The Vampire Heero
Part Seventeen
By Lady AngelFiren

The next night passed uneventfully. Heero was gone most of the time. I think he went off somewhere to relieve some anger. When he came back his clothes were a little ripped up and he smelled like fresh death. I think Heero has some habits I should know about.anyway, as the sky was getting pink I felt really tired, I had spent most of the night out looking for somethingsomeone to eat, but I had ended up going hungry because I couldn't separate all the voices I picked up when I tried listening. But if anybody thinks I was about to let Heero know how hungry I was they are so deluded.

I was looking out the window. Heero came up behind me in his customary fashion, but instead of hugging me from behind he stood at the window beside me.

"We're going to stay up today. We've both been out of class for too long, the school is starting to get suspicious."

"Heero, you see that pretty pink colour in the eastern sky? That would be the coming sun."

"Ah, and you'll have to live with it for today, because we are going to class."

"But that's impossible!"

"Try half a day."

"Hn."

Heero took my hand in his, but we were both cold so it didn't feel cold, just normal. He looked at me with the silver in his eyes very evident, and I had to admit to myself that it was attractivehis eyes being silver, but I would have preferred them blue. I felt faintly sick as the sky turned closer to blue and the sun threatened to singe me clear through upon rising.

"The sun isn't going to melt youit'll just burn a little, and your eyes will hurt. Its important to appear human around other peoplethey will suspect that there is something different most likely, but nobody will believe the truth unless you lose control right in front of them. You must also make sure your eyes stay human looking, or you will give yourself away."

"Ok What happens if I screw up?"

"Then we will leave. We'll have to leave this place soon anyway."

My stomach did a few flip-flops as the sun breached the horizon. I was startled by the bright painful light invading my brain, my eyes, my skinit HURT! Fear sank through me quite suddenly, the only thought that occupied my mind was escaping from the evil light, but Heero's arms were wrapped tightly around me, he was forcing me to look into the sun.

"Let me GO!"

"Open your eyes."

"Let me GO!"

"Duo, idiot, open your eyes."

I growled beneath my breath and did as I was told. I couldn't see almost anything. There was just this massive whiteness, and a dark spot where Heero was standing between me and the sun. Nausea came over me, and my skin felt sore and tight. When your skin hurts, moving sucks, a lesson I had to learn over and over until I was smart enough not to move at all in Heero's tight embrace. I started to feel strange, spaced out. I thought maybe I might faint right then and there, or fall asleep on my feet. I was also sweating blood all over myself, my clothes were darkened by it around the neckline, and soaked with it down my back and legs.

"H-Heero can I close my eyes, please"

"Ahare you sick?"

"What the fuck do you think? I can't see a goddamned thing and I think I'd like to throw up on you now." I was hiding it, but there was definitely fear at the heart of my complaints. I had never experienced a feeling like this beforelike I was being burned alive, or maybe microwaved.

I felt Heero shift against me as he shut the drapes (again, why drapes in a dorm? I am never gonna figure this out), plunging the room into an amber-yellow glow. I cracked an eye open and discovered that I could sort of see now, at least it wasn't really extra painful this time around. Heero pushed me over to one of the beds and I let myself fall down on it without even looking to see whose bed it was. I sucked in a few breaths and rubbed at my hot, burnt skin.

"Ouchhow long is this gonna take to heal?"

"Depends on whether or not you're actually going to feed yourself regularly Duowhen the hell was the last time you ate?"

"Just last night" *sweatdrop*

Heero's fist slammed into my stomach. I think he might have been a touch peeved. His voice got this really irritated tone to it. He was still quiet and composed, just mad at me too.

"Duo are you trying to have an accident? Bakaif you don't eat then you are bound to lose control when it would be detrimental to someone else's life. You are putting innocent people in danger."

I was not about to let Heero beat me up and play daddy to me. I sat up and punched him back, in the jaw. Neither of us was actually hurt for real, it was more that we were both making sure that the other knew there was no fear involved herethat we weren't scared of each other.

"Heero I didn't do it on purpose, I just couldn't find anyone. I tried, but there were too many voices to separate."

"Then why didn't you tell me this BEFORE I stuck you in direct sunlight?"

"I didn't think there would be a difference"

"Well we'll try again tomorrow just go to sleep, I'm going to class. I'll come back here at lunch."

"What, to check up on me?" I shot angrily at him, feeling that I was being treated like a child.

"I was going to bring you something to eat"

"I can find my own food."

"Hn"

Heero glared at me and got up, peeling off the shredded up clothes he was wearing and going into the bathroom, presumably to shower. I pulled my covers over my head (turns out I had ended up in my own bed) and closed my eyes, relaxing as well as I could. On top of the burns (which didn't seem to want to heal instantly like the other wounds I'd had so far) I was now reminded of my hunger, and so all I could really think about as I tried to fall asleep was getting up and finding something to eat. I ran my tongue over my teeth repeatedly, and finally settled for biting my cheek and sucking on my own blood, just to have the taste of it in my mouth. I was fast asleep before Heero was even done his shower.

~*~*~*~

You can well imagine that I was confused and disgruntled when Heero came back into the dorm at lunch and started shaking me awake. Let me stress the disgruntledI like my sleep uninterrupted, thank you very much. I tried to slap him away from me without much success, he was way more awake than I was. I sat up, pouting, and squinting in the daylight. My brain felt fuzzy, like it was still asleep. Probably was.

"What the hell are you waking me up for?" I asked in an annoyed, tired tone, trying to keep my eyes out of the overly bright sunlight.

"I told you I would bring you something to eat at lunch. Its lunch. I brought you something to eat."

Of course as soon as he said it the smell of the living invaded me and my stomach gurgled expectantly, begging me to eat. My teeth were aching, every part of me felt dry and thirsty. I heard soft breathing and looked through the bright room (actually it was nearly dark inside, but it felt bright) to Heero's bed, where a pretty young girl about my age was sitting, her face mostly blank. She had no identifiable expression, in fact she seemed not to know or care where she was and what was happening to her. Heero had obviously done something to her. My mind was filled with the sound of her beating heart. I got out of my bed and crept towards her, but Heero stopped me before I could touch her.

"Duo you can't just kill some girl in the dorms"

I glared at him wordlessly and tried to get past him, my hunger dictating my movements. He wrapped an immovable hand around my wrist and forced me to look into his silvery eyes. I squirmed and tried to get out of his grip so I could eat, but he wouldn't let me free.

"This girl is an Oz member, she has the information we are at this school for. Our mission is to obtain the information at all costs. Her death is acceptable, but she can't die until she talks, understand?"

I looked at Heero like I was a kicked puppyhe wasn't gonna let me eat this luscious creature sitting right in front of me, full of delicious blood and life and heat? I whimpered pitifully and tried to free myself, but his fingers held me in place effectively.

"Duo do you understand me?"

"I needHeero pleaseI'm so hungry."

"Not until she talks"

"But I have to"

"Learn control, its important. Question her."

He let go of me. I immediately lunged forward and pinned the girl to the bed, but Heero was quicker than me, he dragged me away from her before I could do so much as taste her skin. I received a slap to the face and an angry glare.

"Duo this is why its so important to eat at nightin the day you get twice as hungry, even if you're full already. Try again, this time don't think of her as food, think of her as a fragile piece of glass, that's what she is compared to you. You have to get information out of her before she can be broken."

"How come you don't just question her then? Since you seem so sure about yourself"

"I'm not the one with the eating problem here."

"Well.hmph. I'll try"

Heero let me go once more and this time I tried to ignore the smell of food as I inhaled deeply and sat on the bed beside the girl, who was still laying in the position I had put her in before. I frowned, looking at her face.

"What did you do to her?"

"Tranceit's a visual thing. You can do it too, just look into her eyes, you'll see."

I locked eyes with the passive girl and her thoughts started to stream into my mind. They were simple, she was terrified, but she couldn't move or speak unless she was told. I found that her name was Erika. She was 16. She worked for Treize Kushrenada as an undercover intelligence agent. She also knew all of the school computer access codes, which I made a point to memorize. Erika had a brother who was 11, and her parents were nice people. She had no wishes to die, although she was willing to do it if she had to. She also seemed to know that Heero and myself were Gundam pilots. This bothered me, I didn't like people knowing anything about who I really was. I placed a shaking hand on her shoulder (I was shaking from the desire to feed, but now my curiosity was stronger than my hunger) and told her to snap out of it.

"Erika, you may speak freely. You cannot escape, don't even try it. Also, you can't scream or make any noise that would get anybody else's attention. You are going to die here, accept that."

Heero sat down on my bed and watched me with interest, although he showed nothing of what he personally thought. He didn't seem to be especially impressed, but he obviously didn't think I was fucking anything up either, so I guess that's a plus. Erika blinked in fear and sat up slowly, scooting away from my hand, which was still on her shoulder.

"Y-you're cold" She said quietly, looking at me with fear in her big green eyes.

I nodded to her.

"Is it scary?"

"Huh?" She'd caught me off guard with that one, I had expected her to beg for her life or something like that, not ask me questions. "Is what scary?"

"Beingbeing the way you are not alivecold. Is it scary?"

I frowned at her, feeling arrogant. I didn't want some person I wasn't supposed to give a fuck about asking me if I was scared of myself. Nevertheless I answered her honestly. "I would rather be alive" I noticed Heero wince a bit when I said that, he obviously wished that I was enjoying my life as a freak of nature. Moron.

"Why are you going to kill me?" She demonstrated no qualms with her oncoming death whatsoever, apparently when I told her to accept that she was going to die, it had worked. I blushed at her, I still wasn't really comfortable with my new diet.

"Because I'm hungry, and you're convenient."

"Oh. What happens if you don't kill me? Couldn't you just have a little now, and save the rest of me for later?" There wasn't any hope in her voice, I think she was just suggesting it because it had come into her head, she obviously didn't intend to save herself.

"No."

"Ok. The page about the cards holds the key to your desiresfind the fool in the past and take him to the future where he belongs. He will be happier alive. You will be happy too. The third will only be content when you are at peace with yourself you must teach the third how to forgive."

"What?"

"I didn't say anything"

"Yesyou just said-"

"I didn't say anything"

"But-"

"I really didn't say anything"

I frowned in confusion, I was sure it had been her speakingI wasn't completely nuts, was I? Either way my hunger was about to dissolve me from the inside out. I told Erika that she was very sleepy, and that when she fell asleep she would be ready to die. She easily dropped into slumber, slumping back on the bed as her limbs became limp. I crawled over her and breathed in her scent, feeling dizzy anticipation hit me. I opened my mouth and kissed her lips, biting them and her tongue deeply to draw blood. I sucked it off of her clear pale skin with greedy fervor, making cuts on her face with my teeth as I drank her up. Her heart was getting strained, it was having difficulty coping with my preternatural hunger. I finally grew impatient with the insufficient trickles of blood that came from her face and mouth, so I moved lower, to her neck, and bit there as a contented feeling started to buzz in the back of my head. I felt lusty now, hot. I could feel the living blood circulating through me, I felt like I was alive. I crushed my hands around Erika's shoulders and sucked on her veins as hard as I could, straining her heart to the point that it simply stopped. I ended up with a mouthful of dead blood, but it tasted good to me anyway. I pushed myself off of her body, watching the ceiling and feeling drunk and lecherous. I grinned to myself as the hot blood circulated through my body. I felt very sleepy, totally content. Erika's confusing commentary was momentarily forgotten as my brain basked in the pleasurable glow of her blood. I sighed and shifted onto my side, pulling the blanket onto myself and closing my eyes. Sleep rolled over me like a ton of bricks and I was out cold in a matter of seconds. I never heard Heero leave the room, in fact I don't even know that he did leave, except it would be like him to go to classes, so I assume that's where he spent his afternoon.

~*~*~*~*~

The smell of death eventually woke me up around dusk. I groggily yawned, feeling green from the disgusting smell of a rotting body close by. I cracked my eyes open and found myself staring at the sleeping face of a young girl, except she was dead rather than asleep, and my ultra-sensitive nose was picking up the first signs of decay within her body. So I was sleeping with a corpse all afternoon. Delightful. I frowned and scrambled out of the bed, ending up on the floor. The whole room smelled disgusting to me, like a rotten crypt or something, only fresherriper. She was a little swollen, I could see puffiness around her neck and her mouth had slipped open. Her tongue was slowly expanding in her mouth. Thinking about the juices that were rotting in her corpse made me totally sick, I couldn't stand it. Panic rose in my chestwhat was I supposed to do with a corpseI didn't want to touch it. I clawed at my face, trying to drive the imposing stench out of my lungs, but I succeeded only in making it worse by breathing harder.

/Fuckthis is disgustingwhat am I supposed to dothere's a corpse in my room./

I threw on some pants and a T-shirt, not bothering with my shoes, and not thinking about my hair, which happened to be a rat's nest of tangles mingled with bits of dried, flaking blood from god-only-knows-where. Dashing into the hallway and slamming my door as fast as I could, I wasn't able to escape the stench. It was invading me, it was clinging to me like a bad habit. Random students got out of my way if they didn't know me, and the people I did know stared at me like I was a completely different person than they remembered from before. I had a strained, panicked look on my face, and I think I knocked down a few people in my hurry to get away from that terrible smell. My eyes were completely silver, my face was covered in bits of blood, and my skin was white like marble. I happened to run into the one figure that I couldn't knock over when I was about halfway though the building - Heero. He grabbed my shoulders and shook me hard, then pulled me into a bathroom and locked us together in the wheelchair stall.

I looked at him with confusion, I didn't even recognize him at first. As soon as I stopped moving the stench invaded me again and I had to rub my face just to be able to stand existing alongside that smell. Heero held my hands in his so I couldn't touch my face, which made me start to shake, because I couldn't cope with the horrible smell.

"Get a grip Duo. What are you doing running around in the halls?"

"I can't help itthe smellits TERRIBLE! I can't stand itI was sleeping with a corpse in the same bed as methe smell is in meits in my clothes.Heero I can't get away from it!"

"Duo, think a little, its just a smell, it can't hurt youyou can't get hurt by dead things. This isn't worth running around the school looking like a vampire over."

I fought Heero's firm grip on my wrists with fruitless effort. Finally I collapsed against him, holding my breath so I wouldn't have to inhale the disgusting death smell that was clinging to everything. I felt drained, sick and scared. I was hungry, but nauseous. It pretty much sucked to be me at the moment.

"You're ok." Heero wrapped me in a hug and kissed my face with his cool lips, becoming the personification of calm for me. I accepted his affections without any comment, I was feeling too upset to do much of anything.

Of course this was the perfect time for me to remember somethingparticularly the fact that I had received a message before devouring Erika's blood. " The page about the cards holds the key to your desiresfind the fool in the past and take him to the future where he belongs. He will be happier alive. You will be happy too. The third will only be content when you are at peace with yourself you must teach the third how to forgive." What a messagesomeone was definitely having a great time fucking with my headit was making me mad. More like scared, but I wasn't gonna let on about that. I whispered Erika's words to myself. Heero looked at me strangely.

"She saidbefore I killed her she gave me that message. I think someone upstairs is trying to reach me, cause all these random things keep happening, and they all fit together in this neat little puzzle. I meanI know who the Fool isbut what Erika suggested is impossible. Supposedly. However, the book in my nightstand tells me otherwisedo you think I should try and save Solo? If it means I'll be happy I should do it, right? I don't get the last partabout the third. I'll figure it out eventually.for now I guess I should work on my Astral Projection so I can get my Fool back ne? Heero do you think I should do this? If it doesn't work out I could get stuck in the past."

Heero looked at me quietly, he seemed to be contemplating my words. His eyes were silver, I think he made them that way whenever he wasn't disguising himself from people, maybe he liked himself better this way?

"You should be happy" He said eventually, before giving me a final amiable squeeze and unlocking the bathroom stall so we could walk back to our room. I was stopped by him before I could actually go anywhere, he wanted to fix me up to look more human. I guess the white marble skin and bloody hair were kind of a giveaway as to what I was. Heero pinched my cheeks some for colour and rustled my hair until all the blood flaked out of it. It was simpler than you'd think to get me clean, vampires don't stick to anything for long, including dirt and dry blood.

He walked with me back to our dorm, but we had a big shock when we returned to it. There were people crowded all around the doorway, but nobody cold enter the room because of the thick yellow tape that was laced over the doorway. I frowned, wondering what was going on, but it just didn't click in my head that I had left a corpse in my room with the door open. Obviously someone had come in and found Erika's body. There were a few police officers inside, they all looked up with grim faces when I barged through the yellow police line in angry shock.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked, looking from the body on my bed which was covered with a yellow tarp, to the middle-aged cop currently holding a gun to my chest. Heero had wisely stayed behind the barrier, and nobody was so much as looking at him. All eyes were on me. I opened my mouth to defend myself, and the cop cocked the gun, looking at me fearlessly. I was starting to realize that I was not in the best of situations, after all I did not look at all human right now, what with the white flesh and silver eyes. To add to things I had already revealed my fangs too, when my mouth had dropped open in shock upon my entrance. I slowly raised my hands, not saying anything at all. The cop slapped a pair of gundanium hand cuffs over my wrists and smirked at me.

"Duo MaxwellYou are under arrest for the murder of Erika Reeves. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to remain silent, please come with me."

The cop started to lead me out of the room. I didn't budge at all, I rooted myself to the floor and took a second to ignore everything that was happening and prioritize, I could get out of this...I was a preternatural creature with preternatural speed and strengthI could easily escape. And the worst that could happen was getting shot, which really wasn't so bad at all. However escaping with the Book of Shadows intact was going to be more difficult, and I knew that I needed the book as soon as I could get my hands on it. The officer tugged on my cuffs and I didn't respond, so he struck me in the back with his nightstick. It didn't hurt, I was busy thinking. It was almost funny, how he couldn't get me to budge if I didn't want to.

"Mr. Maxwell, please come with me now," he said with some difficulty, clearly not understanding why I couldn't be moved. I leaned towards him and looked him in the eyes, wondering how Heero did that cool hypnosis thing, like he had done to Erika. The smell of death was really bothering me, but I knew I needed the book, so I wasn't about to wuss out just yet.

"I'm not going anywhere until you explain to me why I am being arrested, officer. I'm not even legal yet, I'm too young for this!"

"Keep your mouth shut and come with me, NOW."

"No! You can't prove I did this"

The gun that had been pointed at me before was drawn out again, and pressed to my belly. "Mr. Maxwell. You clearly don't understand the gravity of this situation. You are under arrest for murder. You are going to rot in jail, and it'll only be worse unless you come with me right now and do as I say. I am out of patience." There was a rough jerk on the cuffs. When I didn't move I felt the gun being pressed harder into my stomach. I took a step towards the door, my eyes on the drawer of my nightstand, which was hanging open, empty. I flipped.

"Where the hell is my book you cock-sucking assholes? You can't take that from meI need it!" I jerked away from Dumbass Cop #1 and dashed over to the drawer, glaring heatedly at its empty state. I whirled around, a growl bubbling up in my throat and my fingers clenching and unclenching in quick, angry snapping motions. I pulled as hard as I could on the cuffs, but the gundanium seemed to be stronger than I was, plus it was daytime out, adding to my weakness. I couldn't escape right now, but I'll be damned if they thought I was just gonna lay down and die for them. That wouldn't be very Duo-like, now would it?

I smacked Dumbass Cop #1 in the face with my arms, smashing his teeth into shards of broken white dotted with red. Blood seeped out of his mouth and down his uniform, soaking into the dark blue material and seemingly disappearing. My hunger rose up in the back of my throat, something akin to a human person's adrenaline rush possessing me with equal or greater power. I felt invincible and starved, like a hungry wolf set in the middle of a kindergarten lesson. My grin was totally manic, the two white fangs showing with eerie clarity in the afternoon light. A quick glance at Erika's covered body told me that she had died to give me a message, and I was going to do what I had to, to fulfill her wishes.

The smell of blood filled the room and lent my brain an extra hint of insanity. I tried again to free myself of the cuffs, and once more I failed, but then I realized that I was more than a collection of muscle and marble, I was also a former street rat, and an escape artist extraordinaire. I dislocated my thumbs and slipped free of the cuffs, licking the blood off my spattered fingers with an eager tongue. I adored the disgusted look on Dumbass Cop # 1's face when he saw my tongue dart out and lap up his blood, it made me feel like I was in control of the situation. He had this shocked look on his face, like he simply couldn't believe I'd hit him hard enough to knock his teeth all to shit on the first try. I grinned maniacally at him, flashing my teeth with confidence. I admit, I was basically a monster at this point, but what would you do if you were arrested for this, and some dumb pigs tried to steal your only important possession? So my anger was justified, you see.

I glared around the room, the low growl that had started in my chest never quite dropping out of earshot. I found it pleasing to make such a threatening sound, I liked it. But I really just wanted to find whoever had my goddamned book and kill them. Slowly. I looked at Dumbass #1, he was staring at me in total shock and fear, his mouth bleeding all over the place. He didn't have my book, but there was still defiance in himhe was trying to get his bloodslicked fingers wrapped around his gun so he could use it to shoot me.fat chance he had of accomplishing that.

There were two other cops in the room, Pigs #2 and #3. #2 was hovering beside Erika's body, as if it offered some kind of protection for him. Right. I snatched the gun out of #1's holster and twisted it into an excuse for a piece of bent metal, handing it back to the startled, bloody cop with a friendly smile. I was itching to taste him straight, no more of this licking second-hand blood from my fingersbut for now I had better things to be doing. I wished now more than ever that I knew how to hypnotize people like Heero could, but that just wasn't something I had learned yet. I thought maybe I should try anyway, but that would be wasting time.

Instead of trying out the hypnosis I strolled through my dorm room over to Pig #2. I held out a hand, wondering how intimidated this guy was by me. Would he shake my hand on policy or was he smart enough to try keeping things to himself? He was a little brainier than the first guy, he shrank back from me, not meeting my eyes. He was shivering, his gun was in his hands, but the safety was on. Overall he looked pathetic, and there simply wasn't any sport in hunting something that was frightened of me, that's like a little kid chopping a worm up into itty bitty pieces and getting mad at the worm for not being capable of escape or self-defense. I'm not that much of a killer, cut me some slack here

I took a seat on the bed, pulling the yellow cover off of Erika so I could look at her. Someone had opened her eyes, they were staring at me dully, a look of half shock, half curiosity in them. I didn't want to touch the stinking, rotting corpse, but I wanted her eyes shut. I gently pushed the lids down with my fingers, a solemn look coming over my face. The reason I'd pulled the cover off of Erika wasn't to look at her, she was dead, I didn't give a fuck about how she looked. I wanted to see what I had done to her, so that when I spoke to the Pigs, they would believe I was telling the truth. Honestly I didn't clearly remember everything I said and did to her, that whole scene in my life had melted together so that the only really significant, memorable part of it was the message. There was blood all over her face, it was crusted onto her skin in flakes and dark red chunks. Old, dry blood smells gross, but its nothing compared to the smell of flesh decomposing, even if it'd only recently started to do so. I had the urge to cover my mouth and nose with my hands, but I knew nothing would keep my overly powerful senses from detecting the fetid stench, so I didn't bother. I ran my pale marble fingers over the scratches that covered Erika's face, they were bite marks from my teeth for the most part. I had ripped some of her hair out with my fingers, so her scalp had also started to bleed before she'd croaked. The blood was now a sticky, smelly mess gobbed in her hair and pasting some of her short bangs to her forehead.

All this was disgusting in itself, and I was glad that the cops were scared enough of me not to do anything as I inspected my victim's corpse with great interest. I couldn't get over it, now that I was able to cope with the smell, death was actually interesting to me. It couldn't touch me, why should I fear it? The way things swelled and puffed up after they died fascinated me at the moment, I wanted to explore more. The crown of people had diminished some when I'd arrived, but there were still a good fifteen students standing outside the door, they were all watching me with disgust on their faces. At least they didn't have to smell what I could smell, it was rank and foul, but it would take a lot longer to be a strong enough smell for human noses to detect. Heero was also amongst those watching, I took a second to lock gazes with him. His prussian eyes watched me closely, he seemed to understand my sudden fascination, and as there was no true danger to us at the moment, I am guessing he thought it was ok for me to be doing this. Heero confuses me sometimesbut I was occupied at the moment anyway, its not like I wanted him to drag me outta there.

Returning my attention to Erika, I looked at the way I had carelessly bitten her lips in several places, even making a few holes all the way through them with my teeth. Her tongue had also been sliced by teeth, but it was currently swollen up, blocking her throat and making her look sick and fat. I turned my face away from hers, never taking my cold fingers off of her cold skin. She was dead and cold, so was I in a sense. Nothing to be disgusted by, right? Still, doesn't mean I had to like it, but I wanted to educate myself as best as I could. There was a gaping slice in her neck, right in the place I had bitten her and slashed open her jugular, letting the biggest, most devastating gush of blood into my mouth. Just thinking about the pleasure I'd felt while drinking from the hot red fountain in her throat made me hungry once more. My classmates didn't need to see anyone else dead today, I would just have to control myself. It was hard though, each of them would make a great meal, and they'd be more interesting than strangers.

I sighed and pulled the yellow thing back over Erika's body. Pig #2 was standing a little further away from me now, closer to the door. He was clearly terrified, but he wasn't about to run away without satisfying his curiosity. I wasn't worried about him. I also wasn't worried about #1, who was getting light-headed and tripping over his own feet from blood loss. Its Pig #3 who presented the biggest threat now, he was holding a thick, messy looking book, a book I knew he'd retrieved from my nightstand, after busting off the lock. I looked at his eyes, they were gray, and hard. I couldn't see into him so well, not like most people. I hate hard-ass cops, they are only hurting themselves by acting that way. There was also a gun in this guy's hand, and the safety wasn't on. That scared me, cause this guy looked ready to kill, and I honestly know what that look is like; I've killed lots of people with a gun, and I've been shot at a bunch of times too.

"Mr. Maxwell, I don't know what you arebut I am not letting you escape. Monster.you're a killer. You will be brought to justice, You-"

I stepped real close to the guy and he shut right up, pushing the gun against my belly, although my body was completely unyielding. "Shut the fuck up pig, you don't tell me what to do. I am walking out of here, and unless you want your kids getting a phone call telling them their daddy's dead, then you had better put the fucking gun down. Sound like a plan? Good. Now down with the gun, or off with your head, and I am completely serious, Yes, I did kill Erika, if you must know I drank her blood and it was delicious. Anything you don't understand about that, Sir?"

"Just oneI bet not even you can take a bullet asshole" Pig #3 squeezed the trigger before I had any chance of getting the book from him. I don't know if it was just me, or if it was everything else too, but I swear time slowed right the hell down as that piece of lead sailed through the air, straight for me.

Now, let me pause right there and ask you a simple question. Have you ever taken a bullet in the face? Do you have any idea what it feels like to have your skull cave in with the force or a bullet slamming into it Do you know what its like to feel the pressure in your head going haywire so that your brains literally start to leak from your ears? Now I know what that's like, and lemme tell you this, it really makes you see immortality for what it ispreternatural power. Power above what anybody else can really understand. Nobody takes a bullet to the head and lives through it, not unless they have what I have. That may sound like a complete ego trip, and maybe it is, sorta.but its really incredibly scary too. That bullet shot through the air at top speeds. The guy was aiming to kill me, he fired a perfect, unwavering shot, and it crashed through one of my eyes, straight into my brain. Pain exploded in my head like white fire, nothing I had ever experienced came half as close to hurting as much as this hurt. Immortality does nothing to deaden pain, it just makes it irrelevant. I went down fast, instantly, blood gushing from my eye down my face. I couldn't see anything at all, the only thing I could hear was the echo of the bullet hitting me and destroying my face. I was unconscious before the shot made it all the way through my head, but it exploded out the back of my skull, ripping away a good portion of my head as it went. Blackness surrounded me completely. I never felt myself hit the dirt. I was dead, I had to be, but this isn't the end of my story so obviously somethingsomeone, saved me.

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TBC

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Fuck, FINALLY I'm done another part! I was watching Ginger Snaps, that's what gave me the boost for the final part of this chapter, my brain got stuck on the gore/violence setting and I couldn't budge it from there. I hope the cop scene was ok, I've only been apprehended once and I never actually got arrested, so I don't really know what they say to ya. Duo isn't schizo, honest! He's just having a little trouble adjusting, plus he doesn't like people pissing on his tires.