Hey guys... Sorry about the violence in this one if you're not into that kind of thing, but let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. :)

Chapter 32: Original Sin

The city lights lay out before us. I followed silently behind David, easily keeping his pace. I had been to many cities and bore witness to their splendor, but behind these new eyes everything seemed to come alive for the first time. We lingered on the outskirts only momentarily before dredging into the trenches of the still bustling night life. Being unable to hear David's thoughts, I followed closely examining his every move. I watched the way he diligently checked his watch, the way his head lifted acutely as if he could hear many things that I could not. I stared around in wonder at the neon lights that seemed to bolt through the sky above us, all the while keeping a keen watch on David's every move. He slithered through the street as if the many mortals stumbling around us did not even exist. It was as if he alone inhabited an another universe that which none of these humans knew anything about. We were ghosts wisping through the enchanted streets surrounding us. He seemed to have cast some kind of spell upon all of them and they simply took no notice of the unnaturally beautiful creature waltzing among them. I felt like an outsider, merely observing the on-goings, not a participant nor player, merely an on-looker staring down at an intricate series of interlocking mechanical instruments trying desperately to understand the rhythm and timing of the game.

I stared at the mortals passing by. Each was so uniquely different, yet so much the same. I could focus on the details of each one for hours counting the many nuances that made up their appearance and personalities. Their thoughts flew freely into my head and most were mainly concerned with money, or their significant other who was irritating them, or were hopelessly drunk and wandering the streets aimlessly. It was as if my attention had a personal zoom function. I could hone in on the minute, the details that were tightly woven into the web or I could easily zoom out and see all of mankind as one dysfunctional, yet cohesive breathing and breeding unit. I adjusted my optical lens over and over changing my point of view in experimentation. Being around mortals was not difficult, in fact it was comforting. I had expected to want to ran sack the city demolishing any unfortunate soul who happened to step into my war path. But it was quite the opposite really, I was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with me. I had heard the many stories from my family members about having difficulty in being around humans and controlling themselves, I had expected the thirst to rage inside of me as it used to, only worse.

David and I zoomed through the bright lights and well trafficked areas. The street lights that hung like floating orbs illuminating the dreary streets around us became fewer and fewer. I heard the distant sound of cop cars racing on their various calls throughout the slums of which we were now a part of. Vicious killers like many of the rest of the mortals surrounding us. David slowed so that I was very near him. He dipped his head down and whispered in a voice much too quiet for any mortal to over hear, "Can you hear them?"

"Yes, they are even more clear than my family," I said at the same volume.

"Good," he said seeming satisfied, "Follow me, in here." He turned around the next corner and we slid into a dump of a bar. The lingering scent of cigarettes mixed with the vomit that was surely coating the floor of a nearby bathroom was sickening. I felt the thick mask of cheap perfume and intoxication drenching over me like the plague. My face twisted at the disgusting surroundings. The dimly lit room was tinted red and a dirty and seemingly strung out bartender stood guard slinging drinks to the heap of bodies laying nearly lifeless at the bar top. Their hunched over backs looked more like boulders than people. Their only animation came when they lifted a tired and smudged glass to their lips or made the effort to light another cheap cigarette.

I turned my attention to David as we slid into a booth in the back. The ugly upholstery held the smell of urine and vomit paired with a moldy denseness that no amount of cleaning would possibly remove. I closed my mouth and tried to avoid analyzing the horrible smell any further.

A stubby old waitress with raggedy fake blond hair approached the table, "What'll it be kids?" Her voice croaked drenched in bourbon and cigarettes. God, I can't wait for my shift to be over. What are these kids doing here anyways, much too young to be in this hellhole. God, he's good looking.

My eyes widened as I heard her thoughts, knowing that he was listening to the same thing that I was. But David just smiled kindly back at her, "Two Grand Marniers, heated please." He handed her a crisp twenty dollar bill and she turned around with a huff heading to the boulder lined bar.

"Grand Marnier?" I said with a smirk.

"Ah, yes, I do not drink... alcohol anymore, but I have always had a fondness for a fine scotch or a warm liquor. You'll see, I think you will find the aroma quite pleasant," he said with a dashing smile and twinkle of his chocolate eyes. His eyes shifted around the bar, slowly and deliberately. I followed his gaze.

"That one there," he said without looking to me, "in the cheap faded blue suit, what's his story?"

I caught the gist of his game and let my eyes rest on a man who appeared to be nearly sixty, but in actuality, was thirty six. Although his hand bore a wedding band, the over-made-up woman beside him was not his wife. He had three children at home, all too young to be in high school and a wife... her name was Darlene. He was here with the other woman, a cocktail waitress from the bar down the street. He was supposed to be working late in a dusty building downtown. He was an insurance agent and his wife new damn good and well that nothing would keep her husband working until eleven o'clock at night. We was five or six drinks in though, cheap bourbon, and he was going to have hell to pay in the morning anyway. The combination of his glazed over look and the fuzziness of his immediate thoughts told me that he had had more than enough to drink and that he would not see the face of his wife before hitting the sheets tonight. I relayed my findings to David who's lips curled in a tiny an intimate smile, "Very good. You are quite inept Nessie. I am impressed."

I couldn't help but beam at his compliments. The Grand Marnier arrived at the table. The zesty smell of oranges and spiced caramel filled my nose-- a very pleasant change from the rotting filth of the bar. I watched as David lifted the warm liquid to his face taking in the wonderful aroma. He did not drink, but to a mortal, it would appear that we was merely sipping on the cocktail. "It's best to keep them comfortable," he said nonchalantly. "They are easily fooled, but will become suspicious if you do not behave as expected." I nodded, taking in every word. I could feel the over eagerness lurching within me as I sat on the edge of my seat. I tried to relax and act more casual forcing myself to lean back against the dirty support of the booth.

The delicious aroma filled our little nook of the bar and allowed me to focus on more of my human surrounding rather than the scent that they had created in previous drunken nights. "What about her?" David said with a quick gesture to a woman who sat slumped into the booth across the room from us. She appeared to be sleeping, but was really just trying to stop the room from denying her the ability to rationalize up from down. She was quite pretty, looked to be about thirty, but was really forty two. Her large fake breasts sat high on her chest protruding vulgarly from the tank top that was two sizes too small for her. The lipstick was painted sloppily over her collagen injected lips and her eye make up was smudged. I noticed that her skirt had been badly torn and her legs were harboring the makings of some pretty nasty bruises. I sat up in alarm, forcing myself to dig through the haze that hung over her thoughts. I sorted through her mind finding the memory that I was looking for.

Here, in this very bar, about an hour ago, she had been sitting up nice and straight smiling and looking lovely in the mirror on the back bar. She was sipping on a Hendrick's and Tonic, her drink of choice. The man that sat beside her was readily chatting away as they engaged in a stimulating conversation. She had excused herself and left for the restroom. She had relieved herself in the dirty bathroom, being careful to touch as little as possible. She took the time to straightened her face and hair in the slightly cracked mirror. She found her way back to the man and her cocktail and resumed her pleasant conversation. Her memory begins to get a little fuzzy, she does not order another drink although the sleazy looking man beside her insists. He gets her one more that she ignores as it sits on the bar, the ice heavily diluting the drink. Her head begins to sway and the man catches her fall with an ugly voice, "Wow their sweed 'art, we better getcha a cab." He lifts her and swings her out the front door. His fake gold watch flashed as they leave, she could see it near her face as he hoisted her through the parking lot pushing her up against a rusty olive green pinto parked outback beneath a streetlight that was flickering, refusing to cast an appropriate amount of light. He forced a greasy kiss onto her lips smearing her perfectly lined lipstick. Her arms move to shove him off of her, but she can't make them move the way that they should. She tries to cry out, but his dirty hand smelling of cigars and spilled liquor cups over her mouth roughly squeezing her face, "You better hold still, bitch, and you better keep your fucking whore mouth shut," he growled into her ear pulling her legs roughly apart. He ripped her panties chucking them over the fence and with a greasy smile he unzipped his fly and plunged his foul cock inside of her, but she did not scream. Her head fell flat against the windshield of the car and her memory fell into darkness. She only remembered stumbling back into the bar, not truly aware at this point what had happened to her or where the nice man that she was talking to at the bar had gone.

I cringed with disgust as I delivered the tale to David who nodded gravely at my deduction. The smell of the orange liquor was no longer enough to mask the disgusting surroundings. My insides screamed at the injustice of the assault on the woman who had clearly been drugged. My hand tightened on the tiny hot glass, it burst instantly under the pressure, the hot liquid spilled over my fingers and glass shot into my hand. I startled a little bit as I looked down to see my blood swirling with the alcohol. David quickly retrieved a handkerchief from his pocket and covered the mess. The ugly little troll of a waitress came as fast as her stubby legs would carry her wielding a dirty towel, "Lemme get that sweetheart, are you okay?"

I flashed back to reality, leaving the raped woman to her hazy daydreams, "Oh yeah, I'm fine, sorry," I muttered. She hobbled away, nodding her head with a frown.

"Sorry," I said, hanging my head to avoid David's eyes, "Its just so horrible, how could he do that to her?"

David nodded, "I'm afraid Nessie, that the world is quite a dismal place if you look at it from this angle. I find it much easier to hunt in the breeding grounds of crooks, murderers and rapists. I don't feel so bad for ridding the world of a monster. If I have to kill, and I do to survive, then I would rather it be the scum of the earth that seem undeserving of the miracle of life. I have known this to back fire, and of coarse one cannot underestimate the worth of a human soul, regardless of its faults, however, I do find solace in this means of feeding." He left a tip on the table and stood up out of the tiny booth, "Come, I think we have found your first meal."

I felt the anxiety begin to boil, I slid out of the booth and made for the door taking one more glimpse at the woman in the booth who was now being catered to my our waitress. She was more than concerned for the poor thing. "Don't worry," David said, "The waitress will care for her, I left a generous tip for her trouble." He flung the door open and we made our way into the trash filled parking lot. My gaze shifted to a rusty, old, green pinto beneath a flickering streetlight. The driver's side door lay slightly ajar and a greasy man with slicked back hair had passed out in the seat. As we approached the scene of the crime, I noticed to my disgust that the man's pants were still unzipped and his cock lay stained and still sticky in his cigar soaked hand. I turned away from the filthy scene.

David seemed to sense my repulsion, "A little encouragement, my dear. That will make it easier." He picked up a stone and chucked it at the windshield, it landed with a sharp crack sending a large split down through the glass.

The man jumped awake with a start, "What the fuck?" he roared in a drunken slur. He adjusted his clothing and swung the car door open banging it against its hinges. "Hey man, that's my fucking car! Just what the hell do you think you are doing?" David sat still, smirking at the staggering man as he swung one foot ahead of the next, closing the distance between us. "Hey, I said, what the hell are you doing?" But David made no move to respond. As the man got closer the light flicked back on illuminating the shadow in which I stood. "Oh hey, and you've got a pretty little bitch with you too," he hips swung in a vulgar gesture. I sneered at the man. "What's the matter sweed 'art? Don't like whatcha see?" his lips let out a filthy chuckle and his hand fell to the back of his belt from where he pulled out a gritty, dark gun. He swung it around recklessly. "How's 'bout you and me have a lil' chat." David stood still, watching the drunken lunatic as he approached his death.

The demon inside of me roared in fury. My eyes flashed into tunnel vision and all I could see was blood pumping, no face, no name, only his blood, filthy as it may be-- I burned for it. Faster than I could think, I had my arms wrapped like pythons around his form. I bared my teeth and sunk them into the stinking flesh of his neck. The first wave of hot luscious blood threatened to do me in. I swooned as the robust flavor burned inside of me, I had never felt so alive. I pulled back gasping for air. "What da fuck?" I heard his ugly voice gurgle.

I sunk my teeth back in, this time pulling hard at the bloodline, feeling his heart thumping defiantly against me, fighting. I could see the faces of so many girls whom had been poisoned by the little concoction that he had dropped into their drinks. So many innocent women and very young girls. I growled as I pulled the blood from him, wanting him dead, wanting to save the girls, wanting them to have the satisfaction of this asshole being good and dead. I pulled harder, his heart sputtered under my grip. His body went stiff. A soft voice fell into my ear, "Enough Nessie, you have to stop before the heart does... that's enough," His hands gently pulled me from the wound, guiding me away from the ugly scene.

I wiped the rest of his muddy blood from my face as my chest heaved with my new found strength. I stared down at the crumpled body of the rapist that lay before me. I felt a sense of empowerment, of vigilante justice swept over me. I could feel his blood washing through my body with a prickling sensation. The rush of new blood was indescribably invigorating. I stood back as David dropped two little droplets of his own blood over the wounds that I created and watched them seal seamlessly. He swung the dead body back into the olive pinto. He wrapped one of the mans stench ridden hands around the gun and pressed it to the man's head. He cocked back the hammer and BOOM! David shattered the silence of the night with one deafening stroke. What was left of the man's blood spattered with a mess of his brains across the passenger side window in a suicidal pattern.

He turned away and walked back across the lot, his expensive shoes clicking lightly on the pavement. "Come on, Nessie, its best if we don't bother with much more clean up than that." I followed his light footsteps away from the filthy stench of the bar, away from the bruised woman and her now lifeless attacker. Elation. I felt a new strength in every step. My body surged with power, with the luscious taste of his blood still lingering on my lips. David lead me through the winding streets. The rain broke from the clouds above and began pounding on the ground all around me, I felt washed of the night's sins. My eyes gleamed intensely as we sunk into the shadows of the night.