The beating of the heart is something that is taken for granted by those who don’t have to live by it. I do. I live by the beating of all mortals’ hearts. If all mortals die, so do I. Yet I help to bring about the extinction of all man kind.

I finished my meal for the night and disconnected myself from her veins where I could feel the last feeble beatings of her heart. She had been a young thing, very juicy and tender. Well she wasn’t anymore. Now she was dead. I drew the back of my pale, cold hand across my mouth to rid my fangs of the excess blood. I could feel my skin beginning to warm as the girl’s blood pounded in my veins. I dropped the girl’s body unceremoniously to the ground. Great I know. Just leave my mess for someone to find and get themselves scared to death, but hey I am a vampire. I drew my heavy, black trench coat closer around myself to hide the bright blood stains on my shirt, and walked back to my “crypt.” It was just an old house that no one had lived in for close to twenty years. I pretty much keep to the basement because there are no windows to let sun in. I had it all fixed up too. I reached my basement hide away just as the first hints of dawn touched the horizon. I slipped into my coffin and slipped into a deep satisfied sleep.

Most people have silly superstitions about vampires. Some of them are true. If you drive a stake through my heart, the only time it will kill me is if it is made of silver. I cannot go out into the sunlight it’s true, but there are exceptions to any rule. There are ways for me to go out during the day if I need to. All I really have to do is carry a talisman. Garlic doesn’t have any effect on me at all. (Who thought of this garlic thing anyway?!) I can’t turn into a bat, but I do get more powerful with age. There are others, but I think I’ll spare you the details.

I slept through the day in my coffin and awoke hungry again. This was unusual since I normally feed only every other day. I pushed the lid off my coffin and sat up.

“Wonderful, Gabriel. You managed to survive to be called an actual vampire. Your first fifty years are behind you,” said a cold voice.

I calmly stood in my coffin and stepped out. I turned to the speaker and smiled a cold smile showing my fangs. “Miguel, how nice of you to show yourself. Fifty years? It’s been that long?” I said sarcastically.

"Ohhh, so my fledgling vampire still hates me for making him immortal and leaving his brother behind, hmmm? Well I could only save one of you and you were the strongest,” the vampire called Miguel said unfolding himself from my arm chair.

He and I are completely different in looks. He has blonde, straight hair cut short and ice blue eyes. His build is slim as a reed, but as with all of my kind he has strength to surpass any human. He stands about six feet and two inches tall, I would say, and has the classic aristocratic features. I, on the other hand, have black hair that has a slight curl to it that I wear at about shoulder length. I keep it tied back at the nape of my neck. I have blue-green eyes that tend to be cold and emotionless most of the time. I am six feet tall and have the build of a good blacksmith.

He walked toward me and held out his hand. “Can we not just leave the past in the past?”

“You killed my brother and then saved me when I should have died! Why should I not hate you?” I turned my back on him and walked out of my crypt to find my victim for the night.

It wasn’t a hard search. I found two teenage girls walking home from some sort of party. They couldn’t have been more than nineteen. (I look to be about twenty-two because that was how old I was when I was awakened.) I followed them stealthily until they reached a deserted park. I showed myself then with a charming smile on my face. One of the girls was not as old as she looked. She was probably fifteen at the most. A blonde beauty. Probably Prom Queen at her high school. The older one was obviously her sister. She wasn’t quite as pretty as the angelic figure beside her. I only needed one so I might as well take the oldest one. That would mean drawing her away from her sister though.

“Hello. What are two young girls doing walking in a dark park all alone on Halloween night?” I asked this because it was October 31, 1997 unless I miss my guess.

The youngest one giggled innocently. “Going home from the Halloween party.”

They were dressed in what must have been their costumes. The eldest was an angel and the youngest a female vampire… well their interpretation of it anyway. Ironic I know. I felt like laughing out loud at the sight of what the youngest one was supposed to be, but I thoughtfully held it in.

“Ahhh. I see. Please allow me to escort you then. You never know what could be lurking in the shadows at this time of night,” I remarked offering my arm to the oldest one.

“On one condition,” the eldest said gravely, “you tell us your name.” This girl was an accomplished flirt.

“Gabriel at your service. May I ask your names or do angels have to keep them secret?”

The youngest one giggled and said, “I’m Jessilynn…”

The eldest gravely accepted my still extended arm and added, “and I am Marie.”

We walked for a few more blocks and I spoke with Marie about many things. Then we reached their house and Jessilynn huffed inside. Marie and I had been ignoring her from the start.

“Do you have to go in?” I asked her pleadingly, looking down at her rather small form next to me.

“Where else am I going to go?” she asked falling for my charade.

“Why don’t you let me take you somewhere? Maybe for a coffee or something?” I suggested.

She shrugged, “Alright. Why not?” She ran inside to tell whoever was waiting up for her that she would be awhile. She came back out angry and muttering about “ little snot-nosed brats.” I assumed she meant Jessilynn.

It was about midnight so I proposed that we stop by my house to get my “key”. This of course led her to a deserted part of town where she quickly became no more. I often wondered what little Jessilynn thought when her sister didn’t come home that night or when Marie’s body was found lying in the deserted park where we met, her white dress and cloth wings stained with blood. I would later know.

I had moved on away from that small Ohio town soon after the death of Marie simply because the police now had an accurate description of me. I decided that I needed warmer climates and moved to California on a red eye flight with my coffin in the hold. I found a nice deserted house in a nice deserted part of town and settled down to play my games. The man who had sat next to me on flight over was my first victim. He stayed in a hotel near me and went out to get a drink that night. He didn’t return to his hotel that night or any night afterwards. I was walking past a twenty-four-hour store one night about a month afterwards when something came on the news that interested me. It was a story about a crazy teenage girl who said she hunted vampires. The girl’s name was Jessilynn Roberts, sister to the late Marie Roberts who was killed by the so called “ Vampire Murderer” three years before. It was little Jessilynn, and she was in California… hunting me.

‘This is going to make life interesting,’ I thought coldly. All the years of immortality were making me a cynic. The only feelings I felt any more were anger and revenge. All love and kindness had vanished. I had become a cold-hearted killer. I left the twenty-four-hour store in a rush and hurried back to my new crypt. I wasn’t used to being the hunted. Usually I was the hunter. Days passed without any more word of Jessilynn. I began to think that maybe I had nothing to worry about… maybe she had given up and moved on. After all California was a big place to search for one person. Then one night I was playing my “game”. My target tonight was a young man of about twenty. I was just getting ready to strike when a silver dagger stuck in the wood of the building just inches ahead of me. I hissed and looked for the source. Who throws daggers today anyway? I saw a young girl of about eighteen across the street. A blonde beauty dressed all in black and armed to the teeth. Jessilynn had found me at last.

I rolled my eyes at her primitive weapons and quickly scaled the wall behind me and pounced on the man below. I’m a quick eater, so before she could reach me I was finished and vanished away into the night. We vampires are at home in the night. After all we are night predators. Humans aren’t so lucky. They tend to be night blind compared to us. I stopped on the corner of two streets and laughed. To think that pitiful little human girl thought to hunt me! She couldn’t even keep up with me! Another knife grazed my arm. It was silver so it burned like fire. I hissed in pain and whirled around to see where she was this time. She peeked out from behind the building across the street as if she expected me to return fire. I smiled coldly. Not only do we vampires have superhuman strength, but we move literally at the speed of light. I used this speed to ‘disappear’ and then ‘reappear’ behind her. I calmly, and fairly gently considering my strength, trapped her hands with one of mine and spun her around to face me. “Jessilynn my sweet, how nicely to see you again,” I said smiling coldly. A look of pure terror passed over her face only to subside into a deadly calm.

She calmly tilted her head a little to the side to expose her neck. “Go ahead do it. Finish the job of killing off my entire family. After all you took my sister from me years ago. She was all I really had. Now I’m going to kill you or be killed myself. Go ahead… finish the job,” she said calmly.

I stared at her stupidly. Her last two sentences hit me hard. After all… they were almost the exact same words that I had said to Miguel only fifty-three years before. I looked into her eyes and saw myself. Not my reflection, but my exact emotions when my brother was killed and I was awakened to this immortal suffering. I dropped her arms as if I had been burned. What else could I do? I fled back to my dark crypt. I didn’t sleep at all that day. All I could think about were Jessilynn’s words and my words to Miguel so long ago. I was becoming as cold hearted about killing as him. Was I evil for keeping myself alive and having to kill to live? Was it my fault or Miguel’s? Who knew?

That was the night I gained respect for the lives of the mortals I took. I may have to kill to live but I don’t have to enjoy their pain. Even though I had this figured out it still didn’t solve my problem. Jessilynn still hated me and who could blame her. She was out for my blood, and I knew if it came down to a kill or be killed situation I couldn’t kill Jessilynn. We were too much alike.

The next night was the exact three year anniversary of the death of Marie Roberts. I decided that I had had enough. I was going to find Jessilynn and talk to her. Who knew, maybe I would get lucky and she would put me out of my misery. After darkness fell, I set out to find where Jessilynn was staying. I figured that the best place to start was where I had found her the night before. I never found her California home. As I rounded the corner of the street where we had met the night before another knife whizzed through the air to thud into the building behind me. She was at it again.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Jessilynn, come out, come out, wherever you are,” I called.

“Why did you decide to finish the job?” came the reply from somewhere above me.

“No. I just want to talk to you for a while. I would tell you I’m unarmed, but considering what I am it’s impossible.”

There was a long pause and then she dropped down in front of me. She had been on the roof of the next building. “What do you want?”

“To talk. Or would you rather attempt to kill me again?” I asked spreading my arms wide to expose my chest to her.

She glared and drew two more glinting, razor sharp blades. “So talk.”

I sighed. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about your sister. I, myself, lost a brother to the vampires before I became one myself. He was killed by the vampire who created me. That vampire’s name is Miguel. You and I aren’t so different you know. Well I mean besides the whole me being one of the undead. Both of us hate the vampires for what they did to our families.

“I may have to kill to live, Jessilynn, but that doesn’t mean that I enjoy it. I don’t revel in the pain of mortals as do some of my kind,” I said looking her in the eye hoping she would see that I was telling the truth.

She glared at me. “You killed my sister and you expect to make it all better by just telling me you are sorry?! That’s not going to cut it! Where is this Miguel character? If you want to make it up to me, help me kill him.”

At this I sighed. I had a feeling she was going to ask that of me. “This I cannot do. A vampire is forbidden revenge on the vampire who created them. I cannot even help you find him without breaking the Code of the First Vampire.”

“What?! Cold-blooded killers have an honor code?”

I laughed without humor. “Yes we do. Ironic huh?”

She narrowed her eyes and took a step toward me. “How do I know that as soon as I turn my back you won’t attack me?”

I smiled coldly showing my fangs, “I give you my word as a vampire.”

Her eyes widened and she stepped back. After she stared for a second or two she turned and ran.

I followed her at a safe distance. After all she was going after Miguel. He was never found far from me. After all he had to keep an eye on his “fledgling”. She searched for an hour or more before she must have spotted him. She quickly but quietly considering her race ran up the fire escape to a building ahead of me. I followed her up. She was waiting for me at the top of the ladder.

“What do you want?!” She whispered urgently.

“ I came to watch the show. After all you are doing me a great favor by hunting him. I may not be able to help but I can enjoy watching him die.” I said climbing the last few rungs of the ladder.

She sighed. “Great. Is there anything in this code of yours that keeps you from telling me the easiest way to kill him and come out of it alive?”

“No, but I honestly don’t know. You could stab him in the heart with one of your silver daggers, you could trap him somewhere till it gets light if he doesn’t have a talisman on him, you could decapitate him, but that’s about all I know unless you want to get someone else killed. If that were the case, you could put opium in someone’s blood and have him feed on them, and then while he’s sedated, do one of the other things,” I told her lightly.

“Oh great a vampire with a sense of humor. Just what I need when I’m about to risk my life to kill one of you,” she said with a sigh. She sat on the edge of the building and covered her face with her hands.

I just shrugged and sat down in a shadow to wait. Not long afterwards I heard a scream from below. That was Miguel. He always did like to torment his prey. He said it made them taste better.

She sat up straight and drew her throwing knives with a glint in her eye. She walked to the edge of the building and looked down with me right on her tail.

We saw Miguel feeding on an old homeless man. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Miguel always was a messy eater.

Jessilynn took a deep breath and slid down the fire escape ladder to the ground. Once there she hid herself carefully waiting for her shot.

After finishing his meal Miguel stood up. “You might as well come out. I know you are there,” he drawled in a cold voice.

She jumped a little and the stepped out into the light of a street lamp. “Hmm you must be Miguel,” she said calmly sizing him up.

He raised his head and smiled. “That I am, and you must be the little human rug rat that’s trying to kill my little project.”

“Not anymore. Now I’m after you.”

Miguel smiled dangerously. “Oh you are, are you? You may find that harder than you think. After all I am over three hundred years old. We vampires get more powerful with age you know.”

I watched her size him up again. “Hmm that means that this will be interesting.” She slid into a practiced defensive stance with her knives held gently but firmly in her hands.

He smiled and scaled the wall behind him. “Come and get me,” he said sweetly.

She calmly started to climb the fire escape to catch up with him. As she reached the top of the fire escape, Miguel again started off. Jessilynn rolled her eyes and followed him. I followed at a slower pace. After all there was not proof that I wasn’t in on this plan (which I wasn’t), so if Miguel lived through the fight if I wasn’t near enough to be in on it I couldn’t be blamed.

I followed them to a ware house where Miguel and Jessilynn entered. There weren’t any windows on the roof so I couldn’t enter without suspicion. I sat outside and waited until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I went in through the door and stood in the shadows. I couldn’t quite figure out who had the upper hand. Miguel had numerous gashes and stab wounds, but Jessilynn was battered and bleeding too. I moved in to see better as Miguel gained the upper hand. He had her pinned against a large wooden crate. He smiled coldly and opened his mouth for the killing strike.

It was then that I realized something. For her to die would be as bad as my brother dying again. Was a mortal life worth eternal banishment from my race? The answer came quickly. Yes, it was. Daniel would have wanted me to save her. I used my speed to trap Miguel against a wall. We may grow stronger in our powers with age, but our strength depends on our size. A quick struggle and Miguel were pinned. I debated on letting him live, but that option was quickly taken away from me. Jessilynn struck out with her silver blades and drove them into his heart.

Later that night Jessilynn left on a flight back to Ohio. She was going home. I on the other hand was eternally banished for participating in the revenge killing of Miguel.

This is the story of how I became the most hunted vampire in all history. I was hunted by vampires and mortals alike. I lived only because I stayed one step ahead of my hunters; living by the beating of all mortals’ hearts.