My hand sat on an ancient cracked table. There were a few remaining all night places. I carefully sipped a cup of coffee. The coffee was horrible but at least I found that I could drink some liquids other than blood. The same could not be said about foods. The tuna fish sandwich I had ordered lay pushed off the side with only a single bite in it. When I had tried to eat it, the sandwich had tasted like sawdust and I had only managed to choke down that single bite. I was a vampire, there was no other possibilities. Otherwise, I was in a straightjacket in a looney bin somewhere and hallucinating all this. Unfortunately, I did not think that this was the case.
I still knew little about what being a vampire meant. This was only the third night I had been one and I had no one to teach me how to survive. The only vampire I knew of was the vampire who had made me and I planned to kill him. That made it hard to ask him about being a vampire. If there were other vampires around, they very well could be as bad as him. I was on my own with learning about being a vampire.
I had awoken this night with a thirst, a thirst for blood. I knew that I would need to find some soon or I would be like I was that first night. No self control at all. There was always trash on the streets who I could feed on. I should have just fed on that drug dealer last night when I had the chance. At least I now had a bit of money from him. Just over three thousand dollars. More of his bills were fifties and one hundreds than I would have thought.
There was the possibility that I could feed without killing anyone. One of the waitresses wore black lipstick and her nails were painted a shiny black as well. Definitely, a Goth. I had never been one to go to clubs but I knew there were Goth clubs and while the vampire subculture was much rarer in Seattle than in places like New York City, for example, there were at least some who practiced. One of those might make a willing donor if I could control my urges and not kill them.
I was already dressed almost Gothic and periodically I would see the Goth waitress watching me. It was like I could feel a certain arousal from her. In many ways, it was too bad that I was attracted to other women. It was unlikely that she would argue with donating a little bit of blood in return for some company.
Courtesy of Tony, I had indulged in a bit of shopping at the mall when I had woken up this evening. Instead of jeans, I wore skin tight black leather pants. I wore black spiked boots. Being a vampire appeared to have improved my balance because I never had been good at walking in spiked heels before. Finally, I wore a red silk camisole under my leather jacket with no bra. For the first time ever, I had worn thongs instead of my usual underwear. The color matched the camisole. This whole makeover had two purposes. One was of course to change my looks as much as possible so no one would recognize me. The other was to remind myself that I was no longer Emily Rose and that she was dead.
There was the vampire who created me to consider. His pattern was that he struck ever four to seven days. As far as I had been able to tell from the papers, there had been no dead prostitutes found with all their blood drained since I had been attacked. He usually left the bodies in conspicuous locations where they would be found almost as soon as the sun came up.
This was the sixth day since I was his victim which meant that he would be striking soon. In most cases, he had grabbed women from the strip but there had been one abduction of a prostitute from a truck stop. It was linked to him because both wrists were slashed and she had bled to death. Even though there was some suggestion of it being a copycat killer, most of the detectives thought that it was him. Still, the strip would be his most likely stalking ground.
How he left the bodies exposed to the sun got me wondering about his reasoning. Having been exposed to indirect sunlight in the motel room the first morning show me how sensitive vampires were to sunlight. In many movies, vampires burst into flame or crumbled into dust almost immediately when exposed to sunlight. Perhaps he was using the sun to obliterate any traces of his presence. It was definitely something that was worth thinking about.
It was time to head back to the strip. It was almost ten at night and there were good odds that he was hunting tonight. The strip was not all that small and I could only hope that I could find him before he killed another woman. Prostitutes they might be but that did not mean that the vampire had a right top take their lives.
Dropping a worn ten next to my plate, I stood up and began walking for the door.
Watching and waiting was the name of the game. The shadows were no impairment to my vision but I could tell that few if any could see me. I could hide in the deepest shadows and watch those around me. It was almost as if I was part of the cracked pavement for all that most people noticed me. While watching for the other vampire, I also looked out from eyes of a predator. Still, if I was going to be a predator, I could hunt other predators.
The police had definitely stepped up their presence and I had seen at least half a dozen police cars since I had began my vigil. It was funny how they almost saw nothing. When not assigned to vice, I had been a patrol officer and had often patrolled the strip myself. Reflecting back, I wondered how much I had missed in the darkness when I went through in my squad car.
Dressed in little more that underwear, the girls still walked the streets and propositioned men who drove past. Sometimes one would get into a car with a man and they would drive off. Sometimes a man would walk up and talk to a girl. How could they do this when several had been taken and never seen again. As before, many of the girls were extremely young. It made me shiver in a way which the cold never would.
Behind many of the girls, I could see men in many cases watching them closely. The girls pimps! They took most of the girl's money and in many cases addicted the girls to drugs to make them easier to control. Of course even many of those without pimps were addicted to one drug or another. It was often the reason they were out here in the first place.
Just now I saw a girl return and hand several wadded bills over to her pimp. Apparently is was not enough because his hand came up and slapped her hard in the face. I could hear from him, "You will give me everything." I had to clasp my hands into a fist, nails digging into my palms, to keep from leaping out from the shadows and strangling him. He would get his but not just now. If nothing else, I had selected my prey for tonight. Crying, the girl reached into a tiny purse and pulled out a couple of more wadded bills. The man slapped her a couple more times and ordered her, "Get out there and made some more with your skinny ass."
The drug dealers were out in force as well. Crack, cocaine, heroin, and meth were all for sale along with a bit of weed. To be honest, the grass never particularly concerned me. In many cases, I could see figures in alleys as well. The man, or kid in many cases, on the street would sell a baggie of something and immediately hand the cash over to the figure in the alley. Still, many were one man operations and there was a woman selling drugs as well. Watching the deals going down, it was staggering how much money changed hands.
I could not help but stare at the location which I had been abducted from. It was little different than anywhere else on the street. A cracked concrete sidewalk. I had yet to find out where my body had been found. It had been a mausoleum somewhere but I had no clue to what graveyard it had been in. There were two girls plying their trade where the vampire had gotten me. Did they know what had happened where they were standing? Even if they knew, would desperation have made them do it anyway?
A figure in a tan coat walked toward where the girls were standing. For some reason, the walk was extremely familiar to me. As well, there was just something about his presence. For several moments, I puzzled with it in my mind. Then it hit me and no wonder it was so familiar to me. The figure was detective Vernon Powell.
While I was not attracted to other women, there were few men who I had ever developed any sort of relationship to. Maybe it was how I was abused by my father. Vernon had been an exception. Vernon and I had a relationship for several months although we had kept it fairly quiet. There should be no problems with us seeing each other due to being in different departments but we had been trying to avoid the gossip which it would involve. He was in his mid thirties, a bit older than I was. Like many officers, he was divorced and going steady with an alimony check. We seemed to both need someone sometimes.
He seemed to take our relationship more seriously than I had although I did like him a lot. Still it was more of a case that he was safe to take as a lover and I did not think it ever would become truly serious. Maybe it was even rebelling against the values which the church tried to teach me. We had not seen each other as much as we used to but we had gone to bed together just a couple of weeks ago. He had problems with a case, this case in fact, and had needed someone.
Even from this distance, I could almost smell his aftershave. It was impossible of course even though my sense of smell was far more acute than it had even been before. It was so nice to see a friendly face and I wanted so badly to walk up to him and put my hands in his sandy brown hair. Maybe stare into his grey eyes. He was the one who had suggested I get assigned to the detail and likely blamed himself. We had talked about it when we had slept together last. As one of the investigators assigned to the serial killer case, he seemed to have already taken the case pretty hard.
Why he was by himself, I did not understand. Vernon appeared to pay no attention to the girls standing there and simply stopped and watched for several minutes. He had cop eyes, always scanning everywhere. To work undercover, you needed to learn how to shut them off. That was something which he had never learned how to do. I decided to watch him from inside the darkness enveloping me.
A black male walked by him, one of the drug dealers I had been carefully watching. Vernon noticed him as well but there was little he could do and just wait. This man was massive, a body builder, boxer, or something from the looks of him. Vernon might be surprisingly tough but he was still relatively slight. Vernon and I had sparred on occasion and I beat him probably three out of four times.
Carrying easily over the distance, I heard the man say to Vernon, "I know you, you were the cop who tried to put me in jail for murder. I thought I recognized you." The hatred in his voice was quite clear. I could see the detective going for his weapon but the man was fast for his bulk. A fist went into Vernon's stomach and I could hear the clattering of Vernon's weapon on the ground. Vernon himself was doubled over in pain. It took all my effort to resist jumping in to help Vernon.
This is one of the drug dealers who had a partner backing him up. He stepped from the alley as soon as the commotion started and began walking over to help his partner. The massive man punched Vernon a couple of more times and told his partner, "He is a cop. He is the one who testified again me. Perhaps I should teach him about murder?" The man then grabbed him around his neck.
Several other drug dealers and one of the pimps also seemed to be closing in on where Vernon had the life being choked from him. The girls which had been next to him were screaming and were running away as fast as they could, tripping over their high heels.
There was no way I was going to let this happen. He was a police officer, a good one, and we had been lovers. Running from the shadows, I threw all of my weight into a sweep against the heavy drug dealers legs. Even though becoming a vampire seems to have made me incredibly strong, there was still mass to consider. He probably weighed at least twice what I did and unlike most I had seen, his mass appeared to be mostly muscle. Still, it must have been enough because he tumbled to the pavement dropping Vernon in the process. I could see Vernon getting onto his hands and knees, coughing. At least he was alive. Recovering my balance, I qucikly got back to my feet in a fighting stance.
Unfortunately, it looked like the detective would be no help in a fight and it was five against little old me. Before he got up, I put my foot into the massive drug dealer's groin. His eyes rolled as he went unconscious. That reduced the odd at least slightly. I could feel that my canines had extended. It seemed that it was a fight or flight reaction.
The drug dealer's partner was the closet of them standing. I heard the sound of a switchblade as he drew the knife against me. His motion seemed slow, almost as if he was on a tape being played in slow motion. I knocked the blade from his hand. At the same time, my foot smashed into his knee with all the force I could muster. There was a massive cracking sound as he went down.
There was the cracking sound of gunshots and I could hear one of the other figures say, "She must be the other one's partner." Looking through the corner of my eyes, it looked like it was a nine millimeter. I was diving for cover and luckily the next couple of rounds missed. The third hit me dead in the chest and a fourth struck me in the left leg. They hurt like nothing I had ever felt before but someone I managed to stay aware of my surroundings. Even though dead, I still appeared to need to breath and it hurt to take each breath. I dove for the cover on a nearby doorway for some cover.
Drawing the Ruger, I returned fire at him. My time in the range payed off and the forty-five hollow point hit him right in the heart with the first shot. The other two had pistols drawn by this point as well but they saw that I had cover while they did not. From what I could see, they were twenty-twos or twenty-fives as well. Small pocket pistols not useful at any range at all beyond point blank. Both turned and ran. I let them run.
Every breath I took seemed stronger although it still hurt. I limped over to where Vernon was still trying to get his bearings. Everybody seems to have run and the street was now deserted. Probably the cops would be here within a few minutes and I would need to be gone before then. While I guess I could have simply left him at this point, I wanted to make sure that he was alright. He said, "We need to get you an ambulance."
He began reaching in his pocket for something, I imagine his cell phone. I shook my head and stated, "No doctors."My voice sounded funny due to my fangs being still extended.
Suddenly his eyes got wide, "Emily?" I could probably have fooled anyone else, maybe even my own mother, but I could not fool him. "But, you are dead. I saw your body in the Morgue and know you died. I must be hallucinating!"
I could allow him to think that and just disappear. Of course know him, he would have not been satisfied and began searching for me everywhere. As well, maybe I needed to tell somebody, anybody. I turned towards him, "The serial killer you have been hunting. He is not human. He is a vampire. Something happened although I am not sure why and I awoke in the morgue."
"A vampire?" responded Vernon. "Vampires don't"
Breaking in before her could finish off his statement, I continued his statement "don't exist. I would have agreed with you before but I cannot accept what I am now." Speech was still hard with my canines still extended. I smiled at him and showed them off to him.
There was a problem. Where I had put my foot in the muscle builders groin and the knee of his other partner were both leaking blood. I must have ruptured something with the first kick and have pushed bone through skin on the second. I could feel both of their pulses fade. They were both dying and the drug dealer I shot was already dead. The blood was testing my control incredibly and if Vernon had not been here, I would definitely feed. I could only call it blustlust. I could feel Vernon's heartbeat and was afraid I might attack him like I had Stanley if I was not careful.
"Look, I don't know if you believe me and I don't care. There is much about this vampire business which I don't understand either." I took several deep breaths. It barely hurt and more and taking a quick look at my chest, I could see that the wound had almost closed on its own. My new camisole was ruined. I did not know why that upset me. "I have to feed or I will lose control."
With that, I grabbed the wrist of the body builder and sunk my teeth into his wrist. It was absolute bliss. Sucking gently, I felt the blood slowly dripping into my throat. With it, I felt an incredible upsurge of energy like I was pulling his life energies away from him. My thirst was slackening and I felt myself no longer about ready to lose control. The man's heartbeat slowed even more and then it was gone. He was dead. I let his arm fall.
When I turned around, I saw that Vernon was standing right behind me. His face definitely showed fear but he stood his ground. Tentative he held up a handkerchief he carried in his pocket. I accepted it and wiped the blood from my mouth. After feeding, my canines had retracted back to where they normally were.
Neither my chest or my leg hurt anymore. Looking down, I noted that my chest was fully healed under the bloody camisole which I had been wearing. No one normal healed that fast and I grabbed the silk and pulled it way from my skin. It came reluctantly and Vernon saw as well. I think it was only in that moment that he truly believed me.
"We need to talk," he stated, sounding surprisingly calm. I nodded my head in responds. "I left my car a few blocks away. If you will come with me, we can get out of here before a unit responds to this. Somebody will call it in eventually."
I kneeled down and quickly grabbed the big drug dealers cash followed by his partner and the dealer I had shot. I felt like Vernon's eyes were boring on me and responded, "We need to make this look like a robbery. Besides, it is not like I am on the police payroll anymore." He did not say anything and I added, "I need to get my backpack real quick." I had hidden my backpack hooked about ten feet up on a fire escape near where I would be hiding. It was very unlikely that anyone would notice it there and no-one but an Olympic gymnast or a vampire could get to it. I jumped up and grabbed my backpack.
Vernon led me into an alley and just as we turned the corner, I heard the brakes of a car and a car door suddenly opening. In the background, I could hear the sound of a police radio. Sometimes, the police would come in without lights and siren if they were trying to catch the perpetrator in the act. Luckily, I had gotten out of there when I had.
The door closed behind us. Vernon had not talked much on the ride to his home. Maybe he was coming to terms with what I was. I could not really blame him, I was still coming to terms with what I was. He was not treating me as a monster to be shunned and perhaps my earlier thoughts that Emily Rose was dead and gone were wrong.
"Emily, I don't know where to from here," Vernon stated
"I don't know either," I whispered back.
"I didn't believe you were a vampire until I saw that bullet hole and how it closed by itself. When your body, I mean you, were found in a mausoleum in Acacia Park, I was one of the first officers to arrive. I sent you on the assignment."
I raised my hand and gently stroked his face, trying to tell him without words that it was alright. After all, I had been a cop. It was almost all I had ever wanted to be. The risk came with the territory. If it had been a human serial killer, there was a good chance I could have ended it.
Taking a deep breath, I told him, "I killed Security Officer Marshall. I killed Stanley. He opened the drawer and I just attacked him. I couldn't help it." There was moisture on my face. I put my other hand to my face and wiped it off. When I looked at my hand, I could see that the tear had a red tinge to it.
"I was afraid of that," He answered. "I think I understand and even if I wanted to, there is no way I could bring this to the others." By others, he meant the other detectives.
"Are you the lead investigator assigned to the case?"
Shaking his head, he stated, "No, although I am suppose to support. I am also not assigned to your case. They thought I was too close. I was checking on what happened on my own time. There is a rumor that the captain plans to take me off of the serial killer case altogether with what happened to you. Apparently he knows about our relationship."
He paused for several moments and asked, "Can you tell me about what happened?" Gathering my thoughts, I began telling him what had happened in the last few days. I did not tell him where my thoughts had wandered for the last several days but from his expression, I was afraid he knew all too well. Maybe he had gotten to know me better than I thought. I did tell him about my ideas about the vampire who had created me.
When I was finished, he just looked at me for what seemed like hours but was probably just a few minutes. He stated, "You will not stay in any more cheap hotels." I had been thinking the same thoughts but instead renting a room at one of business hotels which a person could stay at for a week or a month. With Boeing and Microsoft in the area, there were plenty of business traveler who I could blend with. I didn't have any business suits which would make me fit in but that could be taken care of with the money I had stolen. His next words came as a surprise, "I want you to stay here."
"I couldn't," I whispered. It was so tempting but I did not want to risk him.
"The motels simply are not safe. If sunlight effects as badly as the movies show, I don't want you turned into dust because the maid enters the room. You need somewhere away from the sun and I don't think my curtains are thick enough. I could move all the stuff from a closet and....." He paused as he saw my expression.
Nothing scared me like the idea of being locked in a closet and I could feel myself freezing for a moment. I was sure that the fear was plain on my face. "No closets," I stated and even I could hear nervousness in my own voice so I knew he could.
"I knew you had some fear of enclosed spaces but never knew it was this bad. No closets, I understand," he spoke back in a calm voice. "Before I moved in, the basement was made into a small apartment. I think a teenage son of the previous owners lived downstairs. The windows are small and easily blocked."
"Someone may ask questions if I stay here," I told him.
"Don't worry, no one will recognize you. I barely recognized you myself. I will explain you as a cousin if anyone asks. It will prevent me from keeping up during the night knowing that you are safe. Besides, when you see what a mess the basement is, you might think twice." The last part came out in a teasing tone. I had never been in his basement in any of the times I had been here.
"Alright," I answered. "Why don't you show me this basement and see what needs to be done. If you don't mind, I would like to use your shower and change into something which is not coated in my own blood."
He nodded and fled into the bathroom. I did not know why but I had felt extremely warm when I had been next to him. I told myself that it was just the last couple of days and the stress of what had happened to me. Scrubbing hard, I was able to get all the blood off to reveal white skin underneath. As soon as I was finished, I pulled a second set of black jeans from my backpack along with a black tee-shirt. I knew that I had left a few cloths in his house during some of my stays. During the shower, I had argued with myself but in the end I had decided that I needed to ask Vernon for a few favors.
Stepping out of the bathroom, I saw that Vernon was sitting on the couch, drinking a beer. I walked over to where his was sitting and extended my hand. When he reached for me, I pulled him up. I think I was finally getting used to my new strength.
"It sounds like we need to do some clean up and block the windows before the sun comes up. When the sun comes up, I become extremely lethargic."
Vernon led me to the door to the basement and told me, "Watch you step. It is extreme dark," as he opened the door. While I had told him about my night vision, he appeared to have underestimated it. I could see steps quite clearly. I walked down the stairs with him following a few steps above me.
When I got to the bottom, I could see that if anything he had underestimated the mess down here. He seemed to have just stacked up everything at random down here. Boxes were stacked on top of each other and several were precariously balanced. The floor was covered by industrial grey carpeting which had not been replaced for decades by the appearance. On one side there was an old futon with the mattress half off the frame.
When Vernon reached the bottom step, I heard a clicking sound and I closed my eyes as bright light flooded the basement. Slowly, I opened my eyes. Artificial light did not seem to bother my eyes like sunlight but sudden bright light still left me disoriented for a few moments.
It definitely had been converted to an apartment at one time and even had a bathroom which I could see through a door. There were two small windows in the concrete walls. They would need to be blocked before the sun rose and there needed to be at least a little bit of cleanup before I could sleep here. A coat of dust covered the boxes and all of the exposed surfaces.
There was no better time than the present to get started. Lifting one of the larger boxes, I carried it into the corner. He should not have but Vernon looked amazed at me lugging the box. I guess it was pretty heavy. After a few moments, Vernon got over his shock and began helping me with boxes. I could hear him straining with several of them.
One box contained cans of paint and brushes. I put that one off to the side so that I could paint the window so that no light could get through. When Vernon saw where my attention was, he commented, "Those cans were here when I moved in. I just let them down here and I don't know if they are any good."
Once a bit of space had been cleared out and the futon uncovered, I went back to the cans of paint. Looking through the cans, I saw that one was black and should completely cover the window. I shook the can and it sounded like it was still liquid inside. There was no screwdriver so I looked around for anything I could use to open the can. Vernon told me, "Hold on a few minutes and I will get a knife from upstairs."
Instead of waiting, I inserted my nails into the lip of the can and pulled. The paint had hardened along the lip and the lid came up only reluctantly. It showed just how tough my nails were since becoming a vampire. I wondered if I could just punch through the can with my nails.
Picking up the can and one of the brushes, I walked over to one of the windows. Unfortunately, the window was just out of my reach but I found a chair which I could stand on once I looked around. It did not take long for me to have coated both windows. Once they were slightly tacky, I added a second coat of paint. There was no light from the streetlights outside visible through the window and it should block all sunlight from the room.
While I had painted the windows, Vernon had gone upstairs and brought me down some sheets and blankets. Even though still half filled with boxes, the room already felt more comfortable than the motel rooms had.
I came up close to Vernon, planning to give him just a quick hug to thank him for what he had done. As I did so, I could feel the warmth of his body and felt something stirring in me. Our lips slowly came together. It was like I could not resist it. As our mouths met, my whole body felt like it was in flames. I have no idea how long we remained locked together like this.
With incredible reluctance, I managed to break off the kiss. "I...We should not do this,"I tried to tell Vernon. He slowly brought his hand up to my face and I could feel myself freezing. While as a vampire, I could easily have broken his arms, this was just something I could not resist.
His hands found their way onto my tee-shirt and massaging my breasts. This was going to happen, I wanted him just too badly. I pulled the tee-shirt from my jeans and he took over, pulling it over my head. I had not worn a bra and his mouth came down to my breast. My breath came as gasps as his mouth did its magic and my heart seemed to be pumping a hundred times a second. My canines had extended once again. Apparently they were a sign of arousal as well.
Eventually, he guided me to the futon and lowered me to the edge of the mattress. He moved down to my loins and I could feel his hands on the buttons of my jeans. I heard the sound of them unzipping and he pulled my jeans down. Moments later he pulled down my panties and I could feel his breath on my loins. I was completely naked except for a pair of sox. Using his mouth, he brought the fire which I had been feeling burst into a raging inferno.
Just before it felt like I would explode, he broke off and our mouths returned to each other. I had to be extremely careful not to bite into his lips. If anything, this kiss lasted even longer than the first one. With our lips still locked together, my hands went from his back to the buttons of his shirt. Slowly, I began unbuttoning his shirt. I pulled down of the shirt to reveal his chest. Many women like extremely muscular men but I prefer mine more slender. It might be that while my father was not a body builder, he was still extremely muscular. Vernon's chest was just right.
Breaking off the kiss, I allowed myself to crouch and my hands reached for the button of his slacks. Under the slacks, I could already clearly see his arousal. My hands unbuttoned his slacks and I pulled open his zipper, pulling his pants down one leg at a time. His boxers came next and he was as naked as I was. My mouth went to his loins and it was his turn to breath in gasps. I could feel the blood racing through his body like I had never felt before.
Breaking off before he climaxed himself, I allowed him to lift me up and lay me on the futon. His loins pressed against mine and he slowly entered me. His arms held mine to the side as I laid on the bed. There was something different about the way we were making love. I did not think it was true love but there was a fire which there never was before.
Slowly his pace increased and my loins felt the extremely pleasurable ache that came when you are about to climax. Suddenly, I felt ecstacy and agony combine as my whole body exploded. It was the first of several intense explosions which seized my body. His eyes closed, Vernon climaxed at the same time. I could feel waves of pleasure coming from his.
Exhaustion took over as he pulled out of me and laid beside me. I could see that his eyes were closing as he fought to stake awake. It was still two hours until daybreak as we laid together. I heard a whisper from Vernon, "Stay with me." I could feel him falling asleep, unable to fight it any longer. I realized that I had not asked him for the favors I needed. I guess they could wait and I simply listened to his heartbeat.
By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).
Copyright © 2007, Kitsune. All rights reserved.