Lila's Choice

It is a crisp, clear fall night.  There is not a cloud in the sky and the stars light up the night from what seems like just an arm’s length away.  I used to only admire these kinds of nights through my window, while nestled in the warmth of my room.  Now, these are my favorite kinds of nights to go hunting with Gwen.  

Gwen, my best friend, is a better hunter than I am.  She does it with such relish that few can resist her charm.  I need only stand by and let her work her magic.  Gwen is one of those few people that are born to be a vampire.  Although she has a very petite build, her charm is stronger than any man’s physical strength; able to get just about anyone to come to her without a second thought as to why they are doing so, with nothing more than a look and a nod of her head.  

"There. I think they'll be perfect.  Don't you Lila?" Gwen sets her sites on two middle-aged men who are quite clearly on the prowl tonight.  They’re not wearing wedding rings, but the tan lines that have faded enough to go unnoticed by the human eye, are still visible to our sharper vision.  We are waiting on line at a New York City club that we have no intention of going into.  We could easily skip the line altogether if we wanted to go inside, but it’s less of a fuss to pull our victims off of a line, unnoticed by prying eyes.  

“Mere child’s play, Gwen. How do you suggest we go about this one? Tag team or good girl, bad girl?" 

Gwen doesn't even hesitate.  "Good girl, bad girl.  Let's give them a sporting chance.”  

She can’t help but laugh as she says this because she knows just as well as I do that they don't stand a chance either way.  She was a man-eater long before she ever sank her teeth into her first victim. 

I stay put, letting Gwen approach the two men, acting the part of the shy friend, too nervous to go with her, while she introduces us.  We play our roles well because they reflect who we were before the change.  Although I was always told that I am beautiful, I never felt comfortable in my own skin and so I was very reserved, shying away from any kind of attention.  Once I was changed though, I no longer felt the same awkwardness and gained a newfound self confidence; but the memory of that feeling has never left me, not even after my two centuries as a vampire.  

Although Gwen is only one century old, compared to my two, we appear to be close in age.  This is due to the fact that I became a vampire at the age of thirty and I changed Gwen when she was twenty-five.  In all my centuries roaming this earth, Gwen is the only person I have ever changed, but that is a tale for another time.  As I said, she was born for this life; her human life was full of battles, which having overcome made her strong, independent and almost completely fearless.  She knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it, making her the skilled hunter that she is today.  I see a lot of myself in Gwen; the me that I was always so afraid to show, that only a rare few got to see if they took the time to break through the walls I had built around myself, in order to get to know me.  

Even now, I don’t go out very often, only when I get hungry or bored enough to leave the comfort of my home in the underground complex created by our clan; preferring privacy and solitude to the hustle and bustle of the mortal world.  Far beneath the city streets, well below the subway tunnels, lies a centuries-old world that has been frozen in time.  Encompassed by a cavern, the complex is dark and dank, yet large and open, lacking the claustrophobic feel you would expect so deep underground.  Lengthy tunnels connect clan owned buildings to the complex.  If a mortal were to stumble upon one of these tunnels, they would run out of oxygen before they reached the end, ensuring that our complex remains a well kept secret.