Lucy walked under the heavy shade of the trees, the bare light of the stars filtering through patches in the foliage above her. She looked up once more, and waved her hand slightly as she passed under the constellation Leo. She had already said goodbye to the stars for the evening, but it always felt like he was following her home, protecting her. At least, that's what her mother used to tell her all those years ago. She sighed as she lowered her hand, picking up her pace. She must have slowed down, looking up at her gaurdian lion. She knew she should be scared being out in the woods in the middle of the night, but the quiet air and black sky always soothed her more than the sun's rays ever could.

The night was where she belonged.

Lucy shook her head slightly, physically trying to clear her thoughts from her head. It wouldn't due to dwell on her nagging feeling that she didn't belong, it would only depress her further. No, she would walk through each day with a smile on her face, and wait patiently until the sunset so that she may once more go and talk to her stars in her favourite clearing. As her mother had taught her to. Lucy sighed wistfully, turning her body so that she could walk backwards and face her beloved clearing. A 20 minute walk along a thin trail and a 5 minute hike through bush was all that separated her little house on Strawberry Street and her private escape. The clearing itself was beautiful. Soft grass expanding in a large circle, bordered by a patches of pink flower whose petals followed the moon and trees so tall that it felt like she was peering into a different realm than her own.

In that place she was free. Free from the bankers trying to get her inheritance, a cruel reminder that her father passed away months ago. Free from the insistent charms of young men who sought her hand, leering at her body when they thought she was unaware and making Lucy's skin crawl. But mostly when she was in her clearing she was free from her loneliness.

Lucy knew it was mostly her own fault how isolated she was, but how could she help it if she found the words in her many books to be better company than the people who came to her doorstep? The local librarian and bookstore owner were probably the people she spoke most to out of her own free will, but even then she would never go as far as to call them friends. The town of Magnolia was small, with even fewer people that didn't make Lucy want to claw her eyes out. If anyone, or anything, were to be called her friends she supposed it would have to be the stars.

So she went to the clearing every night, weather be damned.

Lucy gripped the fabric of her dress in her hand, lifting it as she stepped over a well known branch in her path. Lucy chuckled lightly to herself as she realized she indeed could walk this path backwards and blind, she knew it so well. She smoothed out the shallow wrinkle in the red fabric, pride moving her hand without her mind's consent. She had worked for more hours than she cared to admit on this dress, overcome by the odd desire to sew. Lucy had never sewn before in her life, and yet she had found herself pouring over books and her dining room table was littered with cloth for weeks. The finished product had been the dress she currently wore, the long fabric barely brushing against the ground as she walked, the white fabric underlayers rustling softly with every step. The sleeves fell to mid forearm, also ending in a billowing of white fabric peeking out from beneath the red. The square neckline exhibited Lucy's well endowed chest nicely, leaving her neck free from restraint. She always hated covering it for some reason.

Lucy looked at the front of her dress, playing with the folds of the wide gold sash that rested on her hips, the pleats stitched into the back swaying with her movements. The way that the light scattered on the fabric as she walked darkened the red colour, giving it the almost smooth look of fresh blood.

A soft noise behind her gave her pause, drawing her mind away from it's odd thoughts. She turned on her heel, expecting to find perhaps a squirrel or a small animal, but was met with the empty path. She stayed still for a second, the soft sounds of the sleeping forest surrounding her. Unease grew in Lucy's chest, she could have sworn she had heard something...

Shrugging Lucy continued to walk along the path, her pace faster than before. It was late and her landlady always made a fuss in the morning if Lucy made too much noise coming home. Lucy kept her eyes in front of her as the trail widened out into the well worn path that would lead her back to her apartment, unable to shake the strange feeling that she was being watched.

The next week was full of monotonous meetings with bankers, silent shifts at the bookstore where she did odd jobs for the elderly couple such as organizing, recording inventory, and balancing their cheque books, and finally adding more pages to her latest obsession, her own story. Lucy had read so many books over the years, needing an escape from her dull everyday life, that her mind had grown with each word she absorbed.

She wanted the chance to perhaps offer a similar soul their own escape one day.

This would never happen though, if she kept rewriting this blasted page... Lucy sighed heavily as she replaced the quill in the inkwell, pushing the chair back from the cherry wood desk with a low groan. She waved to the doll placed on shelf above her desk, fit snugly alongside an ivory laced jewelry box. Mementos of her family.

She had always longed for siblings, but her father had never remarried after Layla, and Lucy had been left to grow up a life of luxury with no one to talk to but servants and her mother's memories and her stars. Lucy would have traded all her family's wealth for a true friend, the jewels and dresses and pleasantries weighing her down when all she wanted to do was soar.

Jude had not approved.

Lucy continued to look blankly at the wall, pushing the feelings back until she could focus on the positives.

She had her happy memories of her mother and her father, laughter a vague melody at the back of her mind. Her father loved her, she knew, and her mother watched over her, and she was far luckier than most people. She was educated, and now she had the time to try new skills, what with the board taking control of her father's railway company.

Lucy needed her stars.

Lucy slipped into her new dress, smiling at the snugness of it, and allowed herself a gracious twirl in front of the long mirror aside her bed. She was proud of her seam work, and knew it embellished her already generous curves. She had washed and hung the garment after her walk a week ago, choosing plainer dresses for her stars. She didn't know why, but tonight there was an energy in her muscles. The growing feeling of the chance of something... Different happening in her grove. Then again, she always became more introspective and fanciful the closer she drew to her mother's death date.

And her own birthday.

Shaking her head of her somber thoughts Lucy hurried out her door, locking it behind her before walking into the light of the setting sun.

Her meadow, and her stars, awaited.

A light giggle arose from the centre of a clearing. Pale lights and melodic sounds seemed caught on the branches of the skyward reaching trees, circling through the air until the whisper grew in echo to a loud crescendo.

Lucy laid on her back, hands clasped over her stomach as she looked up at her stars. She remembered a fairy tale her mother had told her about Aquarius, and how the mermaid in the sky was surrounded with water so much that she hated any child that cried. Layla had immediately followed her story with reassuring Lucy that crying was human, so of course the stars could not understand their sadness, and that there was no shame in feeling so much that it simply over poured. Lucy had still insisted that she would not make Aquarius angry, because the stars were her friends.

And they had proved to be her most reliable ones.

Lucy sighed, eyes trailing over to where Capricorn approached the centre of the sky. He was always her chaperon, telling her when she was out too late by his journey across the inky blackness.

She stood then, looking around her hidden world. An old ache clutched around Lucy's heart as she thought about how her mother would have loved this spot. Lucy had only found it a few short years ago, having used it as an escape during her and her father's usual spats. Her father...

Lucy turned from her grove sharply. Indeed, it appeared Lucy had been out here too long, as she always became lost in her mind under the silver light of the moon. She took several steps past the tree line, a heavy shadow making her jump as it fell from a tree. Lucy focused on what she was seeing, expecting maybe a carcass of an unfortunate creature or a small hunter.

Instead she found herself looking at a pair of black shoes curtained from behind by a ratty looking edge of a cape. Lucy froze and her vocal cords refused to allow her to scream. Had she been followed? Where had he come from? What did he want with her? The unknown man took a step towards her and Lucy's wide eyes shot up to his face.

Hair coloured similar to the flowers in her clearing was loosely spiked at all angles, bangs falling just into his eyes. Green eyes, that pierced into Lucy's soul and would have stolen her breath if Lucy had been able to use her lungs properly. He took another step forward and Lucy took an equal one away. Slanted eyes followed her movements, the most noticeable thing about his younger looking face. Lucy guessed he was about her age of 18, maybe a year or two older. His nose was straight and skin smooth, a light caramel colouring unseen in her part of the world. A small thought in the back of her mind decided he would be attractive if his face wasn't warped by the mild sneer.

"Why do you carry her scent?"

Lucy was thrown by his question, voice deep, gravelly, and commanding. Lucy bristled under his intense stare. She had had many people in her life attempt to push her around, and Lucy Heartfilia wasn't one that was so easily forced to cower. She raised her chin at the stranger and spoke in a confident, though polite, tone.

"I pardon?" The stranger's lips quirked so briefly Lucy thought she imagined it before his scowl deepened and he was suddenly in front of her. Gloved hands gripped her upper arms and Lucy leaned as far away as she could in his grasp, too startled to think of pulling away fully. His eyes peered into hers, the sudden fear and confusion mixing equally in her mind. His hands tightened slightly where he held her as he spoke.

"I said, why do you carry the scent of her blood on you?" he snarled at her, agitation growing in his narrowed eyes. Lucy finally gathered herself enough to try and pull away from him. His grip tightened until it felt bruising as she struggled in his grasp. Realizing she wasn't going to escape his abnormally strong hold on her own Lucy glared up at him as a wave of anger hit. She didn't smell of blood, she hadn't even seen another human being in at least 4 hours. This entire thing was ridiculous, and Lucy had worn down her tolerance of people earlier this day at the market place.

"I don't know who this 'she' is, but I can't blame her if she'd want to be nowhere near you if this is how you treat others," Lucy bit out, tone sharp. The stranger's eyes widened before he gave her a rough shake, baring his teeth at her and revealing abnormally sharp canines. Lucy swallowed as a fresh wave of fear crashed into her. Maybe picking a fight with a strange man in the middle of nowhere wasn't the brightest idea, but Lucy had never had a good filter between her mind and mouth.

"Do not speak of what you can not understand." he hissed as he towered over her. His hair was beginning to block her meager view of the stars once more, and Lucy wondered if this was how she was going to die.

Lucy felt his grip loosen and he returned to his own space, her head tilting to the side slightly as she watched a shudder travel through the man's shoulders, his tongue flicking out to wet his lips. So it was possible for him to make a face other than a scowl, Lucy inwardly mused, though the sides of his lips were still turned down. She also realized she should not be focusing on his lips so, and that she should be much more terrified.

Lucy started when one of his hands released her arm, trailing up to finger the ribbon she tied her hair up with, pulled slightly to the left of her head. The red silk ribbon matched her dress perfectly and made her long blonde hair stand out. His eyes glazed over as he fondled her ribbon gently, looking to be lost in thought. Was that a wistful expression he was wearing? He looked down at her suddenly, as though sensing her gaze on his face. His hand pulled lightly on the fabric, pulling it free of her hair and allowing the golden strands to fall down against her back.

"Are you her daughter, perhaps?" he asked softly, though Lucy thought it was more to himself than directed at her. Lucy still tensed however, as any mention of her mother was a sensitive subject. She remembered the devastating sickness that had swept through the village when Lucy was only seven, her mother lost with many others. Lucy took a step away on her side where he wasn't holding her and looked at him suspiciously.

"What do you want with my mother?" she questioned, holding his gaze as he seemed to realize she was still here. At his silence she continued speaking, hoping that at worse he would be shocked enough for her to break free. "She died eleven years ago, and you seem much too young to have known her personally."

A sadness crumpled the man in front of her, and Lucy felt her heart go out for this stranger, though she couldn't tell why. "Was..." he started to speak, voice suddenly tired. "What was her name?" Lucy peered at him suspiciously though she no longer tried to pull away.

"Her name was Layla." Lucy said softly, her own gaze becoming unfocused as she thought of her late mother. A sound of rage in front of her drew her attention, but she was suddenly pinned to the ground before she could even hope to scream. A dangerous growl pulled from his throat above her and his hands held her fast against the dirt, gripping her upper arms harshly again.

"Do not mock me," he snarled lowering his face so his nose brushed against Lucy's, her eyes wide with fear. Nothing this man did made sense!

"I'm not mocking you! You asked for her name and that was it! Lay-" Lucy half shouted, but she was cut off as she was lifted and pushed back down roughly into the path. She saw stars dance through her vision as her head connected with the hard ground, and an ache in her shoulder told her it was either bruised on a rock or cut on it.

"You do not speak that name," he warned, and Lucy felt tears prick in the corner of her eyes. She just didn't understand what in heaven was happening. A tear managed to fall free of her eyelashes and Lucy turned her head away from the stranger above her, knowing that she could not show him anymore of her terror. Long seconds passed before either of them moved, the air between them thick with tension. A gentle caress of her chin tilted her head back towards his face, and Lucy ignored the soft warmth that flowed through his gloved hand and onto her skin from his thumb and forefinger. "It can't just be a coincidence," he murmured under his breath and his eyes traveled her face, the deadly aura from before gone. Instead it was replaced with one of searching, and perhaps even hope. He tilted her face gently in the other direction and froze suddenly. Lucy felt her already frantic heartbeat increase as his eyes narrowed in on a spot on her shoulder. Again the stranger moved with incredible speed, pulling Lucy up into a sitting position and ripping at the shoulder of her dress. His other hand released its hold on her, instead his entire arm wrapping around her shoulder and pulling her hair away from Lucy's now bare skin.

Sharp teeth sunk into her creamy flesh, and Lucy screamed out into the night. His grip was tight and she had no way to push his body from hers, their chests pinned together. Pain lanced through the junction of her neck and shoulder, and Lucy turned cold as he heard him swallow.

He was drinking her blood.

A/N; Hey! So here's the vamp au I mentioned on my profile! The chapters will be shorter than WHIPS, and as is standard 'me' there will be smut. It should between 10 and 15 chapters but lol when does that ever go according to plan?

Also there is such a hugee back story to this like. DAmn. The pain. 0:D

Ya'll reviews give me life (jk not jk)