London's Night Stalkers
An Introduction
"Top predator, pinnacle of the food chain. Yet you've probably queued with one of them to get a coffee, without realising. They're real, they're dangerous, but they're also very good at appearing to be............ Ordinary."
You could easily walk past Simon on the streets of North London and not even notice him. There was a green tinge to his eyes that had gained him a few female admirers, but he was completely ignored by the queues using the ATMs near Wood Green Tube Station. He was just another skinny guy in a hoody, probably in his late twenties. He'd lived in London since nineteen-oh-seven and millions of people had gone about their business and ignored Simon Atherton. None of them had realised that the ordinary looking young man, with the unsettling green eyes, was a vampire.
"This one has run out of cash."
Crap, he wasn't joining another queue. Anyway, he didn't live that far away; a mini-cab home was just being lazy and wasting money. Simon walked back towards the station and turned left, walking around the back of Wood Green Shopping City. The area wasn't too bad. The general seediness suited Simon Atherton; it meant people had their own problems. There were a lot of crappy flats and a fluid population. No one noticed an ordinary looking guy, who kept himself to himself.
Simon automatically sniffed the air and picked up the wonderful tang of blood. He wasn't hungry, but like most predators, he rarely missed an opportunity to feed. The tang in the air was too strong to be from a minor accident, he just hoped it wasn't a car crash. Those just worked up his hunger, with too many police around to do anything about it.
There were a few streets of council housing, but the scent of fresh blood took him beyond those streets and towards a small parade of shops.
"Well, if he thinks I'm chasing after him........................"
Two girls passed him, barely registering his presence. Top predator, pinnacle of the food chain and they just carried on walking. That was fine, that was how his kind survived. Simon lived in the shadows, causing few waves and doing his best to be....ordinary. The blood was making him feel hungry and it wasn't far away.
Damn, the door at the rear of the building was locked, they usually were. Simon had been around since the thirteenth century, there was a fair chance his fingerprints were on a few police databases. He had gloves though, three pairs of surgical gloves, folded up in an inside pocket. There were lots of myths about vampires, but the extra-strength was true. Simon pushed the door until the lock broke away, taking a piece of the doorframe with it. Noisy, but there had been no alternative. Stairs in front of him, he appeared to have opened a rear exit from a basement of some kind.
She'd heard him break open the door ! A female voice, barely audible and the sound of clanking chains. Things were becoming a little gothic, even for a vampire approaching his seven hundred and forty second birthday. He didn't call out to her, he wasn't there to reassure her, or make her feel better. With luck, he'd drain her dry of blood and be home before dawn. Not that light damaged him, he just preferred the night. Bright daylight stung his eyes, made him sneeze and sometimes feel a little nauseous, but he could still function.
"It's a bit like hay fever for humans." Clara had once said. "But sadly, there are no antihistamines for it."
Clara was a vampire too, a thin wisp of a thing with vivid green eyes. Green eyes was something they all had, to one degree or another, hers were almost luminous. She was the closest thing he had to a proper relationship and they'd tried to kill each other a few times.
