Our Blood Is Tainted

Requiem

Chapter2

Requiem

In the dark I am a predator. I am evil in its purest form. I am o longer the weakest, the hunted. I am the hunter. I am strong; powerful, a beast caged in the day. I stay amongst the dawn shadows, embraced by my dark companions. I feel my gums swell and throb – the white demons are demanding.

 

I’m craving more, needing it more every second. It’s like my very own brand of heroin, calling and calling to me, dragging me towards it.

 

I feel like they are taunting me, waving their humanity at me, laughing at my uncontrollable desire to feed off them, to rip out their throats and bathe in their blood. But they don’t understand. I can hear heart beats. Faint. But it’s getting bolder, tempting me once more. I step forward, the pa-thump...  pa-thump of a fragile female heart calling me.

 

I stepped out into the street, she couldn't hear me. I was the definition of silence. Closer... closer... closer. I see her. I slip my cold hand across her mouth. I smile as I taste her fear, it radiates. Throb... throb. She tenses; tries to scream, to struggle. She is weak. I am the hunter. My grip is like iron; I am powerful. I smile; white demons sink into soft, dark flesh. Throb... throb. It flows down my throat.

 

I need more. No! Stop... stop... stop. I want more. The heartbeat, already fragile, slows... slows... gone. I step back, the smile etched onto my face. Why do I smile? I drop the corpse. She is nothing now.

 

***

 

Dawn floods the alleyways of De Rio. I tug the leather collar of my coat around my neck, before pushing myself expertly into the patches of remaining shadows. Moving quickly, I turn into the abandoned building, advancing deeper and deeper into the crypts below it.

 

She lounged silently beside the window, eyes intent on the staircase as I descended. “I was wondering when you’d pop up from the oblivion, Torment.”

 

“You were expecting me then?” She asks, her fiery red curls clinging to her face as she turns her back on me, fangs glinting.

 

“I was hoping to have a little longer alone... but no matter. Are you well, dearest sister?”

 

“There are so many heartbeats.” She mutters, moving to the stained glass window on the other side of the room.

 

“You noticed.” I reply, moving to light the lanterns.

 

“Of course, Brother.”

 

I smile. “They are tempting, are they not? Perhaps a supper?” I feel the familiar ache in my fangs as the question leaks through my cold lips.

 

“I never decline a feast, darling brother. Shall we?”