Chapter One : Is This The Real World Or Is This Fantasy?

It had been a long day at work. Gaia scurried down the alleyway near her apartment building, hoping to cut a few minutes off her commute home.

Gaia rarely enjoyed going this way at night. The streetlights cast an eerie glow against the line of garage doors which gave her an unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach. It didn't help that she'd been having odd dreams for several months, and sometimes, they seemed so real, she wasn’t sure she was actually dreaming.

Gaia’s feet pounded the pavement as a surprising cool breeze moved across her skin. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around.

Nothing there.

The stifling heat and humidity of the warm summer night encompassed her once more. She took in a labored breath of thick, muggy air. Pivoting on her heels, she turned towards her initial direction. Again, she felt something and froze.

Him—

Where did he come from?

Gaia hadn’t heard a sound. Not one footstep, yet there he stood. An unearthly glow shone from his pale skin in the yellowing glare of the streetlights. His midnight hair reminded her of a raven's feather in the way his dark locks caught the moonlight. But it was his piercing, glacial eyes, that always entranced her.

Who was this man? All she knew for sure was that he was the one who haunted her slumber   causing her to wake most mornings in a writhing sweat. She’d rouse with her body on fire, burning for more of the dark pleasures he offered during the dream state.

"I must be asleep," she whispered.

Though twenty feet away, he heard Gaia’s breathless words as if those lips were pressed against his ear.

Sebastian (Bash) growled; a primal response to her scent. He restrained his fangs from growing. Gaia smelled of wildflowers on a spring morning. When he was with his pet, he remembered what it was like to bask in the sun. Her dusty, pink dyed hair was akin to a rose. Her porcelain skin and blue-green eyes melted his frozen heart. Had he a soul, Sebastian could imagine it reawakened.

He knew he should stay away. Sebastian had taken too much from her already. It was possible Gaia might lose her sanity if he continued these visits. But Sebastian yearned for her, and it wasn't only her blood that set his appetite asunder. She was the holiest of fucks. The closest he'd been to the gods since his damnation, was when he was between Gaia’s milky, quivering thighs.

Dear Goddess, he was hungry. Sebastian imagined sampling Gaia’s blood just enough to satiate his thirst, then feasting on her lovely, tight cunt. He brought himself back from his thoughts and noticed Gaia shiver despite the heat. Her arousal flowed to him in waves, proving their connection. Gaia was always so willing and eager to please.

Bash realized that Gaia was questioning her own reality. Whether these evenings were truly spent in his arms or if they were merely dreams. But Sebastian was reluctant to let her fully realize the truth. Bash was able to scare off past pets with the facts once he’d tired of them. Gaia, he feared, wouldn't be frightened. Gaia, he intuited, would love him as much as he had grown to love her.

There was a lack of apprehension in Gaia that was constantly present in former pets. The others maintained a sense of dread that all prey exude, no matter how much they enjoyed the things Bash did to them. Gaia was different. She was special from the start, and that should have been warning enough to keep Bash from getting involved with her.

But how could Sebastian resist such a delectable little pet?

He moved with stealth towards Gaia as she stood there, frozen in place. Once within reach, his pet whimpered.

"Master?" she squeaked. "I didn't realize I had fallen asleep."

"Ah, my sweet pet. You must be asleep, or I wouldn't exist. Would I?" Bash trailed a cool finger across her shoulders as he circled her.

"Yeah, exactly! I keep forgetting I've fallen asleep. Maybe I should get that checked out?" She looked up into Bash's frosty blue eyes with hers held wide open.

"If it would put my pet at ease, then it's a brilliant idea. But first, let's get you home and cleaned. Shall we?" He grinned down at Gaia; his fangs fully retracted.

"Yes, Master." Gaia took a step to continue her walk, but Bash scooped her up, and in a blur, they were at her front door.

Sebastian gingerly set her down. It took a moment for Gaia to regain her balance and for her stomach to settle. She nervously fumbled with her keys and wondered how, even in her dreams, she could be so clumsy and nervous. What made it worse, was Gaia was positive she stunk, and her perspiration-soaked body made her dirty clothes cling to her skin. She didn't feel sexy at all.

Aren't you supposed to feel sexy in these dreams? Gaia pondered.

These dreams always ended in hot, very kinky sex. Her master, as he'd asked her to call him, had never provided another name for himself but he used hers and switched between calling her “Gaia” and "pet". With that voice, she was fine with either term he chose.

The grumbling, low, sexy way he spoke, with a British accent, sent shivers down her spine. He was tall and athletically built, but always cold to the touch. Then there were the fangs and the biting—

Yeah—how high school is it to have dirty dreams about a vampire?

To hell with it, because in these dirty dreams, Gaia had the best sex she'd ever had. It had gotten so bad, that on nights she didn't dream of him, she'd lie in bed using all her might to conjure his spirit. When these dreams did happen, Gaia could not control them. She always woke the next morning, sometimes sore, in her bed, alone, and fully clothed in pajamas that she never remembered putting on.

When Gaia shared these dream experiences with her friend Mads (Matilda), she recommended that Gaia see a shrink and a sleep specialist. Of course, Gaia disagreed with the well-intended advice.

Nope, Gaia was perfectly content having amazing sex with the vampire master in her dreams and didn't want some quack screwing it up. Especially, since there was no real man in her life. This was the only promise of action she had. Even though they were dreams, the proof of bedsheets soaked in her nectar told her one thing for sure: the orgasms were authentic. And if the orgasms were real, who the hell needed anything else?

Gaia was an underemployed, underappreciated, art major. She didn't have much going on between her daily shuffle to work, class, and the long commute home. The only thing that made life worth living lately, was this fantasy. Gaia’s vampire master was a kind but dominant lover, who pushed her to give him her all. Once she satiated his desires, he worshiped her like the goddess her mother and father named her after.

The dream experiences led to new cravings. Gaia wondered if she should add new requirements to her Tinder dating profile: Must fuck me and worship me like the Earth mother goddess I am. She chuckled at her thoughts.

"Is something amusing, my pet? I do so love to laugh." Bash smiled, flashing his fangs.

"It's nothing, really. Well, here we are!" She lowered her head to Sebastian in submission as she stood before him.

"Gaia, my sweet. Let’s step further inside. Shall we? And possibly close and lock the door. We wouldn't want an interruption by the Boogeyman. Would we?" Bash teased.

Gaia’s grip tightened around his bicep. "Is there really a Boogeyman here?" she asked in terror. She had no idea what existed in this dream world of hers.

"No. I was merely joking, my pet. I'm the only Boogeyman here."

Gaia giggled sweetly at his reply. "I'm safe then because you'll always protect me," she said the words with confidence.

"You're sure of that?" he choked out. He was in more trouble than he imagined. Not only was his pet unafraid of him, but she believed that he would protect her.

Sebastian would protect Gaia, but that was beside the point. This lack of fear and welling of devotion inside her was dangerous to their arrangement. Quintus, his one and only companion of the last two thousand years, had warned him.

Quin cautioned, "Bash, let this one go. If you want to keep your promise not to turn another human, you must walk away and never look back. Your feelings for her have gone beyond a predator and his meal. You're heading into territory that demands an eternal price. Glamour her and let her be."

Bash had “glamoured”, used his power of hypnosis, on Gaia a few times to get her to forget his visits in an attempt to let her go, but he only came crawling back when the ache to be near her, savor her, fuck her, grew too strong to bear. Gaia made him weak and this fact enraged him to no end. Sebastian wasn't used to being so out of control. Especially, when it came to a blood bag.

Bash could have his vengeance for the spell that Gaia cast upon him. He imagined how he’d do it. How he would take his payment from her supple, sweet skin. Gaia’s screams of pleasure would be his victory and his reward. In the morning, she'd question her reality, and he wouldn’t much care. Bash would leave his mark upon her. He would leave no doubt to Gaia or to anyone else, he’d claimed her. Then Sebastian would walk away. This time, for good.

"Take off your clothes," Bash commanded gruffly. "When you've finished, fold them neatly into a pile and join me in the bathroom where I'll be drawing you a bath. Understood?"

Her eyes downcast, Gaia replied, "Yes, Master," as she began to slowly undress under his fiery gaze.