I sniffed the air and detected the scent of a Succubus. I ran through my memories and found a match. Delphine, his mother. The scent trail was strong less than 15 minutes old, easy to follow yet I hesitated.
If I was to meet Delphine, I wished to be fully fed. I moved quickly along the alley and scented the air picking up that of an adult male. The scent was heady with testosterone, and I grinned, I had caught sight of him, he was large with bulging muscles and a strong heartbeat.
He was walking slowly down the darkened street; this area of London was run down. The street lamps flickering in syncopation with one another, I quickly scaled the building to my right and moved swiftly along the rooftops dropping down in the darkened corner ahead of the man.
I reached out and touched his mind slowly drawing him towards me. He walked towards me and into the darkness of the doorway, I pulled his face towards me and tilted his head to the side, sinking my fangs into his neck. I drew his blood out, my fangs causing him to relax against the wall. I tasted the hint of bitterness caused by steroid use in his blood but ignored it, as long as steroids were the only things in his blood.
I drained around a pint of his blood, enough to cause possible fainting but no long-term damage or danger to his health. His size gave me an indication that his blood volume was above average, meaning I could feed more than normal with him. I pulled away from him and moved my index finger to my fang. I pricked the tip and rubbed the resulting blood into the bite wounds I had caused. They healed and I leaned in and licked the blood off his neck before erasing our encounter from his mind.
Humans were so easy to control, their minds naturally shying away from anything they could not understand. I knew his mind would come up with some explanation for the lost time, anything to shield his sanity from what he had experienced.
I stepped out from the doorway and quickly moved away, I found Daniels scent trail again and followed it along with that of Delphine. She was travelling quickly, carrying Daniel across London I assumed. I tracked the scent for around a mile, she was moving quickly and soon she was in a car, as a result the scent trail was fainter but not undetectable and I followed it across London. I was now moving into the richer areas of London. The houses now consisted of three floors and the cost of the cars parked outside increased as I moved along each street.
Daniels scent trail was now stronger which told me the car was slowing down, the scent led to a house at the end of the street with a car parked outside. I rested a hand on the bonnet of the car. Still warm. She wasn't so far ahead of me, even after I had stopped to feed. I slowly walked towards the front door of the house and froze on the doorstep. I inhaled and turned around. Face to face with Delphine, now wielding a stake an inch above my heart. I sniffed again. It was ash wood, one of the three capable of killing vampires.
"Why Darren, what an unexpected surprise. I take it you are here to see my son." Delphine said slowly but with a mocking lilt to her tone.
I nodded before speaking "He wished me gone, but Zachariah has given me his consent to see him."
"You saved my son once before, and for that I am grateful but he is resting now." She said slowly lowering the stake.
"He did not recover psychologically from his previous attack when he was 16. His memories resurfaced and he collapsed." I said straightening myself up.
She stepped forward into the light and I scanned her features. Her pitch-black hair fell down past her shoulders like a cascading wave, and her eyes were the same shade of sea green as those of her son. She was smaller than her son but not by much. She had the same eyes but her hair contrasted with Daniels light blond. She stepped past me and into the well-lit house and beckoned me forward.
I stepped over the threshold subconsciously chuckling at the myth about vampires being unable to cross the threshold of a house without invitation. She laid down the stake on a small table and turned back to me. She grinned slightly and then beckoned for me to follow her again, leading me into the front room of the house and motioned for me to sit down in one of the two arm chairs present in the room.
She sat in the other chair and my eyes quickly scanned the room taking in the ornaments scattered around. The room was filled with expensive knickknacks and furniture. All wood was mahogany judging by the smell with a few objects of Oak and Hawthorn dotted around.
Delphine looked at me with eyes older than her face, she was an old Succubus, and a powerful one at that, yet her body gave no indication of her age. She was the head of a global porn company and a multi-millionaire, and as a Succubus she had the ability to control and create fire, a formidable weapon, Daniel had limited control due to his lack of feeding but Delphine was a Succubus in her prime, strong and powerful, and most of all a very bad enemy to have.
Her eyes scanned over me and she grinned weakly. She wore clothes younger than her age but matched her outward appearance. She wore a black dress reaching down to just above her knees with black tights and stiletto heels. She wore a charm necklace with jade ornaments which repelled me. Jade was an irritant to vampires as well she knew. Her mind was well shielded, better than most non-vampires I met, giving me only the faintest inkling of her emotions.
"You care for my son." she said slowly, her green eyes glistening in the dull light of the room.
"Yes." I said, without a doubt.
"I will admit this, I do not like the idea of a vampire being with my son. I admit at first I hated the idea of my son being gay, but he is and always will be my son." Delphine said her eyes holding mine.
"Zachariah feels responsible for his trauma, as such he wishes to help him." I said leaning forward in the armchair.
"What do you want with my son?" Delphine asked her green eyes flickering over me
"I wish to help him." I said cocking an eyebrow at her.
"Darren, I'm a Succubus I know every sense of the word 'help'." she said grinning sarcastically at me.
"It is true that I find him attractive, that is what first drew me to him. When I saw a vampire attacking him, I felt... possessive." I said drawing in a breath through my nose, unused to this new emotion.
Delphine crossed her legs and wove her fingers together. "I thank you for saving my son. If you had not saved him, I would not have stopped until that vampire was dead. Although I do not totally approve of you... yet, I give you my blessing to continue seeing my son. Under one condition." Delphine said leaning forward in the arm chair.
I nodded and she inclined her head and continued. "You will protect him, but I warn you. If you break his heart, I will end you." Delphine said in a deadly serious tone, I could tell she meant every word of it.
I nodded and Delphine rose to her feet and motioned for me to follow. She led me from the front room and towards the flight of stairs. She spoke slowly as we walked up "My son is resting; his memories were being held back but I am assuming you inadvertently caused them to resurface. Although he is resting you are welcome to sit with him."
Delphine had led me to a door on the third floor. The door was half open and led into a white walled room with few adornments on the walls. A single bed was pressed into a corner with Daniel lying beneath the duvet. His eyes moved beneath his lids as I watched and his brows furrowed together.
"He has said your name a few times." Delphine said pulling a chair out from under the desk and placing it by the bed. She motioned for me to sit which I did. She reached out and lightly ran her hand over her son's forehead.
"He resembles you." I said leaning forward in my chair.
"And you are like Zachariah." she said lightly resting a hand on Daniels head.
I inhaled Daniels scent and sighed. Delphine looked at me and giving me the barest hint of a smile, before turning to leave the room. She lightly patted my shoulder before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
I slowly reached out and took Daniels hand. His skin was warmer than it should be and I felt his accelerated pulse in his fingertips. I watched his face and his eyes moved quickly beneath his lids and his brow furrowed again. He seemed to be in some form of pain. Daniel was shirtless and my eyes moved up his arms and froze at his elbow. There was a set of fangs marks just inside the crease. I stood and looked at his other arm and found the same marks but this time on his bicep.
The scars were the only physical evidence remaining of his attack. The other damage was in his mind. The wounds may have healed but the damage there remained. That would be the main extent of his trauma.
Daniels fingers twitched slightly and I retook his hand. I lightly squeezed his hand and saw his brow relax. I liked to think he could sense my presence but I knew that was just wishful thinking. While he was asleep Daniel seemed to go through cycles, at one point he seemed perfectly relaxed and calm his breathing smooth and even, but at others he jerked in his sleep and his eyes danced crazily beneath their lids.
I did not need to sleep, Vampires could go without sleep if necessary and although I would have preferred to undertake the death sleep, I stayed awake and watched Daniel. He slept soundly for the rest of the night. At least he began to once I started to lightly stroke his hair.
I wasn't used to being romantic. I did not form close relationships with people. I fed, fucked then left them, that was the usual cycle. But with Daniel I was at a loss. I was having feelings of possessiveness towards Daniel foreign to me. I didn't have a good explanation, something about this small man called to me, seemed to be touching upon all of my possessive instincts. He was just so fragile, so lost and scared. He needed a champion, and I knew I wanted to be the hero to fight his demons.
As I looked over his features again and again, I began to pick out the similarities between him and Delphine. Like his mother I knew they shared the same eyes. Daniel was taller than his mother, but his build was sleek and elegant. As to be expected from an Incubus I surmised, utterly perfect. I had met Incubi before, however none had been quite as well formed as this one, at least to my eyes.
Returning once more to my assessment of him, I noted his light blond hair contrasted with that of his mother. I assumed he took his colouring from his father. I scented the air but was only able to detect the scent of two people, Daniel and his mother. I inhaled deeper, trying to draw on whatever vestiges may remain, yet was still unable to detect any other scent.
Either his father was dead, or his father had left his mother and him a very long time ago. I hardly noticed as the sun rose and shone in through the bedroom window. I looked at the watch on my wrist and read the time as 6:30 in the morning. I heard Delphine moving around downstairs and I regretfully left Daniel and slowly descended the stairs.
Delphine was in the kitchen, preparing some form of food for Daniel I assumed. She turned at my presence and inclined her head slightly. She was dressed in a knee length floral dress with flat sandals on her feet. My eyes grazed over the silver band on her ring finger.
