Free Angel's Guardian: A Contemporary Vampire Romance by Zeecé Lugo

next few days. The vampire was excited. He was tackling problems constantly and providing solutions.
    Nina, exhausted, fell asleep in the cab near midnight. The baby’s nappy was changed at the store, and he now slept deeply in his new carrier. Max would leave them all sleeping, and he would spend the rest of the night prowling the heights. He must not let his guard down. His enemies were watching, he feared.

 
    CHAPTER 11
     
    The cold wind whipped at his hair and long, open trench coat, causing them to trail behind him.  He roamed as he did on any given night, high up on the highest roof top, his eyes scouring the city below. It spread out beneath him, a sea of lights stretching into the distance, the movement of vehicles and people still heavy, hours past midnight. In truth, this city never slept. Once again, he thought, perfect for the night breeds.
    He could see the park easily, a distinct pool of darkness in a brilliant sea of lights. He leaped to the next roof top, beginning his trek to the park. There, lurking in the dark, waiting for hapless prey, the dross of human society could be found. That was Max’s prey of choice: robbers, rapists, murderers, drug dealers, addicts, the thugs for hire.
    As a vampire, Max had long ago accepted his nature. He stopped feeling guilt many, many years ago. The lion had to eat, so he killed. A vampire was no different. A living thing’s first directive was to keep living, to protect its right to survival.
    Vampires, as a rule, did not kill their prey. Once they tasted the prey's blood, they were able to enter the human's mind and manipulate it. They could calm the person, place them into a thrall, and make them forget the experience. It helped that a human being had so much blood, too. The amount the vamp took was about the same you'd donate at a blood bank, maybe a tad more.
    It made sense. One thousand vampires tearing through the world ripping  throats on a nightly basis, would decimate the human population in a few years. Not only would they destroy their one food source, but they would become quickly discovered and hunted. The movies had it all wrong. They had the werewolves wrong too.
    Now, as a rule, they did not kill.  There were sociopaths and psychopaths and ferals among vampires just as they existed among the humans. They were rare though, and as soon as one surfaced, it was hunted and executed by its own people. The vampire race was very careful to protect itself and the secret of its existence.
    Max had more than most to feel guilty about. He did kill when he hunted, but he felt justified because he hunted killers and other predators. He never killed indiscriminately, and never with his teeth. He would never take a chance on leaving evidence that his people existed.
    Still, some humans might consider him an animal. Max felt he was much more than an animal. He had self-awareness, self-determination, a mind superior to others. Surely, he had a purpose beyond mere existence. He fed in a way that contributed to the natural order. It made him feel worthier, noble.
    Tonight, he skirted the park and leaped over the wall to the zoo. He smelled it, the smell of a human carcass mixed with the sundry smells of animal dung, urine, hair, and secretions. It was a distinct sour tang that insulted his senses and made him want to spit.
    He donned his innate hunter’s cloak, his lethal vampire senses sharpening. His pupils dilated, his nose twitched to the slightest breeze, his ears perked to the night noises. From a cage came a screech, joined at once by many screeches. Something had disturbed the small primates. Max sped with absolute silence towards the disturbance. By the primate cage, he slid down to the ground and behind a shrub.
    The man carried the dark bundle over his shoulder. He stopped momentarily and peered about him in the dark, obviously trying to get his bearing and readjusting the load. Taking out a tiny LED flashlight, he trained it on the trail but only