Chapter One
Sophie rolled over and gazed at the face of
the man she shared her life with. Ethan was beautiful in the way only a truly
handsome man can be. She loved to watch him sleep. But, as much as she would
love to wake him and screw the fuck out of him, she had another more urgent
need. A need that surpassed all others. She was hungry. Not hungry for food as
such but hungry, for a man. Not for sex but to fulfil another baser need that
Ethan could not fulfil. Actually, he could but she didn’t want to use him for
this need. He was not for that purpose but for her other needs.
She had to find a man who was alone and
vulnerable for tonight’s feed. Normally she would take her time and visit the
clubs until she found one that appealed to her but, tonight she just needed to
eat. She had been warned about the side effects of her power and its tendency
to become addictive but, with training, she had managed to control it. Still, to
maintain that control, she needed to assuage that addiction like an addict on
methadone. She was careful to only imbibe in lesser amounts for fear that her
control would weaken and someone innocent would pay the ultimate price. She had
not fed for days and now needed to retain that control.
She would
begin her search where it would not be hard to find someone, in the darker
parts of the city’s streets and alleyways. Any man would be sufficient to calm
her hunger and get her mind back on track if he was clean and willing. It had
to be a man because she needed the strength that was inherent in the masculine
sex. She had found that feeding on women left her feeling unfulfilled and more
likely to need more. This would be a problem in that more people could become
aware that there was something out there feeding on them. Her feeding left the
donor weak and sick even in tiny amounts and some even ended up seeking medical
treatment. If this were to occur too often eventually someone would notice the
pattern. She could not allow this to happen.
Grabbing a coat, she headed out of her
apartment and on to the streets. She had never had a problem getting men into
dark corners. With the way she looked they were practically begging her to let
them go with her. She had skin like alabaster so pale it shone in the
moonlight. Couple this with eyes as blue as ice and hair as red as flames and then
add to this the body of a Goddess and you can see the attraction and the easy access,
she had to fulfil her needs. So, tonight was not going to be a problem. In
fact, even as she entered one of the darker areas, she found herself looking at
a very promising sight. A man was standing in the glow of a streetlight not far
from her. She couldn’t see his face because his head was down but, by the look
of his body, he was fit and healthy. She headed over to him and, as she neared,
he lifted his head up. Oh, fuck, she thought, he was not the vulnerable person
she thought he was at all. In fact, he was the last man she wanted to see right
now. He looked at her intently and she almost turned and ran but, she knew it
would be useless and that she would never get away.
“Well, Sophie, fancy meeting you here!” he
said in his smooth as silk voice.
She knew he was not happy when she went on
these night searches but, in the depth of her need she cared not.
“Yes, Ethan, fancy that. Are you following
me?”
“If I say yes, will you stop trying to give me
the slip?”
Sophie screwed up her beautiful face and said,
“No, it is in my nature to be elusive. You
know this, but you still complain when I manage to elude you. And I thought
that I had crept out so quietly” her voice held a certain tone of playfulness
to which he responded,
“This is not a joking matter, Sophie. I will
continue to seek you out until you agree to stop doing what you are doing and
come with me”.
“Ethan, I assume, there is a reason you have
sought me out!”
“Yes, there is a reason. I can’t explain right
now but, I have received a message from home and there is someone who wants to
meet with you, and it must be tonight”.
She sensed that something was going on from the
way his voice sounded. After all these years she could read him like a book,
most of the time, and right now she heard urgency in his voice.
“What’s going on Ethan? And what do you mean a
message from ‘home’?” she said confused by his talk of home.
“I will explain on the way” he said as he
began to walk towards her then past her.
As she watched his long, lean body move in her
direction her hunger grew in intensity but then it always did around Ethan. Her
body took on a life of its own and she began to feel the magnetic pull his
presence always caused. She almost gave in to this pull but, just as he stopped
right in front of her, she managed to regain control. The last thing she needed
to do was give in to this feeling he engendered in her which was as much about
sexual attraction as it was about her need to feed. She needed to remain
detached from him or, and this was her dread, she would fall forever under his
spell and be lost. And a spell it was. One of his powers was to control
people’s emotions though with her he could not make the spell stick. Tempt her,
yes, but get her fully under, no. It was this power to control emotions that
had saved her on many occasions.
Another reason for her to keep a certain
distance from him was the fear that any relationship that developed, beyond
that which they already had, could be dangerous. She could not let her feelings
for him develop into love. It could prove to be an emotional distraction in
times where they needed to focus on having each other’s backs in a fight Neither
could afford to let the fact that they cared for the other beyond comradeship
interfere in their ability to fight back when the need arose. It proved
difficult, at times, to retain this emotional detachment but necessary for
their survival. They had always worked on ways to protect themselves.
Especially since she had realized that she was different to the humans that she
observed and amongst which they lived. When her ‘needs, had awoken she had, at
first, been scared shitless but, thanks to Ethan’s care and support, she had
become used to them. Even, sometimes, reveled in them. She still did not
understand why she was different and though she had asked him many times, in
the beginning, he had always told her that when the time was right, all would
be explained to her. She had learned quickly that no amount of asking would
change the answer.
Now, she turned and followed him. Catching up
to him she, again, asked him to explain here they were going and who they were
going to meet. Maybe, she thought, she would now learn all that she needed to
know. She would indeed but it was to prove much more difficult to understand
and accept that explanation she had so desperately wanted.
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