After centuries of seducing the loveliest of women on his travels, their faces becoming a blur of delicate features, different colored eyes, pretty lips, and different shades of hair from blonde to black, he had begun to grow bored. Yes, all these women were beautiful, and their blood helped to easy the never ending thirst, but they also bored him endlessly with their insipid and predictable reactions.

Then he had met her.

Didyme.

He had been in Rome at the time and had been thankful for the overcast day. He was hungry and wanted to start his hunting early and the clouds had provided just the right amount of cover for him to start walking through the marketplace in search of his meal. The vendors were closing up their shops, putting up their wares behind sheets of heavy fabric. Bundling up into his cloak to ward off looks since it wasn’t necessary to ward off the chill, his eyes took in the scene around him. Slaves, young and old, were helping their masters and mistresses. Children were running here and there, excited that the day was over, ignoring the splashes as servants threw water on the cobblestones to clear way the remnants of the day’s work. He had been wondering how picky he would be about his meal when he heard her laughter.

The sound had stopped him I his tracks. It was like the sound of music to his ears and it would have set his heart pounding if it still capable of beating. The need to find the source of that magical laughter was stronger than the need to feed and he turned around slowly, ignoring the boy who had come up offering him some trinket or other, as he turned slowly. He didn’t even notice as the boy caught a glimpse of his blood red eyes and ran away. Other, more important matters were at hand.

He stopped when he saw her standing there. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever set eyes upon with her flaming red hair intricately piled on the back of her head with dark blue ribbons. Her skin was the color of fresh cream with just the faintest of blushes under the scattering of a few freckles that were sprinkled across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. The color was even more enticing against the dark shade of blue of the dress she wore.

He was already planning how he would lure her in, wanting her blood more than he had wanted anything, when she turned, as if sensing that he was watching her. It was then that those impossibly colored, midnight blue eyes caught his own. As if that weren’t enough, her perfectly shaped lips turned up at the corners in a smile that made him catch his breath as she looked at him.

She was perfection.

It was no longer about wanting her, it was about needing her.

Yet, even knowing that he had to have her, his feet didn’t move and he stood there, staring. Most women, most humans for that matter, would have been put off by being stared down by a creature such as himself, but instead she just smiled, curiosity lighting up her eyes. She was the one that actually took the first step towards him, though her gaze flickered to the man at her side.

For a moment, as her gaze left his, he felt a stab of unbelievable jealousy that almost stole his breath away. He was still pondering at this surge of feeling when he used his ability to sense what the relationship was between this woman who had bewitched him and the man by her side. It seemed that she viewed the man as an authority figure of sorts. Not a father, no, but someone she respected.

She was speaking so softly to the man that he couldn’t hear what she was saying above the noises of the marketplace. The older man gave him a dubious glance then let her go. As she approached he could find no fault. She was beautiful, graceful, even if she was human, and when she spoke her voice was what the stars would sound like if they could sing to the gods.

“Good evening, friend.”

He didn’t know if he was more surprised by how beautiful he found her voice or by the fact that she had dared to speak to him at all. Standing still as a statue he just watched her as her gaze grew more curious, and then slightly uncomfortable as he continued to stare.