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A burst of cold air swirled through Gabby's apartment as the door burst open. She shivered underneath her blankets, despite the gas fireplace burning merrily in the corner.

"I'm back!" Nessa cried from the doorway, forcing it closed against the winter storm. She brushed snow from her hair and set down the bag of groceries she'd been holding. "It's beautiful out there!"

"Yeah, maybe if you don't feel cold." Gabby groused. Nessa shucked her coat and boots and moved to the couch for a kiss. Gabby made an undignified squeak as Nessa's lips made contact. "You're like a giant ice cube!"

Nessa grinned, showing off pointed fangs. "Can't help it. I'll try and warm up some before the next one. But, oh, you should have seen it!" she said, moving into the kitchen and clattering around the limited counterspace. "There's so many sparkly lights out there, and they back-lit the snow, and... ah! It was just so pretty."

"I would have thought you wouldn't be capable of enjoying Christmas decorations. I mean, the whole cross thing..."

"Yeah, well, nobody's ever been repelled by the power of colored LEDs and a plastic reindeer," said Nessa over the sound of boiling water. A moment later, she came in with a steaming mug of hot cocoa that smelled incredible.

"You're not having one?"

"Can't. But, you'll drink it, and then I'll d-drink you, and you'll be all delicious and warm and chocolatey." Nessa stumbled over her words, looking down at the mug and avoiding Gabby's gaze. She gently set down the cocoa in front of Gabby's blanket nest, then put her cocoa-warmed hand in Gabby's, hesitating before nuzzling her face into Gabby's neck.

"Oh, really? Is that how the night is going to go?" Gabby arched an eyebrow and smirked at Nessa, who gave her such a wounded, pleading look she couldn't help but laugh. She reached for the mug and took a cautious sip, and the two of them cuddled together, warmed by the fire as the blizzard stormed outside.

A short vampire piece in response to "The monster doesn't know where it is. It knows this, because it also doesn't know where it isn't." Based off the board game Nyctophobia, which is truly excellent, with the right host...

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Nessa, blindfolded, finds Gabby guiding her hand to her plastic piece. She feels around - empty space, forest, the empty hole where Jinx's piece should be...

"Um," she says. "I think I'm lost."

"What do you mean, lost? Weren't you right next to Jinx?"

"Not anymore. I guess I got moved?"

"Or she did."

Nessa moves her piece over one space, where Jinx was, and feels around herself again. The forest maze materializes in her memory, foggy moonlit pines in orderly grid rows... and the space she's in doesn't match any of them. "Shit. I think maybe the forest changed?"

"That's right, my dear Nessa," says Gabby right in Nessa's ear. She jumps, but not very far, as Gabby circles her arm around Nessa's neck. "The forest moves at my command. Does that truly surprise you?"

Nessa can just visualize Gabby, clad in gossamer black fabric, her dark skin blending in with the foreboding pines, her pointed hat shading her face save for a crooked, pointy smile. She shivers as Gabby runs a finger down her neck.

"Yes, I think you'll make a lovely little puppet. I can almost see your strings already..."

Nessa squeaks. "I hide and end my turn!"

Gabby whispers in her ear, her lips lingering by Nessa's neck. "Spoilsport..."

I wrote a short series of vampire fiction a while back, and given that it's spooky season it seemed prudent to bring it back - after all, I can't tell new stories without telling you the old ones

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Nessa got out of the hired car and stood, apparently, at the address she'd been invited to. "Oh, you've got to come with us to board game night," Gabby had said. "There's this great board game cafe on broad street, I'll text you the address." She had failed to mention that it was some kind of gothic castle.

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