The Lion and The Lamb

You'd never suspect such a union between their kinds, a bloodsucker, and an otherworlder. She didn't intend to fall for him, it was something that just happened. It had been her first time among mortals and she had no intentions of returning home after their meeting.

The full moon had fallen over the highlands of Ireland when Mia Lockhart stepped through the forbidden veil between the mortal world and the Otherworld. The young eighteen hundred year old fairy looked like your average everyday teen, at least on the outside. Her hair was a fury red, with perfect, full curls blowing slightly against her back in the soft wind. It carried the smell of fresh summer rain and the burning fires of the cabins only a few miles away from her. Bare feet brushed against the long blades of blue-green grass and purple lilac flowers. Dew of each little water droplet stuck to her white gown and the ivory flesh of her legs as they brushed against the grass. She explored the lands lit up by only the moon’s light with amusement and joy in her eyes. Emerald greens danced along the countryside taking in the views for the first time ever in her long life. She smiled, brushing her curled locks behind her ears to listen to the songs of the crickets and frogs moving to the rhythm of the creek running through the field. Fireflies, grasshoppers and sleeping butterflies woke up flying around her while she danced to nature's music. The Otherworld was beautiful for sure, but this was unlike anything she had ever seen. It was rare and beautiful at least to her.

Her dancing brought her to a fresh running spring where she dropped to her knees soaking her dress from ankle to knee. Scooping up the water in her hands she sipped it, a smile on her face at the refreshing taste. It tasted like spring and honeydew and she didn't want to stop drinking. For coming from a world full of magic, this world was much more magical than she could have imagined. For as far as her eye could see she saw the ley lines of magic dancing across the Irish lands. She could feel each element move through her, and hear the natural world speak to her. They could say what they wanted, but she knew she belonged to them. With her now still, the lands went once more calm as if nothing had disturbed them at all. Mia closed her eyes and just basked in the silence, in the peace, in the night air. That was until the scream came.

It was blood-curdling, and nature suddenly went into a panic. A disturbance had woken a darker magic. Mia's eyes flew wide open and turned to the direction of the scream. Stepping out of the stream, she pulled up the soaked white gown and ran for the danger. It was in her blood to take on whatever was attacking this being in danger. Her feet came to a complete stop when she came upon what looked to be a man pinning a woman to the tree. He had his mouth on her neck, blood poured down her undergarments and Mia was frozen in place. She should have done something, saved the woman crying out for help while he gorged himself on the blood from her veins. However, she could not. The moment she caught sight of him, her heart raced though not in fear but of something far stranger to her.

He caught the scent of someone standing there and dropped the nearly lifeless body to the ground. Blood stained down his chin, neck and bare chest. It was clear this was not his only victim of the night. The monster rushed her, appearing before her in seconds inhumanly. He was shocked when she did not jump or run from him in fear. It didn't do not matter, she was a witness, she could not live. Mia did gasp a bit when he grabbed hold of the back of her neck. It ran up, grabbing the underneath of her hair and pulled back her head to expose her neck. Fangs extended, veins popping out under his skin, and his eyes were bloodshot, the true image of a monster indeed. His head dipped down to the nape of her neck, but the moment he went to bite down, he stopped. Taking in a deep breath, soaking in her scent, he quickly let her go. She didn't smell human, and her blood was more than intoxicating, but it was different. It should have made him attack her and drain her, but he could not hurt her until he knew what she was.

Retracing his fangs, he backed away from her brushing a hand against her cheek. Her breathing settled, her pulse stilling before she fixed her head to look at him. Drawing her eyes from the sky she looked into his eyes. Without the blood covering the whites of his eyes, they were bright blue like sapphires. Through them she could see his whole life. His childhood, his teenage years, his first love, his first wife, his first child, the battle in the French war, his death, his rebirth, the murder of his first wife and children, and every murder, potential lover and home might have had over the past three hundred years. Before he could speak, she beat him to it with a heavy Irish accent he couldn’t quite place.

“Damion Maddox? A vampire?” She said softly hoping her information wasn’t miss communicated. Damion was taken by surprise hearing her speak his name but it was the fact she knew what he was that made him step back further. He had never encountered a creature like her in his life, it was a bit unfair she already knew about him. Walking towards him, she lifted her ivory toned fingers and ran it down his cheek, making him quick to grab hold of it. His eyes moved to the pulsing vein in her wrist with that intoxicating smell.

“What are you?” Damion asked looking back into her eyes. He had three hundred years for his accent to fade, but you could still hear the French twang as he spoke. Letting go of her wrist quickly with a growl, he wondered why he had so much control around her.

“I am what the Irish call an otherworlder, though to others I have heard us called fae for fairy. Why do you not hurt me, as you did the woman?” Mia responded before asking a question of her own curiosity over his sudden self control. Her eyes looked over his shoulder to the woman's body, who's remaining blood stained the grass beneath her. “Would I not taste the same?”

Damion gave a scuff and racked a hand through his shaggy blonde locks. Blue eyes focused on hers once more as she drew them back to him. For the moment suddenly his own undead heart was racing with something he had not felt in over three hundred years, love. How was it possible? He had just met the fae girl and knew nothing of her. Mia looked down to his bare chiseled chest still drenched in blood from his victims and ale. Her fingers once more lifted to touch him, but he was quick to grab them and shove her back. This time he did not let go, backing her up slowly while he spoke. “Your blood is intoxicating and I would love nothing more than to gorge myself in it until you die in my arms. For whatever reason, I can not hurt you.”

“But…” Mia went to speak but gasped when her back hit the tree and she was pinned between him and the bark. Still no fear struck in her eyes as he had hoped they would. Of all the things in the world he had but one fear, love. Having killed his first wife and son, he vowed never to love again. Yet here this beautiful woman, calling herself a fairy stood and he had that feeling again. Her lack of fear only made his heart flutter more.“Do you want to taste it?”

“Yes.” Damion growled out his words greedily before letting her go and stepping back slightly. This time Mia grabbed his hand to stop him, the other pushing red locks from her neck to expose the flesh.

“I want to know what it feels like. I want you to taste me. Please?” She spoke so calmly, and reassured he almost couldn’t believe it was her talking. Damion forced his eyes from the pulsing vein in her neck to her green eyes which were begging him to do it.

“I don't even know your name…” He replied, stepping closer once more. One hand on the tree beside her, they were so close he might have kissed her. Inside he scolded himself at his own words. Rule one: never get close to your victims. It made you feel sorry for them, and remember their names in the future. Yet here he was, being drawn closer by a fairy and taking names. He paused the hand she was holding taken away so he could crease her cheek down to her neck. She moved her face a little closer, only being held back by his hand on her chest applying slight pressure to keep her from coming any closer. Their lips inches apart she smiled softly.

“Mia.” She whispered softly only her name, her eyes looking at his lips so close to hers she could almost taste them. Damion took in her scent once more allowing his fangs to extend as he almost silently said her name back to etch it into his mind. The sound of her name being whispered off his breath was enough. He lowered his head to her neck, laid a soft kiss to the flesh before his fangs pierced her flesh.

A soft gasp came past her lips, but only for a moment before the two were lost in the brief moment of passion. It was as if they were connected as one. Damion wandered in the back of his mind if he should in fact drain her dry because she did indeed taste so good, but he stopped after a brief moment or two and retracted his fangs from her neck. Mia's dress was now soaked in her own blood but she didn’t mind. Her eyes opened, not realizing she even had them closed and she bit her bottom lip. His bite was like nothing she had ever felt before. It was intoxicating, dangerous and almost like a drug giving her a high. Damion backed from her only a few inches closing his eyes licking the last of her blood off his lips. Her blood was like a high he didn't want to come down from. Opening his eyes after a few moments, he could see things he had never seen before. He could see the magic of the world around him exposed through her blood.

Both laughed before looking in each other's eyes once more, like diamonds they glistening in the moon’s rays. Damion didn't want this feeling to end, not the high, not the love in his heart, and not her. Both his hands clasped around her face cupping it between them. He had just leaned in for a kiss when a shot of light forced him to fly backwards. He landed screaming in pain, his hands covering his burning face. Mia screamed, calling out no as she used her own light to deflect the balls of light coming for him. Coming into view were her sisters Alana and Claire. They had been in search for her since she departed the Otherworld. Mia ran to Damion aide, but the two fairy girls grabbed hold of her in attempts to run back to the rift before the dark creature could recover.

“No Alana! No Claire! Let me free! Let me help him!” Mia cried out struggling against their grips. The youngest of the siblings fought as hard as she could agonizing over watching him wither in pain. The girls tightened their grips on her and used all their strength to pull her along with them.

“He is a monster Mia! We saw him feed on you! He will kill you Mia and still your light! You must come back with us.” Alana, the eldest of the sisters, attempted to reason with Mia while struggling to keep hold of her. Mia screamed as Damion attempted to recover from the hit and hide from the light Claire was still casting off. She could hear him call for her and she would answer between begging for her sisters to let her free.

Alana could not have predicted what happened next, but she was sent flying from her sister in a flash of light. Claire turned only to be hit by the same amount of force in the opposite direction. It was enough to knock the girls out and give Mia the chance to run back to her vampire. Damion was struggling to get up having been blinded by the light until his eyes could heal. Mia crashed to her knees beside him, her hands reaching for his with tears on her face. Quickly she wiped away his own blood tears with a cloth torn from the bottom of her dress and tried to keep her voice calm.

“Let me heal you…” She sounded more confident then she felt, only having healed otherworlder creatures and beings. Still she had to try. Covering his eyes, she let the harmless blue healing light cast over the burns. In moments his eyes fluttered open, and attempted to focus on just her. Mia smiled the moment he realized he could see and grabbed hold of her like it was the last time. Before she could speak, he had pulled her in for a kiss, a kiss that was nearly unbreakable. If she was to be ripped away from him, he would leave her with one final memory, but Mia had no intentions of returning to the Otherworld now. She only intended to have him, to be with him. With her help, they ran from the countryside, from her sisters and the veil to the Otherworld. She would remain her and live among the mortal world.

Their story fell into a myth like the fairies themselves. It is said they had a child, a son, who was the first and only of his kind. The story has always changed over the years. An angel and a demon, a werewolf and a human, even a lion and a lamb. Each tale all having the same story and same ending. The murderous dark beast falling in love with a beauty of light. As for Mia and Damion, their love is eternal like their youth and remains the true tale of how the murderous Lion who fell in love with the innocent Lamb.