I watched her cross the unusually quiet boulevard, streetlamps glistening with freshly fallen rain, the click of her heals softening in splashes kissing her soles. Not sure where she’d come from, I stood silently at the bus stop, hoping the bus would not arrive and give away my deception. My car was parked on the corner. Since I first noticed her leaving the building, I made sure I was in a spot where I could continue my observation.
She was exquisite. Business professional. Shoulder length blond hair that most assuredly shimmered in those delicious natural 31 flavors in the sun. Healthy body. Firm but not too hard. She had to be involved in something seriously demanding. She looked like a fighter, an Amazon, if you will. Stunning.
Her scent carried on the evening breeze calling me, beckoning me, if I dared. Usually this was not a problem. But there was something about her. She was not to be stalked. She was not prey. She wasn’t even a trophy. She was, however, something else.
Most mortals have no idea how many of us watch them. They have no idea about what’s around them at any given moment, so self-absorbed in their minimalist minds with their limited vision. They’re much too easy, almost completely taking the fun out of it. And just when I was about to add this one to the list, she turned and stared me straight in the eye.
Time stood still, and neither one of us moved. She remained in a puddle, caring only about who this figure was across the street, watching her. I swallowed out of habit. I really had no need. Leftover human qualities that even the centuries could not erase. You can draw out the vampire within the human, but you can’t draw out the human in the vampire. Not completely. Not for those of us that had come so far down the bloodline that our genetics didn’t know what to do anymore.
Purebloods were almost extinct. We’d been interbred far too much. The question wasn’t whether you still had human in you but the quantity that remained in you. Urban legends told of vampires who could actually exist in total daylight without any unfortunate side effects. So the legends go.
Her eyes strengthened as she examined me and then she took three bold steps forward, heading straight for me. Half smiling, I crossed the street and headed towards my car.
“Do you have a problem,” she shouted as I opened the car door. To my surprise, she rushed up to the door and wanted to know what my “fucking problem was.” I lowered the window. “Just thought I knew you. I’m very sorry.”
“Fuckin’ idiot,” she gruffly spat out as she turned and walked away, looking over her shoulder and catching me watching her, to which she immediately responded to by shooting the bird at me and murmuring off about the perverts in the neighborhood. I shook my head, disappointed that I had not handled the situation better. So much for first impressions, I thought as I drove back to my sanctuary.
*** A vampiric tale in the making whispered through the fangs of Alyxis de Leon (a “Veinity Works” Project)
