The Vampire Heero
Part Twelve
By Lady AngelFiren

I had spent most of the night sitting in a curled up little ball, in a place that I thought was miles and miles from anywhere. Apparently I wasn't as far away as I felt. My vision and hearing had become much more powerful, and so had my sense of smell. When I touched things like pine needles and grass, each texture took me awhile to absorb, and I found myself watching the grass sway gently in the cold damp air under the trees as the moon crept along the sky and morning approached.

A stick breaking alerted me to something in the bushes. I stopped moving and looked in the direction the sound had come from, my stomach hoping that whatever it was it would bleed. I crept towards the sound. Irregular breathing filled my ears and my nostrils flared slightly at the promising scent of a person wandering through the underbrush. When he came into view I was shocked to find that it was Karl, looking scared and sick, with his face beat to a black and blue joke.

I didn't actually recognize who I was stalking right at first, all I could see was food. I leapt forward from my spot crouched in the dirty grass and knocked Karl to the earth, sealing my mouth over his so he couldn't scream. The taste of dirty and mold that came from his mouth no longer repulsed me, it was just a taste. The only thing that mattered was the hot blood that beat within him.

I replaced my mouth over his with a hand, and followed my instincts, remembering the way Heero had bit into people's throats, right where their arteries were closest to the surface. I did the same and blood spurted forcefully into my mouth. Karl cried out in fear and pain as I wrapped my lips over him and sucked hard, then swallowed the huge mouthful of blood in a single effortless gulp. I could hear the way his heart beat, and I was sure that had I not been so hungry I would have been able to make him live longer, but I was so eager to drink him that I accidentally crushed the back of his skull in the palm of my hand, and he was dead. I threw him away from me, not sure what dead blood would do to me.

Then I really got a look at what I had just done, and the bloody red tears came to my eyes again. I was wearing bloody clothes, and my hair was loose by now, the tie having fallen from my braid some time ago. With long uncombed hair surrounding me, I was sure I didn't look quite human. I walked backwards, away from Karl's dead body and tried to think of what to do. The sky was pink now, morning light approaching. It seared my eyes and made me feel like I would lose all the blood I had only just consumed. I had to get out of the light, it might kill me.

I scampered along the pine needled earth until I came to a cave. I crawled in and tucked myself in a tiny little ball at the deepest darkest part of the cave, and there I feel asleep, right before the sun rose.

~~~~~~~~~~

As evening settled in, I found myself waking up, once more starving and ready to do anything to have what I wanted. I crept from my hiding place and listened. There was the sound of cars straight ahead, and cars meant people. People meant food. I looked down at myself. My shirt was missing the sleeves and my pants were torn, but the fabric was black, and the smell of blood that lingered around me didn't seem at all repulsive. I never stopped to consider that humans would definitely find a problem with me if I stunk like blood and death, and looked like an escaped zoo animal.

I went through the trees and found myself at the school. Of all the places I could have ended up, I had to pick the one that I knew Heero would find me in. Stupid. I made a break across the soccer field in record time, then quickly crawled into my dorm room window, praying that Heero would not be there. He wasn't, but all his stuff still was, so I knew he hadn't left. I also knew that he would eventually find me, because I was leaving muddy footprints on the carpet. I have no idea what ever happened to my shoes, but they were certainly not on my feet any longer.

I peeled off my clothes and walked into the bathroom, intent on a nice hot shower. My reflection in the bathroom mirror distracted me before I had a chance to get in the shower stall, however.

I turned to face the reflection, my eyes wide. They were sliver, like Heero's. And my skin was unbelievably pale, as were my lips. I raised a hand to touch my face. All my skin was super soft, not at all porous, and every inch of me was practically white. All the pigment had disappeared from my skin. My hair was a tangled mess, streaking down my back and over my shoulders, but caught up with a whole lot of sticks and grass and mud. I drew back my lips and saw that my eye teeth had changed slightly to become well-disguised little fangs, and every inch of my body was resilient and hard, but covered in velvet soft skin.

After staring at myself for a very long while I got into the shower and washed. When I came out again the water seemed to just leave my skin and hair, and the only scent I had was the smell of my shampoo and soap. No more gunk from the forest in my hair. Not that it had bothered me so much as it should have to be filthy. I changed into fresh clothes and sat down on my bed, thinking about what my options were.

I couldn't stay here, I would have to face Heero sooner or later, and I was so angry with him I thought I might try and kill him if I got to chance. It seemed like a good idea, then he couldn't make anymore people suffer with eternal life and such. Bastard. Now I was stuck living forever and killing people and all that other happy nasty vampire stuff that I really wanted no part of. The easiest thing would be to just kill myself, but the only way I could think of that Heero hadn't already said doesn't work was cutting off my own head, and I really didn't have the stomach for that, no matter what kind of creepy crawly I'd become.

I perched in the open window, contemplating the subtle way the clouds shifted and piled over one another by the pale light of the moon. I could see tiny bugs as they flit through the air, and hear their wings rustle against each other if I listened closely. Everything seemed so much more beautiful, so much more alive now, especially when it was dappled with evening moonlight. Heero had mentioned how important the moon was that's how he managed to be awake in the day, something about being under the moon all night

I didn't have time to finish my thought. A key slid into the lock on the door and I watched the handle turn. I never even thought about moving before I was spotted, Heero had already stepped into the room and was currently staring at me with wide, alert silver eyes, gauging my movements. He smelled like people.blood. It tinted his cheeks pink and I assumed his hands would be warm if I touched them. My own were icy, but it didn't bother me in the slightest. The smell of blood was on his clothes, it was making my mouth water, even though there was nothing present that I could eat. Heero closed the door after a few seconds and didn't say anything to me, although he never took his eyes off mine for even a moment.

"Go away," I hissed at him, glaring from between my bangs.

Cautiously, Heero came into the room further and seated himself on his bed, looking me over with a calm expression on his face that I knew was hiding his wary alertness. "You must be hungry "

"Shut up! How could you do this to me!? You selfish fucking asshole! You could have just let me die, it would have been a blessing. Now.now I'm going to be like this forever, and its your stupid fault! You don't have to worry about Karl anymore, 'cause he's fucking dead with his skull crushed to nothing, thank you very much. He was a bastard, but nobody deserves what I did to him, just so I could drink his god-damned blood! You turned me into a murderous leech Heero, I hate you. Go away."

Heero blinked at me and shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm faster than you. If you leave, I'm going to follow you."

"Why won't you just leave me alone!? Don't you think you've done enough already?"

Heero stood up slowly from the bed, and as I blinked I found him sitting opposite me on the windowsill. I was like him now, and I still couldn't see him move, he was definitely faster than me. He looked seriously into my face. "Duo we can be together forever nowwe won't have to be lonely. I love you I thought you would still love me"

"You turned me into a killer!"

"You were going to die if I didn't! It was that or I could have mended your wound with my blood and then you would be hungry for it forever, and that just wouldn't work. You have to be around Duo, I need you there's nothing good but you."

"I wanted to die. You are selfish."

"I know that."

"You should have let me die."

"Well I didn't."

I exhaled exasperatedly. It was hard to really stay mad at him when I was so hungry, and his clothes smelled like blood, which was distracting the hell out of me.

"You're hungry will you at least let me teach you how to hunt so that you don't end up getting caught?"

"I don't want to think of people as meat I can't do that. But when I saw Karl all I could see was food. Heero, you made me a monster"

"People aren't meat, they're people. But you will find that nothing will satisfy you unless you get to drink human blood and killthat's what you need to survive. If you don't eat at all you'll go crazy after awhile, you'll just snap and go on a rampage, and if you don't ever kill your victims you'll find yourself unable to stop from killing people some other way, no matter how elaborate. I never knew another vampire, but I learned these things from experiencemake sure you eat and kill.otherwise you could hurt a lot of people without meaning to."

Heero looked at me to see if I was calming down a bit. I thought that he must be flaunting the fact that he had knowledge gained through experience, and I didn't. He was trying to get me to follow him on the basis that I needed his information. No doubt he planned to talk me into staying with him once I was full on blood, but I really saw no other choice. I was feeling hungry and homicidal, an I knew he would keep me in line if need be, so I slowly nodded to him.

"Fine. I know what you're trying to do, but I'm going with you anyway."

"Good." Heero slipped to the ground outside the window and bid that I follow him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Fifteen minutes later found me creeping through a back alley with Heero behind me, watching me try to follow my newly heightened senses to food. I had already failed a couple times when I attacked people who were innocent. Heero had to come and pull me off of an orphaned little girl who I had only managed to bite. I screamed and punched him in the face and gave chase as the girl darted off in fear, but Heero tackled me to the ground and beat me unconscious, giving her plenty of time to escape. When I came to, I was laying in a back alley dumpster with him sitting on top of me.

"Why'd you let her go?" I asked, not really caring that he had hit me, its not like it really hurt, even when he seriously injured me I healed almost instantly. However, I was much hungrier now then I had been before.

"She was completely innocent, and she has her whole life ahead of her. You cannot go around drinking just anyone's blood Duo, that isn't fair to them. Be smart about it, don't reveal your nature all at once, maybe have a conversation with the person first, see if they are at peace. Sometimes they know they are going to die, and its ok with them. Honest, you wouldn't believe how many people are happy to see me. But then sometimes they really don't want to go, and then it simply isn't right to take them unless they are bad people like Karl. Does it make sense to you?"

"It doesbut you make it sound like I have a choiceI'm so hungry"

"I know you areI'm going to help you find someone to kill, someone that wants to die. It won't be so hard. But you have to control yourselfdon't go tearing them apart all at once."

Heero got off of me and threw the dumpster open and hopped easily out of it. I was glad it had been empty and relatively clean, so that people wouldn't smell me coming before I wanted them to know I was there. I brushed myself off and caught up to Heero, who was walking back the way we had come. I had been unconscious, but it was the only way to go so it seemed logical that he had brought me to the dumpster from there. He led me to a residential area, and started walking along the little streets, not seeming to do anything at all. After about half an hour of wandering a bunch of dumb streets I put a hand on his shoulder.

"What are we doing? I thought we were getting something to eat?"

"We are."

"So, don't you think there would be more people inside the houses, rather than on the street?"

"Every time we pass a house I am looking for a feeling coming from it. You will learn this quickly, its easy. You can feel which ones want to die, and which ones deserve to die. I am looking for that. Be quiet and listen to the people around you and you'll know what they want."

Well. That confused the fucking shit out of me. I followed Heero, having no idea what I was supposed to be looking for. I didn't feel a thing from the people around me, and when he suddenly turned and walked up a driveway, around to the back of a house, I still didn't know if he had found what he was looking for, or if he was doing something else.

I glanced into the sheer curtained windows of the living room to see an old woman all alone sitting in a squeaky rocking chair holding a wedding picture of a young couple. The woman in the chair must have been about eighty-five. She rocked once in awhile, but sad sighs were more common. She stared at the picture in her hands, and occasionally glanced to a picture of an old man that was sitting on the table beside her. I understood now why Heero had picked this place. This woman had lost her husband and all she longed for was to be with him again. It would be doing her a favour to kill her, and she was old enough that the people who had once depended on her in the world could look after themselves.

I followed Heero through the bathroom window, amazed at how easy it was to get in now that I had a wider range of movement. But the scent of blood filled me as soon as I stepped out of the tiny bathroom, and I instinctively scurried towards the woman, intent on jumping her from behind.

What I didn't expect was for her to turn around and smile at me.

"Hello Duo," she said.