The scent of fear mixed with fresh blood stopped me in my tracks. My fangs slid out rapidly—too many missed meals. Feeling like a monster, I made an effort to retract them and sniffed the air again. Definitely human, definitely in trouble.
I closed my eyes and listened to my senses, the extra ones I usually ignored, relishing the opportunity to indulge. In my mind, I sensed rather than saw the streets around me. Nothing but darkness filled with the occasional red throbbing of a human heart.
Probing further into the dark, I found the injured human’s presence easily. He stood in an alleyway nearby, his pulse calling to me—strong and loud. An emptiness appeared, too close to the human. A void in my other sight screaming supernatural. A dead, soulless vampire stalking his prey, tantalised by the scent of fear.
Just like me.
That’s why the guilt always hit me so hard. If I didn’t help then it meant I was as bad as the vampires. I couldn’t conquer the thirst, but I could keep my humanity, even if I did my best to avoid humans.
Sometimes I interfered and helped humans escape from prowling vampires. It had never been a big deal, usually over before anyone got hurt. The vampires never realised what I was because they didn’t believe someone like me could exist. The humans never realised they had almost been slaughtered by a mythical creature they didn’t believe could exist.
Adrenalin coursed through my body at the thought of confronting a vampire with a bleeding human. I had to calm down, or the vampire would hear my heartbeat a mile away. I took fourteen steps. A good number because one plus four equalled five. Five was safe. Unlike six. Too many sixes scared me. Fourteen more steps. Relief. My pulse slowed.
Too human to be stealthy, I embraced my clunky stride. Swallowing my fear, I walked into the alley as if I owned the place. Fourteen steps.
A dark cloud blocked the moon, leaving me pretty much sightless. I rested my hands on my hips and waited, hoping I made a believable vampire. My eyes didn’t adjust to the dark straight away, but that racing heartbeat drew my head in the right direction, hiding my lack of night vision. My eyes focused in time for me to see the vampire’s surprise. He drew back from the human’s throat, revealing a gaunt face with concave cheeks and desperate eyes that glittered with hunger.
Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one... I thought I had long grown out of counting people’s heartbeats, but there I was using my fingers to keep track of every batch of forty-one. Almost as good as fourteen.
The vampire kept his eyes on me, his dark hair slicked back behind his ears. In life, he might have been handsome once, but not anymore. Most vampires were ugly. Death did that to you.
Hoping to intimidate him, I looked him up and down. He hadn’t yet noticed anything off about me, and I counted on the human’s stench covering me until I got him away.
The vampire watched me but didn’t make a move. He had already tasted the human, but I could tell the wounds were shallow. He was still at the taunting stage vampires seemed to like so much. As cruel as cats, they enjoyed playing with their food. My insides tensed with anticipation. Faking confidence, I tapped my foot five times while I stared him down. He licked blood from his lips with slow, careful movements.
14, 28, 56, 112... I hoped I wasn’t mouthing the numbers I doubled in my head.
Mr. Vampire finally relaxed, but his hand remained on the human’s chest, keeping him pinned. I stayed mute and prayed the human would stop making those cornered animal noises. They provoked me, so I could only imagine what they did to a real vampire. Creatures without a soul, vampires didn’t bother trying to control their instincts. However, they were smart enough to rein in their impulses in order to survive. Although this one didn’t seem to be particularly clever. He still hadn’t noticed my heart beating.
