Lacrimosa

Lacrimosa 

The Cello stood firmly between her thighs as her hands played the haunting song Lacrimosa from Mozart.  The orchestra was all hushed and the audience sat attuned in their seats, their faces all in a frozen look of aw, their gazes never wavering. Cathlina was one of the finest Cello players in the New York Symphony Orchestra and she had traveled to Italy to play for the Pope.  Here was her moment to shine on the world around her.  She was shining so very brightly as a dying star gives off its greatest light before it implodes and leaves nothing but a fierce vacuum.  Her dress lifted teasingly close and covered by her cello alone.  She played feverishly, her every thought given only to the music in her heart, her mind and it flowed from her fingers like lightning to the bow as it flowed across the strings with perfection. Then the aria was completed and Cathlina was left momentarily confused as to wear she was.  She stood up and her dress flowed freely back down as she moved from behind her Cello and took her bow.

He watched her that night, brought into the auditorium by the enchanting sounds that were brought forth from there.   Mesmerized, he slipped in through a back entrance.  He stood there listening to her play and gazing longing at the intensity her soul portrayed.  How fire seemed to spew forth from her.  He closed his eyes and amidst the scent of everything and everyone around him, he could smell her.  The scent of Jasmine and Rose filled him though she sat far away.  He smiled then, a smile he had not been able to break for so long.  He gave a smile that broke through some dark mask that had been his for what seemed an eternity.  Then there was the other feeling within him, and the soul reason he was about that night.  His hunger filled him and her scent was making it claw its way out faster.  As silently as he came, he was gone.

Paris was beautiful Cathlina thought.  Just the city for her to bring out her own beauty and then both the city and she could shine as one.  For to her there was no one better than she and it was after all her world in which she lived.  It had not always been so, she had been lost for so long.  She petted a small song bird in her hands and thought about her own life. A life that was someone else’s tormented her and teased her for years.  Something about that night had changed her forever.  The last night she had played.  Years ago it seemed.  She was but a child then, she thought.  Cathlina looked out at the starry night and smiled at it.  She must be off to bed, so that she may dream of him again.  In dreams she thought, never in reality. She looked down at her hands now streaked with blood her hand now a clenched fist.  She stared down at the song bird which had become nothing more than a mass of feathers, skin and crushed bones.  She smiled and dropped the bird to the ground below her balcony and went to wash her hands.

He came to her that night as she slept, her long hair falling across her face.  He reached down to brush it away.  She didn’t move his touch was so light.  Standing above her he inhaled deeply taking in the all too familiar scent of Jasmine and Rose. Another smell overtook him and overwhelmed his senses.  It coursed through her veins and he could hear it as loudly as one could hear the rampaging of wild beasts, or a raging white water river.  Her very essence, her blood beckoned to him. Weakly, he fell to his knees beside her.  He had lived alone all of his existence taking what he wanted from whom he wanted.  Yet, for some reason he could not bear to take from her his desire, couldn’t force her to give him what he needed.  He clutched her bed sheets and cursed himself for what she was causing him to be.  A wicked fire burned in him, a horrid flame from hell itself.  He lifted up and raised over her with a demonic possession in his stare. 

Cathlina opened her eyes and stared up at him.  She didn’t know if she were still dreaming or not.  The unholy glow in his eyes only brought curiosity to her.  No fear flew through her mind.  She saw him fall to his knees and in an instant she was down beside him beckoning him to get up with her, in which he did.  “Are you my angel?” she asked

He thought about this for a moment.  A bitter smile played across his lips.  He was about to take her life to ease his own suffering and she asks him if he is her angel?  What kind of angel, but of darkness and evil?  What kind of angel that would live on blood and then devour the souls of others.  Neither fully vampire nor demon he was cursed with both of the realms.  Never had he felt anything but an ungodly wickedness and scorn, and hatred for all mankind.  Yet when he had found her that night, he had been lost.  Completely to her and feared her discovery would cause such a weakness he wouldn’t be able to stand himself. 

She looked at him and smiled.  Something unknown, and unexplained somehow passed between them.  “Giuseppe?”  She grasped his hand in hers and lifted it up to her cheek and he closed his eyes.  She kissed each of his fingers down to his wrist and bit into him fiercely and his blood flowed freely into her mouth.

His eyes jerked open and he looked down her lips clamped over his wrist drawing out his blood and taking it into her.  The feeling was explosive for him and he growled deep within.  She removed her lips.  He moved his finger and lifted up her chin.  He stared into her eyes and what he saw was the most charmingly wicked look he had ever seen in any being.  He stood up pulling her to her feet.  Her pajama’s hung loosely around her as he lifted her up and carried her onto the balcony and then disappeared with her in the shadows.

Cathlina awoke and found herself in a dark room, with mirrors everywhere.  So much so that she was the first one she laid eyes upon before rising out of the bed. She made her way down the hall and into a grand room where music played.  She recognized the tune.  It was simply the introduction to Lacrimosa.  The song that she had played her last so many years ago

She stepped lightly on her toes into the grand room that was lit only by candle light.  Her eyes fluttered shut and she started swaying the beginning of the tune.  Her feet pivoted and she dipped and spun.  As the song picked up, so did her step.  Her eyes opened as she saw him sitting before her in a large armed chair.  Her step never faltered and her gaze transfixed on him as her movements intensified.  Her eyes never left his except for the occasional pirouette. 

Giuseppe stood up and grasped Cathlina by her hand with his own and her waist with the other and she spun her and dipped her.  Their feet kept in perfect time with the song and with each other.  Their movements were as one, and he lifted her and brought her down with such tenderness and form. 

Cathlina turned in a step and she could see them.  The girls, their naked bodies chained at the throat anchored to the stone floor.  Their gazes were forlorn as though they knew not where they were.  How aloof they appeared to be.  In the embrace of the dance she noticed more of them.  Dried blood on them, bite marks. She looked at Giuseppe and the music had stopped. 

“Cara Mia, my love.” He said to her.  The only words out of his mouth and she was smiling up at him.  He lifted her up in his arms and carried her away to some secret place, grabbing a hold of a chain and pulling a girl behind them. 

Cathlina shoved the body from the bed completely let of blood, save for a finger that she ripped off and nibbled the flesh from and tossed the bone. The bed stained red and Cathlina looked down at Giuseppe.  They shared a smile between them with an understanding that no other being could have possibly understood from another. Their souls connected on a level that extended far beyond time and space.  It transcended universes and broke through the barriers of life itself.  Cathlina curled up under her lovers embrace and clung close to his body.

Giuseppe looked at her and kissed her blood stained lips and inhaled deeply of her scent forcing a low growl to rip from him.  He touched her cheek with his finger and traced it down to her jaw. 

“I knew you would find me my beloved.” She said wickedly

He smiled sleepily. “Just as I will find you in every other life.  You cannot escape from me no matter how hard you try.  No matter where you try to run, I will find you.”  He kissed her eyes.  “Go to sleep my beautiful little darkling we have lives to ruin. You will need your strength.”