The Hunt

For me, the only bad part of being a vampire is the incessant hunger. Three days, that’s how long I can go without feeding the eternal thirst. The older vampires say I’ll be able to go longer the older I get and that I’ll learn enough control not to kill my food in the process of feeding. Let me tell you two or three bodies a week are a bitch to conceal even in a city the size of Los Angeles.

The party was the typical high school affair, stoned and drunk teenagers being entirely too loud and trying entirely too hard to get laid. It was nothing like when I went to school but hell in the 1920’s. In the 20’s we were a bunch of snots with sticks shoved up our collective asses who wouldn’t let coloreds into our schools.

She had skin the color of beach sand, indigo colored eyes, and jet black hair. She was exotic, I’d never seen anyone like her outside of a movie, and I knew she would be my meal for the night. I was about to sweep in and start chatting her up, get her to look me in the eyes so I could use my gift of persuasion on her when I funny feeling rippled through my body.

Something was wrong, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was suitably dressed and looked the right age for high school gathering, so I was sure I hadn’t tripped anyone's danger meter. But something was wrong, and it was tugging at the back of my head.

That was when I saw the little girl. She was maybe twelve years old dressed in a catholic school uniform and wearing a blue and pink backpack. Her blond hair was done in pigtails, and she wore a cross around her neck. The cross made my stomach turn, but that was all. I sighed relieved that it was the crucifix worn by a devoted believer that was making feel off, it didn’t happen often, but when it did, it could really throw me off. I turned to find my prey just in time to see her leaving the party.

“Fuck!” I hissed rushing for the door.

I followed the girl into the LA night and several blocks down the street. I was beginning to think I should try for a different victim when she turned off the moderately crowded street and into an alley between a pet store and a mom and pop grocery store. She was halfway down the alley and in the thick of the corridors darkness when I struck.

Using speed that would make a cheetah envious I moved forward, grabbed her shoulder, and spun her around to look me in the eyes. My eyes locked with hers and in an instant, she went slack, I always preferred it when they were passive and didn’t have the chance to scream or beg for mercy. “Nothing personal kiddo,” I whispered my fangs snapping to attention, then I plunged my head into the hollow of her throat.

My fangs sank into the soft flesh of her neck, and a spout of hot sticky blood erupted into my mouth. The feeling never changes the first drop of blood to touch my tongue set off a chain reaction of pleasure which made the most intense organism pale in comparison. I sucked greedily at the newly opened tap of delicious life juice.

“Well fuck me,” a new sing-song female voice said from the other end of the alley, “I guess you beat me to her.”

I turned and saw that little girl, the same one I’d seen hovering on the edges of the crowd and reverie at the party. She looked the same as she had the entire night but something about her smelled different.

“I see the confusion in your adorable vampy eyes,” She giggled taking several steps forward. As she came closer, the cross fell from her neck, and she changed before my eyes. Pink fingernails grew into long silver claws, her skin became scaly glistening in the scant light of the alley, her blue eyes shifted to a smoky yellow, and most dramatically her backpack dropped to the ground and a pair of black leathery wings sprouted from her back amidst the sound of tearing fabric.

I knew what she was and I knew I was well and truly fucked.

“Oh little blood rat,” she said still in that sing-song little girl voice, “She was meant for us, not for you.”

“You’re not allowed to kill,” I hissed. I may be less than a century old, but I knew the rules the dwellers in the pit were forced to live by, “You’re only allowed the souls designated for your father after they are loosed from the mortal coil.”

“You know nothing parasite,” she snarled the sound of which contrasting sharply with her speaking voice, “I was not coming to kill her I was coming to claim her.”

I cocked my head in surprise at that admission, “What do you mean?” I asked trying to stall the attack I knew was coming and that I knew I would lose. I mean what can a vamp who was born during the great depression be able to do against a demon who might be thousands of years old?

Nothing that’s what.

“Her father was of our kind, and her waking was soon to occur,” the girl hissed. “You didn’t feed on some helpless mortal destain for a loving and bright immortality with the Speaker in the Light.” Her posture shifted to one of tensed aggression like a spring ready to release, “You killed one of my sister's blood rat and for that, your time is up.”

As one we lunged at each other, I fought for all I was worth but in the end the outcome a certainty. Maybe her father would understand my mistake and maybe eternity in the pit wouldn’t be so bad after all.

The End