After a few hours, night fell once more. The full moon dominated the starless sky, solitary and resplendent.
Lucien opened his eyes, which glowed an intense blood red, and rose from the bed. His thirst returned with unbearable violence, like burning embers in his throat.
He grabbed his throat tightly. "Damn... I need blood," his eyes glowed more intensely, and his fangs began to grow.
His vision turned red, and in that world he could see human silhouettes with hearts beating like incandescent lamps, pulsing to the rhythm of an irresistible call. The temptation was so intense that his muscles tensed, as if his body wanted to break through the walls and tear them apart.
Lucien took a step back, terrified of himself. He wanted to flee from that instinct... but when he opened the door, he tore it off without meaning to.
An unknown impulse shook him, and in one leap, he threw himself outside. The ground creaked and cracked beneath his feet before he could think.
In the blink of an eye, he was high up in the sky, suspended in the air. The moon illuminated him from behind, as if it wanted to show off the creature he had become...
He felt his senses sharpening; now it seemed as if he had no limits. It was as if Lucien had received a buff from the night.
But the thirst... the damn thirst grew like a liquid fire that devoured him from within. There was no thought or logic, only hunger.
He landed on the roof of a nearby building, sinking into the concrete with a crash. He slowly stood up, gasping for air.
Sniff... sniff...
A thick, metallic scent filled his lungs... blood. His crimson eyes flashed violently, and the silhouette of a man appeared in his vision. His heart glowed like a beating ruby, as if inviting him to rip it out.
"Damn... it looks delicious."
Lucien leaned forward, panting, his victim's heart beating like a drum in his ears... and then, his body moved before he could stop it.
...
In the moldy alleyway, with a strong smell of urine and dimly flickering neon lights, a drunk man leaned against the wall while talking on the phone... and urinating.
"Bro, tonight was legendary," he stammered between hoarse laughs. "I banged a chick in the bathroom, hahahaha... The problem was that her boyfriend showed up, but don't worry, I showed him my Glock and he shit himself. Anyway, his girlfriend was crazy, she made me feel so good... Oh, shit, I got it on my shoes!"
He suddenly fell silent when he heard a noise behind him. He frowned and, staggering, turned toward the darkness.
"Who's there?" he growled, pulling a Glock from his waist. "Come out now or I'll fill you with lead, you bastard!"
Silence answered. Until, deep in the alley, two glowing red eyes began to advance.
The drunk swallowed hard, but gritted his teeth, wanting to keep up appearances.
"I warned you, son of a bitch!" he shouted, pulling the trigger without thinking.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
He emptied the entire magazine, thirteen shots echoing throughout the alley. Smoke was still coming out of the barrel when he let out a nervous laugh.
"See?" he gasped, pointing into the void. "I told you, you don't know who you're messing with. I'm the great Mathias, the terror of bars, the official home wrecker!"
But the smile vanished instantly. Through the smoke, the red eyes were still there. Unscathed. Closer.
A tremor ran through his hand, and he pulled the trigger again.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
The gun was empty. The metallic echo hit him like a hammer blow to the chest. Sweat dripped from his temples, the alcohol vanished suddenly, and an icy chill ran up his spine.
Lucien emerged from the darkness, his body regenerating at an abnormal speed from the bullet wounds. His laughter had become completely predatory, his teeth were much sharper than those of a normal human... They were like those of a shark!
"M-Monsters," said the drunkard, his face paler than a vampire's.
However, Lucien's smile only grew wider, and he calmly approached. With his enhancements, he couldn't escape; he was just a pig waiting to be slaughtered.
"A-Alejaté... You don't know who I am. I'm the great Mathias! I can have your mother thrown in a ditch." The drunk backed away in fear, his body covered in sweat, spouting empty threats.
"Really? But it's a shame you can't do it after all, my mother is already dead."
With supernatural speed, Lucien appeared in front of him, so fast that the man didn't even have time to react. He pierced his chest with his hand and ripped out his heart.
The organ throbbed frantically in his hand, pumping as if it wanted to escape.
Warm blood slipped between his fingers and dripped into his mouth. As soon as he tasted it, a shiver ran down his spine. For a moment, he thought he had touched heaven: the warmth filled his parched throat, quenching his thirst with an almost erotic sensation, as if each drop were heavenly nectar.
But in a matter of seconds, the ecstasy turned to emptiness. The taste became insipid, watered down, like drinking dirty water disguised as nectar.
His face twisted into a grimace of annoyance.
"Is that all?" He opened his hand in disappointment and dropped the drunk man's heart on the floor.
"H-Hu...?" Lucien's movement was so fast that the drunk man's own body didn't have time to react. The last thing he saw before his life slipped away was the red-eyed monster drinking the blood from his heart.
"All that fuss for such a mediocre taste? I guess you're trash even in your blood, Mathias." Lucien licked the blood from his fingers, frowning... the thirst for blood was still there.
In his vision, other hearts began to appear, but he resisted the urge to rush toward them; he refused to become a beast tamed by desire.
He bit his lip hard, feeling the pain, regaining some control over his instincts, but it was very difficult.
"Hmm~ for a newborn, you control your emotions quite well." Lucien heard a woman's voice and looked up.
His vision returned to normal, and he saw a beautiful pale woman with long, floor-length hair, a combination of black and white. She had bright plum-blue eyes, an attractive figure, modest breasts, and a large rear end that was accentuated by the black jeans she was wearing.
At approximately 1.80 meters tall, she was much taller than Lucien, who was about 1.77 meters tall.
"Impressive, you managed to control yourself well, you exceeded my expectations, I don't have to kill you anymore." Hearing the voice again, Lucien remembered that it was the same one from that morning.
"Are you the voice I heard this morning?" he asked to make sure it was her voice.
"Yes," she nodded calmly. "But before that, you have to quench your thirst," she pulled her black shirt aside, exposing her pale neck, which was extremely attractive.
"..." Lucien hesitated for a moment. According to novels and movies, biting the neck was something similar to having sex, and this beautiful woman was asking him to bite her in the street! Was she a pervert?
"Well, whatever," he thought, putting aside his foolish thoughts. He approached the woman's neck and sniffed it lightly, his fangs growing as he bit into her neck.
"Ahhh~!" The woman let out a soft moan.
Lucien ignores him and begins to drink his blood. It was the most delicious he had ever tasted; it was in a completely different league from when he tasted the drunkard's blood, it was as if he were eating a five-star meal, made by a chef with three Michelin stars. Its taste was too addictive, much more so than the drug.
However, he also felt that his connection with the woman was growing stronger, a deep connection. It was strange, but at the same time extremely comfortable.
After drinking the woman's blood for a few minutes, Lucien felt that it was enough, pulled his fangs out of her neck, feeling his mind much clearer, and the thirst he felt completely disappeared.
"Hah... hah... hah..." Panting heavily, he looked her in the eyes with a line of blood running from his lip. "Can you tell me who you are?" he asked, controlling his breathing, which was a mess.
The woman's face was flushed, and she was also breathing heavily, and her blue eyes now glowed with an intense blood red. Before he could react, Lucien felt her sink her fangs into his neck.
Lucien felt the woman sucking his blood, felt such intense ecstasy, but refused to let out such an embarrassing sound, and couldn't help thinking amusedly.
'We really look like perverts. I became what I swore to destroy.' With an inside joke, he felt the connection grow much deeper, as if they were becoming one.
It was a strange feeling... but it wasn't bad at all, on the contrary, it was magnificent!
The beautiful woman withdrew from Lucien's neck, panting heavily. "Your blood has become much more irresistible. Becoming a vampire was an excellent choice," she said, licking his neck.
"Y-You..." Before Lucien could say anything, he felt a delicate hand covering his lips.
"I know you have a lot of questions, but this isn't the place. We have to show some respect for the corpse." She pointed casually at the drunkard's bloodied body.
"..." Woman, we just sucked blood in front of the corpse! And you say we should respect the corpse? Lucien wanted to shout that in her face; he sighed resignedly.
While she smiled as if there were no contradiction in what she had just said.
Not long after, they both disappeared from the alley, leaving the body lying on the ground.
From the cell phone, which was still on, a nervous voice could be heard:
[Mathias, Mathias... what happened? I heard lots of gunshots, Mathias. Why aren't you answering? Mathias! Mathias!]
The phone remained hanging in the man's dead hand, and the only one who answered was a stray cat that meowed, approached the corpse... and then walked away, wrinkling its nose.