Light's Shadows - On Hold

Chapter 3 - Thirst

Dedication: By reading your work I was inspired to continue writing after a very long period of something akin to writer's block:)

Arianna’s POV

Do you know that feeling you get when you haven’t eaten breakfast or lunch and your stomach feels like there’s a hole in it and that hole is getting bigger and bigger?

Now imagine that feeling but a hundred times worse.

Imagine that your throat is dry and your mouth is parched. You feel as if any minute now your tongue will be stuck to your pallet. Your chest tightens and you feel as if soon you won’t be able to breathe. It’s as if a fire is spreading from your stomach through out your entire body…

Well, that’s exactly how I’m feeling right now. After not eating for two days and running for so long you kind of feel like you’re going to die if you don’t feed.

Finally I was in London. Actually I was in Hyde Park to be exact. I needed to feed and I needed to feed now. Humans were out and about at night but I preferred not feeding a public place. I didn’t want to feed on a woman or man whilst their child watched in horror. Unlike the ‘vampires’ from ‘The Vampire Diaries’ we couldn’t ‘turn off’ our ‘humanity’. We felt everything from sorrow and grief to happiness and excitement. Some vampires didn’t feel guilty about hurting innocent people while others did.

I would fall under the category of the ‘other’ vampires. Therefore whenever I hunted I tried my best to look for someone who was on their own and not with their family.

To vampires, humans were not just food. Primarily they are food, but the fact that humans were much like us somehow made it different. They had minds off their own and were able to reason and be rational. They weren’t like animals. Animals did not have the ability to think in the same way which humans and vampires did and that’s why it’s so much easier to feed on an animal. An animal does not plead or beg. An animal does not work on your conscience. But fact of the matter was that we could not survive on the distasteful blood of animals. Their blood was weak, thin and smelled disgusting.

Walking through the lush green grass of Hyde Park my hunger began to escalate. I silently hurried through the darkness listening desperately for the sound of a lone heart beat.

And that’s when I heard it. Instantly I was in hunting mode. Its heart was beating extremely fast. I could practically hear its blood being pumped through out its body. I could hear it breathing. It was breathing heavy as if it had just run a marathon. And then I heard its voice. It was a he. He was on his cell phone talking to someone. About what? I have no idea. Because through all the noises I could hear, him talking on his cell phone, the chirping of crickets, the sound of ant colonies busy at work, the one thing that stood out was the sound of his heart pumping…

I listened intently and followed the sound of his heart. And then I saw him leaning against the back of a bench almost as if he was under the moon’s spotlight. This human was actually really handsome. He was tall and muscular yet lean and his dark wash jeans, grey t-shirt and black hoody fit him well. His olive skin was complimented by his dark, floppy hair. His jaw was chiseled yet there was something boy-ish to his looks. He had high cheek bones and a straight nose. But I could not see his eyes. I took this all in, in a split second and then forgot it in an instant because the fire burning inside my body burned hotter and I knew that I had to feed now. Although he was athletic looking he wouldn’t even see me coming. In a split second I was standing behind him and just as I was about to sink my fangs into his throbbing vein he whirled around.

The last thing I saw before I was flung to the ground was a pair of cold, beautifu,l honey brown eyes.

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James POV

The boys had gone to celebrate tonight’s victory but I wasn’t in the mood. The venom in my blood would thin and then disappear in fifteen minutes which meant that I had fifteen more minutes of vampire abilities. So I decided to go for a run through Hyde Park.

Although humans came out at night time it still wasn’t safe. But being a Lanchester, I could go out whenever I wanted without being harmed. All the vampires of London knew each and every one of us by face so as to avoid us.

I pushed my hood back and took off at lightning speed towards Hyde Park. The night was beautiful. The sky was dark and never ending yet the moon seemed to illuminate everything it touched. A few starts dotted the sky and the trees of Hyde Park swayed ever so slightly in the wind. Apart from killing vampires, my favourite thing to do under the influence of venom was to just observe nature’s bounty. There seemed so much more to be appreciative for when you could see and hear this well. As I ran through Hyde Park I could hear the grass rustle as a stray cat tried to hunt for rodents. I could hear the buzz and flutter of the wings of lady bugs and I could hear two earth worms conversing in their own language. Maybe this is why humans were so ungrateful. They just didn’t know how great everything around them really was.

After about ten minutes I could feel my senses begin to dull and I unwillingly slowed down. The venom in my blood was weakening, taking these abilities away with it…

Just then my phone rang distracting me from the now dulling sounds of nature. I leaned against the back of a park bench and answered it.

“Hey Philip. What’s up?”

“How tonight was awesome?

I mean, how was awesome tonight?”

He giggled before continuing.

“Stupid Philip. I mean, how awesome was tonight?” He slurred drunkenly.

“Yes Philip, tonight was awesome.” – I replied annoyed that he’d disturbed me.

“Do you think that one day we be like Hulk? We take venom and we be big, green men!” – said Philip seriously, stretching out the word, ‘big’

“Philip! I hope no one heard what you said! No one can find out about us taking venom! Now shut your mouth! And no you big ninny, we will not be turning into Hulk anytime soon!”

“Awwww, Jamesy poo! But I want to turn into Hulk!” –he whined.

“Listen Philip, why don’t you go shag a – ”

I stopped speaking and ignore Philip who was once again whining on the other side of the phone. Although my senses were beginning to dull I still had a few minutes left and I’m sure that I heard someone in the trees behind me.

I listened closely but it was silent once again. Then I heard it again. It was the faintest of sounds. A normal human wouldn’t have heard it but one under the influence would. Only one being could walk so silently, almost undetected by man and that was a vampire.

It was as if everything happened in slow motion. I could hear its heavy breathing before I heard it running at me. I turned around swiftly and tackled the vampire to the floor. Luckily I still had enough strength in me to hold her down. I could feel my strength begin to wane but she seemed weak and wasn’t that strong herself.

I was leaning over her, my hand wrapped tightly around her neck when I suddenly felt all the vampire strength drain from my body leaving me defenseless. In a millisecond I found myself on the floor. The female vampire was sitting on top of me, pinning both my hands on either side of my head with her small yet strong hands. I didn’t fight her. I knew that the second that she bit into my flesh I’d be able to take her. She began leaning towards me when suddenly a look of horror crossed over her face. Her pale green eyes were frozen in shock and her mouth was hanging slightly open revealing her small fangs. She has smelt the venom that was in my blood. A smirk spread across my face and before I knew it I no longer felt the coldness of her body against mine.

Far off in the distance I caught a glimpse of her wavy, white blond hair billowing in the wind…

Bloody vampires.