Glade goes out just after sunset to hunt in a favourite place. A night club at the edge of the city centre. He prefers to walk through a park than the streets, it's quieter here. A group of youths call out to him, and he replies, but doesn't stop to talk. Two men see him as they run past but don't think anything of it, they see a lot of people here when the night has just started, and they want to get home before it gets too dark. A woman passes him under a bridge and speeds up, worried by the tall man in a long black coat in the dark. He looks round at her, but walks on. A young woman recognises him and her male friend watches him for a few seconds. He knows the man at the door but gets out a card anyway, and settles into his favourite seat in a corner to wait for someone to come to him. He can see the door from where he is, but the bottom of the stairs are blocked from view by the crowd. He doesn't mind that, he likes watching the ever changing crowd. Different people every night, some regulars, like the girl who recognised him earlier.
After a while a girl wanders over and sits down, but he can see and smell that she's taken something. "Hi."
"Hello."
"You're pretty."
"So are you."
"My name's Lacey."
"Hello Lacey."
"What's your name then?"
"Does it matter?"
"No. Guess not." She tries to kiss him but he gently pushes her away.
"What have you taken?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes." She pushes his hand away from her shoulder.
"You're not worth it anyway." She wanders away again to join her friends and obviously says something about him, but nobody comes over to talk to him. Another girl offers to buy him a drink and he says no thanks so he wanders off too. It's starting to get late, so he decides that the least drunk person will be who he hunts tonight, or if they're all too drunk he'll go somewhere else.
As he decides that he wants to go somewhere else he sees a girl come in who doesn't look like she's had a drink yet, and seems to be alone. He watches her for a few minutes. She sits down with a drink, but nobody sits with her. He gets a drink and goes over to her. "Mind if I sit here?"
"Go ahead."
"Thanks." He sits down and watches the crowd. She stares at him for a couple of minutes before talking to him. "Why sit here when you're not going to talk to me?" He shrugs before replying. "You were alone."
"If you're trying to get laid forget it."
"Never thought about it."
"Yeah right."
"Is it so hard to believe that I don't want that?" She sips her drink then shudders and pushes it away.
"You waiting for someone?"
"No, just thought I might keep you company for a while."
"Thanks, but I don't need someone to sit with me."
"If you say so."
"I do say so." He gets up and starts walking off. "Where you going?"
"You said you don't need someone to sit with you."
"I didn't mean that I want you to go away." He smiles a little and sits down again. "I'm Rachel."
"Hello Rachel, I'm Glade."
"Weird name."
"Thanks."
"I like it."
"I like your name too. Do you know the meaning?"
"Yeah. I'd rather have been called something with a better meaning. It was embarrassing when we did something about name meanings at school. Everyone was calling me woolly for months. What's Glade mean?"
"I didn't think much about the meaning when I chose it, I just thought it sounded nice."
"Why Glade then if you didn't have any meaning for it?"
"That was where I was when I chose it. I was walking in a forest, and I sort of woke up."
"Then what?"
"I wandered for a while and eventually settled down here. Now it's your turn to answer something, if you do not mind me being nosy."
"Go ahead."
"Why are you alone tonight?"
"Oh. Uh, my friend couldn't make it."
"You must have other friends."
"They all said they're busy."
"Too busy for you? Impossible."
"Now you're just being nice."
"Why wouldn't I be?" She smiles and looks down at her drink. When she looks up he quickly looks back at the crowd and smiles. He looks back at her and it's her turn to look away. "This is too crowded for me. I know some quieter places, interested?"
"Yeah. But you haven't had any of your drink."
"Do you want it?"
"No." He picks it up and drinks half of it, then leaves it on the table.
He takes her through a dark alley and turns round half way through. She worries at first that he's going to hurt her and thinks that she was very stupid to have trusted him like this. He puts a hand on her cheek and his eyes seem to glow faintly green for a second or two. She realises she's dreaming about this stranger, odd that a dream would have felt so real, but this man is handsome. The ends of the alley blur and darken, but near her everything is brighter somehow, like the moon was shining on just them. She looks up and sees the sky, black with millions of diamonds thrown across it. He looks up too. He can see what he's making her dream. When he looks at her again she knows what he is, but she's not scared. She's dreamed about vampires before, and she's dreaming now, so this is a new dream with a strange character. He gently turns her round and pushes her back against the wall. She can feel the rough bricks behind her. He gently kisses her cheek, then her neck. He smiles at her, and she sees the familiar dark eyes and fangs from the creatures of her dreams. She half thinks half talks to herself this isn't right. She half remembers that his name is Glade, and her mind creates the scenery for them both. They're standing in front of a huge tree, the leaves are shifting even though there's no wind, and the shape of the leaves are changing as her mind remembers the different types. She smiles, and she sees Glade move, and feels him nip at her neck. He takes out a small knife and uses that to make a tiny cut, only big enough for what he needs. She doesn't see that because she's in the dream. She sees what she expects and wants to see. She feels the cut, but only just, and she feels two, not one. He lets her blood run down her neck a little way while he folds his knife and puts it away, and licks the trickle of blood away before it reaches her clothes. She feels him drink, but not as she usually does. It feels like he's pulling at strings in her neck. She can feel his hand still on her cheek, and his other hand behind her back. you're so gentle, and neat She smiles at the thought of a neat vampire. She can feel his mouth on her neck, his hand on her back, his breath on her neck while he feeds, his skin slightly cooler than hers, him moving her head slightly. He drinks, and they both like it. that's nice...that's very nice He can hear her thoughts, and he likes them, it tastes better when they enjoy it. It's unusual to see a dream so close to the truth, even though she did give him fangs and dark eyes. He sees what she expects, and avoids the more violent things. He changes how he's standing and how he's holding her. His hand moves from her cheek to her hair, and his arm moves round her and holds her so she can't move so much. He's careful to not hurt her while pretending to be rough with her. He looks again and she wants him to continue, but he's already had more than enough. If he takes more she'll be too weak and he doesn't want to hurt her more than necessary, but she wants it. He'll have to disappoint her. He slows down and relaxes his grip on her gradually so she calms too. He pulls away and looks at her. don't stop yet He goes back to her neck and cleans up. She can feel that what he's doing is different and much calmer. I haven't had enough yet Some of the alley reappears, and he holds her tighter so she can't run away before he's healed the cut for her. He lets go and backs off in one movement. He turns away and she backs off the other way, then realises that he's acting strange for someone who just attacked her. What was that dream? Did he drug her? He looks down and runs his hand through his hair. She takes a mirror out of her bag and uses her phone as a torch. There's a little bit of blood on her neck, but when she rubs it off there's no wound, and he's still standing there. "What did you do to me?" She checks her clothes and nothing seems out of place. "What did you do?" He turns round just enough for her to see his eyes glowing faintly, and when she sees them he turns away again. She backs off a bit and he runs away. She checks her neck again and rubs off the last of her blood. he runs to the end of the alley to find him, but he's gone. She hurries home and tries to calm down. He listens to her as she tries to see where he went. He didn't go far, only far enough to not be seen by her. He walks home, ignoring everyone and staying in the darkest shadows so he's not seen. This hadn't happened to him before. He's meant to be the strongest with his ability. This sort of thing just doesn't happen to him. But it has, and he doesn't know what to do.
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