Ch. 4 Excerpt

Gabriel had always loved the night. It was the only time during a twenty four hour period that he felt most comfortable, he felt as if he was in his own skin. He ran through the forest, not loosing a single breath as he began to leap from tree to tree. He grabbed hold of a large Red oak and looked down at the ground, dozens of feet below him. He had become so accustomed to his abilities and saw them as a gift. Eternity meant freedom to him, it meant never being chained down. His sire was always reminding him of the responsibilities of his…gift. Gabriel jumped from the tree and landed to the ground in a predatory crouched position. Like a bullet he took off again into the forest. The wind once again surrounded him and swept him in its invisible arms. He felt so free that he hardly noticed that change had returned him to a form with no shirt and shorts that were once jeans. However; he didn’t care about the expenses this life had cost him, he felt invincible under the moon, impervious to all feelings of pain.
Gabriel had stopped at the edge of the trees when he noticed her. Those feelings from earlier had come back to him. She was beautiful, just as she was in class and later in the hallway. Butterflies began to flutter around his stomach, as if he was nauseous. He sat there mesmerized at her beauty as she combed her hair in the mirror. There was a fascination there, something he felt he couldn’t control, but there was another feeling there as well. One more dark and sinister that he had encountered once before in his earlier days after the transformation.
Gabriel sat at the edge of the trees watching her, wanting to be near her, to touch her, to…taste her? He tried to shake her from his mind and walk away, but his attraction to her was like a magnet, he could not break free of her spell. In all of his years he has never been attracted to a human in such ways. Even from yards away he could practically taste her blood between his lips, but he imagined her kiss as well. The young girl turned to her window to close it. In that moment Gabriel was sure their eyes met. He quickly hid behind a large pine tree. His heart began to race faster and faster. The first rule after your transformation is to remain in the shadows. Stealth had been the key to his kind’s survival all the centuries. Gabriel peaked over his bare shoulder to find her lights off. As he stood fully facing her window, the breeze blew across his neck.