Disclaimer: Don't own Dark Angel

A/N: Reply to DA_Halloween promt at LJ: "Vampires are real and there is one secretly hiding among the main cast."

Crumbly tomb-sized thanks to Shywr1ter for betaing and catching my multiple stupid errors.

xxxx

True Blonde Vamp

Nobody had ever taken Kendra's hunger for guys literally.

On the contrary, her insatiable lust and rapidly changing lovers were a constant source of entertainment to her friends and coworkers. They made fun of her when she checked out the males at Crash, her trained eye picking out only the most athletic, muscular males. They teased her when she sauntered over to some nice-looking, blonde Viking, raking her fingernails over his chest, tasting his veins with her tongue and tenderly nibbling his neck.

People just figured it was her character, blond naiveté or making up for her rural upbringing… but they never took Kendra's wear and tear of guys as what it was: Plain, old hunger.

Because Kendra Maibaum was a vampire.

And not just any kind of vampire, like the ordinary, coffin-loving Dracula offspring, the romantic 'I won't bite you because I love you'-variety or the kind hiding in beds and wardrobes.

Kendra Maibaum was a vamp. Man-eating, gorgeous… and very unfortunately only satisfied with male blood.

xxx

Once you got used to it, it wasn't that weird, only a bit of a different family tradition. In other families the girls grew boobs, got hormonal and started saving for their wedding dresses when they hit puberty. In Kendra's family the girls grew boobs, got hormonal and turned into irresistible, men-craving vampires.

It was all the fault of that jealous neighbor who had cursed the Maibaum distaff in 1754 for dazzling every male in a 262 square foot area. The old hag – who unfortunately had really turned out to be a hag – had gotten into a witching-fit after opening the kitchen closet to find her husband with Kendra's great-great aunt Giselle.

Ever since then the Maibaum women had taken male attention in a bit of a different way. Taking… and eventually losing it, as only few had ever survived the sucking caress of their teeth.

There had been a phase of teenage rebellion when Kendra had revolted her fate, wanting to have the same harmless, non-consuming fun with her boyfriends as every other girl. And so, much to her mother's horror and dismay, she'd confined herself to an all vegan diet of red beet puree and blackberries for a few, starving months. (It was a year after the Pulse and tomato juice just was nowhere to be found.) But since then she'd aged and come to appreciate her uniqueness, turning innocent blonde seducing into an art. After all, as her grandmother had rightly pointed out, being bitten by a luscious vamp actually was quite a pleasant death compared to dying old and alone.

So when Kendra went to Crash or out clubbing, it was only half about having fun with her friends or about finding someone who complimented her curves. It wasn't even that much about sex. For the most part it was because of her grumbling empty stomach that demanded a good gallon of Y-chromosome-laden blood.

And good blood wasn't all that easy to get. Kendra wouldn't have minded a quiet evening at home once in a while, but even ten years after the Pulse it was hard to find a well-nourished male who would keep her fed for a week. And so she often spent days looking for a muscle-packed, A-positive specimen before finally falling back on one of the weaker exemplars with their stale, watery blood.

The guy tonight though, Sean, hadn't been halfway bad. Tall, athletic and a former dolphin trainer, he was a welcome variation from her standard fare. He even was halfway thoughtful and had manners, opening doors and paying her drinks unlike the usual morons. If she hadn't been so hungry (and if she hadn't already had Walter for those other desires) Kendra actually might have kept him for a while. But basic physical needs were first and so the guy who'd invited her for dinner turned out to be the best midnight snack she'd had in a good while.

xxx

All in all it had been a fun night, Kendra concluded, as she carefully turned around the key in their cranky, old lock. The only thing separating her from her bed now was Max and her super-sensitive ears that made it impossible to enter their apartment unnoticed.

Max... She had noticed something strange about the girl right away, starting with that 'insomnia problem' of roaming the streets in the middle of the night. Max smelled different too… an earthy scent that reminded Kendra of cat, shark… and bat? The latter olfactory impression had only fed her suspicion that perhaps Max too might be the victim of a sexiness-discriminating-curse. (She sure looked like it) However, all Kendra had earned for suggesting some tooth-action for Darren was Max's disgusted look before she turned away muttering something about seeing a shrink and really taking her fetishes too far.

Something was definitely off with Max, but that was just why Kendra had offered her the room. After her last flat mate – sweet but a bit too curious – she figured there was nothing better than someone too occupied with hiding her own little secret to note Kendra's dilemmas.

Lately though Max had starting to become all mother-hen when Kendra stayed away for the night. Kendra blamed that Logan guy (who looked like a delicious AB negative), with his talk about ideals and humanity softening the conveniently tough Max.

"Kendra? Is that you? You okay?" Max's inquiring voice filtered out of her room, not sounding the least bit sleepy… as if she too had just come home from some nightly mission.

Kendra sighed. Sure, it was nice to have caring enough to wait up… but if Max's maternal streak kept growing, she would finally end like the six or seven flat mates before her.

The taste of blood still fresh on her lips, Kendra's sultry voice was full of a good meal's lazy satisfaction. "Oh sure, I'm fine. Just took a bit longer to drop off Sean."

Max grunted, obviously satisfied with her answer... which wasn't even a lie strictly speaking, considering Kendra had really just dropped off Keith into Puget Sound… just like all the others. But nobody ever asked about that because nobody ever took Kendra's hunger for guys seriously.