Louis took her tiny hand into his own, their fingers lightly entangling. The moonlight spilled over her shoulders, dripping iridescence down her ornate blue ballroom gown. The dance halls they attended earlier that night were nearly haunting with their bright spatters of colorful dancers and the finest of the vagrant pseudo-noblesse seeking to lose themselves in the sparkling city. Tonight felt invigorating and special; her unruly curls were tied back, exposing the pale arc of her neck...where his lips had once feasted...

But he may never have given memories such mind, or so it seemed to Claudia. The moon was full, illuminating the night more brightly than she could even recall the glow of the sun. It was warm, wasn't it? She had so few memories, and what were barely six mortal years after this lifetime as their wicked porcelain doll. At least for this one moment, they were alone, away in the magical land of Paris. If only it could be...his eyes wandered as they meandered through the park. She observed his gaze caressing the tender, unopened pale pink rosebuds which seemed to adorn everything, the way his attention lingered on the moon-drenched reflection of cascading fountains. She saw the way he admired these poetic, ephemeral forms of beauty.

She wanted to destroy everything beautiful forever, if only he would for a moment look upon her. Instead, she just drew in closer, releasing his hand in exchange for reaching her arm around his waist, setting his hand upon her slender shoulder. Purely instinctively, his fingertips slid languorously up the length of her neck, lingering momentarily behind her earlobe, to unconsciously twirl a stray curl between his fingers. The silk of his shirt caressed her cheek soothingly, as his fashionable black cape seemed a protective haven in the night, even if the two of them were probably the greatest danger, or so it seemed. But this was merely his tragically mortal 'paternal instinct,' entirely devoid of the meaning she wanted him to bestow in such affections. She felt trapped more and more in her body every night...she was only his imprisoned daughter-doll, his wicked child, his denial sharp as a knife-to-the-breast when their eyes met and he saw the insatiably hungering adult woman burning through her glare, filled with disdain and resentment.

Leaning in closer, she felt his side against her face through her silk shirt. She felt him -- cold, unliving flesh.

"You haven't been feeding..." She remarked angrily, pulling away from him, stopping glaring at him contemptuously.
He resisted wincing at her disapproval. The moonlight almost bleached his features, all but his eyes, shining green, and his soft mane of black hair, billowing into the night.
"I have yet t--" He started, caught off guard by her sudden seething rage. He pulled his eyes away from the blossoms nearly glowing magenta in the background, and met the hateful scowl of his childlike companion.
"You are so weak, Louis...so useless. We left that we could start over, and yet you continue your pathetic ways!" Her pitch was tinted with disgust as she scolded him.

Beneath her seething, she felt exhilaration. But he wouldn't see it...

"How am I to know who is not an innocent in this new place?!" He replied defensively. "We haven't been here long enough to tell the criminals from the clergy...and I--"
"You will never let yourself understand, will you?!" She cried out, almost bursting. "Will you always play such imaginary games, as if you aren't what we are!! You deny the indisputable evil of our nature and deny yourself to detriment! I despise you, Louis!" She denounced this frailty, unleashing her rage for his other more detestable denials against her behind every stabbing syllable.

In that moment, he took in her form, contradictory -- despotic and dear; her diminutive child body, her words adult yet stinging with a cherubic voice, perfect primrose doll-like lips distorted with irritation -- bearing her sharp vampiric teeth, her womanly costume, and her searing ancient eyes exuding rapacity and resent. The moonlight fell on her tiny form, casting almost lascivious shadows that she seemed nearly a woman for a second. She breathed heavily, her chest rising and falling as her animosity burned into him. From the outside, he envisioned some strange observer befuddled with the scene as if it were a little daughter scolding her father in an almost comedic kind of absurdity. And another catching only the tones of voices, impassioned as if a lover's quarrel.

"Give us time, Claudia, for we have not lingered long yet...there is much we have yet to understand in this city -- of its dangers, of its people...of ourselves, my darling..." He took a lone, long step toward her, extending his hand to her once more, on one knee before her, to be at eye level with her. Eye to eye, he observed her softening expression, as her soft and small hand met once more with his; long, graceful adult fingers caressing her puerile flesh.

The storm within her subsided, as she felt him briefly studying her figure -- even if just for a moment in fear, he seemed to at last, although fleetingly, truly see her without turning away. The soothing contact of his hand taking hers, followed by his fingertips gently grazing her cheek in some gesture intimating a request for forgiveness were sufficient offerings to seal her victory. Her expression feigned a convincingly innocent demure often purveyed by daughters and children and dolls. She nodded, imparting acceptance of his capitulation, presenting an angel marionette smile that always brought out his 'paternal warmth.' The balm of her facade ameliorated his oblivious defeat.

Once more they began to wander through the night, hand in hand, silent, each content with what they wished to believe in that hour; Claudia's satisfaction with her fabricated game, dominating her dear captor -- and Louis comforted that his little dark-tempered angel accepted his thirst for life and all that splendor of impermanence.

And with those berating words, for simply seconds she had harnessed the power to destroy all of his observations of beauty, just that he could see her and not hide in all his fantasies of things that die.

Pulling close to him once more, clinging and safe beside him as they walked Claudia's voice rung like an angelic chime to her devoted companion.

"Louis, my love, my dark prince, do not fear that there is not enough time, for we should even have an eternity before us, and the world awaits..."

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