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Chapter IV

Stories

She leapt off the ground and soared fifty feet into the air.  She was used to these things by now, the perks of being what she was.  She landed lightly without a sound and continued walking on top of the roof.  Vesper had recently "moved into" an abandoned firehouse by the bay.  He liked it because no humans came within a mile of it from every side.  Plus it had an amazing lake view.
She leapt again and landed on the next roof.  It had stopped raining by now.  The sun would be rising soon.
After a few more jumps, she was outside the door to Vesper's place.  She silently slithered inside the roof entrance and glanced around.  It was dark and quiet.  And empty, or appeared so at least.  She closed the door and took a few steps inside.
"Let me ask you something, Dawn…"  Vesper said conversationally.  Aurora didn't move as her eyes roved the giant room, searching for his figure.  "Do you regret what you are?"
Vesper landed with a quiet whoosh behind her and she spun around.  She stared at him.
"No more than I regret being born the first time."  She murmured as he slowly starting advancing forward on her.
Vesper barked a laugh and threw his head back.
"The government would love you.  You're an expert at diverting."  He said, cocking his head to the side.
"No more than you."  She said quietly.
"True…"  He murmured, talking another step toward her.  His eyes roved her up and down slowly.  She turned suddenly away from him so that her back was facing him.
"Do you wish that I hadn't changed you?  That you were back in that house with lovable Irma and Charlie…?"  He whispered into her ear, his chin resting on her shoulder.  She felt like shivering.  But with this cold and unmoving body she would never shiver again.  She was reminded of the night his fangs had pierced her flesh and he had turned her into what she was now.  The same thing he was.  A monster.  The thing that goes bump in the night.  A real flesh and blood boogeyman.  Evil [by definition].
She turned slowly back to face him.
"Does it bother you that I don't fear you, Vesper?"  She murmured to him, turning his own weapon against him.  His eyes flashed with the slightest bit of anger.  "That I don't cower at your voice?  Melt at your touch?"  She raised a hand and stroked his cheek with the back of it.  He flinched back slowly, consciously.
"You don't fear anything."  He muttered.  "So why should I be any exception?"
"Because in your mind you are the exception.  You are god."  She took a tiny step closer to him.  "I remember you telling me you could make me a god that night, Vesper.  Because that's what you consider yourself."  Her lips turned up ever so slightly with pleasure at her ability to unnerve him.  She had watched him so long without saying a word.  For weeks she had sat by and watched him toy with her.  Now it was her turn to toy with him.  Now that she had learned his game, learned his moves like a chess player plays the person in front of him.
"Oh, Vesper."  She said chuckling and patting his cheek twice.  "I'm not getting to you, am I?"  She smiled and turned away.  She walked to the other side of the room without as much as a glance back at him.  She opened the back door and walked outside.  The sky was darker than pitch black.  Dawn was coming.

She jumped up and landed on the second story deck.  She sat in one of the rotting, abandoned chairs and relaxed.  Not that she was tired.  You don't get tired when you're a vampire.
She sighed.

Vampire…

She remembered the stories she used to read constantly about all kinds of creatures.  She had always hoped on some level that they were true.  Real.  Maybe that was why she read them.  With Harry Potter she had waited her whole 11nth birthday long for that letter with the emerald green ink to come zooming in to take her away from her life that was ironically quite similar to Harry's.  With Chronicles of Narnia she had wished to open her closet door to the wonderful land of mythical creatures named Tumnis and so on.   With Lord of the Rings she had wished to fall asleep and wake up in Middle Earth and fight the fight along with Frodo and Sam and Aragorn.  She sighed.

She knew breathing was useless.  She still sighed.  She closed her eyes.
Vesper would be angry with her for days for her stunt inside.  Luckily, all that implied was his absence.  He would leave her alone and go into the city every night to kill.  To feed.  It was all so simple to him…  He called it feeding.  To him that's all it was.  A chicken to a human.  She still couldn't get past the word 'murder'.  She was still too fresh, too young.  She still looked at the humans like equals, her peers.  Or at least that's what Vesper kept saying.
Vesper had been born in 1721 to a preacher.  He had been twenty when he was turned.  Though he looked quite younger.  Yet he had an air to him that suggested he was much older than he appeared.
His father had been cruel, he had told her.  Back in the beginning.  Her memory swirled back to that night…

He had bitten her.  She had lay limp in his marble arms until she had died.  She still remembered the sensation.  Dying.  It had been strange.  Unlike what people talked of.  Humans.  No bright lights or flashbacks to wonderful childhood memories.  Not that she had had any to flashback to anyway…  No.  None of that had happened.  It had actually been quite simple.  It was pain…  Lots of pain.  The dying didn't hurt.  That was just Vesper bleeding her dry.  The dying was close to being squeezed but that wasn't quite right either.  All she remembered was waiting while he drank her warm blood and then she felt her breathing lesson, her heart beat slow, the life inside her fading.  She still thought every thought, felt every feeling.   It took longer than she had expected.  Her heartbeats seemed to drag on forever so that by the time her heart finally did pump for the last time, it was almost a relief.  Though she hadn't been scared.  She had almost welcomed death.  In a way…
Then suddenly she was flying.  He had her in his arms, cradled as if a child, held close as if loved.  The transformation had been slow.  And agonizing.  She had screamed and shrieked, begged for it to end.  Vesper had sat, still as stone, watching her pitilessly as she had writhed in horrid pain for hours.  After she had quieted down hours later (she had learned; screaming did nothing), Vesper had murmured to her in a soothing and almost comforting way.
"I remember it myself.  It's the clearest memory.  Always.  For all of us.  As if remembering the pain will somehow make what we are less evil."  Vesper had chuckled quietly.  "I had been a young boy, set on my way to becoming a preacher myself when I was turned.  My father was a preacher.  A cruel one.  He had beaten us every day, telling my sisters and I that as long as we were sinners, we shall be treated as such.  Mother got the same treatment; we heard her screams at night.

"He "heard" god.  He said he whispered to him.  "Sometimes he'd lock one of us in the closet or basement.  He said the lord had told him to.  Until one night, a beautiful young man had walked into our small town and changed everything forever.  Everyone went to church in 1721.  And he – his name was Lucian – did not."  Vesper had laughed again, pausing as he remembered.  She had been so entranced in his story, at awe by his velvet voice, that she had almost forgotten her pain at that point.  "My father had visited him, to "give him the word of god" which was translated to threaten him by death (the church was above the authorities then) if he didn't attend service.  I'll never forget how he was when he returned.  His eyes were glossy, not the cruel, beady little things they were before.  He announced that Lucian was not from here and that he didn't attend services.  With that he had walked away."  Vesper had smiled, almost amused, almost in utter admiration.  "Lucian seemed to charm every human in that village.  I had watched in awe as he always got his way.  I was praying in church (as my father had instructed) when Lucian walked inside one day, silent."  Vesper had started whispering then, his eyes very far away as he was transported to a different century, a different life Aurora could and would never comprehend.  "I was on my knees, whispering, when he walked up behind me.  I still don't know how long he stood there watching me.  But when I finally looked around, there he was.  As glorious as a god, as much knowledge behind those eyes as a dozen libraries and more comprehension no books could hold.  He had smiled at me.  "You shall become a preacher, like your father?"  He asked me, his eyes seeing so much more than any humans ever could.  "Yes, sir."  I had promptly answered, quickly getting to my feet.  "And you want to become a preacher, Vesper?"  He had whispered to me.  So much in that question that I hadn't seen.  I had not known what to say.  I had never asked myself what I wanted.  Nor had my father or anyone else I'd ever known.  I stood there, mouth open wide as I tried to answer him.  Lucian had laughed.  "It was just a question."  He told me.  He had walked forward and put a hand on my shoulder.  It was so strange.  His hand was so cold.  No matter how hard I had tried to hold my tongue, it slipped out.  "How do I become like you?"  I blurted.  Lucian had looked me deep in the eyes.  I could never have understood the true meaning behind that simple question."  Vesper had paused.
He had glanced down at Aurora who was staring back.  He smiled.  "He broke into our house that night, just as my father was whipping my mother because she hadn't made dinner right.  He had tied her to their bed, stripped her naked and was whipping her.  The only reason I know that was because I saw it.  Lucian killed them first.  He broke both his arms and legs before he snapped my fathers neck.  I heard as he tortured him until he begged for his life, told Lucian to kill his wife, his children, if he'd just spare his life.  I don't know why I didn't run.  I should have.  He had killed my mother humanely at least.  Snapped her neck after my fathers without hesitation.  He went after my sisters after that."  Vesper's eyes were a hundred years away as he watched his sisters deaths.
"He drank their virgin blood 'til there wasn't a single drop left.  Then he opened the door to my room.  I hadn't moved, I hadn't run.  I hadn't come to try to save my sisters lives.  I had listened as their screams had slowly died out.  I hadn't been afraid, as he'd stared down at me.  He stepped forward toward me, asked me one question:  "Do you want to be like me?"  He had asked me."  Vesper breathed, his eyes lost in his story.  "I…  I smiled."  Vesper's voice cracked.  "I smiled at him.  And then I nodded.  It was death or eternal damnation.  I would have chosen it anyway.  I always would have."  Vesper had finished and looked down at Aurora.  His eyes had moved to the skylight and saw the greenish tint in the sky.  "It's almost over."  He had whispered.  And he was right.  It didn't hurt quite so much anymore…  Her fingertips didn't burn any longer…

She shook her head.  She was brought back to the moldy chair and abandoned firehouse.  The sky showed a pinkish tinge.  Dawn.
She sighed once more.  Vesper would be hidden away in the basement by now.  He hated daytime.

Vesper hated being human.  Being vulnerable.
She had used to like the sun on her face, the wind in her hair.  But she wouldn't ever get to feel those feeling again.  She would never shiver either.  Her heart would never beat again.
She stood up from the chair and walked to the edge of the balcony with no railing.  She breathed deeply in, smelling the water before her deeply.  Everything in front of her was basked in a veil of soft rosy pink from the sky.  She exhaled and fell.

Chapter V

The Vampire Bat

Vesper lounged in an armchair, flipping through television stations so fast there wasn't any sound.  Aurora sat cross-legged on the floor in a corner.  She scribbled away in a leather-bound journal.  Vesper rearranged himself uncomfortably.  His hand holding the remote fell and the TV stopped on a children's channel.  He sighed.  Aurora didn't look up.  Vesper's eyes strayed over to Aurora just like a bored child's.
"Dawn!!"  He whined, scrunching his nose.  She didn't look up.
"What is it, Vesper?"  She asked in a monotone voice.
"I'm bored."  He said, pouting.  He rested his chin on the side of the armchair and stared at her.  "What is it that you're writing about all the time?"  He groaned.
"Things."  She murmured.  Vesper was quiet for a moment.  His eyes strayed around the room.
"I'm bored."  He repeated.  Aurora didn't say anything.  "C'mon, Dawn!  Let's go hunting!"  He said excitedly.
"We just hunted day before yesterday.  The cops are getting suspicious."  She murmured, entranced in her writing.  Vesper made a face.
"No, I hunted day before yesterday."  He paused, waiting.  "The cops don't know anything."  Vesper said dismissively.  "And besides!  Even if they do catch us, we can just eat them too!"  He grinned.  Aurora didn't react.  Vesper's face fell.
"You're so boring…"  He said, annoyed.
"I thought I was interesting?  Or wasn't that why you changed me?"  She muttered.
"Oh, lord, you're never letting that go are you?"  Vesper said exhaustedly.  Aurora smirked.  "C'mon, Dawn."
Aurora was quiet for a second.
"No."
Vesper made a face and turned back to the TV.  He hit a button with a long white finger and it changed to a news channel.  He threw the switch down.
"Luckily, the little girl and her little kitten both made it out safe and unharmed."  The news reporter smiled.
"Jesus Christ…"  Vesper moaned.  Aurora smiled.
"Police commissioner Andrews made an official statement today on the murders by the serial killer known now as the "Vampire Bat of Chicago"—"
"They couldn't just say "Vampire"?  It would have been so much more ironic!"
"—because of the exsanguination of the victims.  Andrews said quote, "So far this is the worst string of murders in Chicago's history with a total number 62 victims and counting.  Previously, the record was held by John Wayne Gacy who murdered a confirmed 33 young men and boys in the 70's."  The 62 murders have taken place over the course of 51 days which is an average of over one murder a day."  The reporter paused and shuffled his notes.  Aurora didn't want to look up.  She tried to block the reporter's voice from her mind.
"In the first 30 days there were only 19 murders, which suggest the murderer is getting more bold." The video of a woman's face flashed across the screen.  A park with lots of children were in the background.  "I won't let my kids out of my site.  Not until this madman is found and executed."
A mans face.  "Well, I definitely don't stop by the bar to get a drink after work anymore, that's for sure.  I mean, I got a family."
Aurora's gaze rose to the screen on their own accord to stare at the average looking man with worried dull brown eyes.  The reporter came back on.
"Victims range from 58 year old Barbara Miller, a retired English teacher."
The smiling face of a motherly looking woman holding a young boy flashed across.
"Sam Daniels, 39, writer for the Times."
A man at a party, raising a drink.
"Fourteen year old Abigail York."
The smiling, chubby face of a sweet looking girl.  Aurora closed her eyes.  She felt Vesper's eyes on her and she stood up.  She walked silently across the room and walked down the stairs to the basement just as Angela Simone, mother of four, age 32, flashed across the screen.

Vesper's eyes tracked her as she floated across the room, her eyes a million miles away.  His eyes flashed back to the screen.  He grinned.

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Her foot splashed into a puddle as she frantically ran down the alley between two buildings.  Her breaths came in sharp little squeaks of fear.  She had dropped her groceries a few blocks back when she had become certain someone was following her.  She knew she shouldn't have gone shopping this late.
The sun had set not ten minutes ago.  She thought she would be safe.  There was no one around.  She was alone.
She raced around the corner only to find it blocked by a fifteen foot high fence.  She skidded to a stop, sliding and falling, catching herself with her hand.  She whipped around, expecting to see her follower.  She panted as the alleyway continued to remain vacant except for her.  She got to her feet slowly and looked around.  No one.  She exhaled sharply with relief.  She had to get back to Joey…  She had left him alone.  She stared at the fence for a second, smiling at it.  She turned.
She would have screamed if she could have drawn breath.  A figure, their face hidden by a dark hood stood before her.  She scrambled back.  The figure didn't follow her.  She screamed as she felt herself come up against something hard and solid.  She turned again and saw another, their face obscured by a hood as well.  She looked from one to the other, crying out in fear.
"Do it!"  A high voice growled with relish.
"What do you want?"  She cried.  "Here!  Take my money!  Take whatever you want!"
"Dawn, do it."  The same voice whispered.  "I know you want to.  I can feel it inside you."  The voice laughed.  The figure walked forward, stood facing the other and whispered in the others ear.  The woman couldn't move from fright.
"This is who you are."  The voice whispered.  "I know you have it in you.  I know you'll make me proud."  He breathed.

The seconds ticked by.  The woman's eyes bored into where the eyes would be if she could see them on the figure facing her.  There was a grunt of anger and impatience.
The figure jumped forward.  The woman's screams erupted and echoed throughout the small alley.  The other figure stood absolutely still, watching.  Eventually the screams shut off and the woman's lifeless body fell onto the grungy floor.  The attackers head rose and their eyes met the others.  The hood fell back.  Vesper grinned.  Aurora stared emotionlessly back.  Vesper walked forward, stood inches before Aurora.  He smiled.
"Good job."  Vesper whispered to her as he wiped a drip of blood off Aurora's lips.

Chapter VI

Pain and Death and Fear

She lay on her back, her arms across her unmoving stomach.  Her black leather journal lay open on her stomach under her pale hands.  She had been watching the swirling clouds pass by for hours.  Her mind was clear as the fluffy grey puffs melted into different things to her wide reflective eyes.  At one point she saw Bobby, the dog that she had played with in one of her earliest foster homes.  He smiled down at her from the heavens.  She had only gotten to play with him for eight months before she had been ripped away and put into another home.
She saw a mouse, then a donut.  A smiley face, then a dagger.  Her brow had furrowed when her mind registered the dagger.  Then as soon as she realized what it was, it began to drip blood.  She sat up [when the urge and yearning for the hot liquid began to lick at her].

She didn't want to think about last night.  Oddly enough it didn't replay in her head like some nightmare.  It wasn't eating her up inside…  She wasn't…
Sorry.

She shook her head and put her face in her hands.  Had Vesper been right?  Was this only the start?  Would next time her stationary heart began to imaginary race?  Would her nonexistent breath start to accelerate?  Would she enjoy when the hot red liquid oozed down her throat?
Her hands fell.

Vesper had lived almost three centuries.  Hadn't he been a baby once just as he had called her?  Hadn't it once repulsed him too, the idea of dripping red blood?
But she was kidding herself…  The blood had never repulsed her.  It had always held an appeal for her since the moment she had awoken in this hard and cold body.
She opened her eyes and stared down at her pale and almost pearlescent hands.  Snow.  That was the comparison she made.  Her skin, the coldness, the colour, it reminded her of snow.  She reached up with a pale finger and gently touched a fang.  She could hide them if she wanted to.  Pull them up into her gums, like a snake.  But it was uncomfortable, like keeping your hand clenched closed.
In the beginning, she hadn't thought of all the things she would never do.  She hadn't cared.  She had always, since the moment she had woken, she had thought of herself as dead.  Her life over.  But if she were being honest with herself she would admit that her life had been over long before then…

It had become apparent to her really when Charlie had attacked her.  When she had fallen to the floor, he had come on top of her… unbuttoning his pants… telling her "You're gonna be a good girl after this."…  She had died long before that night.

So now, this new life, this new world, it didn't matter.  That was what Vesper had meant when he spoke of her not feeling fear.
"You don't fear anything."
It had been true.  She didn't fear anything because she couldn't fear anything.  The only things people and vampires alike fear is pain and death.  She had lived through every kind of pain this world had to offer.  She was not afraid of pain.  Death…  She had already died.  You can't fear death if you're already dead.

Vesper had learned to live this way so long ago…  Wouldn't she eventually too?

Aurora jumped from the roof onto the balcony and then down to the ground.  She walked through the door and didn't look at Vesper as she put her book away.  He was whittling a small block of dark wood with his fingernails.
"Aren't you going to ask me what I'm doing?"  Vesper said with a taunting smile.  Aurora stood up and turned to look at him.
"Don't you ever get tired of being a jackass?"  She said under her breath.  Vesper looked back at the wood and smiled.
"Nope.  Don't you ever get tired of being exceptionally boring?"  He replied.  Aurora walked over to the moldy coach with big tuffs of white filling leaking out.  She plopped down and started flipping through the stations.
"You know," She began, [taking her time].  Vesper's eyebrows rose very high and he looked slowly over to her.
"Yes, I probably do know but I can't wait to hear it.  I didn't know you voluntarily started conversations."
She ignored him and continued.
"I would have thought, if I'd ever stopped to think about it, that vampires would lead more exciting lives."
Vesper was very still for a second.  And then he burst out laughing.
"Huh.  Wow…  Very interesting observation.  Well, back in the 1700 and 1800's, vampires weren't exactly fictional creatures."  He said seriously, tapping a finger against his bottom lip.  "It was incredibly more exciting.  They thought witches were real too."
Aurora's eyebrows rose and she looked over excitedly at him at the idea of witches.  He shook his head sadly.
"It was just the vampires that were real."  He said mock sadly.  "But really, Sunday night, people all riled up from the mornings sermons, pitchforks a flying everywhere."
Aurora rocked with laughter.  Vesper, watching her, began laughing too.
His laugh suddenly faded.  She stopped too.
"What's wrong?"  She asked, watching his expression.  His eyes flickered to her face.  He smiled slightly.
"I'd just forgotten.  What it was like.  Not being alone."  He murmured.
"You'll never be alone.  There will always be humans around you that you can change."  She smiled.  His confused gaze met her reassuring one.  Then understanding slammed home and his eyes bugged wide.

There was an explosion at their front door.  It blew the front side of the building apart.  Vesper and Aurora went soaring across the room, landing in a pile of broken wood as a shower of debris landed onto them.  Vesper was first to throw the heavy wreckage off him and jump to his feet.  His enraged face stormed over to her and yanked her out from under the ruins.  He turned on the humans as they ran forward in SWAT suits, semi automatics in their hands.  Vesper hissed chillingly and ferociously at them.  A chill went down her spine at the sight of his enraged figure.  She had never seen him this terrifying.
He leapt forward as a shower of gunfire rang through the air.  He was taken off guard a little but he charged forward as the bullets barely pierced his flesh.  Aurora staggered back as two dozen bullets punctured her torso.   She gasped and looked down.  So vampires did bleed.
The firing stopped and she looked up in a daze.  Vesper was at her side in half a second; he tugged on her arm.
"Let's go."  He said firmly.  She looked around.
"But— what about?  They have guns—" She said numbly.
"Now!"  He growled at her, pulling harder.  She allowed him to yank her forward and he led her around the back.  Another explosion burst apart the back wall but Vesper was ready.  He shielded Aurora by throwing his arms over her and firmly planting his feet into the ground so that they only slid back a couple inches.  Vesper screamed at them and ran forward after he had scooped her up into his arms.  Before the men had time to register what they saw, Vesper had jumped into the air and onto the roof of the building and was running across it.  He leapt and landed on the next building.  He glanced down at Aurora who stared up at him through numb eyes.  Vesper clenched his jaw and looked up again as he jumped and soared over an entire building.

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"Dawn, are you hurt?"  Vesper muttered to her as he set her down and grabbed her shoulders.  His eyes roved her up and down, looking for injuries.
"What—what about—humans?  They—guns."  She murmured to herself.
"They're taken care of."  Vesper muttered, frustrated.
"No.  No. What—?  Where?"
"They're dead!"  Vesper yelled, standing up.  "I killed them, they're dead."
She was shaken by his words.  She stared up at him.  He blinked and returned to his knees.  He ripped apart her ruined shirt and looked at her wounds.
"Jesus Christ…"  He muttered when he saw her chest.  "Bastards."  He whispered angrily.  He ran over to a glass cabinet—glass cabinet with a lock? — he punched the glass and shards rained down onto the flour.  She flinched away as the shards showered her.  He reached inside and took out a first aid kit.  She glanced around.  They were in a veterinary office.  Vesper rushed back and rummaged around until he found a pair of tweezers.  Large ones.   He gritted his teeth and leaned forward, leading with the scissors.
"Wait, wait, wait.  What are you doing?"  She asked, sliding away and raising her hands.
"I have to get the bullets out."  He said expressionlessly.  She shook her head.
"No… no…"  She moaned, shaking her head.  She yanked at her shirt that she just realized was open.  "No…"  Her face fell and she started to cry.  Vesper stared at her for a second.  He dropped the tweezers and scooted forward.
"Shh, shh, its okay…  I won't hurt you."  He looked at her for a second and then swiveled around and wrapped an arm over her shoulders.  He cradled her to him, rocking her slowly.  She cried harder.  She recoiled away and pushed against him.
The image of countless men scooting toward her, pulling her closer as they whispered it was okay and tugged at her clothes clouded her mind…  It was never okay!
"Stop!"  She screamed, shoving hard.  Vesper moved back, his face unreadable.  She stared at him through burning watery eyes.
"I won't ever hurt you, Dawn."  Vesper whispered in the most honest way she had ever heard.  "Not like they did.  I promise you [that]."
She stared at him for a long moment as he looked earnestly back at her.  She finally moaned in pain or defeat she didn't know.  She slid onto her back and looked away, her hands falling to their sides.  Surrendering.
Vesper scooted forward after a second and started, very gently, tugging the bullets out of her.  She closed her eyes and didn't make a sound the whole time.  The only thing she did was count every tink! she heard as another bullet hit the floor.  At number 26 Vesper sighed and leaned back against a wall, his hand dropping the bloody tweezers.
"Done."  He muttered.
She opened her eyes and looked down at herself.  Though she was covered in congealed and not congealed blood, she didn't look as mangled as she felt.  A few of the bullet holes he had pulled out first had already cleared over with a light pink covering of skin.  She looked over at Vesper.  He was completely still with his eyes tightly shut.
"I'm sorry."  She whispered.  His eyes didn't open but he did grunt.
"What for?"  He murmured.
"I should have trusted you."  She breathed, looking down.  She knew Vesper was a dangerous and merciless killer.  He had probably killed more people than all serial killers combined.  She knew that.  But the one thing he had never done to her was the one thing so many, many humans had done to her so many times when she had been human.  Vesper was a lot of things, but the one thing she could trust him never to do was that.
She looked back at him and crawled over to him.  Her hand picked up the tweezers.  Her free hand squeezed his shoulder.
"Lie down."  She whispered.  Vesper raised his eyebrows but still didn't open his eyes.  She tugged and he slid down onto the floor.  Her hand slid down onto his shirt.  She gripped it with both hands and tugged gently.  It ripped apart down the middle.  She held back a gasp.  He was tons worse than her.  Every inch it seemed had its own hole.  She exhaled and got to work.

Vampires don't sleep, but that's what it looked like Vesper did while she dug around for every last scrap of metal in him.  Over twenty in the arms, a few in the legs and neck.  At fifty she stopped counting for his chest.
When she finished she sat back and closed her eyes.
"Are you sure you're okay?"  Vesper asked her.  She opened her eyes and stared at him.  She laughed.
"You're the Swiss cheese around here, Sparky."  She grunted.  Vesper smiled.
"Guess I am…"  He murmured, closing his eyes again.

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They couldn't hide at the veterinaries office for long; Aurora knew that before Vesper had to tell her.  Vesper had called someone and murmured into the phone for less then five minutes before he snapped it shut and said everything was taken care of.  Dawn and Vesper had slowly made their way out of the office and stolen a car not too far away.  Aurora tried to get Vesper to let her drive but he had insisted that she didn't know where they were going.  Vesper drove them through the dark city for twenty minutes before he pulled up to a curb.  He glanced up at a tall brownstone building.
"Is this what you rented on the phone?"  Aurora murmured as she stared up at the building.  When he didn't respond, she glanced over at him.  Vesper was staring across the street.
"What?"  She asked.
"Sh."  Vesper breathed.  "Follow my lead."  He whispered.
"Vesper?"  She asked in alarm.  Before she could say anything else, Vesper had jumped out of the car and was staggering over to the other side of the street.
"Vesper!"  Aurora hissed at him, incredulous.  She pounded the seat angrily.
"Please!"  Vesper yelled weakly, running up to a couple as they walked arm and arm.  "My friend—there's been an accident!"  He cried, falling to the pavement.
"Are you okay?"  The woman asked, concerned.
"Please, help!"  Vesper said so convincingly that Aurora's stomach actually turned.  Vesper got up and ran across the street, the couple walking hesitantly behind.  Vesper ran to the side of the car with Aurora and he opened the door.
"Please, she's here."  He said stepping back.  The woman broke free of her boyfriend whose suspicious face was staring at Aurora's bloody chest.  Aurora had closed her eyes and was still.  Vesper jumped on the mans back and cleanly broke his neck with a quick thrust sideways.  He fell to the floor.
"Oh, my god."  The woman said, staring down at Aurora in horror.  Aurora opened her eyes and they slowly rose and focused on the kind woman's face.  Her eyes bugged when she saw Aurora's open and steadily rise to hers.  The woman moved back a step.
"What—?"  Was the last sound she made before Vesper came up behind her, gripped her chin with one hand, her shoulder with the other, and yanked.  Aurora stared into the woman's eyes as the life behind them burned out suddenly and completely.
"C'mon, help me get them inside…"  Vesper murmured to her, hurrying over to the man and beginning to haul him up.  Aurora stood completely still, watching him.  Vesper looked up.
"What are you waiting for?"  He said angrily.  "Hurry!"
Aurora stood up emotionlessly and leaned over the woman's corpse.  Her eyes stared unseeingly up at the moonless sky.
She picked her up and followed Vesper up the steps to the building.
"Oh, my god."  Someone said in shock behind them.  Vesper and Aurora whipped around, a hiss rising to Vesper's lips.  He dropped the man's body and was across the street standing in front of the young man in half a second.  The boy yelle`d in fright but then Vesper punched him so hard he went soaring back and hit the brick wall behind him with a thud, blood dripping from his head.  Vesper carried the boy a block away and threw him into a dumpster.
When he was back, he looked under a flower pot and picked up a key.  He opened the door and shoved the man's body inside.  Aurora followed.  If she had been able to, Aurora might have noticed what a nice place it was.  How it was fully furnished and had a sleek, futuristic feel to it.  She might have.  If she hadn't had other things on her mind.

                                

Aurora sat at a stool by the counter and watched as Vesper drained the man dry.
"Drink."  Vesper said quietly, pausing from his feeding.  She looked over to the woman's face whose eyes were still wide open and staring.  "You'll heal completely in less than a half an hour after you eat."
Aurora turned her impassive gaze back to him.
"Why?"  She asked, emotionless.  Vesper finished drinking and shoved the man away.
"We get our strength from blood.  It's like a person eating chicken soup when their sick.  It helps them get better.  Blood… has a stronger effect on us.  It's more like chemotherapy for cancer patients.  Only with us, blood it works all the time instantly."
Aurora's gaze drifted as she thought that over.
"I need some fresh air."  She whispered, standing up.
"No, we have to stay out of site for a while.  This place is officially still not open for sale.  The police will find the bodies quickly and our faces can't be associated with this area."  Vesper muttered as he stood up and wiped the blood from his lips and chin.
She stared at him for a second.
"You're very thorough."  She whispered.  "Though I guess after almost three centuries you'd eventually learn to be."
Vesper paused and looked up out of the corner of his eye at her.  He walked over to her.
"You're either thorough, or you die."  He growled at her.  "Or maybe that's what you want to happen."
Aurora's brow furrowed.  She had had no idea he had picked up on anything of that sort.
"Is there a problem?"  She asked.  Vesper pointed to the body.
"I see that as a problem."  He said, glaring at her.  She glanced down at the body then back at him.  "She's dead either way, Dawn."  He murmured.  She stared at him for a long moment.  She finally turned around and walked over to a window.  She pulled it open and leaned out, staring out into the night.
"I'm not hungry now.  I'll eat later."  She said, exhaling a long breath.  Vesper was quiet behind her.  Suddenly he was behind her.
"I…"  He murmured.  She turned and looked at him.  "I knew it was important to you.  I grabbed it on the way out."  He said quietly, holding something out.  Aurora took it with numb fingers, stunned.
"I thought it was destroyed!"  She murmured, stroking the sleek black leather of the cover.  It was her journal.  She looked back up.  She smiled.
"Thank you, Vesper."  She said.  She laughed.  "Thanks a lot…"  She walked over to the counter and opened it, flipping through the pages, making sure everything was in place.  It was exactly how she left it.  She looked up at Vesper, expecting to see him pleased like she was.  His brow was furrowed with uncertainty.  He cocked his head to the side and looked at her.
"What?"  She asked.
"Something… isn't right."  He murmured very softly.

A red-tailed dart came zooming through the window and pierced her in the neck.  Her hand rose to it as her head began to spin.  Oh, no…  This is it.  This is when I die.
Vesper bared his teeth and jerked around.  The door burst open and oddly suited people rushed inside.  The weird red tailed darts zoomed all throughout the room in a flurry.  Aurora felt herself losing feeling in her feet, then her legs and she, as if in slow motion, fell to the ground and watched the battle scene sideways.  She watched as everything happened in half speed.  Vesper jumped forward toward the humans, ripping at their necks, punching at their guts.
I wish my mom had never gone to jail.  She thought regretfully.  I wish things had never had to happen like this.  And suddenly everything became very, very clear to her.  If only she had not looked over her shoulder at Vesper when she had bumped into Mr. Cutie after school.  If only she had answered his question and then asked him to get a cup of coffee with her.

Oh, how much she wished she had just answered that question.  "Any tips?" He had asked.  She wished more than anything else in the world that she had answered.  "Haha… Um, lets see.  Don't hang around me!"  She could have laughed.  He would have laughed back.  Then she could have said, "But if you're one of those people who doesn't care about fitting in, maybe we could go get a coffee?  I know a great café.  And we could talk about Hawking."  She could have smiled.  She saw it all in her head.  Him chuckling and nodding.  Saying, "I'd love that."  Them walking away together; their first touch, their first hug, their first kiss.  Then maybe becoming boyfriend and girlfriend.  Going to the foster care people and asking for a different home.  Or possibly getting that emancipation thingy she had heard of.  She saw herself walking down an isle, walking towards Mr. Cutie.  And then suddenly she was ripped back.
Her fantasy disappeared as fast as it had come.  With that simple knowledge that she didn't even know his name, not even his name, she realized how far from that image she was.  She would never get walk down an isle.  She would never grow old.  Never have children.  She would never just sit and drink coffee while chatting leisurely about Stephen Hawking's theories with anyone ever again.

The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes and fell asleep was the strange vampire that had entered her life almost two months ago and changed the course of everything forever throwing an innocent human across the room as he roared with rage inhumanly.  She closed her eyes gladly and happily welcomed the wonderfully blissful ignorance of death.