The night was balmy and tepid, the type of night that the residents of Paris would take advantage of. The air was filled with an enchanted feeling and music from musicians who played on street corners for whatever money they could earn. It was peaceful -- not quiet, but peaceful. The rich smell of flowers and food wafted through the air, scenting the breeze. Now and then a car drove by, and people laughed in the streets. Tonight was a night to do something impulsive and wild. Sitting at one outdoor café, Seth Moretti’s jewel-bright green eyes were filled with that look of recklessness.

He looked young, probably in his twenties. Black hair fell to his shoulders in gentle curls that contrasted his flawlessly pale skin. His face was feline, the angular planes of it forming high cheekbones and a strong jaw line. Handsome didn’t quite seem to be the right word for him. The only word that fit his looks was beautiful. He took pride in his looks, not that he was cocky. He just liked to brag a little too much, or so he’d been told by a number of people.

On the small, metal table in front of him a small meal had been laid out on the checkered tablecloth. It was comprised of pasta of some sort, he’d forgotten what it was called. He’d been sitting here for an hour at least, but the food remained untouched. It looked wonderful, and Seth was positive that it tasted equally as good, but he simply wasn’t hungry at the moment; or at least he wasn’t hungry for food.

As Seth pulled a yawn, long fangs could be seen just peaking under his slender top lip. Paired with the inhuman beauty, one could naturally assume that he was not human. He was, in fact, a vampire. His hunger was one for his natural food, blood. Thankfully, it was easily controllable, only a slight hunger that was easily kept in check much like a human’s hunger.

Heaving a small sigh, Seth rose to his feet in one graceful motion. After a short moment’s thought he decided to return to his extravagant apartment on the east side of Paris; he was slightly tired and there was nothing to do. As he walked away from the café, he made sure to leave a small pile of Euros to pay for the meal that he had not eaten.

He didn’t take the main boulevard home; he much preferred to take the back alleys. After all, he felt more at home sliding through the shadows rather than hopping among the bright lights and humans. This city was one of his favorite in the world. It was ancient and crowded tight with humans. Those two qualities always drew him to a certain place. He could hunt here without drawing much notice to himself. If he started killing humans in a smaller town, the residents were almost sure to notice.

Perhaps five minutes into his half-hour walk, Seth’s eyes narrowed slightly. He could hear his footsteps reverberating around the alley. There was also another faint set of footsteps that shadowed his own. Sniffing the air slightly, Seth detected a strange scent on the breeze. It wasn’t human; no human could pursue a vampire this well. No, the hunter was most definitely a vampire.
Deciding he’d had enough of being followed and playing games with his unknown stalker, Seth stopped and whipped around. His body language was unperturbed, languid almost, but his eyes held nothing but fire. The woman in front of him was small and thin. Her russet hair was long, hanging down to the middle of her back in tangled waves. Full scarlet lips were pulled back in a fierce grin. Her eyes were the most horrifying part of her; they were crimson and cruel. She was obviously a newborn vampire. All the humanity had gone from her to be replaced by an animalistic ferality.

“Can I help you?” Seth asked severely, pushing his hands into his pockets unhurriedly.

The vampire smiled broadly. “You are Seth Morretti, are you not?” she questioned.

Seth was surprised that she could speak; he’d half expected a series of growls and barks. “Yes, I am. But it seems you’ve caught me at a disadvantage. You know me, but I do not know you….” he said slowly. His tone was casual; a deadly dangerous dance to prove that he did not fear her. She was playing the same game to prove her lack of cowardice. Fear was only a weapon that your enemy could exploit.

“My name is Charlotte. Although my name won’t matter soon….” she smiled sweetly.

Seth feigned curiosity at this remark, taking a slow step to one side. “Is that so? Why exactly is that?”

“Because I’m going to kill you. You’ll be nothing but dust,” Charlotte giggled, mirroring Seth’s movements. But his were smooth and fluid, whereas hers were rapid and erratic.

“Hmmm. That’s interesting. Is there any specific reason why? You see, I like knowing why a newborn plans on killing her senior of 2,000 years,” he replied, flashing her an acerbic smile of his own.

Charlotte, whose face had been composed into a mask of amusement, growled slightly at this comment. “Gibraltr told me you liked to chat, but he didn’t say you would question every statement I made,” she snarled venomously. The name she mentioned actually interested Seth.

Gibraltr, who, to say the least, did not like Seth, was yet another vampire. The two were involved in a territorial quarrel. Much like the predators they truly were, vampires had areas in which only they were allowed to hunt. Of course, they had to defend this territory from other vampires. Gibraltr desired Seth’s territory, and it seemed he had now stooped so low as to send inexperienced assassins after him. That way there would be no one to defend Seth’s territory, and he could claim it as his own. He could have that much more space to hunt humans in.  

“So Gibraltr is as weak as I originally thought him. I mean, if he’s sending newborn females after the likes of me….” Seth goaded, knowing that this derogatory statement would further anger Charlotte and give him the upper hand if the situation dissolved into physical violence.

Just as he’d calculated, a snarl undulated up through Charlotte’s throat, and her hands clenched at her sides. “My master is the strongest and oldest of vampires!” she fumed.

At this comment, Seth arched an eyebrow. “So he’s managed to convince you he’s older than me, huh? I suppose it doesn’t matter, I nearly destroyed him when he was an imprudent, newborn….” Seth replied with a small laugh.

“You lie! You open your mouth, and all that spills out are poisonous lies!”

“You know, I do lie, quite a bit. But when I do tell the truth, people think I’m lying anyway” Seth told her, sounding mildly interested in their current conversation. “I thought you were supposed to be killing me, not finding out my favorite color and age. Unless you’re planning on asking me to dinner?”

“You repulse me, filth!” Charlotte screeched before lunging at Seth. She nearly had him, or so she thought. One second he was there, and the next she felt his long fingers wrap around her throat.

“You know, it’s disappointing you’re more interested in killing me than dating me,” Seth purred, his breath warm on her face. “Unless you’d like your neck snapped, this is when you scamper away….”

Charlotte was a newborn, but not a fool. She broke from Seth’s gentle grip and fled the alley way without a backward glance.

Seth then continued on his walk home, unphased by the fact an assassin had just attempted to kill him. He’d barely walked a block before heaving a frustrated sigh and turning around. He had heard footsteps.

“What is it, Scarecrow?” he asked in vexation. He was speaking to the fledgling that stood before him, a vampire he’d created when he’d bitten a human and allowed his venom to take over the human’s body rather than simply drinking all of his blood and killing him.

Scarecrow was tall, almost freakishly so. His bony frame was almost always still and statue-like. Dirty blond hair had been cut short to keep it out of his hazel eyes and overly skeletal face. Seth sometimes joked with him that he needed to eat more, but Scarecrow always simply stared back at him with the same grave expression. The guy could never take a joke. If he hadn’t been such a high-quality bodyguard, Seth wouldn’t have socialized with him. But he was a first-rate bodyguard, and it was always helpful to have another set of eyes.

“I wanted to make sure you were not debilitated in the controversy with Charlotte,” Scarecrow intoned in his deep voice. He spoke with an unhurried, methodical voice, always thinking about his words before he said them.

Seth rolled his eyes at the comment. He shouldn’t have been shocked to learn Scarecrow had been following him; the blond was almost continuously concerned for his creator’s safety. This was why Seth nearly never spent a moment alone, not really. Scarecrow was always lurking in some shadow, carefully watching over Seth with diligence and care.

The only thing that did surprise him was the absence of Scarecrow’s partner. “Where’s Bones?” Seth asked, casting his eyes around a few times. Almost as if on cue, another male turned the corner.

Bones was not a vampire, although it was clear he wasn’t human. He was a smoke demon, as rare as they were. This was a rather useful fact when Seth asked him to break into one place or another. He served as Seth’s… investigator. When Seth needed some information on a rival vampire, he went to Bones and the demon did a little snooping. Bones could simply shift into his natural form, smoke, and glide through keyholes or under doors. Then again, he was always complaining about this feat. He said it was annoying to have to squeeze through such small spots, but Seth knew he was joking. Almost the complete opposite of Scarecrow, Bones loved a good practical joke and was always snickering at something or someone. His hair was whitish-grey and dangled to brush the bottoms of his ears. Non-descript blue-grey eyes were set in a narrow, yet devious, face.

“Hey, hey, guess what? There was the cutest vampire girl not too far away. She was running like the dickens, looked terrified out of her mind,” Bones gushed enthusiastically. He was a rather odd character and one of his favorite pastimes was chasing people. Seth had never asked why he liked it so much and, doubted he really wanted to know.

“Yes, I know,” Seth replied edgily. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep, apparently that was asking too much.

“Ooh, was that Charlotte? Can I go chase her?” Bones asked, nearly hopping up and down in joy at the thought.

“No, you cannot. What you can do is go to the club and make sure it’s okay instead of checking up on me when I’m obviously okay,” Seth snapped harshly. He owned his own club, located in a series of old catacombs beneath the city. Bones and Scarecrow were bouncers there.  The least they could do was their job. Seth hated being bothered like this and being treated like he wasn’t capable of taking care of himself.

Bones sighed in clear disappointment, but Scarecrow only bowed his head low and nodded.

“As you wish.”

Seth returned home without as much as a backward glance towards the streets around him. He didn’t fear another attack from Charlotte; she would keep her distance for a while before attempting his death again. Scarecrow would surely follow his orders; after all, the other had never once disobeyed him. Bones might have ignored the order to go to the club, but Seth didn’t really mind that the demon was running around.

His apartment was lavishly decorated in dark woods and fine cloths. Bookshelves covered nearly every inch of wall space in the living room, and the only wall that wasn’t covered in high bookshelves was all glass windows overlooking the city and the Seine River. The river was filthy and disgusting looking close up, but from this distance it looked rather pretty, like most of Paris. If you looked at things from a distance, as an outsider, it looked romantic and elegant. But if you looked closer, you could see all the filth, the crime, and the decay of the city.

A large grand piano had been pushed into one corner of the room, and on top of it lay an ancient-looking Stradivarius violin. Seth played both of these instruments quite well, but the violin was his forte. He’d fallen in love with it quite awhile ago, before he had become a vampire. The love of it had stayed with him for the last 2,000 years and his skills had only improved with age. Loveseats and armchairs dotted the rest of the living room floor. Most of the cloths in the room were a deep ruby color or some variation of. This was one of Seth’s favorite colors and dark wood always looked good paired with the scarlet color. It was a little cliché, he knew this, but it didn’t bother him in the least that his apartment did look like it belonged to a vampire.

Seth let out a small sigh of relief – oh, how he loved his apartment. It was quiet and secluded. He was rarely bothered by neighbors, and there was no problem with crime here. He didn’t have to worry about hearing gunshots in the middle of the night or dogs barking. Stretching his weary muscles, he flopped down on one of the dilapidated loveseats and fell asleep.