I was born into blood. Well, I guess when it comes down to it, most humans are. My mother never expected what I'd become, I suppose my father always knew. At least he had the decency to keep and raise me. My mother got the hell out of dodge the second she realized that something might not be right. Go figure, she started it all.
My mother wasn't human. Or she was once, I guess. My mother was bitten, changed. A vampire. Now for all those idiots gagging and gasping in the back row, it's not all the legends make it out to be. She wasn't some blood sucking beast that ran rampant during the night. At least that's never the picture my father painted for me. She was a woman like any other, just with a few odd tendencies.
Tendencies her and my father never thought would be passed on to their child. My father wasn't bitten, he was just your every day average joe. Joe Nox to be precise. He worked in a factory, paid for the house, bought me my first car. Most everything you could expect from a father. He just really didn't know what to do with me. Yeah, I'm getting ahead of myself already.
So right, I was born, pretty average, pretty healthy. And I was just your average kid till I was four or five, that's about when things started to get a little weird. My dad said I was just unnaturally strong and quick for my age, My mom figured better and that's about when she left us. I guess she couldn't deal with the concept. She said she blamed herself for creating a monster. Do I look like a monster to you?
Anyway... Mom skipped out when I was five and left my dad paying the bills and raising a daughter, not all that uncommon. I guess I'm just a little on the odd side. It's like some superhero story gone wrong. I don't know how to lay it all out. My childhood was normal, I made friends, went to school... And ran around like a crazed heathen at night. I didn't understand then. It was like there was something in my blood, something that made it boil, made me crazy. Guess there sort of is, my mother's blood. The blood of a vampire. I can't shake that, can't change it. Took me years to accept it. But it's not exactly something I like to go spreading around, so keep it under wraps.
My dad didn't really take notice of my nighttime antics until my grades at school started to drop. We tried the whole counseling thing, which of course wouldn't work... because we couldn't share certain secrets. He wanted me to take ADHD meds at one point, but I flat out refused. We went in circles for awhile: parent-teacher meetings, counselors, therapy, yelling and fighting. It didn't work. I don't know where my dad came up with the idea, but eventually he figured if I focused all my extra energy into something, I wouldn't be crazy all night. He was right.
I started getting into sports, but I didn't like the whole team thing at school. So that didn't work for me. Not that I don't make friends and get along with people, I just like to work solo. My dad tried to make me take dance classes. I think I was only ten and I still laughed at him for it. So we moved on to martial arts, it just fit. I practiced two hours a day at the local dojo and moved through several different styles. My dad wouldn't let me get into weaponry until I was sixteen, but I picked that up pretty quick too. I was just meant for it I guess.
My grades improved and I finally got to sleep at night. (Not to mention I have a killer upper cut. Knocked out the high school bully. Dad was not pleased.) I started to fit in better, I got to pretend that I was normal. Even though I could shoot an apple of a fence post from three hundred yards away, with a bow and arrow no less. My dad was thrilled when I graduated high school with honors, what a turn around. Yea yea... The whole school thing still wasn't my style.
I started going to the local community college the summer after high school, not for anything my dad wanted. I liked writing, wanted to start some career as a journalist. Cheesy, I know. Everything was sailing pretty smoothly until the spring of my freshman year in college.
Irony has a weird way of biting you in the butt. I remember coming home late after class. Well late after class, drinks at the coffee shop and some pretend studying. But anyway, our front door was unlocked. Which was really weird, because my dad was pretty crazy about keeping the house locked. I was maybe a little weirded out when I went inside, but that didn't prepare me for all of it. I found my dad slumped over at the kitchen table. I thought he'd fallen asleep. The second I put my hand on his shoulder to wake him, I knew everything was wrong. His skin was cold, pale. I think I screamed. I don't remember. All the memories are kind of a big wash now. I remember the marks on his neck. Took me a couple days to focus in on that. Couple days after the funeral, condolences, selling the house and getting my own apartment. Couple days and I figured it out. Vampire. Stupid blood sucker had killed my father.
Not that I'm knocking my bloodline or anything. There are some of that kind that do a lot of good in the world, some that are utterly harmless. And some that just don't give a damn. It those that I look for. I want them dead, destroyed... So they can never harm another living being. It started with the vampires. Until I found out there are other things that go bump in the night and aren't quite as friendly. It doesn't matter now. If they're harming the innocent, I'm harming them. Alright, enough. I'm done ranting. I swear.
So I got my own apartment. I still try and do the whole college thing. But bills come and all, crunching beasts doesn't pay them. My dad would laugh at what I figured out to help with money. He'd laugh till he cried I think. Somehow I got into modeling. Alright, not my favorite. But hey, the pay is damn good and people seem to think that I fit the role. Fine with me. Money is funding, funding to shake out all that is bad in this life.
I know, I'm a hypocrite. I'm much like they are. I crave what the do sometimes. I think like them, move like them. I can have their fangs, their claws. I don't. I don't want them. I want to be as close to human as I can touch. Even thought I'd like to find my mother some day... I want what every girl wants. I want love, a home, a family some day. But I want to know that my family will always be safe at night...
