Walking down the busy street in New York City, all of my senses were elevated. I could smell the blood, see the life force coursing through the bodies of all of my options. The fact I would have to kill was not even occurring to me. All I could think of was blood, and how satisfied my hunger would be once it was mine.
I watched Dracula as he walked down the street beside me. I could tell he was on the hunt. His eyes were narrowed and deliberate, darting from each potential meal to the next. I could hear him weighing his options. Too slight, too old, too young…
"I thought blood was blood regardless of the body it belongs to."
"And that, my beautiful novice, is where you are wrong. The blood is the life force of the human being. If you choose an unhealthy or tainted victim, you take their sickness into you. And that makes for a very unpleasant meal."
I nodded in understanding.
"Your first meal must be your best, my love. You must experience all that is fruitful in your new life. I will pick for you the perfect victim. But the kill…will be up to you." I stood silently for a moment. "You seem hesitant. Are you sure you're ready for this?" I could feel my eyes narrow in their sockets as I slowly ran my tongue over my teeth. I felt my fangs, tingling with the need to penetrate the flesh of an unsuspecting victim.
"I've never been more ready for anything in my life." The remainder of my mortal coil was shed as I took in all that it meant to be a vampire. "What about her?" Dracula followed my gaze across the crowded street to a young woman, no more than thirty, hailing a cab. Conveniently enough for us, however, none were stopping to pick her up.
"Ah…" I heard Dracula gasp. "She will be perfect." In a flash of a second, Dracula and I were beside her.
"Need a lift?" He asked. And no sooner did she look to see the stranger who had just addressed her, but she was alone with us in a deserted alley, stumbling back in fear.
"How did I get here?" She asked, her voice shaking as her lower lip trembled in fear.
"We brought you here." I answered, and Dracula looked at me, pride filling his eyes.
"Why?"
"My beautiful bride is new to this sort of thing, but it seems she has her sights set on you for her first meal." The woman looked immediately confused, but no less frightened.
"Meal?" To even my own surprise, I laughed. The laugh was low, and evil. Dracula began to laugh with me and then said, "It is better, my love, not to let them ask questions. They become stupid in the shadow of their final moments on the earth. It is better you take her now, before she loses the last of her faculties." That was my cue, and in a moment, I was on her. She had but a moment to let out the faintest scream, but was silenced by my teeth sinking deep into her throat, draining her voice, her blood…her life. She sank to the ground, and I followed her, sucking all I could until Dracula put a hand on my shoulder, instructing me to stop.
"Drink her life, my love…not her death. It will be your one downfall." He pulled me to my feet, and I reeled slightly, feeling a new kind of life pulsing through me, engulfing every part of me. It was the most amazing rush. It was life, it was an awakening…it was damnation, wrapped in the sweetest, most tempting of packages.