New Year's Day SUAW Assignment in which I write about one of my character's New Year's experience.  I chose Vienne from The Vampire and the Rebel since that story is my precious new baby du jour.

This assignment, like its parent story, has some darker themes in it.

I pulled away from Lucas and pushed back the mass of my dark hair as I licked his blood from my lips.  He put pressure on the wound that I had left in his delightful flesh to stop it from bleeding further.

"Do you need anything else, Mistress?" he asked, bobbing his blond head in deference.

I considered my handsome feeder slave.  He was more tense than usual.  I could tell that he had something on his mind, but I decided not to press him on the issue.  He would either tell me, or not tell me, as the case might be.

I could be patient.  I had time to wait.

"No. Thank you, Lucas.  You're dismissed."

"You're welcome."  He got up from the chaise beside me and began walking towards the wide doors of my chambers.  He paused on the threshold.  "And, happy New Year."

I had not even realized the date before he spoke, but I recalled such things had significance to humans so I responded, "Happy New Year to you, too, Lucas."

My human guards opened the doors and Lucas departed, leaving me to consider our interaction.

An odd strange sort of melancholy curled within me at the thought of another year passing.  The years usually passed me by like just another drop of water in a rainstorm.  By this point in my existence the coming of an arbitrary new year meant little to me.  What was the significance of another year when I had hundreds before and likely hundreds still to come?

Still, Lucas' words affected me and I was not sure why, although I suspected that the origin of the trouble lay in exactly the same direction of all my other recent afflictions, a certain new rebellious human slave of mine.

My mind wandered to my favourite insurgent without my conscious permission.  His fearlessness and determination called to me as much as did his attractive form and that vibrant blood beneath his skin.  I loved the way he looked at me with raw hatred and the way I could see his mind working to find a way to escape me.

I remembered the way I had made him promise that when he tried to kill me, he would make the attempt in an interesting way.  I felt a purely emotional shiver run up my spine at the thought, until it hit my face as a smile.

My amusement dimmed and I frowned.  My mind seemed determined to wander, but only in his direction.  I was supposed to be pondering my current interests and future plans, not daydreaming about the most fascinating human I had ever met.

I should not let myself get distracted by my own possible beautiful destruction.

It was pointless to continue sitting here if my mind was going to be so unruly.  Standing up abruptly, I walked to the doors.  My guards nodded their respectful acknowledgement as I swept between them.

I wandered the halls, my slaves acknowledging me respectfully as I encountered them.  I smiled at each in turn, then I found myself at Leif's office.  I knew he was inside, because I could hear the slight sound of movement through the door.  I knocked.

"Come in," he said.

I turned the handle and pushed open the barrier.  I entered the tidy office where the competent Leif kept my affairs in order for me.

"Oh, Mistress.  Good evening."

I smiled at him.  He had the appearance of lineage tracing back to the far east from the times before the human suppression wars, but after centuries of vampiric oppression, most humans had no idea where their ancestors might have come from.

I was not even sure if the North American human population was even aware of other continents at this point.  I considered asking Leif, but I discarded the idea.

"Good evening to you, too.  And happy New Year."

He paused as if surprised.  I had probably never acknowledged such a thing in his decades with me.  He recovered himself.  "Happy New Year to you, too.  Please, take a seat.  Is there something I can help you with?"

I did as he suggested and considered my response.  There was little he could do to help me with my general problem, that certain obsession with a furious human, nor my current problem, the odd nostalgic sensation of the new year pulling at me when usually I barely even noticed the passing of time.

Ultimately, the best thing he could provide for me was a distraction.  "Are the humans planning a celebration tonight?"

"Just a small one," he said.  "There's too much we're working on for anyone to really focus on that.  The kitchen did put a bit of effort into a meal and then there's going to be some music and dancing in the men's dining hall.  Is that a problem?"

"No, of course not."  Although the humans were all my possessions, I had little interest in the boring management of the day to day affairs of my human feeders.  It was enough that my trusted human was overseeing it.

He was observing me.  "Would you like to come?  I know you're free to do what you want, but at the same time, an invitation might be in order."

I smiled.  "Perhaps.  But first, I'm curious about how our plans are progressing and how my interests are coming along."

Leif launched enthusiastically into a description of what he and my other humans had been doing and of the most recent reports from my farms and my factories.

Everything seemed well in hand, which left me little to do.  It was a shame, in a way, but there were always new victims better able to keep my prowling boredom at bay than dealing with dry details of management.

Satisfied, I stood up.  "Well, I shouldn't keep you longer, Leif.  Just make sure you attend that celebration, too.  You're only human, you need breaks."

He looked unimpressed.  The silly man would work until it was time to sleep if I let him.  He was as dedicated to my plans as I was and deadly serious about seeing to their success.  "Very well," he said.

I grinned and swept from the room, although as soon as I left his presence that strange yawning feeling came back.

Still at a loss, I wandered out to the western balcony.  It was a good place to collect myself.  The fading light of the sun stretched out before me on the horizon and I could hear the first strains of music coming from the largest dining hall.

What was it that was troubling me?  It was not truly the passing of the year.  I walked beside time, never truly touching it as non-vampiric creatures did.

It was not regrets making my mind uneasy, for I had few other than my role in the human suppression wars and the dismal world we vampires had created, but I was well used to managing that.

It was also not grief that plagued me.  I missed the many people I had cared for, but over time even that pain had faded, leaving mildly pleasant memories.

No, as always, it had to be my new human slave.

I shoved thoughts of him away and tried to remember what the passing of the years had meant during my nineteen years as a mortal.  I had celebrated with my siblings and my nursemaid as a child and then once I had been presented to society I had gone to parties along with my parents and chaperones.  Handsome gentlemen had sought my favour, but none had ever received it in my human life.

Just before I had been changed, I recalled my parents had been concerned about my aging.  What irony that seemed now that I was centuries old.

I considered my vague memories of those years and of the many more while I masqueraded in human society as one of them, a wolf in sheep's clothing.  They celebrated; they drank; they kissed; they made resolutions.

Now, there was an interesting idea: New Year's resolutions.  I had many resolutions already in play.  I intended to get my way in the council as much as possible, further my future interests, and deal with my delightfully defiant human.

My mind had strayed to him yet again.  If there was a resolution I should make, it was to stop thinking about him, or perhaps even to get rid of him, but I would break that one so quickly that even a vampire's eyes would not be fast enough to perceive it.

Far off notes reached my ears and I gave up.  With one last look at the newly appearing stars against the colourful clear sky, I left the balcony and went to join my humans.

The dining hall had been hastily decorated with paper decorations and wildflowers picked from beyond the walls.  Many of my slaves were so wrapped up in their celebrations that they seemed unaware of my presence.  Whatever had been bothering Lucas was clearly far from his mind.  He was dancing with a female slave he favoured and they seemed lost in each other, rather like my own personal reality television program.

Some of the other humans noticed my presence and seemed relaxed and pleased to see me, while others seemed nervous, which was truly a reasonable response to the predator in their midst.

Then there was the one who I could not help but seek out.  He was sitting alone and watching the people around him with mild disinterest.  I admired his strong physique,  which had only becoming more impressive by the care taken with my slaves.

I saw the moment he realized I was there by the movement of the muscle in his jaw and the rigid way he held himself, as if he were constantly ready to attack me at any moment.

Since I had already interrupted him, I decided to go over and speak to him, an unwise choice, but a choice I could not resist.

"Happy New Year, Little Human," I said to him as I took the seat next to him.

Those dark eyes met mine without hesitation, the ever present anger a wonder to behold.

"Happy New Year, Leech," he responded.

I could not resist the smile that grew, nor my pleasure at his unflinching response to the display of my sharp fangs.  His utter fearlessness was such a novelty.  Some of my humans did not fear me with time, but they all did at first.  All but he.

"Having a good time?"

"Yes.  I just love being forced to enjoy a good celebration."

I loved his sarcasm.  "Forced?"

"Your orders?"  He looked at me with derision.

I had ordered no such thing, so it was likely Leif's attempt to help the new human fit in.  I did not bother to correct him.

"Ah, of course.  So, are you making any resolutions this year?"

His eyes were hard.  "Nothing new."

"No?  I thought humans were fond of such things."

"Mine never changes."

I knew that he was referring to his vendetta against a particular vampire who killed someone he had loved, or perhaps against vampires in general, or perhaps especially against me.  His determination drew me like a moth to a flame.

"Truly?  Everything touched by time changes, Little Human."

It was a truth older than me and I had observed it countless times before.

"Truly."  His response was as cold as I was.

I did not say anything else, but as I sat beside the person who likely wanted to kill me more than anyone else alive, I felt unusually content.