The nearly-full moon managed to send another ray through the thick cloud cover, but soon the night was enveloped in darkness again. The silky black wet night mirrored his mood as he stalked his young prey. What a perfect night for hunting!

He’d chosen her because of the way she had acted with her now ex-boyfriend. He didn’t have the heart (so to speak) to hurt those who were kind and innocent, although he’d never admit it to his kind. Besides, he figured he’d be doing the world a favour in the long run. A mutually beneficial arrangement.

He deliberately let his feet hit a stray metal can on the paved sidewalk. His prey, a few dozen paces ahead of him, literally jumped around, but he had already taken cover in the dark abyss of a doorway nearby. He didn’t want her seeing him, not quite just yet.

He continued to follow her for several minutes, making occasional noises and eyeing her, making sure she had the tingling feeling of someone watching, someone listening, but never letting her actually see him. Only when she was all but running along the deserted alley in mindless fear - why did they never learn to avoid places like that -, did he decide to end it.

He stunned her muscles with a silent command of dark Power and took his sweet time walking slowly in front of her, making sure she heard his every clicking step as he took them on the cold street. Unable to run, unable to speak, she stood there immobilized and trembling, waiting and fearing for the inevitable. Her screams were locked inside of her, her limbs unmoving and a heavy, a not unpleasant numbness soaking every fibre of her being.

He didn’t bother to explain or gloat as he looked into her terrified eyes, didn’t bother to tell her the reason she’d doomed herself in her fate, a fate yet unknown to her. He cradled her body in his arms then and knelt, holding her head in his lap in a soft caress. The clouds shifted again and the almost white moonlight illuminated the dreadful scene below.

Then the light was gone and all she could see was the back of his head; his lips had descended to brush her unprotected throat. She couldn’t resist, couldn’t scream as he fed on her lifeblood and the numbness in her spread longer, faster. She didn’t care about struggling now anyway. All she wanted was to explore the new sensation of drifting in the ether that had slowly started to surround her. The cloud-cover shifted one final time and then there was nothing.