Exton

We get all the way back to my room before I explode - in a good way. The last time I was this excited, I had just risen from the dead.

"Raina... oh my God, Raina, do you know what this place can mean to me?"

Her face is a mask. "Why don't you tell me, Nick?"

Juiced as I am with excitement, I don't really notice how warily she's carrying herself, how lifeless her voice has become. By contrast, my voice vibrates with excitement. "It means a normal life, lover, or as close to a normal life as any vampire can ever come. Look" - I sit on the edge of the bed - "vampires are driven by two things. The first, the most powerful, is the thirst. We need blood the way you need food. Without it, we starve - but we don't die." My face is tight and grim, remembering. "I saw a vamp that was starved once. He'd been chained inside a stone coffin. That alone wouldn't have kept him there, but the whole arrangement had been bound under a powerful spell." I can feel my eyes beginning to go red. "Someone either loved him or hated him very much."

Raina looks up, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Loved him enough not to end his life with the stake, and unaware of the consequences, or hated him because they knew the effect starvation has on a vampire." My thoughts are far away in space and time, lost in memory. "He was like a walking skeleton, his skin dry, desiccated, outlining every bone like a relief. His mind was gone - nothing but Thirst and fangs and claws. He killed two of us before we took him down." I shake my head. "I still see him in my nightmares... the most frightening thing I've ever seen, and the most pitiful."

It takes a minute or two for the memories to loosen their grip on my mind. Raina sits motionless and calm as a statue, waiting. I come back to myself with a start. "Where was I?"

"The things that drive a vampire," she reminds me.

"That's right, thank you." I look directly at her. "The other thing that drives a vampire is a need to hunt. It's hardwired into our genes or something - we still need to hunt even when we don't need to feed."

"Could you feed on animals when you have to hunt?"

"Too risky." I smile grimly at her inquiring look. "Remember all those stories of cattle mutilations a few years back? People were blaming everything from devil worshippers to little green men.

Vamps were doing it. They'd attack en masse - not that much of an 'attack' is needed when your victim is a cow - and after it was dead, they'd do some random mutilation to hide the true cause of death. The cow wasn't hurting, after all, and death by vampirism is a hell of a lot more merciful than death in a slaughterhouse. Our saliva contains a mild anesthetic as well as a euphoric.

But after awhile, farmers and ranchers started waiting up with some serious firepower - everything from shotguns to AK-47s. Anything that can just walk away from that" - I shrugged. "It got too dangerous to risk. What is it Van Helsing said? - 'The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him.' Let that word  be spoken, just once" - I shrugged again - "People know too much about us - our weaknesses, how to kill us. No, not all vamps are alike; not all vamps have the same abilities, or the same weaknesses. Some of us can shapeshift, or fly; some of us can't. It doesn't really matter; humans are endlessly inventive when it comes to finding ways to destroy those they fear, the different, the 'unholy'.

"But this place - this nothing little tavern in this nothing little town could mean a whole new life for me. I could choose to hunt, rather than be driven to it. I could choose my victims with more care, be sure that they deserve what's coming to them. I don't have much of a conscience, love - I can't afford one; but I do have a few principles I'd like not to  bruise." I look up at her, hoping… and my hopes are rewarded, for there's a big smile on her face.

I jump right onto the center of the bed, drag her down with me, struggling and laughing. "Now - I believe I owe you one…." She twists away, grinning. "Lips that touch beef blood shall never touch mine! Go brush your fangs and use a LOT of mouthwash, and then we'll see!"