FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I wrote this story for the Halloween contest on Literotica.

Oh and sorry about the length, I didn't feel the need to split it up into chapters because this is what I submitted on Lit. I'll just say that the erotic parts don't happen until around the end, but there is romance and characters buildup in the middle and beginning. Anyway, enjoy!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Good morning Nicholas Meyers, this is your station administrator, Rutherford Dietrich, with your wake-up call."

Nick squinted through drowsy eyes at the source of his interrupted sleep on the nearby nightstand. His silver alarm clock displayed "7:00 am" in blue digital numbering. Above it, a hologram displayed the image of a man with a black mustache giving him a confident grin that reflected his natural bravado.

"Wake up Nicholas; I hope you've marked your calendar, because today is that day again...Halloween! That's right, the station's most popular holiday since human acceptance into the Federation is here! Be sure to have your bowls of candy ready for those spooky little trick-or-treaters today! And of course, we here at the Alpha Draconis Residential Station encourage you to get into the Halloween spirit by dressing up yourself! How about it Nicholas, maybe one of the classics this year? Ghost, vampire, pirate? Wake up and get into the Halloween spirit, Nicholas! Wake up now, Nicholas!"

Nicholas had long since wrapped his own pillow snuggly around his ears, desperately trying to drown out the boisterous drivel of the automated voice of the station administrator By the time that audible clear-cut voice was urging him to wake up repeatedly he had reached his hand over to tiredly fumble for the off switch.

"Shut up, shut up, I'm waking up," Nick mumbled incoherently as Dietrich's voice noisily continued to urge him out of his slumber.

With one final slap down onto the alarm clock, the voice ceased its prating and the hologram projection of the man's face disappeared all at once. Nick threw down his pillow and let out a ragged sigh that expressed his lament as having to wake up; especially waking up to the clamorous voice of the renowned hotel tycoon, no less.

The guy already owned half the residential stations in the Milky Way Galaxy; why the hell did he have to inflate his own ego more by installing his own smug self into the alarm clocks?!

Nick shook his head and sat himself up on the bed, rubbing his weary muscles and smoothing out his curly brown hair.

He looked up at the plain gray ceiling of his apartment. "Lights," Nick pronounced loudly to the ceiling.

With that, the lights in his apartment flickered on and the shutters that concealed his windows drew open audibly. The metal shutter seal on his window had opened to reveal the infinite, majestic void of outer space, along with the white dwarf star, Alpha Draconis, not far off in the distance.

Nick slowly drew himself up from the bed, being sure not to put too much pressure on his left leg. He cursed to himself as throbbing pressure spiked in his calve as soon as he had stood himself up.

Damn it, why had the aches been showing up again lately? Doctor Civilin had said that the therapy would have eased most of this pain by now. It had been over three years since the accident had happened. Surely the physical therapy of one of the most esteemed medical professionals in this sector would have alleviated most of the worst symptoms by then.

Nick still struggled to keep on his feet before an automated feminine monotone voice pronounced itself throughout the room.

"Good morning, Nick. My sensors detect elevated levels of stress and physical discomfort. Shall I alert a doctor?" the voice asked him.

Nick groaned, gently rubbing the calf of his leg. "No thanks, Jan," he replied, using the name that he had dubbed for the feminine voice of his room's automated system.

"Very well, Nick. Would you like me to prepare your clothes for today? Perhaps a Halloween costume of your choosing?" Jan asked.

Nick shook his head. "No thanks, just the usual shorts and a t-shirt would be great. I don't care which ones," he replied simply, walking over to his kitchen. "Oh and a cup of coffee; cream and sugar," he added.

"Of course, Nick," Jan replied, complying with his orders.

Nick sat himself down at the kitchen table as his coffee began to brew on the coffee maker of its own accord. Meanwhile, he heard the machinery in his closet automatically sort through and select his desired clothes. When his mug of coffee had finished pouring, a mechanical hand had extended from the ceiling to carry the drink over to his kitchen table.

"Thanks Jan," he muttered, taking his first sip of the brew. He picked up the translucent tablet device sitting on the table. As soon as his fingers made contact with it, a collage of images and words filled the page; the headlines of the day's breaking news stories shifting across the top of it in bold letters.

As soon as he started reading the cover story about 'colonial development efforts' and drank at his coffee, he was interrupted by the enthusiastic knocking on his door followed by shrill cries of "trick or treat!"

Nick gulped down a mouthful of hot coffee and dropped his tablet. "Geez, the kids are at it already?" he muttered, looking down at his watch.

He knew that there was always such enthusiasm across the station every time October 31st rolled around. But even then, seven thirty in the morning? Had these kids no shame?! Nick then slapped himself on the head as it occurred to him that it was currently a Saturday and all the station's children were off from school for the day.

He sprung up from his chair as quickly as he could, given his leg condition. He scrambled across the apartment over to the door as the children continued knocking incessantly and one of them began ringing the doorbell. He looked through the glass peephole and saw two short, skinny forms staring up at his door, bobbing up and down on their tiptoes excitedly. Behind them, a taller, similar-looking figure stood by, grinning at the eagerness of the children. Next to her was a small oval-shaped baby stroller levitating above the ground like a hovercraft.

"Hey Jan; it's Eiza and her kids!" Nick pronounced to his automated system.

He put his mouth near the door and yelled out to his familiar visitors, "Just gimme one second!"

Nick's eyes darted from place to place across the apartment. He scratched his head confusedly, having clearly misplaced something of vital importance for that particular day.

"Crap; Jan, where did I leave the bowls of candy?" he asked, searching every nook of his living room.

"On the dining room table, Nick," came the immediate robotic reply. "I dispersed the contents into their respective bowls and labeled them just as you had requested."

Nick spun around and quickly limped his way over to the dining room table (grey, like much of the rest of his apartment). Atop it was five large bowls filled to the brim with various Halloween candy. Around the rim of each bowl was also a plastic laminated label.

Nick smiled, looking up and blowing a kiss to the ceiling. "Jan, what, oh what, would I do without you?"

"By my estimations, Nick, your apartment would consistently be in a state of disarray, laundry would rarely be washed, dishes would scarcely be cleaned..." the feminine robotic voice went off on a calculated tangent.

Nick chuckled, "I get the picture, Jan."

Nick gathered the bowls, stacking them on top of each other until he was carrying a precariously leaning tower of candy bowls. He wobbled across the room like an inexperienced restaurant waiter; the tower of Halloween candy teetering back and forth as he went. His attempts to keep the treats contained within the bowls were for naught as he had already begun laying a trail of candy behind him due to the constant spillage from the top bowl. By the time he reached the door, he had left an entire stream of candy corn and other treats leading all the way back to the dining room table.

He set the bowls down beside the door and swung it open welcomingly. The two short, costumed children were still giggling ecstatically in anticipation of the long-awaited candy. They both expectantly held out a treat bucket each; a hologram projection of a jack-o-lantern blinking in bright colors of orange on the side of the buckets.

"Trick or treat!" both the youngsters cheered out again beneath their Halloween masks as soon as Nick had made his appearance from the other side of the door.

Nick gave a mock cringe of fear by gasping and covering his mouth with his hands.

"Oh my, what spooky, terrifying little monsters we've got here!" he chuckled, patting the children on the heads. "What are you two pretending to be today?" he asked them with feint curiosity, even though he already knew the answer as judging by their masks.

"We're humans!" they announced gleefully in unison.

The child on the right took off its peach-colored human mask, revealing underneath it a scaly green face with beady black eyes, two little slits in place of a nose, and a gleaming smile of razor-sharp teeth. The female child next to him followed suit, taking off its plastic human mask to reveal its similar serpentine alien face underneath.

At first glance, the average human would probably be intimidated by the foreign appearance of the green-skinned garrkrons. The scaly skin and sharp teeth were certainly disconcerting features on the surface. When humans had first encountered the garrkrons during their space flight endeavors, there had been a great deal of misunderstanding upon first meeting. However, despite their otherwise frightening appearance, the garrkrons were actually very courteous and friendly.

Upon first contact with the humans, they had quickly made use of their natural affinity for diplomacy to allay the fears and concerns that came with the humans encountering an alien species for the first time. Soon enough, this had progressed into a stable friendship and alliance between the two species. Not long after that, the humans had been officially accepted into the Galactic Alliance Systems Federation (or simply GASF), thanks in large part to their good relations with the garrkrons.

"So, you two are humans, huh? Well, do you know what I am?" he asked the two kids.

The garrkron boy shrugged, replying, "A human without a costume?"

Nick shook his head with a grin. He retreated back into his room quickly, retrieving a menacing alien monster mask that one of his coworkers down at the docks had given him a few days before.

He jumped back to the door, raising his hands up over his head, letting out his best attempt at a monstrous growl. "Grrrraahhhh! I'm a giant snagglebeast from the pits of Vega, and I eat human children for breakfast, nom nom nom!" he imitated a monster voice while hobbling toward them.

The display brought about a round of laughs from Eiza and the kids. Nick took off the mask and tossed it back into the room, smiling down at the two garrkron children and looked up at their mother. Eiza was in the process of comforting the youngest of her children in the hovering baby stroller. When the infant fell back into a sleep, Eiza turned her gaze upward to Nick.

"Forgive me if we woke you by coming here so early," she said with a grin, obviously taking notice of his appearance comprised of a wifebeater and boxer-shorts. "They really wanted to come see their Uncle Nick though," Eiza laughed.

"Nah, it's fine. I was hoping the little rascals would come around," Nick replied, ruffling both of the kids' tendril-like hair jokingly, eliciting a round of giggles from both of them.

"Now, who wants some candy?" Nick asked the two of them, backing up inside his apartment to retrieve the treats. The two alien children grew excited again at this, bouncing up and down like two energetic jackhammers.

Nick inspected each of the five candy bowls until he came to the one labeled 'garrkron.' Nick peered inside the bowl to observe its contents with a slight grimace of distaste. Inside the bowl was an assortment of beetles, centipedes and other insect-like organisms. To Nick's relief, none of the creepy critters that comprised this "candy" bowl appeared to be alive. On the other hand, they didn't appear to be very cooked or fried, if at all.

He brought the bowl out to them, doing his best to keep his previous meal safely contained within his stomach as he did so. The two children beamed with delight, digging their tentacled hands into the bowl and scooping up a handful of the bug/treats and depositing them into their treat buckets.

Nick placed the bowl back in the room beside the others and leaned back on the doorframe as he squinted at the sight of the two children scarfing down some of their bugs greedily. Eiza took notice of discomfort crossing his demeanor with a resonant chuckle.

"They are a delicacy back on our planet," she explained, cradling her infant in her scaly tentacled arms. "Don't look so repulsed, dear Nicholas. Remember when you made me eat a slice of pitsa back when we worked on the fleet together? That wasn't a great experience for me or my stomach either, was it?" she laughed.

Nick rolled his eyes. "It's called pizza; and hey, you're the one that willingly agreed to that. Besides, at least pizza is prepared in a stove," he said, eyeing the uncooked insects again.

One of her children gulped down a treat before digging out one of the beetles from the treat bucket to hand it to Nick.

"Do you want one, Uncle Nick?" the girl asked him, offering the beetle resting on her tentacle.

Nick laughed, "No thanks, sweetie."

The girl shrugged and she and her brother pulled their human masks back on. The two of them began performing their best human impersonations, causing Nick to smirk again.

"So, what are your plans for today?" Eiza asked him curiously.

He shrugged blankly, looking from one end of the hallway to the other. Other kids had started to come out to participate in the trick-or-treating further down. Some of them were human, as evidenced by the obvious skin tones and general appearance; while others were just as obviously alien due to the presence of green or blue skin tones, fur, claws, tentacles or any manner of physical features considered occult by human standards. Even with Halloween costumes being worn by all the children, it wasn't difficult to differentiate the real humans from the real aliens.

"I don't know yet," he replied back to her. "I have off from work today, so I may just stick around and hand out the candy. Can't just leave the bowl out here or they'll all just run off with it, right?" he grinned.

Eiza raised an eyebrow and slapped his arm with her tentacle. "You are not going to spend another holiday by yourself, are you?"

Nick reconciled this for a few moments. Ever since the accident that crippled his leg and string of events that had followed, Nick admittedly didn't get out of his apartment much. Aside from his work down at the docks and the regular trips to the doctor, gym, or stores conveniently located aboard the station, he had no other reason to venture out often. He would occasionally make a trip back home to Earth every year or so to visit family, but would immediately return back to the Alpha Draconic Station as quick as he had left.

The fact that he still hadn't answered her question didn't go unnoticed by Eiza. "Nick," she spoke softly.

Nick looked up at her questioningly. "Yeah?"

"I know why you've been so apathetic since it happened. But, dear, don't you think it's about time you've moved on from her?" she asked him with concern, trying to keep her voice down so as not to alert the neighbors of the conversation.

Nick held a passive expression, shrugging at her. "That's the farthest thing from my mind, Eiza. I just don't get out as much as I used to because of my bum leg, that's all."

Eiza put her hands/tentacles on her hips, cocking her head at him. "You think human females are the only ones adept at reading men? Come on, Nick, I know you're still shell-shocked over what happened between you and Casey," she said, walking over and leaning back on the wall beside him.

She continued, "Has it ever occurred to you that there are females on just this station alone that would be all over you if you just put some effort in? You're kind, considerate, good-looking and..." Eiza went on about his attributes.

"And a cripple, let's not forget that," he sourly replied. "A cripple who works at the docks because the galactic fleet didn't want him anymore."

Eiza raised an eyebrow, frowning at him. "In the long run, that's not a detail that women will really care about."

Nick said nothing, looking down at his feet as a group of children scampered by him. Eiza suddenly turned away from him as she saw what one of her children was doing in Nick's apartment.

One of the garrkron children had apparently bet the other one to eat one of the human candies from the bowl. The boy garrkron flicked his long, serpentine tongue out and was about to taste one of the Kit Kat bars.

"Rego, do not eat that!" she scolded, snatching the Kit Kat away from her boy. "Human candy is not good for you; it has too much sugar that will make you sick." The boy pouted with disgruntlement and the girl giggled with mischievous glee at having won the bet due to her mother's intervention.

Nick smiled at the display before turning his gaze downward to the infant garrkron within the pod-shaped stroller. The infant was adorned in a human baby onesie that says "Berry Cute" on the front of it, as well as a matching pair of booties on its feet. The scaly green infant looked up at him with fascination and curiosity, its beady black eyes twinkling and little dribbles of drool falling from its open mouth.

Nick reached down and tickled its belly, causing the baby to kick its legs happily in the stroller, letting out little giggles. It reached up one of its arms and its tentacle gently coiled itself around Nick's hand, causing Nick to jolt from the cool, slimy feeling. Years of growing up interacting with aliens hadn't made actually touching one any less strange. Eiza came back out into the hallway with her two kids in tow, turning back toward Nick.

"Listen; Admiral Davidson of the sixth fleet is having a Halloween celebration in the dining center tonight. I think it would be really good for you to come on down. You don't have to dance or anything if you don't want to; just come down, wear a costume, mingle with friends, get drunk, that sort of thing," Eiza said with a smile.

Nick rubbed his arm. "I don't know, Eiza. Never was the party type and never was a fan of Admiral Davidson either."

She reached over and gripped his shoulder, gently squeezing it. "Please? For me?" she pleaded, giving him the ever-successful pouting lip look.

He rolled his eyes, letting out a sigh and slapping her tentacle playfully. "Ok, ok, I'll go to the party," he replied.

Eiza beamed happily, a sharp-toothed smile spreading across her face. "Very good! We'll break that lazy habit of yours yet. Get that vampire out of his coffin," she giggled.

"Now, be at the dining center at six o'clock. And Nick, if you aren't wearing a costume, there will be, as you humans say, hell to pay," she gave him a fiendish grin. "See you at six."

Nick nodded, waving her and her children off. Eiza gave Nick a final wink before continuing on down the hall with her stroller. Her children eagerly scampered on ahead of her to the next apartment, once again donning their human masks for the next round of trick-or-treating.

"Trick or treat," a pair of gruff voices muttered behind him.

Nick spun around and saw two very furry forms standing before him. One of the children was dressed up as a Medieval-styled knight in armor while his sister was dressed up as a pink ballerina. Nick stifled a laugh at the display.

Nick gave the two vithians (anthropomorphic wolf-like aliens) their own specific treats from the bowl marked as such before sending them on their way to the next apartment. The next arrival was a group comprised of two humans, a garrkron, and three children of other species as well. Their parents all gave a hello to Nick as soon as they had recognized him as the friendly neighborhood dock worker. Meanwhile, the six children dug into the bowls of candy while he did his best to pair the correct bowl with the correct species.

Nick couldn't help but have a sense of wonderment and admiration at the sight of the children of various species simply trick-or-treating together. It made him think back to when the holiday had first been introduced to the intergalactic community.

One of the boons of being in the Federation was that whenever a new race became a part of the community, like the humans did less than a century ago, they brought with them their own traditions and celebrations to be added to the mix. Still, not a single human could have predicted that Halloween, a holiday considered relatively mundane and satirical by most humans, would quickly become one of the most celebrated traditions throughout the Federation.

The aliens loved Halloween; in many cases even more than the humans did. Each species of course had their own traditions, many of them deeply spiritual or deeply imbedded in their heritage. But, to many of them, the act of spending the day pretending to look like and be something else, and paying homage to the occult was a completely revolutionary ritual. It was this uniqueness and mystery surrounding the holiday that had gathered such praise and excitement from the aliens every time October 31 came around. In a way, it was they who had revived Halloween to its former hype.

The thing that Nick found the funniest was the fact that most of the children on the station never wanted to dress up in costumes that pertained to their own species. Dressing up as pirates, cowboys, superheroes, and fairy princesses was a thing of the past for this new generation of human children. Now, the human kids were dressing up as vithian tribal warriors or argon space rangers, or garrkron emissaries, while the alien kids were now the ones dressing up in the traditional human costumes.

The next few hours followed in a similar fashion; a seemingly endless stream of human and alien children and young adolescents coming to his door for candy before moving on. He even had to have Jan refill the candy bowls a couple times each simply from the sheer number of trick-or-treaters participating.

Luckily, by the time five o'clock rolled around, the trick-or-treating had finally begun to dissipate, with children arriving at his door with less regularity. By now, the sorting and dispensing of candy had begun to rather exhaust Nick and he therefore resolved to leave the bowls out in the corridor for any remaining trick-or-treaters to dig into of their own accord.

He shut the door to his apartment and let out a sigh of relief of being liberated of trick-or-treat duty. When he then looked down at his watch, he realized that it was quickly approaching the time of the Halloween party that Eiza had invited him to. He looked down at himself with a frown, knowing that he had about a half hour to pick out a costume to wear, lest he never hear the end of it from Eiza of he showed up only in his casual clothes.

"Hey Jan?" he asked his automated system.

"How can I help you, Nick?" it replied.

"Is there anything you can cook up in terms of Halloween costumes?"

"My apologies; I can accommodate most requests, Nick, however, it would take at least a day for the costume to be delivered to the apartment, I'm afraid."

"Hmm, well then do you think you could dig something up that I may have worn a few years ago? I'm sure I still have something lying around."

"Please specify," Jan replied.

He thought to himself, trying to recollect what he'd worn in past years and what may still fit him.

Chewbacca? Nope, that would probably insult the vithians. Dawg the Federation Bounty Hunter? Nope, only humans watch that show. Globbus the slime monster? No, way too predictable. Hmm, Dracula...? Now there's an idea. Eiza had compared him to a reclusive vampire so it did seem appropriate. Maybe now would be a good year to whip out one of the classics...

"What do you think about Dracula, Jan?" he asked her.

"According to my records, Dracula was a fictional horror genre character first conceived by Bram Stoker in 1897."

Nick laughed. "Always a stickler for literalism, Jan. I meant, what about the costume, you know, to wear for today? I'm pretty sure I may still have it put away in the storage unit."

"Very well, Nick. I will retrieve it for you. Just a few moments please."

Jan's machinery sorted through his closet while Nick limped his way over to the bathroom. Once inside he opened up his cabinet and drew out two painkillers for his leg, swallowing both of them down. He didn't anticipate that he would be busting a move on the dance-floor tonight, but he wanted to cover his ass regardless.

After he took his pills, he applied a generous portion of baby powder to his face in order to add aesthetic appeal to his vampire costume. Walking out into his bedroom with his new makeup job, Nick saw that Jan had already laid out his old Dracula outfit onto his bed in its entirety. He drew on the outfit piece by piece, from the black silk pants, to the cape, to finally the iconic vampire fangs.

When he was fully dressed, Nick looked at himself in the hanging bedroom mirror with a grin. In a childlike display, he raised the hood over his head and bared in his fangs at the mirror, letting out a drawn-out hiss, chuckling afterward.

"Ohh Jan. How zu I look to you, my dear. Am I zust drop-dead handzom to you?" he asked in a foolish Transylvanian accent.

"You appear to have a speech impediment, Nick. I would recommend seeing the doctor at once," Jan replied.

Nick laughed at the comment, glancing down at the hilarious reflection of himself in the mirror again. A Dracula costume was slapstick and obnoxious enough as it was without it being worn by someone who had improvised it in five minutes flat.

"Bram Stoker, you poor Irish sap. If only you could see what a mockery your sacred creation is being made of now."

Nick gathered his room key and wallet and prepared to depart. "Jan, I'm heading out for a couple hours, don't wait up for me."

"Have a pleasant night, Nick. Shall I ensure that the room be clean in the event of any guests arriving later tonight?" the female computer voice asked.

Nick turned from the door, looking up at the ceiling with a sly grin. "As much as I appreciate the enthusiasm, Jan, I don't think that will be necessary. Besides, you're the only woman for me anyway."

Nick strolled out the door, shutting it behind him as he made his way for the elevator to take him to the lower dining hall. As the "vampire" departed its lair, the few trick-or-treaters passing by on that hall looked with amusement at the twenty-six year old Dracula that was breaking the ever-popular tradition of humans wearing alien costumes. At one point he saw an arachnid-like alien wearing a Dracula costume of his own; the costume having been modified to accommodate all eight of the creature's legs.

Nick smiled as he stepped inside the elevator. "He wears it better than I do," he said to himself.

The elevator closed its doors and descended at high speeds to the dining hall situated twenty stories below. Despite the elevator actually moving at the speed of a roller coaster, its occupants couldn't even tell that they were moving at all.

After a very short downward trip, the elevator doors drew open to reveal a highly-decorated corridor leading into the main dining center. Along the walls, vibrant hologram images displayed blinking and shifting images of ghosts, ghouls, jack-o-lanterns and other known Halloween antiquities. The overhead lights along the ceiling were an orange color and were dimmed low to keep the darkness intact for the sake of the holiday.

Nick walked toward the hall where costumed guests were being ushered in by a human woman with four (surprisingly realistic) prosthetic arms attached to her torso to make her look like a multi-limbed alien. The other usher was a garrkron dressed up as Elvis Presley, uncaring at the fact that his black wig and white outfit not at all coincided with his scaly olive skin and tentacles.

Nick approached the human usher, giving her a casual smile through his fake fangs. She gave him a smile and a friendly wave, her extra pairs of prosthetic arms automatically mimicking the behavior of her real arms.

"How do you do tonight, 'Count Nicholas'?" she greeted him with a grin. "Dracula I see; we surprisingly don't see much of that around here anymore."

Nick shrugged, "I was in the mood for a classic this year. Once upon a time it was commonplace for humans to dress up as vampires. Everything's reversed now apparently."

She nodded at him with a smile, handing him back the ID that he had presented to her. "It's a good costume choice, Mr. Meyers. Anyway, come on inside and enjoy the party."

He thanked her and walked into the room, doing his best not to make his usual stagger known to the party crowd as he entered. Luckily the painkillers had immediately started to kick in and gave him that extra boost to suppress the aches in his leg as he strode into the bustling dining hall.

Nick gazed in wonderment around the crowded, dimly-lit room. The dining tables had been pushed off to the side and were being used to hold a multitude of catered foods, some of them appealing to the human eye and some of them not. And of course, two entire tables alone held the alcoholic beverages. Unlike the food, the drinks were all the same; a clear fizzing drink dispersed into dozens of champagne glasses.

Nick grinned at this prospect. "Half a dozen Federation races with one key unifying factor: booze."

Nick approached the beverage table, taking up one of the glasses and sipping at it. Across from him at the other side of the room was a hefty, multi-limbed argon standing at a turntable set; the source of the thumping, electric dance music resonating through the room. The alien's multiple limbs allowed him to dictate the pace of the music with ease.

In the center of the room, a mix of adults both human and alien danced to the tandem of the DJ's music. On the ceiling, a series of orange strobe lights shone down on the frenzy of dancers. Below the dancing guests was a completely clear-glass dance floor that gave a god's eye view of the dazzling sea of stars and a couple planets in close proximity to Alpha Draconis. Nick found this fascinating, although most of the other guests on the dance floor didn't even seem to take notice of it.

As Nick was finishing the last of his drink he accidentally gulped the remainder of it down as someone roughly slapped him on the shoulder.

"How ya doing, wobbles?!" a boisterous Italian-accented voice rang out behind him.

Nick rolled his eyes and craned his neck. "God how I hate that damn nickname," he said through clenched teeth.

He spun himself around to come face to face with a spiky-haired human man wearing a black leather jacket and blue face paint.

"Mickey; I'm alright I guess. Enjoying the party?" he asked his coworker.

Mickey shrugged. "I can't complain, although I would like to end the night with a Halloween treat of my own if you catch my drift," he grinned, licking his lips as he eyeballed the rear end of a slim female vithian that passed by.

Nick met his gaze and chuckled. "You know, Mick, vithians don't take too kindly to furry fetishists."

"Well then I guess it's a good thing that I am a man of many fetishes then, isn't it?" Mickey chuckled, propping his arm up on Nick's elbow. "Well, now that you're here, I'd better let the other dock boys know that you've finally crawled out of your hole for once."

Mickey led him over to the back corner of the room; Nick fell in step with his coworker despite his slight limp. In the corner, there was a group of about half a dozen or so human and alien males dressed up in Halloween costumes, some of them being original while others were being worn by at least a handful other guests in the room. When they took notice of Nick's unexpected arrival, they raised their drink glasses and gave obnoxious cheers.

"Hey boys, look who I found; Count Wobbles!" Mickey howled ceremoniously.

His coworkers laughed and let out the string of comments that Nick had been anticipating.

"He's finally gotten up out of his coffin I see, eh Dracula?" an older dock worker asked with a laugh.

Nick shrugged and waved off the comments sarcastically.

"I guess I set myself up for this by wearing this costume today didn't I?" Nick sighed, smiling.

"Anyways, how we doing today, boys? Anyone drunk as a skunk yet?" he asked them.

One of his coworkers, a burly argon towering over Nick, responded to the question by downing his entire drink in one sitting. Some of the human dock workers followed his example, of course most didn't possess the resilience of an argon and could therefore only take down a fraction of the beer that their larger colleague had.

Mickey snickered at the sight. "As you can see, we'll all be at skunk status soon enough. Welcome to Alpha Draconis, ladies and gents," he said.

Nick looked around the room again. The alien and human partygoers continued to dance vigorously on the clear-glass dance floor. Past that, he saw that at the head of the room was a separate table where about a dozen people were sitting, laughing and conversing amongst themselves. Because of the costumes, it was difficult to determine who each of table's occupants were, but each of them had an aura of prestige surrounding them that was unmistakable.

Nick tapped Mickey on the shoulder and pointed to the head table.

"Who've we got at the VIP section?" he asked him.

Mickey nodded with a grin. "Ah, the gods that are untouchable by us mere mortals. Let's see who we got here."

He pointed first to the two vithians at the side of the table. "That there is Admiral Gannimar of the Vithian council fleet, and his, ahem, mate," he said, referring to the male and female wolfish aliens.

He moved further down the table to the next figures. "Next is the garrkron grand emissary, Aethia and her..." Mickey hesitated, "Partner."

Nick looked at the scaly green-skinned female at the table sitting next to an attractive human woman with brown hair. He remembered the frenzy amongst the human media the day that the prestigious garrkron diplomat had married a human female. It wasn't so much the controversy of a wedding between two females, since the human public's overall view on homosexuality had evaporated a long time ago. More so, there was so much hype due to the fact that this was an interspecies marriage and that the garrkron came from a wealthy family of aristocrats back on her home planet, and her human lover came from poverty. It had been sheer happenstance that Aethia had visited a human colony on diplomatic duty and had met and eventually come to grow closer to the human woman that would end up becoming her partner.

Mickey moved on to the next couple of people at the table. Nick immediately recognized the familiar face of the man whose hologram image had been tauntingly waking him up this morning.

The human administrator, Rutherford Dietrich sat at the center of the table with his wife. Both of them were dressed up as a king and queen and both of them had the same satisfied grins.

"Obviously you already know our enthusiastic station administrator. Enough said about that," Mickey said, moving on to the next prestigious person.

"And next to him would be the gracious gentlemen that threw this party, Admiral Carmine Davidson," Mickey continued, pointing at the clean-cut, black-haired human situated in the center of the table.

Nick had some familiarity with this sector's human fleet commander. His previous line of work prior to his leg injury had caused him to cross paths with the young admiral on several occasions, although he'd never met him personally. Davidson's reputation preceded him however; his work in putting down one of the rebellions in the Omega sector was well known throughout the Federation.

Mickey continued on, talking about the VIPs with sarcasm while the other dock workers threw in their own slew of jokes about them as well. Nick looked away across the room and his eyes were drawn to something else entirely now.

Directly across from him, past the moving figures on the dance floor, was a lone figure sitting in a chair watching the party. Nick moved himself to an angle that he could better see as he gazed at this lone entity.

Time itself seemed to ebb away and stop as he looked upon the figure of a female sitting alone across the sprawling party, looking upon the dancing guests with envy. The female looked like no other that he'd encountered, which in itself was saying something because of how many Federation species he'd come across in his line of work.

The lone female was donned in a white human nurse costume, particularly one that an early twentieth century nurse would have worn. This however, was hardly a detail that Nick was captivated with at the moment. The female had a distinctive violet skin tone that contrasted with nearly everyone else in this room, including the aliens. Nick could also tell, despite the fact that she was sitting, that this female had a slim figure and appeared to be taller than the average female human.

Nick shook his head and turned away as Mickey knocked him on the back of the noggin.

"Hey, you even listening, wobbles?" Mickey asked.

Nick cleared his throat, turning back to the female humanoid situated on the other side of the room.

"Mick, do you have any idea who that is?" Nick asked, pointing to the distinctive female in the nurse costume sitting alone.

Mick met his gaze and squinted, before his eyes lit up with realization. He grinned, propping his arm up on Nick's shoulder as he always did.

"That, my friend, is the most terrifying monster on this entire station," he replied. The other dock workers behind Nick and Mickey voiced their agreement.

Nick frowned, looking between Mickey and the rest of his coworkers incredulously before looking back at the female figure.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

Mickey looked at him curiously, turning back to the other dock workers and giving them all knowing glances.

Turning back to Nick he said, "You really don't know, do you? You don't know what she is?"

Nick shrugged. "No...I, I mean, I've never seen someone like her around here before. What...what species is she, Mick?"

Mickey gulped. "Her race is called the Yvon. They are the most recent addition to the GASF."

Nick's eyes widened at this, as he looked back and forth between Mickey and the female. "A new race to the Federation? When did this happen and how come this is the first time that I heard about it?" he asked.

"They joined five years ago when you were still out working in colony development. The yvon have only just recently started to interact with the Federation races though," Mickey replied.

Nick turned and looked at her again with curiosity. He noticed that not only was she sitting by herself, but there appeared to be no one even within her general vicinity either. Several people passed by her but seemed to keep their distance as if she were the bubonic plague.

"You called her a 'terrifying monster' before. What did you mean by that?" Nick asked Mickey.

Mickey scratched his chin as he looked at the violet female. "Supposedly the yvon are like cannibals or vampires or something. There's rumors going around that they feed off of living sentient organisms to survive. Pretty sick shit that I've been hearing," he replied nervously, sipping his beer afterward.

Nick looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Cannibals, is that so? Come on, there's no way it can be that simple. The Federation wouldn't just let a race of murdering sociopaths join their ranks. Those rumors you heard are probably just that, rumors."

Another one of his coworkers shook his head frantically. "No no man, it's true. I heard that the first Federation ambassadors that were sent to the yvon home planet never returned," the man gasped dramatically.

Other dock workers in their group nodded in agreement. "I heard that too. They've been killing and feeding off of any poor bastards dumb enough to enter yvon space. And now that they're part of the Federation, it's like they are ringing the god damned dinner bell!" one of them continued.

Nick turned to look back at the female. She was still sitting in the same chair with her chin resting in his hands as she watched the other guests passing by, oblivious to her existence. The more Nick looked at her, the more he was captivated by her delicate beauty. Even the exotic features of her own species were intriguing; her violet skin, her pointy ears, the flowing silver hair that ran down to her shoulders.

How could anyone call this woman a monster? She was absolutely beautiful and she didn't look like she could hurt a fly. After all, she was sitting there watching the rest of these people like a sad puppy dog. That surely didn't warrant caution.

Without thinking about it, Nick put down the remainder of his beverage glass at the nearby table and began to walk his way to the other side of the room, his eyes fixed on the yvon in the nurse outfit.

"Uh, Nicky boy, where are you going?" Mickey asked with a nervous laugh.

Nick looked over his shoulder at Mickey and his coworkers. "I'm going to introduce myself," he casually replied.

"I wouldn't recommend that Nick. I don't know about you, but I would personally prefer to keep my blood, flesh and limb intact, but that's just me."

Nick rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine," he replied.

He heard banter behind him from his coworkers about how crazy and suicidal he was being, but he disregarded it. He walked across the room, wading his way through the jubilant party-goers littering the dance floor. He continuously repeated utterances of "sorry" and "excuse me" every time he accidentally bumped into a dancer. After navigating the sprawling chaos, he arrived at the other side of the dance floor where the yvon was sitting straight ahead of him.

Nick spun around and looked back to the other side of the dance floor. Mickey had somehow conjured a pair of candy corn and had stuck them into his teeth to imitate a vampire, baring his candy fangs at Nick suggestively. Nick grimaced, shaking his head at the sight.

He slowly walked up to her, trying as hard as ever not to make his limp evident. He nervously stood over the violet female, even more enthralled by her beauty up close than far away. Her purple skin looked silky and smooth and she appeared to have a slim figure beneath that nurse outfit, despite her being slightly taller than the average human woman.

The yvon didn't seem to notice his arrival as he stood over her left shoulder. Nick gulped as he struggled to ignite conversation with her.

"Ex-, excuse me," he croaked awkwardly.

The yvon broke her fixation on the shifting dance crowd and looked up at him with distinctive red eyes. Her eyes traveled over the Dracula costumed figure standing over her with curiosity. Her eyes briefly stopped upon the plastic vampire fangs in his mouth before she shook her head, realizing that he had asked her a question.

"Yes, may I help you?" she asked him softly.

Nick bit his lip timidly. He was further intrigued and infatuated by the smooth gentleness of her voice; like a siren tempting and enticing the ancient Greek hero Odysseus.

"May I take a seat?" he asked her, indicating the empty seat beside her.

She looked back and forth between him and the empty seat before quickly nodding. "Yes, of course," she replied.

Nick nodded, thanking her before settling himself down beside her. He noticed that she had shirked away slightly at someone being in close proximity to her for the first time that night. It was almost as if she had longed for someone to finally acknowledge her existence but now that someone actually was, she didn't know how to react to it.

Nick twiddled his thumbs and the yvon next to him smoothed out her nurse uniform uncomfortably. She was looking straight ahead, cocking her head with curiosity at the sight of an alien dressed up in a "Star Wars" stormtrooper costume. Nick met her gaze and smiled.

"My great, great grandfather's favorite movie," Nick said to her suddenly.

The yvon turned to look at him with confusion. "I beg your pardon?" she softly replied.

He pointed to the stormtrooper. "Star Wars; it's an older Earth film that was made nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. That there is one of the villains, an imperial stormtrooper," he explained.

The yvon looked at the stormtrooper and then the human again. She cleared her throat before speaking.

"So...humans envisioned the galaxy beyond their planet even before joining the Federation; like in this... 'Star Wars' for example?" she asked him.

He shrugged. "I suppose a lot of the post-industrial humans suspected that there was something else out here in space; but still, I don't they ever would have seen something like this actually happening," he replied, looking around the room at the humans and aliens mingling.

She said nothing but silently nodded in agreement. He then surprised her by politely holding out his hand to her.

"Forgive me; I've gotten way ahead of myself. My name is Nick Meyers, I work here on the station," he said, smiling.

She looked down at his hand hesitantly, before reaching out and accepting the handshake, recognizing this as a gesture of friendly greeting amongst humans.

"Hmm, her hand isn't icy cold. Good sign I suppose," he mused to himself.

They pulled from their handshake and sized each other up. "Valhala," she told him.

"What?" he asked, looking at her eyes with the white irises and the blood red pupils.

"My name; my name is Valhala. Valhala Raahana."

Nick grinned at this. "Vala-, Hal-, Rana," he struggled to piece together her foreign yvon name.

She let out a serene giggle at his feeble efforts. Her laugh was colored by soft angelic sweetness that would melt the heart of any man. Nick marveled at the simple melody of the sound.

By god; that was the cutest laugh he'd ever heard.

"Val-hala-ra-hana," she sounded it out to make it clearer to him.

He nodded in understanding. "How about Val? Does that work for you?" he grinned.

She shrugged, rolling her eyes jokingly. "Most of my own people call me that anyway so I suppose you may as well."

They sat in silence for a few moments, although the initial air of awkwardness had dissipated now that they had introduced themselves to each other. Nick couldn't help but notice as he sat there watching the dance floor, that the violet woman beside him would continuously glance over at him, as if she were studying him.

Nick turned to look at her just as she averted her gaze so as not to look like she was watching him too closely. Nick could only smile at her curiosity.

"You're wondering about this, um, getup, aren't you?" he asked, indicating the Dracula costume.

She blushed slightly, a maroon glow materializing on her purple cheeks as she realized that she had been caught inspecting him. She nodded at him.

"It's not a costume I have seen before," she replied.

Nick nodded. "I don't know how much you know about humans, but I'll just say that our history is filled with cultural creativity through books, poetry, movies and more. This is one such example of that," he explained, pointing to his costume, "It's a fictional horror monster named Count Dracula. He first appeared in a novel more than two hundred years ago and he had been a character in many movies since then."

She looked him over again, her eyes falling on the plastic fangs in his mouth, causing her to look down at the floor sheepishly.

"What kind of monster was this Count Dracula?" she asked softly.

Nick froze up, wondering if he should even answer her question.

Mickey's words about the yvon being cannibals or vampires echoed within his head in that very instant.

"He...he killed people," Nick replied to her simply, purposely neglecting to divulge to her the manner by which Dracula killed his victims. "But anyway, it's not a big deal. It's just a silly legend conjured up by us humans."

If Mickey and the others were actually telling the truth about the yvon, then it's probably better that he didn't pour salt on the wound, he consoled to himself.

She slowly nodded, staring away from him as if distant in thought. Nick's foot unconsciously tapped on the floor as he thought of something to say.

"So, erm, I like your costume, by the way," he said, changing the subject.

Val looked down at her white nurse outfit and back up at him. "Thank you," she replied, smiling at the human's compliment.

He cleared his throat before continuing on. "I'm sorry to be pushy, but my curiosity is getting the better of me. I recognize most of the people on this station to one degree or another, but you are not one of those people. What brought you to Alpha Draconis for Halloween?" he asked her.

Nick had turned his chair around so that it was facing her. He was pleased to notice that she seemed far more relaxed around him now that their talk had progressed into friendly banter.

"The Yvon high council has appointed ambassadors and sent them out to various sectors of the Federation to become acquainted with the other races. I was assigned here to Alpha Draconis; I only just arrived two days ago," she explained.

"And, naturally, you wanted to participate in Halloween as an act of good faith," he replied.

She nodded. "Exactly."

"What do you think of our station here?" he asked.

She beamed, looking around the room. "It's fascinating," she replied. "I had studied many of these races since being appointed an ambassador, but it's amazing to see all of them peacefully living and interacting with each other."

"I think the first humans that joined the Federation felt the same way as well. Every race probably does, for that matter," he said.

Nick looked at her face, giving her a reassuring smile which she returned while still acting slightly sheepish as evidenced by her twiddling strands of her silver hair with her fingers.

"So...how have the people here treated you?"

Her smile faded as she rubbed her arms slightly, looking away from his face once again. "They've been very accommodating. They are kind enough to me I suppose; more than I was expecting when I first arrived here."

Nick studied her face intently. She was biting her lip and still not making eye contact with him. He knew that she wasn't being completely honest. He remembered seeing how the other party guests had looked at her and purposely avoided her. It seemed to him that they were treating her like an unwelcome guest, or putting her through a sort of racial hazing. He hoped to change that now.

He turned back toward the direction of the dance floor, coincidentally, the DJ had turned down pace of the music. The thumping beats had stopped and a slower-paced, melodic song had begun while the argon DJ prompted the guests to "take their partners out onto the dance floor." Nick felt a twinge of appreciation at the fact that the "slow dance" concept had been rejuvenated in recent decades.

Nick turned back toward Val, offering out his hand to her with a kind smile.

"Would you like to dance, Ms. Raahana?" he offered her.

He then bit his tongue when the words left his mouth. He really hoped that she was a Ms., otherwise a yvon male somewhere out there would be pretty upset with him right about now.

Her silver head made a cycle between looking at him, his hand and the dance floor. She looked hesitant and her mouth was opening and closing as if she couldn't make up her mind.

"I...no...I couldn't," she stuttered nervously.

"It's ok, Val, I'm not much of a dancer either. I won't judge you at all; this is just for fun," he reassured her, still offering out his hand.

Somehow his words put a damper on her insecurities. The sincerity in his voice and the kind smile he gave her just put her at ease. Finally after a few moments of deliberating with herself, she reached out her violet hand and he folded it into his own hand gently.

Nick led her by the hand toward the dance floor. Several of the nearby guests and their partners took notice of the new addition to the dance floor in the form of the nurse uniform-clad yvon and her human dance partner. Some of them, particularly the women, looked at her incredulously.

Nick spun around to face her once they were both situated in the dance floor. By now the DJ had put on one of the classics: "Summer Wind" by Frank Sinatra. The couples littering the dance floor began a slow, relaxed movement in tandem with the jazz melodies of one of the most celebrated romance songs in human history.

Val clearly looked nervous as to how to go about this. She looked to her right and saw two humans swaying back and forth with each other; the man holding the woman gently by the waist while his lover had her arms wrapped about his neck.

Nick noticed her nervousness and took the initiative by leading the dance. He gently wrapped his arms about her slender back. He pulled her in toward him slowly, giving her enough personal space so as not to make her uncomfortable yet close enough for the sake of the mutual dance. He took great care not to have his hands linger too low toward the yvon's posterior. That would be a costly mistake that would earn him a slap in the face or worse from this alien female.

Val followed the example of the human woman that she'd been watching. Her hands slowly traveled up Nick's body before coming to rest on his shoulders, grasping them. She looked up into his face questioningly now that they were in position.

"I'll lead; just move with me and do what feels natural," he said with a smile.

She nodded as Nick began to move, guiding her gently along with him. He glided his feet from place to place across the small space that they had on the dance floor; his body and Val's moved in synchronization with the movement of his swaying feet. Soon enough, as the relaxing melodies of the jazz music and Sinatra's smooth voice kicked in and she began to pick up on Nick's movements, Val began to get a hang of how to properly move along with him.

Despite that neither of them had previously been avid dancers, both Nick and Val began to genuinely fall into a smooth rhythm toward the apex of the ballad. He did better at keeping his damaged leg concealed as he danced with her. All the while, their hands continued to hold each other and their faces were fixed on the other's. Val had a contented smile on her face as she admired human male in such close proximity to her.

She bit her bottom lip as she looked at his face. Despite the guise of baby-powder that he wore, she saw right through that, looking instead at the kind, emerald eyes sparkling at her. She looked too at the friendly smile he was giving her; not a smile that concealed lies or deceit, but one that was gentle and kind-hearted. She felt so secure and comfortable in his presence; like she could do anything and he would never judge her for it. She realized in that moment that she was immensely attracted to this human.

Val still felt a twinge of uncertainty at the back of her mind, however. How much did he know about Yvon? Was he paying attention to her and being so nice because he really wanted to? Maybe he was just the only one at this station that didn't know her for what she was. But...maybe he didn't have to find out. Maybe they could just ignore those details and keep having a good time.

She was quickly falling under his spell. As they danced, she continued to look at the serene smile he gave to her. She felt a shudder run through the human as her hands had moved from his shoulders to hook themselves around the back of his neck, her delicate fingers sliding through the locks of his brown hair.

Her eyes suddenly locked on something else. As they unconsciously danced to the next slow song that the DJ had begun playing, her eyes were fixed on a vein pulsing in Nick's neck. Unbeknownst to the yvon female, Nick had become considerably aroused when Val had pulled him closer and ran her fingers through his hair. As a result, the blood begun to flow through the human's body with intensity equal to the lyrics of the love song that they danced to.

Val found herself unnaturally transfixed at the pulsing vein in Nick's neck and the thumping beat of his heart-rate that her pointy purple ears could pick up. She quickly shook her head, doing her best to focus on her dancing rather than the carnal impulse she found herself consumed with. It was too late though; seeing that throbbing, pulsing lifeline of this male had sparked something primal within her.

No, no, don't think about that. By the seventh council, Valhala, you're already nourished today! It's a taboo, you fool; the council could execute you for forcing yourself on another member of the Federation! It's not right! She shouted at herself in her mind even as she continued to silently dance along with him.

Nick was unaware of the inner conflict that Val was waging with herself, however, he could tell that something had to be wrong because she wasn't smiling anymore, nor looking at him.

Another part of her mind retaliated against the previous thoughts that she had had. Oh gods, she couldn't help herself! She didn't just want to taste his blood, she wanted to do everything with him. She wanted to just rub her hands all over his body. She wanted to feel his muscled arms. She wanted to press her lips against his. She wanted to... She halted slightly as her fantasy just got much naughtier. She wanted to...

She envisioned herself and the human falling into bed with each other. She pictured the two of them lustfully stripping each other's clothes off and passionately kissing. She pictured sinking her fangs into his neck and slurping at the tantalizing life-force from within his veins. Finally, she pictured the human spreading her legs and entering her with his hard manhood and the two of them thrusting against each other while she nipped at his neck.

Nick was utterly confused. She had appeared genuinely happy at the beginning of the dance, but now was staring at him strangely, biting her lip and breathing heavily as if she badly wanted something.

Wait...was that...lust in her eyes? Did those pupils get two shades redder? Something was either very right or very wrong here.

As soon as the song came to an end, Val abruptly broke off from their embrace and her head jolted from place to place about the room as if she was scrambling for an exit.

"I'm sorry Nick, dancing was very enjoyable, bu-, but, I have to go...take care of something," she jittered, her hands shaking.

With that, she broke out from the dance crowd and scrambled for the exit door. She pushed and shoved her way through the costumed party guests to desperately get there.

Nick stood in the middle of the dance floor dejectedly with his mouth agape with confusion at what had happened. He remained transfixed on the form of the purple nurse fleeing away from him. He finally broke out of his apathy after several moments and scrambled after her as fast as he could, cutting his path through the dancers as she had.

"Val! Where are you going? Are you ok?!" he called after her.

She heard him yelling after her but did her best not to acknowledge it. By now, she hid her mouth behind her hands as her fangs had already materialized.

She had to get back to her apartment. She still had some blood packs left there. She couldn't bite him, she couldn't bite him, she couldn't bite him. Gods how she wanted to, but she just...didn't know if she could control herself. It had been so long since she'd drunk from a live person. She didn't know if she had the self-restraint to...

Val shoved her way through the entrance doors where guests were still being ushered in. Nick followed swiftly after her, making use of both of his legs; this however was a poor decision because he was putting more pressure on his left leg than he should be.

She rounded the corner and was approaching the elevator. Nick followed her, urging her to wait and slow down. Suddenly, Nick's eyes bulged and he stifled a sharp gasp as a spike of pain ran through his left leg. He saw stars and he fell to his knees on the floor as the worst pain that he'd felt since the accident flowed through his injured leg.

Val spun around as she heard the sound of a body hitting the ground. She saw Nick lying on the floor clutching his leg and quivering. Her fangs retracted back into her gums as the carnal hunger was suddenly gone and replacing it was genuine concern for the human male that she'd met.

"Nick? What's wrong?" she urgently asked him, walking back up to him.

His leg was still shaking uncontrollably and his teeth looked to be chattering like he was stiflingly cold. After a moment he managed to utter out, "Painkillers...wore off."

She looked between him and the quivering leg that he was clutching. "There's something wrong with your leg?" she asked. This actually surprised her; he had seemed to carry himself very well out on the dance floor, after all.

"Sad, huh? Grown man thrown to his knees by a leg ache," he sighed, his leg still quivering.

She frowned, observing his leg intently, wondering what the extent of the damage was. "Where is your apartment?" she asked him.

Nick blinked a few times as he could see clearly again and the stars had dissipated. "Tenth floor," he replied.

She nodded, moving over to his left side. She took his left arm and pulled it around her shoulder to support him.

"Let's get you up on your feet, we'll go slowly," she said. "One, two, three..."

She hoisted Nick up onto his feet and, bracing him against her so as not to strain his left leg. With her support, he hobbled his way along to the elevator. After the door shut behind them, the elevator began its quick ascent to the tenth floor, all the while the man in the Dracula costume and the female in the nurse uniform stared at each other silently.

After a few moments, Nick felt he had to bring up the matter of Val's early departure from the party.

"Val?" he softly asked her. Her eyes were still blood red as she looked at him.

She shook her head at him. "I'll explain everything when we get to your apartment," she replied.

Nick leaned back against the elevator wall, nodding to her in reluctant acceptance. The elevator came to a stop and the doors drew open. By now the kids were almost completely gone from the corridor, with the exception of some of the older ones. Val led Nick along the empty hallway, acting as a replacement leg for him to put his weight on in place of his injured one.

"I'll just warn you, this may not be a pretty sight, cleaning my apartment is not one of my strong suits," he laughed, inserting his room key into the door.

She grinned. "I'm sure I've seen scarier," she replied as they stepped inside.

Nick gaped from what he was when he walked in. His apartment was completely spotless and clean. The clutter that had littered the floor was gone, as was the pile of used clothes that had been lying on the couch. Not only was the apartment fully cleaned, but several orange Halloween candles had been put out on his dining room table, as well as the dresser in his bedroom. On his kitchen table was a freshly-carved jack-o-lantern with a lit candle on the inside of its smiling mouth cut-out. The final detail was an atmospheric melody of jazz music vaguely similar to what they had been dancing to only a half hour before.

Both Nick and Val blushed profusely with embarrassment. He looked up at his ceiling with a wry grin.

"Jan, thank you for cleaning the place, but the decorations and music really weren't necessary," he laughed.

"My scanners indicated that you had a guest arriving, so I felt it prudent to make a relaxing atmosphere," the robotic female voice replied.

Val smiled as she led Nick over to the couch. "Thank you Jan," the yvon said kindly.

"It was my pleasure, Ms. Raahana."

Val gently deposited Nick onto the couch, taking great care with his leg. She took one of the pillows and propped his left leg up on it. She looked at him with a kind smile.

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked him sweetly.

He stared up into those red orbs peering down at him with wonderment and curiosity, before replying, "A couple painkillers would be great. They are in the bathroom cabinet in the blue bottle."

Val nodded and was about to comply before a pair of Jan's arm extensions came forth from the ceiling carrying a tray with a bottle of water, the painkillers, and two glass cups filled with a hot, copper-colored drink.

Nick picked up one of the glasses and looked at it curiously. "What is this, Jan?"

"Apple cider, Nick," she replied. "I made some while you and your female friend were on the way here."

Val smiled, picking up the other glass. "She is very helpful," she said.

Nick downed his two pills followed by a large gulp of water behind it. Val sat on the couch next to him, looking down at his leg that had finally stopped quivering of its own accord.

"How did it happen?" she softly asked him.

Nick put down his water and looked up at her, scratching his chin as he recalled the accident.

"A few years ago, I worked with the Federation fleet in the colony redevelopment division. Basically, we would remodel residential housing on the colonies, fix downed transmitters, repair the atmospheric processors; nothing special," he explained.

"One of the colonies out in the Alpha Centauri system had taken severe structural damage from a hailstorm. We had to go in and fix the building's plating and install an extra sealant that could protect against abrasion from future hailstorms."

"Toward the end of the day, a bunch of the colony kids were outside playing baseball, a common human sport, while I and the other guys were fixing the radar tower. The kids' mothers had apparently told them to stay inside in case another hailstorm came, but they stayed out anyway."

"Anyway, one of the kids hit a home run toward us while another kid ran to retrieve the ball. In that next instant, a massive gust of wind blew into the valley. The radar dish was completely ripped from the tower, because the hailstorm had done so much damage to it."

"I was busy fixing the support beams when I saw that the radar was about to fall. What I saw next though was that one of the colony kids was right under the tower trying to recover his baseball. My next impulse was getting the kid out of the way; I didn't think about anything else."

"Everything happened so fast next that I can barely even remember it. I scrambled for this kid, a vithian boy, and shoved him out of the way just as the dish was falling. I tried to make a jump for it to save myself before it came down, but by then it had already fallen. The fact was; it was either me, or the vithian kid. I made sure that I was the one to be caught in the dish's path when it fell."

Val gulped. "So...the dish, and, your leg," she continued.

Nick sighed and nodded. "I remember feeling the most excruciating pain I'd ever felt in my life, just before I blacked out almost instantaneously. When I regained consciousness, I was in a stretcher and they were carrying me back up to the ship for a medevac. I couldn't even feel my leg at that point. The other guys later told me that it took all five engineers plus a couple colonists to pull the dish off of my leg."

"I'll never be able to walk on the leg properly again. The doctors were able to make sure that I didn't lose the leg completely, but still, most of the tissue and bone damage is irreparable...at least by current Federation doctors," he said.

"The vithian parents of the kid that I saved paid for all of the medical treatment. They must have thanked me a hundred times while I was in my hospital bed," he concluded.

They sat in silence, Nick sipping from his apple cider. Val licked her purple lips, reconciling what to say next.

"What happened to your career in colonial redevelopment?" she asked.

"I was thanked for my efforts before being honorably discharged about a month or so later," he replied.

She looked at him, shocked. "Discharged that quickly?! They didn't award you a commendation? You saved a child's life!" she gasped.

He shrugged. "The colonists appreciated what I did and the fleet basically gave me a Purple Heart medal or something similar to it. I found that rather funny since I wasn't even a soldier or a marine. Still, because of my leg I suppose the fleet considered me dead weight and wanted nothing to do with me anymore. Colonial redevelopment calls for a great deal of mobility," he explained bitterly.

She shook her head at him. "I for one feel that they should have treated you better. That sounds like a heroic thing that you did; putting your life on the line to save someone else."

She reached down and gave his hand a squeeze, smiling down at him.

"So anyway; a few weeks later, I was flipping through the paper, found an ad in the help-wanted that called for dock workers to operate the freight mechs on this station, and now here I am," he grinned. "Luckily the job didn't involve me moving my legs too much."

He then frowned and his demeanor showed a hint of a pained expression.

"The worst part was when my girlfriend, Casey, left me. You see, we'd both been in the fleet together. She'd worked as a requisitions officer aboard the ship that I'd worked on. After the accident, we tried to make things work long-distance, but the fact was that she was always out traveling from place to place in space, and I was here, on this station. So...it just didn't end up working out, the distance between us," he said, looking away from her.

She nodded with a frown as he finished his story. She felt even more humbled to have met this man because of what he'd been through.

She looked back up at him to see that he'd been using a wash cloth and water from his bottle to wipe down the baby powder mask that he'd cloaked his face with. When he was finished, he took another drink of his apple cider.

Val looked down at her own cup of the hot drink, sniffing at it like it was something bile and unpleasant. Nick smiled at her curiosity.

"Val, you don't have to drink that you know."

She raised the glass to her lips. "It looks delicious. I'm curious as to how it tastes."

Nick gulped as he watched her take an experimental sip of the apple cider. "If she really does have to drink blood to survive, will this be toxic to her somehow?" he wondered.

Val took some of the liquid into her mouth and let it settle there for a few moments. She tasted the drink in her mouth, doing her best to make it look like she was enjoying it, when in actually, it was obvious how unpleasant it was for her. She made a face that almost looked like she had just tasted something very sour as her lips puckered. Soon after, she swallowed the mouthful of the hot drink down as if she were reluctantly inhaling it, rather than drinking it.

She looked at the still-full glass and grimaced slightly, placing down onto the tray. She frowned, looking down at herself sheepishly like she'd somehow disappointed him.

He empathetically rested his hand on hers, looking at her face with a kind, sincere smile.

"I told you, you didn't have to drink it if you didn't want to. It's alright," he said, soothingly stroking her hand.

She bit her lips. She wanted him so badly. It was now or never. He had to know the truth; that way there would be no surprises if she lost control of her emotions. He had to know that he needed to protect himself if he had to.

"Nick," she whispered. "I need to tell you something."

He sat himself upright on the couch, looking into her violet face intently. He slowly nodded his head, noticing the ominous change in her tone. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves before continuing.

"How much do you know about the yvon?" she asked.

He gulped, shrugging slightly. "To be honest, not very much. You are actually the very first I've ever met."

She nodded her head casually, not at all seeming offended by this revelation.

"There is a good reason why my people are so reclusive. Some of the Federation races knew who and what we were long before we joined. The yvon have garnered a certain...reputation for the past few centuries," she explained.

"You see, biologically my race has an instinctive urge that runs deep within each of us. We are required to survive on one thing and one thing alone," she paused, taking another breath before continuing. "Please understand, Nick, that what I am about to tell you is like a massive stone in my heart, but I think you should know the truth."

He interrupted her. "Val...I think I already know."

She blinked, looking at him open-mouthed. "You...you do?"

He just smiled at her in response. "Do you really think I was going to go running and screaming out of here when you told me that you have to drink blood of other species to survive?"

Her violet face went a shade paler. He knew. By gods, he already knew.

She sat in silence for a few moments, looking away from him in terror as if he would at any second bolt up from the door and run for station security.

Then in that next moment it all hit her at once. Wait a minute; he knew. He'd known what she was the entire time, and yet he'd still been spending all this time with her!

She struggled out, "You're...you're not afraid of me?" she asked hopefully.

He shook his head with that same passive, contented smile. "I did dress up as a vampire, don't forget," he laughed.

Val made that connection for the first time; the plastic fangs and the baby powder. This Count Dracula that he'd dressed himself up as was a vampire...like her.

"Val," he said, causing her to look up at him again. "If you don't mind my asking, how did the yvon become part of the Federation in the first place? If there was animosity between you and the rest of the races because of your...hunger, then how did you convince them to become a part of the galactic community?"

"Two decades ago, my people's science academy diverted all resources into coming up with a solution to our...affliction. We were tired, we were tired of being a pestilence, tired of being monsters to be feared and abhorred by the other races of the galaxy," she explained.

He looked into her face, continuing to rest his hand on hers all the while. "Did it work? Were you able to cure yourselves?"

She shook her head. "No. Our tendency is instinctive and chemical. It's not something we could use science to alter or cure. We did however, come up with another reprieve. Using the combined genetic material of all the other Federation species, we were successfully able to replicate the blood of other species for nourishment," she said. "Now that we finally had a solution, over three hundred thousand synthetic blood factories were built on our home planet within the next decade. Soon after, we appealed to the Federation council and proposed to them that we were no longer a threat, and we finally become accepted into the community soon after."

He nodded, fascinated with the story of her species. "Synthetic blood; so, you guys can actually survive on that?"

She gave a half-nod. "Yes, it does give us adequate nourishment to survive. But, just put it this way; the difference between regular and diet food brands."

He nodded with a knowing grin. "Ah, I see; although the synthetic stuff is ok enough, it's nothing compared to the real thing?"

She nodded blankly. "Yes. Don't get me wrong, we were overjoyed that we could finally be part of the Federation and not be outcasts. But...it is definitely difficult for us, now more than ever."

"Are you allowed to drink from living people at all anymore? Well, without killing them of course," he asked.

She bit her lip, looking at him strangely before answering. "The yvon high council has tightened their noose on the policy of interspecies live feeding. In very few circumstances, such as yvon/non-yvon matings and marriages, we may be allowed to drink from our partner, as long as it is completely consensual," she explained.

"Since we joined the Federation five years ago, nonconsensual feeding has become the worst crime that a member of my species can commit. The yvon high council has longed to become part of the galactic community for years. They will do whatever they can to keep their new alliance intact. They don't want cross-species incidents to threaten what they have achieved."

Nick looked at her with a concerned expression. "What is the punishment for nonconsensual feeding?"

She gave a worried grimace. "Generally, public execution back on the Yvon home planet. They want to send a message that the old ways must not exist anymore," Val replied.

"Have you ever fed on a live person before?" he asked her, staring right into her eyes.

She looked away from him sheepishly. "Yes," she croaked, shaking her head sadly. "It's been a long time, but yes, I have fed on live victims before; unwilling live victims. I was born of the last generation in which feeding on live victims was an accepted practice among my people."

"Now, every new generation of the yvon will grow up learning not to feed on others. I envy them. Gods how I envy them," she said, shaking her head in shame, averting his gaze.

Nick reached over and cupped her cheek in his hand, turning her head to look at him. She had tears welling up in her eyes as painful memories came back to her all at once.

"I'm a murderer, a monster," she croaked. "I still see the faces of the poor colonists that my father and mother would bring back for me to feed on. I still remember the fear in their eyes," she sobbed into Nick's hand. "I was so close, I was so close to being born into the next generation. A few more years and I would never have known what it feels like to drain a person dead," she cried.

Nick propped himself up, ignoring the pain in his leg as he moved forward to wrap his arms around Val. He pulled her against him, stroking his fingers lovingly through her silky silver hair as she cried into his shoulder as the flood of emotions poured through her.

"You aren't a monster, Val. Do monsters cry or show remorse?" she whispered into her ear soothingly. "You are different now. It's why you became an ambassador. You want to help people, to become friends with the other races. You are not a murderer," he reassured her, keeping the beautiful violet creature pressed against him.

"I'm not different," she sobbed. "Even now, all I've been thinking about is sinking my teeth into your neck and drinking from you! It's not natural! This is no way to live!" she bawled miserably.

Nick looked shocked at hearing this. She wanted to drink from him.

Nick mulled this over in his head. Was this a bad thing? Did that mean that she was attracted to him? Was that why she ran out of the party earlier, because she couldn't control her emotions? Maybe she will be able control herself. Maybe it's better if he give her what she so craved.

Nick pulled back from her, staring right into her tear-streaked face. He reached his hand out and brushed a lock of silver hair from her eye.

"Do it then," he said to her simply.

She wiped her eye. "What?" she asked confusedly.

"Do it, Val. Drink from me. I want you to."

Her face contorted at this. "Haven't you been listening to what I've been telling you, Nick?!" she hollered. "I am sickened by my nature!"

"You are sickened by the idea of forcing yourself on someone and feeding from them against their will. I am willing. There is nothing wrong with consensual feeding. I want to share my life-force with you, Val. I want you to drink my blood," he declared to her with absolute certainty.

She looked at him, dumbstruck. Her mouth was quivering as she was completely at a loss for words.

Was this really happening? Was this human really offering himself to her? Did he feel the same way that she did about him? What could possibly be wrong with this if he wanted it? She knew she could do this; she could control herself. She could feel when she needed to stop.

Slowly Val nodded her head in acceptance. She wiped away the last tears from her eyes and collected herself.

"If you feel yourself starting to lose consciousness, you have to stop me. Whatever happens, you have to stop me if I lose control. Snap my neck if you have to. Do whatever is necessary to keep yourself alive. Is that understood?" she said to him sternly.

He nodded his head in understanding of her ultimatum. He looked at her to see that she was shaking slightly in nervousness and anticipation. Her eyes were flaring bright red at him. She then took him by the hand and helped him up onto his feet, using herself as a brace for him to move as she'd done earlier.

"Let's go to the bedroom where it will be more comfortable," she whispered to him.

They strode over to his bed and she gently lowered him down atop it before climbing in with him on the other side. All around them, the lights were completely off; the only other light being the three Halloween candles on his dresser and the ocean of twinkling stars beyond the apartment window.

Nick turned and looked at her with a serene smile. His mouth popped open and warmth immediately rushed to his skin as he saw her pulling her white nurse top off. After a moment the top was thrown to the floor, revealing more of that luscious violet skin and her wonderful womanly orbs concealed by a bra.

"What...what are you doing?" he asked her, licking his lips.

She moved to unclip her bra from behind, giving him a gentle yet seductive smile. "This will make it more relaxing for you. I'm giving you something to keep your eyes and your mind focused on. It makes the feeding easier," she replied.

With that, the bra unclipped and fell to the floor. Nick let in a sharp intake of breath as two perfect breasts stood proudly out for his privileged viewing pleasure. They, like the rest of her skin, were violet purple colored with no superficial inadequacies whatsoever. They were perfectly proportioned also; not overly-large, but certainly not small either. The darker-colored fruits of her pert nipples looked aroused and erect with her great anticipation.

She got back onto the bed beside him, delighting in the sight of his eyes being fixed on her breasts. She stared right into his eyes as she crawled up to him like a lioness about to pounce on its prey; her eyes were as red as ever and seemed alight with a supernatural passion. Nick gulped with a twinge of momentary fear as he took to heart the warning that she'd earlier given him about doing whatever he could to keep himself alive.

Val swung her slim legs over onto either side of him, carefully avoiding his left leg as she did so. She stared him in the eyes, biting her lower lip seductively as her hands went to his crotch. He jolted and gasped as her hands ran their way up his thighs and traveled up his chest, unhooking each of the buttons to his Dracula costume as they went, all the while her eyes never left his.

She pulled open his costume revealing his muscled chest to the eager yvon. She licked her lips, tossing the upper half of the costume to the side before running her fingers up his arms and over his abs, feeling them flex beneath her fingers. She lowered her head down and planted several kisses with her plush purple lips onto his upper abs, staring up into his face as she did so.

Nick cooed and stroked a hand lovingly through her hair. He now felt incredibly pleased that he had continued to tone his upper body even after the accident. After being grounded to Alpha Draconis, the gym and weight room had been one of the few places that he had chosen to frequent in his free time. He wasn't a bionic superhuman to the point where his veins were bulging out of his arms, but he did keep himself at the peak of his physical level. The wonderful alien female atop him seemed to greatly approve, because she was raining a shower of kisses down all over his chiseled torso even now.

Val pulled her head back from his chest and crawled further up his body so that she was sitting astride his chest. She reached down and took hold of his hands, bringing them up to her breasts and placing them there.

"Do with them as you please," she whispered to him. "You should get something out of this too," she smiled.

Nick turned his gaze down to those wonderful breasts before him. He smoothly worked his thumbs over the areolae, circling them and flicking his thumbs across the erect nipples. Val let out a cute gasp at this sensation, bringing her head down to his neck and kissing at it and his collarbone gently. He worked his fingers gently over her firm globes as he felt her press her little button nose against his neck and inhale him deeply and lustfully.

She could smell it. He was so hot and ready for her. A willing, aroused person was a thousand, a million times more appealing than an unwilling one to her.

She flicked her tongue out to give a wet lick along his neck where, right beneath it, she could pick up the steady beat of his pulse. She brought her head up to look at him right in the eyes. Their faces were mere inches away from each other as her fingers gently traced along his smooth neck.

"You can still say no, Nick. You don't have to do this," she assured him softly.

Nick cleared his throat, realizing that this was the moment of truth. He couldn't imagine saying no to her though. She was such a kind woman; she deserved to know what it feels like to feed from a willing person at least once in her life.

Nick nodded his head in response. "I'm ready," he replied absolutely.

Val beamed with happiness from his answer. She opened her mouth and a slight clicking noise was heard as her fangs materialized from her gums. Nick looked on in awe and strange admiration as her fangs were revealed in all of their mesmerizing and intimidating glory. The fangs gleamed from the light of the candles as she smiled at him.

She shifted herself closer, gently reclining Nick's body back onto the pillows behind him so that he was comfortable and relaxed. She put her face near the left side of his neck and began to gently nip at it, not penetrating him with her fangs yet but getting accustomed to his anatomy and anticipating where or where not to bite.

She pulled back one last time to look into his kind eyes. He let out a deep breath to calm himself.

"Thank you for doing this. You are a very kind man," she said to him lovingly. "Remember what I told you before; do whatever is necessary to free yourself, if you must."

He shook his head, "I won't have to. You won't lose control. I trust you, Val."

She smiled as her eye glistened with a tear of happiness. "Thank you," she said again.

She lowered her head down to his neck slowly, opening her mouth to fully reveal her fangs again.

"Just relax; it will be alright," she soothingly whispered into his ear.

He quickly nodded as his hands instinctively began to gently massage her bare breasts again in order to take his mind off of things. Val lowered her head down to the nape of his neck and began to experimentally lick and graze her fangs superficially along his skin, trying to determine the best place to make the incision. Finally, she came to a place where she wouldn't be rupturing any major arteries or causing him any more discomfort than she had to.

With everything in place, her eyes honed in on the target spot, she bared her fangs, and directed the two sharp digits downward, piercing his skin.

Nick's eyes bulged and his hand squeezed her right breast reflexively. He let out a surprised gasp of, "Ahhhhnnnn!" as two sharp points had bit their way into his neck.

The sharp pain radiated in his neck and he saw stars for a few moments but felt himself roused out of the feeling by a delicate hand running along his chest and face gently. His vision cleared and he took in the sight of a silver head buried in his neck as he felt her two sharp fangs slowly, gradually bore their way deeper into the interior of his neck until they went as deep as they could go: his vein.

Nick grit his teeth and tried to relax himself as Val shifted herself around on his lap, keeping her head and fangs fixed onto his neck with her eyes closed. He continued to run his fingers on her breast and nipple with one hand while taking the other and cradling her head toward his neck, stroking her silky hair. Nick then let out a surprised moan and his toes dug into the bed sheets as he felt the first of his blood being drawn out of him from the neck.

The feeling of blood being drawn out of him by another life form was indescribable. The initial stinging pain in his neck that he felt when her fangs had penetrated his neck was gone and replacing it was a strange warmth and serenity that spread throughout his entire body. He soon began to feel numb and dizzy from the sensation.

Val meanwhile was beginning to lose herself to the euphoric feeling of drinking from what she'd been lusting over for the past few hours. Her eyes were closed and her head gently bobbed up and down on his neck as she suckled from his supple red nectar. She ran her hands through his brown hair and across his chest, all the while she let out little muffled whimpers of "Mmm," every time she drank down a mouthful of his blood.

Through half-open eyes, Nick moaned from the strange pleasure and feeling of what was happening to him. He felt his blood being taken out of his body, but he wasn't scared. He was excited. It felt so good knowing that he was sharing his own life-force with this beautiful female creature in order to keep her alive. It was the deepest, most charitable thing that he'd ever given to another person and it was intoxicating to him.

Val continued to moan and her breathing deepened as she suckled at his neck, making wet smacking sounds with each gulp. By now, Nick realized that he the dizziness began to increase and he started to feel a headache surfacing. He looked down at Val to see that she was still feverishly drinking from him. He knew that the warning signs that she'd given him were starting to come about and that if he felt himself bordering on unconsciousness, he had to stop her.

He reached his hand over and tapped her on the head, uttering her name softly. She didn't respond from this, still continuing to drink from him. He did it again, harder this time, and still she continued to drink, not acknowledging it.

"Val...Val please, I...it's too much...stop...please," he gasped in desperation as his head grew foggy.

So good...so delicious...mmm....more...amazing...delicious...need more; her lust-filled brain prated to her. Faintly however, she heard Nick calling out to her, as if he was shouting from the other side of a tunnel. N-, Nick...oh gods, no...was she too late? She needed to stop!

Her eyes popped open urgently and she quickly stopped suckling. She looked up into Nick's face as he let out a sigh of relief and laid his head back on the pillow. She continued to stare at him in concern, hoping, praying, that he would stay with her. Luckily, she continued to feel his pulse within her fangs and his chest continued to rise and fall with his breathing.

Nick raised his head up to look at her with a dazed, gentle smile. He ran a hand smoothly and tenderly through her hair and she smiled up at him as well, her fangs still in his neck as she did. Slowly, gently, she retracted herself back from his neck, her fangs sliding out of the two small puncture wounds left in his neck. Afterward, she quickly covered the wound with her hands to keep pressure on it.

"Jan; an ace bandage and a bottle of water, please," Val ordered of Nick's system.

"Of course, Valhala, I already have it prepared," Jan replied.

Another tray was delivered down to the bedside nightstand. Val quickly retrieved the bandage and began to apply it to his neck, concealing the two small wounds she'd left. After he'd been bandaged, she uncapped the bottle of water and handed it to Nick, who in his dazed state, accepted it and began to sip from its contents. He looked to the tray and saw yet more pills readied for him by Jan.

"Jan, what are those?" he asked her, pointing to the pills.

"Vitamin and iron supplements. My scanners indicate that you have lost blood," Jan replied.

Val blushed, rubbing her arm sheepishly from that. Nick reached over and took two of the pills, swallowing them and drinking down a generous amount of the water to replenish his fluids. When he was finished, he sat the tray to the side and laid his head back on the pillows, letting out a contented, relaxed sigh. He looked over at Val and saw that she was staring down at him with tears in her eyes.

"Val? There's nothing wrong with what you did. It was incredible, honestly. You stopped yourself, just as I said you would," she smiled, stroking her hand.

She nodded, a tear streaking down her cheek. "I know. I'm just so happy; I can't even put it into words. No one in my life has shown such an act of kindness and trust toward me as you have tonight. I...I...," she could barely even speak and her voice cracked as the emotions flooded through her.

Nick smiled and reached his hand up to cup her cheek. He brought the other hand up to her lips and used his thumb to wipe away the small amount of his own blood at the sides of her mouth. Val smiled as the tears continue to well up in her eyes as she placed her hand over his on her cheek, giving it a squeeze.

"So...how did I taste?" he asked with a grin.

Val gave a blush and a cheeky grin, kissing the palm of Nick's hand.

"Honestly...fabulous, the best thing I've ever tasted in my life," she consoled. "Sweet; sweet and tangy, like that hot apple cider that you drank, I'm sure. Sweet..." she lovingly whispered.

Val suddenly took both of his hands, intertwining her fingers into his. With that, she brought her head down and planted her purple lips right onto his mouth. Although surprised by her forwardness, he responded to her kiss, pressing his lips back against hers as their fingers tangled together. After a moment they pulled back again, their eyes focused only on each other.

The human and yvon stared at each other wordlessly, their chests rising and falling in perfect synchronization with each other. Within both of their eyes, a signal was sent between the two of them in place of words. They both took one last deep breath before their faces met and they fell into a fiery open-mouthed kiss. Pretense and inhibitions were cast to the winds as their lips coupled, their tongues danced together and the needy fingers groped at each other's bodies without hesitation.

With their fingers intertwined and their lips locked on each other, Nick flipped Val over so that she was lying beneath him. As they breathed life into each other through their mutual passionate kiss, Nick reached down and began to run his fingers all over her inviting breasts, gently tweaking at the little nubs of her nipples. Val's slender purple legs had come to wrap themselves about his back, pulling him tightly against her as he delicately worked her womanly parts with his fingers. Their mouths continuously dipped into feverish kisses before momentarily pulling back to let each other breath. Their torsos and hips rose and fell in tandem with their passionate kisses, as if they were simulating the motions of mating that they both so craved in that moment.

Val pulled back a moment, and her fingers went straight to his shorts, tugging and pulling at the waistline, trying to get them down. Nick smiled, reaching down and planting a kiss onto her cute purple button nose. His fingers met with hers at his waistline and aided her in pulling his shorts down followed swiftly by his briefs.

His erect, flushed manhood sprang out of his briefs as they were pulled down. Val's mouth hung open and she licked her lips, looking at his throbbing pink cock with admiration. She reached her hands down and delicately wrapped her purple fingers around his cock feeling its pulsing thickness within her hands. She ran her fingers smoothly along its length, absolutely loving the fact that this glorious sexual object was hers tonight, hers to enjoy and pleasure herself with as she had when she fantasized about it at the party.

Nick moaned in pleasure as Val's fingers stroked and gently squeezed at the length of his hard cock. He looked down, looking with amazement at the contrast between the skin tones of her purple hands and his cock. He watched and felt as her fingers squeezed a globule of precum from the tip of his cock, which she then smeared around his thick head. Her hands then went to his testicles, tenderly cupping them in her hands.

Her fingers held the two plump orbs of his balls in her hands, running them gently through her hands, feeling their heat as they pulsed in the palms of her hands.

She felt herself getting wet and moist with her arousal. She bit her lips as she felt the heat radiating in her loins like a fire that she had to douse. She stroked his cock harder, causing more precum to rise to the tip.

Val pulled Nick in toward her, giving him a passionate kiss which he returned gratefully. She pulled back and looked into his eyes with such wanting.

"Nick...please...," she gasped, her hands gripping him by his buttocks and pulling him in toward her.

"Please what?" he whispered into her ear, nipping at her cheek afterward.

"Mate with me, please, mate with me now," she begged, whispering into his ear.

Nick looked into her fiery red eyes and nodded. Val moved to pull her nurse skirt down before Nick stopped her.

"Leave it," he hissed into her ear lustfully, "I think it's so sexy."

She blushed and nodded, leaving her white nurse skirt intact. For whatever reason, he found the idea of making love to her with the human nurse skirt on undeniably arousing. The fact that it was this perfect, gorgeous alien female beneath that skirt made it a thousand times better.

Nick suddenly looked up at his ceiling and pronounced a loud command.

"Jan...sleep mode."

"Shutting down, Nick," Jan replied.

"In a few minutes, she'd probably be babbling on about elevated heat and stress levels in the room," Nick thought jokingly.

Nick reached down and pulled her skirt further up her slender hips so that it was out of the way. He flipped the skirt up and Val spread her legs out. Nick gazed at her feminine treasure nestled between those slender violet thighs. Her pussy was covered by a pair of panties; very wet panties, to be precise.

She was soaking!

Sure enough, her panties were drenched in clear fluid as some of it leaked out from the side of her panties and stained the bed sheets beneath her. He was amazed at the sheer amount of fluid that she was secreting. It had to be a yvon characteristic, because even the most aroused human female couldn't conjure this amount of juices.

Nick lowered his hand down and ran his fingers along the soaked length of her panties, feeling her moistened pussy lips beneath the fabric. She sighed and wiggled her hips as he ran his fingers along her covered pussy up to her clit, stroking it through the clothy material. He then grabbed the bands of her panties and slowly eased them down her legs. He pulled them off and cast the juice-soaked garment off to the side.

They looked at each other now in the light of the nearby candles, staring intently at the other's genitals. He licked his lips as he looked at her glistening pussy; the purple petals of her labia looking very moist and the nub of her clit protruded out in its arousal. Meanwhile Val was fixed on his throbbing cock which, if it were possible, seemed to get even harder and thicker as a result of her wonderful pussy being revealed to him.

Nick approached her on his knees and reached down, dipping his fingers into her pussy. Val sighed from the gentle explorations and clenched the bed sheets as Nick's two fingers traveled the interior of her pussy, collecting the abundance of juices.

Nick pulled his fingers out and saw that his hand was coated in the clear glaze of her juices. He flicked his tongue out, relishing in the taste of the tart fluid while Val watched with a happy smile. He then brought his hand down and stroked at his cock, spreading the wet slimy fluid all over his cock, getting it completely wet and lubricated.

Val panted in delight as Nick got down and laid beside her, his juice-coated manhood sticking from his groin. She shifted and laid down on her side, raising her leg up and leaving her oozing pussy completely open.

Nick shifted himself closer to her until his muscled chest pressed into her back. He got comfortable between her open legs, his cock sticking out and coming to point directly at her pussy. He hiked up her sexy nurse skirt further and spread her legs out a bit more. Everything was ready; his cock was just one thrust away from burying into a wet, welcoming alien pussy.

Nick kissed Val on the back of the neck and she shivered in anticipation. Then, the two of them shifted their hips and Nick pushed himself forward. The head of his cock kissed at her spread-open pussy beneath the skirt. He intentionally withheld entering her just yet, instead swiping his cock across her pussy petals and getting both of their genitals wet. Val grit her teeth and wiggled her hips, desperately trying to get his hard cock inside her. One of Nick's hands smoothly ran through her silver head of hair while the other kept her leg spread open.

With that, Nick pushed his hips forward, giving a giant thrust inside her. Val gasped and went rigid in intense pleasure as the human's cock slid inside her. Nick nibbled gently at her neck and earlobe behind her as he pushed himself further into her tight, wet interior. They both sighed, feeling inch after thick inch of his cock sinking inside her spread-open pussy; her purple pussy lips clinging lovingly to his shaft as he sank deeper.

Nick stopped when the entire length of his sizeable cock had slid its way into her. They both sat still together, letting their nether regions grow accustomed to each other. Nick reached around and rubbed at her juicy pussy lips spread around his cock, as well as paying special attention to her clit. Val cooed from the feeling of his cock filling her up along with his fingers gently working their way about her pussy and tweaking her clit with expertise.

Nick then slowly began to draw himself out, his cock slipping wetly out of her thanks to the copious lubrication she provided. He then pushed himself back in as quickly as he had retreated, bringing moans of pleasure to both of them. As he began to slide in and out of her, she rolled her hips in time with him, wrapping her arm around the back of his head.

After a few thrusts that sent pleasure through their loins, Nick pulled himself out with a squelch, his cock wet with her juices. Val turned herself over and looked up at him with a serene, happy smile; her mouth hung open and she let out deep, contented breaths. Nick smiled back, leaning his head in to kiss her inviting lips before lowering his head down to kiss and nibble at the erect nipple of one of her violet breasts. She moaned and let out a giggle from the treatment, stroking his brown hair joyfully.

She pulled his head back and gave him another kiss before gently leaning him back onto the pillows behind them. Nick looked up at the beautiful violet goddess above him as she swung her legs over onto either side of him, staring right into his face with hunger in her crimson eyes. She took a gentle hold of his hard, glistening manhood and lowered her enticing pussy lips down onto the head of his cock, rubbing it against her clit as she sighed with delight.

Val kept her human lover's cock sticking straight up before she lowered her hips down, her pussy and his cock coming together and intermingling like they were meant for each other. She slammed her eyes shut and jerked herself down, causing the rest of Nick's cock to slide its way inside her up to the cervix.

She began to ride him feverishly, groping her breasts and moaning as his cock slid in and out of her with the movement of her hips. Nick moaned in ecstasy and his hands went to her hips as he bucked his hips up into her with each of her executed thrusts.

As they thrust into each other, moaning and clinging to each other in their lust and passion, the reflection of the nearby candlelit flames danced across her slim violet torso. The silhouette of the flames across her chest danced with the same fire that they gave to each other even then. Behind them, the carved jack-o-lantern gave its fiendish grin at them, as if it was enjoying the show that these two passionate lovers were giving it.

Nick panted, wrapping his hands about her waist and slipping in and out of her tight, wet core at a quicker pace as she rode him with such unbridle intensity. By now he had realized that his yvon female was exhibiting more passion in their coupling than he had ever experienced with his previous girlfriend, Casey. He willingly relinquishing some of his blood for her nourishment had sparked such a passion between the two of them that was almost elemental. Val sought to return the favor now by giving him the most intense lovemaking he'd ever experienced with any female.

As she continued to ride him, Nick forced himself into an upright position and started to kiss and lick at her breasts while she cradled his head in her hands. Nick then said the first uttered words since their coupling had begun.

"Ohh, Val...you're incredible, amazing," he panted while continuing to thrust away into her pussy, her tight, wet walls clinging and hugging to his manhood as he slid in and out.

Val smile and moaned, burying her head into his shoulder as her legs wrapped around him as his cock continued to drive in and out of her.

"You are, ah-, amazing too, Nick," she let out garbled gasps into his shoulder.

This was true; his manhood hit spots within her that hadn't been touched by the few yvon partners that she'd had in previous, comparatively insignificant romps. Not to mention, the passion and love shared between the two of them because him sharing his blood with her only intensified their strong lovemaking.

After a few more moments, Nick slowed himself down and surprised her by quickly turning her over. With his cock still buried deep inside her, he flipped Val over, laying her gently on her back and he was lying atop her. He looked into her face and could tell by her erratic breathing that she was approaching her climax. With him now controlling the pace, he was determined to bring them both to an explosive mutual climax shared between both of them.

He lowered his head down and their tongues intertwined within their open mouths. He then began moving his hips at the fastest pace that he could accomplish, hammering his cock away into and out of her sweltering wet pussy at a rapid pace.

Val threw her silver-haired head back and shrieked in her pleasure as he thrust into her at such a carnal pace. Her legs wrapped around his flexing buttocks and he groaned, driving downward into her so that his steel hard cock entered and retreated into her depths repeatedly.

Val threw her head back against the pillows as she felt a boiling orgasm building up, preparing to be released with such intensity that she hadn't felt during mating before. His downward thrusts had caused his pelvis to rub against clit at just the right angle, only heightening her pleasure and making the impending release that much intense.

With a final cry of passion and her eyes rolling back into her head, she finally came. A tingle built up in her loins and exploded all at once, running through her entire body as she shook and shuddering along with it. Deep within her purple womanly depths, a final reserve of her abundant pussy juices soaked his plundering cock and his groin as the walls of her pussy tightly clamped down onto him, desperately trying to milk his human semen out of his manhood.

Nick moaned as he felt the silky, velvety walls of her channel clasping at him as her bore in and out of her up to her cervix. His balls tightening signaled his own climax as the floodgates prepared to release what would likely be a generous amount of his seed into this lovely female alien.

His eyes suddenly shot open in the midst of his thrusting and a coming climax boiled within him.

"Oh crap, Val, we aren't using protection! What do I do? I can't cum inside you, can I?" he gasped, while still continuing the instinctively drive in and out of her.

She looked up at him with red eyes that bore straight into his soul.

"I don't care about that. I want your seed inside of me, whatever the consequences," she panted back to him, unashamed.

She wrapped her legs tightly around him, keeping him firmly pressed inside her so that he couldn't pull away. He clenched his muscles and braced his hands on either side of her as he drove himself in and out. His previous hesitations were gone and replacing it was a wanting, a craving, to actually fill her up with his sperm as she desired.

He hammered away into her before thrusting inside as far as he could, pressing the head of his cock against her cervix. He moaned loudly and his head swam in a fog of lust as the cum boiled in his loins and shot up his manhood, pouring itself freely right into Val's sacred depths in thick spurts.

His legs quivered and shook as his seed exploded right into the womb of his lover beneath him. Val moaned in synch with him as she felt every strand of his hot, pearly semen splash against her walls to be deposited into the very chamber where a human/yvon hybrid baby could very possibly be growing in the coming months as a result of the insemination.

After experiencing the most intense climax that he'd ever endured in his life, Nick's cock stopped pulsing and releasing its potent payload and his hips slowed down finally. He collapsed atop her, burying his head into her shoulder with a drawn-out sigh. He planted tender kisses onto her shoulder and she stroked his hair as they felt his abundance of hot seed pooling up in the place where their genitals were fused together lovingly.

They both raised their heads up to stare into each other's eyes. As Nick looked into that beautiful petite purple face, he realized he'd never felt a stronger connection with anyone. If someone had told him a few hours ago that he'd end up making passionate, romantic love to a woman on Halloween night, he would have called them crazy. And yet here he was, staring lovingly into the amazing female under him. He truly was in love; he knew that now. He had only known her for a few hours, but he was madly in love with this woman.

Their lips met and fused together with fervor. They pulled back and looked at each other again, both of them giving such loving, blissful smiles at each other while their hands intertwined at the spot where his semi-flaccid erection and her tender vagina were coupled still.

Nick turned and looked over at the blazing jack-o-lantern and then the pile of his Dracula costume, and grinned to himself.

Dracula decided to finally leave his coffin for one night, and ended up with a bride.

Nick brushed a lock of her silver hair out of her eye, looking into her tear-filled, smiling face.

"Happy Halloween, Valhala," he whispered to her.

She snuggled her head into his shoulder, kissing at the two covered bite marks in his neck.

"Happy Halloween, Nick," she replied, kissing his cheek.

The candles in the room went out and a shutter closed up on the window, shutting out the light from the nearby Alpha Draconis star. As the room went dark and their Halloween came to an end with the clock striking midnight, Nick fell asleep in his bed, cradling and hugging a lovely violet vampiress against him.