The pale lady smiled as she relaxed in the embrace of her tanned, strong companion. She smiled up at him as a delicate finger traced along his jaw line. "Oh, Vik. What am I going to do with you?"

"My lady?" He looked a bit confused, tilting his head as he searched her gaze with his piercing green eyes, Eyes that Eliza often thought of as belonging to some bird of prey. Cold and hard, but never missing anything.

"You've served me so well all of these years." She stretched up towards him, her lips teasingly close to his own.

He smiled a bit at the gesture, "Of course I have. I dedicated my life to you."

"You keep me safe."

He smiled a little sadly as he murmured, "You saved me from myself." He recalled how Eliza had found him at his lowest. Destitute and a drunkard, she had given him back his health, his dignity, and his will to live.

"Oh, Vik." she laughed, her voice tinkling like a wind chime caught by a gentle breeze. "I only helped you get back to where you were, you took it from there and molded yourself into the fine man you are today."

He chuckled, a warm, deep sound more like footsteps deep in the forest. He surprised himself by contradicting her. "No, Eliza. You very much molded me into what I am now. Your guardian, your protector."

She blinked at him, anger swelling in her breast at the thought of him arguing with her before swelling with pride and love. She reaches up to brush aside a whisp of her dark hair and saw a gray streak in it. Sighing, she looked up at him once more. "It's time..."

He carefully gathered his lady into his arms as he felt her body grow lighter. Her muscle slowly withered beneath skin that first sagged and then pulled tight as the cured skin of a drum. Her hair slowly faded from a deep auburn to white.

She hated to have him see this happen to her again and again. Her skin pulled tight over her face, drawing her mouth back into a rictus grin and leaving long, sharp fangs visible. Here eyes sunk in her head as her desiccated body hung limp in his arms. He cradled her head so the last thing she would see before her vision failed for the say was the love in his avian eyes.

Carrying her across the room, he gently placed her into the silk lined casket, tucking the jar of grave earth in by her side before closing the lid and locking it tight. He draped the silver chain holding the key around his neck before leaving the room and locking it behind him as well. Pulling up a chair, he sat in front of the door, the morning sun shining on his tanned skin as he prepared to guard his mistress for another day.