Chapter Two

Previously…
Jerking forward in my bed, I clamped a hand over my mouth to silence my scream.  My body was trembling and sweaty cold as tears cut a burning path down my cheeks.  Memories raced through my mind, reminding me that I was not at home in my bed and that last night had not been simply a nightmare.  It was all too real and there was nothing I could do but leave my fate in the hands of the chocolate haired vampire that saw it fit to save me.   

“Are you alright?”  A voice sweeter than honey asks, it was timid and strangely enough it sounded frightened.  My eyes darted this way and that but in the darkness I could not pinpoint her whereabouts.  Only the faint glow of the moon filtered through my windows, just enough to see the outlines of a small shadow standing in the corner of the room. 

“W-who are you?”  I trembled in a voice still horse from sleep.  “Where- where am I?”

The small figure crept forward, slowly and drawn out.  Stepping from the shadows her strawberry blonde hair was the first thing I noticed before she smiled, her pearl-white fangs glinting in the waning light.  

“You’re home.” 
Kiss Me. Bite Me. Love Me.
Chapter Two

~ Bella’s Point of View ~

A faint rapping at the door had me near snarling.  It was still early enough in the morning to be considered ungodly and not just by my standards either.  Groggily, I sat up, pushing away the comforts of my warm blankets and straightened myself out, making sure everything was as it should be before I dared allow anyone in. 

Having been here for a total of three days had taught me a valuable lesson; never ask who was at your door until you were ready to receive them.  Vampires will barge in. 

“Come in,”  I called grouchily, praying to all gods and deities that my morning knocker wasn’t Peter, I wasn’t sure if I could have controlled my temper in the wake of his smirking face so early in the morning. 

A flash of pale blonde hair twirling through my door had me sighing in relief.  It’s only Charlotte. 

Well thank the heavens for that. 

While Charlotte was annoyingly strange in her own right, nothing could compare to Peter’s visits filled with cryptic messages and sardonic smiles.  As beautiful as he was, he unnerved me greatly… the way he would stare at me. 

I shook myself to rid my thoughts of his face and turned my attention to the smiling blonde still twirling about, dancing her way to my bed with the most happy smile. 

“When the cat’s away the mice will play!”  she sang, tossing herself carelessly on my bed.  It never failed to amuse to see her this way but it did make me wonder what she meant as she rolled around on my bed like she was a dog and my now rumbled sheets were a patch of freshly cut grass. 

Nevertheless, I giggled.  I really couldn’t help it.  Charlotte - as insanely demented as she was, she was as infectious as small pox and her mood was greatly affecting me.  “Good morning, Charlotte.  Is there any reason you’re here so early?”  I questioned after greeting her politely.

Peeking at me from her burrow of my ridiculously high thread count sheets, she smiled like a naughty child about to do something that would eventually earn her a spanking from her parents, or in her case Peter. 

I flushed red at my own thoughts, Peter and spanking! What the hell is wrong with me?

Charlotte’s eyes darted to and fro for a second before a pale hand peeked out from under the covers and beckoned me forward like we would share some huge secret.  Well if it was about His Majesty, I was all in. 

Leaning forward until our foreheads were almost touching, I waited.  “PETER’S GONE”  She squalled happily and… loudly forcing me to jerk back to defend my throbbing ears as she looked sheepishly at me then started giggling like a mad woman.  In her defense, I really should have known better.  I had figured out my first night in this strange house, where you feel eyes always upon you that Charlotte was insane, or I supposed as insane as a vampire could get.  Or maybe that was just the hope talking.  I sighed thinking back to that first night, the night my life had changed…

Ignoring her claims of this being my home, I shrank back against the down pillows and soft sheets before pushing the sweat soaked hair from my eyes.  The figure stood there docile as a house cat, wringing her hands together like she was the nervous one. 

Nervous or not, I was curious.

At first glance I had pegged her as a vampire but no where in the history of the vampires I had come across did any of them ever sport fangs of the Dracula nature.  But there she was, her eyes glowing in the darkness like some beast I had only read about in my mother’s library. But even as her demonic eyes held mine there was something positively angelic about her face, or what I could see of it. 

She took a footstep closer, her obvious pale hair swaying from side to side in pigtails like some demented vampire doll.  As she hedged closer my heart rate sped up to what I considered an unhealthy level and I focused hard on chocking back the bile that burned in my stomach. 

Just as quickly she took a step back, her hands raised in the universal sign of peace as she shook her head furiously.  “Please don’t be frightened, Bella. Please!”  She cried in a panicked plea.  “If you don’t calm down he’s going to-”

She stopped where she stood an expression of intense anger in her furrowed brows as she turned her head and hissed into the night air.  “Shut it,”  She hissed at no one before a bright and cherry smile broke over her lips and she twirled delicately in a circle, arms extended like the perfect ballerina.  “Punish you I will… with rose tea.”  She giggled in the most disturbing way.

Just as I was about to ask the obvious question of ’He, who?’  Or possibly if there was some form of medication I should get her.  A dark presence filled the room, bringing with it a heaviness that I couldn’t begin to describe.  It was angry and malicious; almost as if a demon spirit decided at that moment to haunt the walls of my room. 

The pig-tailed woman either didn’t sense it or she ignored it.  Continuing instead to dip and twirl around the room, tapping to the beat of her own drummer.  But as a ghostly set of red eyes appeared to solidify straight from out of the wall, she froze and I think my heart stopped.  “Did you sleep well?”  A throaty voice chuckled from the shadow in the corner. 

“Peter?”  I asked nervously, recognizing the voice and wondering if I had finally cracked up enough to imagine the whole thing.  I mean come on, who ever heard of materializing vampires or ones with mental health issues? 
Am I still dreaming? 

Lights flickered to life instantly, starting at the Tiffany shade lamp at my side, fixtures humming to a soft glow one by one till the majority of the room was lit.  Shielding my eyes from the sudden light from the bedside lamp with a hand I sought out the familiar face of Peter. 

His brow was set in a firm scowl as he crossed the room to flick on the desk lamp the only one that hadn’t become possessed by the unseen force, but his eyes never left the strawberry blonde still frozen in the center of the room.  “You are scaring our guest, Charlotte.”  He chided, wagging a playful finger at her like he was scolding a small child instead of the petit woman that I could plainly see she was.  That deep, honeyed voice sent a trail of shivers down my spine and pissed me off all at the same time.  Was he always this demanding. 
As Charlotte bowed, “Forgive me, Brother.  I meant no harm.”  I could answer my own question with a resounding yes.  Even this woman was bowing down to him like some meaningless servant and it begged the question… Why?  Is he someone important? Or is she just some slave of his? 

Feeling the need to stand up for the female race I sat up and leveled this man, who astonishingly enough looked even more handsome in the light, with a defiant glare.  “She was just trying to be friendly, Peter… she doesn’t have to apologize on my account.” 

Turning to ‘Charlotte’ apparently I tried my best to smile, though I think it came out more as a grimace as I took in her stricken face.  She looked like she might be the one to vomit as her eyes darted from me to Peter and back again, shocked.  I’m sure it was because I raised my voice to his Majesty… but well, he wasn’t my King. 

As tense seconds ticked by I began to grow more nervous.  Peter hadn’t moved from his spot and his face gave nothing away, not that I expected it to.  Finally after what seemed like forever, the corners of his mouth twisted upwards into a smirk, revealing the same elongated ivory fangs. 

“What are you people?” 
Of course I didn’t get any answers that night, not from Charlotte, who actually looked like a forthcoming person and definitely not from Peter, who did not. 

Shaking myself once again, I looked at Charlotte who was smiling devilishly at me.  Smiling back I had to ask.  “What do you mean “Peter’s gone”?”

Her smile widened, showing me a row of deadly teeth and piercing fangs.  “He’s away on business…”  she crowed, leaping from the bed.  She stopped suddenly, her body growing tense as she hissed.  It was frightening to me that it didn’t even bother me anymore that she did this. 

She hissed again, this time more ferociously.  “Shut it you Git, not supposed to talk about it…” 

“What he does not know will not hurt us…”  she sang back to herself. 

“Sees everything… this we know…”  Her harsher voice practically snarled and efficiently ended the conversation when I cleared my throat. 

She turned, her head bowed, ringing her hands nervously and I breathed in relief.  She was back to normal.  “Sorry Bella,

“It alright,”  I told her kindly, shaking my head in protest of her apology.  In my mind it wasn’t her fault she was insane.  In fact I strongly believed that somehow Peter was a fault but I didn’t dare ask.  I had slyly brought it up one night during one of his pestering visits and his response was not a pleasant one.  He had immediately clammed up and turned colder than an iceberg, leaving minutes later and not returning for two days.  Never again, I promised myself. 

Shaking myself out of my stupor, I patted the spot on the bed next to me invitingly.  She looked most wary for a moment before she made her way over to me and gently took sat down.  “Now,”  I started with my own mischievous glint.  “What’s all this about Peter being away on business and what should we do in his absence?”

Her timid stare made me lift a questioning brow but watched with a mild fascination as a slow but menacing smirk graced her pale pink lips.  “The others return today.”

“Others?”  I asked without thought and her smile only increases. 

She nods her head.  “Yes, Peter’s underlings. They’re very excited to see you again, Bella.” 

I smiled warmly at her and nodded my head as she jumped off the bed and headed to my wardrobe.  In the days before coming into Peter’s protection and this intense but strangely comforting house I would have been irritated to have someone dress me as a their own personal doll, but mostly I think it might have had something to do with left over resentment towards them…  The family that had abandoned me to the harsh cruelties of the world. 

A moment late Charlotte came bounding out of my closet, a off white cashmere sweater in one hand and a beautiful pale blue, silk skirt in the other.  She was a terror when she was like this but as she was my only true companion in this house… well, I wouldn’t change a thing about her. If she wasn’t this way well I think I’d have gone stir crazy by day two.  She was after all, very entertaining. 

Like a whirlwind she tossed said articles of clothing on the bed and just as fast blurred into the bathroom where a second later I could here the sound of running water.  It was only then that her words caught up to me and with out a second thought I ran to the bathroom.

“What do you mean, “again?”

~ Kiss Me. Bite Me. Love Me. ~

~* Unknown Male Point of View  *~

Thanks to the beauty of the overcast sky, I was finally drawing closer to home.  Even having lived with Peter for countless decades it would never be my home until she returned.  My beautiful Bella.  She was everything good, clean and pure in my world and I longed for so many years just to gaze upon her lovely face again. 

Often at night, my mind would drift to her pale face and think longingly on those beautiful chocolate eyes.  Then I would wonder how much the world had changed her, if it had at all.  Would she still be the same trusting girl, so full of love and compassion for those who could possibly tear her to shreds?  Would she still be kind to those who roam the night?

“Are you alright?”  A tinkling voice next to me asks and I  can’t help but turn to her and smile.

Her beautiful face pinches together in concentration, as lovely black brows raise in speculation.  “You’re thinking about Bella again, aren’t you?” 

Just as always she can read me like an open book.  I nod to her satisfaction and she gives me a smile that is filled with both excitement and sadness before she schools her features back to the chipper woman I have spent most of my life calling best friend.  “I’m both excited and wary.”  I tell her evenly.

She throws a hand of her heart as her eyes widen in mock astonishment.  “Never!”  she exclaims with a playful gasp.  Her eyes shift then, taking on the previous sadness I had seen before.  “You know how this path leads.  Why do you still go to her?”  she asks in a whisper.

It’s a reasonable question and one that I have asked myself many times over that last few years.  Why do I return?  I have been freed of my servitude and yet I chain myself to her.  The answer in my mind was a simple one.  “You can’t control your own heart.” 

I’m nearly trembling when we reach the white double door, as I can clearly hear her giggling voice along with Charlotte.  There no telling what kind of mischief they could have possibly gotten into with Peter still away on business.  My hands shake as I grip the brass knob, wanting so badly to see her smiling face and yet terrified of it all at the same time. 

My companion hand reaches my shoulder and grips it comfortingly.  “You know you can still change your mind.”  she says cryptically, but with a hint of knowing amusement because I know that she knows that I can’t.

Pushing the door open with a gentle swing, a smile breaks upon my face as I take in her sweet scent.  My Lady, My Queen, My Love…  “No, I really can’t.” 


She laughs at my back as I make swift work through the long corridors that would lead me to Peter’s wing of the high-rise mansion.  It was a brilliant idea on his part, building so far from humans and their prying eyes.  It wasn’t as large as our home in London, nor was it anything close to the slenderness of Peter’s home in Eastern Europe but it was exceedingly comfortable nonetheless and it was perfect place for Bella at the moment. 

Her tinkling laugh and Charlotte’s insane outburst lure me to them.  They are in Peter’s drawing room.  The door were wide for me to see and see I did.  I stood there not able to move any close for fear of doing something that would cause me to lose my head, and watched. 

She was more than I remembered.  She had matured and was no longer the scrawny woman-child I had fallen so desperately in love with.  Her hair had grown and darkened into the darkest chocolate luster I had ever seen.  Her skin still pale as ivory glistened against the late afternoon sky and her smile lit the room with its own glow.  Once again, she arrested my heart and held me captive, once again in a matter of seconds she had pulled me in and I toppled over helplessly in love. 

Charlotte head jerked up and over to my direction, hearing the gasp that I only just realized I had made.  She smiled warmly and waved a hand childishly in my direction while she spoke.  “Planning an invasion we are.” 

I chuckled at her insane ways.  “Are we now, and against who are we planning to pillage?” 

Bella’s head jerked up at hearing my voice and turned to look at me while clambering up on shaking legs.  She stood there for a long moment, her eyes so wide it was nearly comical.  It was comical at least to me.  Tears welled in her beautiful eyes and all the mirth left my body.

She crossed the room to stand just in front of me, trembling like a newly born colt as her hand reached out hesitantly to caress my cheek.  I nearly purred in satisfaction at the feeling of her warm, divine fingers tracing the planes of my face as if she were trying to justify to herself that I was, in fact, real. 

A tear slid down her cheek as her bottom lip quivered, then the most beautiful sound left those petal pink lips. 

My name. 

“J-Jasper?”