slightly so that I was no longer cuddled close to him and stood up. He then held out his hand. I took it and he helped me to my feet.

“If your answer was sincere, I suggest you follow me.” He said, flashing me a look that implied things to come.

As I lay down on the soft four-poster bed, I was almost sure that no other woman could feel the passion that was bubbling inside me.

There were long velvet curtains that hung from the beams at the top of the posts and touched the bare, wooden floor. I stared up at the red velvet canopy and realised why Lestat liked it so much. The deep red reminded me of fresh blood.

The black silk bed sheets felt beautiful against my cheek and I longed to feel it against the soft pale skin of the rest of my body. I longed for it almost as much as I longed for Lestat.

He stepped closer to the bed as I lay before him, almost invitingly. It was strange, I’d always expected my first sexual experience to be awkward and nerve racking, but with Lestat, I felt totally relaxed. I felt the desire to act out my sexual fantasies. Sexual fantasies that had been locked deep inside my mind for over 4 years.

I stared up at my vampire lover and my heart began to pound in my chest. He had removed his shirt and was stood before me wearing only a pair of tight, black, leather trousers. They hugged him perfectly and I could quite easily make out his arousal encased within the animal hide. The devilish side of me longed to make that arousal grow.

Carefully, I held out my hand to him. He took it in his cool grasp and allowed me to pull him onto the bed. He straddled me and stared down into my eyes.

I’d never felt ecstasy before in my life. The room spun and I felt as though I were swimming in stormy seas as I was struck with the waves of pleasure that washed through me. I could hear myself moaning and groaning in bliss, but the voice seemed far away, detached from my body. I held tightly to Lestat as my orgasm took over and my legs began to shake violently. The shaking rose through my body and soon I was quivering in his arms as I felt a cold rush fill me and heard the deep sigh that he emitted. With one final cry, which escaped both our tired lips in unison, Lestat devoured my lips with a hungry, yet satisfied kiss.

I lay breathless for quite some time, before falling into Lestat’s embrace. As my wild heart rate slowed to a normal pace, I turned to him and spoke.

“That was heaven.” I whispered behind my own heavy breathing.

“ Ma chère, my heaven is any place you are. Anywhere in which I can smell the sweet aroma of your perfume or taste those beautiful lips.” He answered, running his index finger seductively along my bottom lip, swollen from kisses.

I gently licked his finger, before taking it inside my mouth, sucking on it gently. He let out a low, cat-like moan and I shivered involuntarily.

It felt so strange to have something as cold as death between my lips, invading the moist, warm privacy of my mouth. Strange, yet exhilarating. I sucked a little harder, hoping to warm his icy touch with the hot passion emanating from my tongue, but to no avail. I slowly bit down on his finger, before letting it slide from my mouth.

“You’re beautiful, Mary. Such a beautiful rose trapped between so many thorns.” He whispered.

At that, I couldn’t speak. No words could truly sound the appreciation I felt for such a compliment. His words were like the most beautiful song anyone could ever hear, something written by an angel for God himself. They were words that had been locked deep within my heart amongst hopes and wishes for all of my 17 years on Earth. So simple, yet the power was larger than anything ever said to me before.

“I suppose you know what happens now?” He asked softly, stirring me from the depths of my own mind.

I nodded slowly and flicked my hair to one side, revealing my pale neck. I moved closer to his lips, offering myself.

“Don’t worry.” I told him, “I won’t struggle.”

We were now in the realm of true fantasy; the world where my mind had been many times, yet my body never thought it would go. I’d expected to be scared of death and whatever may or may not be beyond it, yet I felt strangely calm. I took a deep breath and waited.

His hand touched the side of my face softly, turning my head to look at him.

“You are the heartbeat of this town, Mary. I will repeat that over and over until you believe it. It’s no lie that I enjoy to feed and it’s no lie that I long to taste you. Yet to use a heart, a soul as strong as yours as prey would be so deeply wrong.” He explained, moving his hand from my cheek.

I shook my head, refusing to believe.

“Please Lestat, I want it. I want to die for you.”

I didn’t care what it would take, I was willing to beg. Mine was an insignificant life, a life that I was happy to give to him as a generous display of affection.

He could obviously see the desperation in my eyes.

“Please.” I whispered.

“There is one more option, of course.” He said.

I nodded for him to go on.

“Immortality.” His eyes flashed as he said it.

“Yes.” I answered, instantly.

My answer had totally bypassed the slow, rational part of my brain. It was an electrical impulse triggered by the heart and sent instantaneously to the mouth. I knew it was written in my destiny.

He moved close until he was inches from me and I resumed my submissive position.

I felt a sharp pain as he pierced the skin, but as the agony ran down my spine, it gave way to immense pleasure. I could feel myself weakening beneath him, my heart slowly until I could barely feel it was there. I heard him speak, but the words sounded too distant to understand.  

I opened my eyes in time to see him sink his sharp daggers of fangs into his own wrist. His blood immediately welled up, a dark, erotic crimson. He held it to my lips and I allowed the metallic fury to flow into me, trickle by trickle.

My heart thundered once more, pounding in my chest and my temples as he moved his wrist away and I craved for the taste.

Every muscle tensed and ached as my body began to spasm. My heart pounded with more ferocity, feeling as if it would burst from my chest at any moment. I gasped for air as my lungs tried desperately to fill.

My eyes slid to a close and my head began to spin. At first I saw colours, reds and violets, dancing like silk satin handkerchiefs, before falling and crumpling in a heap. Then I saw only red, as though a handkerchief had fallen onto me, masking my face. Then I saw nothing.

I slowly opened my eyes once more. I felt fresh, revitalised. Lestat sat beside me, smiling down as his fingers curled through my black hair. He handed me a glass of thick, red passion.

“Here’s to eternity, my love.” He whispered.

“To eternity.” I agreed, drinking from the crystal glass, hungrily.

© Rebecca Crossan 2004