Page 2Drawing new blood

As I stalked the streets (it was more than walking, but definitely not running) I wondered whose blood I'd drink. Normally I wouldn't think about it too much, as blood would quench my thirst regardless of the source. But there was definitely a difference in taste, I'd found, depending on the gender and health of the person. Though I definitely enjoyed the taste of a sweet girl's blood. I felt I needed something stronger now. A boy or a man. Someone in good health and preferably interesting. The only downside was that I couldn't go deep into town like this. Everyone would stare at me.

While I was looking around, I caught a reflection of myself in the window of a car. I looked very... Odd.

My hair was still auburn brown, but it looked darker than usual, offset by my horribly pale skin. Here, in the brightness of streetlights, my translucency really showed. I wouldn't be able to seduce anyone like this. And it wasn't just that, I looked skinnier than usual too, scarily so almost. Briefly I wondered if one man would be enough. Maybe I needed more than one, drain a few people until they were nothing more but husks.

No!

It was really hard to keep my mind in gear, more than you could possibly imagine. Now the smells were driving me crazy. Everything here smelled of people, making me long for blood all the more. If only there was a sound of someone walking, taking the dog out or something. I didn't just want a homeless guy, I wanted someone with a little taste. Maybe danger.

A sound made me look around.

There was a tingle of glass being broken not too far from where I was walking, or stalking if you will. I hadn't moved to the streets with houses yet but I noticed a parking lot not too far away. I moved over there quietly and saw a guy, maybe twenty seven or so years old, trying to break into a car. An expensive car even. He'd broken the driver seat's window and was trying to clear the class away from the edges. Oddly enough the car did not sound any alarm. Had the owner forgotten to turn it on or had the guy some way to disable it beforehand?

Anyway, he looked to be in fairly good health and serious about his job. He maybe even had some intelligence. This could be interesting. He would scare himself half to death if he saw me and I couldn't just pull him out of the car without hurting him. So a little sneakiness was in order.

This felt really, really good.

I sneaked up behind him without him noticing me and did something extremely playful. It was so difficult not to giggle and ruin it all. I blew soft in his ear, but very specifically. It could not have been anything else to him than someone blowing in his ear. But before he looked and turned around, I ducked and hid on his other side.

It worked.

He grunted and turned around, moving his head out of the car to look around when he couldn't satisfy his curiosity otherwise. And that was enough. I rose up behind him, just out of his sight. When he felt I was there it was already to late. I'd grabbed his neck and pierced his skin and tasted again what I had missed for so long.

Blood, glorious blood.

It started out slow, my tongue eagerly lashing out for those first drops. I felt the tension of his skin when he felt my teeth piercing them. Then I felt him relax, giving in to my desires. The blood was sweet and thick and flowed in me like a river flows into the sea. It felt as if there was no end to it. Each heartbeat in my body was becoming stronger and stronger. It was intense. I could smell my own skin changing as the blood filled it, it was subtle but it felt more alive and less muddy.

As my heartbeat grew stronger, I could feel and hear his heartbeat getting slower and slower. And as it did so, I felt stronger and stronger. It was very powerful to feel my might grow as his dwindled.

I had to stop!

But the blood was so good, it filled me, made me complete again. It made me feel...

No! I HAD to stop!

With all the willpower I had I resisted the call of his death and mended the wounds in his neck with some of my blood. I held him as his body fainted. I'd taken a lot of blood, almost too much. He'd live but he was definitely feeling faint. It gave me a slightly evil idea though. I opened the car door, holding him easily now, and put him in the car after I wiped the glass shards from the seat. I put his seat-belt on and made sure he'd stay upright for the night. If things would go the way I hoped, he'd be found by the owner of the car and get arrested for this. I reminded myself to check the newspapers in a day or so to see if and how they found him.

It would, at the very least, be confusing.

After I'd closed the door of the car, I tried to make myself fly once again. But even being filled with blood made no difference. At least I was more careful this time and no one would have noticed a thing besides maybe an odd girl standing on the tips of her toes, balancing oddly. After giving up on that I checked my reflection in the car's bonnet. It was well washed and my reflection was clear in the pale grey of the metallic coating.

It wasn't as bad as before anymore. Even my clothes looked less out of place now that I was no longer as pale as some of the whiter pieces of my clothing.

Clothing, that should be the next step, preferably with some more blood. I felt I still needed to drink some, but at least it wasn't as irresistible as before. But for clothing I needed money. There was of course an easy way to get a little bit of money. Or eat least to find some in a likely place...

Hesitantly I opened the door of the car again and tried to find the guy's wallet. He was wearing it in the right-hand pocket of his jeans. At least he wasn't using the back-pocket, that would have been even more awkward. Not that anyone could see me, but it wasn't really that fun to feel up strangers I'd just sucked dry. Once I had his wallet, I was tempted to take it all, but I decided against that. I didn't need much and certainly didn't want to give him any more trouble than he was already in. I took the cash he had on him, it wasn't much, just a little over fifty floryns, but it was enough to get some clothes cheaply. I returned the wallet to his pocket as best I could and closed the door once more. Feeling a little guilty about the whole thing, I tried to still my guilt by thinking that he had done enough to bring this on himself.

If only that worked better. I was very, very bad at talking things right. Well I was good at the logical way of thinking and making a plausible conclusion. But I knew it was wrong regardless.

It was a pity the guy's clothes were unfit for me, even the thin coat he wore would have been useless to me. Besides, I didn't want him to catch a cold. Maybe there was a way to be invited into a home to get some clothes. I could leave the money and take only minimal things. Also, a shower would be really, really nice. With my much better looking skin and physique, it should be at least plausible to get invited after a simple excuse. I blushed a little as I realized that I was happy to look pretty again. I wasn't used to thinking about it that much, but it gave me a good warm feeling inside. Or it just might have been the blood.

This time I walked towards the city, looking at the houses and finding my next prey.

Please forgive me for mentioning this, I promise not to do this too often; interestingly enough, the guy was found by the owner of the car early morning. He was still sleeping when they found him and quite dizzy when waked they gave him only a few nights in holding for drunk misdemeanor. I didn't think much of it at the time, despite the masses being amused by the news, but it made me smile when I realized the connection between that and what Amy had written.