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Daniel has been watching Angela for the better part of the summer. In this chapter, she discovers him and they meet.

 

For the Love of the Moon

 

Angela sat at her desk, bent over a book, holding a pen. Her window was open in the warm autumn evening and a breeze caught a lock of her dark hair and played with it before disturbing a loose poster hanging on her wall. She sighed, her shoulders slumping in the lamp light.

The sun had set only an hour ago and now Daniel stood in the tree in Angela’s front yard watching her. She never knew his presence, never looked toward him. He wondered what it was that vexed her.

All summer he watched her through her window. She tucked the stray lock of hair behind her ear, stopping to play with the dangling ankh that adorned her earlobe. He knew she was sad, perhaps lonely? She was always in her room after sundown. She always tucked herself in bed before midnight. Her parents came in only once during the evening to check on her.

Sometimes she would sit at her window and gaze at the sky. Daniel would allow himself to fade into the tree until he was almost invisible and stare at her. She had emerald eyes, big as olives and full red lips that always seemed to be tugged down at the corners. Her skin was pale, almost white in the moonlight. His dead heart ached to comfort her.

As he watched, her eyes strayed from the moon and settled on the tree. He was drawn from his thoughts at a gasp. She had seen him.  He hadn’t faded into the leaves fast enough. A look of fright on her face, she backed away from the window and hurried from her room. What now? he thought . He wondered if he would never be able to watch her again.

He was just about to take off from the tree when the front door to the house opened. Angela slowly stepped from the safety of the step and crept across the yard to the tree. She left the house door open. “Who’s there?” she called, her voice barely above a whisper.

Daniel deliberated a moment before making his decision. Deftly dropping from the tree, he landed lightly in front of her. He gave her a low bow. “My lady,” he said by way of greeting.

The look on her face told him she wasn’t sure if she should laugh or scream. “Wait,” he said hurriedly. “I mean you no harm.”

“What are you doing in my dad’s maple tree?” She had regained some of her composure and wasn’t ready to yell yet.

“Forgive me,” he said, looking up at the leaves. Many of them had already turned yellow. “I have been watching you ever since I heard you singing.”

She blushed under the light of the moon. “You heard that?”

He knew she had been rehearsing for a school talent show, but after a few weeks, she had given up. “You have a beautiful voice,” he said, looking at her again. “Why did you stop?”

Angela shook her head. “This isn’t about me.” She frowned and stamped her foot, her slipper making no sound on the sidewalk. “You are stalking me.”

“No, please,” he pleaded with her. “I haven’t.” He stopped. It did look that way from the outside. What other vampire hung around one person’s home, gazing at the resident young woman, hoping not to be seen? “I’m sorry. I know how this looks, but believe me, I am not stalking you.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Who are you?”

This wasn’t a question he had been prepared for. “Me?” But his manners hadn’t deserted him completely. He bowed again and took her hand, lightly kissing her fingers. “I am Daniel LeCure. Unfortunately the rest is a bit complicated.” He stood and smiled at her.

“Oh, well, I’m Ang…”

“Angela, yes, I know.”

“See? You have been stalking me.” She frowned again. After an agonizing moment of silence, she began to turn back toward the house.

“Wait,” he stepped toward her, but she jumped the short step and disappeared into the house. The door thudded and a soft click indicated the lock. She had not told him to leave her alone.    With a feeling of elation that was greater than the success he’d had, Daniel took to the sky.

He flew over the city in long, lazy loops. Angela had confronted him and had not told him to leave her alone. It was as good as a friendship. Honing his senses, Daniel listened for the beat of the city and the one heartbeat that called out for end. He considered himself something of an angel of death, or perhaps an angel of mercy? He would have Angela for his, he knew it for certain. The heartbeat that called him now was slow and sad. Angela filled his thoughts and as he landed on a balcony, the woman who startled took on her likeness.

“It’s all right,” he soothed. She glanced at the balcony and back at him. “I can make it better for you.” He held out his arms, exuding peace. His body was tall and lean and he let his black hair fall forward over his shoulders. He leveled his gaze at her, focusing onyx eyes on her pale blue ones. “Come to me,” he whispered.

The woman took another glance at the balcony rail. He could see that she still considered jumping. But he was there, real, waiting. Slowly, she stepped toward him. “Are you an angel?” she whispered as he wrapped his arms around her.

“I am whoever you need,” he said as his fangs extended.   “I am the fulfillment of desire, and the bottom of the pit of despair.” He hugged her tightly and lowered his mouth to her ear. “I am the climax of an intimate encounter, and the sting of death.” And he sunk his fangs into her neck.

She only jumped once, startled by the sudden bite, and then relaxed into his arms.  Her blood was thick and warm as it filled his mouth. Her depression flowed out of her with her life. He couldn’t read her mind, but he felt it, could taste it. She sighed for the last time as the last of her blood left her body.

He retracted his fangs, but held her close for a moment. Then, still with her in his arms, he lifted off the balcony and flew over the city toward the sea. Taking her out over the water, he flew until he could no longer see land and dipped her into the deep blue ocean and let her go.

Daniel flew low over the water, gazing at the rays that flew just beneath the surface. “Angela,” he whispered as he flew. She was seventeen, an A student, single, and pining for something. He watched her as she wrote in her book, but he wasn’t sure if it was a diary or a journal, or even a story she was writing. She had been singing “Somewhere Out There” in preparation for the talent show at school but had stopped after only three rehearsals. But the song had stuck with him, and her voice had been so beautiful and full, it had been what had initially attracted him to her.

“You are always drawn to sad beauty,” his master had said with affection. “Simply take her and be done with it. I am tired of your melancholy. “

“Michael,” he’d returned, “don’t you remember the first time you were truly in love?”

“How can it be true love when she doesn’t even know you exist?”

Daniel had had no answer. Now she had confronted him and he held on the fact that she hadn’t told him to leave her alone. Taking a large loop, he turned back toward shore. The sun would be up soon and he needed to get back to his haven. A pod of dolphins leapt out of the water and swam ahead of him.

Daniel’s haven was in the basement of an old Victorian mansion. It sat in the posh district where executives and C.E.O.s made their homes. The lady of the house rented various rooms out, and Daniel’s basement apartment was perfect. Velvet red curtains hung from the egress windows and plush carpet to match the curtains covered the floor.  The living room contained an overstuffed black leather couch with matching recliner with a mahogany coffee table in the center. A sixty inch flat television hung from the main wall with slim speakers on either side.

Picking up a remote, Daniel flopped onto the couch. He never watched the television, and he used the remote to turn on the stereo. As I Lay Dying came through the slim speakers and filled the room with hard driving sound. He closed his eyes as the music filled him. Angela came to his mind again. He needed her, but he couldn’t bring himself to take her. How could he curse her with this life? How could he kill her? The last thing he wanted was for her to hate him.

While the music played, he got up and went to the kitchen. The room was pristine.   The stainless steel range was spotless, but of course he never cooked. The matching refrigerator was also spotless, though he kept his snacks in there. He never entertained, so there was no food in the apartment. He wondered if he should get some soda and chips, just in case he ever got Angela to come over. He took a bottle from the fridge and popped the top, grimacing at the texture of the cold, clotted blood. Tossing the empty bottle in the recycling, he headed for his bedroom, his haven, his sanctuary.

While the walls in the living room were a deep cream color, the walls in his bedroom were a lighter shade of red to compliment the velvet curtains. His large king sized bed look up most of the floor space and had a down comforter in a black duvet spread tightly over ivory satin sheets. A large mahogany wardrobe stood against one wall and one door hung slightly open. Daniel closed the door even as he stripped out of his clothes.

He fell into bed naked. The sun was about to rise, he could feel it. Pulling the covers up over his head, his final thought as the sun peeked above the horizon was of Angela.

 

Angela rolled over and smacked her alarm clock. It was six thirty and she had an hour to get ready for school. With a yawn, she got out of bed and sleepily pulled clothes from a drawer in her dresser. As she grabbed a black shirt, the man from the night before came back to her. “Daniel LeCure,” she said to herself. He was cute, she thought, even if he was stalking her.

Pulling the shirt on, she turned to her computer. Google was her default search and she typed in his name. Lots of LeCures came up, and even more Daniels came up, but no Daniel LeCure. Puzzled but not alarmed, heck her grandmother still didn’t know how to use a computer, she headed to breakfast. It wasn’t because she couldn’t, her gran, she just didn’t have the time to bother with learning how. She was an artist, and painting was her full time profession. She had people to do the computer part of it all. She had a facebook and a myspace, but both were moderated by her manager.

At school, she just went through her classes. No one paid her any mind, and no one sat with her at lunch. It was a day like any other and she was glad when it was over. The bus ride home was uneventful and she ran home from the bus stop, in a hurry to get through her homework. Senior year was turning out to be just like the rest of her high school career. Boring, easy, and lonely. What she looked forward to each evening was writing in her journal. It was going to be her memoir, but it was laced with fiction.

Pulling the thick, cloth bound book from the box under her bed, she sat back. It had been a birthday present from her grandmother, handmade with three hundred sheets. Her grandmother had batiked the cover before wrapping the book. It was prized over all of her possessions. Turning to her desk, she flipped on her stereo and G. Love and the Special Sauce quietly filled her room. He nodded to the music as she opened the book.

“Some People’s is like that,” she wrote. She found herself wondering if Daniel would be back, and what he was like. “What’s Daniel LeCure like?” she wrote. “He’s mysterious, hanging out in my tree, watching me write. He says he’s not a stalker, but then what is he.” She turned to look out her window. The evening sun blazed through the yellow leaves of the maple in the yard. No one stood in the tree. But then, who would stalk in the daylight?

“Angela, dinner!”

Her mother called her out of her book and back to the evening at home.   With a sigh, she closed the book and headed to the table. Daniel came to mind again as she glanced out the front window. She wondered if her mother would know. Maybe her father would know something. She just knew that presenting them with a possible stalker would be a bad idea.

“Mom,” she started as she sat down. Her mother had chicken on the table with salad and potatoes and gravy. It was a typical dinner as her mother was an executive chef. “I met someone at school yesterday, but I don’t know anything about him.”

Her mother stood up surprised, but smiled. “Well, that’s why we have conversations, dear. You want to know something, just ask. What’s his name?”

“Daniel LeCure,” she said as she took a bite.

Her mother paused as she was about to sit, then shook her head. “The name doesn’t ring any bells. Is he new in your class?”

Angela shook her head. “No, he’s not in my class.” He looked older, but not much. Maybe he was in college. She ate quickly, wanting to get back to her book. “Good food, ma,” she said as she left the table.

“Thank you,” she heard the laughing response as she took the stairs two at a time.

Her room was the last on the second floor. The walls were an annoying shade of yellow, but her mother wouldn’t let her paint them. Instead she covered them as completely as she could with posters. She had many posters of the moon, the solar system, wolves, a poster of G. Love, and a couple movie posters from Dracula and Lost Boys. She had a hardwood floor that she loved to slide across from her door to her desk. A full sized bed sat in one corner with a Hello Kitty goth-style comforter pulled tightly across the mattress. She had been meaning to replace the comforter, but decided who cares? She liked gothic Hello Kitty. There was just something about taking the popular kid’s icon and giving it a skull bow and black eye liner that appealed to her.

She bent over her journal again, listening to her music, writing about her uneventful day. “School might be more fun if I had a friend like Daniel LeCure in class,” she wrote. “He seems to like me, though isn’t that what stalkers want their victims to think?”

The last rays of the evening sun set over the roof tops of the houses across the street and she glanced toward the tree again. Still no Daniel. She wondered if she had scared him off.

 

Daniel awoke as the sun finally set over the western horizon, no earlier. No alarm clock sounded to wake him. He simply sat up in bed, stretched and rubbed his eyes. Standing, he pulled the covers up tight over his bed. The wardrobe opened as he reached for it and he selected a white shirt with black jeans. It was simple and it was all he ever wore. He ran a pearl handled brush through his hair and taking his black leather jacket, he headed out.

Part of him wondered if he should take a break from visiting Angela. He had spooked her the other night and she might need a night or two to calm down. The part that loved her and wanted her here in his apartment shoved the other part down and after drinking another bottle from the fridge, he left. It wasn’t that far to get to Angela’s house. She didn’t live in the poor district or anything. It was fully night when he alighted in her tree.

Angela sat at her desk, writing. She wore a simple black t-shirt and black jeans. Her dark hair was caught up in a clip tonight and he could see that she wore the same ankh earrings she wore the night before. She turned in that moment and smiled at him.

What? She smiled at him? It was true that he had been too busy looking at her to fade in time, but she had smiled. Before he could talk himself out of the idea, she was at her window. “Hey, stalker, come to the front door.”

She had called him stalker. His spirits sank. But she had invited him in. Quickly, he dropped to the ground and approached the door. It opened before he could knock. “So you came back,” she said smiling. “Well, come on in. This is my mother. Mom,” she called to the woman in the kitchen. “This is the boy I told you about at supper.”

Her mother smiled at him, wiping her hands on a towel that hung from her waist. “Oh, you must be Daniel,” she said, extending her now clean hand. “Did you just transfer?”

“I told her I met you at school,” Angela whispered.

“Oh,” he took her hand and kissed it. “Yes, something like that.”

Her mother giggled when he kissed her. “Such a gentleman. You two going to study?”

“Yeah, I got a big math test on Friday and he’s going to help me.”

Math? He had been a noble, and well educated, but that had been more than eight hundred years ago. He had no idea what math was like now. But her mother was already waving them away.

“Well, have fun then,” she said, laughed. “But you only have until ten, then no boys allowed.” She went back into the kitchen.

Angela was tugging his hand. “Come on, then, stalker. You’ve got some explaining to do.”

He couldn’t believe it. She was pulling him up to her room. He felt like a fish out of water. In most cased, he was very confident. He came, he soothed, he drank. Now he wanted this to be perfect and he felt clammy. Still there was that disturbing nickname, Stalker.

“I’m sorry,” he began, “I don’t know your math.”

“Goofball,” she tossed a pillow at him. “That was just so my mom would leave us alone. I’m done with my math.”

Daniel had never had anyone lie to get alone with him before. This was exciting. He had caught the pillow mid air and tossed it back on her bed. Some of his confidence was returning. “Angela,” he began and stepped closer to her. “I have watched you all summer. Why are you so sad?”

She slumped onto her bed then. “Sad? No, not really. Just,” and she looked out the window as she spoke, “just lonely.”

Gently he reached out to her. She let him touch her cheek. “Let me comfort you.”  He drew her close and embraced her. It was what he had been dreaming of. But it was all too brief. She pulled away with a shiver.

“What are you?” Her voice was so quiet, he wasn’t sure if she had actually spoken.

“I am Daniel LeC…”

“I know who you said you are, but what are you?”

Daniel stood at a loss for words. He hadn’t fed yet and he knew he was cold. Perhaps that’s what had spooked her. “I have a condition,” he started, but again she cut him off.

“I Googled you. Just to see what was out there.” She turned to her computer and switched on the monitor. “Tell me that’s not you.”

He looked at her screen and froze. It was an ancient picture, a portrait done of his family and he stood behind his father, a hand on his sister’s shoulder. It had survived. Somehow the portrait had survived and was on the internet. Angela was confronting him. She didn’t look scared. “That’s you,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. “So, what are you?”

“Angela, could you love me?”

She looked at him in silence, scrutinizing his features. She wasn’t laughing. Slowly, she nodded. “I think you are the loveliest boy I have ever seen. But you’re not a boy, are you?”

Now it was his turn to slowly shake his head. “If I show you something, please don’t scream.”

She glance at her bed spread, the back at him and nodded.

Taking her hands, he opened his mouth and unsheathed his fangs. “I am what you call…”

“Vampire!” she breathed.

Daniel nodded. “But I love you. Please don’t turn away.” He caught her chin as she turned toward the door. “Let me show you.”

She was quiet a moment, then slowly nodded. “Okay. Show me what you are.” She sounded resigned, but her body tensed as though with excitement. “I so do not want to be a vampire, though.”

Daniel smiled. He had no intention of changing her. Opening her window, he wrapped his arms around her and together they lifted into the sky. She tensed against him, but made no noise. He headed to the sea, taking her to an island he often went to when he needed to get away. It was a volcanic island with natural formations and a deep cave that dipped below sea level, providing a saltwater lake in the middle. They sat on top of the highest rock, looking out at the stars and the moon.

“Sometimes I come here to think,” Daniel started. A pod of dolphins chose that moment to leap out of the water. Angela jumped, but watched in awe as the sea mammals swam and played in the ocean. “It is beautiful here.”

“Yes,” she breathed.

He looked at her, sitting on the rock. She wore a black t-shirt and black jeans. Her dark hair was caught up in a skull barrette, and the ankh earrings hung from her ears. She wore dark eye liner, but he was pleased to see that she wore no lipstick. “Forgive me,” he said, breaking the silence, “but I have seen your peers wearing similar clothing and when they go out, they play at being vampires and ghouls. Yet you say that you don’t want to be a vampire. How is it you dress this way then?”

“You’re supposed to be telling me about you, not the other way around.” She was still watching the dolphins. “But to answer you, I just like it. It fits my mood most of the time.” She paused and looked at him, gazing into his onyx eyes. “I guess that makes me more emo than goth.” She laughed, and he felt his spirits rise at the sound.

“I am a vampire, as you said. I was born the son of noble birth. My parents were killed by the Black Death. I was headed that way myself, but Michael, my master, found me.”  Daniel paused as the memories hit him fresh. It didn’t matter what the others said. For him, his memories of the time before were as fresh, sometimes more real, than the memories he had created since then. “I lived a lavish and spoiled childhood. My parents had hoped that one day I would become the betrothed to the king’s daughter. But it wasn’t to be.” He remembered when he had died. Michael found him wallowing in self pity after his parents had been burned along with their house. Daniel had been sent from the nobility straight to the destitute. He had been ready to die, or so he thought.  “Michael found me in an alley, I was consumed with sorrow. He told me he could end the pain and I threw myself at him. I couldn’t imagine living as a pauper after all I’d had. But when he drank, he stopped before I died. I begged him to end it. I was in so much pain. But he told me I would never be a pauper, I would never beg, and I could live forever. I didn’t realize how much I wasn’t ready to die, until he gave me this proposal.”

Angela swallowed as he paused. “Has it been everything he promised?”

Slowly, Daniel shook his head. “It is true. I never lived as a pauper, and I have never had to beg. But I have sacrificed much.”

“Like the sunrise,” she asked. Her voice was so quiet, he wasn’t sure if it were a humorous suggestion, but he nodded. “Have you ever wished you could go back?”

Daniel was silent for a long time. There had been several times over the centuries when he had screamed at Michael, raging against what he had become. But really when he thought about it, no, he never truly wished to go back. He gained a lot too. “Not really,” he finally said. “But that story will have to be told another night. It is one of the traits of being a vampire.”

“Dawn?” She looked over the horizon, puzzled by the lack of light. “Oh, never mind.” She blushed as she looked at him.  “Are you going to take me home then?”

He nodded. “Your parents will worry when they check on you.”

This time as they stood, she faced him and put her arms around him, laying her head against his chest. He looked down at her and her eyes were closed. “Okay,” she said quietly. “I’m ready.”

Smiling at her, he took to the sky, and in moments they were coming in through her window.

“How old were you when Michael changed you?” She stood by her bedroom door with her hand on the knob.

“I was only twenty,” he replied. “Not really old enough.” He gave her a sad smile as she nodded and opened the door.

They walked together in silence down the stairs to the front door. Her mother was in the living room reading a magazine. She looked up when Angela opened the front door. “Oh, is it ten already?” she said with a smile as she scurried to meet them. “How was the math lesson?”

“Great, mom,” Angela said, holding the door open. “I should ace it.”

“Well, it was nice to meet you, Daniel,” she turned her attention to him.

“It was all mine,” he said with a bow, and kissed her hand again. “Until tomorrow,” he said to Angela and bowed to her and kissed her hand too.

Angela’s mom giggled again, but Angela blushed. “Until tomorrow.” And without flourish, he left.

Author's Note

This is a first draft, so point out everything. Again, not going for Twilight feel.

Reviews

[Daniela.x]

I liked it. Even thought after Twilight all this 'no going out after dark' and 'fangs' vampires don't really suit me anymore. I'm too spolied with much more 'human' vampires :L But I still thought this was amazing. Really enjoyed reading it.