Red Kiss


"In the wilderness, danger announces itself boldly, and pioneering folk shudder in their cabins when they hear the dark things of thick wood or barren waste raise their heads and scream for blood. The folk who dwell within city walls, too, shudder when they hear those predatory howls outside their walls... but they would be better off to fear those predators that stalk unnoticed amongst them, fair-faced and deadly. They move silently, but their hunger is just as fierce."
  — Tyrikk the woodsman

The night was dark, no moon but only the stars glimmering coldly overhead. The slim man moved through the crowd without speaking, amidst the mill of people but never seeming a part of it. Folk found his face pleasant enough to look on, framed by close-cropped, dark hair and set atop a slender, tall body, but he was not so beautiful as to turn heads in wonder. Yet he was noticed, without any individual of the crowd really realizing that he interested them. Perhaps his stride was a little too proud, his posture a little too straight, his dapper clothing a little too white. More likely it was the eyes; dark eyes that seemed to meet every gaze turned his way, coolly staring each down, seeming to some to peer into them like a reader of minds. Few dared to gaze into those eyes for too long as he passed by with unhurried swiftness.

But there were a few.

There. Yes. She would do nicely, a bittersweet shine in her eyes as she met his hard gaze, her slender body trembling a bit as she felt the force of his stern eyes lock on hers. A stranger to the town, a pilgrim on a pilgrimage, dressed in a humble brown dress and cloak. An impressionable stranger with a strong inclination towards the mystical. Yes. She would serve well, the slim man decided, holding her gaze. Slowly, his startlingly red lips curved into a smile.

The girl watched him through the crowd, both of them pausing for a moment to stare at each other across the night-shrouded street. Then, slowly and deliberately, he winked at her before turning to move on. He winked! The girl's heart fluttered as she watched him, and under a sudden irresistible impulse she began to follow him, slipping through the gaps between the people to trail his distinctive form. The city streets grew darker as her humble shoes clicked on the cobblestones, her pace hurried to keep up.

Still he strode into the gloomier regions of the city, places someone so gentlemanly-looking would seem quite out of place in. The girl tensed when he went into the slums, but still followed, and when he reached a doorway that he opened to go into, he turned his head once more and winked a second time. The girl's heart fluttered, pounding in her chest as she glanced around the threatening surroundings. Swallowing hard, she hurried towards the door. He'd already gone in, and it was shut in front of her when she stepped up to it, the wood old but sturdy, reinforced with iron.

Cautiously, she raised her hand as if to knock, her heart pounding. She hesitated for a moment, seemed almost to change her mind, then, as if by sudden irresistable impulse, grabbed the door handle instead of knocking. It was unlocked, and she slipped inside, breathing heavily and peeking out the door to see if anyone had watched her enter. Quickly, she shut the door as quietly as she could.

As she turned, she saw the man standing in one of the inner doorways, smiling slightly at her, his head cocked to one side.

"I expected you would come." he said in cool, smooth tones.

Nodding dumbly, she took a hesitant step forward, and was met by his lean, well-formed arms, long-fingered hands coming to rest on her shoulders and massaging lightly as those strange eyes once more peered into hers. Eyes so deep... and lips so red, she observed, her pale eyes welling with unshed tears of mingled loneliness and desire as she gazed back at him.

Her blouse rustled as she reached down to lay timid hands upon her skirts where they covered her tender, chaste loins. "I... I've never... Are you going to...?" she asked him as she gazed up at him half in hope, half in apprehension, fingers tightening on the simple cloth, drawing it into tense folds.

"No..." he murmured his eyes gleaming with inner hunger, "I only desire a kiss."

She nodded, rising on tiptoe to press her lips to his chin, laying soft kisses on his face. Caressing her shoulders, he accepted each of those kisses, only his mouth moving as he stood like a placid statue before her, lips meeting lips, lingering together for long moments. As he continued to stand there so still, she drew back, hesitant as she peered up into those hypnotic eyes.

"It is a different sort of kiss that I really desire..." he murmured, the girl gazing up at him uncomprehending, a quizzical expression on her face. His strong arms tightened on her shoulders, then, holding her as if she were trapped in taut bands of iron, his fingers digging in a bit, letting her feel the force of his dark desire as his eyes seemed to burn into her. She couldn't struggle, wouldn't struggle as she gazed into those eyes, even as the suddenly savage grip left the marks of his fingers as bruises on her tender skin. Her face tilted up, lips pursing, puckering a bit, offered to him.

Slowly, he leaned in to kiss her offered mouth, and then trailed his lips down to her throat, laying several soft kisses there before letting his jaws open wide, baring the needle-sharp fangs hidden behind those crimson lips. Hungrily, his fangs closed on the front of her throat with a ghastly crunch, sharp spikes of tooth piercing her throat with such hunger that she thought she must surely die. But the flow of blood into his mouth was mellow, the most critical spots avoided so that she did not bleed out all at once into his mouth. Her voice, though, was evermore ruined by that bite; even in her trance the shock made her attempt to scream, but all that would emerge was a sorry wheeze of a sound and a gurgle of blood, trickling from the corner of her plush lips.

His intense eyes lidded and softened just a shade, an expression of intense bliss crossing his features as the slow trickle of blood flowed into his hungry mouth, a little bit escaping to mark his lips and chin with a more intense shade of crimson still. The girl, too, shuddered, her mind reeling, her body on fire, pain, agony gripping her throat, but no, it was pleasure, such pleasure now. Her eyelids drooped, her body began to slump in that iron grip as the fiend drank, the feeling one of almost mystical connection now, as if she was floating, drifting serenely in a world of ghastly red that existed only behind her closed eyelids.

It seemed ages that they stood like that, though it was only minutes to the rest of the world. The pilgrim slumped further then, feet kicking feebly as she struggled not to fall, another gurgle rising in her throat now, beginning to protest at last.

"Shhh..." he whispered, drawing away from her stricken throat at length, "Don't try to speak."

He lay one finger across her soft lips, and she obeyed, her struggling wheezes and gurgles falling silent. He steered her to a large sofa further inside the building, pushing her down onto the dusty cushions, lowering himself slowly, fluidly almost onto her. The girl watched him, apprehensive yet still entranced as his mouth roamed her neck and shoulders, his tongue tickling her skin in sensuous caresses, then once again his fangs bit into her flesh, sinking into her shoulder as he once more drank of her blood. This time she squirmed in an entirely different way, her eyes rolling back in her head as she gasped raggedly, legs instinctively spreading underneath him despite his seeming lack of interest there. Tentatively, she sought to kiss him again, tasting her own blood on him as she did so, a shudder running up her spine. His passions grew fiery, lips and fangs exploring her, leaving the marks of his teeth on her shoulders, her breasts, her sides. She panted heavily, her breath wheezing through her bitten throat as her whole body shuddered with sensations of erotic torture. Her pleasure, her pain, were his, her blood all over his lips as he kissed her time and time again, the metallic taste filling her mouth. His nimble hands caressed her hair and trailed along her back, rubbing and massaging through the cloth of her torn dress, the cloth shredded in his explorations now, little stains of blood marking it.

His gaze met hers again, and the girl's own eyes blanked as she felt his lips draw close to hers once again, teasingly near for a few seconds before actually kissing her once again, lapping the trickle of blood from between her lips. She could feel some sort of echo of the predator's dark bliss, a dark parody of sexual pleasure that shuddered through her body yet rang hollow in her darkening mind, a sheen of saliva on her lower lip as her eyes rolled back in her head again, her feeble struggles first trying to push him away, then to pull him closer. She felt that everything was spinning, darkening, as if she was falling deeper and deeper into an inescapable vortex. Finally, there came a moment of climax, her whole body locking in a taut tension, limbs trembling as she stiffened like a mannequin in his grip, then slowly slumped away, the wooden rigidness becoming the floppiness of a ragdoll as he let her fall, tumbling to the floor like another sack of garbage ready to join those outside in the alley, her breath, her very life gone still.

He smiled to himself, bent over her and nudged the girl's body with the toe of his shoe once, and, receiving no response, turned and departed with silent, graceful steps, well satisfied. It would be some hours before she would stir again, and far longer before she would remember aught but his all-encompassing eyes.


The night was dark, no moon but only the stars glimmering coldly overhead. The lost girl moved without speaking through the crowd, amidst the mill of people but never seeming a part of it. Though she was beautiful, no one seemed to want to see her, every pair of eyes flicking away as she approached. It was as if she was a ghost, someone who didn't really exist at all, her lidded eyes looking off into the far distance to some place of mysterious bliss, crimson lips parted slightly. Around her neck, a choker of elegant lace covered the expance of her graceful, swanlike throat; beneath its concealment lay his mark, the mark of the fangs hidden in his red kiss.

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