The Shadowed Master

Chapter I - The Bloodsucking Lawyer

Victor paced briskly along the sidewalk, walking cane at his side, long dark coat flapping in the light breeze. He looked like something out of a movie. This would have drawn attention to him, except that no one bothered to look closely. He looked just unreal enough that no one was bothered by the fact that he didn't tan. No one cared to notice that he rarely went outside during the day, though people who knew him were sure that he had joined them on picnics or for summer evening dinner parties.

Suffice to say, Victor found looking odd a very convenient excuse for actually looking odd.

He was walking through the park near his apartment, early in the morning. The police used to be bothered by this habit, but after having pulled him aside several times, they slowly figured out that it was the same guy, that he kept doing this, that he was going to keep doing this, and walking wasn't illegal anyway. Yet.

There were rarely other people in the park. Occasionally homeless individuals would sleep on the park benches, but the police were generally pretty good at asking them to clear off. When Victor walked early in the night he had a decent chance of finding couples out, or drug dealers trying to be inconspicuous, but Victor preferred to walk in the utter lonely darkness just before dawn. Maybe it was the thrill that if he took too long his skin would peel off of his flesh as he was roasted where he stood. He told people that it was just a skin condition, which was not entirely untrue.

But then again, by four o'clock in the morning, most people were pretty tired. Anyone who was out wasn't paying attention to the things they should be. And Victor had to eat pretty regularly to stay looking normal. Once a night was ideal, but he could stretch up to a week. Anything more and he'd have to either attack someone, or move.

Being a vampire certainly had its drawbacks, but after several thousand years, Victor had gotten somewhat used to them. Those who hadn't hadn't lasted very long.

On the last stretch of the walk, Victor saw a young woman jogging towards him. He continued walking quietly along until she passed him, and then whirled silently around and sped after her, footsteps now eerily silent. He caught up with her swiftly and swung his cane at her head. She fell after a single strike, and he caught her before she hit the ground. Kneeling down with the woman in his arms, he turned her around so he could see her face. She was pretty. Medium-length brown hair, blue eyes. She didn't look like a runner.

Brushing her hair aside gently, Victor leaned in and softly bit her on the neck. He drank his fill, and then stopped. Sucking people dry was a sure way to get noticed. He wiped away the last beads of blood from the bite, and then pulled out a pin from his pocket. He poked at a few more spots, so it looked like she had brushed against a thorn bush. Then he carried her back to the bridge that went over one of the little streams in the park. He put her down gently on the bridge, so that she could suppose she had simply tripped and hit her head on the railing.

Leaning forwards impulsively, Victor kissed her once, gently, on the cheek. He stayed there for a moment, wondering about who she was and why she was there. He always found the philosophy of the hunter and the hunted oddly interesting. He was named Victor, after all – it only made sense that he should care who the victim was.

There was a faint tingling on his cheek, and Victor knew that she was coming around, and what he felt was the first fluttering of her eyelashes. He drew away, running down the path until he was out of sight, and then finishing up his walk as though nothing had happened.

Just a night.

The sun dawned.

Victor descended the staircase into the rear parking lot of his apartment complex, which was thankfully obscured from the sun by the buildings surrounding it. A cab was waiting, as usual. Victor had made sure to arrange for a cab to be there every morning. The driver was different most of the time, but Victor paid well enough and word got around, so the drivers were willing to put up with his quirks. He opened the rear driver-side door and climbed in, setting his suitcase on his lap.