• Ice slivered down the back of my warn denim jacket and I gave yet another shriek of surprise and frustration. The combination of my eyes glazing over with their characteristic crimson and the unearthly wail that echoed from my mouth was enough to terrify the living s**t out of anyone within thirty feet of me. I was just having a wonderful time in mid-January out here on the streets of New York, especially since all ice should be banished to the pits of hell in my opinion.
    Another growl came rumbling from me, but this time it was my stomach, not my throat. I hadn’t realized that I was so hungry until then, and being hit so suddenly was not good my control. The humans that walked past looked so…juicy with their dark, sticky blood visibly pulsing in their thick jugular veins that I could barely control myself. Delicious scents reached my predator’s nose and I grinned rather dementedly at a small girl with my hungry gaze until she cried and ran to her mom. I was so tempted to just go berserk on the crowd and perhaps massacre them all, but that would attract more cops than I needed. Not that I minded taking those bastards to hell with me, but I didn’t have a battle plan at the moment for exactly how I was going to take care of them. Torturing cops was always more amusing if I had an elaborate plan for it.
    No, I’d stay under the radar for my dinner tonight, especially since this place had been swarming in those ******** vampires recently. I hoped to god they weren’t here for me again. I thought I’d given them the slip in Chicago, but I wouldn’t put it past them to follow me here too. Vampires were cruel, viscous, and blood-thirsty.
    But now it was time to rip one of those plump little humans to shreds. I chose a nice little ally downtown to wait for someone to walk into willingly into my path. They weren’t wrong when they advised against going down shady allies alone at night; I’d made sure of that. The pavement was slick under my feet with frozen grime and frost lay atop festering garbage, but I didn’t mind. It was a million times better than where I came from and I’d seen worse. The inside of a Hellish cave, the nest of nightmarish rats in the slums of the vampire capital, and the underside of a bridge here in New York made this place look like heaven. It was really quite fortunate that I’d found an ally this nice.
    A sound like a panicking rabbit in a cage caught my attention before there was a loud bang and a shriek of terror. I watched in surprise as a rusted trash can shook wildly and tipped over. The lid flew off and a ragged human girl flew out with a cry of “Darn it!” before coming to a stop on the grimy sidewalk. I blinked before a sadistic grin spread across my face and I bared my teeth that resembled a hundred razors. The girl didn’t notice.
    “Darn it! The screen broke!” she muttered and tapped the blackened screen of a small IPod. One ear bud stuck out from beneath her chestnut hair and I could hear that some kind of screamo metal was playing. I frowned at her lack of reaction to my horror movie worthy performance.
    “That’s not the only thing that’ll be broken,” I tried again and brought up a loud, if slightly insincere growl.
    “Huh?” she glanced up at me for the first time and gave me a look that I couldn’t quite decipher. It wasn’t something like disbelief or terror…but more like she entirely expected for a ruby haired woman to threaten her in an ally. “Are you kidding me? Gosh darn it…”
    “Why would I be kidding about a death threat?”
    “No, not that. I just wasn’t expecting to be cornered by a demon again. Not something against you or anything, but demons can be so disgusting with their threats. I wasn’t listening.”
    I felt my jaw loosen slightly from shock, but quickly brought back the menacing act. It probably would’ve been more intimidating if I’d been able to get out a coherent sentence. “How the ******** do you even…-? You’re just a...-! I’m no even a demon!!”
    It looked like something that I said had finally fazed her and she blinked. My wonderful vocabulary seemed to have that effect on people. “Uh-huh. Sure. I mean, come on. A taste for human flesh? Red eyes? Fangs? Who are you kidding?”
    I glared at the annoying pest. “Half-demon actually. I hate vampires and demons with a deep passion and enjoy killing them in my spare time.”
    “Oh…You and me both. Uh…though I’m more of the running for my life type but…It all works.”
    “You hate them too?” Somehow this made her annoying qualities much more redeemable. Not that I wasn’t about to eat her anyway, but this was amusing me.
    “Uh…yeah. Definitely. The blood stuff is seriously nasty…”
    I growled again, “What’s that supposed to mean? Blood’s much better than any of your human s**t. It’s like a drug or something…”
    But I could tell she wasn’t paying attention now, and I was insulted. After all, what could be more interesting than me? I was perfect. The gun that she ripped from her jacket pocket answered my question and I shrieked and rolled away. However, she wasn’t aiming for me, but instead at a vicious looking vampire who’d been aiming a blow with a scythe at my back. Well that was interesting…
    Of course, the bullet did nothing to penetrate the vampire’s magical shield, and it wouldn’t despite the girl’s continuous shooting. With a hesitant sigh, I threw her over my shoulder and sped off, trying desperately to lose the pesky b*****d. The girl struggled like the moron she was, but I continued to save her weak a**. After all, anyone who’d shoot a vampire was fine with me.

    I was pissed. The sweet scent of run-down paper and the muffled hush surrounding me was more irritating than the mentally impaired gnat I’d swatted that morning. A flurry of ice rapped at the slightly cracked windows and a cracked heater whirred in the background. With a scowl I combed the flakes out of my hair hat now vaguely resembled frosted red velvet cake. My arms were drawn tightly across my chest as I seethed in the corner of a century old library.
    Even worse were the confident vibes that I was getting from my companion. Now that we were in the light, I saw that she was a small girl in her older teens with amber eyes, chestnut hair, and worn jeans. All that I noticed was the scent of her sweet blood and the gentle pulse of a vein in her neck. My stomach rumbled and I tensed more than usual. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to wait much longer for my meal.
    She didn’t seem to notice my hungry, traitorous thoughts but instead looked slightly exhilarated. “That was so awesome. I’ve never seen anyone run so fast. I would’ve been dead and drained by now if it hadn’t been for you. Maybe demons aren’t all so bad.”
    A growl formed in my throat and I snapped back. “For the last time! I’m not a f***ing demon! And hell yeah they’re that bad. I don’t want to be anything like them…”
    She blinked at me in a lack of comprehension but suddenly sighed in relief. “So you’re not gonna eat me then? Since that’s what a demon would do?”
    It was my turn to smirk. I even added a small cackle for extra horrific effect. “Why wouldn’t I? Can’t have someone knowing about what I do, though your hatred of them is nice I have to say. I’ll make it quick, don’t worry.”
    Her eyes narrowed and her mouth formed into a scowl. If she could’ve snarled, I knew she would’ve at that moment. I’d never seen something so weak look so furious at me. “You can’t have a human knowing? That’s the same lame excuse that they’re giving me. I don’t care what you say. You’re all the same...”
    “Don’t compare me to a vampire!!!” I blew up and nearly lost it right there in the middle of a public human place. I didn’t exactly mind having the massacre of an entire building on my hands, but I wasn’t bullet-proof. If the cops got involved then things could get ugly. My eyes glowed over in the effort of remaining in control. They sent off a flash of light like tiny red-tinted lanterns. “I’m nothing like those arrogant bastards,” I muttered darkly.
    “You’re not?” she sneered with uncharacteristic rage, “Mindlessly killing innocent people like it’s nothing?”
    “Humans kill cows, don’t they?” I countered quickly and gave her a disgusted look. “They have lives. What’s so wrong about me killing my prey?”
    She paused for a moment. She didn’t seem to know how to answer that. “Well it’s just disgusting. All of that gore…”
    “Yeah. What’s wrong with it?” I asked with a shrug, “It’s exhilarating.
    “It’s nasty.”
    “Fine…” I scowled. As long as she was human and talking about humans, there was no way she could understand. To her it was cannibalism and unforgivable, even for a different species to hunt. She was so used to being the predator that she couldn’t stand being prey. “Think of it as…raspberry juice…” I started slowly, trying to put it in perspective. “And you humans are the plump little berries.”
    “Ugh…” she moaned and covered her ears. “I’m allergic raspberries. Why’d you have to use those out of any other food in the world?”
    God this was going to be hard…trying to explain this in a way a human could understand. Humans would never understand my curse, because they were blissfully free from it. Still, I had to try. “It’s more…addicting than that. Like a drug maybe. Thank of it as…heroine. Raspberry heroine and I’m a die-hard addict.”
    She was silent after that as though taking in what I had to say. She didn’t answer, but instead stared off into space and subconsciously covered her neck.
    I sighed and glanced off at the happily ignorant kids that pranced among the colorfully designed fairy tales. Ironically enough, we’d taken sanctuary in the children’s section of the library behind an old “reading train” prop to get the kids pumped for learning. It wasn’t big and I’m sure that we still looked strange as we were. Two nearly grown women crouching behind a rainbow colored caboose under the watchful eye of a stringy-haired librarian. My stomach gave another unpleasant rumble and my gaze on the old woman sharpened. Maybe I could sneak off later and off her while the pest wasn’t looking. It looked like she was about to keel over anyway, so where was the harm in getting it over with?
    I felt the girl’s grip on my arm and saw the stern, almost hateful look she gave me. Apparently she disapproved and hadn’t quite gotten over my comparison of humans to barn animals.
    I shrugged it off and curled up on the rough blue carpet. It scratched at the bare skin on my neck and face, but it was better than what I was used to. The arm of my jacket proved to be a satisfactory pillow and I rested comfortably in our hiding place.
    I glanced at her only for a second before closing my eyes. Somehow I felt almost like I could trust this girl, though I couldn’t explain for the life of me why. Anyway, she’d be dead before she could so much as swing that gun in my direction. I was practically invincible.

    As I expected we weren’t left alone for long. I had barely gotten to the section of my ever-present dream where the walls began to bleed, that a firm grip shook my shoulder. I shot up with the usual paranoia and jumped to my feet in a ready battle stance. The human was standing next to me, looking terrified and ready to bolt. I followed her unsteady gaze to two pale, attractive figures navigating the cluttered rows of books. Their sparkling black irises met mine, and I saw dual fangs appear through a sinister smirk.
    “Damn…” I muttered to myself and seized the girl’s thin hand. If they caught us, that was it. Not even I could take a vampire and live to tell the tale. Even as I started dragging her along, I noticed a blonde-haired female pull out a long katana and that they had emptied the library already. They meant business.
    Without hesitation I created my own path through the shelves for the fastest way out and soon they were falling to the ground like wooden dominoes on steroids. Books were flying through the air with the force of tiny rockets before exploding upon contact with millions of fluttering aged pages. With one fluent motion, I shoved the human through the door and hastily pulled a gas lighter out of the pocket of my black denim jacket. One click later and the pages were aflame, spreading hungrily through the others and infecting the entire room with ash and smoke. I shoved the heavy double doors closed and forced a nearby lamp-post into between the handles until I couldn’t budge them. That should’ve given us a few minutes.
    The human however, looked pained and tense; she was probably mourning for her precious books in her sacred little alphabet. I threw her over my shoulder anyway since I doubted she would just flee from her flaming sanctuary on her own will because of her weird little morals. She twitched and tensed at my touch, but I dashed off with her anyway; I wasn’t waiting for the vampires to show up and murder us.
    I high-tailed it to the nearest familiar alley and expertly covered our scent with some collected ash. I dropped the girl roughly and leaned against a wall with a cocky smirk. “Are you appreciating my brilliance or what?”
    She didn’t answer, and I suddenly realized that she hadn’t spoken for a long time; something that I already knew was strange for her. She lay sprawled on the ground where I left here, tense and doubled over in what I now realized was agony. For a moment I wondered if I’d miscalculated my strength and hurt her before a wave of that sweet, intoxicating scent pounced at my control, snagging it, tearing at it. Soon I too, was doubled over in pain.
    I remember that night as clearly as one of my worst nightmares. Sheets of frost rained down around me, obscuring my vision like crackling white noise on a smoking T.V. screen. They were thrown roughly to the greasy pavement by a harsh wind where they instantly took on the darkened shade of a cherry popsicle. That’s all that filled my head just then. That empty, starving feeling of desire and the disorienting static that bounced around in my mind.
    My breath quickened as I watched her tiny, whitening form. She was so weak, so delicate, so….tempting. A large mass of bleeding carnage had been gouged out from her back and a pool of blood slowly formed around her. In my panic, I hadn’t noticed the katana slice into her or even the blood until it was too late.
    I couldn’t hold myself together for much longer –I knew that –but I tried for as long as I could. I began to have strange thoughts of the warm blood pouring down my throat, of those amber eyes fading and glazing over into nothing, of the feel of sinking my teeth into her pale throat, but for her sake I forced these images down. I didn’t have long, but I was determined to make the most of it.
    “I’m sorry…” I muttered to her through clenched teeth. I saw no surprise in her eyes, but instead a grim, slightly hysteric acceptance.
    “It’s fine. I know you can’t help it.”
    I tried to look anywhere but at the pre-made dinner in front of me. “What’s your name?” I asked at length.
    Even in her situation, she managed to look weakly surprised. To ask the name was to put a face on the victim, to make them a person in your mind. To have a name was to turn it into murder and not a hunting of animals, and she understood that. “It’s M-May…”
    I nodded slightly and advanced upon her. “Mine’s Amaya…See you in another life, May.” Before she even realized what happened, I pounced at her and quickly shoved my claw into her heart, killing her instantly. Before I could realize what I was doing, I shoved my fangs into her soft skin and gave up my sane mind. After futilely fighting my blood-lust, I finally took a hit of my raspberry heroin.