Kiss of Blood: Daniel

I didn’t think I could still genuinely care for someone. I thought I had lost that when I joined the ranks of the undead, so long ago. I sure never felt anything but contempt or indifference towards the one who made me, or my victims, other than the built-in lust for their blood. Even Lorenzo, my later mentor, whom I admired for being a better vampire than my old master as well as simply enchanting, never evoked anything like love inside me. But here I am, with a fledgeling I made because I loved him too much to kill him.

And I love the vampire he has become even more. Often, when you Turn someone, they completely change, and then you are stuck with either a monster or a martyr. Which is why both my maker and Lorenzo warned me to think twice about making fledgelings, and why, in fact, Thomas is my first fledgeling ever. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but evidently I could, and did a good job with it, too.

Because Thomas is brilliant as a vampire. It’s been only two years and already he knows things that took me decades or even centuries to find out. Already he knows, and can do, things that I can only dream of, and will probably never learn.

His mind is much more sensitive than my own. All vampires can hear the thoughts of mortals, but Thomas takes it to a whole new level. His favourite victims are people that secretly long to be taken, to be swept away, to be killed, and he has no trouble whatsoever seeking them out. He can spot his victim from across a metropolis-sized city, and even manipulate their minds from that distance so that they willingly give in to him once he reaches them.

It really is the most amazing sight. It didn’t take him long to figure it out, and the first time I witnessed it, I almost fainted from the waves of sheer lust and angsty pleasure they emanated, and once he was finished I just had to suck all that blood right out of him again, and he of course was all too glad to return the favour.

It sometimes surprises me how well we go together, since we are so different. I drink because it is what keeps me alive, and for the sensations feeding provides. Thomas drinks because he loves to take people like that, loves to seduce them until they are his entirely. And he doesn’t even have to touch them to accomplish that. I have always, and still do, relied on force when feeding; I can only seduce my victims so much, and often have to use my superhuman strength to keep them from fleeing. Of course, once the drinking is under way, all that is no longer necessary, and they are mine to do with as I please. It’s how I seduced Thomas; first I forced him, and then let the thrall of the blood do the rest.

But Thomas… Thomas never has to force, never has to rely on superhuman strength. He feeds their secret desires from a distance, and when they are properly down and susceptible he moves in and has them begging to be taken within seconds.

Sometimes I think that Thomas was meant to be a vampire, that it is his destiny. Of course he would never have dreamed of things like this when he was mortal, and I am sure that none of his friends and family will recognise him if they come across him now, but I (and he, too) feel that he was never meant to be theirs in the first place. He’s a natural as a vampire, and if you look at him you’d never guess he was only Turned two years ago. This fits him like a glove, and I truly belive that it is what he was meant to be.

Our nights usually follow the same pattern; we stalk around the city, while Thomas searches for suitable victims. It sometimes takes a while, so I have to feed while he is doing this. But I never drink much of my first victim, only enough to quench my thirst for the time being, knowing that later on I will want to drink the blood he took from his victims. We live in a kind of symbiosis; he feeds on mortals, I feed on him, and we share blood until dawn. For some reason we never tire of this, and I can well imagine us living like this until the end of time.

Of course, sometimes we feel like doing something different. Then, we visit parties and nightclubs, where everyone is so intoxicated with alcohol and drugs that even I don’t need to force my victims. Thomas especially likes playing the game of drinking form his victims while they don’t notice and think he just gets off on nibbling and biting.

Of course, he does get off on it. Most vampires lose their sexual drive when Turned, except for whatever lustful feelings feeding entices, but Thomas didn’t. I don’t know why, just as I don’t know why he can do all those other things that most vampires I know of can’t do. But the fact is, he can.

And on those nights, our roles are switched. On those nights, it is Thomas who drinks little, just enough to completely drive his victims mad with lust, while I watch and feed until I burst. And when we’re both finished it is he who feeds off me.

It was great. It was wonderful, and we thought it could never end, or that our happiness could be broken. It didn’t, not really, anyway. But we suffered a kind of… setback, so to speak.

Lorenzo dropped by.