Dark Beauty

I finished the last page of Dark Guardian and sighed. Why couldn’t guys like Lucian or his twin Gabriel exist? I loved romance novels, but I loved Christine Feehan’s Dark Series the most. Carpathian men were just better. It was a sad fact of life. One I didn’t like to have to admit living with. Besides, even if Carpathians existed, I could never be the lifemate of one of them. I wasn’t beautiful, I could be ruthless, and I had no psychic abilities. I was stuck in a rut, though I’d never admit that out loud either.

I looked over at my alarm clock. It was only nine o’clock and it was a Friday night. I didn’t have to scan into the dorms until one tonight. Maybe I’d go for a walk and fantasize about a tall, dark, handsome man walking beside me. I didn’t bother with a jacket. It was getting warm outside since it was the middle of April after all. There was only about a week left until finals. I was kind of excited to be going back home. The library there was better than the one in this small town and I would get to see my family again.

The mirror on my door caught my attention and I stared at myself. Definitely not beautiful, I decided. I was plain at best. I was on the larger side of average. That alone, took any hint of beauty that could possibly be found. My hair is disgustingly curly. It requires water to be brushed and even when I brush it, it’s tangled a few moments later. It also happens to be a very dull shade of brown. It’s not a very appealing feature. My eyes aren’t much better. They are dark. Almost black, but not quite. They probably wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that I was forced to wear either contacts or very thick glasses. I was born with cataracts meaning I have no lenses in my eyes because they were removed before I was two. For a better explanation, ask an eye doctor.

Outside, the sun had already set, but the heat was still there, if only minutely. I was lucky I had worn a hoodie today. Most girls had sweatpants day, I had hoodie day. I was going to school at York College in York, Nebraska. It was a small town and a small college, but I liked it. I couldn’t deny that fact. I enjoyed being around these people and York was safe. Bad things just didn’t happen here. It was unheard of. I looked up at the sky and smiled. I could see the stars up in the sky fairly well. There weren’t many lights to impede the view.
I kept walking, turning whenever I felt like it. I was just drifting around York. It felt nice.

“Come to me,” A voice called from behind me. I could feel a command in it. I turned to see a man. He put on the pretense of being beautiful, but I could almost see where his face was gaunt and his hands stained with blood.

“No,” I told him simply. I didn’t know who he was, but I knew he was bad news. I started walking again, away from the beast.

“Come to me beautiful one,” the thing called again. I could hear a little bit of annoyance inching into his voice. “You cannot resist me.”

I laughed at that. “Wouldn’t you like that buddy. I believe I already told you no.” I started walking again, but he came up behind me faster than should have been possible.

“You cannot escape me,” he snarled. I was in trouble now.

________________________________________

The hunter felt the vampire’s presence. There was a mortal with it, but no others nearby. That did not matter though. The only thing that mattered was the vampire’s death this night. The creature could not be allowed to roam the world free any longer. The hunter launched himself into the air and sped towards the vampire’s location. Warily scanning the area all around him for traps that the vampire might have set in hopes of ensnaring him.

The vampire had been foolish though. There were no such traps. It believed itself alone and victorious. It would soon learn differently. The hunter shifted into a wolf as he came out of the sky and fell upon the vampire who had little time to react. It threw its victim away from it and turned to face the hunter who had resumed his human form. “You wish to introduce yourself before you die,” the hunter commanded it.

The vampire heard the call and hated it even as it obeyed it. “I am Alexandru Lupei. No mere hunter who denies himself could ever hope to defeat me.” The vampire snarled.

“You will give yourself over to death now vampire. You wish to atone for your crimes with your own death.”

This time, the vampire’s will to survive pulled through, overpowering the hunter’s command. The vampire launched itself at the hunter, shifting into a wolf in the air. The hunter easily sidestepped the vampire and thrust his hand into the vampire’s side as it sailed past him. The vampire had no chance. Its heart was ripped out of its chest by its own momentum. The hunter summoned a storm and drew lightening from the sky incinerating the heart that he held in his hand, the vampire’s staggering corpse and all traces of the vampire’s poisonous blood.

No challenge for the hunter it would seem. He turned to where the human had been thrown. A flash of color, yellow on the front of a gray sweatshirt stopped him dead. “Ow,” a young woman’s voice moaned. “He’s lucky I didn’t crack my head with a throw like that.” She touched her hand to her hairline and pulled it away, wincing at the sight of her red blood on her fingers. “Just great,” she muttered. “How am I going to explain this to everyone?”

“Let me look at that,” the hunter ordered moving over to her side. He wouldn’t admit it, but he could feel things like worry and fear welling up inside him. Had the vampire bit her? A quick inspection of her neck showed that the vampire had not had time to pierce the young woman’s skin for which he felt a rush of gratitude. The cut along her hairline made him cringe inwardly though. He didn’t like seeing her hurt. If it weren’t for the fact that the vampire was already dead, the hunter felt that he would fly into a killing rage.

“That thing was a vampire…wasn’t it?” The young woman asked quietly looking straight into the hunter’s eyes. Her eyes were not quite brown, but not quite black. In them, there was no fear, only a frank question.

“Yes little one, it was a vampire. Now it is no more,” the hunter said. The young woman nodded in understanding.

What she said next startled the hunter more than anything. “That would make you a Carpathian then wouldn’t it?”