Pray or Prey (closed)

~~~~Closed to a_libertine and I~~~~

The midnight air seemed to revive Vanessa as she perched on her stone grey pedastal. This was her favourite time of night, deep into the blackness of the fallen sun but not close to sunrise; she felt more able, competent. Sat on this long deserted tombstone, she felt at home. She considered this land her territory; any fool who dared to cross her path, at night no less, was fair game.

Her acquaintances believed Vanessa to be foolish for choosing to claim the Munich graves as her land. She thought them to be the foolish ones- jumping like cowards at the sign of a cross. Sure, faith was a thing for her kind to be afraid of- it was the most powerful weapon. But without true belief, heartfelt and sincere, religious emblems and the like were futile. Nowadays, even since the turn of the 20th Century, barely anyone had true faith. Vanessa had killed many stupid humans who believed that merely flashing a crucifix at her would burn her on the spot.

The grave where she sat was central to the crematorium. She could hear eveyone, smell anything that came within a mile of her. Even in the near pitch black her eyesight was impeccable. It was almost too easy for her to cock her head to one side and detect a faint, frail scent...

Human.

Inwardly, Vanessa rejoiced. She had not fed for a few days, nobody had come to her when she had felt thirsty. Perhaps humans were getting wise… but then again perhaps not. Was not a human male heading towards her now? Obvlivious to that fact that she would be taking his life very soon?

She had detected his gender long before her unearthly blue eyes caught sight of him. Male blood had a rougher taste; it was a savoury delicacy that female vampires tended to prefer. The almost sickly-sweet taste of female blood was still delicious, though too much and she would wretch.

Through his scent, Vanessa could gain other information crucial to her hunt: his age, his fitness, his emotions. He was young, twenty-five at most, healthy and nervous. Sure enough, when he came into eyeshot, he was hurrying along, clutching a silver crucifix which was hanging from his neck.

It was clear that his apparent trust in that symbolic item was false. He was Vanessa's and she would enjoy him. Her thirst seemed to grow with his nearing proximity, like each step he took before her conducted a raging symphony in her throat. She needed his blood. Now.

Using her speed and not bothering to disguise it, she ran to him. Taking him by surprise- she was too thirsty to enjoy his shocked gasp of air that swirled his aroma around her. She had him cornered against a wall; her strength didn't allow him any movement. She whispered one thing before she sank her teeth into his pulsing neck:

"Enjoy, as I will enjoy,"

As her teeth sank into his neck, with expertice that only centuries of parctice could've given her, she drank. His grunt of pain shifted to a groan of unparalleled pleasure, sending vibrations to Vanessa's body. She purred onto his neck, the mixture of the intense feeling she was getting from the feed and the satisfation of her thirst being sated nearly overwhelming.

The human's hands roamed over her body, his mind too entertained by the thrill and rush of being fed from to realize that he was in danger. Vanessa licked his wound, enducing a quicker flow and continued gulping the life essence from him greedily.

He was soon trembling, incoherent words forming and escaping from his mouth as she held him in place. It soon would be over, both his life and her feast. She felt his body go limp, and once she was sure he was bled out, she let him fall in a collapsed heap on the ground.

The humans would find him in the morning.

Vanessa, blood dripping from her gluttonous mouth, wiped her lips and then sucked on her hand, before returning to her perch to keep watch over her territory.

Walking with the power and grace of the deity whose name he bore, Torsten walked passed the white stucco walls of the Dachau Memorial and Visitors Center. The green roof was blacker than the soul of his prey in the pitch darkness of midnight. It was May first and the May Day celebrations long since over, the children, young adults now safely home with their parents.

Those that weren’t were fools.

Fools that Torsten swore he would protect from the predators in the night. The gate to the concentration camp had “Arbeit Macht Frei.” The damnable lie that work would set you free never applied to those that lived within the confines of the concentration camp, and Torsten was here to make sure that the infernal resident never would be free again.

All was ready, the days spent adding to the lights that had been installed in the ‘showers’ for public viewing. The same place that was the death of so many innocents would finally be the place of death for one that deserved it. The white gravel crunching under foot as Torsten arrived at the gas chambers. Once inside Torsten pricked his finger, squeezing out a couple drops of blood, knowing the hell bound blood sucker would smell it and come sooner than later.

Low white ceiling, rose colored tile walls, a darker red brick floor formed the boundaries of the gas chamber, lights were set in the black cages, the bulbs replaced with UV emitting bulbs, strong enough to weaken a vampire, and perhaps critically injure one.

Torsten no sooner placed his bag on the red brick and pulled out a wooden stake when he heard an eerie voice behind him say, “So you came to feed me? How considerate.”

Torsten turned and saw the gaunt vampire before him, for all the world looking like a survivor of this very place. Which he was not, Torsten knew; instead one of the ‘special’ guards the Third Reich had used to guard the camps at night. Torsten’s rich baritone responded, “May God forgive you for your sins.”

The dark haired vampire laughed, a throaty, creepy laugh that could curdle milk and said, “I need no forgiveness,” and charged.

Torsten dropped to his knees and hit the button to the remote that was in his pocket. The room flared brightly, flooding the chamber with ultra bright, UV light. The vampire screamed, his arms covering his eyes and face, crossing in an X.

Seeing his moment of opportunity, Torsten launched himself at the vampire, his right hand on the butt of the stake, his left hand guiding it flawlessly. The point of the stake sliced through the flesh of the vampire, entering its heart and passing through the torso and poking slightly out of its back. Torsten’s should rammed into the stomach of the vampire driving it back and down onto its back.

Rolling over the vampire and onto his feet, Torsten looked down onto his ‘victim’ as he walked over to his bag. Reaching into the bag, Torsten pulled a small axe from it and knelt next to the vampire. “Uwe Gersten, I commend your soul to the keeping of God, the Father, and his Son, Jesus.”

Raising the axe above his head, Torsten powerfully struck the neck of the vampire, lopping his head off neatly. His muscles rippling effortlessly, Torsten packed the body of Gersten into a duffel bag he had brought for that purpose and dropped the head into the smaller bag with the axe.

Lifting the duffel bag over his broad shoulders, Torsten walked from the gas chambers, turning off the lights. Taking his victim to a nearby church, Torsten poured him out of the duffel bag and waited until dawn. As the first light of the day hit Gersten’s body, it burst into flame. Dropping the head onto the torso, Torsten grabbed his gear and headed back to the gasthaus that he was staying in to sleep.


As the sun was setting Torsten rose and looked at himself in the mirror. Blond hair framed his blue eyes, which were harder than they once were. What was the chorus of the song he wondered, “The mirror never lies?”

For a moment Torsten wondered what his eyes said, and then decided it didn’t matter, this was the path God set before him, and so it was the path he would follow. His cell phone rang and Torsten answered, it with a simple, “Grüß Gott” or “God is Great.”

“It is finished?” The voice on the other end said.

“Yes, this morning the light of dawn claimed, Herr Gersten,” Torsten said.

“Good. I will wire the payment to your account shortly. There is one in Munich, near the cemetery, or in it,” said the gravelly voice.

“The usual fee, I assume?”

“Of course.”

Torsten hung up and packed for the short trip to München or Munich.

Vanessa yawned lazily out of her slumber. It was a false slumber of course; vampires didn't sleep. But the weakness that the sun brought was enough to allow her mind to wander. She flicked idly through past memories, her rebirth, her sire, her first hunt, her previous territories. Her eyes had been closed, allowing the vivid rememberance to occupy all of her senses. In her best 'dreams' she could feel a pulse move through the air around her, smell its appeal, even taste the luscious liquid as it slithered thickly over her tongue...

But the sun had set. It was time for her to arise again. Sitting up, Vanessa cocked her head reflexively. She could hear people leaving her land. How wise of them. She exited her daytime hideaway (a disused janitor's shed) and inhaled again. It was a crisp evening, and Vanessa felt... bored almost. She needed company, a fellow Nightwalker to commune with.

Vanessa spent a few moments trying to remember where her nearest acquaintance was exactly. She knew of a female, Maggie, who had claimed Dachau with her mate. It wasn't too far for her at all, she would be able to catch up with them tonight. She might even stay with them during the next day, and return to her cemetery tomorrow evening.

And then she ran, ignoring all other distractions, like the houses full of prey and the swirling scents of the civillians she passed. It only took her under ten minutes; she was fast.

She recognised Maggie's scent immediately. It coated a nearby church, and this startled Vanessa. Maggie was a fearful creature. She would never set foot in a church, let alone be hovering in the churchyards. There was something wrong.

She jumped over the fence of the gardens, stealthily and quickly. She could hear heavy breath coming from a crouched creature who had their back to Vanessa. Maggie.

She blurred over to Maggie, but Maggie wasn't expecting a visitor. She was up and facing Vanessa with but a flash of her reddish hair, hissing animalistically and clutching Vanessa's throat.

"Now, now," Vanessa chuckled, "that is no way to greet a guest," Seeing Maggie's hand relax and then drop, Vanessa sighed. "Surely you were aware of my presence? I did not cloak my scent."

"Ah, Vanessa," Maggie's voice was thick with emotion, "Grief overwhelms me."

"But it is such a lovely evening. What happened to you?" Vanessa frowned.

"Not to me. To my mate. He is dead."

"Dead?"

"Dead."

Vanessa's voice came out in a snarl. "Who?" She knew most of the vampires in the area. It would be easy for her to kill whoever was responsible. "One of us?"

"No. A Hunter." Maggie replied, looking as if she would burst into tears if it was physically possible for her to do so.

Rage seethed through them both, though as Vanessa was not grieving, it was stronger in her. A petty human dared to destroy the life of a vampire? He would pay.

Through the night, Vanessa stayed with Maggie, grieving with her. Grief was a strong emotion in vampires; it was a physical pain as well as emotional. Before the sun rose, the two of them fled to a nearby barnhouse to rest. The day was full of mourning, until the sun set and Vanessa bid her old friend goodbye.

When Vanessa returned to her perch, she could smell a new scent. It was one of a male, between twenty-five and thirty years of age. Human. And his smell saturated her spot. Had somebody been looking for her? Why?

She walked to her frequented 'hang-outs'. Her shed, her bench, practically everywhere her scent was- so was his. Vanessa could think of one explanation: the Hunter.

He must have been seeking her when she was with Maggie. The bastard thought he could kill twice in two nights- he was wrong.

She knew how Hunters operate; they didn't push their luck. He would be back tomorrow evening. And Vanessa would be ready.

Torsten arrived in Munich and walked through the English Gardens taking the myriad of trails. Despite the debauchery that occurred in the park it was still one of his favorite parts of the city.

Using contacts with in the church it did not take long for Torsten to figure out where the bloodsucking beast was hiding and wondered to himself, not for the first time, if there were different ‘types’ of vampires.

Some liked places of death, Gersten and the one he hunts now. Some like dens of debauchery, Amsterdam was full of both, debauchery and vampires. Some preferred the wilds, like the vampire he killed in the Black Forest nearly a month ago. Do some hide in banks he wondered? In museums? Heaven forbid the church?

Torsten banished the thoughts from his mind, reciting verses to himself, as he headed to the cemetery. He walked around taking in all of the details, trying to discern the best place to lay his trap for the blood sucker.

There was not a mausoleum that would provide an adequate funnel for the fight. A couple of storage sheds were the only buildings on the plot. Torsten pursed his lips and put a camera in each of the buildings and then again sporadically through out the cemetery.

Leaving the cemetery Torsten went to his car, and pulled a short distance away from the cemetery and waited, a night, a day, no unusual activity.

Then the second night, the most astonishingly beautiful creature Torsten had ever seen was prowling around the cemetery, looking at certain places, places that he had been. A scowl creased her fantastically beautiful features as she continued on, apparently never seeing the cameras.

As dawn rose, she returned to a shack that was in disrepair. He watched the monitor of his lap top as she laid down hiding herself in a stack of burlap it seemed. Waiting an hour, Torsten decided she would be the easiest of the all to kill and drove his car over to the shed and pulled a length of chain out of the trunk, attaching one end to the car, the other to the shed.

Then he looked at the shed and wondered, if she were really as beautiful as he seemed to think she was. Against his better judgment Torsten walked into the shed and found the burlap pile.

Pulling off the first couple layers Torsten looked at her beauty in awe, and then nearly pissed himself as her eyes opened.

Vanessa could smell him. It was only slightly after dawn, perhaps an hour since the damning sun had risen. His scent wafted from afar- seeping under the door of her shed as she lay with her eyes closed. She sighed silently. He hadn't waited for sunset as she had expected.

The Hunter was feeling confident- his scent reeked of almost cockiness. She could sensed his faith- it was enough to unnerve Vanessa slightly. He was approaching her, and his proximity added to the sun made her weak. Only slightly stronger from the inferior race of humans.

He was very close now, outside the shed. He was debating with himself. Should he go in? Should he wait until later? As she heard his soft footsteps and the faint creaking of her shed's door, then his scent hit her again- harder than a few tons of bricks on her hard skin.

He removed her burlap layers, his warm breath washing onto her face. Slowly, she opened her eyes, relishing his fear and almost swallowing his scent before meeting his face with her eyes. He was an attractive one, with deep blue eyes set in a rugged face. Age and experience were dominant in his stance as he stepped back. His body language reeked of confidence, but his blood betrayed his true feelings.

She stood, slowed by weakness but fast enough that he would only just catch her movement. "You're early," she smiled, a wide smile that bared her teeth and small fangs, "I was expecting you this evening."

She saw that he was calculating something- possibly a battle plan or some other offence. "You saw me rest and decided to disturb me? How rude."

Her eyes wandered over his body. It was scarred, many bite marks ardorning his arms, their silvery presence making Vanessa shake her head. "Hunter, my dear Hunter," she tutted, "Didn't your mother teach you manners?"

She walked, slowly and meaningfully, up and down her shed. "This generation, they are so very rude. Not like other times. You should have seen the 11th Century. I was in England then. People were politer, and men were such gentlemen."

She was bored with the silence and asked a direct question to induce an answer. "Say something. Why are you here?"

Vanessa knew the answer, of course. But she was curious to see what he would say.

Torsten looked into the blue green eyes so pale that they appeared to glow. He was acutely aware of her physical presence and part of him screamed to be allowed to acknowledge and embrace that primal part of him.

Breasts so perfect and firm that one could easily imagine themselves, suckling and biting them deriving and giving pleasure in the primordial act of reproduction. But breath never stirred them; that realization shocked him back to the here and now.

Raising his crucifix from his neck, Torsten hissed, "I am here to finish what God intended hundreds of years ago: YOUR DEATH!"

Vanessa snarled, covering her eyes from the sight of the crucifix. She hissed back at him, fury filling her.

"The nerve of you!" She closed her eyes, her knowledge of her hideaway vast enough that she knew exactly where a rake stood. She grabbed at it and swiped, hitting flesh and causing the Hunter to cry out in pain.

She needed to surprise him; she knew that he was expecting her to be on the defence. Going against her instincts she reached forward, opening her eyes briefly to see where the offensive item. She pushed forward, knocking him to the ground, clutching the crucifix.

It burned.

There was no other pain like it- a searing white-hot pain that ripple through not only her hand but her entire body. She wrestled him for it, each second multiplying the ache inside her. She finally held it, and as soon as she got it she threw it out of the window.

Her hands still burned.

He pushed her off of him, and she snarled. He possibly had the same strength as her at the moment, but at least they were on even terms since that dreaded cross was out of the way.

"Foolish human!" she shrieked.

She charged again, teeth bared, fangs visible, aiming at the Hunter's neck.

The blood sucker did about the last thing he would have expected.

It charged.

Grasping the crucifix the vampire tried to wrest it from Torsten's hands. The sick sweet smell of burning flesh filled the small shed as they rolled around, bodies crushed tight against each other, fighting for control of the crucifix.

In some obscene parody of rolling in the hay, part of Torsten's mind registered the taut feel of her body against his, the softness of her breast against his chest. In a moment of fear he discovered he liked the feel of a woman.

Shock froze his body long enough for the vampire to gain control of the crucifix and throw it out the window.

Then teeth bared she charged again. Torsten barely gained enough calm to duck, absorbing the impact of her charge with balls of his feet as he rolled backward, and launched her toward the door.

Twisting like a cat falling the vampire altered her trajectory enough to hit the door frame instead of the door. The small building shuddering dangerously under the impact.

With the vampire between him and the door, Torsten turned and ran for the window, intent on jumping out of it.

Vanessa was flying through the air, hurtling towards the door. Time slowed; she could see that if she continued the way she was going she would break through the door and into the sunlight- to her death. She twisted as she flew, managing to crash her back against the frame of the door instead. It hurt, but it sure as hell beat burning to death.

She stood immediately, protecting the door, staring at her prey. His eyes flicked briefly to the window she threw the cross out of. He wanted to escape through it.

He did a run up, and made to barge out of it. If he broke the glass any further, the sunlight would flood into her safe haven and destroy her. He didn't know that she knew of his plan, and so he didn't expect to have his escape action intercepted.

She had lunged, while he was midflight, and they both landed in a heap on the wooden ground. The rake Vanessa had thrown to the side moments earlier made the Hunter's fall painful, and as he closed his eyes in pain Vanessa wasted no time.

She bit him, right in the jugular.

"Made it" Torsten thought as his feet left the floor of the shed, his body hurtling to the window. Perhaps he could win twice in one move, escape her, and flood the shed with enough sunlight to kill her at the same time. Stretching for the freedom of sunlight, he never saw the missile that was aimed at him.

The vampire hit him in the right shoulder, rotating his body, knocking out of the air and onto the floor with a punishing thump. The breath knocked out of him, Torsten wrapped his hands around her neck and was pushing when his body froze.

Pure ecstatic bliss tore through his body as the vampire's teeth sank into his neck. His cock hardened instantly and the first orgasm came a mere moment later as his hands moved from her thin neck to her lush black hair. Craning his head to the side, Torsten gave himself to her, his hips gyrating against her thigh, grinding his cock and balls against her.

As the orgasm passed, Torsten kept gyrating, his libido alive like it had never been up to this moment, whispered with a need foreign to him, "Oh fuck me," as the vampire sucked greedily at is neck.

Vampires, being purely gluttonous creatures, take more pleasure from a feed that is unnecessary than one that is needed. And so, as Vanessa fed from her Hunter, the level of pleasure she gave and received were both very high. She groaned, as his hands moved to her hair, his fingers raking desperately through her long and layered locks.

Vanessa started to feel herself come- she purred loudly and pushed her hips down on him as she drank. His neck was at a better angle now; she could adjust her head and take more of him. Her body shuddered and then found rhythm with his, soon they were movig together, driving each other to the limits of physical pleasure.

She almost forgot who he was to her has he trembled and whispered lust-filled somethings into the air around them. He would soon die, and she didn't want that. She pulled away from him, before he would die from her feed.

"Killing you would be too easy, my Hunter. A more suitable punishment for you would be to live the life of those you destroy."

With that she ran her teeth along her forearm, cutting her skin and drawing blood. She pushed her arm to his lips, using her other hand to force his mouth open. In his weak, near-death state, it was too easy for her to force him to drink from her.

His eyes screamed in protest, but Vanessa let her blood drip onto his tongue. She knew that she would taste repulsive to him, but as time passed, and more of her essense passed through his lips, he was eagerly drinking from her.

Vanessa threw her head back, the rare thrill of being fed from making her thrash in indescribable ecstacy. "Yes," she moaned, "embrace the Change,"

Their legs wrapped around each other's left leg, Torsten and the vampire dry humped each other as she continued to drain his body of blood.

Torsten's thunderous heart beat, strong and proud, withered under the loss of blood. Beats getting weaker and weaker, the time between them extending with each passing moment. She was saying something incomprehensible, choosing the moment that his over taxed cock and balls decided to blow their second load into his pants of the afternoon.

Two more orgasms than he had had in the previous ten years, ever since picking up the mantle of hunter, and pursuing vampires across the world, no matter where they may hide. His passport replaced every three or so years due to activity.

Those hunts, those years of service to his Lord played before his mind's eye at this last moment. As the last images of his life, the vampire now slaying him, played out and faded to black, his heart fluttered to a stop.

Red and metallic sensations flooded his tongue, his mouth, his life. At first realization, "BLOOD" Torsten tried turning his head, a firm hand held his chin forcing his face up, forced his jaws to open and closed, forced his throat to accept damnation.

Then with a jolt, Torsten's arms reached up. grasping the source of blood, source of life, the source of ecstasy, and latched his mouth around the wound, drinking deeper and deeper.

No longer accepting what was being given to him by, Vanessa, Torsten was taking. Some of her memories flashed through his mind, too many to recognize, too jumbled to remember. Shockingly he figured out she was thousands of years old, not much younger than the destruction of the second temple.

With that age came power. Her blood viscous to the point of frozen molasses, great globs of life and power, Torsten sucked in, like a babe at its first teat. Power coursed through his veins, a power that God had merely promised, this ancient vampire delivered.

Vanessa's eyes rolled back as he fed from her. His arms were on hers, clutching at it, and his tongue lapped at her wound. She was soon feeling the effects of being drained, and so she pulled away. His eyes held need as she did so, and she laughed.

Through their blood bond, Vanessa could recall some of her Hunter's-- Torsten's -- memories. She saw how he had murdered Gersten, and anger coursed through her.

She would wait for him to realize that he had just drank, and enjoyed, her blood. He was still dazed from the aftermath of the Embrace, which was to be expected. Though, the bloodlust was only the first step of the Change; he would feel the rest of the attributes of her kind after the sun had set.

She stood from him, licking and sealing the wound on her arm. She watched Torsten's expression go from relaxed, to afraid, to confused. She smiled wickedly. "I'm sure you have a few questions to ask me. Though I say this now: try to leave this shed and you will surely perish."

Torsten stood uneasily, his balance off kilter. He looked at Vanessa, and hatred boiled through his veins. Unsteadily he placed a hand along the wall trying to keep upright, so hard...so tired...

Rapid fire, Torsten asked, "What did you do to me? Why do you live in a shed? Did you know Jesus?"

His mind clearly not in right order, his body betrayed him as well and Torsten fell backward and moaned as he landed with a thud. Raising one hand he looked at it curiously, as if seeing it for the first time.

Vanessa watched Torsten fall in amusement and humoured him by answering his questions.

"What did I do to you? Well, I changed you. You were, shall we say, otherwise entertained when I was explaining it to you. I punished you, by making you one of my kind."

"I live in here because, before you, nobody would disturb me here." She watched him look at his hand, his gaze shifty and unfocused.

"And yes, I met your Jesus" she spat the word out. "I was young then. Foolish." she left it at that, not wanting to speak about that aspect of her past.

"Just wait until sunset, my young fledgling," she taunted. "The full truth of what I have done will cripple you then,"

"Tired, so tired," Torsten thought. With an effort unlike any physical activity before, he pushed himself up to a sitting position. The wet mess of his pants annoyed him, positive proof of his body's betrayal.

Leaning against the wall, the sun's heat mere inches away raised the hair on Torsten's head like nothing had done to him since his first encounter with a vampire. Each kill Torsten got smarter and better, until today and her beauty mesmerized him, dulled his thinking made him want to see her.

Her beauty led to his death.

So much he wanted to say, so much pain he wanted to inflict on her, to kill her, but all the same he was far too tired.

Torsten's eyes shot one last glare at his murderer and snapped shut, leaving him defenseless as he slept the sleep of the dead.

Vanessa smiled, as Torsten was overcome by the weight of the First Rest. With the transformation his body was undergoing, it was too difficult for his mind to stay alert. For a while, she watched him rest, noticing not for the first time the strange and masculine beauty his face bore. She stared, and stared, for a few hours forgetting the fury that consumed her from the inside.

She frowned at the state of disrepair her haven had become. It was once a place of rustic beauty, but over the decade she had spent at this cemetery its presentation had deteriorated. It was now in tatters, and Vanessa wanted to move.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the distinct feeling of the sun setting. She could feel it's progression- it empowered her, bringing her out of the puny weakness and into strength. Though, it also meant that Torsten could escape, but where would he go? What would he do? Without her, he would starve and die.

And with that thought, his eyes flickered open.

There she was, standing like a vision, a slight frown on her face. The sun was down, Torsten knew. He could feel it as sure as he could feel the hardening in his crotch while looking at Vanessa.

"The bitch," was his first thought

"My love," the second.

He could feel her ancient blood course through his veins, idly wondering how it did so if his heart no longer beat. Standing up quickly, Torsten lost his balance as his mind could not keep up with his bodies new speed, falling face first onto the floor.

Forcing himself to slow down, Torsten stood again and walked unsteadily to Vanessa. Clenching his fist, Torsten raised it to slam into Vanessa's face, instead he opened it, cupped her face a moment and then kissed her. A deep probing kiss, his mouth and tongue ravishing hers.

His body automatically responded his hardness growing down his leg.

Breaking the kiss he looked at Vanessa as the first pang of hunger, unlike any hunger he knew before struck him, doubling him over in pain.

Vanessa frowned at him, watching Torsten try to get up. Instead of laughing at him, which she usually would've done, she found herself pitying him. She shook it off; he was the enemy.

As he arose and walked to her slowly, his fists balled and an angry expression on his face. Vanessa growled, ready to strike at him, but instead he cupped her face softly, pulling her in for a kiss. It was deep, and he was searching- for what she didn't know.

And then his thirst hit him, he doubled over in pain. Seeing as he was almost completely empty, the pain he felt was deep to his stomach. She winced- their blood bond made her feel a fraction of his pain.

"It's your thirst," she whispered. "You're thirsty,"

She didn't know what made her act so kindly to him. She had meant to torture him, to make him regret ever killing her friend's mate. But instead, she was showing him mercy-something she had never given ever before in her second life.

The knowledge disturbed her. She didn't know what to do.

Torsten fell to his knees, a painful groan escaping his lips. "Help me. Vanessa, please, what do I..."

Torsten stopped as a new sound thundered in his ears. The sound of a heart beat. Not far away, at the edge of the cemetery, and it was coming closer. A strong heart beating calmly as its owner walked through the graves toward the shed.

Torsten burst out of the shed and ran with blinding speed straight to the heart beat which never changed as Torsten knocked its owner down. A Polizei. A policeman. "Sorry, but I have to." Torsten said.

Instinct took Torsten over as his fangs appeared and he dropped onto his victim, tearing into his throat, sucking the life from him.

Vanessa was torn at the sight of her Hunter on his knees, groaning in obvious pain. She could hear a human approaching, and as his words trailed off it was apparent that Torsten did too. He ran, and she followed close behind him, to the source of the scent.

There was a psychological pain in his eyes as he apologized to the human before biting down. In his rush and inexperience, he made a mess, blood splattering, wasted on the gravel.

When he had finished, he turned to Vanessa. His expression was that of a burning man; so much grief and self-hate that made Vanessa want to soothe him. And so she did.

She peeled him away from the human's body, gathering him into her lap as she sat, running her fingers through his hair, whispering shushing noises into his hair. She rocked him back and forth, and wondered not for the first time how well she would have been at mothering had she not been Turned.

It was very far from over though. A newborn vampire needed multiple feeds on the first night in order for it to survive. And so, Torsten would have to feed again. He needed to get over his morality.

"My dear," she said, words pouring out before she could think, "it is far from over tonight."

Torsten felt Vanessa's hands pulling him from the now dead police officer. The extraordinary hunger now slacked momentarily. He was sitting on her lap and she was trying to settle his nerves. caressing him, cooing for him, whispering to him.

Though the tone was meant to soothe the words chilled him to the core. "it is far from over tonight."

As she said it, Torsten felt the truth of what she was saying. The hunger was building again. A little slower, but building and he knew that it would not be long before he would be paralyzed by the pain and ravenous hunger.

Looking into her blue green eyes, Torsten wondered a moment if his eyes seemed to glow like hers. "I can't kill another innocent." As he finished his stomach contracted, the pain ripping through his body, deep inside he knew he would kill at least the next person as well.

Standing up Torsten said, "Follow me." Turning he ran, faster than he ever expected a 'living' thing to be able to run through the cemetery, down alleys and across fences until he found what he was looking for.

It was a park that closed at sunset, the drug dealers and their 'customers' took over and had run of. As they arrived, the hunger set in again, doubling Torsten over again. Heart beats abounded, all over the place scores of them, in varying rhythms and speeds.

Torsten stumbled along to the first person in his path. Grabbing up the young woman, his fangs bared again, and Torsten sank his teeth into her throat cutting off the scream of pain as he took his fill. Blood squirted everywhere coating him in a sea of red.

Dropping the dead drug user to the ground Torsten looked at Vanessa, his eyes haunted by this new existence. "How many more must I kill before I am no longer hungry?"

Vanessa followed again, hating this new, dreaded feeling of helplessness. She watched her Hunter feed again, and despite the spilt blood she could not interfere. It was not her place.

His eyes were heavy, with his guilt and his humanity and his grief. She could not bear it. She could not look at him, not while his face cause these foreign emotions to emerge.

"Tonight, you may kill many more, or only a few. It depends on you, how you embrace the Embrace. But you will never be fully sated, our kind never stops yearning for more,"

Vanessa chanced a brief glance at her Hunter. He was still wearing the same expression. Pain. Something rippled through her, a strange emotion. Sympathy.

"Hunter," she whispered, "I am so very sorry,"

And it was true. For once she, Vanessa, was sorry. She was sorry for herself, sorry for her Hunter, sorry for bringing him into this world. She should've just let him die- a life for a life had always been enough. Why did she have to take matters into her own hands?

And then she soothed him again, unable to let him suffer as she just stood there.

Torsten looked at Vanessa a crushing moment for him. Embrace damnation and save lives? The logic of that was mind boggling, the mere consideration of it causing his hunger to return again, not as fiercely but back none the less.

"So the sooner I feed, before I get hungry the better?" Torsten asked.

Vanessa merely nodded in response to his question and Torsten grabbed the next woman and bit into her neck, far more gently, slowly applying more and more pressure until he felt the fangs sink into her blood vessel. Unlike his previous kills, this woman moaned and grasped his neck holding him tight. After a moment or two he could feel her heart beat and stopped as it fluttered.

His own body reacted to the sensations as his senses flared smelling the woman's need between her legs. His cock hardened and lengthened in his trousers again, so many hardons that he had lost count of them.

Torsten lowered her to the ground and turned to Vanessa his own needs now evident, "How does one hide the bite marks?"

Vanessa watched him feed again. This time, as his thirst was not so strong, he didn't rush. He took things slowly, and managed to pleasure the woman he was feeding from. She was shocked. He was a natural.

It had taken Vanessa many weeks to master the aspect of pleasure-feeding. It was difficult to learn, especially on one's own, but Tolsten had no trouble with it.

"He's a natural," she whispered aloud to herself. The fact that he was so good at feeding so soon was quite ironic. He had lived to rid the world of vampires and now he was one, a talented one at that.

Once he had finished with the woman, he turned to her. "Hide bite marks?" she asked, "Why would you want to?"

Vanessa sighed. "If one absolutely had to, they would slit their throat, disguising it as a suicide. But why hide it? Vampire attacks are common and accepted in European culture,"