The little diner in Philapelphia was virtually empty. Through the rain that seeped down the misted glass I could only make out a few figures sitting at the tables, steaming cups harboured in their hands, heads bowed. This was good.

 A crackle of lightening roiled overhead. I stepped inside.

 The smell of bitter cigarrette smoke only brushed over the other smell – the smell that made me stop in the doorway and hold my breath, while the red hot claws of desire raked over my insides. My fingers squeezed the doorknob tightly, clinging to self-control like a drowning man to a float.

 Eventually the feeling subsided, and I scraped together enough strength to close the door and walk a little way into the diner. Nobody seemed to have noticed me, too preoccupied with their own insignificant worlds to notice that a monster had stepped into their midsts.

 Because that is what I was. I was a monster, a beast, a killer. I should not be here. I should be away, far away, where I could not hurt anyone. Even worse, I had come when my eyes were as black as eternity, putting every human around me in mortal peril. At that moment I could feel the burning urges boiling like a storm-ravaged sea, telling me to do the last thing I wanted to do. I was ready to give in at any time. It would only need the slightest movement to set me off and that would be it: a whole diner of people murdered in ten seconds flat.

 Somebody moved, and I steeled myself for the oncoming torrent I was bound to feel; but it never came.

 How strange. The tiny person was weaving through the tables towards me, and yet I had no violent inclinations or mad desires at all. She was slender, built like a ballet dancer, with an elegant white face and hair shorter than I had ever seen on anyone but a man. It was dark and spiked, and glistening with rain. She was smiling kindly. Smiling at me.

 I realised: she was a vampire too.

 She stood before me, perfectly calm.

 "You've kept me waiting a long time," she said.

 I ducked my head respectfully.

 "I'm sorry, ma'am," I said, unsure as to why I apologising to a stranger.