Fate's Design Reserved

Ariel looked at him as he tried again and again to ease the pain he has caused within the ruins of her own heart. He wasn't lying to her but could she really trust him? She strokes his face gently and says, "If you want me to stay then you have to let me in. No more hiding behind your wall. No more I have to listen to you or I'm going to die. No more comparing me to Talia. And when we are done with the council we are going to leave this place for good. A clean slate. A new life somewhere. That is something you have to promise me. Otherwise our children will never be safe. Maybe I can find a way for us to walk in the Sunlight."

Judas turned his cheek slightly into her hand and stared at her with genuine care and love. "No more hiding and demanding." He promised, "And no longer will I compare you to her. You have my word and as you wish, when we are done here, we will leave. Build our home elsewhere and raise our children with dignity and honour. Anything that you wish, my love will be yours." He cupped her face again and kissed her lovingly before he smiled almost coyly at her. "You already can walk in sunlight my love." He continued, "As can I. I just choose not to do so. Watching the sun rise became a lonely thing that I could no longer enjoy and cherish. A sunrise to me reminded me only of death and betrayal, so I spurned it for the darkness. You will learn how to control your blood so it does not affect you like it does the lower beings of our kind. I will teach you if that is what you wish."....

Ariel kisses him gently and says running her fingers through his hair, "If you want to have a better future you have to walk in the light. Loneliness and despair is a part of life even for the undead. It is just weather we choose to let it win over our lives that defines who we are." She slowly begins to wash his body so he wouldn't continue to smell of the dead earth from which he rose. The soap she used smelt of strawberries and kiwi. It was not manly but it would mask his vampire smell for a while so they could walk among people safely until they were ready to strike again.

Judas nodded and smiled to her, though it faltered when he smelled the soap she was smothering him with. That would have to change very quickly. He would do almost anything for Ariel, but smelling like her was not one of them. Still, for the time being, he let her continue and when she was done, he pulled her right into his lap and spread her knees across him. "Then I will walk in the light with you." He promised, "I will let my loneliness and despair fade with the rising sun and wash away the old memories." He rested his hands gently on her hips and smiled at her. "Now my love, have you fed enough?"....

She saw the look in his eyes and knew that he did not like the smell of the soap. "Sorry I did not plan on having company here. Let alone male company. So get over it for now until I can go shopping." She kissed him and he brought her closer to him. She says to him with a smile, "I have fed enough. Don't worry. Although we will have a problem if we run into David. Considering he thinks I am dead. But that could also work to our advantage. Fear of a ghost hunting the council members. That would be interesting."

Judas smiled once more and couldn't help but laugh quietly at her cunning. "You're like a hunting fox, my love." He told her, "Quiet, unassuming, cunning and utterly devious. Whatever on this earth did I do to deserve you?" He pulled her just a little closer and then kissed her passionately as he drew her hips closer also. His intent was clear, but for the first time, she would have the choice to refuse him if wanted....

Ariel looks at him and moved closer to him. She says softly, "I am not sure either my love. But I won't spare you if you try to control me again." She extended her fangs and nips on his ear. "I know that you love my craziness. But you no idea what I am capable of." She kisses him deeply and waits to see what he wanted to do to her.

The idea of within reason came to him again, but he had made a promise and he would keep it. "I will not control you anymore." He repeated, "And yes, I do love your craziness." He laughed, "It keeps me on my toes and makes me think. It challenges me to be just as devious and crazy as you are." He kissed her back just as deeply and groaned softly as he felt his manhood stand proud between her thighs. He wanted her and he made no secret of it.....

Ariel could sense what he wanted from her as she was propped close enough to him to feel his desire. She was not as needy as he was. She just wanted to make him feel better. She knew something was bothering him and him moving on had to be hard on him as well. It is not easy forgetting the one you have lived for so long. "Judas it has to be like this for me. Unlike you I have always been alone. Battling the memories that I have been forced to endure. Knowing full well that I am just a weapon to everyone that I know. Craziness is how I have survived all this time. Even David use me for status and recognition in this town. Even though I am stronger now as a vampire, it cannot undo the habits I have had to learn to survive as a human. I have not had to be in so many battles like you but I have learned to fight in order to exist in this world."

Judas listened as she seemed to insist on explaining herself again, but he didn't berate her for it. He understood what she had been through, for he had been through much the same. Despite his desire, he shifted so that he wouldn't enter her and simply sat her across his knees. Yes, he wanted her, she was incredibly enticing and beautiful to him, but this was more important to her. "I've told you already." He said to her, "I find your craziness appealing to me. You keep me on my toes with it." He was repeating himself, he knew, but he felt she needed to hear it again. "You and I are not so different in our loneliness, Ariel. I have walked this earth for over two thousand years and almost all of it was spent alone. Yes, I had Talia and I loved her with a passion, but I only had a few short years with her before she was murdered. Like you, I have had to battle through life against people who wanted to use me or kill me simply for who I was. Why else do you think I hate the mortals as I do?" He sat up more straight in the bed, shifting her down his legs a little more. "Even before I became what I am, I was used and abused very much in the same way." He lifted her chin with his finger and thumb and stared into her eyes. "What you have been through will always stay with you, my love, it will never go away, but it will lessen over time. What matters now is what you do with the strength it has give you and you have an eternity now to hone that strength, refine it and better it. You are an immortal now, a goddess among mere mortals." He smiled at her and moved a lock of hair behind her ear....

Arial relaxed some and laid her head on his shoulder. She was not trying to kill the mood but there was more to a relationship than sex. And right now she just didn't feel that good enough to be with him. She washed his back. "Do you plan on raising a convenient once the council is gone? I mean I know that you want me to bare your children but aren't the ones you turn sort of your children too?" She doesn't know much about vampires so she was eager to learn more about them.

Judas narrowed his eyes somewhat as she began asking about the covenant and his turned vampires, considering them as children and actually comparing them to his own bloodline. He felt his anger begin to burn somewhat, but kept it held down firmly. He remained silent for a moment while Ariel washed his back. Any idea of pleasure now had left him and his mind was taken back to the very beginning.

After some serious consideration of his words, he began to answer her questions. "There will be no covenant." He told her, "There never was one and I place no intention on creating one. There is, was and always will be only one that I would ever turn willingly." He didn't turn his head, but the riddle was simple. The answer was Ariel. "I admit, I have made other vampires through the centuries, but they were necessary only at the time and when they had served their purpose, they were destroyed. They were not my children, they were only my tools and most of them were not created directly from me. My blood was stolen and given to them to serve whatever purpose it was they were needed for."

Turning in the tub, Judas faced Ariel fully and gazed long and hard at her. "There is only one way to become my child Ariel and that is to be truly born to me by blood and by pain. To come forth through their mother's womb and to suckle at her breast and to grow under my protective eye. Only then will I call him or her my child. Only when I can see my eyes and yours reflected in their gaze will I call it mine.".....

Ariel knew that he was angry with her but she didn't know. She kisses him gently and says, "I did not mean to make you angry. I just don't know much about our kind. So I have a lot questions. Can you blame me? My father did keep this stuff from me all my life. How am I supposed to understand if I don't ask?" She nibbles on his neck somehow knowing that it would calm him down. She didn't want to keep him being angry. She wanted him to be happy not angry.

Judas let his anger sink right back down again, but as she kissed and nipped at his throat, he carefully moved her head back and returned his gaze to her eyes. "I am not angry with you." He told her, "And you have every right to ask all the questions that have been denied to you until now." he sighed and cupped her head in his hands. "Everything you know about vampires, the glossy stories and fairy tails, the shadows in the darkness. It is all lies. we are not glamorous nor are we monstrous. Well, not entirely monstrous. We are the creation of man and the devil himself. We are a curse levied for the benefit of an evil, corrupt church and God, on the people. A weapon to keep them as sheep. Quiet and pious. Only, they didn't consider free will and our desire to remain living. They didn't consider the true evil they unleashed in our immortal souls.".....

Ariel looks at him as he explained himself and the truth behind their kind. She had to understand this more. She needed to do whatever she could to make him happy as long as it did not cause any harm to her or the child that could be growing inside her. She was glad that she didn't make him angry. And that he was willing to answer her questions without being angry with her. "I won't be scared of what I am. I don't mind being a vampire. I'm actually really good at something now. So I am glad that you turned me even though it was originally for your own purposes. I bet you don't usually get that kind of praise from someone you turn."

Judas lifted an eyebrow at Ariel and cocked his head to one side. "You'd be surprised." He said with some sarcasm. "From what I've learned over the years, the average mortal's most prominent dream is to be immortal. Hell, I've seen the cream adverts and the lotions and potions that you women use and the pictures of cosmetic surgery and all manner of barbaric traditions that you've created to look young always. Personally, I'd rather see a woman enter her evening years with grace and dignity, not fear and self harm like this. Frankly, it's rather disgusting." He smiled then, "You, on the other hand, will never see a grey hair, or a wrinkle if you don't want to. When you look in the mirror, you can see anything you want in your reflection. Young, old, mid-life, whatever you choose.".....

Ariel looks at him with a sigh. “That is not immortality that people want. It is just the youth they want. Our world is consumed with how we look, there is no way we could ever keep up with the demands of being perfect.” She smiled some. So she could change how she appeared, that was good to know. “I don’t mean the idea of aging. Age just means that you have wisdom that you can share.”

"Age does not always denote wisdom, my love." He replied smoothly, "I've met some very stupid old people in my years, including myself and if you offered someone immortality, they would take it in a heartbeat. Mortals fear their inevitable death more than anything, more than any other creature on this planet and I've seen almost every kind of it possible."....

Ariel looks at him trying not to laugh. “Not everyone is smart or wise. It is called giving them the benefit of doubt.” She kisses him softly before getting out of the tub. She says, “Is there anything else you would you like to do my husband?” She did not bother with a towel. She brushes out her long purple hair before braiding it so it would not get in the way. On her back, there was a black dragon tattoo. She usually kept it covered with her hair. She did not feel she needed to hide it anymore.

Having seen and learned every inch of Ariel's body, he paid no mind to her wandering the house naked. In fact, he rather enjoyed it. He knew about her tattoo, having seen it before now, but just for a moment, it looked as alive as she did and he smiled at both it and her delicious back. From quite a shy little mouse, she had become a proud hawk. Because of him, or he liked to think so. He had watched her blossom and he felt pride for himself, but also for her. For so long, she had hidden herself away under the torment of her father, but now, she could become truly whatever she wanted to be and showing off her back and her ink was just yet another small part of that.

Judas was out of the tub quickly as she called him husband and asked what he would like. He knew very well what he really liked, but she had already refused him that, so he thought of something else. "I saw trophies for dancing in your bedroom." He said. "Dance for me."

Ariel smiled some as he seemed as though he did not mind seeing her this way. When he asked her to dance for him, she went to turn on some proper music. Once the soft light music started up, she danced ballet in perfect union with music. Never missing a step or falling. She danced as though she was born to do it. The look in her eyes showed that she had deep love for the art. She was lost in the music and showing him what she could do.

Judas moved to the bed and sat down to watch as she put on some music and began to dance. What he saw not only enthralled him, but enchanted him also. He hadn't seen ballet for more than two hundred years and before then, it had never interested him much. Ballet had always been something for courtiers and harlots of the nobility back then, but to watch Ariel dance like that, he felt his heart soar. The way she moved was pure perfection and he couldn't help but simply sit there and watch her. He had no words, not a sound that could give what she did justice. And then, when she stood on toe, he felt his breath catch in his throat. Since when did they do that? But oh, how he loved it!....

Once the music stopped she stopped dancing and bowed. She smiled at him with pride and a little blush on her cheeks. She had never danced like that before for anyone special. So this was something new for her. She says, “Did you like it? I have been taking ballet lessons since I was three. My birth mother was a professional ballet dancer well before she died…” Her eyes were sad for a moment before snapped back to normal. “Anyway I feel more at peace when I dance.”

Judas was still very much mesmerised when the music stopped and Ariel stopped dancing. One could see he clearly loved it and wanted much more in the future. And then her eyes went sad for a moment as she mentioned her birth mother. It was only a fleeting look, but it was enough and Judas finally snapped out of his trance. He stood up slowly and moved to her, taking her in his arms. "Then I want you at peace as often and for as long as you can handle." He told her. "Dance until you can take no more if that is your wish and know that I will always watch and revere you for it."....

Ariel looks at him with a smile as he hugged her. She says, “Thank you Judas. It means the world to me.” She kisses him softly and then goes to put on a dress. She says to him as she puts on her dress, “I want to show you something if that is okay. But you have get dressed in order for me to show you.” She wanted to show him her favorite place to be in town.