Forty
Jacques Chatdenuit was hungrier than he’d been in months. He’d been trying to be careful since the attempt on his life by the other Vampyre, and he’d been so careful he hadn’t been able to find any suitable prey in his last three outings. Each time, just as he was about to pick someone, he’d sensed the presence of another of his kind nearby. It was almost as if they were looking for him, and he’d left without satisfying his Hunger.
Now he could feel the Hunger gnawing at him like a rat in his stomach, making him think crazy thoughts about just going up to the first woman he saw on the street and taking her right there in front of everyone.
He had to find prey and he had to find it quick. He dressed in his dark clothes and left his apartment, heading for the first nightclub he could find.
He sat at the bar, as usual, and scanned the crowd. There were several possible victims and he was about to go over to a table and try to get one to leave with him when he again thought he felt someone in his mind. Damn, he thought, not again. He was about to leave the club when two of the girls he’d been watching got up to leave.
Good, he thought. He’d just follow them out, and if the Vampyres who were trying to get into his mind followed and tried to interfere with his feeding, he’d just have to kill them, too.
He trailed the two girls for six blocks through the dark streets and was just about to make his move when they came to a parking lot. He stood in the shadows and watched as the two girls hugged each other and said good-bye.
When one of them got in her car and left, he eased toward the other one, who was sitting in her car, pawing through her purse. He leaned down and looked in.
She looked up and saw him through the window and screamed, punching the lock on the door, as if that could keep him out.
He grinned, already beginning to change, and smashed the window with his fist. He wrapped his claw around her hair, jerked her through the window, and threw her on the ground, pouncing on her like a jungle cat.
His Hunger out of control now, he slobbered, drool dripping off his fangs as he lowered his face toward the yelling girl.
Unable to stop and enjoy his conquest, he ripped her throat open and almost fainted at the delicious taste of her blood. He sucked and gulped and swallowed as it pumped in a stream into his mouth.
She was still moving feebly as he grabbed the front of her dress and prepared to rip it off and take her sexually, when he got the feeling of being watched. He felt a prickle in the back of his mind and knew there was another of his kind nearby.
“Shit,” he mumbled, desire for sex momentarily replacing his Hunger for blood. He looked around, scanning the darkness, but could see no one. Still, he could feel their presence in his brain.
The girl beneath him sighed, blood bubbling from her lips as she died, going limp in his arms. Coupling with a dead body wasn’t nearly as satisfying as when they were alive and terrified. He released her and let her fall to the cement as he jumped to his feet and ran into the darkness.