Vampires

The hunter went from sitting to running in an instant, drawing a knife to plunge into the vampire's neck without registering the speed he was moving at. Yet when he reached the vampire, blade poised to pierce the soft skin of the neck, he found he couldn't move even an inch forwards, as if all forwards momentum was halted by an invisible shield around his killer. The creature's smile widened and he stood, each step towards the hunter forcing the young man back a step, then two, then three.

"You cannot kill me. No matter how much you wish to and no matter how hard you try, you cannot kill me."

The hunter snarled angrily, his eyes narrowing, before he cast the knife aside unceremoniously. "What did you do?" His tone was harsh.

The smile never left the vampire's face. "Are you ready to commit suicide? Or will you lie down and die? Or will you find you enjoy living - and your new life - more, I wonder?" Without another word, he turned from the hunter and jumped out of the open window.

The hunter blinked, once, then ran to the window, leaning out of it and looking around almost frantically. There was no sign of the vampire. However, as he scanned the area desperately, searching for the slightest glimpse of the black-haired creature, he heard a small, almost imperceptable hysterical giggle, and span round.

The girl he had fought so desperately to rescue from the evil and cruel vampire was sat on the bed, watching him, her eyes filled with insanity. She giggled again, balling both hands into fists and putting them over her mouth to cover the grin. "You're a new one!" She laughed in a sing-song voice. "You're a new one and you're powerful. Clarissa has nothing to fear from you, however, you said you'd do anything to save her!" He simply stared at her as she continued, "and you're fast and smart and you said you'd protect her no matter what! You'd save her from any nasty vampire that would want to hurt her, you said." Then she pointed to his chest. "You're a marked one! A new one! Powerful."

He looked down at himself, his eyes widening when he realised that not only was he was now completely bare-chested, he had a large grey marking on it. Shaped as a diamond, the top point at his heart and the bottom at his navel, it was a delicate filigree pattern, combining arcane shapes into something so powerful it has resurrected him without the need for the blood of his creator, and giving him the powers of, and maybe even beyond, that of an old vampire. However, he realised as he looked at it, it didn't stop him from needing, and craving, blood to survive. His tongue ran lightly over his now sharply-pointed canine teeth, then he looked up at Clarissa, who was still giggling at him from her seat on the bed. She had led him to this, and knew fully what she was leading him to. She was one of the lowest human scum, not only a parasite but one who delighted in feeding parasites herself. A wave of revulsion flowed through him as he realised that this had simply been a trap, a way for the vampire to gain what he wanted: an unwilling human.

He smiled at her, forcing down his true feelings, and walked towards her. She looked up at him from the bed and smiled back, her eyes showing now what he had been blind to before - her total insanity. "Yes...