It had been a quarter to midnight when he snuck into the back of the ER. No one paid any attention to him; they were too busy trying to help the people who actually needed it. Billy could smell it in the air, the sick and the dying, those who'll live and those who won't. But what got him the most was the blood, the hot, sweet smell of the blood. It's everywhere, permeating the air like an expensive perfume. His fangs extend a little, pushing down on his bottom lip, almost puncturing skin. It's uncomfortable, but it helped him focus. The sweet smell of the blood rushing underneath skin was almost too much to bear, just begging to be -

[i]Why do you do this to yourself? It's not worth it[/i], he can hear his own voice in his head, chastising him again for even daring to step inside this place. While Billy might not’ve been the most cautious of vampires, even he should’ve known the risks of putting himself right into the middle of a group of humans. It was horribly masochistic, sure, but the payoff was worth it. He could survive walking through a buffet when it meant he could get the particular kind of nutrition he needed without killing anyone.

Granted, he’d drained at least a dozen people in his first few months of vampirism, but that was besides the point. He was trying his best to go off the live stuff, and thus, that was all that mattered.

Inching closer to a 'Staff Only' door, Billy checked to see if the coast was clear. People still didn't look his way. If anything, they avoided catching his eye. He was the last thing from intimidating, but as a vampire, there was something about him that made people instinctively shy away, even if they didn't know why.

Slipping inside the room, the door clicked shut behind him, and he quickly set to work. The sooner he got out of here, the better, but he wasn’t about to pass up the chance to try out some of the more… [i]exotic[/i] fare. Who knows when he’d be able to pull something like this again, right?

[hr]

[i]Slurp[/i].

[i]Sluuurp[/i].

A long, heaving sigh of satisfaction escaped from Billy as he sucked up the last of the blood through a neon green silly straw. O negative - his favourite. Of course, it wasn’t quite as good as it would’ve been straight out of a jugular, but hey, beggars couldn’t be choosers. Microwaving the blood bags for just a few seconds to get them to just the right temperature was a neat little trick he’d picked up a couple months back. Not like he could do much else with them, anyway. The amenities of a motel were sparse at best, and that was putting it gently.

Just as he was about to retrieve the fifth serving from his messenger bag, the overwhelming stench of rotten eggs filled his nostrils. [i]Uh-oh[/i], that wasn’t good. The last time few times he smelt sulfur, things didn’t turn out too great for him. What was behind these strange occurrences? He didn’t know, but one thing was for sure - they fucked him up big-time. Whether it was bad luck or something else altogether, the trail of carnage left behind put the law enforcement on high alert, making it near impossible for Billy to even keep himself fed. People got antsy, and just the thought of having to leave town [i]yet again[/i] pissed him off.

Just as he was having an internal debate with himself on the merits of leaving versus those of staying, the scent of sulfur was gone, almost as quickly as it’d surfaced. For a moment or two, Billy simply sat there, waiting for the stench to return, but it never did. [i]Well, that was weird[/i]. What was he supposed to make of that? The whole blink-and-you’ll-miss-it thing unnerved him, but he wasn’t about to hit the road just because he smelt some rotten eggs. He had a good thing here, and it was honestly shocking how the hospital he kept stealing from hadn’t caught on after [i]this[/i] long. Billy wasn’t complaining, though. The subpar customer service made his job a whole lot easier.