I couldn’t sleep. There was something about the night that was pulling me towards it and, regardless of the fact that I was exhausted and that I had things to do early the next morning, I couldn’t help but respond to the drag.

I lived on a horse farm; that was where I worked. I never was very adept at school and barely managed to graduate whilst supporting myself. I’m much more in my element around this farm, where I now work full time training, breeding, and teaching riding lessons.

Now, many may wonder why a girl such as myself needed to work throughout high school. Others could guess: I’m an orphan, or as good as one, I suppose. My father walked out on my family when I was too young to remember and my mother has been in rehab for the past fifteen of my twenty years of life for about every drug addiction in the book. Please don’t pity me, I don’t need it. I’ve never been much of a people person and I was not one to take school as seriously as I should, but I’m much better off than some that come from the same background as I did. I don’t drink and don’t do drugs as a rule for myself (I don’t want to become my mother), and I have a good job that I enjoy. That’s enough for me.

But I digress. My insomnia was driving me insane and the room I was in was stifling me. I quickly rose and dressed as if in a trance, moving out the door without my customary flashlight—I didn’t want it or need it; it was a nearly full moon tonight and the sky was clear.

The boots I had hastily pulled on crunched through twigs and grass as I walked slowly across a pasture and towards the woods nearby. A very old forest, the trees were big and widely spaced, and smaller foliage grew in thick patches between them. Paths wound throughout the forest—I often took groups on trail rides through them—and I could walk them in my sleep (convenient in my current drowsy condition).

My face turned up towards the moon as I entered the woods, flashing in and out of site as shadow passed overhead. Silence permeated my senses; even the crunch of my feet against the ground seemed muffled. My breathing was even and slow and I allowed my mind to wander.

Silence. That was odd.

I slowed, bringing myself back into reality for a moment. I had walked these woods at night many times, but it had never been this quiet. There were always owls, bats, and other nocturnal creatures that would create a silent orchestra throughout the woods, but tonight it was curiously absent.

The silence that had once seemed soothing was now eerie to me. There was something wrong, and I didn’t want to be a part of it. I wasn’t about to delude myself into thinking that it wasn’t an issue, or that I was being silly. This place frightened me, and I wanted to get out. Now.

I spun, fully intending on running full speed back to the safety of the farm.

A man cloaked in darkness barred my path.

I screamed, the sound muffled by the blankets of trees around us. Should I have been out in the pastures it would have echoed and amplified. Not here.

I staggered backwards, tripping slightly over a loose root before regaining my footing and dragging in a shaky breath, placing as much distance between myself and the stranger as possible.

The man’s eyebrows rose, I couldn’t see his eyes but the slight wrinkling of his brow was indication enough, as if he was mildly surprised by my outburst. His head tilted slightly to the side in thought before straightening again, as if he was evaluating me. There was a long pause, broken only slightly by my ragged breathing, before he spoke, his voice deep and velvety smooth.

“I’m sorry, did I frighten you?” His tone indicated he wasn’t sorry at all, and I blanched.

“Yes.” I said bluntly, wanting to pull my eyes from the dark face of the figure but finding myself incapable of doing so.

He was tall, well over six feet, and the moon shone enough through the trees to tell me his hair was dark and closely cropped to his head. He was clothed entirely in black, his wide shoulders filling out what appeared to be a leather coat. His head was slightly bent, however, in such a way that his face (save for his brow) was barred from my vision by shadow.

He chuckled then, a deep, soothing sound that made an involuntary shudder run down my spine. He took a small step forward and I flinched, which made him halt again, emitting a short sigh as if he was annoyed.

“You shouldn’t be frightened of me, if I wanted to hurt you I would have done so long ago.” His words were meant to be comforting, but I was hardly satisfied with such an explanation.

“I don’t believe you,” my voice shook with fear. I don’t cope well with fear. I’m not brave, I don’t deal with stress well, and I’d be the first person to admit it. This strange man terrified me, but he was currently blocking the only way back to what I knew was safe.

There was a short pause where he considered my answer before replying. “Is there anything I can do to make you not fear me?”

A bubble of hope rose in me, “Go away?”

A smile was in his voice, “Other than that.” My bubble burst.

I blurted out the first thing I could think of, “Show me your face.”

He chuckled and I thought he would refuse. Instead, he murmured an almost inaudible, “Alright,” before stepping closer to me and more fully into the moonlight, raising his head to stare into my eyes.

My breath caught in my throat and I was lost. Beautiful, was the only word that I could use to describe this man. Models in magazines vaguely came to mind as my eyes moved over his flawless face, but I knew comparing him to them wouldn’t do him justice. From his deep-set eyes to his strong jaw he was the ideal human form, and I couldn’t help myself but send a silent prayer of thanks to the heavens for showing me this kind of perfection.

He smiled a lop-sided smirk, flashing me white teeth for a moment, and I sent a second prayer up directly behind the first. His words brought me back to reality, however. “See, and now I’ve distracted you.”

I was never one to tolerate vanity, but somehow I received the impression of sad acceptance rather than ego. He wasn’t bragging, just stating a fact, a little sadly actually. I, suddenly and inexplicably, wanted to understand why he was sad.

I grasped at words, “You… I….” I stopped, too a deep breath, and with more conviction this time, “Who are you?”

He made a small move closer to me and I fought the urge to step back. Barely. “I’m Isaac.”

Another step closer; he now stood five or so feet from me, his hands thrust into his coat pockets, his stance deceptively casual. Somehow, even just standing there, he reminded me of a loaded trigger or some kind of wildcat, ready to spring into action at any moment.

His next words cut through my thoughts, “You shouldn’t walk around the woods at night, Kris. There are more dangerous things out here than me,” he cracked a smile and I caught another flash of white, “not many, but a few.”

Despite the fact that he bizarrely knew my name, I managed to choke out, “Why would you be dangerous?”

He—Isaac stared at me in appraisal for a moment before murmuring, almost to himself, “Why indeed,” before he began moving towards me slowly, step by step.

If I had thought his demeanor was predatory before, that was nothing compared to now. His feet made no sound as they moved over the brush I had just noisily stumbled across, his hands pulling out of his pockets and rising slowly towards me, as if he thought any sudden movements would startle me (he was probably right). His eyes smoldered dangerously and I instinctively staggered back again, uttering a strangled yelp as my back met a tree. He continued to move forward until his chest was inches from mine, his right hand brushing my cheek lightly before cupping the back of my head while his left gingerly grasped my arm. My breath came shallowly, my chest rising and falling in haphazard movement. Screaming was useless, no one would hear me, and I felt painfully helpless.

His hands pulled my head back so he could look me in the eye, and I was once again given the impression of how big he was. I wasn’t a short girl, and yet he made me feel unbelievably fragile. His dark eyes searched mine for a moment before he said, almost as if he was trying to convince himself that his words were true, “You have no need to fear me.”

“What makes you so sure?” I whispered breathlessly, suddenly very aware how close our faces were.

“I’m sure,” he whispered back, his eyes roaming my features before returning to lock my gaze again.

At this I flushed, pulling back from his hands that barely kept me anchored in place. I ducked my head, pressing myself back up against the tree behind me firmly, keeping myself as distant from this strange… Isaac… as possible.

“Shit.” His whispered curse was gravely.

That was all it took for the trigger to spring into action. His movements followed mine as he wrenched me roughly to him again, his hands pulling my head toward his as my breath dragged in a shallow gasp. His lips found mine then, slanting over mine in a kiss that made my head spin. My eyes, wide in surprise, fluttered shut, and I instinctively returned the kiss.

Feeling my acceptance, he pushed me up against the tree, effectively pinning me as his hands lowered to graze over my shoulders and down my arms to grasp my hips, grinding them against his own. I gasped into his mouth and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue in, deepening the kiss.

My mind whirled. I was having a difficult time processing what was going on, what with his insistent mouth on mine and the fact that his thumbs were tracing circles on the bare skin of my hips and stomach beneath my shirt. My hands blindly slid over his shoulders and back, subconsciously massaging muscle there. His mouth pulled from mine only to begin trailing hard kisses across my jaw and down my neck, one of his hands burying itself in my hair and pulling my head gently back to give him better access.

In between kisses he murmured words in my ear. “I’ve been watching you for ages Kris. I love the way you treat the horses better than the people you work with, and the way you’re frightened of ever trusting anyone. I’m selfish enough to want to be an exception to that rule. I know I’m not good enough for you, but I can’t help but love you anyways. Forgive me for being so weak as to not leave you alone tonight. I know I scare you and I’m sorry.” At this his tongue dragged up the side of my neck, across my pulse, and I had to remind myself to breathe properly.

He stopped suddenly, taking me unaware, and I uttered a discontented sound, surprising myself back into reality. I didn’t even know this man and I was allowing him past the carefully constructed walls I had around me. What was wrong with me?

I shoved myself off Isaac and to the side, forcing my wobbly legs to move at least a few feet from him. I was panting, I realized, and not in fright as before. Swallowing hard, I stared at the man who was now leaning heavily against the tree I had just vacated, his head tilted as he stared at me, his face contorted in an emotion akin to misery.

His voice was so soft when he spoke, I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly at first, “As much as I may wish it, I can’t make you a snack though, even if you won’t remember it, because I will.”

I frowned in confusion. A snack? I voiced my question out loud.

Isaac straightened then, considering me for a long moment before answering me. “Kris, what do you think I am?” After a short pause, he added, “Please don’t think logically about this, because I don’t make much sense.”

My mind ran fast-forward through the events of this evening, from my compulsion to walk through the woods, the silence all around us, his sudden appearance, almost alien beauty, and the fact that being around him felt somehow right… ending with his mention of a… snack.

Everything clicked into place.

And Isaac was correct; it didn’t make much sense at all.

“Vampire,” I whispered, suddenly feeling the weight of the situation in front of me. Numbness crept up my spine and I held off the sudden urge to faint. It would be unfair of me to reject this of him.

Isaac nodded slowly, his features betraying the pain and apology he felt. His hands rose again and he stepped slowly towards me. Again, I denied myself the immediate reaction to flinch away. Something about this was very important to him, vital even, and I felt like I didn’t have the right to deny him this.

His hands slid into my hair, pulling my head back gently to slide down my neck and across my shoulders. Gentle fingers brushed my back down to the small of my back, where they halted. His dark eyes held mine, and what I finally saw there shook me.

Agony even I had never felt dwelt in those depths, as well as a hunger, a need, for something he thought he could never have. I understood that kind of pain, and I wanted to let him know, but words would not be enough.

My hands lifted from my sides slowly, shaking as they reached to slide along the sharpness of his jaw. His eyes shut in ecstasy, and a small part of me smirked in feminine triumph. I pulled his head down gently, tilting my head as I kissed him as softly as I was capable.

It was sweet and tender, and I expressed as much of my understanding into it as I could, which likely wasn’t much, but it was all I had to offer. Pulling back a long moment later, I dropped my hands from his face, watching as his eyes slid open again and locked with my own again.

The gratitude… the joy I saw there… startled me into a sudden epiphany. What I would do to ensure that joy remained there forever… the list was endless.

In that moment I made a decision that changed my life forever.

I pushed my hair back from my neck, tilting my head back and to the side so it was bare to him. Isaac’s eyes widened in shock, flitting back and forth between my exposed neck and my eyes, his expression unsure. I understood the gravity of this situation, and was fully prepared to accept the consequences of my decision.

A long moment passed before his hand lifted to stroke his fingers along my neck longingly, “Are you sure Kris?”

I knew from the moment I kissed him this wasn’t about a snack anymore, and I nodded resolutely, “I’m sure Isaac.”

He moved forward then, cradling my hip against his and cupping the side of my neck gently before lowering his head towards me. I felt his breath on my skin for a moment and I could feel he was gauging my reaction—checking if I was sure—and I merely shivered at the sensation.

Then his fangs slid slowly into my neck and I knew the meaning of joy.