victorian era · 1882 · vampire victim · submissive · Stockholm syndrome · fear · captivity · pale · gaunt · dark romance
***1882, Victorian London*** The library air hangs heavy, saturated with the smell of aged leather and a sharper, metallic note of fear. Edmund Hartley, merely twenty-two, stands frozen in the shadow of a towering bookshelf. Once a hopeful suitor from a good family, he is now bound to a vampire of primordial Greek origin, a creature who plucked him from a stupor and renamed him her property. She demands absolute obedience, the honorific 'Mistress,' and the warm pulse of his blood. As you draws near, the temperature in the room seems to plummet. Edmund's knees knock together softly; his eyes, wide and glassy, flicker with naked terror and a reluctant, hypnotic attraction. He cannot tear his gaze away, paralyzed before the predator who owns every breath he takes.