A water nymph; her dark, coy smile beckons me. So close I can smell her blood from the wound reopened. Head spins….motion trails and the hunger twist in my stomach. Too weak from the spirits to fight, the demon mask slips on. Darkness holds me in her grasp, caught in the claws of her scent and the taste of her lips. Her warm body fuels my flame, a taunting laced with promise release.

The water cools my burning flesh as all my thoughts drown in the sea of her. Deli, how she invokes the vampire in me – part I long hope to bury. Feral and primal I know at the hands of my beloved, her quest for her growl. But the silver platter set before me bathed in crimson juice invites a new depth to explore. Strawberries dry on my lips from the heat, licking them slowly with the taste of bloody memories. I know. She desires and I know.

One tentative finger snakes through the grass of confusion to the lesion. No air turns my lungs into the hollow drum for my heart. Gentle caress and I am red, sweet and sticky. Appetite moves my tongue through the pearly white fangs cursing my mouth to tickle the Turkish delight on my fingertips. Ruffled, billowed, rolled and curled, how the colors change when my eyes open. I own the Darkness now; she’s in me and of me and through me. Her purple and blue tendrils twist and tangle my hastening heart.

Half a waltz through the dream of water, I press her against the edge. Trapping and crushing, my hands flutter and flap along the gates of heaven, unbuttoning and unzipping before separating from her form. Clawing and climbing, her mouth covers mine, idiom jutting past my deadly columns. My ridged visor doesn’t frighten her; palms press against my head and hair. Everything slips like sand through my hands, where I am, who I am, why I am…the moment captures me and binds me tight to the road. Our journey begins.

Free and floating, she takes me in. Coursing and gushing, the stream running between us with the rhythm drifts elegies to our connection from the bowels of our soul. One drought replaces the other and my true countenance floats to the surface. Flowing over each other, touching and tasting cannot be enough. Diving deeper, swimming leads to drowning, for which I long. Everything she promised, the treasure chest opens and I dig deep for the gold.

The wave breaks. She dissolves, puddling and pooling in my arms. The nymph teems against my skin, her blood pulsing just below. Salty, sticky and sweet tastes of Darkness. Shuttering, pulsing and shaking, my head spins more from her ebbing than the spirits imbibed. But the sparkle begins again in her eyes, as she pulls herself from the water. The tinkling, trickling rain a trail to veranda dais. Her motion incites my following, the rest of our vestiges removed.

I turn her. From behind, our dance begins again, each step moving along the path. Smooth like the stream, we run down the mountain at rapid speed, each ripple and reef marks against the building torrent. I am in her and of her and through her; thundering pulsing in my ears. With a crack of lightening, my storm demolishes against her shore. White light, distant rumbling spins me, as if her vital juices are against my tongue again. Lost and found…

My Darkness tenses, tells her crest never fell. Dryad eyes over her shoulder play pleased with the midnight swirls long for release. So many options, any boulevard will drive her to her destination. But one, the one she pushed for, pressed for, could be mine to give if I am brave enough. My demonic mask catches her breath in her throat as she prepares. Tracing one finger down her spine, I choose the most celestial cloud and sink my teeth.