His arms come around me and support me when I slump to the floor. He draws me back up, and still he drinks even as my vision blurs and my thoughts float hazily.

I wake the next day in my bed, heartily believing I’ve had a nightmare. My mirror, though, tells me otherwise as I see the vivid red punctures in my throat.

I run wildly through the castle, screaming for my servants. They ignore my cries and bar me from leaving. I barricade myself in my rooms, piling furniture in front of the door. It doesn’t stop him from coming.

This time he doesn’t just drink my blood, he takes my body, showing me for the first time a woman’s pleasure. But in his erotic embrace, I also find the end. As I thrash in the throes of death, he gashes his wrist and holds the leaking wound over my mouth. I try to seal my lips shut, but the agony racing through me opens my mouth in a glass shattering scream. A drop hits my tongue, the coppery taste, salty and repugnant. I turn my head in refusal, but he forces me back and when I scream next from the pain, he places his slit wrist in my mouth. He pins me and I cannot prevent the thick blood from pouring into my mouth. It rolls down my throat, gagging me. With a choice of drowning or swallowing, I ingest what he gives me. The pain reaches a crescendo and I pray for death. I get what I wish for.

I die that night, and for the next few days, I lie in my bed as a lifeless corpse. Even in the shell of my body I am aware as my humanity is discarded and a new me is born. When I finally rise, an improved version of myself, I am hungry.

So very hungry.

My dark lover brings me food in the form of a catatonic servant. I don’t want to hurt him. I’ve known Georgi since childhood. I cry and try to run, but my creator holds me. He forces me to smell Georgi and his sweet scent is too much for me to resist. My mouth waters and I scream at the sudden tearing pain in my gums. My creator lets me fall to my knees. With trembling hands, I reach up to touch pointed teeth. I moan in despair.