Gentleman Vampire (JO1 Kinjo Sukai AU Fanfic)

Three

There are a few more things I should clear up before we go on. First, you must be wondering why Mr. Clark isn't more scared of me, or why I wondered what that girl saw when she looked at me. The reason is that vampires are a secretive bunch.

Unlike our strict laws against consuming live human blood, it's not illegal to make humans aware of our vampire identities, but it is strongly cautioned against. It's not preferable to tell humans of our identities for somewhat obvious reasons: usually humans don't believe us when we do tell them, and, when they do believe us, they often become scared, sometimes hysterical. Thus, it's usually not a good idea to let humans know of our existence.

So it is that no humans know that I'm a vampire. That may lead you to another question: Doesn't that make life as a vampire lonely?

In a word, no. There are other vampires.

Vampires can always detect other vampires; we can smell when other vampires are around. But there are other giveaways, as well. Vampires are cold-blooded, for instance, something that can be ascertained with a simple handshake.

Of course, the most prominent feature of a vampire is their fangs, not that you're likely to catch a vampire with their fangs out. Most of the time, we keep our fangs undetectable, hypothetically only appearing when we're about to bite and withdraw blood. Or perhaps when we're safely in the company of fellow vampires. Or when we're all alone. 

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I returned to my penthouse late that evening. I shut the door softly, not yet bothering to turn on the lights. Moonlight poured over the white sofa and onto the wood floor of the kitchen. One of the chairs at the island was askew, the legs pointing toward the front door instead of toward the kitchen wall.

That's not where I left you, I thought.

And then I smelled it: a metallic and earthy scent.

In the darkest corner of the room, I could barely make out a blurry silhouette of a person. I wasn't alone; Someone was in the room.

"You know you can just ask me if you want to come over," I said with a huff, as a woman emerged from the shadows, the light glinting off of one of her fangs. She had shoulder length jet black hair and red lipstick on her lips, reminding me of blood.

"But what's the fun in that? I wanted to surprise you," she said, her mysterious vibe dissipating as she walked toward me.

"I think I've already had enough surprises today, Phoebe," I said. My thoughts darted back to the events of the day: the girl whose blood I was inexplicably drawn to.

Phoebe just smiled her usual teasing smile. "Is that so? I didn't think it was that easy to surprise the mighty poker face vampire Sukai."

"That's an accurate assumption," I said with a laugh. "It's exactly why I don't understand why you tried to surprise me today."

She shrugged. "I can always try."

Our conversation devolved into familiar pleasantries, as I switched the lights on. I had known Phoebe since she had been turned into a vampire all those years ago. It was almost as if in my past human life, she could have been my sister as we shared the same sharp eyes.

I steered the conversation towards the girl I had met today. "Have you been tempted to suck a human's blood recently?" I asked her.

She blinked several times, "No, why?"

I leaned closer to Phoebe. "A girl came into the office today, and I could smell her blood strongly though it didn't appear that she was bleeding in any way. It took all my strength to restrain myself from sucking her blood."

Her expression turned grave. She lowered her voice, as if someone might overhear our conversation, "You haven't been, you know, consuming human blood recently, have you?"

"No," I said, looking deeply into her eyes, so she would know that I meant what I said, "I haven't. You must remember the last time I consumed live human blood because you were there. It was before the new law was instituted."

She nodded her head slowly. "It was a girl wasn't it? Your last time, I mean," she said softly. It wasn't often that we discussed our past victims.

My last victim's face flashed before my eyes: clear, warm-hued skin, delicate features, glassy blue eyes staring at anything, and strands of blonde hair stuck to the neck with blood. She was a pretty girl, someone we had both known from the neighborhood.

"You didn't turn her, did you?" Phoebe asked.

I shook my head, suddenly remembering things I hadn't thought about in a long time. I remembered that the girl would unconsciously fidget with the hem of her sleeve when she talked. I remembered how she would look at her feet when she couldn't remember a word in her otherwise flawless Japanese. I remembered her muffled scream before my mouth landed on her flawless neck.

"No," I said as I noticed my hand shaking.

I murdered that girl that night.

Phoebe's hand intertwined with mine. "Sorry, Sukai."

I just nodded, knowing that she meant no harm. I also remembered her victims, the ones she turned into fellow vampires and the ones she didn't.

Though the desire to consume blood, to kill even, was natural, guilt was also a natural consequence. The high from consuming live human blood only lasted so long. It was the burden vampires were destined to bear.

"I don't want to kill again," I said.

"I know."

Our eyes met again until Phoebe's hand left mine. She sat up straighter and placed her hands on her hips.

"Well, do you know anything about the girl who came into your office today?" she said, her tone brighter.

I corrected my posture, rolling my shoulders back. "Her name is Celeste Delaney. Her sister, Marisol Delaney, died in an accident when some lab machinery blew up at her work. The machinery was patented by her employer, MeriTech Industries. She showed up at our offices because apparently our law firm represented MeriTech in the resulting lawsuit and won. She was airing out her grievances."

"Are you going to do anything about it?"

I scoffed. "What can I do? Celeste Delaney is just one of the droves of people who have justifiable grudges against the law firm. There's nothing just about human systems, and that's exactly how they designed them to be. I'm more concerned about why Celeste Delaney's blood is irresistible to me. I don't want to lose control."

Phoebe bit her lip slightly. "I honestly can't think of a reason why that's happening to you," her eyes gleamed, "but I can think of someone who might know."