The Lure of Her Blood

~Willhelm~ It is late evening; the sun had set a while ago and I’m taking a leisurely stroll after having finished my evening meal. I live in the heart of New York City, where I have a decent apartment in a nice building but have come out to the suburbs for my feeding. I come out here for meals regularly as there is a volunteer who lives out here with a rare blood type that I prefer which makes the trip out here worth it. I stand at about 5’11 with a slender build, toned but not what you would describe as muscular. I don’t mind though; I know being a vampire I am stronger than humans and most other supernatural beings for that matter and in my personal opinion overly muscled people are kind of gross looking anyways. I’m not one of those vampires that looks gaunt or sickly either. The vampire line I am part of retains a more human appearance than some other vampire lines who do in fact look more deathly. I am still on the pale side but in the range of normal to still pass for a human to anyone unaware or not looking closely. My eyes are a rich deep brown that always have a bit of a shimmer to them. That shine becomes even more pronounced when I become emotional, and that emotion is usually anger. I readily admit I may have some anger issues; I think chuckling to myself. My sandy brown hair has grown long in recent months, almost to my shoulders and the longer it grows the more it develops a slight curl to it. Some have commented that my hair reminds them of seventies rock stars which I choose to take as a compliment, so I haven’t bothered getting it cut and left it long. I prefer the city over the suburbs as there aren’t many people about at this time of day especially here and I like having people constantly around. It makes it easier to just blend in with the crowd and there is no social obligation to exchange pleasantries, which as a vampire is helpful to keep attention off of me. Humans for the most part aren’t a threat to us with most humans believing vampires are just made-up mythical creatures, but some are hard core fanatics that do not have a good grasp of what vampires really are and are obsessively annoying bringing unwanted attention to us. Then there are those who would kill all supernatural beings, hunters. Though vampires do have their powers and abilities, hunters have come up with ways to take us down and are still a threat we must take seriously not that I have ever had a problem when encountering a hunter which has happened more than a few times. I have an odd feeling inside, intuition perhaps, pushing me to explore this neighborhood. It is a standard neighborhood, upper middle class if I were to guess. There are nice cookie cutter homes, bikes in yards, tall trees, well lit, probably low crime nothing out of the ordinary. A safe neighborhood, the type of place you could raise a family in just not my type of place. I have been walking for a while now and as I turn a corner, I consider just giving up on whatever this feeling is and going home. Besides, people might start thinking I was scoping out the neighborhood to rob them or something, if I stay too long. It would probably be obvious to any residents that see me that I do not live here and do not belong here. The last thing I need is to have someone call the cops on me. Alas, I knew I could not give up or my sire would be enraged. You see, I am a dhampyr seeker for my sire and this feeling could very well mean that there is a dhampyr nearby. Dhampyrs are human-vampire hybrids, possessing many of the same powers and abilities of vampires like heightened senses, greater strength, faster speed and quicker healing but without the drawbacks like needing to avoid the sun or having to sustain themselves with blood. They visually age to maturity and then stop. Once they are killed, if they die naturally, or die accidentally they turn into vampires and start their own new line of vampires. They are highly coveted for breeding purposes as it is difficult for vampires to breed with each other or with humans or other supernatural species. Also, they are coveted for their powers and the powers their blood can give to vampires. Their blood is like a delicacy, but young vampires often can’t control themselves around them and often drain dhamphyrs if given the chance to feed on one. My sire, Nicolai, was trying to get his hands on as many dhampyrs as he could to increase his own powers and those of his vampire children to create his own army of powerful vampires. Vampires become more powerful and gain more abilities such as mind control or teleportation among other powers the older they get but dhampyr blood can quicken this process that normally takes hundreds of years. He also wants to keep them away from other vampires so they couldn’t do exactly what he is doing. I honestly hated this job, it made me feel like some worthless lackey. By now I should be treated with more respect, I am not some freshly turned vampire after all. I am a three-hundred-year-old vampire with my own powers and abilities. I have proven myself to my sire multiple times over the centuries and yet he still refuses to put me in a position of authority, leaving me to play some dumb game of fetch the dhampyrs he so covets. It isn’t difficult to find them other than the fact that they are rare and convincing them to come with you or just kidnapping them was something any vampire could do. It wasn’t even like I was in charge of this endeavor, there was another of my broodmates that was the leader of this particular operation and handed orders to me! The insult! Alas, I cannot go against my sire’s commands, it is one of the powers of a sire to be able to command any vampires they make, and those vampires are obligated to obey them. Technically what he is doing is illegal by vampire law. Dhampyrs have always been highly desirable but not treated well. The Vampire Council, the governing body for vampires, has passed several laws to protect dhampyrs but often it is their own parents or masters that will sell them to the highest bidder. Rarely are the vampires who buy them good to them viewing them as property and often reselling them once they are finished using them, if they are still alive. There’s a whole black market dealing with kidnapping and selling dhamphyrs which Nicolai is, anonymously, a top buyer. As I was about to turn around and return to my car to leave this search for another night, I spot a house at the end of the dead-end street and feel like it is what I’m looking for. The house looks pretty standard, maybe a little less well kept as the others, if anything. It has only one neighbor on one side and forest behind and on the other side which bodes well for me. It will be easier to approach and watch without being seen. As I get closer, I see the lawn is a little overgrown and the paint is starting to peel in spots but from afar it still looks decent. I cannot tell for sure if anyone is home. It doesn’t look like anyone is as there are no lights on that I can see and there are no cars in the driveway, but that doesn’t necessarily mean no one is inside. It is late enough that whoever lives here could already be in bed. As I reach the side of the house next to the forest, I look down at a basement window that is not boarded up like the ones on the other sides of the house and see two green eyes looking up at me. I immediately feel drawn to this person, but it feels weaker than the feeling I get with a normal dhampyr. Perhaps she’s not really a dhamphyr or it’s really diluted, I think to myself. I would really hate to waste my time on this girl to only find out that she’s of no value to me. On the other hand, if my sire finds out that I knew of a dhampyr but did nothing about it, it will just give him more of a reason to not give me more authority and to continue to give me trivial tasks. I hold the gaze of this mysterious person with green eyes for a moment before they quickly duck away leaving only darkness to be seen in the window. I hesitate for a moment unsure what to do. Is this person scared? Are they calling the police right now? Are they coming outside? They didn’t seem entirely upset or scared when our eyes met, they looked more surprised and maybe curious. After a couple of minutes of uncertainty on what to do, no one has come out of the house, so I decide to crouch down and try tapping on the window. Tap Tap Tap It works, the owner of the eyes reappears in the window and now I can see she is a girl. She starts gesturing to me to be quiet by putting her finger up to her lips. It is dark in the basement, but from what I can make out she looks on the younger side, perhaps a teenager, if I were to guess. She has what appears to be long dark brown hair. I also, can’t help but to notice she looks on the unhealthy side of skinny at least in the face the only part of her I can really see. This look is even more emphasized by her large, round, green eyes. Trying to put her at ease, I smile and wave to the mysterious girl. I’m not entirely sure what is going on here, but it doesn’t strike me as good. The girl returns a timid smile to me and a small wave. I try motioning to the girl to open the window so we can talk but she points up and makes a sleeping pose with her head on her hands and then starts making shooing movements with her hands like she wants me to leave. I frown at this but her eyes had widened with fear after I had made the motion to open the window so I decide it would be best to leave for now and assess the situation. I give the girl a wave and mouth bye before straightening myself up and heading back to my car. As I walk, I wonder what is going on at that house and with that girl. She seemed scared of who ever was sleeping upstairs and didn’t seem well cared for. The malnutrition could be why I wasn’t getting a strong dhampyr feeling from her. Also, why was she in the basement? And why were all the other basement windows boarded up except that one? Was she a dhampyr being kept prisoner? I didn’t smell any vampire at the house, only human. Did they know what she is? I need to come back and try to earn her trust and maybe do some surveillance. I must figure out who lives there and who this girl is. There is something about her and I need to figure out what it is whether she is a dhampyr worth collecting or a problem not worth getting caught up in. By the time I return to my car it is past midnight. I had walked around for a lot longer and much further than I had realized. But the time walking back had allowed me to come up with a plan. I intend to research the house and get as much information that I can find through the internet. I also, will speak to my sire about any known vampires in the area. I should probably ask about known dhampyrs too, my sire has a habit of never giving me all the information he has on known dhampyrs. Nicolai says it’s a way of testing my loyalty, whatever that means. I think as I roll my eyes. Coming by the house every night as well and visiting with the girl through the basement window for as long as she will allow seems like a good step too. Hopefully with time she will become comfortable with me and start to trust me enough to tell me about herself. What I do from there depends on what I learn about this mysterious girl. I start the car and head home satisfied with this strategy.