(DBZ) Thirst

Disclaimer: I do not down Dragonball Z and I am not making any profit from this work.

Thirst

Slowly I look around, inhaling the scents of this city. My sharpened senses pick up the scents that no human could ever imagine. A sickened shiver runs down my spine as I taste the stench of hour old vomit and urine from drunken youths, as well as a million other things that I don't care to think about; their disgusting aromas combing to form an overwhelming cocktail that threatened to destroy me.

Shaking off the sensation, I begin to walk along the disserted street and despite it being almost midnight; I can see as if it were still the middle of the day.

Now, I'm going to tell you something that will turn your whole world view around. First, forget what you think you know, Vampires exist and chances are you have seen them but just didn't know it. It's understandable through, given that we are mostly just like you; except for our obvious dietary habits.

Second, yes that's right, I'm a Vampire. My name is Gohan Son.

Don't worry; I'm not like the monsters that stalk the helpless young maidens then butcher and drain them dry. I'm not a psychopath or like anything you've seen on the big screen; but then everyone knows the movies are full of shit. In fact if all you've ever seen of my kind are the illusions crafted from hypocritical priests and entertainers like David S. Goyer and Bram Stoker; then you'll need to be filled in on a few things.

Firstly there is no tried and true way to kill a vampire, we are already dead after all; but then there are worst things then death in this world. I know, we have all seen and read where the old guy with a cape kills the vampire with crosses, stakes and holly water. Well I'm afraid they don't do squat and I lost my religion centuries ago so there is little chance of me going to church and giving someone the chance to stake me in the heart.

Second, that little misconception about our inability to walk in sunlight is as false as the Loch Ness Monster; in fact it was actually started by Vampires in the middle ages. Yes that's right; Vampires were the ones who started the myth, although it wasn't because they were board. At the time, the human race was begging to become highly aware of our existence and was making a tiresome effort to find and burn Vampires at the stake. So what better way to hunt your prey and avoid the hunters then by making them think you are only active half of the time?

Of course, most Vampires took to the darkness soon after, so It wasn't as brilliant as many had first thought.

Some of the legends about us are true through, Vampires don't like garlic though it's not because we may be allergic to the stuff, it's just that it tastes awful and I won't even get started on the smell. Honestly, I don't understand how you mortals can stand it.

Also we do have the ability to change our forms, although it is slightly limited. A vampire can only change into a creature of relative size, something with a bone structure similar to that of a vampire's when altered. So forget about bats, snakes and any other small horror icon. Large breeds of dog and wolves however are quite easily done and I've even been known to do a few larger members of the feline family. I'm afraid turning into another human requires a lot of practice and only the oldest of my kind can do it on a whim. The same goes for turning into mist. It took seven hundred years before I was able to master the technique but I must admit; it was well worth it.

Vampires also posse a slight telepathic ability, not powerful enough to control the minds of both humans and animals like in the movies but we can read and alter them slightly. This gives a Vampire the the famous 'Vampire Charm' that is so often portrayed in the 70s Dracula films although it does take a bit of practice otherwise it looks as if you are staring; which is rather rude if you ask me.

Well, now that I've shattered your beliefs, maybe I should tell you about Vampire society. Yes, the blood sucking creatures that hunt you at night do have a form of culture and order. And there are actually three kinds of Vampire.

First, there are the so called Pure Bloods. These are Vampires who were born with the gene, it being passed down from their vampire parents and family members and they considered themselves the ruling class because of it.

Second are the Vampires that the Pure Bloods like to call Bad Bloods. These are men and woman who were once human and then were turned. However, it is rare for them to survive as either they don't make it through the very temperamental process of turning or simply the vampire who bit them would kill them just after feeding.

And finally there are the bonded Vampires. These are Vampires who have bonded together, a sort of Vampire marriage if you will except this can't be broken as the vampires literally bind their souls together. That I'm afraid is all I can tell you about them, for over a thousand years I've walked this earth and in all that time I've never met a vampire who had taken a mate and bonded. This isn't because it's old fashioned or unfashionable you understand; but simply because the vampire race has forever tilted on the brink of extinction.

There are probably just over a few thousand Vampires walking the earth at any given time and that is forever changing with the human population, every major city in the world only has enough resources to support a handful of vampires. It's not just the nature of our food that is a problem, most vampires have a slight tendency to attack first and converse later in regards to their own kind. But like I said earlier, vampires don't die easy so what's the outcome? After a challenge, the winner would seal the loser away in a prison that they could never escape from. And there, cut off from any precious sources of blood; the vampire would be driven insane within weeks.

In case you're wondering, I'm a bad blood and was once human, but that was a long time ago.

I have often wondered how I got here, walking disserted streets in the dead of night. Up until the age of twenty I had been a Victorian orphan who dreamed of becoming a doctor. Life had been anything but fair to me back then; my family had died from a plague when I was just a young boy. I can still remember that morning, even after all these centuries I can still picture it as if it had happened yesterday.

The night sky was being ravaged by a vicious storm; lightning bolts stabbed the darkness with unimaginable fury while thunder bellowed like the deepest drum. The noise had awoken me and fearing the monsters that lived in the darkness, I had run to my parent's bed. By morning, the storm had passed and I found myself up at the crack of dawn, ready to begin the work in the fields. Neither mother nor father awoke however and I sat on their bed, shaking my father's unmoving body and pleading with him to wake up; never understanding why he didn't. He had always answered, always ruffled my spiky hair as he said morning before we would go to fields; he never ignored me. But that morning, all he did was lie there as I shook him.

It was over a week before help came, the Village people had all been killed by a mysterious plague and I was the only survivor. With no other close kin in the county to take me in, I'd been taken straight to the workhouse orphanage. In the hustle and bustle of Victorian London; no one cared about the orphaned son of a farmer and his wife; I was alone.

For years I watched as wannabe parents looked beyond me to rich brats, the children of wealthy old families who had nice little inheritances waiting; while I was made to work night and day. It was torture and I realised if I wanted to escape this life, I would have to do it on my own.

It wasn't by running, many children ran from the workhouse and they were always brought back, some alive, others not so fortunate. No, it was by doing something which my parents had always dreamed of; learning.

I was fortunate my mother had taught me to read and write and by saving the few coins the workhouse paid, I bought books and spent my every spare moment studying. By the time I had entered my mid-teens, I had managed to secure a working scholar ship. And finally, at the age of twenty I graduated top of my class; I was a doctor and to celebrate my success, some of my friends took me out to a new tavern that had opened for a celebratory night of debauchery. That was where I meet her. With all the time I had spent trying to prove I was better than something that had been scrapped from the gutter; I had never had time for women so dealing with the fairer sex hadn't been my strong point. So try and imagine my surprise when this goddess with long locks of sun kissed hair and eyes as deep and blue as the Aegean Sea comes up to me.

For the next few hours, I doubted my eyes ever strayed from the milky skin of her face and I could honestly say I had never met a woman quite like her.

Having been as drunk as a sailor on shore leave, I'm not sure how the night went on but I do remember her taking me to her private room and watching as she straddle me, plunged my member inside her and then riding me like I were a prized stallion. Her inner walls were so tight around my shaft it was like she was the gateway to heaven and I thought I might have come right then and there. Then at the peak of ecstasy, she bite me with fangs that were as long as daggers. The sting of penetration surprised me but then it turned into a rare breed of pleasure as she began to drink. As I exploded inside her, I remember falling unconscious, my body drained dry by her unquenchable thirst. I suppose she got just a little too careless, it's known to happen if a vampire hasn't fed regularly.

I slept there for days, not waking until the third day's sun began to set, too find that the beautiful blond had gone. It was once customary for the sire of a vampire to stay by the side of their fledgling; committing themselves to teach them the skills and tricks of one born into darkness. But it seemed Juuhaci-gou wasn't the committing type and had left me to die.

It has been over a millennia since that night and as the world changes, I remain the same; a never changing constant in the pages of history. I'd like to say that I kept my job as a doctor, but after you've worked with the same people for over 40 years, they tend to notice you haven't aged a day. And with medicine always altering, I had a hard time adapting to the new methods so I began looking for a more consistent form of employment. Teaching I had been perfect.

And that is the story of my life; I went to university and studied for a teaching degree before taking the first position I found, staying there for a few years before transferring to another. Now I move from one city to the next, careful not to remain in one place to long for fear of being discovered or over vampires being drawn to me.

Now I know what you're thinking, a vampire as a teacher! I wonder how many of his students leave without fang marks in their necks. Well sorry to disappoint you but I'm a vampire with scruples. I never drink from my students, or at least not while I'm their teacher anyway. I'm around twelve hundred years old and there are only so many women in one place so I suppose I may have drunk from a few of them.

Yea that's how I feed, once every few days I go to a bar and pick up a willing woman. I fuck her, using her body for my own pleasure before I drink my fill, being careful not to drain her dry as I do. Please, don't think too badly of me, it was how I was brought into this world and it's the only way I know how to feed safely.

I would like to say that I feed upon the homeless, people who won't be missed if something went wrong but I'm not much of a liar. I did try once and there are some vampires who say that is the only stock they'll touch, but they are liars. To a vampire, the homeless are off or spoiled food. Their blood is riddled with toxins and illnesses; if a vampire feeds off them for too long he'll get a nasty case of food poisoning. Believe me, I found out the hard way.

It is actually food that that brought me to where I am now. I heard some of the girls in my class talking about some sort of party being held tonight. It may sound weird, depending upon students' gossip but you'd be amazed at what kids pick up these days. Not only are they a good source to find out about new places for me to dine, but they also inform me about the presence of any new vampires.

Keeping in the shadows to avoid the gaze of noise house owners, I hurry through the back alley streets to the address the girls had mentioned. Unsure of what I would find behind all these so called abandoned warehouses, I walk cautiously; searching for signs of life till I come to a rundown building. But judging from the music booming within, this warehouse was open tonight.

Finding an entrance at the back of the building, I slowly walk through a set of basement doors and down a flight of stairs until I see a small shiver of light shining from beneath a door. Knocking once, I watch as a bald man slowly pulled it open. Not giving him the chance to tell me to get lost, I flashed him a look and whipped his mind before walking past. I could of course just rely on another Vampire trick but throwing him through a wall may have attracted to much unwanted attention.

The booming music was deafening here and I struggled to hear anything definitive as I walked into a massive, roughly rectangular room. Looking up, I can see a second story catwalk which had been converted into a makeshift balcony with a set of stairs descending down and no railing to stop the clumps of pot smoking teens from jumping to their deaths.

Amidst the gaggle of dancing patrons, I could see a mass of dusty warehouse boxes and old plywood lengths that had been fitted together to serve as a bar. Rusty tables and chairs were scattered around it, the type of stuff you might find in cheap yard sales and wonder if you would need tetanus shot before touching them.

Looking around, I can see a few middle age players trying to mingle with the young community but they are few amongst the tide of young people. In an unfurnished expanse of space, groups of people were doing some sort of dance around a preforming DJ whose excuse for music sounded like something he must have recoded off an ill-tuned radio. Inhaling deeply, the stench of drugs, cheap booze and even cheaper perfume flooded my stomach and made me want to retch. Resisting the urge to throw up, I begin to hunt; filtering through the various scents until I find something quite unexpected.

Beneath the stench of burnt heroin and spilt alcohol there is something odd; something out of place. Intrigued, I start to weave in and out of the crowd, following the scent until it led to a table detached from the rest in a darkened corner. However when I saw the person sitting at it, I began to doubt even my own eyes; there was no way someone like this would be in a shithole like this. Deciding to double check I circled round the table, being careful to blend into the crowd as I did.

Yes, the girl at the table defiantly had that scent but what the hell was she doing in a place like this? She was in her late teens, probably 18 or 19 years old and had dark, onyx black hair that had been styled to form a cute set of spikes at the front. Her face was beautiful, unmarred and with features that appeared as soft of goose down. But that wasn't what attracted me. Even under all the filth that polluted the air in this place, I could tell her sent. She was as pure as snow.

In my line of work, I'm always around members of the female gender but even after all these centuries I have rally ever come across one I would call pure. But with her there was not a trace of corruption; I doubt she has ever known the passion of a man's embrace.

Well, this hunt just got interesting. I had never targeted someone who was truly innocent before and I hadn't planned on it tonight, this was going to require a little more subtlety.

Resisting the urge to go over to her, I walked to the bar and bought a vodka martini; being careful not to let anyone see as I reach into my coat and with draw a small canteen before pouring a little vampire sweetener into the drink. Scanning the crowd, I quickly found my target. With her wearing that dress she stuck out like a sore thumb in this place; but damn she sure did look good.

The fabric hugged every curve of her body like a second skin, leaving her arms bare; it draped tightly around her hips but went lose down to her knees. It was sexy enough to ensure that any date she had wouldn't leave her side.

Taking a sip of my drink and savouring the slight coppery taste of the added blood before deciding it was time to act.

"Mind if I join you?" She jumps slightly as I speak, surprising her as I walk up to her table.

Looking round, her gaze slowly slides up me, taking in my measurements. When her eyes meet mine, I expected to see a scared look but instead I could see a curious gleam in her blue depths.

"Um, I suppose so." her voice trembling slightly as she watched me before turning away quickly as I pull out a chair and sit down.

For moments we sat apart, an uneasy silence surrounding us despite the blaring background. In the dim light, I can see the rapid movement of her eyes as she searches for something. How interesting...

"What's your name?" I asked innocently before taking another sip of my drink, yet never taking my eyes off her for an instant.

Turning back to me, she quickly answered "Videl, Videl Satan" before turning back to the crowd. Obviously, she was not in the mood for a conversation. I'll have to do something about that.

"I'm Gohan Son" I said, smiling pleasantly while holding out a hand for her to shake. She didn't reciprocate and I withdrew the invitation before asking in an almost offhand fashion "So who are you waiting for?"

That did it.

She suddenly turned to look at me, an accusing look in her eye as she asked in a surprised tone. "How do you know I'm waiting for someone?"

Hiding the victorious smirk that threatened to spill across my lips, I replied "well with the way your eyes keep glancing around the room, I figured you had to be looking for someone."

A relieved smile spread across her lips and she relaxed back into her seat. "You're very observant."

"I have my talents." I say, smiling as she giggles lightly. I must be making an impression. "So, who are you waiting for?"

"Just a friend," Videl said before taking a sip of her drink as she leant back in her seat. "She has been badgering me all week to come to this party and barley ten minutes after we get through the door she disappears. Typical..." I know better than to respond, you don't need be a vampire to know when someone doesn't want either sympathy or pity. "So what about you then Mr Son?"

"Please, Just call me Gohan, I can't stand being called Mr Son; it makes me sound so old." Pausing for a second as she giggles before saying "And I'm a teacher, I heard a few students talking about this place so as I had nothing better to do; I decided to come by and se what all the fuss was about."

I'd like to say I could of developed this conversation a little more but before I even had the chance to start a more interesting conversation; The words 'Hey Videl, oh who's your friend,' interrupted us and we both look around at the same time to see the smiling face of a blond girl leaning on our table; her eyes are not so slyly giving me the once over.

"Oh um hi Erasa," Videl said, looking away from us as an embarrassed blush stained her cheeks.

"Videl, why have you not introduced me to your very handsome friennddd?" It wasn't just the slur that told me she was drunk, her breath stank of at least three different kinds of drink.