Brandon hurried down the dark jogging path, every sense alert for any sign of her.  Moonlight filtered through the leaves, dappling the ground and making the shadows deeper.  A soft breeze played through the foliage, cooling the sweat from his brow.  As he approached their clearing, he slowed and looked around.

The bench they had shared was damp from the afternoon rain, but he wasn’t calm enough to sit anyway.  As he paced, his eyes darted here and there, trying to penetrate the darkness under the trees.  He was late.  Maybe she had already given up and left.  Fear made his heart flutter.  He had to see her!

A movement at the edge of his vision had barely registered before her arms snaked up around his neck and she pulled his head down for a kiss.  Giddy with relief, he chuckled and pulled her close.  She fit in his arms perfectly, neither too tall nor too short, the missing piece to his puzzle.  Opening her mouth, she drew his tongue in, stroking and sucking lightly.  Brandon groaned, already painfully aroused.

Ending the kiss with a playful nip to his bottom lip, she leaned back to look up at him.  Brandon’s breath caught as the moonlight silvered her exquisite features, making them seem even paler than they usually were.  Her hair looked black but for the glints of red picked out by the moon.  Her crystalline blue eyes were drowsy with desire, her lips slightly swollen from kissing.

“Hello,” she murmured, the husky timbre of her voice sending thrills chasing along his nerve endings.

“Hi,” he replied, his mind too muzzy with passion to manage anything more intelligent.  Stroking his hands down her back, he stopped at her waist.  Despite the intensity of their embraces, some invisible, unspoken barrier had always kept him from touching her intimately, but he was in no hurry.  When the time was right, he would know it.

Slowly disengaging from the embrace, Nicolette took his hand and drew him to their bench.  He took off his jacket and spread it so they wouldn’t get their pants wet.  She sat with a soft chuckle and pulled him down beside her.

“I’m sorry I was late.  My mother called and I couldn’t get her off the phone.”  He put his arm around her.

Leaning into his side, she threaded her chilly fingers through his and smiled up at him.  “It’s okay.  I was late too.”

Brandon breathed deep, taking in the scent of her, a heady combination of jasmine, citrus and an indefinable light musk that was uniquely her.  He tucked her in tighter to his side, trying to warm her.  As usual her skin remained cool to the touch in spite of his best efforts.

“Brandon?” 

Something in her voice alarmed him and he looked down at her.  A slight frown marred her perfect brow.  “What is it?”

“I need to tell you something, but I’m not sure how,” she whispered, looking into his eyes.

Tears intensified the brilliance of her eyes and caught at his heart.  He’d never seen her cry.

“Just tell me.  You know you can tell me anything, don’t you?”

Her pearly teeth worried at her bottom lip and a tear slipped down her cheek.  “This is huge.  You may not—“

“You know I love you, don’t you?” he interrupted, determined to dispel any doubts she might have regarding his feelings.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and nodded.  When she opened them again, her gaze was steady.  “I’m…I’m a vampire.”

“You’re what?” he said with a laugh, pulling back to look at her.  When she met his eyes seriously, it was his turn to frown.  “I don’t believe in vampires.”

Her lips twisted wryly.  “That only means you’ve never met one.  Well, not one on the hunt anyway.  Count yourself lucky.”

Brandon stood and turned to face her.  “You’re not kidding.” 

She shook her head, watching him as he tried to grasp what she was telling him.  Standing up, she turned her face so it was bathed in moonlight and allowed the demon inside to come to the fore.  Brandon’s jaw dropped as her eyes turned golden and ridges popped out on her forehead.  Staggering back, he stared as her canines elongated and became razor sharp.

He swallowed, his throat dry as shock ricocheted through him.  “So you…drink blood…kill people for their blood…suck them dry?” he asked hoarsely, struggling to get his head around the idea.

After a moment, she morphed back.  “No,” she said quickly.  “Not in a long time.  I get animal blood from the butcher.  Bovine usually, sometimes porcine if they’re out of the other.”  
He looked unconvinced.  What she told him next only made it worse.  “But the craving for human blood is still there, barely controlled.  I fight it every day.”

“Why?” he asked, a dozen questions wrapped up in that single word.

“Decades ago, long before you were born, I ran into a demon hunter, the strongest one I’d ever encountered.  I barely escaped.”  A shudder shook her slender frame.  “That was the day I stopped.  I figured the demon hunters would leave me alone if I stopped killing.  I didn’t want to kill anymore.”

Brandon folded his arms over his chest, bewildered and angry.  This whole conversation was surreal.  “What do you want from me?  Why did you approach me?”

“There was something about you…I sensed that you would accept—“

“A blood-sucking girlfriend?” he cut in harshly.

She reached for him.  He stumbled back a couple steps and she dropped her hand.  “No!  Please try to understand…it’s a lonely life—“

Brandon raised his brows.  “What, no vampire boyfriends?”

“Other vampires won’t have anything to do with those of us who don’t kill.  They think we’re freaks.”

That drew a humorless laugh from him.  “Freaks.  That’s rich.”  He looked at her warily.  “What now?  What am I supposed to do with this?”

Shoving her hands deep into her pockets, she looked at him hopefully.  “You told me you loved me.  You said I could tell you anything.  Was it true?”

He swallowed hard.  Was it?  He looked at her, really seeing her for the first time.  It explained a lot; the paleness, the cold flesh, together with the fact that she had never agreed to meet him in the daylight.  She was so beautiful, but not just on the outside.  Had this changed her, changed who she was?  Or the way he saw her?  He wasn’t sure; he didn’t think so, but it was too much to take in all at once.  He needed time.

“I gotta go.”

“Tomorrow night?” she asked.  The desperate loneliness in her voice was almost more than he could bear.  He looked away and nodded.  When he turned back, she was gone.

The next day was Saturday and he went about his chores mechanically, thankful for the mundane activities of laundry, dusting and vacuuming that freed him to think.  His mind went round and round, worrying at the problem of what to do about Nicolette.  Sometimes he was angry that she had tricked him into caring, but then his mood flipped and he had to fight the urge to go find her right away.  Where did she spend her days anyway?  In a coffin?  A crypt?  He realized he knew next to nothing about her.

They had met one evening three months ago as he jogged in the park.  That particular night he was much later than usual and he had almost skipped it, but it was the only thing that helped his insomnia.  Stopping in the clearing, he bent at the waist to catch his breath, eyes closed as he concentrated on drawing air deep into his lungs.  When he opened his eyes and straightened, he jumped.

She was standing right in front of him, watching him with a smile teasing her lips.  “Hi,” she said.  She was quite tall for a woman, slender but athletic.  Tossing back her deep auburn curls, her eyes ran down his body and back up.  He wondered if she liked what she saw and the thought startled him.

“Hi,” he replied.  She stepped closer to him, drawing in a deep breath as though she was taking in his scent.  A breeze cooled his body even as heat gathered in his belly.  She was very attractive.

“Why do you run?” she asked softly, looking deep into his eyes.  Her unusual pale blue eyes were luminous in the moonlight and he found it impossible to look away.

He was so mesmerized by her incredible sex appeal, that it took a moment for her words to register.  “So I can sleep.”

The smile that had been lurking became full blown, taking his breath away and causing him to revise his original opinion.  She was stunning!

“I can think of more pleasant activities to tire a body out,” she teased, playfully touching his chest.  Was she flirting with him?

“Yeah, well, I’m between girlfriends right now, so that’s not an option.”

“Good,” she said, her smile turning impish.  “Sit with me?”

Brandon glanced around.  The park was deserted.  He looked down at her, undecided.  What harm would there be in spending a little time with an attractive stranger?

Gesturing, he waited for her to sit before dropping to the bench an arm’s length away.   She  moved closer and chuckled, a husky, sexy slip of a sound that ratcheted up the sexual tension.  “That’s better.  Now, what do you do?”

Brandon tried to ignore the pressure of her thigh along his, focusing instead on her expressive face.  “I’m a computer programmer at Teledyne.  What do you—“

“Ah, computers!” she interrupted.  “I’m hopeless when it comes to computers.  You must be a genius.”

“I guess,” he said modestly.  She was watching his mouth intently.  “So what do you—“

“How long did you have to go to college for that?”  She leaned a little closer and his thoughts became sluggish.

“Four years, but I take a class now and then to keep up with recent advances in technology.”

“Fascinating.  And you don’t have a girlfriend?”

“No,” he replied.  Was she leaning even closer?  Brandon’s senses whirled as her scent surrounded him.  She licked her lips and suddenly he ached to taste her.  The thought hadn’t even fully formed when she closed the gap between them and kissed him, a mere whisper of a touch.  Her lips were cool but incredibly soft.

“I like you,” she had whispered.  Brandon had looked into her crystalline eyes and he was lost.

In the end it was all the things he did know about her that made up his mind.  She was sweet and funny and caring.  When he talked, she had this intensity that told him she was really listening, not just to his words, but to the thoughts and emotions behind them.  She made him want to be a better man, to be worthy of her.  He loved her.

She was waiting for him, even though he was earlier than he’d ever been before.  Pacing in front of the bench, head bent and arms folded tightly, she was the picture of anxiety and Brandon’s heart squeezed.  She stopped mid-stride as he stepped into the clearing.  When she turned to face him, he saw the sheen of tears on her cheeks and the last of his doubts fell away.

Striding over to her, he pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her silky hair.  Sobs wracked her body and he rocked her a little, murmuring unintelligibly.  When the shudders subsided, he loosened his embrace so he could look into her face.  He touched her cheek, brushing away the remnants of her tears.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you, too,” she replied on a tremulous sigh.

Bending his head, Brandon gently touched his lips to hers.  Her hands pulled at the hem of his shirt and the shock of her icy hands on his skin snatched his breath away.  He straightened and grabbed her wrists.

“Whoa,” he chuckled.  She looked up at him and he sobered at the depth of emotion in her eyes.  “So, how do we do it?”

“In the usual way, silly.  I have all the essential body parts, like any woman—“

“Not that.”

Her jaw dropped.

He rushed on to explain.  “I mean—is it true you have to bite me three times to turn me?”

“Turn you?”  Her eyes flew wide with shock.  “I’m not going to turn you.”

“Why not?  Don’t you want to be together forever?  Or do you think you’ll get tired of me?  I guess when I’m old, you’ll move on to your next mortal—“

“You have no idea what you’re asking for.  The anguish of dealing with the craving for human blood—it’s torture.”

“And when I get old, what happens then?  You disappear?  Leave me?”

“No!  It isn’t necessary, Brandon.  I will never leave, I promise.”

“You say that now, when I’m young and healthy.”

Nicolette took his face in her hands.  “We don’t have to decide tonight, do we?  Can’t we just…be together for right now?”

He sighed.  She was right, but he wasn’t going to give up on the idea.  He wanted forever with her.  Gathering her close, he made a sound of assent and the tension left her body.

Nicolette cuddled up to him, thankful he had dropped the subject for now.  She’d make him see that he didn’t need to become a vampire to stay with her.  It was the most loving, unselfish thing she could do for him.