The Eternal Bloodlines: Shattered Reflections

Chapter Five: Dark Guardian Angel

I stepped out of the bar and into the chilled night air, the storm roaring overhead. Pulling my coat further around me, I turned and headed down the street, wandering aimlessly along the darkened paths. I honestly didn't know where my feet would lead me and I honestly didn't care.

The sounds of the city's nightlife soon reached me and I found myself walking into a neon lit street lined with clubs and bars. I immersed myself in the crowd, walking amongst their warm bodies and their loud, mismatched talking. The din of voices was strangely soothing, more so than I could have imagined before.

As I was walking, I turned down through an open air bar. A whole bunch of people were talking and moving around, a cacophony of human sounds and scents overwhelming me as I passed them. A few guys started to pay attention to me, their eyes roaming across the full shape of my body. I just ignored them and continued on.

I turned down an alleyway, my keener hearing picking up the sound of five sets of feet following on behind. I didn't pay them any attention, in no way interested in getting into it with anyone, but I knew that they weren't going to give me the option. They were going to follow me until they had me cornered, then take what they wanted from me. I could almost smell the lust on them. And for a few moments, a part of me was willing to let them.

"Hey, cute girl," one of them called out to me, his voice arrogant and ringing with a drunk slur. "Where you going? Huh?"

I ignored him and kept walking, the rage rising inside me as I quashed my self-destructive desires, my blood boiling in my veins as the urge to kill them rose up. I knew better than to do that, though. I couldn't hurt them, even though they had a bad attitude. It would have been too easy to just spring forward and tear these five gangbangers apart. They wouldn't be able to survive an attack from a vampire. Even a young one. There was no way. But I wouldn't stoop to that level.

As I continued down the street and into the crowd, I knew they were still following me. I could smell them over the rest of the humans, my nostrils already accustomed to their scents. They reeked of booze and arrogance, their attitudes stinking as badly as their bodies. Their intentions were clear, the lust clinging to them the way flies cling to garbage.

All this restraint I was conjuring was starting to take its toll on me. My throat was burning so badly and I knew that I was going to need some blood very soon. There was only one place I was going to be able to get it. Or, more accurately, that I was willing to go to get it.

I made my way towards the nearest blood bank in the area. On the way I made sure to lose my new fan club, ditching them six streets from where I was going and circling around a few times to be certain. I felt a small amount of pride at that tiny accomplishment.

The blood bank I went to was on one of the little streets in the city's northern districts, one of the colder, greyer streets in the wide expanse of this concrete maze. The building was small, tucked away between an adult bookstore with three bright pink Xs, and a tattoo parlour that had been shut down for years. It had tinted windows that were shielded with curtains, its grey brick walls dirtier than my apartment building.

There was no evening access for the public in this place. The only other way in was down an alley running on the other side of the adult bookstore, which came around all three stores behind a large office building. There was a door through there that led down to the blood bank in the basement. I cringed at the idea of facing the staff member that would surely be on duty. People always looked at me weird when I asked for blood.

That alleyway was a cold, dark and barren place, the gentle pattering of rain hitting the concrete harmlessly doing nothing to improve it. The droplets were faintly cool on my icy skin, only the pressure of their touch enough to make me barely acknowledge their existence.