Tainted Love

Prologue

Her neck looks delicious.

Carrie was starving, practically drooling at the veins in front of her. It was the girl's fault. She kept tossing her hair from side to side, wafting her intoxicating scent, making herself irresistible.

It would only take a single step to satisfy Carrie's desire, her lust, to quench her thirst. She'd be able to rip out the girl's throat without barely moving a muscle, and it wouldn't take much more to drain her. For a vampire like Carrie, it was as simple as using a water fountain. All she had to do was turn on the tap and open wide.

For now, though, she remained still, watching her prey dance through the haze of smoke produced by machines and cigarettes. Carrie could feel the music vibrate her boots, her boots. They ached. Everything did. All for the same thing, the only thing that mattered...

Red strobe lights intermittently highlighted the girl's face. She was nervous. She might have worn a skimpy dress and tried to dance like she thought she was supposed to, but it was evident that she didn't belong there. She just wanted to impress Carrie.

Carrie had that effect on people. She couldn't explain it; no vampire could. Maybe the ancient magic that created them in the first place was manipulating the human's puny mind or just the sheer power of their undead good looks. Whatever it was, it made luring food easy. Carrie didn't eat it straight away. But like every vampire, when a human was hook, line and sinker, Carrie didn't feed on them straight away. She played with her food and savoured every meal because who knew when the next one was coming?

That said, Carrie had waited long enough for her main meal. Now it wriggled across from her, teasing and taunting as if to say, "Come get me."

The girl's eyes were closed, wishing she were somewhere else. If only that wish had come true a second sooner.

Unable to hold back any longer, Carrie pounced. Eyes scorched black, she gripped the base of the girl's skull and plunged a set of fangs into her jugular.

The girl cried out soundlessly, drowned out by the music. Not that there was anyone to help her; the dancefloor was empty. There wasn't even a DJ. They were alone, with no witnesses to the crime. No audience to watch Carrie pull off her next trick.

As soon as she bit down, blood rushed past Carrie's lipstick and warmed her insides, soothing her pain. It was also a shot of adrenaline into her system. A taste of being alive – something she hadn't been for so long.

Needing more, Carrie chomped down, snapped an artery with her teeth, and felt the blood explode on her tongue. But as she gnawed away in desperation, the lights dimmed, and the dancefloor was consumed in darkness. When they fired up again, the girl was gone. In her place was a man Carrie once knew and had chosen to forget. But like the girl, no matter how hard she tried, they always came back.

As the lights continued to flicker, the meal changed at an increasing rate, but Carrie never stopped dining from the conveyor belt all-you-can-eat buffet of men and women in every shape, size, and colour. The revolving door of her victims never ceased spinning. These people had been ghosts for a long time, but they never stopped haunting Carrie, reminding her of what she had done.

Eventually, the strobe lights ramped up to an epileptic pace, then cut out completely. For a moment, Carrie was alone in a black void. But then he appeared. Even in the dark, she recognised him clear as day. The unmistakable silhouette of his slim body towering over her. It didn't help that she cowered instinctively at the sight of him. His devilish grin filled her with dread. He was the only person- no, the only thing that scared her.

Only monsters get scared of other monsters.

As Carrie's breath hitched in an illusion of working lungs, the bane of her existence enclosed the space between them and gave her a taste of her own medicine. Before she could scream like all the people she had torn away from the world, he tore at her throat with his fangs, and the blood Carrie had just drank exploded in her face.