Mori doesn't realize that as she remembered her life that Lord Nocturne was watching them and feeding from the emotions. She didn't know that her mind was now an open book to the vampire sharing her bed, and even if she did there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Finally the memories play themselves out, "So, Little Mori it's not just me?" For some reason this pleases the vampire. The woman lying next to him wasn't the same woman that fed him her blood a short time ago. The vampire caresses the hair off the woman's face that is no longer lined or tanned, but soft and smooth as if the sun and rain had never touched it.

The woman appears to be around his age now, about thirty. Lord Nocturne smiles, this woman has proven herself worthy. It's the first time he's found one he'd even consider near worthy, she's in for a great shock when she awakens.

Now Lord Nocturne frowns, he hadn't meant to take so much blood, but it had been so sweet and alluring. Mori had nearly paid the price for his loss of control, he still owes her for that. He smiles once again, the healing taking her age backwards means that she'll be paying him with his heir. Only this price will suffice for that gift.

He falls asleep with those happy thoughts foremost in his mind. Thoughts that turn into dreams, that turn into actions. He wakes up as Mori screams out her pleasure. At first he's confused then the reality hits, he'd dreamed of doing this. He'd dreamed. 

He falls back after his own release still in shock. He looks over at the human woman now wide awake and staring at him in fear, the first emotion he's seen on her since he entered her cabin the night before.

Mori doesn't understand what's going on, she's never felt like this before. The touches that ignite her blood, the kisses that feel like fire licking over her, she's never felt anything like it. When Lord Nocturne requests that she opens to him she has no resistance in her and finds her self helpless as he enters her. The pleasure of his touch and kisses helps to block the pain of losing her virginity and the pleasure he brings her swallows up any lingering pain. It is only after she is completely overwhelmed by her feelings that she is able to come back to herself.

Those hadn't just been erotic dreams. She stares at the vampire lord in horror, he hadn't killed her with mercy before she awakened, just what the hell does he have in store for her now.

She looks at the vampire in shock and horror and is surprised to see shock reflected back at her. She looks down and throws up her emotional shields as quickly as she can, but it's not soon enough.

"What is it Mori?" Nocturne asks as he lazily draws on her arm. He's on his side watching her in the early morning after storm light.

"Why haven't you killed me yet, Lord Nocturne? Have I done something to incur your wrath?" Mori can't help it her voice breaks.

Lord Nocturne smirks, something Mori can't see in the early morning light. "Oh, quite the contrary Mori, I have no intentions of killing you. I need you to have my heir, and killing you would be counter productive to that end." His words he thought would bring her some peace, at least let her relax with him like she had the night before, but instead they seem to have the opposite effect.

Mori slides away from Lord Nocturne until her back hits the stone wall of the cabin. "I'm too old to have children Lord Nocturne. I realize that vampires lives for centuries or even millenia, but us humans not so long and the ability to have children is limited and my time expired some years ago. By law I must die, a law laid down by your King My Lord. This is a law that all must follow, not that many would want to disobey this law. Why would you choose to have sex with one as old as I when there are many younger females around?"

Indeed this is one of the laws that all vampires seem to follow, if you have sex with someone too old to have children then they are to be executed. Why that even had to be made into a law is beyond Mori's understanding, the vampires were only a few thousand and the humans in were a few billion, half of which were female. Plenty of females to choose from to be a brood mare or for sexual needs. Why choose someone as old as her?

Lord Nocturne's husky chuckle brings her attention back to him. She doesn't say anything more just waits for him to tell her what is so funny if he chooses to tell her. Finally he does, "You're not the same age physically you were last night. All vampire's, the strong ones at least, have special abilities. My special ability is healing, it is a rare gift and a strong one, there is only one other that has it and his differs from my ability somewhat. But that is neither here nor there," Nocturne says waving his words away before continuing, "my healing can regress the aging process of humans and to some extent vampires themselves."

Nocturne continues his exploration of his bed companion finding himself unwilling to stop touching her even though she'd moved away from him. "I took your apparent physical age and regressed it back by about thirty years or so, so you are once more young enough to have children. That law no longer applies to you Mori. Even now you carry my child in you."

Nocturne had been expecting relief, shock or maybe disbelief from the human in front of him and wasn't disappointed, although far more muted than he had anticipated. Mori shakes her head in denial and manages to crawl off the foot of the bed taking the quilt with her to cover herself. She runs into the bathroom and is pleased that the electricity has been restored and flips on the light.

Mori stands in shock at her reflection. The woman staring back at her is a stranger. A face younger, smoother and prettier than she had ever been stares back at her stunned. She whirls on Lord Nocturne that had followed her into the bathroom, "What the hell have you done to me? I had heard that the vampire Lords were cruel and the higher they are the more cruel they are. You must be very high up indeed to be able to do this."

She goes to move forward when his words stop her, "Yes, I am actually high up. You ungrateful bitch, vampires from across the world come to me begging me to use my 'gift' to heal them, help them. Sometimes I do for almost nothing other times I refuse no matter what the riches are that they offer me. But always they offer me at least something..."

"I didn't ask or desire this Lord Nocturne. I was willing to let you take my life last night, in fact I didn't expect to wake this morning. Death and I are old friends and I had at most twenty years left to deal with, NOW I will have to relive the next thirty years plus those twenty..." Mori's bitter tones faded out not because of the angry vampire lord before her but because she found herself falling into a deep blackness.

Nocturne is angry at the woman's angry tirade and finds it hard for him to keep from hitting her. When her words suddenly cut off he's barely able to keep her from falling and hitting her head on the stone floor, but he wasn't quick enough to keep her from hitting her head on the stand alone sink. 

Nocturne holds the woman that he'd been angry at just a moment earlier and is shocked at how fully his anger has cooled and turned into concern. She'd had his blood, she should have been fully healed and not fainted. He'd made sure, after all vampire children need vampire blood to survive and so do the host mother. And he needs Mori to survive, even more than that because she's carrying his child.

Even as he watches the cut in her scalp closes leaving only trails of blood to mark that it had even been there. Satisfied that any head injuries that she might have sustained would be taken care of the same way Nocturne returns her to the bed. When she shivers he takes down one of the quilts from the temporary alcove from the night before.

He doesn't like that she's still unconscious, or that she fainted at all. He'd been telling her the truth, there was only one other that could heal and he called to him now.  He goes out into the predawn darkness to await his friend and mentor.

Mori wakes finding herself back in her bed and carefully wrapped in a quilt. She's more than a little confused after all she remembers clearly yelling at Lord Nocturne. She smiles sickly to herself, she knows that's not his real name. All the names of the top vampires are known: The king and his councilor's. Someone as strong as him would at least be in the council. So why hasn't he killed her yet? It must be one of the sick games the vampire's of the court are known to play.

All the members of the king's court are known as cruel and malicious bastards. They take pride in their cruelty and maliciousness and none more so than the king. For a brief moment a fear that it is the king himself presents itself to her, but she shakes that thought off as she thinks about it. No, the king would never deign to even look at someone so lowly as her. And with that thought she is able to breathe easier. The stories about the king's capriciousness abound each story worse than the one before. The stories are enough to make her sick.

Speaking of sick and vampires, she looks around the cabin and sees no sign of her new tormentor. She hears voices outside the cabin and she tries to get up as the door opens. The covers tangle her feet and she is unable to stand falls to her knees.

Nocturne sees it and smiles a dark smile of enjoyment of her predicament. "I'm not so formal Mori, you don't have to kneel before me. Not even the king would require you to do that, especially since you're not even dressed."

The new vampire gives an appreciative chuckle before going over to the human hopelessly tangled in the bed covers and offers her a helping hand. "Here, let me help you up, Mori is it?" 

Mori nods in humiliation, knowing that she'll likely be punished for not answering the vampire properly but no longer caring. Perhaps this one will become angry enough to do what 'Lord Nocturne' should have and didn't do. 

But she is shocked that he acts like she is a lady of the royal court and helps her back onto the bed and even straightens out the bed covers to make her more comfortable. Once that is done he steps back and Nocturne steps forward.

"Remember how I told you there was one other that could heal?" Nocturne awaits her nod before continuing. "Well Lord Terrance here is that man. You fainted and shouldn't have with as much of my blood as you had. I need him to look at you to find out why."

Mori shrinks back into the bed at the name of the man that had so kindly helped her. Lord Terrance is one of the closest advisers to the king. Second in power to the king himself. Just who the hell is Lord Nocturne to call on someone so powerful for something so unimportant.

She hadn't realize that she had said that aloud until Lord Terrance goes to answer but Nocturne intercedes. "Lord Terrance, might I ask you to keep what I'm about to say in the strictest confidence?" Terrance nods and waits confused for the need to reassure the other vampire. "This is no little thing, Mori. The fact that you are carrying my heir would make your health a priority, but there is more. 

"Last night I dreamed. What the dream was about isn't important, what is important is that I dreamed at all." Terrance had drawn in a breath at that revelation. "Vampires don't dream Mori. That is something given to you humans, a gift of sorts I suppose to offset the negatives in your life. In all the history of the vampire only five including myself have ever dreamed. 

"What we do know is that when a vampire dreams, the woman he is with is bound to him somehow. Since it is so rare, it isn't something we can study. What we do know is that when the woman dies then the vampire that is bound to her dies within a week. The first vampire to record the phenomenon wrote that when the vampire killed the human woman for cursing him he died that afternoon.

"The second was recorded to kill her in a fit of rage and died two days later. The third recorded she was killed in a fight for some reason and the vampire made it four days, just long enough to track down and kill the one that killed her. The fourth, she died in child birth and he died one week after welcoming his heir into the world." Nocturne explains it all so little emotion that Mori wonders if his life ending with hers matters to him at all.

But then the realization hits. "Wait a minute. About half of the humans that give birth to vampire babies die." She turns to Nocturne with large fear filled eyes.

Nocturne smirks at her expression of horror, "Yes, if you die then so will I and you'll have your revenge."