Vampire Stories part III

I'm standing in the middle of the dance floor. Multi-coloured lights flicker around me and flash across my face. In front of me dances the girl. She is young, but on the border of becoming a woman. Her body is strong and firm, every movement she makes is full of confidence - a challenge to the some of the deepest desires of men.

My body aches for her touch, and with the dream that after this night we might meet again - that she might reach a deeper instinct within me, and provide me with comfort and protection. Her hips move sensuously; her whole body changes shape in fluid motions. Her back arches inwards. There are tiny soft hairs on the back of her neck.

I stand motionless, dark and handsome. I can change my appearance now. Maybe she would even be attracted to me. But it does not last long. A matter of hours, and my face would crumble; dissolve like a rubber mask, and the desire she had for me would disappear, and she would wish to escape me as soon as she could.

I was once a human.

I am a human. But sometimes I am not.

She has been looking at me. She smiles down at the floor. We are closer. I run my hands close to her body, not daring to touch her. She flicks her hair around; her elegant neck, the smooth stretch of exposed skin between the base of her neck and her perfectly rounded shoulder.

I can smell her perfume. And underneath it I can smell her. My chest aches. She turns to look at me; our noses are almost touching. She holds the look then turns away. She presses her hips into mine and continues to dance.

That is all I remember.



At first the screams were not loud enough to drown out the music. They mixed together, like water and blood. Then people started panicking, shoving their way outwards to get away from the centre. More people started screaming. People are pushed over; the volume of the music suddenly reduces.

In the centre of the dance-floor, the creature continues to drink the blood of the woman lying limply in his arms, aware of the movement around it, but intent on its gorging. It can smell her more intensely than ever. Her head is a mass of dark hair and blood close to its cheek. Someone nearby slips and falls, and its head snaps upwards, red eyes shining in the gloom, fangs sharp, blood spilling over its grotesque pale skin. It snarls, warning them away from its meal.

Terrified faces look back in horror. Hands stretch for the exits. Out of the crowd, three bouncers emerge, pushing punters out of the way to reach the centre of the commotion. They are heavily-built, anonymous men, wearing dark uniforms and earpieces. Two of the men falter when they see the creature and its victim, but the third - with a bull-like neck - continues forward and swings for it.

The creature grabs the hand, stopping it dead. It crushes the big man's fist and slashes its claws across his stomach, opening four gaping wounds in his belly. It throws the man across the entire room. He crashes, back first, into one of the bars at the other end, flops to the floor and lies still.