He sat staring, hypnotised by the only light in his room. The light of a single candle, he watched it flicker sporadically as a cool breeze, from a balcony door which was slightly ajar, it swirled around the hotel bedroom. The heavy, gold velour curtains, rustled gently by the window. The décor was very dark and oppressive, with wall to wall dark pine cladding, brown bedding sheets and worn paisley patterned carpets. He was staying in a very old ski lodge in the bowels of the once Eastern Block country of Romania, though thankfully the citizens were now free of the tyranny of the communist years, it was still very obvious to the westerners eye that a lot of work still needed to be done to the country to bring it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.
He blinked for the first time in what seemed like an age, as the howl of a solitary wolf drifted over the pine covered ski slopes that engulfed the tiny village of Piona Brasov. He smiled as he was stirred from his melancholy stare, as he thought to himself “What a perfect place for him to find himself, being what he was and now the obligatory wolf resounding its sad chorus outside, how cliché.”
He rolled his eyes to the ceiling in a mock gesture of boredom. As he did so he stopped as his hearing began to tune in to a very different song now.
“Great.Euro-trash pop, that’s all I need.” He cursed under his breath.
He had heard youngsters call the music as such and he honed in his hearing to route out the source. A discotech from the basement of the hotel next door. He pushed his senses further, through the building and he could now hear the voice of young adults chatting about clothes, music and the opposite sex. He smiled again.
“Youth, they never change. And the 20th Century think they invented the teenager.”
He shook his head reminiscently. He sat staring at the candle once more, trying desperately to ignore the party next door, but it was no use, tracking the sources of the music and voices had also inadvertently woken his other great sense. Smell. He could smell the alcohol on their breaths as they spoke to one another in the disco and now the faint smell of human wafted under his nose, teasing his next great sense. Taste.
Young blood, his heart pounded. No, I mustn’t, his brain screamed, the old and evil only.
“That’s it.”
He slammed both hands on the desk in frustration and pushed himself up from his seat. The chair fell backwards onto the floor, but he didn’t even bother to set it straight again. He grabbed his black raincoat from the bed and paused for a second to admire his adorable chiselled features in the mirror. His black hair was dishevelled as it fell over his shoulders, but that was how the trendy youths of today wore it. His skin was pale, but perfectly flawless. He jutted out his jaw and ran a finger over his eyebrows, to ensure every hair was perfectly in place and his deep brown eyes shimmered with a flicker of gold in his pupils that no human could resist. The peacock was preened and ready to go out prowling. He shot out of the balcony door with invisible lightening speed.
The smell of young fresh flesh drove him insane as he leapt from the balcony of the fourth floor and landed with such precise agility he would have earned a perfect 6.0 in Olympic Gymnastics. He walked as slowly as he could so he could pass for human if anyone was watching from their windows. Why? He wasn’t too sure, seeing as anyone could easily have seen him throwing himself off a balcony.
“Must be more careful,” he thought, “don’t want a repeat episode of St Petersburg a century ago.” If it hadn’t been for his travelling companion he could have been burnt at the stake. “Well almost, slight exaggeration,” he smiled ruefully at the memory.
Any guilt or sense of morality was lost to him now, the lure of blood was too strong and the hunt was now on.
“Just a little nibble of the tiniest hors d'oeuvre,“ He mumbled to himself, then flashed a wicked smile. “Must not do that when I get in there,” he thought. “Don’t want them seeing my pearly whites now.”
He continued down the steep driveway to the hotel Lavka next door to the one he was temporarily residing in.
The smell of pine and cedar were strong now he was out in the open, but the smell of human was even stronger and certainly more alluring. He took one last look on to the ski slopes and saw the mist from the Carpathian mountains weave its way through the trees, when he caught out of the corner of his eye the flash of a wolfs red eye. “I hope you’re not spying on me?” He growled softly as he flashed a soft Gold glittery eye too the wolf. The Red she wolf watched him for only a second then scoffed loudly and sauntered off back into the woods.
Although this was a ski resort, it was September, the end of the summer season was yet not cold enough for snow. This meant there were hardly any tourists milling around the resort and this was just how he liked it. He entered the nightclub around the back of the hotel. The Disco was decorated from floor to ceiling with mirrors and the disco ball in the centre of the ceiling twinkled and flashed and bounced off every mirror. The place was relatively dark, but that didn’t bother his eyesight. He didn’t even need to adjust to night vision as his sight was permanently in night vision mode. He had to adjust his eyesight to light vision, if artificial light was switched on. The rest of the club was furnished in dark blue velour and the seats were set out in little dens. It was the perfect 1980’s roller disco/euro trash disco scene.
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