3. Choices

Isis awoke the next morning feeling dizzy and weak. Even so she have had the best good night's sleep in ages... and without any weird dreams about Alek. She sighed, remembering what happened in the kitchen and sat on the bed, looking around her room while slightly trembling fingers went to her neck. There were two small, round wounds— bite marks— that hurted a bit when she touched them but otherwise there were no other marks on her entire body.

A chill went down her spine at the memory of those fangs piercing her flesh and his lips gently sucking her blood. It had been... orgasmic. That was the only word to describe it.

Glancing to her nightstand, Isis found the golden medallion resting on top of a piece of paper. She got up, took the folded sheet in her hands and opened it. The elegant and neat handwriting wasn't a surprise, she expected that from a nosferatu, but the fact that he left her a note did. Who would have thought that a creature of the night could be so caring!

Your blood is so delicious that it was difficult to keep my word. Just take some iron pills and eat a good portion of liver, that way you'll get better very quickly. Don't forget to use the medallion so you can see more of our past together. I will be coming for an answer in a few days.

Eternally yours, Alek

He would be coming for an answer? An answer to what question? Still confused, she picked up the small necklace and caressed the Eye of Horus engraved on it. I'm supposed to use this but how? It doesn't seem magical in any way! Maybe it will work if I put it on? She looked at it one last time before shrugging and clasping the golden chain around her neck. A tingling sensation invaded her momentarily but it disappeared just as quickly as it had come.

Weird. She paused and touched the medallion but nothing strange happened anymore so she continued with her morning routine as if she hadn't met a vampire the night before.

Some hours later, Isis was dozing off on the sofa with a romance novel almost falling from her fingers when Alek's necklace got burning hot, awakening her with the pain. But the place where she woke up wasn't her living room, it was the ancient temple of her first dream.

She was running across it, desperately trying to escape from the angry mob that gave her chase by entering a sacred place; but only the civilians stayed behind. The hunters hired by the Pharaoh himself didn't. Three of them slowly entered the old temple and spread out to maximize their ground. Without nowhere else to run, she hid inside the inner chamber where the great god Ra resided. Of all places I will die my second death inside the home of the sun god. Ironical.

The steps sounded closer, announcing her imminent death. She was still in transition so there was no way she could transform her body and escape from this. Her only regret was condemning her precious dark god to eternal suffering. I'm so sorry, my love.

Dark brown eyes appeared before a wooden spear pierced her chest, making her scream out in agony. She hissed at the hunter, baring her fangs in a desperate attempt to scare him but he laugh in her face and called another of his companions. The other one appeared with a torch in hand and closed in on her. Flames covered her vision and then her flesh began to burn...

The book fell to the ground, making Isis wake up with a start. It had been a dream, it had ONLY been a dream. Sighing, she leaned against the sofa and waited for her racing heart to calm down.

****

Two days had passed. Two days of pure torture.

Isis was finishing preparing her meal when she felt it again. Eyes were looking at her but this time she didn't bother to turn around since every time she did it before there was nothing but air and silence behind her. She had learned her lesson; no more of playing along with his sick games.

"Aren't you going to show yourself to me?" She raised her voice while tasting the chicken soup to see if it was ready to serve. "You know something? I'm feeling kind of lonely when all you do is stare at me from the shadows like some creepy stalker."

Silence answered her.

Jerk. Would it kill him to talk to me a little? Sighing, she sat down to eat her dinner with the all too familiar sensation of eyes watching her. Ever since the vision of her vampiric death, Alek had been visiting her without bothering to say hello. She would feel his presence nearby as soon as night fell but he never showed himself nor talked, she only felt his eyes on her all throughout the night. And Isis was already getting tired of that little game of his.

Just when she was about to finish her meal she couldn't take it anymore. "Halloween is tomorrow so I expect you to stop your creepy haunting the day after!"

"That would depend on you, my goddess." Alek said, finally appearing before her and making her jump. "If you don't accept my offer, then I will never pester you ever again."

His answer made the spoon stop short of her mouth. "What offer? You said you'll be coming for an answer but I don't remember you making a question."

"Would you accept the change and become my bride?"

"B-b-bride?" Her spoon fell making a clinking sound against the plate. "Like Dracula's bride?"

"Better." He said with a husky voice and a half smile. "Maybe you need an incentive."

The vampire disappeared before her and then his cold hands were on her shoulders, his lips almost gracing her earlobe. He licked it, sending a shiver down her body, before slowly raising her to her feet. She surrender to him almost breathlessly, matching his gaze with a heated one of hers.

Even when Isis herself didn't know the night creature before her, her soul did and longed to be wrapped between his arms. Her soul knew him and remember him. His touch, his soft lips, the hardness of his well built body against hers, the sweetness of his tongue and the tenderness of his ghostly caresses. Deep inside she knew everything about this man that now wanted to seduce her into giving him the answer he desired. But will her memories of the past and lust for him will be enough to exchange it for her soul?

"I'm afraid." She confessed against his lips.

"And you should be. I'm asking you to die for me."

Those bright blue eyes she had grown accustomed to were full of regret but also of longing. She could feel inside her chest the intense desire he had to spend every waking night at her side as they had done for a very brief time in the distant past. It broke her heart that she couldn't say what he wanted to hear because of her fear of death.

"Show me how much you want me to become your bride, Alek." She whispered as she cupped his face between her hands. "Chase away my fears with your touch so I can finally say what my heart is screaming at me to confess."

He didn't need anymore encouragement than that. In a blink of an eye they were inside her bedroom, curtains closed and only a small lamp on. He circled her waist with his hands and kissed her sweetly. She found herself lost in his decadent taste and the strong feelings that came pouring out of him like a waterfall over her. Her heart and soul fluttered with the tenderly way that he kissed her and slid his long fingers around her back.

"I have miss you so much." His voice was low and shaky.

"Me too." A tear ran down her cheek only to be kissed away by his lips.

"I will love you for eternity no matter what you decide."

Alek gave her another sweet kiss and slowly began undressing her while she did the same to him. Every bit of skin revealed was covered in kisses and caresses until all their clothes laid in little heaps on the floor. He smiled impishly at her and she gifted him with the same gesture before guiding him to the bed.

His fangs grew and he swallowed hard before showering her body with the kind of attention that it craved. Taste, touch, smell, sight... their senses took their fill of each other until they couldn't handle the sensorial overload anymore and the warmth of their love flooded them completely.

They laid in bed, wrapped in each other's arms while basking in the sensations that still flowed through their bodies. Cold against warm. Dead versus alive. They were polar opposites but deep within her heart Isis knew they belong with one another. Now she was sure of her answer to him.

She softly traced his eyebrows and kissed the mole under his left eye. "I want to spend eternity at your side, Alek." A weight lifted from her heart when she pronounced those words and was finally able to relax against her handsome vampire.

"I love you." He whispered before kissing the top of her head and letting her drowse off over his chest. She would feel better if she rested before the transformation began.

****

Two hours from the break of dawn, her sexy nosferatu gently rose her, insisting in helping her bathe before taking her to his place in the old part of the city. It was a colonial house with an elegant arch door and a cute balcony that overlooked the cobblestoned street. Small bushes guarded the front door, a lonely tree stood to the left and its fence was a small replica from El Morro's walls. Nothing less than beautiful could describe such a house.

"We could live here if you like it so much." Alek whispered to her ear, sending a delicious shiver down her back. Images of their shared love some hours ago flashed through her mind, making her blush deeply.

"It's true I love the colonial architecture of this part of the city but the peace of the countryside is more to my liking. I prefer it over the bustling activity of a city no matter how beautiful the house in question can be."

"Then let's build a house like this one in a quiet place, far away from any big city and live there." He lightly kissed her cheek and nudge her inside the beautifully preserved house.

As soon as the door closed behind them, the vampire encircled her waist and spirited them away to his bedroom. Standing in the middle of his room, only a breath away from each other, he caressed her face while his eyes stared longingly into hers. His inviting lips whispered something to her in an exotic language that she didn't have the chance to ask about before he started talking in a deep voice.

"I am going to drink your blood to the brink of death and then you'll need to drink mine. The process will be painful— for it will take away your mortality— but you don't need to fear, my lovely goddess, after a day of resting inside my coffin you'll be reborn into your new life. One in which old age or diseases will never ruin your beauty." Cold lips brushed the soft skin of her neck. "One in which we will never be separated again." His voice turned fierce at the end before he sank his fangs into her skin, bringing out a gasp from her lips.

His bite was deep, needy and cold; almost as if he was another person. The tight grip on her shoulders, the hard way in which her blood was suck, the stiffness of his muscles... all were signs of some internal struggle being fought. Maybe the predatory monster inside him wanted much more than transform her. Maybe there was a part of him that wanted to devour her as he would do with any other prey. Even so she surrender to her blue eyed vampire and held him within her arms just as she had done before.

Her head began to spin while dizziness took hold of her body. She felt weak and he had to hold her just to keep her from falling to the floor. A headache pounded her skull and her heart rate slowed down. His fangs left her and the beautiful blue orbs glowed brightly before he gently laid her on the wooden floor.

She watched in a daze as he bit his own wrist, the crimson blood running along his pale white skin to drop on her face. "Drink now before it heals up." The vampire urged her, lifting her head and bringing his bleeding wrist to her lips. At first all she could taste was iron, as any human blood would taste, but then it began changing, turning sweeter and addictive. No mattered how much she swallowed her body asked for more and more.

"That's enough, Isis." Alek said in a low moan, gently taking his wrist away from her grasp and standing by the balcony door. Moonlight shone over her body as the girl suddenly gripped her chest and curled up in a ball, groaning and whimpering from the pain. She continued to thrash around for a few more minutes until she exhaled one last time and lay completely still.

He looked at his goddess' lifeless body and a bloody tear slid down his cheek. Taking her in his arms, he hugged her close and kissed her forehead while he walked to his coffin that posed as a table at the far end of the bedroom. I'm so sorry, my love. I'm sorry that you had to endure this pain all over again because of me. I promise to repay you for the rest of eternity. All windows, curtains and doors closed themselves a moment before he laid Isis' body inside the black casket and then joined her himself. This time he wouldn't leave her alone, this time he would guard her during the whole transition just like he should have done in the past.

****

The smell of fresh blood and the laughs of small children awoke him from his slumber. His beautiful bride hadn't awaken from her transformation yet but the changes were already visible. Her soft skin was pale and cold to the touch, her long brown hair seemed healthier and the sharp points of her elongated fangs could be seen through her parted, glossy lips.

It was just when he kissed that delicious mouth that she woke up and quickly bit his lower lip to steal a little bit of blood from him. "Let me feed first and then you can bite me all you want, Isis."

At the mention of feeding, her mismatched irises turned darker and she was out of the coffin in an instant. He followed, stopping her before she went out the balcony and created chaos among the pedestrians that were celebrating Halloween in the street below. Her beautiful gray and blue eyes glowed under the city's night lights that bathed the darkened house while gazing longingly at the people dressed in costumes that walked around. No, she wasn't simply staring at people, she had her attention in the children. He could see how tense her body was beside him and how much damage her strength was inflicting on the railing.

"I'm shaking."

"Your body is anxious to hunt." He explained with a smirk on his lips. "Why don't we dress up for the occasion and go grab a bite? Maybe we can lure some of that young blood to us as a dessert." The last bit was a test, one to see how much of a predator she had become. She would have a rough start if too much of her humanity remained inside her.

"Yes!" Her eyes sparkled. "And later we can go see María since she works late every Halloween night."

"Of course, dearest, after all a cup of coffee was what brought you to me."