**************
I tossed the crook in the river, set him adrift along with the body of the muscle man he so graciously eliminated.
Wiping my lips on my sleeve, I let the rush of the kill pass.
The taste of his blood, like everything else about him, was nondescript, but it was a holdover.
I didn’t have a code of killing only criminals, but the harbor was a favorite haunt because they did a lot of their dirt in the area. They were men somebody loved, but no one would miss.
It was the perfect place to practice my newfound skills.
The one who made me left me in a bit of a bind, because she botched the job, and left a little humanity in me. It would leave me eventually, but in fact, I was slowly dying. It’s why I was still breathing, why I could still feel pain and cold.
She wasn’t supposed to bite me, not being long a vampire herself.
The details of how we met were sordid; fun for a night, and now this.
I was going to hunt her when I got stronger, but for now, this was my ‘life.’
Staring at the lights across the river, the lights on the gleaming party boats, the listening to the dull toll of whatever harbor bells there were, I hung around needlessly for about another hour.
The floating bodies had disappeared, taken under by fish or currents.
I let my thoughts drift to her.

*******************
She was on top, noisy, exuberant, and active.
I was enjoying watching and listening to her, taking pride in my ability to please her.
In her release, she wasted no time, and draped her taut, glistening torso over me, her face over my shoulder, her lips at my neck, when I felt the pinprick of her fangs.
I gasped in surprise, and out of sheer reflex tried to throw her off.
Suddenly she weighed a ton, as if a sheet of iron had fallen on me, slowly crushing the life from me.
I couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t move.
The pull of her mouth drew my blood like a living syringe as she adjusted her grip on my head, tilting it for a better angle, working her fangs deep.
I made a gurgling noise, and she moaned as she sucked.
Helpless, I was nothing more than food to her, and she had her way.
When she pulled back, I saw her face change from the hellish creature she really was to the beauty I’d picked up in the bar, now knowing I was the one who was picked up.
Then I felt the pain begin to hit, and it was going to hurt a lot.
“What…did…you do…to…me?”
She kissed me, smearing my own blood across my lips, and without another word, she got off me, got dressed, and left without a backward glance, leaving me weak and trickling blood, and crying hot, red tears.

*********************

Under other circumstances, that would have been my dream date.
Now, she was a target.
I didn’t know her name, but in my own growth I knew this: vampires are creatures of habit, and feed where they live for the most part. She was free to travel anywhere, but she was so convinced she’d defeated me, that either she didn’t think I could find her, or didn’t care if I did.
I know this too: vampires have their own scent, and hers was all over me, and I inhaled deeply until it was indelibly a part of my psyche.
I would find her again, and I made myself a promise that it would be a day she’d regret.