It was a little after ten about a week later. I'd just gotten out of my evening shower and was contemplating whether to spend the next several hours studying or playing the PS2 or going down to have some fun with my friends. At least Larry was at another one of his frat parties, so I could go back to my actual dresser to get changed. I emerged from the bathroom into my dorm room, shut the door behind me, and turned on the light.
There was Michelle, sitting on my bed, wearing only a pink silk nightie.
"What are you doing here?" I said in surprise. "Aren't you supposed to be with Larry at that frat party?"
"Larry's still at the party, having a good time," she replied. "I don't think he even knows I left."
"And you just decided to come back here to wait for him," I concluded. "Wearing that."
"Please," she scoffed. "I came here to wait for you."
"So you came here planning to cheat on him?"
Slowly, sensuously, she arose from where she sat. "Larry and I have been history since the moment I saw you again. He just doesn't know it yet."
For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was the light, barely audible sound of her bare feet moving closer to me across the carpet. It wasn't until she was within two feet of me that I bothered to move, which I did by brushing past her towards my closet. "Oh, this is crazy," I said.
"What's the matter?"
"Look, I'm sorry, but you have to remember that you and I are over," I said as I began pulling out some clothes.
"Is there someone else?"
I stopped everything. What was I going to say to that? Part of me knew I should have said yes. I should have said I was with Alicia. But another part have me wouldn't have felt right about saying that. As long as I continued to do stuff like I did last week, she and I would never be officially an item. Frozen with indecision, I said nothing.
She took that to mean no.
"Vincent, the only reason we broke up was because we were going in different directions. We're not anymore. I'm here. You're here. I don't see anything keeping us apart anymore."
"Michelle, I can't ask you to do this. I'm not the same guy you dated in high school. I've changed."
Her arms came to rest on either side of my neck. "Yeah, I've seen. You've learned a new disappearing trick, and probably a few other things I haven't seen yet. You've fallen in with a slightly different crowd, I get that. But you're still Vincent to me. That's all I care about. You're still the guy I loved enough to be my first... you know. I didn't stop loving you when I left; I didn't stop loving you when I met Larry; and I still love you now."
Her hands placed themselves on the back of my head and she pulled me to her lips. The logical half of my brain was screaming at me to fight her, to push her away. The other half wanted nothing more than to embrace her to me. Torn between pushing and pulling, my hands essentially just held onto her sides, doing nothing, leaving me pretty much at her mercy. She began throwing her weight on me, and as a result I stumbled backwards, twisting around a bit, and landed in a sitting position on the bed, with her seated on my lap.
I caved.
My hands moved around to her back and pulled her against me, accepting her tongue as it probed my mouth as my own probed hers. Her hand reached down and pulled apart the folds of my robe, allowing my piece of equipment to rise like the Sears Tower, and as she continued making out with me her hand began stroking it, while my hands slid the straps of her nightie off her shoulders and took hold of her cute little breasts. We didn't keep that up for very long, though. We were eager, and excited, and we wanted this to happen, no matter how much I knew it shouldn't. A slight movement of her hips, and she lowered herself onto the thing she held in her hand.
She moaned her lovely little moan, and her body began to shiver. That was one of the little things I remembered about her from the one and only time we'd done this before; the way her body tended to shiver when her southern region was stimulated. I found it to be an adorable little quirk. She kissed me again, her lips quivering against mine and her breath coming in the shortest little gasps I'd ever heard. I held her tightly to me, her soft little breasts feeling like a warm cushion against me. She slid away from my lips and began to nibble on my earlobe.
"I've been waiting for this for so long," she whispered into my ear, before a small cry escaped her mouth and I began running kisses along the side of her face, down to—
Yeah, I hear you out there going "Uh-oh, he's gonna bite her!"
And your expectations are not unwarranted. As the little noises of pleasure flowed into my ear, I could smell her blood pumping. It was right in my face; it was not only full of blood, but sexually heated blood; the most tempting kind. I planted light kisses on her neck; I could almost taste it! My lips pulled away from my teeth. My jaws opened. I drew closer to her...
I didn't bite her.
I caught myself at the last possible instant, and in a flash of sanity, shoved her off of me. I ran to gather the clothes I had begun collecting from the closet, while she picked herself up off the floor in utter confusion. "What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry," I breathed, throwing on clothes as quickly as I could, "I just can't do this."
"Vincent, what's the matter? Is it me?"
By now was already pretty much fully dressed, and still spouting apologies, much as I had after the time I first bit Alicia. "I'm sorry, it's not you, I just... I can't stay here!"
With that I bolted out the door, down the stairs and out of the dorm building. I ran. I had no idea where I was going; I just ran. I had to get as far away from Michelle as I could. When I finally stopped for a breath, I'd managed to reach the more urban area of the city. I must have been running for twenty minutes.
I looked around me. There were people. People out enjoying the nightlife. Hapless cattle. Whatever my stance on life may have been, my encounter with Michelle just then had stirred something up in me. I had to feed, and now. But that didn't mean I wanted to go back to the school, down to the SVA and ask Nigel for a glass of B+.
I wanted live prey.
I wanted to hunt.
I began prowling the streets, scanning the crowds. There were plenty of people to choose from, but I didn't want to just grab a random stranger. I wanted to pick the right victim, if there is such a thing.
What I was looking for ultimately came to me. I was just wandering along when I was spotted by a trashy-looking hooker with light blonde hair and a cigarette in her fingers. "Hey, junior," she said, "interested in a good time? I'm one of the less expensive girls around here." I took one look at her. This pitiful woman, selling her body out to whoever was interested in paying for it. A worthless human being. She'd do perfectly.
I took a quick look around, and when I was sure no one would see, I knocked the cigarette from her hand, grabbed her by the neck and clamped a hand over her mouth. "I'm very sorry about this," I said to her suddenly terrified face. I dragged her over to the alleyway behind us, and when I was certain again that I could continue unobserved, I took hold of her by the head and shoulder and bit into her throat in a flash.
She was too paralyzed to even scream.
I'm not sure how long I kept this up for; probably just a few minutes. It was really all a blur; all I know was that I loved it. When I finished my meal, I let her drop from my hands and tilted my head back with a big sigh. My God! I'd never felt so alive! At least not since...
Not since the first time I killed someone.
I looked down at her, at the pathetic corpse of a pathetic person who had lived a pathetic life. I struggled for a moment to feel any kind of sympathy for her; I couldn't. All I understood just then was the thrill of the hunt and the joy of the kill, and for just that moment, Tanya's way of thinking began to make sense. Maybe she—
"Oh my God!" someone screamed. I spun around. I'd been seen. A thirty-something couple was standing just outside the alley, staring at me. The woman's eyes were the size of golf balls, and her hands were covering her mouth. The man began shouting, "Somebody call the cops!" Suddenly all the people walking the street were gathering around, staring at me.
What was I going to do?
To hell with concealment! I acted purely on impulse, not caring how many people saw me. I bared my still bloody teeth and snarled at them all. All of them reeled back in fright.
That's right, humans! I'm a big scary monster!
That done I turned, flickered up to the fire escape, climbed the wall, hopped to the adjacent rooftop and ran. Looking back on it, that was probably the stupidest thing I could have done in that scenario; nonetheless, it was fun!
I ran along, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, ultimately dropping back down to the street when I was sure the coast was clear. I just stepped off the edge, landed on my feet and walked away. You know, for as long as I've been a vampire, the ability to do that is still as cool as hell!
Anyway, I continued on back to the school, in much less of a hurry this time. I just walked. And that gave me time to think. If nothing else, I understood now that Michelle and I could never happen again. I mean, my logical side had always known that, but now I understood it completely. If I wanted to have any kind of real relationship, it would have to be with Alicia. She was ready and waiting for me, and now I was ready to accept. I'd done enough fooling around; it was time we got serious. So perhaps I should find her and do something about that.
I got back to the school, and for a moment thought about returning to my dorm room to call Alicia, but I didn't want to risk running into Michelle just yet, so I decided to go down and see her in person. I descended to the SVA and went to check Alicia and Elizabeth's room. No one answered when I knocked. Fortunately, Vanessa happened to be returning to her room just then, with her arm hooked under Jonathan's. "Hey, Vincent! What's going down?"
"You seen Alicia around here?"
"Last I saw her, she was going for a dip with Elizabeth."
"Oh, great, thanks!"
