Urges

Nights are my favorite part of the day. I can sit on this rooftop for hours. Most of the time I'm staring down at the city, watching as the humans and the people like me mingle or are just ending the night. I could be down there being just like them but I prefer this. The wind feels good against my already cool skin, I like the way it sweeps my hair up in all directions.

Eyes closed I hear everything. It's like music to my ears. Something about tonight has them wide open, my eyes focused on the street below me. Something is about to happen. I'm not sure what but I'm watching.

They call this Central Street. A fitting name as most of the traffic comes through here and all the decent shops that get a large amount of the foot traffic also reside here. I try to avoid it all costs. It isn't the best place for someone with cravings like mine but I'm better than the others. The ones I find myself keeping eyes on at night. The Drink and Dive sorts. It works for both races. Mine and theirs.

There is a woman that I keep an eye on every night. It had little to do with my needs and more with my human side affecting me to feel something close to worry about someone who I don't really know. I know her name and that she comes down this street every night a quarter to ten. But, that's not what draws me to her.

It's what she lacks.

She can't see.

It's completely ridiculous for me to give a shit about someone, especially like that. My brother would say it was because I did care. I cared about people, especially the ones that really needed help. It's what I did when I was human. I had changed over the last few years, when my whole life shifted course.

Her name was Cecily. I only knew the first name. She had medium length reddish blonde hair that reminded me of the sunrise. Her eyes were dimmer, but I had gotten to see them once when she wasn't wearing her glasses. They were grey and light but she rarely showed them. She was usually wearing a dress with a sweater much too long for her wrapped around her shoulders but tonight as she slipped on by me she was in jeans and a t-shirt. The shirt was from her high school, and mines. I never thought to check to see if we were in the same year or went there at the same time until now.

I started to ponder about it when I heard them. Two of them. The Drink & Dive duo of Francis & Turner. Older than me but stupid. I got ready to jump but they had already knocked her into the brick wall of Timers' - the resident clock shop where you could get your watches fixed for a decent price.
It took me half the time that it would of if I was still human. I rushed into Turner first because he was closer and less aware that someone else was around. I was quick to reach around from behind and reach for his chest. We didn't use stakes on each other. That would be cruel. This was quicker and more gratifying.

Once his heart - gushing and dripping of blood was in my hands I took a bite out of it if only to have something else to do with it besides crush it or drop it. This was the most fun I was going to get out of tonight. I was well aware of that.

I turned my attention briefly to Cecily. She was grasping for something out of reach. I didn't have time to help her just yet, so I turned huffing as the other one Francis who was two years shy of thirty if I remembered correctly still tried to make a grab for Cecily. He would have probably gotten a small chunk of her shoulder if I hadn't yanked him from her and shoved her as carefully as I could given my mood and the fact that I couldn't really gently do anything like this.

She did get to safe enough distance that I let myself turn back to Francis. "You're pathetic." I told him as I squeezed at his throat. He looked panicked and annoyed at the same time. It was possible to drift from one emotion to the next when you were this close to dying though I hadn't met many people who didn’t look anything but completely panicked. I gave him a few small kudos for that.

His death was swift from then on.

I let out a sigh giving myself a moment to find my calm nature again before turning back to the woman who had gotten me off the roof in the first place. I slowly walked over to her. She stayed turned in the direction I had pushed her towards, her body was more coiled up.

She was afraid.

I had noticed that before but now it was more so apparent.

I didn't touch her at first. I moved back and grabbed the things that she had lost. The things she had been so desperate to find - her bag (a brown purse that was usually slung over body like a messenger bag), her walking stick and her glasses. They were all spread apart in different directions. It took me about thirty seconds to find all of it then make my way back over to her. She had moved to sit up and was moving her head around as if she could see. I knew that she couldn't.
I bent down in front of her, taking one of her hands slowly as to be sure that she knew that I wasn't going to do anything. I placed her glasses in her hand and then put her stick and bag to her side.

"Are you hurt?" I didn't need to ask, I could smell the blood from the back of her head where she had hit it when they had initially assaulted her.

She didn't say anything, fiddling with her glasses - turning them the right way before slipping them on. Her hands shook. I think it was the shock of what had happened to her. It made me wonder if she thought that she was safe at night.

"You shouldn't be out at night. Not here. It's not safe."
She tilted her head to the right looking in my direction as if she knew that was where I was. It was
possible, people who didn't have certain senses could have heightened abilities from the ones they did have.

"You saved me. You're one of them, though aren't you?" Her voice was soft. It almost surprised me but I realized I had heard it before. I couldn't place it at first, shutting my eyes to focus on it. I did know her, I knew of her from middle school. A party. It was very hard to place where. I came back to the surface before I let myself drown in the memory or the fragment of one.

"How do you know?"

She opened her mouth, closing it briefly. "You move fast like them and..." She paused reaching for her stick. I helped her up before grabbing her bag and placing it in her hand. "I've never heard anyone eat a heart before."

I paused, looking down at her. She was taller than I had originally thought. "How can you tell what..." She just smiled at me gesturing to her ears before wincing. I circled around her looking at the damage that was almost opaque in comparison with the color of her hair.
I took a deep breath. It was revolting to be this close to someone bleeding.

"My sister is a nurse. I'll be okay." It was like she sensed that I was going to say something about her getting help. "I hurt myself sometimes, accidentally."

I huffed, that made much more sense to me than the idea that I had actually cared if she had died tonight. I stepped a few feet backwards to get some space from her. I didn't know what I was supposed to do now. I wanted to do something. The urge was there but it was unclear as to what that was exactly.

When she started moving I jumped to her side and pressed my hand against her shoulder. "I should walk you home."

She had stiffened when I touched her this time. It probably hurt. I let go.

"Sorry. I've never found a balance between touching humans and mine."

She brushed it off before moving forward. I followed at a leisure pace, keeping her in my sights. She didn't live far, not that I had known that at all. This was the only time I had seen her since my change, our first interaction that I could place.

She lived in a townhouse on Brown. I stood on the sidewalk as she moved up the steps to unlock the door. I wasn't going to go any farther than I had already done tonight. It had been an experience that I hadn't had ever.

Before she put the key in to unlock it, she turned over her shoulder looking for me again. She missed by thirty degrees. "Thanks Vic." Then she had dashed inside. The last I saw of her was her stick as she pulled it in with her.

I let the shock slip off my face as I turned my head upwards.

How did she know my name?

I turned before I could change my mind about this being the last of it and headed back in the direction that I had come from. Just two blocks away. I would probably walk for a while. Now that I had gotten down from my perch I didn't feel like sitting any longer.

I was turning the corner to head down Millennium Road when I felt another presence. A woman, and she was running.

"Hey!" She yelled once she was about five feet away from me.

I stopped but I didn't turn. My hands were stuffed in the pockets of my jeans. I waited for her to make the first move.

"Vic, I thought you were dead."

Normally when this happened I would have just took off running. Despite the idea that all of us in this life knew of each other - humans and vampires alike some of us liked separating our lives from it. The Old Life and the New Life were two different things. Unfortunately for me sometimes they clashed in ways that I wasn't that comfortable with.

"River." I nodded, turning to face her. She was an old friend. Just a friend.

"My sister..." She stopped, looking up at me. I'm sure I was a sight. Dark eyes that shone in a way that wasn't normal, muscles and the sight of blood that was already caked into my hands and probably dripping from my mouth from the appetizer earlier. It was new for her, I suppose.

"When she said your name I figured she was seeing things until I came outside and you're here. You're here." She echoed.

I shrugged. "Don't be afraid to call me what I am."

"I'm dating one." She laughs.

"Is that wise around your sister?" It was only logical that the two sisters lived together. River had always been a worrier. Especially when it came to the sister that I hadn't known was the woman I had been shadowing for some time.

"I don't live with her."

That stopped me. I growled. "Why not?"

"She doesn't need me." Her green eyes were amused about me.

"She needs someone." Then I was off again, I didn't want to stay there any longer.
I just didn't know why I had to say that. What could I do?

Nothing.

It wasn't because I didn't want to. I didn't know how I could be that person now.