Oh! To put the icing on the cake, she was on a forest dirt road in the middle of an awful freak snowstorm that was totally not on the weather forecast, her gps was on the fritz and she had 17% left on her cell phone battery, she was kicking herself for not remembering to grab her car charger or buying one from one of the gas stations before crossing the border… provided she could even get service out here anyway…
It was getting late now too, darkness was descending upon the forest and this storm was forcing her to go slower than she liked.… and if she was being honest with herself, she felt like perhaps, she might be a tad bit lost, shouldn't she have seen any of the guiding posts her stepfather put up by now? Did she take the wrong road at the fork? Oh good gravy, that was probably it! Damn her stupid malfunctioning gps!
"Either that or stupid Gretchen gave the wrong address on purpose… Why did I agree to this? I knew in my gut this trip was a bad idea… but mom always knows how to guilt me…" Lucy grumbled, beginning the careful process of backing up towards this small tiny clearing by the road she could use to turn around… but then, her ears caught a sound that made her heart clench with fear… a sickening cracking sound of wood coming from just above her… "What… What is that?"
In the next moment, before Lucy had even two seconds to react or do anything at all, two very large and thick tree branches came hurtling down onto the hood of her car… she sat there in absolute shock at the massive deep dent left behind on the hood… at least until she saw smoke beginning to curl out from the edges of her hood…
"Fuck!" Lucy cursed, scrambled to unfasten her seatbelt and get out of the vehicle as quickly as she possibly could.
She fled from the vehicle and took refuge from the frigid winds behind a thick tree… she peered around it at her car, fearful it might explode or something, maybe catch fire… but it didn't…well, with all that smoke, she was going to safely assume it was no longer safe to try and drive it.
"This can't be happening… it just can't…" Lucy whimpered, raising her arms to hug herself for warmth "What the hell am I going to do now? It's freezing out here!"
Fishing her cell out of her jacket pocket, she checked her service bars… as expected, a big fat nothing!
"I'm going to fucking die out here…" Lucy said, fighting back the sob that wanted to enter her voice, she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do and the nearest gas station or building she could seek help from were miles away, she knew she'd never make it in this blistering cold storm.
"Hey… what are you doing out here? This weather is dangerous…"
Lucy whirled around, thinking the howling wind might be playing tricks on her, but no… there stood a very handsome young man with long red hair and skin almost as pale as the snow. He was wearing a fashionable tweed winter coat, black boots and very nice black slacks… his beautiful milk chocolate eyes regarded her with confused curiosity…
She was looking at him in much the same way.
"I'm lost and my car is badly damaged!" Lucy explained "Can you help me? Do you live around here or something?"
He just stared at her a bit longer with this appraising look on his face, as if the biting cold of the wind presently whipping his unbound hair about behind him wildly did nothing to phase him… it was little bit unnerving, but Lucy couldn't afford to be choosey right about now if she didn't want to freeze to death out here in this storm.
"Yes… I can help you… I'm afraid power is down though, you'll have to stay the night at my place until it returns and we can summon help for your vehicle" He explained casually, his silken voice giving off the impression of sophisticated refinement "I have fireplaces in all the bedrooms and plenty of firewood to last me a good long while… plus, hot food… I had a large grocery delivery brought in a week ago and it's just me"
"Okay, sounds great! Can we go? It's so cold!" Lucy pleaded with him, becoming more unnerved by the second at how he could stand there and just casually chat with her, like the cold was nothing to him.
"Yes, of course…" He replied with a smile, offering Lucy his elbow "Just come with me, my dear lady"
The trek through the woods took about twenty minutes with how slow Lucy was moving under the abuse of the frigid cold wind and snow pelting her face, but the man kept tugging her along… until they turned into a wide pathway… up ahead, Lucy could see through the aggressive snowfall, a gorgeous Victorian style manor… the place was huge! He really lived here all by himself?
"Beautiful, isn't it?" He murmured, pulling her along towards the manor "It's been in my family for generations going back to the late 1800s. It will be nice to have some company for a change"
"Uh huh…" Lucy said through chattering teeth as they ascended the porch stairs, she trembled as he stepped forward to open the door and watched he stepped aside with a gentlemanly bow "After you, my lady… the parlor is the first room down the hall on the right side… I'll get a nice fire going and bring you something hot to eat and drink"
"Thank you!" Lucy exclaimed, hustling on into the house… it was dark and still cold, but not as bad without the wind biting at the exposed flesh of her face and hands.
She waited for him to come inside and shut the door, she heard what sounded like a match being lit and soon light poured into the room from a mounted candle "Um… so… if I may ask, what's your name? Mine is Lucy, Lucy Newman… and I just really want to thank you for saving my life tonight"
The young man smiled softly "My name is Harry Kincaid and it is my absolute pleasure to be able to play the hero to such a beautiful young woman in her time of great need… now then, lets go to the parlor and get that fire started, we need to get you warmed up"
"Yes, please, thank you" Lucy eagerly agreed, following after Harry as he proceeded down the hall to guide the way "So you really live here all alone? No family or a spouse?"
"My parents are long since passed and I have no spouse yet, but I am optimistic that will change soon enough" Harry replied, turning into a cozy looking parlor room decorated in Christmas glamor "I always decorate my favorite parlor every Christmas season, makes spending it alone a little bit less depressing"
He set the candle down on the coffee table that sat in front of the beautiful antique looking sofa and moved over to the fireplace, picking three choice logs from the neatly stacked pile beside it and placing them into the fireplace. The man knew what he was doing, he had that fire crackling merrily faster than anyone she'd seen attempt something like that.
"Would you like to sit with me on the sofa? I would very much like to know what brought you out into these woods alone and in such bad weather" Harry murmured as he removed his tweed coat and tossed it into a nearby chair, coming then to sit upon the sofa in a way that suggested he really was as sophisticated and refined as she imagined, he looked like a charming prince in the white poets style shirt he wore.
Lucy nodded and approached the sofa, sitting down beside the scrumptious looking redhead "Well… my mother conned me into coming down here to spend Christmas with her and my stepfamily at this luxury cabin my stepfather owns… I've never been there before and to be honest, I think my horrible stepsister deliberately gave me wrong directions… as for the storm, it wasn't on the weather forecast on my phone"
"Canadian weather, isn't it a hoot?" Harry replied with a soft chuckle "As for your family… this sister you speak of… does she truly dislike you enough to knowingly put your life in danger? What a terrible a woman"
"You don't know the half of it, she always treated me like garbage" Lucy sighed "I put up with it though for my mom's sake, her new husband made her happy and he was always pretty okay to me, I mean we didn't bond or anything, but he didn't go out of his way to be a terror like his daughter does… I just knew that eventually when I was eighteen, I could move out and put all of that behind me, which I did… I did and I achieved my dream of becoming a writer, despite Gretchen telling me my work sucked and I'd never make it"
"A writer, huh? Well, I think you just made yourself all the more attractive" Harry said with a little grin playing across his perfect kissable lips "What kind of things do you write?"
"Well, I am quite fond of romance" Lucy began "However that alone can get boring, I like to spice it up with some paranormal or fantasy, sometimes both… I am especially fond of vampires, ever since I saw Bela Lugosi's Dracula. He was so handsome for a man of his era and it was such a charismatic performance"
"Really?" Harry inquired, a sort of twinkle entering into his milk chocolate eyes "How very delightful… now then, what do you say I make us some nice hot chocolate "I just put some logs into the wood stove before I heard all that commotion in the woods… would you care for marshmallows?"
"Yes please and also yes" Lucy replied brightly, thanking her lucky stars above that this kind stranger had come to her aid.
"Yes… yes… she's perfect for me, you're debt is paid, Gretchen… you did well in sending her my way… now never bother me again" Harry spoke in the phone before placing it back onto it's cradle and turning back to the kettle that had just begun to whistle on top of the wood stove "If I wasn't a man of my word, I would tear that wretched girl's throat open and drink her dry…"
Grabbing a kitchen towel to pick it up, he poured the steaming water into two good sized mugs, pouring packets of hot chocolate into the water and dropping a handful of small marshmallows on top of each drink.
"Sorry if that took awhile" Harry called out as he made his way into the parlor, placing a mug on the coffee table in front of Lucy "Extra marshmallows for you, given how hard a night you've had. I'll get you settled in a guest bedroom with a fire and some wood after this. Would you like anything to eat?"
"Oh thank you!" Lucy exclaimed, eagerly taking the drink into her hands and taking a long drink of it, the hot liquid banishing away any lingering chill "A place to rest sounds fantastic… and I might be a bit hungry, but I don't wish to be a greater bother than I already have been"
"You are no bother, my dear" Harry said with a smile, an almost impish gleam in his eyes "I am quite thankful to not be alone anymore"
Lucy gave him a curious questioning look at the way he had phrased that, but shrugged it off as a topic for later as she took another drink of her hot chocolate… she sighed in euphoric bliss as the rich taste of chocolate hit her tongue, she was seriously going to have to ask Harry what brand of hot chocolate he bought.
"I think maybe I'll consider eating in the morning" Lucy said thoughtfully as she placed her mug down on the coffee table "Right now, that guest room sound very nice, I could use a good sleep"
"Of course… but first…" Harry said, reaching over to turn her chin in his direction with just two fingers "Look into my eyes…"
Lucy was about to ask him what he was doing until her deep dark chocolate eyes locked with his eyes of rich milk chocolate… a strange numbing fog unfurled in her head, she felt sluggish and severally disoriented… and the longer she looked… all the more lost she became in that fog "What… is… this?"
"Shhh… shhhh…" Harry soothed her, sliding closer to her across the sofa, pulling her into his embrace… he gave her a grin that showed off his shiny pristine fangs in the glow of the fire "When you wake up… you will be immortal and powerful… I will give you everything you've ever wanted and you… you will be mine, forever…"
Leaning in, Harry opened his mouth wide and bit down on Lucy's throat, a soft moan escaping him when he tasted her hot rich blood hit his tongue, he held her tightly as he pushed her onto her back on the sofa… he drank until he could feel her grow weak…
Withdrawing his mouth from her throat, he grinned into her face "Your turn now, my love…"
He leaned up a bit and made a small but deep cut at the base of his neck, he guided Lucy's mouth to the cut "Drink, Lucy… Drink and be mine…"
"That's right…" Harry moaned as he felt Lucy begin to suck, her velvety tongue flicking deliciously at the cut "Drink deeply, my precious one…"
After awhile, Harry eased her mouth off his neck and smiled into her face "You're going to be getting very sleepy now, love, don't fight it… when you wake, we begin our new eternity together… Merry Christmas, Lucy…"