When the sun set, the hunger had returned. Thankfully, the bruises and scars and the slit on my chest were healed and gone. The rogue's blood was effective. I felt a pang of guilt at my hostility towards him, but the X on his shoulder reassured me that whatever he had done to get it, was most probably horrible.
Vampires are like a big family. We forgive quite easily, but to get kicked out of the society is a punishment for crimes that are too big to fix. The rogue deserved to be treated in this way. In fact, it was my duty as a vampire to eliminate him entirely. But he had saved my life. One life in exchange for another.
I stepped out of the cave and stretched, I felt like crumpled paper being smoothed out. I couldn't tell how many days I had spent in that cave, awake or unconscious, but it felt good to be out.
I took a few steps, and felt a pang of weakness. Not only was this the first time I hunted on my own, but I found I was running low on energy. Two of those combined rendered me as useless as a human.
"No, I got this" I reassured myself.
Sure, Jed had always led us right to our prey. And sure, cornering larger animals was easier when you were in a group, and yeah, being this hungry and weak and going hunting wasn't the greatest idea, but I had no choice.
I closed my eyes and used the senses I had. The sound of my own pulse blocked out half the sounds of the forest. The nose thing was out of the question. I'd have to depend on my vision only for this hunt.
Deep down, I wished that Jed would have let us hunt separately once in a while, but he always said that we could get bigger prey when we worked together. And he was right, of course.
Just take it slow, I told myself. I walked into the darker areas of the forest, where the trees were closer together and the canopy above dimmed the light. If I was lucky, I might stumble upon a sleeping lion or something.
After an hour or so, the hunger was driving me mad. My legs couldn't carry me any further, and my veins burned with the hunger. If I didn't feed soon, the rogue's blood would burn out and I would be back in square one. Maybe I shouldn't have pushed him away so soon.
Don't be stupid my brain told me.
But I'm so hungry.
Great. I was arguing with my brain now. If I changed my location to an area where the trees were further apart, it would only lead me to herbivores. Stupid deer and other small insignificant animals.
I sighed. I'd never fed off a herbivore before. I wasn't even sure if their blood was effective. What if I wasted my energy on it and it ended up doing nothing for me? It would get me killed in no time.
My ears pricked at the sound of running water. Where there was water, there was an animal drinking from that water. I followed the sound until it led me to a stream. It wasn't big, and it was mostly rocks, but it was enough to attract the attention of animals.
I climbed the tree closest to the stream and sat on one of the lowest branches and waited. And waited. Then waited some more.
As I was about to give up and climb back down, the bushes rustled. My heart rate picked up speed, my fangs growing involuntarily with the anticipation. But to my utter disappointment, a moose walked out lazily to the stream and began to drink.
By this point I couldn't resist the sound of the moose's pulse. I needed blood, and I doubted (or rather, I wanted to believe) that the source didn't matter. I aimed myself towards it, and let myself drop on it's back.
Before I could puncture it, it let out a long and loud grunt, shaking it's whole body so severely, that I got knocked down into the stream beside it. Unlike what a normal animal would do, this moose decided not to run. This moose decided it wanted to trample the life out of me.
It's hoof smashed in my face, my teeth vibrating from the impact, and before I could even process what was happening, it brought them down again on my already-sore chest. I felt the breath leaving my chest.
I made an effort at sinking my shaking fangs into it's leg, but I hadn't been fast enough, and it earned me another blow to my skull. Deciding I had enough humiliation, I rolled from under it's hooves quickly, and flitted to the other end of the stream, and then further.
When I stopped running, it was to regain my breath. If I had left the cave weak, I was half dead by now. I sat on the dirt and let out a howling cry. I was wounded and starving and I had barely escaped my life from a goddamned moose. I had stooped low. And I was only too happy that no one could see me like this.
