I am a vampire. I am the living dead, the damned, a creature of the night, and all of those other melodramatic terms mortals use to describe what they cannot understand. I won't say my age, for I don't even keep track of it anymore, though I'm sure I could deduce it by recounting events that happened in my mortal life. I find that such things, however, are trivial to the ageless. Events and people around me change, but I remain the same, altered only by the occasional remarkable event.
One such event happened recently. I was out hunting on the street at night, though to anyone watching it just looked like I was walking vigilantly. I was searching for the right kind of person to feed my unique hunger. About fifteen feet distant, I caught a whiff, a glimpse, of a winsome woman walking in my direction. I continued walking, my senses fixed on her. As I passed by the woman, her aura engulfed me, filling my senses and leaving me reeling. I have developed a great amount of self-control over the centuries, so one can imagine my surprise when my legs, of their own volition, turned me around to follow this beautiful creature. I made sure that she didn't detect my presence, and kept pace behind her, admiring her curves and the way they moved with her bouncy step. She made it to her apartment and began fishing in her purse for keys. She had just gotten the key into the lock when I made myself known to her, without making so much as a sound. She turned suddenly, both frightened and curious, to see who she just knew was behind her. I stood there, smiling, and wordlessly related the entire situation to her. She immediately understood how beautiful I saw her to be, what I was, and what I needed of her. Her eyes widened and she grew excited, in more ways than one. With less effort than I had expected, I nudged her mind into acceptance, merely bending a few inhibitions. She opened the door and motioned me inside.
