The Vampire & Her Witch

Charlotte arrived in a dress of deep, rich plum-purple embroidered with hundreds of tiny, silvery blossoms. Around her shoulders, she wore a light lace shawl dyed the color of ripe raspberries that cascaded past a daring valley of pale, creamy cleavage before the tips of the shawl tickled Charlotte’s broad hips.

To Adala, Charlotte always looked lovely, and the slightly crooked smile on her plum colored lips combined with the pale pink blush on her cheeks and the twinkle in her hazel eyes to create a vision that would have melted Adala’s heart on the coldest of days. But the way she’d dressed up tonight sent a different kind of thrill through Adala’s heart as she let herself imagine, just for a moment, that this night meant as much to Charlotte as it did to her.

”Thank you, Elgon, for escorting her here,” Adala said politely as she came forward to welcome Charlotte into the room. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and she felt warm in a way that had nothing to do with the fire crackling in the hearth, but her steps were smooth and steady, and her movements were as graceful as more than a decade of lessons had trained them to be when she reached out to take Charlotte’s hand.

”I’ll leave the two of you alone,” Elgon said politely. ”If you need me to escort Lady Charlotte back, I’ll be at the end of the hall for the next few hours, or I can escort you both to breakfast in the morning,” he said with a wink to Adala that Charlotte couldn’t see before he stepped back and closed the door.

”It’s beautiful here,” Charlotte said as she took in the bright and colorful decorations. The sitting room smelled faintly of woodsmoke combined with a medley of sweet and savory aromas that called out to her, but Charlotte’s eyes were filled with the sight of Adala in a dress unlike any she’d seen on her before.

”You like it?” Adala said, stepping back and doing a slow turn without letting go of Charlotte’s hand. The air filled with the musical sound of dozens of tiny, tinkling bells as she turned, giving Charlotte the feeling that a piece of the fading sunset visible through the window had wrapped itself around Adala, singing joyously to have found such a beautiful young woman to adorn.

”You’re beautiful,” Charlotte said a touch breathlessly before her face heated and she quickly corrected herself. ”I mean, the dress is beautiful, like it was meant for you and you... You’re beautiful too,” she said, stammering slightly and wishing she could come up with a better word than simply repeating ’beautiful’ over and over again, even if that was how she felt.

”You’re beautiful too,” Adala said, giving Charlotte’s hand a squeeze. ”The plum, it really suits you. You don’t wear it very often, but you’re always stunning when you do...”

”I thought it would look good next to you,” Charlotte said, smiling as she took in the range of hues in Adala’s musical dress. ”I didn’t expect you to wear something so different...”

”In the Iron Kingdom, the soil itself turns red like rust, and the rocks too,” Adala said as she led Charlotte toward the small table set for two. ”Reds and yellows as far as the eye can see and not much that grows or turns green. When I was there, I liked colorful things that didn’t blend in with the ruddy world I was in,” she explained, omitting the fact that she’d picked this one for a reminder of Charlotte’s colorful, playful whimsy.

”You could never blend in,” Charlotte said. ”Not there or here or anywhere.”

”No, but maybe there’s somewhere I could fit in,” Adala said, walking over to the hearth to retrieve the earthenware crocks that had been sitting close enough to the fire to keep dishes within warm and carefully bringing them to the table.

”Did Lady Ashlynn tell you about the academy she intends to form?” Adala asked, approaching the topic in her heart from a safe distance. ”Are you planning to attend?”

”I am,” Charlotte said. ”I’m a little scared,” she admitted as she started removing lids from the earthenware crocks Adala placed on the table, mostly to have something to do with her hands that suddenly didn’t seem to know where they were supposed to be. In her lap? At her sides? Better to be doing something helpful.

”Ashlynn said that there are more and more humans coming to the Vale all the time, but she still expects that it will be mostly Eldritch people for the next few years,” Charlotte said. ”She says they’re very nice people, but I keep thinking about the stories that Father’s knights told about the War of Inches and... It’s hard to be brave,” she said in a small voice.

”I remember my father’s stories too,” Adala said as she set a loaf of crusty, freshly baked bread that she’d left just close enough to the hearth to stay warm and soft. ”But I’ve decided he lied to me about too many things to believe much of what he said about the Eldritch,” she said as she moved to stand behind Charlotte, wrapping her arms around her and setting her chin on the other woman’s soft, rounded shoulder.

”But I’ve been far away from home at an academy before,” Adala said. ”So, I’m going to pretend it’s just like that and... If you need me to, I’ll be brave for both of us...”

”If you’re there with me,” Charlotte said softly, leaning her head against Adala’s. ”Then I think I can find a bit of courage too.”

”Of course I’ll be there with you,” Adala said. ”As long as you want me to.”

”Mmm,” Charlotte said, closing her eyes and inhaling the light fragrance of rosehips and sandalwood that clung to Adala along with the feeling of fierce protectiveness that lay underneath the other woman’s words.

”Um, Charlotte,” Adala said, pulling back and walking around to take her seat at the small table. Elgon had suggested that she place their chairs on adjacent sides of the table rather than sitting across from each other, and she breathed a silent word of thanks as she settled into the seat that was close enough to reach out and take Charlotte’s hands.

”Did, um, did Lady Ashlynn tell you about her, um, her relationship with the Lady of the Vale?” Adala said awkwardly, hating the way she’d stammered. She’d made up her mind to approach the topic slowly and see how Charlotte reacted, but now that she was sitting here, with her heart hammering in her chest, every word was three times as difficult to say the closer she came to the feelings in her heart, and each one wanted to stumble over the one before it as the words got caught in her throat.

”She did,” Charlotte said, smiling brightly at Adala’s uncharacteristic awkwardness. Normally she was so sharp, but tonight, Charlotte felt like she’d slipped past all of Adala’s thorns to the beautiful, soft flower they protected, and she found her incredibly cute.

”I’m happy for Ashlynn,” Charlotte said. ”She’s been through so much; I’m glad she found someone like Lady Nyrielle who makes her feel happy and whole and loved,” she said, placing her hand on top of Adala’s and feeling the other woman’s warmth.

”What if, what if I said that you make me feel that way?” Adala asked haltingly as she stared into Charlotte’s hazel eyes, seeing herself reflected there. ”That when I’m with you, I feel happy, comforted, and... and loved in a way that no one else makes me feel.”

”Come here,” Charlotte said, reaching up and gently cupping Adala’s cheek to draw the other woman in so she could answer with something that expressed her feelings far better than words.

Slowly, their faces drew closer together, and Charlotte tilted her nose to the side just enough for her lips to brush against Adala’s.

For a moment, Adala stiffened, taken off guard by Charlotte’s sudden move, but then her lips softened, parting underneath the gentle pressure of Charlotte’s kiss.

The fire in the hearth cracked and popped, and soft shadows danced across their skin, but neither woman noticed as their eyes drifted shut and the world fell away until there was nothing but the feeling of soft lips, searching tongues, and warm hands pulling each other closer in a moment they hoped would last forever...