The Best Way to Kill Your Boyfriend

Death

An hour later, after Jake went home, I got my dinner. Hunting well away from where Jake lived, I felt relieved that I had managed not to kill him. As I was sucking my meal dry, the clear distinction between human and vampire struck me. I sat back, letting the drained body fall. For the first time, I really looked at my prey, the human who would never have a life because of my thirst - because of me.

The human I had killed and feasted on was a woman. Maybe 30 years old. Blonde hair, green eyes. She was pretty, or would have been alive. The most striking thing about her corpse, however, was the terror on her face. I didn't know what to feel.

I ran.

Leaving the body behind me, I ran back to my home, the hidden haven for my kind, the secret palace of the race I ruled. I had gone back to do something I never did.

Look in the mirror.

Every vampire, whether traditional or daylighter, was beautiful. Absolutely stunning. Me somehow more than most. The white marble skin of my face was like the moon against the black, starless night tumbling down my back in the form of silky ringlets. I was tall and willowy. The only source of unease was my eyes. Blood-red. But I wasn't looking at the mirror to satisfy vanity.

For the first time, I saw myself how humans, with their sightless eyes and dull senses, saw me when I was bearing down upon them, my teeth inches away from their throats.

Death.

When I looked at myself from this point of view, I saw death incarnate. Beautiful and deadly. Blood stained my lips, matching my eyes, which were both tempting and terrifying. The midnight of my hair was the blackest, most forbidding abyss of Hell, speckled with more blood like red stars... or sparks.

No wonder they were always scared.

As I looked at this demon that was me, the reality of the situation I was in hit me. 

I was a vampire. Jake was human.

And that strange caring I felt for him... longing was starting to mix in with it. Not the longing for his blood. Longing for him. To know him. To be with him.

He had a girlfriend, a human girlfriend named Lexi who evidently loved him. No doubt she was pretty and kind. And he had given her up for a vampire that he didn't even know.

The sun rose outside my window, and I turned away from the mirror, from the being of death inside it. I washed all traces of blood from my body and went downstairs to another day of frustration, thinking of tonight, when I would meet Jake in the park again. I swore to myself that no matter what, I would keep Jake safe from everything. I was in too deep, and I didn't think I could bear to have him hurt. Not now. I would keep him safe from everything. Even me. 

Even death.