My chair creaked as I leaned back in it, stretching my legs and twisting my spine hard enough to make it pop.  Even nine floors up, it did not get quiet enough to focus on reading until after midnight.  The lamp on my desk was the only source of illumination, providing a circle of light just large enough to cover my book.  It was the only way to ensure I would be free of distractions, allowing me to fully immerse myself in the story.  Silvery moonlight coming through the window was enough to see by in case I needed to get up for anything else.

The lamp flickered off for an instant, and in the sudden darkness all I could see was the light spilling onto the floor.  I must have been more tired than I thought, since there was an unmistakably human-shaped shadow in it.  Pushing it out of my mind, I turned back to my book, only for the lamp to go out again, this time staying off for a full second.  Again, there was a distinct shadow in the moonlight, as though someone were standing outside my window.  It was impossible enough to pique my curiosity, and I glanced toward it.

I yelped and found myself unable to tear my eyes away.  Someone was indeed outside my window, a woman seeming to hover in the empty air, and she was staring right at me.  It was unnerving, and as I gazed at her I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, though I kept looking.  Her very being was entrancing, not just her impossible spot outside over a hundred feet in the air, like she had a strong magnetism about her.  She beckoned to me with a finger, and without thinking I stood and started walking to the window.

My legs moved on their own, as though I were mechanically compelled toward her, and I got a solid look at her thanks to my lamp throwing light onto her.  She was pale like nobody I had ever seen before, with skin the color of someone who had been sequestered in a lightless room for years, with thick, curly black hair that fell onto her shoulders.  Her ruby red lips drew my eyes, where they were caught by her own dark brown ones, seeming to suck in the modest light that reached her.  I was entranced by her gaze as I steadily moved toward her, barely noting the archaic stye of her black dress running from the high collar to the dark lace hanging over the pointed toes of her leather boots.

When I reached the window, I stared up at her for a moment while she looked back at me.  Her smile gave an air of mystery to what was already an enigma, and a dense fog in my mind kept me from fully comprehending the situation.  My arm raised independent of my command, and before I could stop it my fingers had wrapped around the latch.  With a loud clunk they pulled it down, and I stepped backwards while involuntarily swinging the glass pane open.

“May I come in?” she asked, making a broad, sweeping gesture with her right hand.  Her dusky voice was a pleasure to listen to, with an accent I could not identify that gave it a musical quality.  It sounded like a mash-up of several different accents, none of which were particularly identifiable, but had a strong East European feel to it.

It took several seconds for me to realize I was staring at her in slack-jawed silence.  “Yeah, of course,” I answered after a jolt of energy ran through my body.  I regained control of my movements and stepped to the side, opening the window the rest of the way for her.

She floated into my apartment, her dark dress billowing and her hair whipping backwards in the wind.  Her boots silently set down on the floor, and she reached forward to grab the metal edge of the window.  With one smooth movement she tore it out of my hands and swung it shut, making the wood groan as it was forced back into the frame, her hypnotic gaze focused on me the whole time. 

Standing on level ground, I saw she was significantly taller than me by at least her full head and shoulders.  Looking down at me with a smirk, it was clear she had noticed the discrepancy as well.  “You are a small man,” she purred, “like men in the village where I grew up.  I like that.  It makes me feel more at home.”  She took a step forward, and I had to crane my neck back as she towered over me more imminently.

It felt like my shoes were made of lead, and I could not have stepped back even if I wanted to.  “Then I’m glad I’m so short,” I replied.  It was the least smooth thing I could possibly have said, but it was clear she was waiting for a response of some sort.  With the heavy cloud in my mind, it was the best I could manage.

“It has a certain charm many women of this time cannot see,” she said jovially, reaching forward and running a finger along the side of my jaw.  Her skin was extremely cold, as though she had been bathing in ice water for several hours, but not clammy.  “My name is Nadja, and I have been watching you for some time, little man.    Do you know what I have seen?”  As she spoke, I noticed her incisors were unusually long and pointed, like fangs.  It seemed unusual, but I quickly found my focus drawn back to her full lips moving, and the very concept of her fangs was pushed out of my mind.

“No, what’s that?”  I wished I could have come up with something more suave to say and flirt back with her a little, but the whole situation had put me completely off balance.  Just a few moments ago she had been floating outside my window, and now she was standing in front of me and we were having a conversation.  Besides, I was never that charming to begin with.

“I have seen an elfish man going about his lonely nights by himself,” Nadja answered, thrusting my chin back with her finger so I was looking straight upward.  Her voice had taken a distinctly arrogant tone.  “You sit in your apartment and look at your glowing box doing nothing else!  I sense you have great potential within you, but you do nothing with it!  How can a man like you just sit in a chair night after night when he could be doing so much more?”

“Well, I’m an artist,” I told her.  It was difficult to talk with her holding my jaw shut.  “Most of my nights are spent on something creative, and those that aren’t are spent looking for something to inspire me.  It’s more rewarding than what I do during the day, though if you’ve only seen me at nights it might look less exciting.”

Nadja rolled her eyes.  “I do not care about any of that.  I am here to offer you a great destiny, something more rewarding than what you do at nights and more exciting than the days!  All you have to do is agree to my terms, little man.”

My ears perked up.  If she was offering me an escape from my usual drudgery, I should at least hear her out.  “Okay, and what are your terms?”

“You and I,” she began, stepping forward so my chin was kept aloft by her breasts.  She ran a hand down my spine, sending tingles through my body and to my fingers, before it expanded to a platform against the small of my back.  Nadja’s other hand clamped down on my shoulder, and she looked straight down at me before continuing, “will be joined.  You will become like a part of me, small person, and removed from your horrible routine.  All you must do is say you agree.”

If she had been able to get me out of the office one day a week, it would have been a deal I could not refuse.  This was something I would have to be an idiot to turn down.  “What’s the catch?” I asked.  A deal this good had to have some strings attached to it.

 Nadja did not demur from her confident posture.  “There is one only catch: you must become much smaller man first.  I know you are already quite small, so it may be difficult to imagine, but trust me  Smaller.”

I stared up at her.  “How small?” was all I could manage, and she removed her hand from my shoulder to show me.  She held her thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart and squinted at her digits.  “That’s… pretty small.”

“Yes, it is,” she agreed, gripping my shoulder with an otherworldly strength again, “but it is necessary.  You must stop being merely small man and become tiny man.  Trust me, other people will not see you so tiny once we are joined.”

“Okay then, I agree,” I told her.  People barely noticed me now, after all, and as I looked into her eyes, the only person who existed for me was her.

“Excellent,” Nadja replied, smiling broadly.  Her fangs were on full display, but I forced myself to look away from them.  “There may be some slight pain and shock, but you will get over it.”

Nadja moved her hand from my shoulder and firmly held my chin in place, staring down at me in silence for a brief period before sinking onto one knee.  I stared into her hypnotic eyes, and after a slight mental suggestion from her raised my head further, offering her my neck.  She leaned forward, and my skin prickled when her fangs touched my jugular.  Her hand on my back gripped harder when she plunged her teeth into the artery, keeping me from recoiling from the pain.  Blood poured from the wound and into Nadja’s mouth, and she eagerly drank the continuous stream down.

As Nadja consumed my life force, I realized she was not only taking my blood.  With each gulp, she had to lower herself more to keep her mouth sucking at the holes.  I looked at her, eyes wide with fear as she grew larger before my eyes.  Not only was she growing, but I was shrinking at the same time.  It was one thing to be told that I would be puny; it was something else entirely to watch it happen.  In panic I tried to get away, but Nadja’s hand had expanded to cover my entire back.  There was no way I would be able to escape her supernatural strength, especially while she was stealing my size and adding to her own.

When I reached Nadja’s knee, she decided it was no longer worth the bother of leaning forward.  She wrapped her fingers around my chest and picked me up like a doll, keeping me against her mouth as she stood to her ever-increasing full height.  Her face alone was taller than me now, and as she sucked the blood from my wound her lips engulfed my head.  With each gulp her hand fed a little more of my body into her mouth until my whole being was contained in either her mouth or hand.

Her lips reached my waist and she let go, holding me in her mouth with only her blood-stained lips.  She was still drinking, and as I futilely kicked my legs in the air I felt myself dwindling as her lips widened around me.  Nadja’s incisors stood in front of me, and as I watched the turned from walls of stark white bones to gleaming structures the size of houses.  Before long I could not longer even kick, her lips encasing my body entirely.

Nadja finally stopped sucking, her thirst for blood and height slaked.  She pressed her lips together, holding me tightly, and pulled them into her mouth and between her teeth.  The tip of her tongue rose to greet me, and with a single jab wedged my body from between her lips.  I rolled onto the great pink beast, but before I came to rest she flicked it to the side.  Her tongue launched me into the air, throwing me into the wall of her cheek.  My body pressed into it, then its elasticity snapped back and pushed me out, dropping me onto the rough surface of her molar.

A terrifying roar filled her mouth, accompanied by a great wind rushing past me while the ground shuddered.  “Goodbye, puny man,” Nadja said, the heavily-accented boom making my ears ring.  “I hope you had fun becoming part of me.”  It finally dawned on me that she did not want to keep me as a tiny thrall or familiar: she wanted to get every drop of blood in my body by consuming me.

Before I could move, Nadja’s jaw shut tight, pressing me between her teeth.  There was a brief moment of agony as the flat surface compressed my body, then it passed.  With one bite Nadja had pulverized me, freeing the blood she sought from my flesh in one violent explosion.

Nadja sucked the blood out and swallowed, keeping the tiny man’s remains pinned between her teeth to avoid accidentally swallowing him.  She carefully chewed him, turning his body into a fine paste to make sure she got every single drop.  When she was satisfied, she spit him into her palm and looked at it, smiling at how he was only as wide as the lines crossing her palm, before wiping the mess on the side of her dress.  Human food would make her violently ill, and that included humans themselves.

Satisfied with her meal, Nadja doubled over to fit through the window and took flight.  As she soared over the streets below, she watched the headlights of cars moving back and forth.  She could go for another bite.  And another.  And another.  She could devour them all until she towered over them and add their size to hers a handful at a time, cackling madly as she shoveled them into her mouth and grew ever larger, her domain expanding as she did.

However, Nadja knew better than that.  The sun would rise, and all that would be left of her would be a pile of ash the size of a mountain.  She had seen it happen before and had no desire to make the same mistake.  For now, she would remain an inhuman twelve feet in height and live to hunt another day.  All she had to do now was find a coffin large enough to fit her frame inside.