By Vanessa

2

For ages I have hunted, blending in with the masses, yet vastly different from them. I may look vaguely human, enough so that I may walk among people, but I am an apex predator, the top of the mammalian food chain. I am stronger, faster, and better adapted to hunting than any human alive.

It is for this reason that I rarely indulge in human exploits. Humans are simply food in my eyes, cattle for the slaughter. I must remember that my continued existence relies on stealth; I must never let myself get caught up in the kill, to a point where I lose the ability to blend. So I’ve suppressed my baser instincts in order to keep myself from getting... carried away. With those instincts went most of my passion, for everything, to remain balanced with my surroundings. I live an emotionally suppressed life in order to survive the ages relatively sane and content.

Perhaps it was because of this that I was completely unprepared for her strength of will and passion for life. It had been a difficult few decades for me, long since I had loved or laughed, and I had grown somewhat complacent in my hunting, feeding for sustenance only. I had become bored with my continued and unending existence. She changed that in an instant.

“My friends call me Holly,” she said, surprising me with her proximity to me. She had doubled back on her route through the courtyard, and I had almost knocked her over when I walked around the corner she had just rounded. Now we were face to face, all pretence of stealth lost. It’s rare to catch a predator in his own game, yet she had.

I stammered for a moment, and finally gave her my name. “Michael,” was all I could say. “Bon nuit.” Good evening.

“I saw you back there and wanted to say hello,” she said demurely, looking up under her dark lashes at me. She stood a head shorter than I, and craned her lovely neck back to meet my eyes. I had planned on kissing that neck, using it to drain her of the blood that I needed, but her blue eyes held mine as her frank advance sunk in. Who was this young lady to meet me head on?

As if reading my mind, she continued, “I’m not normally this forward. But there was something…about…you….” She trailed off as she reached for the back of my head, gently bringing her mouth towards mine. I had already begun to lean in to her neck, but she twisted her head to bring our lips together, awkwardly at first, but once our lips met, with growing passion. Her arms encircled my head, body crushing mine, and she kissed me in earnest, the first in an eon for me, and my defenses crumbled completely. Unusual for a hunter, but it felt so natural with this woman.

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