The minute hand on the clock ticked slowly towards four as I stood there behind the counter with my elbows rested against it, my head tucked neatly into the fold of my arms. The small music store was empty even though there was still four hours to closing and everybody was getting off work. When I say empty, I mean besides myself, Simon, and a teenage boy perusing the Metal section.

Looking through the glass windows in the front of the store was like seeing the exact opposite of the interior. Where The Last Cord was empty, the streets were crowded; where the music store was all white walls and neat, short rows, the streets were full of sky scrapers and smog. Where The Last Cord hummed to the tunes of a new rock album, the streets outside were buzzing with the sounds of horns and shouts. But I’m making it sound like living in Boston is a bad thing, it’s really not. The best thing about a city is that it’s easy to blend, and for me, that’s essential. In a city there’s always something weirder than you out there. In my case that’s probably a little untrue, but not too many people have pried deep enough into my personal life to figure out why I like to blend in.

I’m not talking about my looks here either. I look normal, albeit a little pale, but living in a northern town where summer is only a couple months long nobody seems to notice, or care. Otherwise my dark hair and light blue eyes don’t draw too much attention. I may sound vain here, but I’ve even been called good looking. You’d probably pass me right by on the street, and blow me off as just some other guy. Only the people that are close to me seem to notice a difference in me, and for the most part that doesn’t matter because the people I tend to align myself with are like me, or know about who I am.

Oh, did I mention I’m a vampire.

“You look sick, Devin,” Simon said suddenly, pulling me out of my stupor.

Simon’s one of the few people I know who doesn’t know who I am. He asks me if I’m sick just about every day. I just tell him I don’t like the sun, which is true but not in the way you might think. Today, however, he was close. I hadn’t been getting much sleep.

“Tired,” I corrected him pulling my head off the counter and stretching out my muscles.

“You can go home if you want, I think I can handle things from here,” he offered.
I blinked at him, a little surprised by his offer. He didn’t usually like to run the store alone.

Simon was supposedly my senior here at the store, and I suppose he is in the sense that he’s been working here longer. He’s a thirty-year-old kid, really. He’s got a mop of blond hair on his head and a pair of black framed glasses. He’s skinny, probably too skinny and he’s always wearing shirts with cute gamer sayings on them that I never quite get. He’s nice enough though, and pleasant to work with. We can talk about music for hours, which I suppose is the reason why we both work here. But I haven’t told him my secret, and I don’t plan to. The less he knows about my world, the better. So he doesn’t realize that while I may look twenty-three, I’m much older and that when it comes down to it, music probably is the only thing we have in common.

“Are you sure that’s okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll probably close down a little early today. Rob won’t mind, because it’ll cut the cost of electricity, at least a little. The store’s barely hanging on as it is.” Simon shrugged.

Rob was the store owner, a balding man in his forties who supposedly had worked for a record company in his youth. He claimed to have met many music greats, but I highly doubted that. Apparently he’d gotten the money to open The Last Cord when his parents passed away, but ever since its first couple years in business the store had been losing money. The name was appropriate because the store really was on its last cord.

“All right,” I said. “I guess I’ll see you on Monday.”

I put on my wool jacket, pulling the collar up around my neck as high as it could go, and putting on my leather gloves. I slipped a pair of sunglasses on, despite the fact that it was dusk outside, and made my way out of the store.

“See ya,” Simon shouted after me as I left.

I could visualize him pulling a comic book out from under the counter as soon as the door closed behind me and absorbing himself in some superhero epic. The crisp autumn air smelled of fried food and pollution. Pulling my jacket around me, not because I was cold but more out of habit, I headed for home. A good ways to walk, but I wasn’t afraid of the dark.

Contrary to popular belief, the sun won’t kill a vampire. And neither will a stake. The sun just gives us a God awful rash that takes weeks to go away. Which is a little frustrating since the warmth of the sun is such a pleasant feeling. Sometimes it’s worth having the itchy, bubbling rash to feel that warmth for just a few moments. As for the wooden stakes rumor, I’m not sure how that got started because my history isn’t that great, but I can tell you it won’t work. Holy water and crosses are out as well. We’re not damned, we’re just diseased. That’s how we see it anyway. Ultimately, it’s hard to kill a vampire. But if you know about vampires, chances are you’re working with us, not against us. We’re harmless really, well, most of us anyway. And the ones who aren’t get a lesson on how to act in public by the SCA. But the Supernatural Control Agency handles more than just vampires, and no, they’re not a secret organization built by the United States government, all supernatural beings have to follow the rules set by the High Council. Which, I guess is a sort of underground government.

And, by the way, silver won’t kill werewolves.

I rounded the corner nearly a half-hour after leaving The Last Cord to see the old brick building that was my home. I lived with my roommate on the top floor of this outdated building near the wrong part of town. We’d shared the apartment for nearly four years now, seen a lot of people come and go. Most of the people who lived in the building didn’t stay much longer than a year, with the exception of a few. They made money, moved up on the career ladder and moved out. My former co-workers are still confused as to why James and I insist of living in the place, and to tell you the truth I don’t know why we do. I’ll tell you what I tell them – it’s just home, and that’s all there is too it.

I started ascending the old cement stairs that led to the front door, producing a keychain out of my jacket pocket when a noise took me by surprise and stopped me dead in my tracks. It was a quiet noise, and one the normal human ears probably wouldn’t have picked up. The noise belonged to a slight movement, somewhere nearby, the rustling of some fabric and the soft crunch of gravel underneath heavy boots. Then I heard the heavy, panicked breathing. And then I smelled the blood.

My senses blurred at the scent for less than a second before I composed myself. As much as I like to talk about all the things that aren’t true about vampires, one of the things that is true is that we feed on blood. If we’re young, we can’t help the bloodlust, but as we get older we learn to control it, and if you’ve worked for the SCA you’ve learned to all but abolish it completely. I fall into the latter of the three categories. The only time I even have a millisecond of a reaction to the scent is when I haven’t fed for a while. I hadn’t fed since the previous night, so regrettably when the scent of blood hit my nose that evening it took me a second to compose myself. Some may call that controlled. I say I can do better.

I leapt over the wrought iron railing and landed gracefully on my feet. Luckily there wasn’t anyone around to witness my superhuman jump or I might have ended up as freak of the week on page two or three of the Boston Globe. I took off into the alley way between my apartment building and the abandoned brick building next to it. It was dark in the alley, but that didn’t bother me, I could see pretty well in the dark. And what I couldn’t see I could hear and smell.

The stories are true. When a human is turned into a vampire all of their senses are heightened. Sight, smell, hearing, taste and even touch to some degree I suppose. While we deal with out disease and try to fit into the human world, our bodies were designed to live in darkness, and so our senses have compensated for that. Some of us even gain heightened sixth sense. Just like humans we all have different strengths and weaknesses. I suppose our characters as vampires depend on who we were and what we were good at as humans.

The scent of Blood was strong in the air, and so was the damp earth smell of new vampires. I cursed under my breath and moved forward cautiously. I’ve dealt with young vampires many times before; it used to be part of my job description, but I’ve never done it without any backup. They’re tricky creatures, and horribly fierce.  When all that power and hunger is suddenly forced upon you, it’s hard not to go a little mad, if not completely mad. I remember the feeling too well. It’s like being on a drug and then you wake up and discover that you’ve done horrible, regrettable things that you can’t take back. Unfortunately the drug is a strong one and some never shake the influence. The lost ones are called Rouges, and they get strong. Even I wouldn’t have a chance going one on one with a Rouge.

These were young vampires though, I could tell by their smell. Meaning they were just working off instincts. Or it was possible they were being used by somebody to get rid of some human they had issues with. That happened sometimes, but it was rare, I suspected these two were just acting on instinct and nabbed this poor person off the road. That was never good.

I crept forward a little more, trying to keep as quiet as I possibly could, not that these two young vamps would notice considering they seemed to be consumed in their work. Now that I was closer I could smell past the blood on the human. I could smell a flowery fragrance underneath it and another scent that I can’t really describe which marked the victim as a young female. I could also hear that her heart was still beating, her breathing coming softly from her mouth. She was slipping away, but she was still alive.

Once I’d sensed life in her I lunged forward without hesitation, letting a sharp hiss escape from my lips as I flew through the air. Latching onto one of the young vampire’s backs, I dug my fingers in tightly and heard him hiss in pain. He thrashed underneath me, trying to throw me off, but I was too well trained to be sent crashing to the ground, and he was too new to the game and high on the undead drug to think straight. I slipped my arm under his chin and pulled his head back, hearing bones crack under my grip. He let out a pained gasp and started falling backwards.

I jumped off in time to see his friend coming at me. I threw my fist at his face and followed that up with a kick to the stomach. He was a lumbering idiot as far as I could tell and stumbled backwards because of the impact. I knew what I’d done shouldn’t have made him so much as loose balance. But it seemed to distract him long enough for me get a good standing on the ground and throw a quick glance at the girl who was lying unconscious on the ground. He came at me again, and I simply jumped out of the way, letting him run into the brick wall of the condemned building next door.

“If I were you I’d go back to where you came from because what you’re doing is illegal. We don’t feed on humans,” I said sternly. I wasn’t even breathing hard.
The big one that I’d sent flying into the wall stepped out towards me in the dim light. “Then what do we feed on?” he asked, his lips curling into a grimace. I could see the blood smeared all over his face.

“Other things,” I said simply. “Listen, if you go downtown you’ll find a place that can help you, otherwise I won’t have any other option than to send someone after you.”

The smaller one was getting up off the ground now, I could hear his bones popping back into place as he stretched and moved. “You’re one of us, right?” he said in a nasally voice. “You understand what we’re going through. Won’t you just let this one slide?”

“We don’t kill humans,” I repeated with a growl. “The stunt you’ve pulled tonight could get you killed by the SCA, so you’d better hope she isn’t dead.”

Fear flashed on both their faces. The one thing an immortal being doesn’t like is to be told is that their life could come to an end. Likelihood was they’d never heard of the Supernatural Control Agency, but they would soon enough. I’d make sure of it.
  
“Now get out of here and go back to your little hole where you can rot for all I care. And next time you get hungry try biting some rats,” I said calmly but sternly.

They seemed to have gotten the message because they both turned and jumped the wall of the six story building next to my apartment in a one leap. Once I was sure they were gone I bent over and checked the girl lying on the pavement.

Normal SCA protocol didn’t let young vampires loose after they’d attacked someone. It was too risky, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I was on my own, with no weapons and no way to take them to SCA’s Boston headquarters. I had to work with what I had, and if I was going to save this girl’s life, the best thing to do had been to get those two out of here. I’d call Clair later and explain the situation to her. She’d understand.

I squatted down and looked at the girl’s blood soaked face. She looked like she was probably no more than nineteen or twenty. Her dark brown hair was matted in blood and lay sprawled around her face and a big purple bruise was forming on her left cheek. She had a sweet, round face even when it was twisted in fear and pain. I rolled her head out of the way and took a look at the puncture wounds on her neck. There were several sets of them; apparently those two hadn’t really known what they were doing. Fortunately only one of the sets was deep enough to be life threatening. I was just worried about how much blood they’d taken out of her. Her white linen shirt and blue jean jacket were also soaked in blood. I lifted her up in my arms, she was very light. On closer inspection I noted how petite she actually was.

I looked around to see if anybody was nearby. I couldn’t go in the front door. With a girl bleeding to death in my arms, that was no longer an option. I looked up and saw the fire escape on the third floor. The latter had been pulled up, but I just jumped and landed securely on the railing of the escape. I looked up another story and saw the window to my apartment. It was closed, but James should be home. I took another leap and landed on the decorative trim that surrounded the building on each level. I never lost my balance or wavered as I shimmied along the wall towards the window to my apartment. I rapped on the window twice with my foot and waited.

The window slid open with a slight squeak and James pushed back the curtains to look out at me. He was shirtless and there was a scowl on his face. When he saw the girl in my arms the expression turned to surprise and he backed into the apartment.

When I lowered myself into the room I noticed two things, the TV was blasting and my roommate was in his boxers. It was time for me to shoot him an irritated look. I shoved the rest of my roommate’s clothes off the sofa and laid the girl down onto the smooth brown leather. James hurried to close the window. Unlike me, the cold really affected him. Temperatures affected his body differently. That’s just how it was, we lived around it.

“What happened?” He asked standing there dumbfounded.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to change when you’re alone,” I said instead of answering him. “What happens if somebody comes to the door or…?”

“You come to my window?” he finished for me.

I scowled at him. “People know we don’t have a dog, and I hope you don’t plan to answer the door naked.”

“I just changed,” he snapped. “I knew you were coming home.”

My roommate is a werewolf. Don’t think that’s odd, because it’s not. The feud between vamps and werewolves you all are familiar with ended centuries ago. Most human textbooks haven’t been updated yet.

When I say werewolf I don’t mean the humanoid beasts in your common horror flick that are persuaded to change shape by the full moon and loose all control of themselves. Those creatures don’t exist in reality. Although there is some merit to the full moon legend. Centuries ago the change was brought on by a full moon, but the werewolf species has evolved since then. They can change anytime, anywhere. You’ve probably walked by a few in their wolf forms and not noticed. They look like wolves, not beasts, and none of them loose their wits. They keep their human intellect, only their bodies change.

I sighed. I knew he couldn’t help it. There’s something about werewolves they have to change, even if it’s just to lie around the house and watch TV. “It’s okay,” I said softly. “Could you get me a wet cloth and some bandages?”

He nodded and turned towards the bathroom. I looked back down at the unconscious girl on my couch and wondered how much venom had entered her system. If she died now there was a good chance she’d come back as something else, and I didn’t want a young vampire on my hands. That’s the last thing I needed.