Moonlit beauty

Their bright eyes seemed like beacons of light on the darkness as they gazed at each other.

A step, another, then one more they moved drawing closer to each other due to some unseen force of attraction.

Hāto suddenly found himself standing before the strange lady, his body froze as he felt the warmth of the both girl's hands upon his cheeks. For someone as him, he couldn't possibly have predicted the next moments.

Huh?

Hāto felt the warmth of her lips pressed against his, her tongue wrapping against his in fluid motion. His heart skipped a beat and his eyes wide open from shock watched as the blonde lady pried her lips away from his, a thin silver string connected both their lips for several seconds before snapping. In the next moments Hāto watched the lady's eyes lose focus as her consciousness faded before falling onto him.

***

The world was dark but the secluded alleyway stood darker still.

Hāto sat on the bare ground with his back against the wall, his eyes focused on the bewitching beauty asleep with her head on his lap. The numerous cuts on her body had long vanished leaving nothing but pristine ivory skin underneath the rips of her clothes. It made for quite a sensual view but that wasn't the point. Hāto marveled at the fact that the once battered girl had miraculously recovered from her wounds. It took no less than seconds for her injuries to completely heal and he had watched every step of the process, all that remained was a single gash spread across her back that refused to heal, and even then the macabre wound had stopped bleeding.

Her eyelids twitched lightly before parting. The lady's conscious eyes had regained their glow and as she struggled to understand why she found herself on the floor a voice called out to her.

"Welcome back sleeping beauty."

She promptly rustled her body from the ground and rose on her feet, her hand on her head as she reeled from a slight headache. A condescending gaze fell upon Hāto after her struggle to regain her balance. Then her hand clenched tightly into a fist from which an neuseating amount of blood flowed forth before coalescing into the solid shape of a sword, it's edge against Hāto neck drawing blood as it grazed his skin.

"Where... Am I?"

Hāto met the lady's fierce gaze with one of his one, the distance between them crackling with unseen tension. After growing tired of looking up to the lady, Hāto turned his gaze to the ground. He pushed the blade pressing against his neck away with his finger and then rose to his feet simply nonchalant about the lady's strange abilities.

"Forgive me but I find looking up to someone quite distasteful. If I'm to die I'd rather do it standing tall, or something like that."

Wait, did that come out right?

Hāto explained their current location as best he could. He had doubts as to if the blonde beauty could have been a lost, drunk cosplayer, which were quickly dispelled in the next few moments.

"To...ki...o?"

For some reason a baffled expression was the lady's response. It didn't take very long before she regained her composure.

"How far are we from the divine empire?"

Divine empire?

"Interesting. I don't know what rock you crawled under but these days empires are a thing of the past. Also, do you just go about randomly kissing every new person you meet?"

The crimson blade of blood dissolved into an amorphous liquid state before retreating back into the lady's body.

"Sorry about that."

The blonde beauty turned around taking her leave. Her face tightened as if she were in pain.

"Hey, don't walk away. You have to take responsibility. I'll have you know that was my very first kiss."

"I already apologized, just deal with it."

"You're a vampire, aren't you?"

The lady had previously ignored Hāto's snide remarks but at the mention of the word vampire her already slow pace came to a halt.

"I'm not."

Her soft voice sounded grim as she glared at Hāto with murder in her eyes. Even from a distance her heightened sense of smell could perceive the inviting smell of blood that still flowed down Hāto's neck.

I'm not a vampire.

Struggling to calm herself, she seemed at conflict with her inhuman nature. Her teeth clenched tightly as she stood frozen in place staring Hāto down.

"Run."

"Don't worry, I don't mind."

Hāto pulled on the elastic collar of his shirt and bared his shoulder to the lady.

"You'll regret this."

"Try me."

It all happened so fast. His human eyes couldn't possibly keep up with her inhuman figure as it moved almost instantaneously.

Hāto found himself in the warm embrace of the lady, her arms wrapped around his body with absurd strength, breaking free seemed like a futile dream. Before he had any time to process what was happening the lady's lips parted revealing sharp fangs that sunk deep into his flesh drawing blood. A wave a pain assaulted his brain.

It hurts.

Hāto's eyes widened in shock but he quickly regained his composure. He was losing a lot of blood and in pain too but a strange smile masked his face as he closed his eyes.

What's this feeling? It hurts but I don't dislike it... I see.

His raised his hand and placed it on the back of her head before running it down, caressing her hair.

After several minutes of passionate embrace, the lady let go of Hāto who now had dark circles under his eyes. She stood a shy distance away from him with her hand wiping the line of blow that trickled down the corners of her lips before bringing it to her tongue. The sight of it utterly enticing.

Suffering from anemia, Hāto struggled to remain on his feet.

"Before I forget, my name's Hāto. What's yours?"

The blonde beauty hd a hard time looking Hāto In the eye after hurting him. Her face was turned to the side as she gazed at the moon directly overhead.

"Sapphira."

"Sapphira, huh? What a beautiful name."

Just maybe, I think...

Caught unaware by Hāto's compliment, the lady faced him with a befuddled look on her face. Then Hāto straightened his back and looked her in her eyes and stretched his head, his smile had grown weak.

"Sapphira. I think I'm in love with you."

After saying those words, Hāto felt the world grow unsteady. His surroundings slowly dissipating into darkness.

With a smile he unceremoniously fell to the ground unconscious.