Rosalie had awoken to a strange sense of peace and awareness. Every nerve in her body tingled with static electricity. She'd been dreaming of a mysterious stranger with a head full of lush blonde hair and eyes like a clear carribean blue sea.
Suddenly overly warm, she threw the comforter from her body and opened her eyes. Rosalie was a classic beauty. With the body of a virginal teen, her green eyes and chest length blond hair she was a piece to be desired by vampire and human alike.
She was seventeen when she'd decided to run away and elope. Unfortunately, even then her choices proved falty, and upon meeting her betrothed, she was bitten on the neck and felt her life, her very soul fade away from her. She woke later in her own grave, forever changed. Never to get any older, never to marry or have children but instead to live decade after decade after decade feeding off the life blood of innocent men and women.
It was still day outside she noticed, glancing towards the window. She could feel the weight of it, the unbearable heat even with the windows covered with thick curtains.
Slowly Rosalie stretched out her lithe body, feeling every muscle loosen and stretch in welcome release. Her room was dark. But she was a creature of the night, and it had been a long time since her eyes had been forced to adjust to anything much brighter.
She sat up in her queen size, red velvet bed, her pink silk night gown brushing against her body in just the right way to make her nipples harden painfully. Or, maybe it was that irrevocable sense of being watched that put her body on edge and made her hunger for release of a much different sort.
Her dream... He had been there again. The same man she had dreamt of for longer then she could remember. Since before she had been made into a blood sucker. He'd claimed her, promised her his protection same as he always did, and yet when she woke he was never there. But something was different this time.
Her jade eyes scanned the room as her awareness quickly became nervous energy. And there it was. The one thing that could make every cell in her body jump with excitement.
He stood in the corner, lazily leaning against the wall and piercing her with those all to familiar warm blue eyes. And just like in her dreams she felt paralyzed, unable to speak or even cover herself from his heated gaze. Though even if she was willing to deny it from the world should she be asked, she could not deny from herself that she liked the way he looked at her. He made her body feel alive.
He seemed taller in person, perhaps six feet, compared to her five foot four, petite body. His hair was shoulder length and as bright as she remembered the sun being. Even from across the room she could see those same blue eyes, full sexy mouth, and straight nose.
She watched in open mouthed amazement as a slow smile spread across his dangerously handsome face.
"I wondered if I would have to wait until nightfall for you to awaken." His voice was thick and flowed like warm honey. And there was the hint of a lilting accident she could not place, perhaps Scottish or Italian.
Rosalie's chin tilted defiantly as she summoned the will to speak.
"Do you often break into a woman's house to watch her sleep?!" She asked. It mattered not how long she'd dreamed of him, or how badly he turned her spine to melting ice. He had broken uninvited into her home, trespassing on ground more dangerous then he could possibly know.
Her words only seemed to amuse him, for he chuckled and pushed himself off the wall to stroll several feet closer to her.
"No." He said casually. "But then I'm always willing to make exception for a special occasion." He sounded so calm and confident. His hands shoved into the pockets of his black jeans. And even with a t-shirt and waist length black leather jacket it was impossible not to notice the wide set shoulders and broad chest. It was enough to drive any woman to panic, and in this even Rosalie was no exception.
"And what special occasion do you imagine justifies this?" She bit out sharply. Unable to completely hide the curiosity from her voice.
Caspian was close to grinning now as he watched her. She was even more beautiful then he imagined. Even from across the room he was aroused by her presence, her courage in the face or fear. Fear that he could smell as easily as if it were a rose from her garden.
He advanced several more steps, quickly shortening the distance between them. Only four feet remained and it was not nearly enough to offer Rosalie any semblance of comfort. Her nerves screamed warning at her. Somehow she had to get rid of this man, it was the only way she would be able to sort this strangeness out, and determine the purpose for dreaming of this stranger.
"Do not come any closer..." She warned. Her voice dripping with as much venom as she could muster. And to her complete agitation he shrugged as if it mattered not at all.
"I merely thought, you wished to know why I'm here. Is that not what you asked?" His eyes never strayed from hers, and his voice remained very patient and even, which perplexed her. She had struck fear into many with the imperious voice she'd just used on him, and he barely seemed to notice.
"I did, I do," she bit out a bit too quickly. Her desire to know was fastly becoming an over bearing obsession, and his gaze was far too perceptive for her sense of well being. "But," She added, "if you come any closer I may be forced to hurt you."
His only response was the doubtful lift of one blonde brow, only one shade darker then his hair. "You don't want to hurt me Rose." he murmured so quietly she had to strain to hear his words. And a deceitful tremor ran the length of her spine at the sound of her name on his tongue. She did not question how he knew her name. It seemed the natural order that he should know.
He continued, "Besides, you'll find I'm much stronger than the men your used to..." He took another step forward as if deliberately calling her bluff. And she believed what he said. He seemed much stronger.
Power and strength radiated from him as forcefully as the deadly sun radiated heat. And he wore the power as easily as if it were the most natural thing in the world to him.
