Blood Knight (Bat-fam Fanfic)

Chapter 1

Walking along the streets of Gotham at night was never a wise decision, it was filled with dangerous people on the prowl and the only people who were safe were those that were more dangerous than the average criminal. Such was the case for the Bat family . . . and for me. The Bat family was the special case of dangerous people hunting other dangerous people, one big family of vigilantes beating up criminals for family bonding time, or so I had heard. I'd never met them myself but I had heard plenty from gossip on the streets.

My situation was different, though I looked young and weak, I was quite the opposite. I had been living long enough that I had mastered numerous fighting styles and honed my supernatural senses to make up for my self-chosen blindness, more on that later. Not to mention the fact that I was ageless. Needless to say, I was quite confident in my safety while walking the streets, and maybe that's what made me stand out. A twenty-something year old, blind woman walking the most dangerous streets in the country like a stroll through the meadow would definitely catch the wrong kind of attention.

Some might attempt to hide such a disability, but if I did that, then I would be unable to hide a certain physical feature that could give away exactly what I was. A vampire, the last one in existence, to my knowledge. Actually, my vision was quite good, better than a human by far, just not during the day. Having better vision also meant having more sensitive vision, so bright light, especially its sudden presence, was quite painful.

My sensitive vision was part of the reason for the blindfold, the other part was that my eyes were a dead giveaway to my species. Having vertically elongated pupils was an evolutionary trait for nocturnal activities and ambushing prey, along with that was a film of crystalline to gather and reflect light that nocturnal predators have, but humans had never evolved in either manner. A human seeing either trait would give away that I was not one of them and then the hunting would begin.

No, better to keep the blindfold on, far less risk of exposure or momentary weakness with it on than off. I also had the benefit of echolocation from my equally sensitive hearing, effective to about a one hundred meter radius so I could rely on that instead of my sight. But there was nothing to be done to prevent the weakness to sudden loud noises without complete noise dampening equipment that would make me effectively deaf. Vampires, as I had learned through my personal experience, were the world's apex predator, having adapted almost every feature into its most opportune form. Sight and hearing were only two examples of such cherry-picked evolution.

There had once been a dozen of us, all long living and ageless, but I was the only one who remained in the end. With great strength came great weakness, and ours was the sun. Vampires were made to be primarily nocturnal creatures. Living in the dark, quiet, and cold for so long creates a weakness in the light, it's warmth, and sounds of life that came with it. The myths had elevated the truth into something beyond reality, spontaneous combustion upon the slightest touch of the sun's rays. The truth of the matter was that our senses were particularly sensitive during the day and we blistered easily under its rays. If left exposed to it for a long time, infections would seep in and spread rapidly. Different types of infections, some transmitted through blood, were what had killed most of the others, back when there wasn't a treatment for it other than to cut off the offending limb.

I stayed well clear of anything that could be harmful, and with my enhancements, I remained safe from danger. Despite myself being well aware of this fact, most others still saw me as one of the most vulnerable of the population due to my sensitivity that they saw as blindness.

Walking down the street, I smelt blood, a delectably sweet blood with a hint of peaches and citrus. I didn't take blood from a live host just because you never know where it's been or what diseases it might have, but I couldn't help myself from following it. The closer I got to the source of the blood, the stronger the scent became, too strong to be from inside a body. Whoever it belonged to was hurt, and badly.