The Innocent Life of Valerie Vale

A Gentleman, A Scoundrel

A Gentleman, A Scoundrel

Jack sat back in his seat. He had been watching Valerie for half an hour. He considered taking her to bed and drinking her blood but it didn’t matter now. One of Alex’s men, an arrogant dog who called himself Ice had already approached her and he cared too little to interject. Soon she’d be dead on the street and who would miss her? Not him.

He returned to his poem, a piece about disillusion and forgotten memories. While he couldn’t claim to be a writer he did enjoy it. Writing helped the weeks turn to months and the months turn to years. All he wanted now was to be forgotten, left alone to his thoughts. Numb to the world and all its empty promises of hope and opportunity.

Valerie smiled. It was an alluring smile that caught Jack’s attention but not because he found her attractive. He noticed her smile because it was fake. He was a connoisseur of emotion and expression and while she could fool many, her artificial enchantment was unable to elude his cold gaze. He could see through her beauty and yet Ice was ignorant to the fact. It was clear to Jack, she had no interest in him. He was her pawn.

Jack finished his whiskey, embracing the bite on the back of this throat as he swallowed it down. It was a familiar feeling, a sensation he grew to love. He was about to order another when he noticed Ice motion to leave. To his surprise Valerie submitted to his request. He’d been wrong after all, she was just another lost soul, swayed by cheap temptation... or was she? Something about her presence felt rather disconcerting. She smiled like a princess but moved with disdain. Jack’s curiosity was sparked.

Jack followed them to the forest. He stayed well behind and there was never really any risk of being noticed. The dead leaves crunched beneath Valerie’s feet. Ice was noisy too, careless and ignorant but Jack moved in complete silence.

He had never liked Ice, a vampire with no real self respect, a mere hound on Alex’s short leash. In fact he had few redeeming qualities. He had a loud mouth and was desperately unable to keep things to himself. Jack frequently used him to keep tabs on Alex’s comings and goings and because of this he was tolerated.

Jack waited and watched as they paused. Valerie’s legs were long and slender and her dress was short. It was revealing in all the right ways, just as Jack preferred. There was a warm quality to the tone of her brown skin and he wondered for a moment if she was a virgin. She seemed slightly nervous but was hiding it well and yet Jack felt as though she was the one in control. There was something complex about her and his sense of curiosity deepened.

Ice picked her up and placed her on the flat stone. Jack watched as he kissed her and as she kissed him. For a moment Jack became lost in imagination and thought. He felt her lips on his. He felt the touch of her skin, the smell of her hair and the taste of her blood. He began to find her, simply intoxicating.

Suddenly he saw Ice’s body tighten. He moved quickly to get a better look. He noticed the stake, held tightly in Valerie’s hand and then the blade. He watched in surprise as she cut into Ice’s lip. He watched as the blood dripped from his face and into her mouth as she kissed him aggressively. He took pleasure in seeing Ice’s expression of horror and then felt sick to see him bite her, take her, drink her dry. The life of a girl ended before his eyes. Why had this affected him so, when he had taken many before and felt nothing?

As a final act, Valerie... now a vampire, took the stake and plunged it through the heart of Ice. He crumbled to nothing in a haze of dust, leaving the world so eloquently and yet his existence there so forgettable.

Jack could see Valerie take pleasure in her rebirth. It reminded him of his own, the feeling of strength, of power and omnipotence. She stood tall, filling her lungs with air as though she had been deprived it all her life. He watched as she removed her shoes, leaving them as a gift to the forest that had given her so much, and set off in the direction she came.

Jack waited till she was out of sight. He then approached the stone on which she once sat. Blood stained the rock. It was already dry. He stood over her shoes and gazed down at them, unsettled. Once they belonged to a girl. That girl was now dead. He didn’t even know her name.

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