Katerina didn't believe in things like vampires and ghosts. All of that stuff was far too obscure for her even though she did often like to read novels involved with mythical things. With the recent occurrences though, it was becoming harder and harder for her to stick to her non-belief.

"Still on that no drinking policy, Kat?" Autumn asked with her usual bright smile, her fingers loosely wrapped around the strap of her purse.

Slightly startled from her thoughts, Katerina jumped slightly in her chair before offering her friend a cheery smile, "Recently? No, I've started to rethink some things. Is everyone still going out for drinks tonight?"

Autumn nodded quickly, her smile growing after hearing Katerina's response: this would be the first time she drank and had some fun with the girls which was monumental in her case because she strayed away from practically anything that was considered a 'sin', especially sex.

"Just like always! Are you finally agreeing to join us!?"

Katerina nodded as she closed her laptop, "Yes, I would like to join you all tonight if the invitation still stands."

Autumn was practically jumping with joy even though they would be going out hours later. She walked with Katerina for a while and talked to her about different drinks that she might like and explaining them before she had to go her own way.

Katerina didn't drink-ever-but in light of recent events she figured that it wouldn't hurt. Everybody was bad once in a while and a few drinks on one night wasn't going to kill her or anything. Although, they would certainly ease her mind tremendously.

The strange man that visited her in dreams, and that she swore up and down broke into her house in the middle of the night, was still present only now he would hide himself so that she couldn't see him and ask him questions. She knew that he was there though, his presence was really hard to miss.

Really, the only problem with her joining her co-workers for drinks was her lack of bar-attire. She dressed like she was in the sixties almost constantly and the clothes she had that weren't vintage or business attire were winter clothes and not the look she wanted to have.

Considering that she still had a few hours left before she was supposed to meet everyone at some bar downtown called Excessive, she decided that it wouldn't hurt to go out and buy a few new outfits just in case she chose to join them more often than just tonight.

While she was out shopping, she constantly looked for the man that visited her dreams. There was more than one reason to this but the most prominent reason was that, if she saw him, she wanted to get his name no matter what it took. Hell, even if it was just a first name that was fine with her.

Much to her comfort, and disappointment, she did not see him and tried to cleanse her mind with some health food before heading home.

It was very strange, she thought, to be slipping into some tight black dress that left little to the imagination, but at the same time she felt powerful in some way and she found that she liked that feeling.

Katerina didn't wear much makeup and she didn't think that she really needed to although she knew that some of the women she would be out with would have intensely dark eyes and lips. She felt very comfortable which was really strange because she never wore this sort of thing and she always thought that clothing like this would make her feel self-conscious and uncomfortable.

She wore heels normally so it wasn't as much of a leap as her actual attire but to anyone that knew her it was still a dramatic change. Around eight Katerina got in her small car and relied heavily on her phone's navigation system to get her to the bar because she had certainly never been there before.

Needless to say, everyone's jaw's nearly dropped when she made her way over to where they were seated at the bar.

"Holy shit Kat, where the hell have you been hiding that!?" Valerie nearly spit out her drink to say this and Katerina blushed lightly.

"I went shopping earlier because vintage isn't really bar-attire. It isn't too much, is it?"

Everyone shook their head quickly and Autumn wrapped her arm around her shoulder, "Look who's finally growing up! Welcome to the good life my friend!"

Clearly, they had all had some drinks before she had arrived. Katerina found it rather amusing and wondered if she would be as silly after she had a drink or even a few.

As it would turn out, it had taken a whole lot more than just a few drinks to get her drunk. For someone who had never drank before, she held her liquor exceedingly well.

Around eleven, someone dragged her to the dance floor but she couldn't piece together exactly which girl it was because her vision wasn't the greatest with the help of that last shot of vodka she had taken only moments before.

The music was loud and awful, she preferred a more contemporary genre with less bass and more substance, but it put her in a strange and almost euphoric mood so she gave in and danced along. Katerina felt like someone was watching her but ignored it, continuing to dance provocatively against random men and sometimes even women.

She was having the wrong kind of fun, but it felt so good.

Katerina lost track of time quickly and it was around midnight when she decided to head home. Her usual heels had now become a problem and she was wobbling all over the place both because of the added height and how much alcohol she consumed during the night.

She didn't take them off though and stumbled through the front door, nearly falling flat on her face into the hard cement below. The cool air was refreshing compared to the heat from all the bodies inside. Katerina giggled and imagined that her body was absorbing the cool air rather than just feeling it.

Her car was parked somewhere that she didn't remember and she started to head in a random direction, wobbling on her legs like she was a baby faun, when someone grabbed her wrist.

"Hey what the-" Katerina stopped mid slurred sentence once she noticed who it was that had stopped her.

"You."

The not-so-strange stranger nodded briefly before leading her to the alley on the side of the building. His lips were quick to attach to her silky skin only to mumble, "What have you done...you tainted it..."

Katerina was very confused. If she had been in the right mind, she would have pushed him away immediately and possibly ran because he certainly scared her, but instead she breathed deeply and watched him curiously. He certainly looked much better while she was under the influence.

He pulled back and searched her eyes for answers, his normally neutral features turned down in a deep set frown.

Her voice was soft and foreign to her own ears when she finally spoke after a long moment of looking into his pretty jade eyes, "Who are you?"

The man smiled softly and shook his head, "You don't want to know who I am, Kat."

Katerina's eyebrows knitted together in confusion and then anger, "Stop calling me that. You're...you're not my friend."

Her words slurred together but he understood her perfectly fine and nodded, "You're right, I'm not."

"Why are you following me?"

His smile grew slightly, the corners of his mouth lifting ever so slightly, "I'm not. You passed out and your friend took you home. You're asleep right now." Only, she wasn't but it was easier to try and play it out that way rather than to try and stitch her dreams later. Plus, she would probably forget it in the morning easily because she was far beyond drunk.

Katerina's plump lips fell down into a frown both because she was confused on the fact of whether or not she was dreaming or not and because he was avoiding answering her questions to an extent.

"Yeah well...stop. I don't...I don't like you in my dreams. I don't even know you."

His lips were very close to her own suddenly and she didn't move, her mind till too slowed to react properly and the softness of his pink lips was practically inviting her in.

Suddenly he was kissing her and, for the first time, she liked it. His lips felt like silk against her own and she could faintly taste the mint from the gum he had been chewing on earlier in the evening. Her head spun but it wasn't because of the simple notion that his tongue was now in her mouth.

What felt like an eternity later, to Katerina at least, he pulled away with a smirk, "How is it now?"

Katerina struggled with her words, "I...what?"

He laughed and the sound echoed briefly in the empty alley, "My kiss. Last time you said that it was terrible."

A faint blush crept to her already flushed cheeks, "Oh."

She didn't say anything else which amused him but he wasn't focused on what she was saying anymore. Now his attention was on the pulsing veins just under her moderately fair skin. Her little night out had probably ruined that pure quality of her blood but he still craved it even with its new and temporary adulteration.

He smiled at her for the briefest of moments before going against his number one rule: feeding in open and public spaces.

Katerina was pressed against the cool brick wall of the building with his lips on her neck and a sudden euphoric feeling gradually spreading through her body the longer he remained there. She thought it had been because she had never been touched before, but it was really a chemical that his fangs released so she wouldn't necessarily feel the pain unless he began to take too much.

Her hands gripped at his shoulders and his hair as he drank greedily: her blood was just as good as before even with the alcohol that flooded her system.

Katerina sighed softly as her eyelids fluttered shut and Harry hummed lightly, continuing to feed on her without a real care at all for who might see or how things would be if she did in fact remember this in the morning.

A good amount of time had passed before she began to feel the sting of his fangs penetrating her skin and draining her blood in a very painful manner where only moments ago it had been euphoric.

"S-stop. You're hurting me."

Her voice sounded small and very helpless to his ears as well as her own but god he didn't want to stop. He wanted to suck her until her blood ran dry and flooded his senses no matter what any of the others said.

Katerina began to cry, "Please."

Harry felt her grip on his shoulders slacken as she started to give up and something inside of him flipped, his fangs retracting and his tongue poking out to lick over her wounds and heal them quickly.

Once he noticed how wide her eyes were and how afraid she had become because of him, he genuinely felt bad for what he had done. He shouldn't have even done such a thing in public not to mention how much blood he just took.

The last time he felt bad about being the monster that he had become was centuries ago with a woman named Charlotte whom he loved very much and whom he had destroyed only weeks after he had been turned. He tried not to think about her anymore because she was his first love and he had taken her life with his own hands because he chose to be greedy even when she begged him to stop.

Katerina was not in his heart in the same way that Charlotte was, but the moment he had just put her through certainly brought back horrible memories.

His hands were on her face but she didn't notice how cold they were because she had lost too much blood and because of the temperature outside. There were streaks running down her cheeks and her lips were trembling considerably. She flinched when he dipped his head to kiss the tip of her nose.

"I'm so sorry."

One minute she was Katerina and the next she was Charlotte even though they looked nothing alike and the guilt he felt was increasing in heavy and smothering waves the longer he looked at her.

Katerina only continued to cry but her legs felt terribly weak and in another moment he knees gave out and he was holding her in his arms, like a groom would a bride, in only seconds.

His voice was soft and unbelievably sweet in her ears as he began to walk, "Let's get you home sweetheart. I'm so sorry."

He told her his name about halfway back to her house but she was fast asleep and didn't hear a word.

This time, rather than entering through the window, he found her spare key and let himself in through the front door. She had a very nice home with that artists touch and he really liked that, but her bedroom was still the best room in her house because it was hers in every sense of the word.

Gently, he put her in a comfortable oversized t-shirt he found in one of her drawers and tucked her into bed. Katerina stirred slightly and he froze in place, he was afraid that she would wake up and see him and be scared all over again and he really didn't want that.

It was bad enough that his compulsion didn't work on her for some reason and that he couldn't tear himself away from the savory taste of her blood on his lips.

He left her with a glass of water and a few aspirin on her nightstand and hoped that when she woke up she either wouldn't remember it or would think the entire end of her night was a dream. Seaming dreams wasn't his best talent but he had tried and he sincerely hoped that it worked.