Harndall stared up in astonishment and blinked. It was Sister Mella but he barely recognised her. The last time he had seen her she had been crazed, covered in scratches from her own nails, naked and dirty, her black hair in tangled knots. Now it hung in a luscious black curtain over her shoulders, doing nothing to hide the indecency of the rich, burgundy gown she wore. Her skins was perfect, pale as the snow that lay around, only her eyes surrounded by dark circles. Her eyes though, there was something strange about them he couldn’t quite make out in the dim light cast by the moon above.

“Hello Harndall”, she said smiling cruelly at him.

This was strange too, he had never heard her speak except for the one time she had cried out in the church service. Now here she was, standing before him, speaking coherently, smiling, clothed in fine robes after having been missing for more than three months. It was all too much to comprehend.

She reached down and grasped his hands in her icy ones, pulling him to his feet with a strength he had not thought she possessed. She was gazing at him with an intense look. He would have almost said hungrily.

He couldn’t understand why she would have left them all terrified for her safety. They had searched for weeks, desperately looking for her and then trying to find her body so she could at least have a decent burial. They had come to the conclusion that she had thrown herself from the cliffs into the sea, her body crashing onto the rocks below, the sea sucking it down. Many nights he had lain awake thinking of how he had failed her, or awoken in horror after dreaming of her body being smashed to pulp on the rocks. He pushed her away angrily taking a step backward.

“Where have you been Sister?”, he asked his voice filled with confusion and barely suppressed fury, “We looked for you for so long… the people… they risked their lives to search for your body at the cliffs and here you are!”

His voice was becoming shrill with a rage he had never felt before, “Where have you been? Where have you been!?”

“Shhh Harndall… it’s alright”, she whispered, her velvet tone soothing him, “Everything is fine now. I am here”.

As she spoke she reached up her hand to gently touch his face. He gasped at the touch of her icy skin against his but as she stroked he began to feel more calm, his anger dissipating.

“See… there now. I told you it would be alright”, she purred.

Of course it would be alright now that she was here. Why had he ever doubted her. He looked into her eyes noticing how beautiful they were, how they glowed such a pretty colour of red in the moonlight.

She continued to caress his face smiling at him. She was so good to him, so he smiled back at her. He seemed to remember a long time ago there had been another woman who had touched his face like this, but these thoughts were melting away like the snow in springtime.

Then she pressed her body against his, wrapping her arms around his shivering figure and pressing her mouth to his. He choked slightly as the taste of blood filled his mouth and her tongue slithered against his. But she kissed him harder, biting his lips licking at the small cuts the sharp points of her teeth made there. He could hear her growling in the back of her throat, but it sounded distant and dull compared with the buzzing in his head.

Then he felt her tongue and teeth scraping against his neck as she leaned him back so far he thought he must fall. He felt the pressure as her teeth slid into his veins, but there was no pain only ecstasy so intense he thought he would die in her arms.

Tiny flakes of snow floated down from above and settled on his face, achingly cold against the inferno that was raging through his body. He dimly recalled that it had stopped snowing when Valeriya had been there with him. But that had been such a long time ago and he was weary of the world now. All he really wanted was to be allowed to sleep, away from the pain, and the suffering. To lie his head down on her soft shoulder and bury his face in her long golden hair.

She was so very beautiful. The last thing he saw was her exquisite face before him as the blackness began to close in around the edges of his vision