Lamech

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How could someone be so beautiful?

She had been unconscious for a long while, but I just couldn't get myself to leave her side.

Feeling her orgasm had been the most incredible experience in my life. The tightening of all her muscles followed by shaking. She had had her mouth open and I had expected to hear her scream in pleasure but it had seemed that the feeling had been too intense for any sound to leave her lips. Then a soft sigh before she had lost conscious.

Fear had griped me instantly. I had once again thought that I had killed her, but when I had laid her down, I had heard her slow breathing and her heart trying to pump blood that wasn't there. I had stayed seated next to her and noticed that her body replaced the blood I had taken at an incredible speed.

She had been out for two days last time, I guessed she would be out for about two days more. Maybe a little longer since I hadn't given her any time to properly recover from the last time. I hadn't even brought her food or water.

Guilt spread through me. How could I not have thought about such a basic thing? Yes, she wasn't just a mere witch, that much was clear. But she still needed food and water to survive, or at least to have her full strength. Or?

I couldn't understand what she actually was, and from what she had said, she thought she just was a witch and nothing else. A witch who claimed I was her destined mate.

I knew that was the truth. The moment she had said it, it had made sense.

For as much as what I had said about vampires not having a destined mate like a lot of other magical creatures did, was true, I could still feel the pull towards her. It wasn't just her beauty, but her fierceness also. How she had fought against me. It had been frustrating, but also refreshing. Most people around me just caved to my every whim, she hadn't and I knew she never would.

"Crimson," I said, tasting her name. I felt how a smile spread over my lips as I said it, though it faltered quickly.

Yes, as soon as she had said we were mates it had all made sense and what I had to do had also become clear to me.

I had to resist her, though I didn't want to and I hated myself for the things I had already said to her in my strive to resist. Calling her weak and pathetic had been as far from the truth as anything could come. Everything about her was strong and powerful. But it was dangerous for a vampire to mate with a witch.

It didn't happen often. Maybe it would if vampires and witches spent more time together, but they did tend to avoid each other. Or rather, most other magical creatures tended to avoid vampires. However, I knew about one vampire that had been a witch's mate. It had been a long time ago, about three hundred years ago if my memory served me right. The vampire had been taken by the witch straight away while the witch had tried to resist the pull of the bond for a long time before giving up. It was obvious why she had resisted, she hadn't wanted to lose her powers.

I wasn't sure about witches' mating process, I assumed it involved sex somehow. But when it came to vampires' there was three aspects to it. Sex. The marking. And drinking each other's blood. The issue was that if one of the two wasn't a vampire, that process would turn them into one. To turn someone into a vampire, the vampire needed to consume part of their blood and have them drink the vampire's blood. So it was unavoidable for a vampire's chosen mate to not become one, if they weren't already. And when it came to witches, becoming a vampire meant losing your witch-powers.

But that witch had finally decided to go through with it, problem was that her coven had found out. Exactly what had happened then wasn't clear. We had tried to find out the truth but there had been several different versions floating around. That they had been placed in cells next to each other, together but also not, until the witch had died and the vampire then had managed to get the coven to kill him. That they had been placed in the same cell but he hadn't been given any blood, so he had finally cracked and feed off the witch, killing her in the process, and then once again managed to get the coven to kill him. Or that the coven had simply killed them both straight away.

It didn't matter which was true though, since the result was the same no matter what. Both the witch and the vampire had died.

What made the story even worse, was the fact that the witch had belonged to the Starlight coven. Crimson's coven.

I doubted the coven actually could get to me. I was one of the most powerful vampires to ever walk the earth after all. Not only because of my own strength, but because of the strength of the clan.

But what if they got to Crimson somehow? What if they decided to harm her, even kill her, to ensure we would never mate?

No, it was better to fuel her hatred towards vampires. Make her turn her back on me. She would be safer, and she also wouldn't have to decide between me and her powers.

I would have to make her hate me enough to reject me. That was the best way to keep her safe.

I leaned down and kissed her forehead. It was time for me to go and face everything I had neglected for the past two days. The only work I had managed to get done while she had been unconscious had been to go back and quickly find the girl, Aideen, again. The rest of the time I had spent watching over Crimson. Praying that I would get to see her impossibly black eyes again.