Dekker could happily spend an eternity with Tahlia in his arms. He was silly to think that he could watch a mortal woman go through life and fade. He was silly to think that holding back from Tahlia was the right thing to do for so many years. The whole time deep down he knew he saw the dedication there even if a different part of him kept whispering that the fact that she had a sex den meant that she couldn’t just be his. Never again would he let that doubt take over. She was his for eternity and Dekker would have it no other way.

The way that he remembered vampires being portrayed back in school was far different from his life as one was. Vamipres creped and lurked and preyed on the beautiful and dumb, or week and unfortunate. He liked to think that the people he lured to him with a charming smile was more a testament to the trusting facade he could give off. Years of learning how to blend in being put to the real test when the sun dipped down and his body begged for blood. He never thought those people who gave their lives for his were dumb, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was always gentle. Perhaps that was a way to remind himself that he wasn’t a monster. Dekker liked to look at himself as a humble tattoo artist that just happened to be a vampire.


Now he had more than just his art. He had love. Not just the thing that he would think when a delicate little blond thing would skip by him. No this was real, it was lust and wonder and devotion all wrapped into one. So much more than that really. Indescribable, and the feeling he had for Tahlia filled a void that Dekker had for a long time.

“I’m wornin ya if it’s somehow better than this place I might just collapse into a puddle.” His arms tightened around her and he kissed the top of her head. Dekker watched curiously as she took a small parcel from her bag.

Magic was something he more or less fell out of using. It was a means to get around because the people in his life had chosen France over staying back in London. Here and there he would fish out the wand that he did still have and use little spells here and there. In the end Dekker always felt that the word wizard was wasted on him. He looked down at the little object, curious. He took reached out and touched the object whisking them away.

Dekker remembered fist seeing Tahlia. Of course she was beautiful. It was much in the same way that he felt overwhelmed by seeing Dahlia for the first time. It was a different kind of breath taking. Her hair was like a sunset, something he would never see again and she could see right through him with those eyes that were perfectly done up with eyeliner and shadows. Those lips painted a bright red were always something he wanted to kiss, and not because they were the color of blood.

Her lips were always what had him, it was what sealed the deal. All of what she was, her body, hair eyes, voice, even that gentle sway of a dance they would do, her lips were the things that haunted him. Because for so long he tried to hold back. They could dance, hold hands, glance at each other with a flirty little spark, but kissing would surely do him in so Dekker didn’t.

Then one day he gave in. It wasn’t what Dekker expected, that looming thing he was always afraid of. That kiss was more. A dead heart started to beat again. The color of her lipstick sept into every part of him and he just wanted to bottle the feeling. Who needed blood to live when you had a lust and love that rattled your bones like the one he had for this woman when sunset colored hair.

The two landed and Dekker looked around. The neighborhood was familure, at first he was afraid that she had taken him back to America, the little town in Georgia he was from. It wasn’t and Dekker was relieved. That was a blast form the past that he didn’t need. Then he looked before him to a house. Dekker glanced at Tahlia. His motions were shifting in so many different ways. His head felt like it was swimming.

“Home?” His voice was breathy, light and full of wonder. Tahlia’s hand took his own and lead him forward. He felt like he was walking through a fog trying to put together exactly what this was. In the door they went. Home. His dark eyes danced about looking over a living room the hallway. And then those ornate doors. There was an art studio.

Home. Dekker stepped forward into the sun first looking down at his own arms. Still there not a smoldering pile of ash. He then actually looked around the room. Everything he would ever need to create was there. The whole time he was sure his mouth was hanging open in awe as slowly it clicked. Home.

“This is a place for us?” It was said as a question but a smile grew on his face and he looked over at Tahlia. She was even more stunning in the light. “I love it. And I love you and I don’t even know how….” Words were not even close to being able to described how absolutely grateful and flattered and humbled he felt. Dekker wrapped her up in a hug and just kissed the woman who he absolutely knew without a doubt that he wanted to spend eternity with. That kiss was the same now as it was every time he kissed her, just like the first time.

Standing there in the light was nothing he ever thought he could have with Tahlia. It was never something he thought he would want even because that would mean he wouldn’t have this woman who belonged in a different time than he.

Dekker wondered the last time that Tahlia had seen the sun. He could only hope that it was a happy memory for her. Maybe spend under a tree, a day in spring where the perfume of the blossoms was carried on the wind. She might have even been on a date with some handsome man that could speak flawless French to her as they shared grapes and bread and cheese with wine. She would not see him again, not because that night would be when she was changed. Even if she hadn’t been changed Tahlia was not the type to give into such things, the flattery was nice, she would flash a smile at that man and laugh politely at him, but he would try too hard and she would just give him a light kiss before they said goodbye. Then again that could just be the Tahlia Dekker knew. He never wanted to imagine that maybe her life had be the opposite of that. She deserved a happy last day spent in the sun.

With his commitment to tattooing Dekker got accustomed to the night before he ever was forced to live in it. The last real day in the sun he could remember was about a year before he was actually turned. It was at the beach. He remembered that it was VJ day. A mild day in August. He should have been overseas still. He decided to take the day and spend it with a bottle of rum. His leg was still sore it was still awkward to walk on it. His bullet wounds would ache still too. He drank alone, families were celebrating the victory and end of the war. He just sat and let the sun beamed down on him. The gulls squawked overhead, the waves lapped at the sand. Just like the beaches in the pacific. The final chapter before he was discharged. Iwa Jima did him in. He survived the European theater only to get sent back out to fight against the Japanese.

When he was in the service he had friends. The men who fought with him on his side. Most of them died beside him. There might have been some that survived. They would not be the same men he knew. The lucky ones were those who left after Europe, going back home. Then again they probably felt like him, disconnected and screaming every night because of what they lived through. Days were tortured because he felt like he didn’t belong here at home with these happy people. Nights were heavy and haunted because he couldn’t sleep without bombs and machine guns going off in his head, the faces of men he killed flashing behind his closed eyes.

Vampirism saved him of a hard life of dealing with all of that. Even if there was times that his human life caught back up with him it was never nearly as bad. Here and now in this room with this woman Dekker was the happiest he had ever been. The light spilling through the windows spilled over them like the happiness that was filling the room.

The happy days were stacking up against those that clawed at his ankle. “Does that mean you are committing to comin home to me every morning?” He then asked. It was truly unbelievable Tahlia was going to be coming home to him in London. Not Paris where he was so sure her life would always be. He would have this room where he could spend hours capturing the beauty of life. Dekker could ask Tahlia to sit with him and they would play the old songs he loved and without her knowing he would draw her trying to capture all the new color on her face and eyes and hair. How warm she looked in this light as apposed to the sliver of the moon that he was used to seeing her in.

“Or course I do if it means it’s with you,” Dekker’s voice was low and drenched in love and lust. Dekker felt like his chest would burst open with love. They could share a cardboard box, covered in a thick blanket that smelled like mothballs while the sun was up as long as she was wrapped up and safe in his arms.

“this is the happiest I have ever been in my life Tahlia… and I have no idea how to thank you,” Dekker pressed his forehead to hers, eyes glassy, fighting back all those emotions he had not the first clue how to express. If she were to step away from his arms, wrapped so securely around her, he would most likely buckle and drop to his knees.

“Of course, always, for as long as you can stand it,” His grin grew. They would have the rest of forever. Not the simple fifty or so years that other couples promised, but an actual eternity. They would raise the sun as they spent so many nights together, hand in hand. Crawl into a bed that was dark and secure and stay safe in each other’s arms. Even if the sun somehow did manage to catch them it would be together. He wouldn’t have to ever worry about another night without his beautiful woman with the autumn colored hair.

Dahlia could keep the apartment that sat above the shop. He would use it if he had to. In the future maybe it could become a second level for his shop. When Hell on Heel’s was too busy for just him and the girls. Or a redesign where the tattoo rooms were upstairs and keep the main floor for a lobby/ piercing and mini art gallery. He was excited for the possibilities. That was all for later. Now he just wanted Tahlia and their home.

“Thank you so much Doll. I never thought you would ever…anyone would ever would do something like this for me,” Dekker was whispering saying lightly with her in his arms, pressed against him. He kissed her gently.

Dekker came from a home that was average. They were middle class. His father a war vet. His mother a home maker. She was the magical one. Sure Dekker loved his mother but she always seemed sad that she was stuck in a fairly muggle home. Her son never fully embraced his gift of magic. They had only a little money. His friends were all thugs for the most part. He had wrote himself off when he enlisted. Never to make it past twenty. So he was alive now…or as alive as he could be, and someone actually cared about him. Truly embraced everything that he was and loved it.

As they gently rocked to the music in his head he smiled down at her and gently peppered kisses her face. “So we just gonna spend the rest of the night in this room or ya gonna show me what the rest of the house looks like? Even if I really do absolutely love this room.” There was sure to be a bit of flair scattered about the rooms. Tahlia could try and say she wasn’t as razzle dazzle as her onyx haired friend, Dekker knew better. Tahlia and Dahlia shared a love of lust, blood, ruby lips and diamonds and pearls.

Dekker knew that sometimes Tahlia would look at him like she was scared. He had always wondered why. Was she afraid that he wouldn’t lover her, that he thought she wasn’t worth what he was? Dekker never felt better than anyone. More often he felt that most people were better than he. All he had done was tattoo and killed people. That would be what his life would be forever. Tahlia gave him something beautiful. Tattooing seemed to be his salvation, some sort of redemption to the killing. Love though, love was something that he had never had or known. Tahlia was giving him that lovely wonderful gift.

Love was something pure and good and light. Tattooing would always be seen in this seedy outlaw light. No matter how beautiful it was, regardless of it’s background in ancient civilizations as religious or as a right in a modern world it was somehow taboo. No one could ever take the sheer joy that he had with Tahlia away and call it anything less than beautiful.

“Oh darlin’ I didn’t give you a thing,” Dekker could never say that he brought much to the table when he was made and accepted into the little family that the four vampires had. Tahlia and Dahlia were business woman with a strong sense of self. Lucian was a strong man who took care of the protection. Dekker was the black sheep. He separated from them, would tattoo and then turn in for the night. Yes they all when out from time to time. Dekker would always feel that it would be the club and Paris lights that the other three would choose. He would just had to accept that his world was different. The only thing that Dekker had ever given Tahlia was his heart, there wasn’t much of it still there but she had it.

He took her hand and walked back to the front door. Dekker took in the hallway and front room more. It was toned down from the apartment he had above the shop, but there was still Tahlia in the décor. Just there was a bit more of Dekker here. The walls stripped down a little. The furniture not so lush and more homey. It looked a lot more like home that could be lived in. Not like some luxurious show house.

“Let’s go right,” He stated with a lop sided smile. “It’s my lucky side.” It was a lame joke but something he hoped that Tahlia would find endearing if anything.

Seeing the auburn haired beauty this happy was a change, but it was one that he would never want to see reversed. In these moments he truly fell for her over and over again. That genuine smile and words that weren’t rehearsed. She wasn’t trying to lure him in like every other man. Dekker knew all the moves and the lines of a predator. He had his own routine when he needed it. This Tahlia was real and his. Dekker still couldn’t believe that he had won her over.

He simply planted a soft kiss on those lips that would always be on his mind after she positively gushed. He believed every word. Dekker understood how they didn’t truly represent what this love was. But still it was more than enough. Anything, silly words, little touches, even glances as they left each other for work. All of it was enough because Dekker knew how much he loved Tahlia and could only guess that the same feeling filled her up whenever he was around.

“That is precisely why ya do.” If Dekker were to think more in depth about it Tahlia was his rck and his strength. She was his reason and his light. So of course she would be in his right to help hold him tall and strong. In many ways he was hardly much without her. Tahlia even before had been a muse, a missing piece he had never had in his human life. Even when he was trying to chase something impossible with the human girl back home, it was because he was convinced that Tahlia would just toss him aside if he gave in. Luckily he came to his sense and luckily she had done the very opposite of that. She was there and love every bit of him, damaged and not.

A long time ago Dekker had come to terms with his leg. How it looked and the fact that he would have to live out so many years with it being that way. The aches that he thought he had were just phantom pains reminding him that he was human once and there would always be a part of him missing. To many people he didn’t care if they saw, if they noticed that he had a prosthetic or that when he wore pants he walked with a limp. When it came to more intament times most of the time he didn’t care. Then again a lot of those girl weren’t going to make it past the night. Tahlia would be there and he was more afraid of what the leg represented than how it looked. It was all that darkness that liked to fallow him there as a stump. She didn’t seem to mind and Dekker couldn’t be more grateful of that fact.

He looked about the rooms as she led him through the house. Every detail was perfect, every space the best mix of both of them. Dekker squeezed her hand gently. Eventually he stopped walking and pulled Tahlia back towards him. He wrapped his arms around her and took up her lips in a kiss. This was there space for as long as they wanted it. His fingers made their way up tangling in her hair as he continued to kiss Tahlia as if this was the last thing he would ever do in his life. Dekker was sure he could die happily if kissing this woman was the last thing he did do.