Blind As a Bat [1st book complete]

The Club's Double Trouble

The club was just starting to really fill with people, the pounding music making it easier yet harder to navigate. I could better sense the dimensions of the building itself and larger bodies of people, but it was harder to hear separate voices, heart beats, and individuals themselves. It had taken me a long time before I was able to actually handle being in the club for even the shortest periods of time. But it was a necessity, being the safest and easiest way to hunt on our territory.

Eventually I figured out how to focus the music from actual sound to vibrations instead. While it still ended in me having a nasty headache for a few hours after, the ability still left my brain intact and able to function to do what I needed- to feed. I knew that the bottled blood could only sustain a vampire for so long, and the regular food only filled one's stomach, not actually easing the true hunger and need. I was getting close to the point where it wasn't enough, meaning that if I wasn't successful in the next couple of days, I would have to go to my parents for assistance. Again.

I grimaced at the thought. It had been at least a month since I last saw my parents, and while I loved them in a way I couldn't help, nothing but a searing pain was left after each interaction. They both had difficulty just being around me for the shortest periods of time, father with barely contained anger and distaste while mother always had a voice of pity tinged with something else I could never put my finger on. While I could never fully understand all their emotions connected to me, I knew none of them were ever anything indicative of love or actual caring. I was an embarrassment. I was a stain that could not be rubbed out, only cut away and left with the other tainted scraps. I really didn't want to have to incense them more by having to help a son that couldn't even feed himself as even an elementary schooler could. I was years past the age where the baby plasma teeth have already long since been replaced with adult fangs.

I could count on both hands the number of times we interacted in the last four years. The last month had occurred because a gathering of the whole nest had been announced. It was expected that families come and clump into their own units until the formalities and speeches ended with everyone then allowed to mingle. I was always expected to leave at that time. It was always awkward and upsetting for them whenever this occurred. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it used to be now that they had a child they could actually enjoy, doting on her with pride and love.

I was nearing twelve when I had been moved to the upper floors from the catacombs where actual families lived, citing that I got lost too often and it would be easier on me because of my 'condition'. It was around a year or so later when they had their pride and joy. I would guess she was now about four, and still probably had no idea that I was her actual brother.

I sighed, rubbing around my sunglasses from under my eyes to the bridge of my nose. Right now was probably the best time to hunt with much of the shadowed corners still vacant yet enough people to mask that anything more than 'necking' was occurring. I had stopped momentarily toward the edge of the main dance floor, smaller specialized ones branching off from this main one. I had already picked out the perfect spot to take my conquest to, now all I had to do was find him or her. It was easier to navigate around inanimate objects than animate ones, so I was trying to be careful not to knock into people too much.

"Hey, watch where you're going, you weird sunglasses fucker!" Someone I had literally full-body banged into yelled angrily over the pounding music. This was exactly what I had been trying to carefully to avoid. He pushed me a bit, but not too hard, only hard enough to make me step back a few paces further away from him and the dance floor.

I took a couple more steps with my hands up in a placating manner, frowning in confusion, "Sorry! You're just so quiet."

The person's voice was closer now, meaning he or she had stepped closer to me, "That's what eyes are for! We were right in front of you!"