Hunting 101

—Lucius

"Oh, Master! It's so beautiful." She pranced, the dress fluttering around her in a light wind. "There's none of the fairies from home that protect us here, though. Someone should make some." She turned, and smoke was rising in her eyes with insanity.

I smiled and held out my hand for her to take so that we could walk together. "Oh? And how would you propose we do that, little one?"

"With the demon you have, Master. If he makes humans play enough and then if they draw the right sigils in the sand, it attracts the fairies."

That was probably harder than she thought it to be. It would take a lot of Depravity's influence, and I thought he might have to actually be let loose in the world fully for it to work well.

But with enough influence... Well, it was a useful bit of knowledge. "I see." My eyes fell on two females walking ahead of us, nearing a pier.

I smiled at the sight. As a mostly heterosexual male, I preferred the feeling of a female body when I fed and the two in front of me were perfect. Younger, healthy.

I beckoned to Mira and darted forward with my kind's speed while she followed. She giggled softly, and I pressed a finger to her lips to quiet her, winking in the dark. "Watch," I mouthed, and she nodded.

It was such an easy thing. Human lives were beautiful because they were defined by how finite they were.

Any brush with that ending of death was welcome for them, and any brush with the eternal was forbidden romance.

I opened my mind while I approached the two girls who were lovers and clouded their focus over so that their eyes went wide.

They looked at me with the blank stare of a supernatural hypnosis, and I hummed under my breath, cooing. "You first," I whispered to the one on the left, beckoning. "Come to the snake, little dove. It's alright."

Her partner watched with glassy eyes, and both kept their eyes on mine, unable to look away from the predator who waited.

And she obeyed while her heart beat harder, pumping that life-giving fluid.

My fangs sharpened, lengthened, and I purred when I took her to my embrace, covering her lips with my palm and listening to the drum sound of her pulse as it taunted my thirsts.

I stroked her hair back once, gently, and then bowed my head, penetrating that soft hollow to tap the vein beneath.

A soft sound escaped her that could have been pain or pleasure, and blood filled my mouth. I swallowed at my own leisure, drinking almost lazily until I felt the girl weaken slightly.

And then I pulled away, stroking my prey one last time as thanks for her offering. "You next." I smiled at her lover. "Greedy of me, I know, but we're almost done."

There was no acknowledgment, no awareness, and I drank again in the same way. There were no bodies, and I licked their wounds closed, leaving no marks.

I left no mess at all and no witnesses, either. It was the perfect display. I waved them on their way and waited until they were dazedly a safe distance from us before I went back to Mira and took her hands, smiling down at her.

I felt glutted, really. It was so much blood for a vampire as old as I to take, but it would keep her fed for a time, and that was my real concern. "You see? There's nothing to it. You'll stay at my vein for a while, but you'll need to feed on your own eventually. We'll train you to do it."

She looked behind me to watch the girls walk away and then looked back at me. "I don't want to. I don't like it."

I blinked, caught unawares. Feeding was an erotic experience, a delight. It was freedom from the vein of a Sire. "It's not so bad, little one. We'll do it together on a few dates, and you'll see. You'll start to love it, baby."

"No." She shook her head, and her eyes were wide. She was almost tearful, even. "I don't want to drink from them. I don't want to do that." Stop it. You're upsetting her.

Depravity lifted in my mind, and his voice was protective. "I want to drink from you for forever. I want to drink from your thigh so you feed me your cum afterwards and I want to drink from your throat while you hold me and pet me and I don't want to hold them."

I smiled gently. "I'm not complaining, little one, but don't you want some freedom eventually? And what if something happens to me? You'll still need a blood supply."

Her eyes went wider. "Happens to you? What would happen to you? Nothing can hurt you, right? You're a god."

Stop it, Lucius! But I needed her to see reason. "Baby, nothing to my knowledge would, but if it did, the only other option would be to find a surrogate to feed you and that's not something that's done-"

"No!" She jerked away from me and the sanity faded fast from her eyes. "You're mine! And you're my god, so no one can take you from me and I want you and him to feed me. I don't want to. I don't want to practice. The fairies protect you because I say they do, and you can summon more if you have to!" Tears overflowed from her eyes.

And that's when everything went straight to shit. Depravity had never had influence over me since we integrated.

He could rise to the surface with my permission and he could show himself in varying degrees, but so far his possession could not be forced save for that one initial time and the night I had turned Mira.

But suddenly, he showed off a strength I did not expect.

He shoved at my mind, so hard that it was painful, and it was an action that very obviously did not give him any more power or control, but it was one to punish me.

And my God, it hurt like hell, so bad that it blinded me and I fell to my knees, gasping in shock. What the actual fuck, D?

You were hurting her! You hurt her!

I didn't hurt her, you imbecile! She has to fucking take care of herself, D. Even Vika does and she's batshit insane, thanks to you and your nonsense.

Do you want her reliant on a surrogate instead if something happens? How the hell can I choose one that I can trust for eternity?

You made her cry! She had tears!

I growled in frustration and opened my eyes to do everything in my power to take care of her tears because holy fuck, apparently that was not allowed.

Apparently, I was going to raise a brat fledgling who wouldn't be denied anything as soon as moisture appeared in her eyes, making me the worst kind of Sire ever.

She was gone. Are you fucking happy, D?

***