Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:57:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Amanda Subject: Dark Lover First off... This is dedicated to all you goth girls out there. Pale skin, black clothes, heavy eye makeup, god you all drive me crazy. I love every one of you. Second this story contains graphic depictions of sexual behavior between an adult and a teenaged girl. If that is illegal where you are, if you are not 18 or if this offends you please read no further. If you are under 18 and still want to read on I'm really sorry but legally you can't, however in just a few years you will be able to vote, remember this when you are asked to elect people that would tell young people they have no rights. Dark Lover The darkness of night had descended upon the world. Jasmine was comfortably wrapped in shadows as she stared down from the roof tops above the street. Beal street in may. A flowing river of humanity moving in a drunken stupor from one blues bar to another. The night was her mistress, it beckoned her, guided her, fed her, loved her. She was hunting, as she did most nights. But unlike those others and even now in this perfect time to find wayward tourists, she was hunting not for her next meal, but instead for something completely different. Jasmine crouched low against the roof she was perched on. The drumbeats from the music within, blues spilling out of the club and across the street, soaking passers buy in its rich warm tones, vibrated with in her chest. She loved Memphis. Her hands twisted slightly as long claws formed, pushing in to the wood and brick. In a flash she spun and raced off, away from the street. She leapt from the building to the ground below still hidden in shadow, invisible to any one that might have been there. Jasmine was a predator, a monster. Doomed to darkness she lived a life of hunting, and feeding. She was nasferatu, vampire. Behind her was her target but she was not planing to approach her tonight. She had other plans. The girl she had focused her attentions on only moments before was not going any where. She was a street kid, living off the handouts and pity of those traveling Beal, drunk and looking for more party time. The girl was perfect. Young, and attractive beneath the colored hair and dirt. She was drug addicted but that was easy enough to cure. She was a victim, a leaf blowing in the wind, at the mercy of the world around her, destine to go where she was carried and without any hope of control over her own future. This would remain true for her but she would at least have available to her the possibility of a better life. Jasmine had something to offer that the streets did not. A home and a purpose. Jasmine moved quietly through back streets and alleys. She stayed away from main roads whenever possible. Perhaps it was her instincts or just learned behavior, either way she avoided being seen whenever she could. Tonight was no different. She went home, the long way, the same way she always did. It was still early when Jasmine reached the apartment building she called home. She reached out with a clawed hand and gripped the side of the building. She scampered up the side of the building and over the railing of her balcony in seconds. As she stepped on to the balcony the sliding glass door to her apartment unlocked and slid open. She walked through it and it closed behind her. Something Jasmine had always enjoyed was the ability to move things and control minor electronics with her thoughts alone. Most of what she was she took as a curse and hated deeply, but not that part. She glanced at the television and it clicked on. Immediately she flipped through the channels before turning it off and sitting down on the couch. A magazine on the coffee table caught her attention and she leaned forward picking it up. Article by article, ad by ad Jasmine worked her way through the magazine, awaiting the sunrise that would trigger her instincts. The first rays of light that would drive her to sleep. An irresistible pull toward some dark corner where she could lay down and enter the death sleep of the vampire. When at last that time came she went to her room where the windows were covered with tin foil and laid on her bed. She closed her eyes and almost immediately fell asleep. Jasmine had lived this way for more than eighty years. She had been living in Chicago in the mid nineteen twenties working in a club. She was a waitress, serving drinks in a speak easy all week long just to make enough money to live in a tiny apartment. On her off days she cleaned the houses of many of her customers. They were all fairly wealthy gangster types, most were involved in bootlegging. For a black woman of the times she was treated fairly well by both her boss and the people she met in the club. It had been on her way home from the speakeasy one night that she was turned. She was walking along the darkened streets, alone as she most often did. She had heard nothing, sensed nothing when suddenly she was grabbed from behind and dragged down an alley. Jasmine tried to scream but found she could not make a sound, not because she was being muffled some how but instead because she felt as if she could not move or act of her own accord. She was raped in the alley and that was when she saw the face of her attacker. She knew him from the club she worked in but had never spoken to him. She thought the attack was over when he stepped back but that was when she saw his teeth. Long, sharp teeth. Almost before she could react to the sight he lunged forward and ripped in to her throat. She tried to fight, to scream, to escape but she could not. The man's strength had been to much for her. Life began to slip away from Jasmine. Her vision was going black, all of the pain and fear was subsiding when suddenly a new sensation overwhelmed her. A burning cold tore through her body from her throat and then the world went black. Some time later, she had no idea how long it had been, she awoke to a sharp pinch in her leg and sat up finding herself sitting on a table with a man in a white lab coat and apron standing at her side trying to feed a needle in to her leg. Instinctively she slapped it away and jumped up, dizzy, confused and naked. Without a word Jasmine turned and ran out of the room she was in. She found stairs and followed them in to a larger part of a house which some part of her recognized as a funeral home. She was too confused to fully comprehend anything but her fear as she left the house and ran out in to the night. Clothes became a priority as the fear subsided. Jasmine found a dress hanging on a clothes line and dawned it. Her belly burned and her head ached. She did not know it at the time but she was suffering her first attack of the hunger that would drive her for the remainder of her life, or death, or whatever it was to be called. Jasmine made her first kill that night, driven completely by instinct. A hobo, near the rail yard had the misfortune of encountering her and died for it. Horrified and disgusted Jasmine found a quiet place to hide as the sun rose. Her body took over and forced her to sleep before the events of that first night could be fully absorbed. Nights passed without the fire in her body that had driven the woman to kill an innocent man. Jasmine could hardly believe her own senses. She could see in the night better than in a brightly lit room. She could smell things that she some how instinctively understood. She could sense the thoughts of people around her. And something else, something distant. Something that some how she knew was the man that had done this to her. Little by little the reality took shape in her mind and when the hunger took her a second time she realized what she was. It made no sense to her. It was impossible but everything she had experienced was impossible. Hearing the thoughts of others was impossible, growing fangs and ripping people's throats out was impossible. However, impossible or not it was happening and Jasmine admitted to herself as she sat over the body of her second victim, that she was a vampire. From death to something that resembled living, Jasmine came out of her sleep in sync with the setting sun. Tonight was the night, it was the night she would procure her new girl friday. Jasmine slipped from her apartment in to the night and made her way toward Beal street. She was not so careful to stay hidden this night. She was dressed for human interactions in her black lacy half shirt and long black skirt. She wore high heels that lifted her a bit from her petite five foot two. Long black dreadlocks reached to the middle of her back and she bunched a part of these on top of her head making her look even a little taller. She owned a car, she owned many things. It's amazing what a person can steel when the have the ability to influence the minds of others. She did not like to drive however and most often walked where ever she wanted to go. On the lawn of the power company building a young girl, Michelle, sat with the people she called friends. They were smoking and begging and generally being street rats. Jasmine walked past them and as she did she reached out with her thoughts, implanting the idea that the girl needed to follow her. "I'll be back in a minute I wanna see something." Michelle said as Jasmine passed her by. Jasmine led the girl a short distance to a darkened side street. "Following me?" She laughed as she turned to face the girl. "No... Uh, I don't know." Michelle looked confused. She shook her head and turned to leave. "Where are you going?" Jasmine asked, regaining the girl's attention. "Back to my friends." "Friends?" Jasmine approached the girl, a smile on her lips. "Are you hungry?" the vampire looked the girl over. She had not needed to ask she could smell the hunger, the drugs, everything. "I'm hungry, would you like to get some food?" "I don't need no one feelin sorry for me lady." Michelle turned to leave again. "I didn't say I did. I just asked if you would like some food. There's a burger joint up the street here, and I don't like to eat alone so why not come with me?" Jasmine reached out to the girl and took her hand. Michelle allowed Jasmine to hold her hand though it made her slightly uncomfortable. She was worried about what the woman wanted from her. It was her experience that no one did anything nice for anyone unless they planed to get something out of it. This was definitely true with Jasmine as it would have been with anyone else but what Jasmine had to offer was far better than anything the girl was likely to find elsewhere. Jasmine released he companion's hand as she stepped up to the counter. She ordered herself an iced tea and a hamburger before stepping to the side and allowing Michelle to order her own meal. As they sat down Jasmine set her purse aside and took her drink. She watched carefully as Michelle ate hungrily. "What do you plan to do with your life?" Jasmine finally asked. Michelle shrugged her shoulders and looked up. "You gonna try to get me to go to church?" "No." Jasmine laughed. "Not at all. But I'm wondering how you ended up here. You can't be more than sixteen." "Fifteen." Michelle shoved a handful of french fries in to her mouth after dipping them in barbeque sauce. Jasmine did not need to ask anything. She knew how Michelle ended up on the streets. She had never known her father, and her mother died when she was thirteen. She went to live with her grandmother and within a few months discovered drugs. From there it had not taken long before she ran away and had been in and out of juvenile hall ever since. She had not been caught with drugs on her yet, luckily for her, but every time she got caught and brought home, she ran away again. The girl was a mess and might be beyond redemption but she was what Jasmine wanted. Young, pretty and in need. "I have something I can offer you that the streets never will." Jasmine said after a long silence. Michelle looked at her for a moment as she finished the last bite of her burger. She remained quiet as she pulled several fries from their box and dipped them in barbeque sauce then shoved them in her mouth. "What's that?" She said around them. "A home, and a reason for getting up in the morning." Jasmine sipped her drink and sat back slightly. "You'd have a home, money, food. Basically anything you need." "You're not just giving me that. What do I have to do?" "Well that's the thing. See I'm a bit of a night person and I need some one that can work for me during the day. Keep my house, run errands, things like that." "That's it?" Michelle finished her fries and drained her drink. "Are you still hungry?" Jasmine asked. The girl nodded her head. The vampire happily reached in to her purse and pulled out a ten dollar bill which she handed to the girl. "Well go get whatever you want." Doing as she was instructed, the girl got up and went to the counter. Jasmine sat quietly, watching her, and waiting for her to come back to the table. "So like are you a pervert? Do I have to sleep with you or something?" Michelle asked as she sat back down. "A pervert? No. And as far as sleeping with me, why would you think I even liked little girls?" Jasmine almost laughed. "Because if you just wanted a maid you could put an add in the paper. I'm not stupid lady, I know there's always a reason people do stuff for homeless people." Michelle unwrapped her second burger and began eating it. "Well in that case, as a matter of fact I do think you're attractive, but I'm not going to force you to do things you don't want to." The girl nodded her head and focused her attention back on the burger. She had nothing more to say at the moment and was waiting for her hostess to restart the conversation. After several moments of silence Michelle was feeling uncomfortable. She set her food aside and pushed her hand through her dirty blue hair. "What?" She finally said, overly aware of Jasmine's eyes on her. "You're addicted to drugs. Cocaine isn't it?" "So." Was Michelle's simple response. "I can help you with that. If you take my offer then I can get you off the drugs..." "What if I don't want too." "Then you can go back to the streets. I won't have drugs in my home. I can make you a new person. Some one that is old enough to run my errands and do thing things I need done. You'll have everything you want or need. So long as you remain trust worthy and sober." Jasmine stood from her seat. "Grab your food let's go outside." She led the girl out the door and seated herself at one of three tables in front of the restaurant. Almost immediately she pulled a pack of cigarettes from her purse. At first she offered one to the girl who refused then she took one for herself and lit it. The vampire drew a long smoke filled breath and leaned back. "You can have a completely new life. Or you can go back to the streets and be turning tricks for your next fix by the time your sixteen." Michelle shuddered. She couldn't stand the idea of hooking. She had gone hungry more than once rather than having sex for money. Jasmine knew why. It was why she had picked the girl rather than going on about her life the way she normally did. Michelle, like the vampire, was gay. "And if I say yes, you'll just give me all this?" "A little at a time. As you show me you can handle it." Michelle finished her second burger and leaned her head on her hand, with her elbow on the table. It was so much to consider and it all sounded to good to be true. She was afraid of what would happen to her if she did not go, but almost equally afraid of what Jasmine might ask from her. The girl shifted uncomfortably and watched Jasmine finish her cigarette. "You don't have a boyfriend that likes little girls or something do you?" "No. I'm gay, just like you." Jasmine smiled. Michelle had never told any one. She looked confused and a little embarrassed. "How..." "You just know sometimes." Jasmine interrupted. The vampire reached out with her mind. She could sense that the girl wanted to take her offer. She could also sense the fear the girl had. Michelle was deeply unhappy living on the streets but she was equally unhappy at home. For her there was no good place to be and she was thinking that maybe the offer presented to her might be her salvation. Michelle shrugged her shoulders slightly and looked down at the table. Anything had to be better than another night on the street. "I'll try." Jasmine smiled. She dropped her cigarette on the ground and dragged her foot over it. She paused for several moments before she stood and held out her hand. "I'm not far from here." They walked the mile to Jasmine's apartment building chatting lightly. The vampire was trying to put the girl at ease. She was also wondering at what point she would reveal herself to the girl. She wanted Michelle to know in no uncertain terms that she would get away with stealing from her or doing drugs or anything else the girl might do. As they stepped in to the apartment Jasmine turned on the lights and looked at her homeless guest. "You need a shower." She led Michelle to the bathroom where she left the girl for her bedroom. Jasmine gathered up clothing that looked like it might fit the girl. Michelle was only slightly taller than Jasmine but clearly thinner. The vampire took the clothes and went to the bathroom where she set them on the sink. Not wanting to give the girl a choice she took the dirty cloths Michelle had shed and carried them to the kitchen where she threw everything except the girl's jacket away. The jacket meant something to Michelle. Jasmine grudgingly decided to wash it and let her keep it. It was an army jacket a size to large for the girl. It had been her mothers when the woman had been in the military and when she died Michelle took it. It was one of the few things the girl had left of her mother. The next most important to her being an old photograph that she kept in the jacket's breast pocket. Jasmine pulled the tattered photo out of the jacket pocket and looked at it for a moment. Michelle looked like a younger version of her mother. The vampire set the photograph aside and dropped the jacket in the washer. She poured detergent in and started the machine. Michelle reveled in the shower for nearly thirty minutes before she stepped out and found the clothes the vampire had laid out for her. She did not like to wear skirts but rather than argue she put the clothes on and stepped out of the bathroom toweling her hair as she walked down the hall toward the living room. "Much better." Jasmine said as the girl appeared. "I threw your clothes out, I'll buy you new ones if you leave." "My jacket!" Michelle sounded desperate. "It's in the washer." Jasmine pointed toward the doors which opened in to the laundry closet. Michelle pushed the doors open, tears filling her eyes until she saw her mothers picture sitting on the dryer. The child was visibly relieved. She picked it up and held it to her chest. "My mom." She said, looking down at the picture. She went back to the living room where Jasmine invited her to sit on the couch. "I don't even know your name." The girl said. She combed her fingers through her hair and adjusted in her seat. "Jasmine." "I'm Michelle but every one calls me Mishy." Jasmine smiled and nodded her head. "Our first order of business is to help your addictions." Jasmine reached out and stroked the girls hair. Michelle shrank slightly from the hand but soon relaxed. "Will this color come out?" "Yeah it fades when you wash it." "Good, I know you like it but you need to look respectable." The vampire reached in to the girls thoughts and encouraged her to feel sleepy. There was so much to be done but for now the child needed a good night's sleep, the next week would be very difficult and uncomfortable for her. Addiction is as much mental as it is physical. Jasmine did not want to make the child's withdrawals too easy. However she wanted to help her through it as much as she could without taking the lesson in it away. It took more than a week for Michelle to finally begin to over come the addiction. The physical symptoms had mostly subsided but the mental desire remained. Jasmine used her influence, her ability to change the thoughts of another to curb this, the most powerful part of the addiction. Michelle was a two week project by the time it was over and in that time Jasmine had chosen not to reveal what she was to the girl. Not then but now she was ready for the girl to understand everything she was involved in. The apartment was dark except for a lonely lamp in the living room glowing with little more than a sixty watt bulb. Jasmine stepped in, standing between Michelle and the television. "We need to talk." She said. Behind her the television turned off and the girl looked down at the remote in her hand. She shrugged and set it on the table. "What about?" She asked. She looked tired and worn but still far better than she had when she first arrived. Her hair had begun to return to it's normal color since the girl was getting a daily shower. "Me." Jasmine walked around the table and sat across the couch from the girl. "I'm not like other women you might know." She said. "Is this where you tell me you're a guy?" "No." Jasmine laughed. "I'm... Different though." Jasmine waved her hand and the overhead light came on. Michelle startled slightly and looked around. "How did you do that?" "Well that's what I wanted to explain." Jasmine leaned close as if she were going to tell a secret. "I'm a vampire." She confessed. Michelle laughed and shook her head. "C'mon what is it really?" She adjusted in her seat. "Be serious. Are you going to throw me out or something?" "No. And I am being serious." Jasmine slid close to the girl, her face only inches from Michelle's. She opened her mouth as she let her fangs slip in to place and her eyes shift to an unearthly yellow. "I'm a vampire." She said again. Michelle slid off the couch and backed up slightly. "No frickin way." She almost shouted. "Vampire's aren't real." Jasmine stood and walked toward her. She reached out and stroked the girl's cheek. "I'm as real as you are." "You cant be." Michelle stared in to the shining yellow eyes of the woman she had thought she knew. "Are those contacts?" "You saw them change. But I can prove it if you like, what should I do?" "Can you fly?" The girl asked. "Why the hell do they always ask that..." Jasmine grumbled. "No I can't fly okay and I'm a little sensitive about it. I can grow claws and fangs and I can move really fast, how about that?" Jasmine moved as if to take a step and simply vanished appearing to move instantly across the room from Michelle. Michelle's first instinct was to run. She turned slightly as if to do just that and realized there was no way to get away. She focused her attention back on Jasmine."Are you going to kill me?" "Of course not silly, why would I go through so much trouble with you if that was all I wanted?" Jasmine went back to the couch and sat down. She retracted her teeth and smiled up at the girl. "Sit down." Michelle did as she was told. She stayed as far from Jasmine as she could. The girl looked tense, afraid. "I don't want to die." She finally said. "You won't." The vampire moved closer and Michelle pushed back away from her. "Relax." Jasmine reached out and stroked the girls hair. Michelle was shaking but she nodded her head and did her best not to seem so afraid. The vampire's hand ran down her shoulder and came to rest on her leg. "I promise I wont hurt you." "But you're evil..." "Evil? hmm. It doesn't really work that way. I'm just what I am. I have a will of my own just like you. I haven't killed a human being in a very long time and even then the last one more than deserved it." "How do you know?" Michelle immediately asked. "The same way I know anything about you that I want to know. The same way I knew you were gay. The same way that I knew to take your mother's picture out of your jacket before I washed it." Jasmine slid a little closer. Her intentions with the girl were not only those of a mistress and a servant. She had been waiting until the girl was over the worst part of her addiction before trying anything and that time had come. Michelle could not take any more and she slid off of the couch and stood. "I can't." She finally said. "You'll hurt me." "I assure you." Jasmine stood and moved close to the girl. Her lips were only inches from the child's neck as she spoke. "I won't hurt you." Jasmine's breath on the girl's neck sent a shiver through her body. "Promise me." Jasmine smiled and stood back slightly. She held her hand in the air, "I promise." She said. The vampire moved close. "I can show you things you never thought possible." The vampire moved close to the girl She leaned in and pressed her lips on Michelle's neck. Her teeth slipped back in to place and she opened her mouth, pressing the tips gently against Michelle's fair skin. "What..." Michelle gasped and pushed away. "You were going to bite me." Jasmine stayed quiet. She moved forward and wrapped her arms around the girl. She slid her hands along Michelle's tense body and down over her ass. "Trust me, I promised you, I'm not going to hurt you." The vampire leaned back in and pressed her teeth against the girl's flesh. She reached in to the child's mind and blocked any pain she might feel as her teeth pierced in to Michelle's neck. Jasmine let blood flow from her body in to the girl eliciting shudders from the child as a warm sensation seemed to flow through her entire body. Jasmine's blood in the girl's body would do many things, the most important of which, it would link them. The vampire drew in just a taste of the girl before releasing her. Because Jasmine had first expressed her own blood in to the child the wound at her neck healed almost instantly, but the girl would not become a vampire. That required the vampire to first drink in the blood of her victim and then push her blood, mixed with Michelle's back in to the child's body. Michelle put her hand to her neck and stared with wide eyes at the Vampire. "What did you do, I feel..." She began to swoon and Jasmine had to catch her and help her to the couch. "We're linked now. You'll be able to sense me and I can sense you, at least for a little while." The vampire moved close to the girl and smiled. "It's particularly powerful during sex." The vampire kissed the girl's lips. "Do you want to do this?" She asked quietly as she ran her hands across Michelle's belly. "Do I have a choice?" Jasmine sat back and smiled. "Of course you do." She answered. "I won't force you to do anything you don't want to." Michelle nodded but remained quiet for several moments before she finally smiled. "I think I do." She answered. The vampire smiled a crooked smile and moved back over the girl. There were many things she had learned in her years outside the norms of society and pursuing what she wanted was one of those things. Jasmine Kissed the girl's lips and moved down her neck. Each time her cold lips touched Michelle she tensed slightly. As the Vampire moved down her throat to her chest the girl finally began to relax. Button by button Jasmine removed the girl's shirt and then her skirt. Michelle began almost right away to feel self conscious and covered her chest with her arms. Jasmine smiled and sat back, pulling her own shirt up over her head. She reached behind herself and unhooked her bra, letting it fall to the floor. She then removed Michelle's bra, nimbly reaching behind the girl and unhooking it with only two fingers. The vampire's lips covered one of Michelle's nipples and the girl drew a sharp breath as the sensation seemed to rocket from her chest to her clit. "Oh god." She whispered hoarsely. Jasmine cupped the girl's breasts as she slid down her body, gripping the child's panties in her teeth and pulling them away from her body. Jasmine Slid the girl's underwear down her legs and tossed them over the side of the couch, giggling to herself as she did. "I should warn you, this might be a bit intense." Jasmine said quietly. Michelle looked down at her and nodded her head. The vampire kissed and licked around the girl's pubic hair and over her mound. The scent of the girl's excitement reached her and she shuddered. Excitement rushed through her, but it did not just effect her. Michelle also felt it burning on her skin. Jasmine hovered for a moment as her sex began to ache. She kept her eyes on Michelle as she leaned forward and sucked the girl's clit in to her mouth. Almost as soon as she did she felt a rush from her own loins. She moaned slightly sending vibrations and waves of pleasure through Michelle's body. Carefully, but quite expertly, Jasmine slippered her jeans and underwear off in a single motion, never taking her lips from the girl's sex. With movements as graceful as a cat the vampire moved around on the bed to hover over her partner, her sex inches from Michelle's waiting mouth. She lowered herself down slightly and the girl wrapped her arms around Jasmine's waist pulling her close and lapping at her vulva. They held each other tightly as they sucked and lapped at one another until at last the fire of climx began to build in them both. The link they shared kept them in perfect synchronicity. Jasmine withdrew just as Michelle's orgasm ripped through her. The vampire's teeth slipped in to place and she pushed them in to the girl's flesh, careful not to let her feel any pain that might disrupt her climax. Jasmine, like any female could have an orgasm but for her, it was far more pleasurable if she took blood as the climax waxed. The vampire drew a small amount of blood, just enough that both she and her partner would feel the rush of new life coursing through her during sexual fulfillment. The sweetness of excited blood caused the vampire to swoon. So intense was this sensation that Michelle cried out and all but fainted back against the bed. Jasmine forced herself to withdraw her teeth. She turned and moved to lay next to the girl. The vampire whispered in to her ear. "That is nothing compared to what I can show you." Jasmine closed her eyes and let the sensations, the new life and all it brought with it wash through her. Michelle was exhausted, she had experienced far to much to expect her to do anything more. It did not matter to Jasmine though. She had gotten plenty of satisfaction already. Feeding from some one in the throws of passion was a deeply moving and power experience. Her orgasm paled by comparison. The lights in the room blinked out. Jasmine laid her arm over the girl and closed her eyes. It was early and she did not feel like sleeping but she wanted to enjoy the warmth of a living body next to her. "What did you do to me?" The girl asked sleepily. "You probably don't want to know." Jasmine leaned up and kissed her ear softly. "Did you bite me?" She asked, not sounding entirely concerned about it. "Yes." "Am I a vampire now?" "No." Jasmine stroked Michelle's back. She closed her eyes and snuggled closer to the girl. "But it is why you feel the way you do." "I'm sleepy." "You lost blood." The vampire giggled. "And you came pretty hard too. It's a wonder you aren't out cold right now." Michelle turned on her side and forced herself to open her eyes. "Would you make me a vampire if I asked you too?" "You're too young." "Too young?" She sounded annoyed. "Yes. It wouldn't be fair to you." The vampire opened her eyes and smiled. "Besides, how could you be my girl friday if I did?" "We could find some one else." "Perhaps." She stroked Michelle's cheek and kissed her softly. "Go to sleep, you've had a long night."