Both Rafe and the phant were energy vampires, but there were miles of difference between the two of them. For example, Rafe did not kill when he took the energy from a mark. Phants were often so zealous in their taking that they showed no concern for their mark. To the outside world it would look like the mark had suffered a heart attack, a disruption of the electrical circuits of the mind or some other natural causes, when in truth they had been sucked dry of their life force by an indiscriminate phant. Marks like Renee…
Dread sank low in his gut. Had the phant followed him to Renee’s house? Had he been able to see the abundance of life force and energy she had? It was sometimes the case that a phant would follow more discriminating vampires and target their marks, letting the clean vamp do all of the hard work of finding a clean source of energy.
No. He could not let the phant go. He could not risk putting Renee in danger. The urge to protect her at all costs came over him like a wildfire roaring across a dried forest. He couldn’t explain it, but he heeded the feeling just the same.
“I am not as bad as most,” the phant babbled. “I don’t kill.”
“No. You only prey on the weak. The sick. The elderly. Children,” Rafe hissed into its face. “The world will be a far better place without you.”
“No please!”
But Rafe showed no mercy. He grabbed the phant around his chin and shoulder and yanked in opposing directions. The phant’s neck broke cleanly and he went immediately limp. He sagged to the ground and Rafe let him fall. Then he kicked the phant over onto his stomach, knelt down in the snow, and plunged his knife into the back of his neck where it met the top of his spine.
Electric energy crackled and Rafe made sure to pull away as quickly as he could. He didn’t want to accidentally absorb any of the phant’s poisoned energy. He stepped back and watched as the phant’s body jerked and spasmed, the energy released from within consuming it until finally the body disappeared in a crackle of electric blue light.
Rafe took a moment to scan the alley for witnesses. There were none that he could see. Which was good. He would not want to use hypno when it wasn’t absolutely required. Using it to feed was a necessary evil, but using it elsewhere was unnecessarily dangerous. Leaving blank spaces in people’s minds often allowed them to fill it with nightmares or wild dreams. Dreams that could plague a soul. He did not want to subject anyone to it if it wasn’t necessary.
Rafe cleaned his blade in the snow, removing all traces of blood. He then returned the blade to his ankle sheath. With the prevalence of phants in the world, it was necessary for him to always be armed. With his role in their society, it only doubled the need.
Rafe straightened up and quickly made his way out of the alley. This time he was more alert as he walked the cold, quiet street. Sometimes phants traveled in packs of three or four. In that case he would be sorely outnumbered and would be in a fight for his life. He did not think that was the case in this event, but he couldn’t be too careful.
He rounded the corner to where his SUV was parked and unlocked the doors and started the car before he even reached it, using the key fob in his pocket. Just before he reached the car he took out his phone and began to scan through the many messages that had been left for him. All of them were text messages, no one had tried to call. However, many of the texts were requests that he call them. He recognized every number save one. There was no name in the message, only a direction that he call the listed number. Could this be Renee? No, he decided instantly. She was asleep and would remain so for hours, if not days. No one could regenerate that quickly, not even someone with such an abundance of energy as she had had.
Rafe wondered at himself and his eagerness to hear from her. He should have taken her number, kept the ball in his court. He didn’t like not having control of a situation. He found he wanted to see her again—and soon. Not only did she intrigue him, but he could use her as a source of energy for a while, cutting down on his need to seek out other clean, new targets. It took effort to find a clean energy source he was able to feed off. Americans had such terrible diets and such unhealthy styles of living. But she was active. Healthy. Perfect.
He was looking forward to her call. He told himself this was because then he could easily plan his next transfer of energy, but part of him knew this wasn’t the case. She was independent, strong, and adventurous. Not many women would have gone out on a date with a total stranger. But she had confidence in her ability to take care of herself. To judge other people. Although, in his case she had judged him somewhat wrongly. Not that he was a danger to her…but he was a dangerous person capable of killing.
And, he supposed, he was using her. Staying close to her in order to glean information on just what the cops were aware of concerning the murder that morning. It had been a careless and vicious phant that had killed the man in the alleyway. Attacking in broad daylight and leaving witnesses—it risked them all. It was highly unlikely that the cops would make the intuitive leap that there were actually vampires in the world, but one couldn’t be too careful.
But as for Renee herself…
Yes. He wouldn’t mind spending some time getting to know her even as he used her. He would enjoy his interlude with her and then he would leave her when it was time. It would be a short acquaintance, but it would be an enjoyable one—for them both. Of course, he could always keep her number once he got hold of it and use her as an emergency resource in the future. He could see himself maintaining a pleasant relationship with her—provided she didn’t expect too much from him. But he could not fixate on her. It would be too dangerous for her. And not just because he would wear her out if he took too much energy from her. He had enemies. A great many. A great many who would take great delight in exploiting any imagined point of weakness. An attachment to a human woman would definitely attract attention eventually.
Besides, it couldn’t really go anywhere. He was an energy vampire—an e-vamp as the younger set liked to joke. She was human. They were from different worlds.
Rafe got into his car and settled behind the wheel. He looked around the area, trying to stay aware of his surroundings. He had a great many things he needed to be doing but instead he sat there and thought as he turned on the wipers, both front and rear, to brush away the accumulation of light, fluffy snow.
He had not been lying when he had said he was a liaison for his people. The e-vamps were segregated into many city-states. Almost all e-vamps lived in crowded metropolitan areas. Like New York, London, and Tokyo. They did this because that was where food was most abundant and most varied. Also, it allowed them to feed as anonymously as possible. Sometimes a feed could look like a mugging to someone who had the bad luck to witness it. An e-vamp could always lose himself in a crowd quickly in the event of someone raising some kind of an alarm. But, of course, the ideal thing was to be as discreet as possible. To use hypno to keep a target calm and avoid witnesses. But the fact was, some e-vamps were more efficient and skilled at feeding than others were. And then there were the sycophants, an indiscriminate bunch of lowlifes whose dangerous methods of feeding threatened to expose the e-vamps to the human world.
Dread sank low in his gut. Had the phant followed him to Renee’s house? Had he been able to see the abundance of life force and energy she had? It was sometimes the case that a phant would follow more discriminating vampires and target their marks, letting the clean vamp do all of the hard work of finding a clean source of energy.
No. He could not let the phant go. He could not risk putting Renee in danger. The urge to protect her at all costs came over him like a wildfire roaring across a dried forest. He couldn’t explain it, but he heeded the feeling just the same.
“I am not as bad as most,” the phant babbled. “I don’t kill.”
“No. You only prey on the weak. The sick. The elderly. Children,” Rafe hissed into its face. “The world will be a far better place without you.”
“No please!”
But Rafe showed no mercy. He grabbed the phant around his chin and shoulder and yanked in opposing directions. The phant’s neck broke cleanly and he went immediately limp. He sagged to the ground and Rafe let him fall. Then he kicked the phant over onto his stomach, knelt down in the snow, and plunged his knife into the back of his neck where it met the top of his spine.
Electric energy crackled and Rafe made sure to pull away as quickly as he could. He didn’t want to accidentally absorb any of the phant’s poisoned energy. He stepped back and watched as the phant’s body jerked and spasmed, the energy released from within consuming it until finally the body disappeared in a crackle of electric blue light.
Rafe took a moment to scan the alley for witnesses. There were none that he could see. Which was good. He would not want to use hypno when it wasn’t absolutely required. Using it to feed was a necessary evil, but using it elsewhere was unnecessarily dangerous. Leaving blank spaces in people’s minds often allowed them to fill it with nightmares or wild dreams. Dreams that could plague a soul. He did not want to subject anyone to it if it wasn’t necessary.
Rafe cleaned his blade in the snow, removing all traces of blood. He then returned the blade to his ankle sheath. With the prevalence of phants in the world, it was necessary for him to always be armed. With his role in their society, it only doubled the need.
Rafe straightened up and quickly made his way out of the alley. This time he was more alert as he walked the cold, quiet street. Sometimes phants traveled in packs of three or four. In that case he would be sorely outnumbered and would be in a fight for his life. He did not think that was the case in this event, but he couldn’t be too careful.
He rounded the corner to where his SUV was parked and unlocked the doors and started the car before he even reached it, using the key fob in his pocket. Just before he reached the car he took out his phone and began to scan through the many messages that had been left for him. All of them were text messages, no one had tried to call. However, many of the texts were requests that he call them. He recognized every number save one. There was no name in the message, only a direction that he call the listed number. Could this be Renee? No, he decided instantly. She was asleep and would remain so for hours, if not days. No one could regenerate that quickly, not even someone with such an abundance of energy as she had had.
Rafe wondered at himself and his eagerness to hear from her. He should have taken her number, kept the ball in his court. He didn’t like not having control of a situation. He found he wanted to see her again—and soon. Not only did she intrigue him, but he could use her as a source of energy for a while, cutting down on his need to seek out other clean, new targets. It took effort to find a clean energy source he was able to feed off. Americans had such terrible diets and such unhealthy styles of living. But she was active. Healthy. Perfect.
He was looking forward to her call. He told himself this was because then he could easily plan his next transfer of energy, but part of him knew this wasn’t the case. She was independent, strong, and adventurous. Not many women would have gone out on a date with a total stranger. But she had confidence in her ability to take care of herself. To judge other people. Although, in his case she had judged him somewhat wrongly. Not that he was a danger to her…but he was a dangerous person capable of killing.
And, he supposed, he was using her. Staying close to her in order to glean information on just what the cops were aware of concerning the murder that morning. It had been a careless and vicious phant that had killed the man in the alleyway. Attacking in broad daylight and leaving witnesses—it risked them all. It was highly unlikely that the cops would make the intuitive leap that there were actually vampires in the world, but one couldn’t be too careful.
But as for Renee herself…
Yes. He wouldn’t mind spending some time getting to know her even as he used her. He would enjoy his interlude with her and then he would leave her when it was time. It would be a short acquaintance, but it would be an enjoyable one—for them both. Of course, he could always keep her number once he got hold of it and use her as an emergency resource in the future. He could see himself maintaining a pleasant relationship with her—provided she didn’t expect too much from him. But he could not fixate on her. It would be too dangerous for her. And not just because he would wear her out if he took too much energy from her. He had enemies. A great many. A great many who would take great delight in exploiting any imagined point of weakness. An attachment to a human woman would definitely attract attention eventually.
Besides, it couldn’t really go anywhere. He was an energy vampire—an e-vamp as the younger set liked to joke. She was human. They were from different worlds.
Rafe got into his car and settled behind the wheel. He looked around the area, trying to stay aware of his surroundings. He had a great many things he needed to be doing but instead he sat there and thought as he turned on the wipers, both front and rear, to brush away the accumulation of light, fluffy snow.
He had not been lying when he had said he was a liaison for his people. The e-vamps were segregated into many city-states. Almost all e-vamps lived in crowded metropolitan areas. Like New York, London, and Tokyo. They did this because that was where food was most abundant and most varied. Also, it allowed them to feed as anonymously as possible. Sometimes a feed could look like a mugging to someone who had the bad luck to witness it. An e-vamp could always lose himself in a crowd quickly in the event of someone raising some kind of an alarm. But, of course, the ideal thing was to be as discreet as possible. To use hypno to keep a target calm and avoid witnesses. But the fact was, some e-vamps were more efficient and skilled at feeding than others were. And then there were the sycophants, an indiscriminate bunch of lowlifes whose dangerous methods of feeding threatened to expose the e-vamps to the human world.
