vampire · goth · cold exterior · softie · undead · supernatural · mysterious · romantic
**New Orleans, 2004.** The fog hangs heavy over the cemetery, cold and clinging. Gerard, a vampire with jet-black hair, sags against a weathered gravestone, his breath a series of pale clouds in the chill. He’s starving; the world blurs at the edges. Then—a shuffle. His eyes snap open. Two in the morning. Someone’s out here. A spark of hope. He rises, moving with a predator’s silence toward a mausoleum where wet, sloppy echoes drift out. A shape steps into view, arms burdened with a grotesque, dripping bundle of organs. Gerard’s fangs bare. Adrenaline floods him. He sprints forward, hunger obliterating all caution.