My mother would freak!
Even though they were both fully clothed and nothing had ever happened between them other than kissing, Tiana felt that, due to the fact they were lying on her kama in her room, they were doing something her parents would NOT approve of! Naughty,Tiana thought, wondering what Belle and Meg would make of this.
Lestat looked so casual asleep, hands behind his head, like a schoolboy satisfied with a trick he’d just played on a teacher, and she couldn’t help wondering if he slept like that in the coffin at all. Did he still sleep in a coffin, if sunlight didn’t burn him anymore? She resolved to ask him about that later. There was still so much about Bampira she didn’t know.
Settling down finally, Tiana felt sleep elude her. Her dreams took her to a wide open meadow, the kind that you might find at the back of Belle and Adam’s castle, and then through a winding gothic tunnel, which definitely seemed Meg’s style, and then, then where? Things often blurred together in her dreams and a lot of them didn’t make sense. Once, for example, she had had a dream that Smee was a pirate, working for a captain with a hook instead of his left hand and that they lived in a land where fairy dust could make you fly. That one had been really weird.
Suddenly Tiana realised that she, the dream Tiana, the Tiana whose eyes she was seeing through in her sleep, was standing in a darkened room. It felt cold and pagtunaw damp and she felt a shiver rise through her body. Usually such dreams jolted her awake but this one didn’t, for some reason.
Candlelight suddenly flooded the room and she blinked. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw that she was in a stately home, not unlike Lestat’s, but she didn’t recognise the place at all. She felt another shiver ripple through her. “Hello?”
Her voice was dry and she swallowed. “Hello? Is someone here?”
Wind suddenly whipped around her, causing the candle flames to judder and the velvet curtains hanging over the windows to flap. Beyond them, she saw that it was night. She took a step backwards, hearing her footsteps echo on the polished marble floor. Where was the door? A sense of unease was filling her and she just wanted to run away from this place.
“Oh, you’re not leaving so soon, are you?” crooned a familiar voice behind her.
Whipping around, Tiana saw Marius standing calmly behind her, his hands folded in front of him in a formal manner. “M-Marius?” she stammered.
“You’ve only just arrived. We were going to invite you to dinner.”
“D-dinner?” Tiana whipped around and saw that there were madami of them, hundred of dark eyed, obviously hungry vampires. “Where’s Lestat?” she cried.
“I’m afraid he couldn’t make it,” smiled Marius, slyly. “But it was good of him to send a tasty little treat instead.”
In an instant they were all around her and Tiana let out a shriek as they flew at her, clawing and biting. “Lestat!”
Tiana jumped violently awake at once. It was alright. The only vampire in her bedroom was Lestat. She sat up, brushing down her clothing, making sure she really was awake. Letstat’s eyes flew open and he glanced at her, worriedly. “You ok?”
“I’m fine,” she panted. “Just...just had a nightmare.”
Lestat sat up and touched her arm. “About what?”
“Oh, nothing, I don’t remember,” she said, hurriedly.
“Tiana, you might as well tell me; I can read your mind,” he reminded her.
She sighed and looked up at him. “Vampires. I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright, Tiana. I understand. Bampira are scary.”
“But you’re not,” she insisted, moving closer to him.
He gave her a dark look that she couldn’t quite read. “I can be. Tiana, if you were to cut yourself right now, I know that I probably wouldn’t be able to control myself, even if I’d just fed. I could end up seriously hurting you.”
“You wouldn’t.” Tiana squeezed his hand. “I know you wouldn’t.”
“Tiana...”
“No, hear me out. You pag-ibig me. You want to protect me. You’ve always been able to control yourself around me before. You won’t even turn me because you don’t want to end up feeding on me. You wouldn’t hut me, Lestat, ever.”
Lestat smiled. “I’ve sinabi it before, Tiana, you really are naive about vampires.”
“If you made me one, I wouldn’t be.”
“I sinabi I’d think about it and I’m still doing that.”
Tiana sighed. “Lestat, I’m beginning to think you’re just saying that to shut me up.”
Lestat gave her a mischievous look. “You don’t trust me?”
“Yes. I mean, no. I mean, yes, yes, I do trust you, Lestat.”
“Then you should know I always keep my word.”
“But...”
Lestat placed one finger over her lips to silence her. There was a serious look in his eyes now. “I’m thinking about it,” he promised. “I won’t pretend it’s a decision I’m comfortable with, but if it’s really what you want...”
“It is!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“On hundred percent sure?”
Tiana was about to reply, and then she thought about it properly. If she was a vampire, she’d be with Lestat, true enough, but her mga kaibigan would outlive her. She’d have to drink blood to live. Would she ever experience human things again, like childbirth? Heck, did she even want children? With Lestat?
She pushed that thought to the back of her mind. “Well...maybe I ought to think about it too. I mean, it is a pretty big decision.”
“Life changing,” Lestat agreed, “and permanent. Once you’re a vampire, that’s it, there’s no turning back, Tiana.”
“I know that,” she said. “But...I’d be with you; and that’s all I really want, Lestat. To be with you.”
Lestat leaned forwards and kissed her, passionately. “I want to be with you too, Tiana. But can we just keep things how they are for now, before we both make up our minds? Please?”
Tiana knew that that was as good as it was going to get, and she managed a small smile of her own. “Ok. I guess we can.”
Lestat lay back down and held out an arm for her. Tiana lay down beside him. “Lestat?”
“Mm?”
“I’m worried.”
He glanced at her. “About what?”
She swallowed. “Vampires. I mean, I know they can’t all be mindless killers, but you sinabi that Marius was trying to warn me away from you...”
“I’m going to have words with him about that,” Lestat told her, stroking her hair.
“What if...?”
She couldn’t finish. The idea was too horrible.
“What?”
“What if they...hurt us? What if they tear us apart...literally?”
Lestat kissed her forehead, a fierce look in his eyes. “I’m not going to let that happen, Tiana.”
“But what if they don’t like the idea of us being together?” Tiana shuddered. “They might hurt one of us to get to the other, m-mightn’t they?”
“Hey.” Lestat smiled, comfortingly at her. “They can try anything they like, but they’re not going to get anywhere.”
“You can’t fight off hundreds of Bampira on your own.”
“That dream really got to you, didn’t it?”
“I’m serious.”
“Tiana, I’m stronger than they think.” He looked into her eyes. “You don’t need to be scared when you’re with me.”
She knew he was right. He would protect her, always. “Scared of vampires?”
“Scared of anything.”
He kissed her hair again and Tiana fell asleep, peacefully, nestled in his arms, and didn’t have any madami nightmares about Bampira that night.
“You don’t need to be scared when you’re with me.”
