Chapter Text
Ah, summer. Laura loved the summer. Not for the same reasons that most people her age did. Most eighteen year olds were just glad to be out of school, have a break. Not that Laura wasn't. She just loved the warmth, the happiness, the content that came with summer. It was the first time she had truly felt good since the death of her father.
Laura knew she should be looking for a job, but after her father's death, she just didn't feel like doing anything. Besides, what she inherited from her father would be enough to keep her going for years, or so she told herself. She wasn't worried about money at the moment. All she wanted to do was curl up in her room in their old summer home, watch Doctor Who, and read old vampire novels. Laura loved the mysterious and the strange. She also loved the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so The Dracula Lover's Book of Vampire Tales was right up her alley.
Sitting there, swathed in blankets, drinking hot cocoa and chowing down on cookies, Laura almost forgot about the rest of her life.
A loud THUMP from downstairs brought her out of her state of ease.
Sighing, Laura put down her mug and her book and trudged downstairs to make sure the house wasn't collapsing.
***
There was a girl on the floor.
There was a hole in the wall, a broken window, and a girl on the floor.
She was pale, with long, dark hair, and a regal face. She was also seemingly unconscious.
Laura poked her with her shoe, then jumped back, fearing a reaction. She walked around her, looking.
She didn't seem to be breathing. Laura hoped she wasn't dead.
Laura started to clean up the glass around her, being careful not to disturb the girl. She carefully checked to see if the girl had been cut anywhere, but, aside from her dead appearance, the girl was seemingly unharmed. Laura began picking up her arms so she could move her, but as soon as her hands brushed the girl's arms, the girl sat up, gasping.
Laura stared. This girl was dead a second ago. Why is she just now waking up?
The pretty girl's head shot towards Laura's. Before Laura could comprehend what was happening, she was pinned to the floor, the girl's mouth at her neck.
Did she just bite me?, Laura thought. What the heck?
Yes, the girl had definitely bit her. And, yes, she was sucking at the bite. Was she... drinking Laura's blood?
Laura felt dizzy. Blood loss? How much had this girl taken?
It must have been a lot, because as soon as she had thought that to herself, Laura blacked out.
***
When Laura woke up, there was a bandage at her neck and a hot towel on her forehead.
She sat up, too quickly, and had to lay back down.
She sat up again, more slowly, and looked around.
Laura was on the couch in the living room of her family's summer home.
The girl was on the windowsill of the nearby window.
The window was ten feet off the ground.
"What the heck?" Laura stood up and ran to the window.
"Oh." The girl turned. "You're up."
She jumped down from the high-up windowsill and landed on her feet.
Like a cat.
"Carmilla." she said, kissing Laura's hand. "You must be Laura." She glanced around. "I saw the pictures."
Laura snatched her hand back. Carmilla's skin was cold, smooth, and hard. Like ice. Her voice was oddly elegant, it sounded like she was from the seventeenth century. Not the twenty-first.
"What do you think you're doing?" Laura snapped. "You break into my house, bite me, drink my blood? Then, after I pass out from blood loss, you look around my house and at my personal family pictures, figure out my name, and then after I wake up, you have the audacity to kiss my hand? I don't even know you!"
"I told you. I'm Carmilla." Carmilla's pretty lips frowned. "Did I not mention we're soulmates?"
Laura stared. This "Arcallma" or whatever it was was clearly out of her mind.
"Okay, um." Laura sighed. "Look, um, Mircalla-"
"Carmilla."
"Yeah. So, uh, you're not an escaped mental ward patient, or a convict, or something, not that you would tell me that, and come to think of it, you're too nicely dressed to be an escaped whatever, but you seem a bit out of it. You broke into my house, drank my blood, and now you say we're soulmates? Nice try."
Carmilla smirked at Laura. "Oh, cupcake, you are too precious for this world." Then she leaned in and pressed her lips to Laura's.
Laura, once again, was shocked. She tried to pull away, but Carmilla was surprisingly strong. Still, as unexpected as it was, Carmilla's lips were nice against her own. She eventually melted into the kiss, slipping her tongue into the girl's mouth. Carmilla responded, gently biting her lip. Laura soon found her hands tangled in Camilla's long, dark tresses. One of Carmilla's hands was on her thigh, the other was groping her waist. They backed up against a wall, Carmilla's hands already up her shirt. Laura inhaled sharply, Carmilla smelled like smoke and pine. She smelled like coldness and twilight. She smelled like the moon and the stars. She smelled like she looked.
Laura suddenly pulled back. "What am I doing?" she exclaimed. "You drank my blood and now I'm kissing you? Why am I not more concerned about the fact that you bit me, then DRANK MY BLOOD?"
"I was dying. I needed the strength and you were the closest thing with a heartbeat."
"So you drank my blood? THAT'S NOT A NORMAL THING." Laura yelled. "How is that even possible, you'd have to-" Ding. Laura suddenly realized something.
"Pale. Smooth, hard, cold skin. Surprisingly strong. Drank my blood." She stopped, considering her next words carefully. "Are you...are you a vampire?"
Carmilla laughed. "I prefer the term succubus."
"No no no, that's not possible, vampires don't exist, you can't be..." Laura trailed off. Can she be? Laura had always secretly believed in vampires, they were her favorite monster, her favorite mythical creature. It's not like it was entirely unlikely for them not to exist.
"So, you're a vampire," Laura said cautiously.
"Yes."
"And...I'm your soulmate?"
"Yup."
"Oh. Okay, that's great, that's..." Laura sat down on the couch, speechless.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.