Lily didn't waste another second.
She covered the man's mouth quickly with her own hand before leaning in, fangs bared, and biting down hungrily into his neck.
Blood flooded her mouth. It was as intoxicating as ever. The rich flavor of warm life itself condensed into liquid form.
The satisfaction was immediate. Her throat cooled as the burning receded. Her body drank deeply, greedily.
The man thrashed against her grip. Tried to scream but her hand pressed harder against his mouth, muffling every sound to barely audible whimpers.
His memories flickered through her consciousness like a film reel.
She saw him beating someone with a baseball bat. Saw him threatening a terrified young woman. Saw him laughing as he and his friends robbed a convenience store, pistol-whipping the elderly clerk.
Evil. Definitely evil.
Her hunger urged her forward. More, take it all and finish him.
But that wasn't tonight's goal.
Lily focused on his heartbeat. Strong at first, then gradually weakening as she continued to feed.
Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
The rhythm slowed.
Now. Stop now!
Her hunger disagreed violently. It clawed at her mind, demanding completion. Demanding his death.
Lily tried to pull away.
Her body refused. Her mouth stayed locked on his throat as blood continued to flow.
No, Stop! You're in control!
Ba-dum...Ba-dum...Ba-dum...
The heartbeat grew fainter.
Lily mentally screamed at herself while summoning every ounce of willpower she possessed.
She wrenched herself backwards with a forceful shove.
Her hand slipped from his mouth as she stumbled back. There was a sickening crack.
The man's jaw hung at an unnatural angle.
He made a gurgling sound and collapsed against the building, sliding down until he sat crumpled on the cold ground.
Lily staggered back several more steps, chest heaving despite having no need to breathe. She stared up at the night sky, blood dripping from her chin.
Stars. She could see them between the city lights. Tiny pinpricks of light from long dead suns.
The hunger simmered inside her. Not satisfied. Not an ember like before, but a small fire that demanded more fuel.
She'd done it though. Stopped before killing him.
Lily lowered her gaze back to the man. He sat slumped, dazed. His broken jaw hung slack. His eyes struggled to focus.
She moved quickly, kneeling beside him, turning his face carefully toward her with both hands as she did. Gentler this time.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you like that."
Her voice sounded strange to her own ears. Thick with blood and regret.
The man's eyes widened slightly. Fear. Pain. Confusion. All mixed together in his glassy stare.
"I'm really sorry," Lily repeated, "I didn't realize how hard it would be to stop."
He made another gurgling sound as he tried to speak but couldn't. The broken jaw prevented it.
Lily focused on his frightened eyes. Thought about what her sire had told her.
You must always wipe the memory of the person you fed from.
She leaned closer, maintaining eye contact.
"Forget me and forget what really happened."
Power surged outward from somewhere deep inside her. It rippled through the air between them like heat waves rising from summer asphalt.
The man's eyes clouded over. The fear drained from them, replaced by murky confusion.
His gaze darted around. Left. Right. Up at the sky. Down at his hands.
He looked lost. Like someone who'd woken up in an unfamiliar place with no memory of how they'd arrived.
Lily smiled despite the blood coating her face.
It worked! She could feed without killing. Could erase the evidence from their minds.
The man's eyes rolled back suddenly. White sclera gleamed in the darkness.
A soft sigh escaped from his ruined mouth.
Lily's smile vanished.
She couldn't hear his heartbeat anymore.
She scrambled backward, horror replacing her brief elation.
No. No no no!
She'd stopped feeding. She'd pulled away in time.
But she hadn't stopped the bleeding.
Blood still pumped sluggishly from the wounds on his neck. Not a lot. Not the violent spurts of an intact heart. Just slow seepage from whatever residual pressure remained in his circulatory system, left over from what she hadn't taken.
She'd been too focused on testing her mind control powers. Had forgotten the most basic principle of first aid.
Stop the bleeding.
Lily stared at the corpse for several long seconds.
She'd failed. Killed him anyway through negligence rather than hunger.
But wait.
This presented another opportunity.
She'd been watching vampire movies and shows obsessively over the past few weeks. Taking detailed notes even though most of it was probably Hollywood nonsense. Sparkly skin in sunlight, transforming into bats, turning into mist she knew were total bullshit.
But some abilities appeared consistently across different portrayals. Enhanced strength, reflexes, incredible self-healing, compulsion, and speed had been the most common abilities displayed by these fictional monsters.
There was another one too, healing powers.
Lily leaned forward again, placed her hands on either side of the wound.
She thought about the flesh mending, imagining the punctures closing. visualized the skin knitting together seamlessly.
She bent down and licked the holes her fangs had created.
Something clicked. Like a switch flipping in her mind.
Power flowed through her tongue, through her saliva if she could call it that.
The wounds began to close. Slowly at first, then faster. The ragged edges drew together. Muscle and tissue and skin reformed until smooth, unmarked flesh remained.
Not even a scar.
Lily sat back on her heels, elated despite the dead man beside her.
She had tools now. Methods to cover her tracks properly.
The blood remained though, staining his shirt collar. It was smeared across her mouth and hands.
And the body.
Disposing of him would be trickier this time around. She couldn't carry a full-grown man through Dallas streets without attracting attention. Too conspicuous. Too risky.
But he was a criminal under investigation for something serious enough that he'd planned to commit murder rather than face arrest.
Lily's mind worked quickly.
She rifled through his pockets. Wallet, phone, keys all of it useless to her. And then she found her answer, tucked into his waistband, a compact pistol.
She pulled the gun free and carefully checked it, it was loaded.
Lily wiped the weapon clean with the edge of his shirt, then carefully placed it in his right hand. Pressed his fingers around the grip. His index finger on the trigger.
She arranged him more naturally. Leaned his back against the building wall. Let his head loll to one side.
Stepped back to examine her work.
A man, sitting alone in a dark alley with a gun in hand. No visible injuries.
Blood on his shirt but that could be explained away. A nosebleed. A split lip from a fight earlier.
Without the neck wounds, there was no obvious cause of death. None that the police would believe anyway, she wasn't that naive.
She sighed heavily with self-disgust as she knew what her next move had to be.