Venom is a substance used by predators to neutralize or otherwise weaken prey and make it easier for them to overwhelm and consume it. But venom is far from infallible. Many species of animals have evolved strong resistances or even immunity to the venom overall. The reasons for this development are varied, but for the most part it can be traced back to one individual member of the species that was born with a mutation that allowed it to survive the venom of its aggressor. Of course, it wasn't always the prey that developed the immunity. Sometimes the predator was born with the ability to resist and overcome the prey's venom.

The newborn vampire before me couldn't have been more confused by what she saw, what she had just experienced. Her maker was in pieces on the ground around her, cut into neat pieces by the sword at my side. I watched the emotions flit across her face, ranging from outrage to fear. Her desire to flee was strong in her eyes, glancing all around her as she sought to find an escape route. We were underground in the basement of an old factory, and I was standing before the only way to the surface. She could have easily dug herself to the surface, but she knew that would lead to her death. She had seen what happened to her maker, only minutes before. I smiled quietly to myself as I reflected on his last words. "Here, Laura, is a prime example of what I have told you." He had said when I revealed myself to them. "Humans have so little regard for their own lives that they freely walk into our midst."

His hubris had left him defenseless, and I was not kind enough to allow such things to go unpunished. The older vampire's right arm had been removed first with his head following an instant later. I had waited just long enough to ensure that he knew what was happening before I separated his skull from his shoulders. A bit juvenile, to be certain. But the fear that was still in his eyes as the severed cranium stared at me from the floor was more than worth it.

The same terror that was reflected in his offspring's eyes now. I saw her gaze flicker to my sword, and I extended it before me. "Nothing more than forged steel from a renaissance fair," I said, smiling from beneath the shadows of my cowled robe. "I bet you're wondering how I cut your master apart, aren't you?"

"Yes." She hissed the word, grudgingly admitting her curiosity.

"First, haven't you noticed something?" I said, allowing the point of my sword to rest at my side. "Or, rather, the lack of something?"

Her face screwed up in confusion as she processed my question. I allowed her to think for a few seconds before I offered her a hint. With the edge of my sword, I opened a small cut on my forearm, a trickle of blood running down my arm. She tensed her body when she saw the blood, doubtless expecting a trick. But there was none forthcoming, and the blood ceased flowing a moment later. The wound closed at speeds far beyond that of what a human's body was capable of.

"Your blood has no scent," she said, finally.

"Correct," I nodded. "I'll make you a deal. If you can guess why my blood has no scent, I will let you leave."

"You're a vampi-." She began to say. Her head hit the floor before the echoes of her words finished reverberating around the enclosed space.

"Wrong," I said, sheathing my sword.

I set about gathering the body parts, arranging them in a rough pile. There were plenty of pieces of paper in the basement, most of them dry and brittle from their extended time being down here. I shredded them into a large pile beside the vampire bodies and, using a lighter from my pocket, set the paper to burning in no time. I stood back and waited for the flames to reach the vampiric flesh. Once it had I marveled at how flammable the supposedly indestructible beings were.

"Well, Seattle, you are welcome," I said, leaving the room as the flames grew higher. These two had been stalking the streets of Seattle for weeks leaving a trail of bodies that the police attributed to the work of their second killer within ten years. As I left the warehouse, I pushed back the cowl of my robe and let the cold rain wash down my face, soothing the faint burn I always felt on my skin.

As I walked, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the watery window of a long-since closed shop. I touched a hand to the monstrosity that was my face and allowed myself a moment of self-pity. I had only started wearing the hooded cloak after humans began to call me a monster and throw things at me when they saw me. I couldn't blame them.

I had been bitten by a vampire twenty years prior, on the night of my high school prom, by my date no less. She had been new to the school and instantly enthralled the entire student population, with me being no different. When I asked her to prom, to my surprise, she accepted. The event had been a dream, but the after party was a grisly nightmare.

She had entranced more than twenty of us to join her at a warehouse rave that she had personally set up. None the wiser we all went willingly to her feast. Once the doors were locked behind us, she began her slaughter. But she was not alone. Another vampire who looked incredibly like her had been there as well, eager for the slaughter. I was treated with the sight of seeing my friends and classmates being ripped from limb to limb. She often would remove an arm and drink from the bloody stump, reveling in the theatre of it all. She had reinforced the warehouse so that there was no escape from her.

She had told me that she was saving me for last, as a gift for asking her to the event. By the time that she reached me her perfect blonde hair was drenched red and her silver dress sticking to her frame from the blood. True to her word, she saved me for last. As she had drained the lifeblood from my veins, I heard a voice interrupt her, tearing her away from her task. "Come on, Kate." Her companion had said. "Haven't you had enough? Let's go."

"Fine, Tanya, he's about done anyways." Kate had said, letting my body collapse against the floor. I lost consciousness then; certain I was going to die.

But I didn't die. I wish I had, but from what I've been able to gather that's normal for what the venom does to humans. Unfortunately, that's where the similarities ended in the transformative process. It took me more effort than I thought possible, but I managed to crawl away from the warehouse and into a nearby river. Instinctively, I had hoped that the water would cool down the burning that threatened to overwhelm me. It hadn't helped. For more than a week I was in those waters as my body battled against the venom. It was a very gradual change as the venom burned itself away, leaving only the faint burning feeling on my skin that never really went away. Almost like a bad sunburn that refused to heal.

When I finally dragged myself out of those waters did I see my reflection. The venom had failed to completely turn me, instead it turned me into some abomination. Of course, this I didn't learn until much later. My teeth were half-human and half-vampire which meant that the incredibly hard vampire teeth quickly pulverized the human. This left me with a smile mixed with dazzling white teeth and bloody gouges in my gums interspersed with empty holes.

My skin was especially horrible. The perfect porcelain vampiric skin seemed to have battled with my human flesh leaving black and purple trenches in my face that resembled cracked glass. My eyes are what I believed truly made people think me a monster. My old eyes had been a dull blue, nothing special by any means but they were normal. The eyes I had been left after my failed transformation were bright red with jagged edges of dark that matched my skin. For all the world I looked like Frankenstein's monster minus the stitches.

But there was one thing that my transformation has given me, one gift that almost made up for all that it had taken from me. I learned from one vampire that was more than willing to give me information in exchange for his life that some of them were given extra gifts, holdovers from their human days. Some could cause pain, others could control elements, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to what limits there were. I supposed that my failed transformation was a result of my gift. As a human I had never been sick for even one day in my life, I hadn't even gotten a cold. I had surmised that my gift must have manifested itself then, enhancing my body's natural immune responses to venom.

Before that vampire had ever spoken to me, I had already begun to master my ability. I had first discovered it when I fought my first vampire, desperate for some sort of knowledge. He had been alone, and he very nearly killed me. My transformed body was faster than a human, but it was inconsistent. Muscles and bones that remained human would tear and break when I tried to exert vampiric pressure on them making it almost impossible to do anything without making myself vulnerable.

The vampire who I had cornered was more than willing to toy with me and give me information while he did so. Luckily my healing factor was strong and prevented me from bleeding out. Only when he was about to deliver the final blow I, in desperation, threw up a hand and willed it to be strong enough to stop him.

To our mutual shock, his fist stopped cold against mine. I suppose you could say a natural understanding of what my ability was came over me. Just as my immune system had been naturally enhanced as a human, I could carry that enhancement over to not just my own body but other objects in my possession as well. With a feeling of ecstasy, I ripped apart the vampire who had been about to kill me only moments before, with my bare hands.

Of course, I was still partially human, and that affliction greatly limited my ability. I was only able to enhance three aspects of anything at a time. Using this I was able to enhance my body's durability and reflexes, thus allowing me to subvert my human condition. I had purchased a sword at a local renaissance fair and, after some experimentation, figured out how to use the most efficiently use it. Luckily, my brain seemed to have completed the vampiric transition and needed no enhancement. By enhancing the keenness of the blade's edge, I was able to cut through even steel as though it was air.

Seattle was quieter than usual in the early hours of the morning, doubtless being wary from the murders that had stricken the city. It was that much easier for me to make my way past city limits, not bothering to rush.

I had heard of a vampire clan near Seattle that claimed to be a 'vegetarian' family. The vampire that had mewled out this information, desperate to save their life, hadn't lived long enough to explain what that meant. I assumed it was some sort of joke, but it mattered little. It had taken me a little while to find a purpose for my life, but I had eventually decided that revenge was as good a reason to live as anything. Revenge for the friends that had been killed that night in the warehouse, revenge for the constant pain I found myself in, revenge for all that had been taken from me.

I often wondered if I just wanted a vampire to be better than me, to end it all. But I always ended up deciding that I didn't want the answer to that. My name is Thomas, just Thomas, and I am a vampire hunter.