Monsters Under Mistletoe

5. Elise

Chapter 5

Elise

ONE YEAR LATER

T he bell on my studio door jingles as I click it closed, locking it behind the last client of the year. Every year my schedule extends further into December, and here I am, only a few days until Christmas, pulling longer hours than I ever have before.

I wish I could work through the holiday, if I was being honest with myself. Nothing’s been the same since last Christmas, not since I met Felipe.

I turn the lights off, and pull the shop front window curtain closed. I’ll stay, edit some photos, and work a while longer. There’s no sense in rushing to an empty apartment, is there?

Sitting at my computer, I make it all of ten minutes before I find myself back at the vacation rental website, refreshing the same page for the millionth time this year.

Listing Removed.

The front that the website banner is in, the same as it’s been since I checked out of the cabin, is etched into my mind.

The font’s name is Cereal, and yes, I did spend a week looking it up.

I should be mad at Felipe for just leaving me there and staying silent all this time—but I’ve been nothing but obsessed with trying to find him again.

Ever since he drank my blood, I’ve felt like there’s some missing piece of myself out there. It feels as if a part of my soul is drifting alone in those mountains.

I even hired a private investigator to find him. But if anyone knew who or where Felipe was, they weren’t saying. I guess it makes sense; he told me he preferred his solitude.

Then why couldn’t he have just left me alone that night? Why did he have to show me pleasures I’ve never even dreamed of before? I cross my legs at the thought of his touch, of his cool cock bottoming out inside me.

I’ve never come so hard in my entire life.

I minimize the browser tab and click the file folder on my desktop. The photos of my vampire are brought into view. I don’t look at them often, the images frustrate me more than anything.

Even without a mirror, my camera still struggled to capture his likeness. While the rest of the surrounding scene is tack sharp, Felipe’s face and his intense eyes are blurry, as if he moved too quickly to be captured by my lens.

I’m left with photos that feel soulless. I know what intensity those golden irises held, and I could never be happy with how these turned out because I’ve seen the real deal.

I’m ruined for anyone else, even other vampires. Awkward conversations and advances made toward me at local fanger bars left me realizing that even among his kind, Felipe was a rarity.

The younger vampires offered me cash to feed, as if that’s the only reason I could be there, for something cheap and transactional. A few even offered to turn me for a couple hundred bucks, which led me down a rabbit hole of research on what that process would actually entail.

I’d have to die, but it honestly wouldn’t be so bad if I could die to be born in darkness with Felipe. The crusty, freshly turned vamps that frequented the fanger bars weren't who I had in mind at all.

I want that part of my soul back. I need Felipe. Even his monstrous form is something I now remember fondly. Yes, I was terrified at first. How could I not have been? The huge bat wings that cocooned over us made him feel like a demon from hell. But even the sharpened features of his shifted face held those haunting eyes.

So, here I am, a few days until Christmas, alone and missing some crucial piece of myself.

With a sigh, I stand up from my desk and walk over to the coffee table that holds the half-drunk bottle of champagne, now warm as it bobs in the bucket of water.

“Merry Christmas, Elise,” I mutter to myself, grabbing the green glass neck and chugging the now flat bubbly left inside.

I’m startled, nearly doing a spit take, when there’s three quick raps on my door. Almost dropping the container from my hands, I thankfully catch it between my knee and the nearby sofa. The save of a lifetime with no one there to witness it.

“One second!” I yell as I straighten my blouse and try to make it look like I wasn’t just chugging warm champagne at my personal pity party.

I assume it’s the client I just saw out. Maybe she left her phone in the bathroom?

But when I throw back the curtain, my breath sticks in my throat and I get lightheaded. I can’t breathe. Outside my door stands Felipe in a dark suit unbuttoned lower than looks comfortable for our freezing weather.

Only uncomfortable if you need to stay warm, that is.

Those gold orbs shine through the darkness, his grin barely hiding the glint of his lengthening fang.

My hands, on their own accord, unlock the deadbolt and open the door. The damp and frigid air hits me like a crashing wave, and I finally take a breath.

“Elise, I’ve missed you.” His smooth as silk voice wraps around me, snaring me and urging me to go ever closer.

“Where the hell have you been?” My voice warbles as my chest tightens. I can’t stop myself as fat tears roll down my cheeks.

He’s here, he’s brought that piece of my soul home—it’s the only present I’ve wanted all year.

“It’s only been a year.” He cocks his head as he reaches out in what I can only assume is an attempt to wipe my tears. His hand stutters at the invisible barrier of my door and he pulls it back.

“A year is a long fucking time with no word.” I sniff, wanting so desperately to be mad at him. I can’t let him know that the tears running down my face are tears of joy. I want him to suffer, at least for a moment.

“It’s not for me. A year is a blip, so short some aren’t worth remembering. But you know what I did remember? I remembered you. Elise, you’re all I’ve thought about.” His gaze turns serious, and he flexes his hand at his side.

“But you just left me there…”

“I lost control. It wasn’t safe for me to be around you. But now? Now I’ve got a plan,” he says with some remarkable confidence.

“What if I met someone else? You can’t just come and go in people’s lives as you choose.” I cross my arms, desperate to get my point across to him.

His brows knit, and he takes a step closer to me.

“Did you? Meet someone else, mon amour ?” The same look he gave me right before he flew off a year ago flashes behind his eyes. He’s ready to run.

“Of course not.” I reach my hand out and cup the side of his face. “I haven’t been able to think of anything but you. Don’t be dense.”

He chuffs at the sentiment before putting his hand over mine.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

“Be my guest,” I say, dragging him through the threshold of my studio as I wrap my arms around his neck and pull Felipe’s body against mine as our lips crash into each other. I’m greedy for the kiss that’s haunted my dreams.

He pushes me away and I pout, wanting the man I’ve been dreaming of every night.

“You did miss me, didn’t you?” he asks with a wild grin.

“I had to kiss you, we’re under the mistletoe.” I point to the cheap plastic holiday decor hanging in my doorway sarcastically right before his smile falls. “Oh come on, of course I missed you!” I throw my hands up in the air, frustrated that despite everything, I still want him so fucking badly.

His beautiful face flashes pure joy and he lifts me with that unnatural quickness into his arms.

“You feel it, don’t you? Our connection?” His gaze searches my own, desperately seeking an answer.

I should make him wait a year before I answer him, rip a piece of his heart out and stomp it into the dirt before I respond…but I can’t.

I want to feel whole again.

“I’ve spent this entire year, which has been a literal eternity for me, looking for you,” I answer honestly. “You’re all I can think about, nothing comes close to how I felt in your arms.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, and I can feel his sadness. Are we truly somehow linked now? A pair, a partnership…maybe even a soul bond?

Does Felipe even have a soul? I don’t think I care.

“Tell me, Felipe. What’s your plan to make this better?” I urge him on, trying to be a life raft from his own melancholy.

“It’s simple. I’ll turn you and we’ll spend forever together. I didn’t want to take your mortal life from you, but I can’t watch you suffer anymore.”

“You were watching me?” I don’t know what to do with this information, but it feels good to know he was.

“From a distance, to make sure you were safe, I was always here.” He kisses me again and I can feel his wants, his desires. “I love you, Elise. I wasn’t sure what the feeling was at first, but I know now. I need you, and I think you need me too. I’ve seen your sadness.”

Felipe brings his wrist up to his mouth, nicking the vein there and drawing black blood from the wound.

“We can be together, if you let me turn you. Otherwise I’m afraid I’ll hurt you—I’d dance in the sunlight until I was ashes before I’d ever harm you.”

“Do it,” I tell him quickly. I’ve been thinking about it for months now. “I want immortality, but only with you—It’s crazy, but I love you too.”

“Drink from me, Elise. It will only hurt for a second and then we have forever for pleasure.”

“Forever?” I ask him as he feeds his bleeding arm into my waiting mouth.

“Forever.” He whimpers.

The blood is thick and ferric, filling my mouth with the texture of pancake syrup. At first my body rejects it, and I fight the urge to spit it out. The second his blood makes it down my throat, I want more—I want it all. I suck irreverently at his vein.

“Good girl,” he says as he kisses the top of my head. “Strong girl,” he says somewhat shocked. Felipe pulls his wrist from my mouth suddenly. “Not too much, that’s enough.”

The near black liquid cakes on my lips as it dries, coagulating much more quickly than my blood.

“What now?” I ask, my stomach churning from whatever magic his ichor holds.

“You drift off to sleep, and when you wake it’ll be Christmas,” Felipe tells me, stroking my hair off my neck.

“Can we open presents?” I ask, suddenly feeling a little woozy.

“Anything you want, mon cherie.”

I’m so relaxed when his fangs sink deeply into my jugular that I barely move when he begins to feed. My eyelids are heavy and my breathing slows with every suckle on my neck. Felipe strokes my hair as I slip into darkness.

“Fais de beaux rêves, Elise.”

When I wake, the first thing I notice is that my wrist no longer aches with nerve damage. As if there’s no a tether stitched poorly to my ligaments. Not being in pain at this moment makes me feel high.

I feel good, too good.

I reach my wrist up, pressing on the slippery upholstery and pushing up whatever is blocking my view. It shoves off easily, too easily, and comes crashing to the floor. Sitting up quickly, I scan my surroundings.

I’m back at the cabin.

“Well, look who decided to wish me a Merry Christmas,” Felipe purrs as he hands me a mug of something warm.

As I sniff the contents, the intoxicating smell fills the air. I throw back the thick, warm liquid inside, and it feels like a drug as soon as it hits my stomach. I’m instantly horny and aware of every nerve in my new body.

“You like A positive then?” He grins, gathering me up in his arms out from the coffin I’ve been sleeping in.

“Love it.” Something akin to adrenaline courses through me.

He’s dressed me in a nightgown of black silk, which matches his robe.

“There’s plenty more whenever you want it. I’ve had donors of all types filling our freezers, stocking up for your birth into the afterlife.”

Birth, that feels like the right word. I flex my pain free hands again, marveling at the sensation of this new body. I feel like I have control over every pore and sinew. This body feels limitless.

“But now, now I need you.” Felipe’s lips brush my own, the tenderness of his kiss quickly turning frenzied and bruising. He carries me to the fur-covered floor in front of the repaired window, the same place I had him pose for me.

“You’re right, you know, the light is truly stunning here.” A mischievous look graces his face as he pulls up my nightgown and kneels between my legs.

“Merry Christmas, Felipe.” I moan as he feasts on my pussy.

He stops his lathing tongue just long enough to speak. “Very merry indeed.” He buries his face once more. Nerves I never knew existed fire inside me.

I grip the fur throw underneath me as my world opens up. My nails lengthen and my fangs grow the more aroused I get. Before long, I’ve shredded the hide beneath me.

“I don’t need control when you’re as strong as I am,” Felipe groans as I transform. My shoulders crack as the tips of my wings snap through my perfect skin for the very first time.

“A beautiful, powerful monster. Built just for me.” He sighs as he bites my inner thigh, fangs tearing deep.

“You’re mine, Elise.”