SurfAngel_1031

  Peacefully watching the summer moon rise into the night sky, a fair-sized crow stood on the head of a scarecrow that watched over a few acres of growing golden corn in near-perfect rows. Bouncing her resplendent teal bird eyes to the edge of the field, Amber twitched her bck head to the side and witnessed the light green fshes of the early evening July fireflies.

  Breaking the silence of the star-filled night, a young child's ughter and surprise took Amber by surprise, locking her bird form in pce.

  -"Mommy, mommy! I caught one, I really caught one. Look!". Ecstasy beamed in the blonde-haired girl's features as she ran to her mother. "A firefly."-

  Gently lining into her small daughter's hand, the older and well-dressed woman nodded and blew air under the lightning bug's wing and watched it take off into the air once more. "We let them go free so everyone can enjoy their light." With a kiss on the little girl’s cheek, the mother csped her daughter's hand. "Let's go inside and you can draw your new friend to remember the moment."

  -"Okay! I'm going to make it bright green and pretty mommy..."-

  A combination of fresh rain and the scent of strawberries pierced the crow's mind and quickly buried the old memory back into a thick fog that obscured Amber's past.

  -Mom...mom...I remembered your voice and some of your face...I...I still have a long way to go.-

  Amber told herself and fpped her long wings to dislodge the rain that tried to saturate her feathers in the brief moment. Easily overcoming the light rain, Amber let herself glide and relished the great feeling of having one memory returned to her. Recalling events since she'd become a vampire was not an issue as the best memory was when she turned her girlfriend, Jessica Saunders, into a ward. It was her deep past, the time while she was human that had become thick as heavy fog on a dreary day and Amber did her best to fight her cloudy mind.

  Suggesting that Amber visit pces that she'd been, Jessica escorted her mistress to the sites that they'd first used when they were blood bunnies in service to Sylvie Miakoda and Franco Tarsey with a great amount of success. It was only when Jessica took Amber by her high school and the neighborhood where she grew up, that the new vampire bnked out. Shortly afterward, the couple had started their tiny business and Jessica advised that Amber should live in the moment and enjoy her present and future rather than digging up a part that would eventually clear up over time.

  Never one to be super patient, Amber decided that on her nightly hunting she would devote a few minutes each night to attacking the memory mist that gripped her nearly as hard as the burning in her throat. Days turned to weeks and weeks into a month without any result and Amber had been on the verge of stopping, when she suddenly had the memory fsh that happened a few minutes prior. Excited beyond what she hoped for, Amber had flown in and out of the trees at the highest speed she could in her crow form. Without thinking much about what she was doing, Amber swooped down and transformed back into a vampire right in front of a set of three hikers taking an evening stroll in the fresh summer rain.

  Near silence overcame the forest as every living animal cowered before the ultimate predator and huntress of the night, leaving little more than the sound of rain as it spshed on the tree leaves and thick foliage. Confused and equally shocked by what they had just witnessed, the hikers froze in pce before Amber's blood-infused and bewitching teal eyes. "Gentleman." Amber addressed her prey in a cool yet hungry voice.

  While diving straight into a pack of humans was typically frowned upon by other vampires, Amber was not concerned about the conceptual mistake as she was still in a great mood and wanted to celebrate her tiny mental win. Still awash in bliss and accomplishment, Amber had managed to burn through her precious supply of blood and needed to feed. With a grin that revealed her fangs as they locked in pce, Amber questioned the tiny group. “Ever have the need to celebrate, gentlemen?”

  It was a sharp intake of air combined with the look of terror from one of the men who'd recovered from the shock first that forced Amber into action. With a quick breath, Amber caused all three men to stumble back and slowly sway with the breeze. Terror was removed and repced with Amber's will, they echoed the same thought and spoke in unison. "So...pretty."

  Overcome with blood lust, Amber hastily drove her fangs into the first guy’s pulsing carotid and once she’d retracted her teeth, felt the juicy flow of blood spsh over her needy tongue. Rather than a slow kiss and light flow to savor the nourishment that blood provided her kin, Amber sucked the man’s neck as though she were getting it from a wide-open tap. Taking huge gulps, Amber had barely quenched the burn in her throat before she smelled the fshy-ashes of her meal floating around her until the rain cimed the fallout. With blood draining from the edges of her near plum and re-hydrated lips, She walked around in a small circle with her hands behind her. “I smell more of you, so many others it is clouding my senses. Tell me, do you know how many are camping right now?”

  “Ma’am…” One man offered with a smile on his face, “...The park lot was nearly full when we arrived a few days ago.” He nibbled on his lower lip with a look of satisfaction crossing over his face having answered the angel before him.

  Addictive and necessary, Amber couldn’t stop herself from delving into the second man’s neck and easing the sand-scorched feeling in her throat. Where the vampire-huntress should have been almost sloshy from taking down two people so fast, Amber barely felt anything in her stomach. “More.” She growled with a rumble in her chest, once her second meal also disappeared into the night. Turning her sanguine-soaked teal eyes to the third man, Amber cracked a smile as the gentleman stumbled over to her and bared his neck for the hungry vampire. “So...pretty.” He sputtered, “Can I have a turn?”

  -You’re doing so well, little huntress. Take this human in the same way, take it all and give nothing back as your body demands. Perhaps take a stroll to the campground. A pool of crimson awaits..my…little…huntress.-

  Months of fighting back that little demonic voice in her head, Amber knew exactly what was happening. While she knew that the fight was always to not give in completely to the voice that wanted to steal her mind and body, Amber knew the result would become a free-willed shadewraith that could spread its unfettered chaos wherever it went. However, there were times when it's soothing and charming voice aligned with what she needed. This happened to be one of those times.

  -I don’t know how the others deal with your kind talking incessantly, but I do know what you truly are and while you are certainly right in this instance…Don’t think for a second that you own me. Face it, I will always be more than you. You are little more than a floating thought of chaos without meaning.-

  Amber confidently answered her little demon she’d named ‘Devlin’ just as a little joke to herself and to bother the vile voice in her head. Once the two had stopped testing one another’s limits, Amber took full advantage of the st guy’s exposed neck and drained him dry without hesitation. While still licking her lips and fangs clean of the three men’s coppery taste, Amber felt the wind shift and with it the refreshing pool of blood that was begging to be plucked from the camp-goers.