The sincerity of his words had been received by Miss Birmingham as they had been intended by Sir William. He meant every word he spoke. That inner part of him that remained connected to his human self still had a human brain, and believed every lie he told to achieve what he had set out to do. But his vampire ruthlessness and seduction was truly the devil inside that ruled his nature.

Once Catherine stepped back into her room and moved aside in order that he could come in, he had already entered her in his mind; his hands had already unbuttoned her petticoat; his kisses were already traveling from the small of her back up to the nape of her neck. And her luxurious hair, that most wondrous place where the smells of each woman were held like flowers kept in a sealed box, would cover his face and caress his skin. Indeed, she would writhe on top of him, throwing her hands above his head to support her body. Her pert breasts would fall before him, offering themselves to his mouth like raw, uncut rubies to a skilled jeweller. She would then be helpless. She would take him deep into her, as much as her body would allow, and then disappear into him.

"I do believe chocolate is the work of Satan, would you not agree" asked Sir William mischievously. His cock throbbed. Stepping into her room, he shut the door behind himself. His clothes emanated the vampire aroma and Catherine almost swooned. When he opened the box to reveal the prized sweets of wrapped truffles, he watched her eyes flicker.

"I only wish for you to indulge in this extravagance. The shop owner assured me that he imports only the finest cocoa from abroad. I have already indulged in his offerings and they are nothing short of exquisite."

He saw the small hairs on her neck stand up. The bonnet he had seen earlier in the day was gone. Neither was her hair tightly coiled but rather, her ringlets had fallen out, splaying across her shoulders. Even the cleavage of her dress revealed her breasts like fresh rosebuds blooming and turning toward the kiss of the sun. He consumed her even before he had laid one finger on her body or before his lips had touched the moist texture of hers. To be able to watch her unwrap the chocolate and bring the delicacy to her lips was pure pleasure.

I reveal to you

my nature and secrets

when you listen quietly

I tell you what I mean

when the blood is pumped into my veins.

I pursue your heart

and fall toward the day.

When last it arrives,

first to tremble

is the morning grass.

Where else will logic lead you to,

in my haunted cave, wet?

Will you paint your likeness

on my walls?

He skated toward her swiftly, his feet and legs well acquainted with the rhythm of skating even though he had not worn a pair of skates in almost a year.

Magdalene's warm smile was a beacon of bright whiteness under the dark bridge and he had only to imagine how divine her lips would taste in the cold.

Samuel abruptly tilted his body to an angle and with both blades cut a sharp edge on the ice. He stopped inches from his wife. "Like stealing candy from a baby."

"My gorgeous boy," beamed Magdalene. "I heard the sirens and I saw the helicopter lights. I think you pulled the entire police force away from their posts to chase after you. You are such a devil."

"I'm the devil you know and love," said Samuel, pushing his pelvis into his wife's body. He planted an enthusiastic kiss on her lips. Desire raged like a fire inside Samuel's loins...

Magdalene Crimson melted in sweet ecstasy. The pain hardened her nipples into rubies. Her legs were an eager, open mouth, spread far apart on the fine-oak stretching table. She gripped the clamps intensely. The worse the crack of the cane stung, the stronger grew her desire.

Samuel possessed her, changing the pitch and rhythm of her quivering flesh with rapid cracks. When he struck fiercely, the electric impulse of contact made Magdalene feel alive. Each crack felt like a hot wasp sting, reverberating and pulsating for seconds afterward.

Samuel instructed Magdalene in the arts and magic of hard play, exploring new dimensions of pain in their sanctuary, a place where boundaries were pushed in privacy.

The attic's slanted walls of brick and wood exhaled the sweat and flesh of her scent.

Her subtle and unusual aroma of fresh cut grass, her reddened flesh and writhing limbs seduced Samuel wholly. He marveled at the awesome strength of her body. Sir William Simon Hennessy, Magdalene's predecessor, had transformed her into an extraordinary female, the one and true vampire on Earth.

I stand knee-deep in water

so cold, and fall even lower

than imaginable, below the ground

where dreams are no longer believable.

I only want his body to take me home,

to show me the way, to needing,

to knowing that I want no other man,

to come inside me.

I tell him everything,

when the cock strikes havoc

around midnight.

Magdalene believed if she had lived during the early years of Picasso she would have shamelessly offered her body to him as a model, a lover, a harlot, to share one kiss, a warm embrace, to copulate into late night until sun shattered the silence of naked morning.

Her train of thought was broken by a prominent man behind her who smelled intoxicating. Her nose deceived her. At first, she believed he smelled of cut grass, distinct and oddly alluring. She turned and locked eyes with his thousand-yard stare. He had at least five inches in height on her.

Instantly, she turned away and moved on to Between the Years covering Picasso's surrealistic period, the Graphic Alcove, the Garden of Delights, Mythologies: From the Centaur to the Minotaur. Magdalene was aroused by the images of the Minotaur over powering and ravaging women.

She saw herself in the images.

Samuel was alone. He hadn't anticipated the huge line-up and wished that he had come later in the day when the crowds would thin out. He was determined to see each pencil sketch as closely as possible. His height afforded him with the ability to gaze over the heads of those around. He watched with amusement as one particular, outstanding woman pushed with intensity and determination, moving her body into the crowd, inching closer, until it seemed that her nose would touch the glass. She was lost and enthralled in a five-minute examination of each sketch. Stepping into her, he smelled an unexpected scent he couldn't place his finger on, a subtle, bitter spice that reminded him of frankincense.

Her hair fell past her shoulders. The warm weather of Montreal had frizzed and curled the ends.

The quiet breathing, the subtle looks, the continuance of body, the fluidity of lithe limbs and the propulsion of unrequited love; all were physiological qualities playing out in him, for he thrived as the ultimate for centuries without equal challenge, until he encountered a free-thinking woman. And every woman wanted him, in the very old past before women were permitted a voice, long after women won emancipation, and well before women knew better of him. All women wanted to be devoured and made whole by him.

But not her.

He was unprepared for her ambivalence, for the unbreakable love she held for her husband that fortified her iron will. He truly believed she would die before betraying their love and because of it, he wanted her all the more. To bed her for one night, before hurling himself into the deep well of eternity, before transferring the burden of knowledge and responsibility, he wanted her to want him, to become a possession of his reality of time and future.

Sir William removed two nectarines from the bottom crisper in the refrigerator and cut the fruit into halves, coring the centre pit and placing the fleshy treats onto a small plate. He then poured a glass of fresh water into a beer pint glass. He smelled the soft, fragrant aroma as he handed the food and drink to Magdalene.

"Kindly follow me into the dining room," my dear. The crispness of the day's light, exploding through the kitchen window, cast long shadows of Sir William's profile against the beige walls.

"Yet another myth, of which they abound... coffins and wood spikes and garlic cloves and coming out only at night, all nonsense, as though being blessed with immortality could be defiled by sunlight, nor do I have to subject myself to sleeping in the cramped quarters of a coffin. I do not sleep one wink, in truth. I meditate, which is as close to slumber as I come.

Myths perpetuated in pop culture are generally wrong, such as the demonstrative symbol dating back to Roman times when emperors executed Christians, criminals or gladiators... a thumb pointed upright in fact meant death, whereas a thumb pointed downward signified a sword being sheathed into the ground but of course the belief has been incorrectly re-used in film. It gives me a laugh... these enduring myths are far older than me," said Sir William.

"You don't sleep at all?" she asked.

"Never," he replied.

"Ever?" she asked again.

"You don't dream then," she surmised.

"Dreams I miss, I must confess. And what of your dreams?" he inquired.

"My dreams have crazy patters. I can't figure them out at all."

"You lose your shoes or purse quite a lot, do you not?" he asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Instinct," replied Sir William.

He didn't have to touch her

to know her thighs were as smooth

as the hour long.

He didn't have to feel her skin,

to know his grasp would slip

in his hands

holding her firmly

he needed only,

to stroke her hair once,

its length longer than his fingers

wanting the nape of her neck,

he knew her.