Alysa climbed the stairs of her home, towards the attic, which she rarely ever did, as her attic contained pieces of her
past which she preferred to simply forget, and to leave locked away growing dust like broken shattered dreams and silent reveries.

This night however, as she opened an old hope chest, Alysa looked into the dusty chest, and the items inside.

She fingered old pearls, a shawl that was older than the house she was now living in, a pair of lace gloves, victorian
style earrings.

"Its in here somewhere, I know I put it in here somewhere...." Alysa found the diary, pulled it out, and began to thumb through it, reading.

It was by her, back in her mortal days, before her life was forever changed by the vampire who had created her.

She read the book quietly to herself.

'I met the most handsome man today. He has the most beautiful, most expressive most haunting eyes I have ever seen.
Although I know its not something a lady should be doing, I picture him ripping the clothing right off of me and......well doing things which would cause my conservative religious mother to squirm at the thought of them. But, he never comes out before it is already very late, and, I am so tired in the morning if I dont get my
beauty sleep......'

Alysa smiled a bit reading her own, politically correct ladies journal. "If I had written it today it
probably would have sounded like an erotic novel.....he was one fine hunk of burning man. But so are a lot of other male vampires. Perhaps its the forbidden element, how many young women haven't dreamed of a
night in Dracula's arms?"

Alysa closed the journal, putting it down pulling out a Cameo pendant that had once been her mothers, slipping it around her neck. That necklace had been the thing she actually had been looking for.

Alysa closed the trunk, blowing some of the dust off of it around the room, making a note to herself that she needed to get busy and clean up this attic before to long.

Alysa brushed down the folds of her black pantsuit and yellow duster, and then began to descend the stairs of her apartment.

She grabbed a matching black leather purse to carry with her that evening, slipped out the door, deciding to not bring the car this evening and to simply enjoy a walk under the silvery moonlight.

This night in so many ways was like the one before, and the one before that, and the one before that, just simply monotonous.

She found herself craving some action, craving the presense of someone to share this evening with. The young man whom she had run into already a few times over the past few nights, the man who simply would not just leave her mind.

"I wonder if he knows what I am? I wonder if he would care?" Alysa asked herself softly, quietly. She put it aside and decided that for the moment she was not going to worry much about such things. She might never even see this young man again. She certainly wasn't going to hunt him down. No her life would not be incomplete if she never
saw him again. He was a mortal, a man, he was a man and she was not craving his presense. She was bored. She was bored and it was nothing more than that.

"My life will not be incomplete if I never see him again. My life wont be over.....I'll get along.....I will......I will...." Alysa told herself after she stopped in front of her reflection outside of a bridal shop.

"Who wont you you be shattered if you never see?" The voice of Daniel, Alysa's object of desire came behind her.

Her heart sunk. What where the chances that this man would be walking right here, right now, right when she spoke of him, of all things?

This was like slimmer than the chances of being struck by lightening in the middle of the ocean while singing the blues. It was just not likely.

Alysa turned in his direction. "Daniel....I just, I was talking about my cat, Iggy...."

Alysa quickly lied. She had no cat but she could not for the life of her dream of admitting to this young man that she actually was talking about the fact that she was pining for him.

How could a vampire tell a mortal, that she just maybe was falling in love? This was ridiculous. She was not supposed to be conquered like this, she was the predator, he was prey. She should sink fangs into his tender throat, possess him in this moment and only in this moment before this went to far, before it became too dangerous.

Daniel suddenly kissed Alysa and she felt the heat between them. His scent stirred her passion, her desire her lust for blood.

Her lips wandered to his neck, kissing, she elongated the fangs, then drew back.

"No, I cant, we cant do this...." Alysa turned around and began to run away from him.

She knew if Daniel kept pressing her, she was going to either end up killing him, or turning him. But she didn't know
how she was just going to forget him, he had gotten beneath the skin like an infectous disease.

Daniel chased after Alysa. He was getting annoyed with her emotional outbursts and constantly running away from him.

"Look listen to me. Its not you being a vampire thats making this difficult. It happens to be you being difficult that makes this difficult." Daniel was irritated with her. He wanted her to just stop playing hard to get, or impossible to get, or unavailable, or unapproachable, or whatever signals she was sending out that said that she was afraid.

"I dont know what your problem is....but seriously woman, you need toget over it because your the powerful one. Your the vampire. I'm the mortal your the one who's always been in complete control over this...."

Daniel turned around and started to walk away from Alysa. He wasn't holding his breath when it came to her however. She may have had forever. He did not have forever.

Daniel turned his back on Alysa. Considering that he had figured out what she was, a lot of people might not have thought what he was doing was really that smart.

Even though he knew that if most people knew about his fascination with Alysa, his bittersweet crush that he carried with him as his burden, they probably would not approve at all. The woman was a blood-sucker, not exactly the kind of girl you take home to meet your mother, even though Daniel's mother had been gone for years, for some
reason Daniel could not help but think about how she would feel about the prospect of her son having fallen in love with a creature that so many mortals believed was an evil abomination.

As Daniel began walking down the street towards the bar to get a drink, and try to forget the woman who just did not want to leave his mind, he did glance back once or twice to see if Alysa had followed.

He sighed when he saw that she had not. Perhaps she did not feel the same, or maybe she couldn't let herself. He did not know exactly what the woman's deal was, but he did not have forever to stand around waiting for her to decide whether or not she could take a chance with him.

Daniel slipped into the seat in the bar.

"Would you like the usual Danny?" The bartender asked as Daniel slipped into his favorite seat getting comfortable.

"And lots of it..." Daniel said in reply. He picked up a localnewspaper and began reading about some local murders, and found himself wondering if anything supernatural was responsible for them.