Everything Alex now did was partly for Jayne. His life, well the resemblance of one he had was made feel more normal by the presence of Jayne in it. With her, for a time, he could forget what he was, a half wild beast and monster who could, on provocation like a rabid dog turn and bite, sometimes fatally. With Jayne he knew he could be a man, feel like the man he once was with her in his grasp. His dead heart that no longer beated, seemed to warm in Jayne’s presence and with the antidote letting him walk for hours in sunlight, some days he almost forgot he was not fully human.
Tonight he was too fully aware of the fact he was anything but, fully human. He craved blood like an alcoholic dependent on alcohol craved the taste, the feeling, the mind numbing fermented liquid. But, unlike an alcoholic Alex needed blood to survive. He had tried many a time to go without it for days at a time, only to come out as weak as a new born kitten to the world. He had to face the reality, he would always need blood to survive if he wished to remain a part of this, mortal coil.
As quickly as he could Alex ran down Gloucester Road, his heightened sence of smell leading him all the way down the deserted Gloucester Road, over part of Cromwell Road back into Gloucester Road his footsteps echoing in the dark until he reached Queen’s Court Gardens on his right. He was now in Kensington. He stopped dead in his tracks. The smell of blood filling his nostrils strongly. He looked around to see no one in sight. He could with his heightened hearing hear crickets loudly chirping, owls hooting, ducks quacking and the slow beating of two human hearts. He crept into the park which was close to flats used mainly by retired military men. Men who paid between £195 to £250 per year for the privilege to live in such an affluent area. Alex could tell as he walked closer to the sound of the heart beats that the persons they belonged too were not long for the world. Their breathing was laboured, their hearts stopped for a millisecond before beating again. Alex knew he did not have much time to go searching for the blood of a young, fit person at this time so, he would drain these dying persons and pray their blood kept his craving at bay for a night or two.
The gardens had manicured lawns, evergreen palm trees, oak trees the simple of wisdom and ash trees. Wooden benches and about a third way into the gardens benches by a pond that that was filled with mallard ducks and drakes. In front of the pound sat two feeble old men, walking sticks in their hands. It was as if they were staring into the pound lit by moonlight to see its beauty for possibly a final time. Alex crept behind the men. Both were wearing long double breasted coats, one had silver thin hair, the other white. Before they could realise what was happening Alex grabbed one from behind, he exposed his fangs and in less than a second hand sang his teeth into the right side of his neck. The man let out a few low gasps but did not fight. Alex felt it was as he had not the strength to do so.
As the blood hit his tongue Alex felt pleasure come to him, the warm liquid quickly oozing down his throat bringing life to his weakened body. He did not feel the need to decapitate the man’s head from his body as he felt he would have all the blood he needed from just draining them from their neck. As Alex finished draining the first man he heart no beating from his heart, his breathing had stopped. As he let him go, the man’s body slumped over dead. No life was left in the body. Alex turned his head to see the second man staring at him the blood drained from his face. The man whispered in a shaky tone, “Are you death?” Alex nooded and brandished his fangs, terror etched on the old man’s face and seen most from his eyes. Alex in an instant descending on the man’s neck and drained him quickly of his blood.
Alex once again like with the first man Alex heard no sound from the heart of the second man. He heard no breathing and the body slumped devoid of any living presence in it. The souls of the men most certainly and their spirits now lifted to the next plain of life. Alex took out large handkerchiefs, a small bottle he had filled with water and washed the blood from their necks and faces. He used grit from the park and muck by the pound to dirty them up a bit to try and hide the fang marks on their necks. He knew it would not stop them being seen completely but might delay it for a time.
Alex then took out his gold Swiss pocket watch and saw it was gone 2am. He took in the smell of the fresh night air, his body now strengthening as his craving for blood was abated, for now. Once again, he now could think freer and more clearly. He would walk the 25 ish minutes back to his manor with more clarity and knew, once he had his serum administered to him he could get on with the plan of making his prensence back in London known to the order. But not alone that, find out if Jayne’s plan to fool the order into believing she had been away working on their behalf was beginning to bare fruit.
Inda Isle 