Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince
Chapter 4

I started the hunt as soon as night fell. There was at least one good thing I liked about this city - it was never lacking in the blood department. However I only feasted on prey that really deserved it. I stayed in a bad part of town, a rundown cheap motel in an extremely low class neighborhood. I didn’t keep many friends, so I didn’t see the need of having a place they could flock to whenever school was out. Besides, by living like this I could track all of the malicious people to their hideouts and homes, if I ever needed a fresh supply, without hindrance or suspicion.

I had spent the remainder of my afternoon locked up in the apartment after returning home from school. I listened for the sounds of someone familiar to my hunting regiment. Whenever I moved into a new city or town, I scanned the neighborhoods for possible blood donors. I kept track of where they roamed and the behavioral patterns of what evil deed they might commit. This advance planning helped me in emergency situations like the one I currently experienced.

It took nearly three hours for one of the few foes who traversed this part of the neighborhood to arrive, but eventually I heard the man picking his way through the streets. Once the sunlight disappeared, so that I could be shadowed by the darkness, I climbed atop the roof, where I could focus my eyes onto his thin body.

He looked exactly like all the others I had hunted before. Mangy brown hair hung disheveled against his pale peach skin. And he wore clothes that were out of style for this neighborhood. They were rich and fancy, probably expensive, but it was the cravat that I recognized was out of sync with time. He either wasn’t from this era or quite possibly returning from a Halloween party. But I decided the latter wasn’t a good enough excuse anyway because Hallows eve was still only two weeks away. Besides that, I had spotted the same guy two months ago in this are, and even when I last saw him he was wearing the same style of clothes that still seemed too far removed from the current trends.

I tracked him to a building three blocks away, where he whispered a password to a man behind a small rectangular opening in a rusted metal door. The pair of steel grey eyes hardly blinked before the door swung open and my prey entered the safety of the underground drug kingdom. This particular setup wasn’t one of those meth houses or weed stands. It was a place for a different kind of release, a different kind of drug. That was one of the reasons why I chose this area to live in. It never lacked in a fresh supply of food.

They were all idiots to think this place was a haven for them, especially now that I lived here. I didn’t care much about their mediocre lives, but I cared what they did with it. This type of behavior was unacceptable. I couldn’t stand by and watch it continue. I thought about a thousand times how I would go in, take them all out, and save the others from getting hooked on the high. But I never acted on any of the scenarios. They all ended with so much chaos and destruction. In years past when I acted out my vengeance, the others who got in the way ended up dying from their ignorance. I couldn’t save them when I promised myself I would. But I had no control over these kinds of creatures. It was them that had no patience or self-control of their actions. Sometimes they even lacked a consciousness or self awareness. If they wished to kill they would, mercilessly.

I couldn’t risk that. I couldn’t risk the blood and the mess or the scene it would cause. I needed to maintain my incognito lifestyle. I had to remain inconspicuous and hidden. In the past when people found out the truth, well things didn’t turn out good in the end. I usually fled the area saving my life, regardless if that left the people in danger.

I waited on the lip of the rooftop for another two hours. It was well past midnight when he finally emerged. His pale skin looked brighter, more orange tinted than the usual peach perfection. He licked his lips hungrily and slipped the man behind the metal door a hundred dollar bill. As much as I abhorred the act he just performed, the rush of anticipation flooded my body. A sense of well deserved justice was about to flow his way. I noiselessly followed him back to his domicile – a small house, several blocks away. There was no one else in the home, or next door which would make this hunt easy.

I slipped into the upstairs bedroom via the open window, and hid myself behind a door. I made sure I put pressure on one of the creaky floorboards just right, so he would hastily discover what made the source of the noise. Whenever I tracked and hunted, I became silent and still, like death lurking around a corner, because that’s what I was.

The man eventually walked into the room, dazed from his experience, but still wide eyed and alert. His face swiveled around the area, though he never once saw me. I had perched myself above him, like a spider catching her fly. I blended with the dark wooden panels, like a shadow mirrored on the ceiling. He had no chance, given the state he was in.

When he turned to leave, I pounced on him. I pinned his neck and torso to the floor, making sure I threw my weight against him so he couldn’t escape. In one swift movement, I grabbed the top of his oily hair and pulled his head towards mine. He tried turning over and pushing me away, but I only increased the pressure on his back. They didn’t like this when I touched them in certain places, and where I pushed was a pressure point. I cut off the blood flow from his dinner to his extremities. Already his legs paled back to a pasty peach color, no longer filled with the new blood running in his system.

“What are you?” he growled at me, his voice weak from the struggle.

I smiled to myself, knowing that this was justice for what he did to those poor girls in the warehouse. “I’m death,” I whispered.

I cracked my mouth open slightly and let the fangs descend from my teeth. It was time for me to feed.