There Are Diamonds in the Sky

People. Walking, talking, shopping, laughing, living. Their legs carried them through their world of light and bliss, never aware of the true darkness of life. From his apartment on the sixth floor, Harry had a good view on the busy shopping street below. He could not sit right at the window though, so he used a telescope to watch people going about their lives. He saw men walking dogs, children running after balloons, girls licking their ice cream cones - and he had noticed that people hardly ever looked up.
Ever since he had been stuck staring through this telescope every day, not a single person had looked at the window he was hiding behind. It was surprising how many of the people below simply stared at their feet as they went, not caring about the world around them, never shooting a glance at the sky. Was it simply a human tendency to look down rather than up? Harry realized he was doing exactly the same thing; he was looking down at the people in the street, never casting a glance at the blue sky that hovered above them - even though he wasn't quite human, not any more. 1

As he let the scope glide over the crowd, he caught a glimpse of a girl with short auburn hair. His heart skipped a beat and he adjusted the telescope to find her again, but he did it too fast and a beam of sunlight struck his left hand, sending up tendrils of sour smoke. He yelped and jerked his hand back, knocking over the telescope, and he kicked the wall in frustration.
Unlike the people below, Harry had an excuse for never looking up - the sky had rejected him and smote him every time it could. That hateful ball of light had cast him into the darkness forever, and were he to look at it directly, he would die in an instant. 2

Harry let himself glide down the wall, until he sat on the floor with his back resting against the painted bricks. In the dark, of course. Always in the dark.
Harry - what kind of vampire name what that? It wasn't - it was a human name, but he had refused to change it. He had assumed that vampires always had badass names, even thought that it was mandatory - but it turned out there were no rules, no manual, no nothing. There had to be other vampires out there, Harry knew that much for sure since he had been bitten by one, but he had no idea where they were or if there was some kind of secret vampire organization. If there was, he wasn't part of it. 3

Life, as they say, goes on. Even when you're dead. Bills have to be paid and if you can't walk in the daylight, then you take a night job. He was supposed to sleep during the day - wasn't that what vampires did? But he couldn't. He would just lie awake for hours, dark thoughts swirling through his mind, and on the rare occasions he did fall asleep, the nightmares came.
So he spent his days sitting by the window, staring through the telescope at the life he would never have again. 4

Finally, darkness fell, and Harry pulled on his coat. He had a mirror, but it was useless now and he had learned to fix his hair without one. He walked out, closing and locking the door behind him.
He stepped into the street, and now he looked up. Even though the sun had been taken from him, he was glad that the icy crystals in the sky were still his, shimmering in a way that reminded him of the early sun glittering on the sea - another sight that was lost forever to him.
Harry shrugged, putting those thoughts away, and started towards the center of town. The term 'nightlife' had taken on a whole new meaning to him.5

The nightclub was packed - just the way Harry liked it. There were few pleasures left in this life for him, but he savored those that were. As he weaved through the crowd he started to pick out targets. The slutty ones were the best, even though he could get any woman he wanted. Ever since he'd become a vampire he had noticed he could have an almost devilishly seductive pull on the opposite gender, akin to some sort of hypnosis. He picked out a woman with dark hair, reflecting his current mood, and approached her. The men in his path instinctively moved aside for him, probably not even knowing why they did it. Harry could feel his intimidating and seductive aura throbbing in the air around him, and he tweaked it, making it go in sync with the beat of the music.
The woman with the black hair noticed him and he could see her pupils growing large as her body reacted to his presence. Without saying a word, he put his hands on her hips and started to dance with her. She moved with him, fluidly, as if her movements were one with his, and Harry realized that in a way they were. Their movements were perfectly timed in the same way that a puppet moves in harmony with the puppeteer. Harry visualized strings running from his mind to hers, controlling her. Those threads were fragile, however, and Harry had learned to take things slow until his puppet would be completely under his thrall.
He moved his hands up from her hips and let his right glide along her spine, sending shivers across her body, until his hand was in her neck and he pulled her softly forward. Her lips parted even before they touched. The kiss felt good to him, like so little things could these days. He knew it was just a small taste of what was yet to come. 6

The alley was cold after the packed heat of the club, but the woman didn't seem to notice. Harry didn't even know her name, but the time he had cared about things like that was long past. She was under his spell now, kissing him on her own initiative, and he let her do it, taking pleasure in her ragged breaths brushing against his face. He felt her press up against him, her warm body with its perfect curves trembling under his hands.
He moved back a little, planting soft kisses near her ear. She gasped, putting one hand in his neck, her nails digging into his skin. He kissed her down her neck, soft at first, but harder as he went. She pulled him in closer as her breaths became even more ragged and irregular. He smiled, the starlight reflecting off his fangs like broken glass. He bit down.
His teeth pierced her skin and warm blood spilled out, but the woman did not resist at all. As Harry drank, she hugged him tighter and her nails dug deeper into his neck. She liked it, even as he was killing her.
He did it like this if he could - he was not a sadist. He could just jump someone and suck them dry, but they would hurt and struggle. He may have been a vampire but he did not enjoy to see people suffer. If anything, his feeding was much sweeter when his prey gasped in pleasure like this.
The woman moaned softly as he sucked the life from her veins, her embrace losing its strength. Her legs became weak and Harry had to hold her up, savoring every last drop of blood.
There was one last shivering gasp, and then Harry felt her heart stop. He let her fall unceremoniously to the ground and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Better to kill them than to only drink from them and condemn them to the same dark life. It had never occurred to Harry that he could create a companion for himself that way.
Without looking at her again, he turned on his heel and walked out of the alley.7

The streets were empty and he was alone with his thoughts. Unconsciously, he walked to the place where his life had ended. He found himself in another alley, and he stopped as he realized its familiarity. This was where he had been jumped, almost a year ago. A dark shape had dropped down on him, dragging him to the ground, and a sharp pain had flared in his neck. Everything had started to go black, but before he had died, before the bloodsucker had finished his meal, he had been 'rescued'. Harry could only remember yelling and the sound of breaking glass, and nothing else until waking up in the hospital. They had told him the wounds were superficial and that he would be okay. They had told him he could go home, home to his girlfriend. They had been wrong. 8

Harry shook the memory away, not wanting to relive the events that had followed him in his nightmares. He started walking again, and out of the alley he crossed the street into a park. His sensitive ears picked up muffled sounds from somewhere ahead, and Harry let his curiosity guide him forward.
He found three thugs trying to push a girl to the ground, a girl - to Harry's shock - with short auburn hair. Was it the same girl he had briefly glimpsed through the telescope today?
He stepped from the shadows, making more noise than necessary. The thugs whirled around, and Harry saw some of the girl's clothes scattered on the ground.
"What are you doing?" he asked flatly.
"None of yo' business," the lead thug snapped. "Walk along now."
"Or what?" Harry sighed.
"Or I cut y-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Harry had snapped his neck with a savage twist. The second thug came forward with a knife, but Harry smashed his face with a backhanded strike. The last thug tried to run but Harry was much faster, and he ended up with a fragmented skull. 9

The girl was gathering up her clothes, dried tears on her cheeks. Harry knelt beside her.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, thank you. How about them?"
She gestured to the crumpled forms on the ground.
"They'll be alright," Harry lied. "Come on, let's get out of here."
The girl nodded, and staggered as she tried to walk. Harry caught her and helped her. They walked a short distance until they reached a bench and Harry put her down on it.
He looked at her again, and for the second time her familiarity struck him. She looked so much like Sam, and the image of his girlfriend lying in bed with blood on her neck flashed in his mind, like it did every time he closed his eyes.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Kate," she said, looking at the ground.
"I'm Harry," he said. "Don't look at the ground like that. There's diamonds in the sky. Don't let them go to waste."
She laughed softly and looked up. Harry saw the starlight in her eyes and again the image of Sam flashed before him.
They had told him he could go home. But that same night, he had turned into a vampire. It had happened as if it was a dream. In fact, Harry had believed that was all it was: just a bad dream. Until he woke up and found his girlfriend lying beside him with blood on her neck and no light in her eyes. She had looked strangely beautiful that morning, the dried blood beside her almost the same color as her short auburn hair. 10

"Are you alright?"
Harry shook his head. "Just a bad memory."
Kate put a hand on his arm. "There's music in this night. Don't let it go to waste."
He looked at her quizzically. "Such poetic words for a late hour like this."
She chuckled. "You started it."
"What's a girl like you doing out here in the middle of the night by herself anyway?"
"I was on my way home from a costume party when -" she swallowed. "Thank you again for helping me."
"No problem," Harry said, looking the girl over. "What was your costume?"
She laughed as she fished something out of her pocket and put it in her mouth. She grinned, exposing two white fangs.
Harry laughed at the irony of the situation.
"Vampire girl, huh?"
She nodded. "You like?"
Before Harry could answer, he spotted dark shapes moving in the park. His superhuman ears picked up the sound of heavy boots and rattling equipment. And a voice.
"There's two of them!"11

As his mind was processing this, there was a flash and something whizzed by. Kate fell over, a sound of pain escaping from her mouth. Harry rolled back as more things flashed by, little silver things, impacting the bench like bullets. He picked Kate up and ran as fast as he could, ducking into the nearest alley. As he went he saw that one of the silver bullets had grazed Kate's neck, and the artery there was pumping out blood fast. There was also something warm and wet lower on her body.
When he thought he had run far enough, and there was no sign of pursuit, he put Kate down on the ground. She was bleeding from her neck and her side, where apparently another bullet had struck her. Harry took of his coat and wrapped it tightly around her waist, trying to stop the bleeding. He ripped his sleeve from his shirt and tied it around her neck, putting pressure on the wound.
Kate opened her eyes.
"What happened?"
"I think those were vampire hunters," Harry said. Maybe that was why he had never met another vampire; because they were being hunted. How could he have been so naive as to think that he could just keep on sucking people dry and get away with it?
"Why would they attack us?" Kate asked weakly.
Harry opened his mouth, exposing his sharp fangs. He winced as he saw the fake fangs in Kate's mouth. He pulled them out and threw them away.
"Talk about bad luck," Kate said, seemingly not surprised at all that she was talking to a vampire. Must be the shock, Harry thought.
"Don't move," he told her as he fished his cellphone out of his pocket and called an ambulance. To his horror, he saw the first pink light of dawn appear over the buildings. 12

He put one hand in her neck and the other on her side, trying to stop the bleeding, but he was no doctor. Hell, he wasn't even a very good vampire. He had left an obvious trail and the hunters had found him easily enough. Trained, experienced vampire hunters. And Harry didn't even know all of the basics of being a vampire.
He looked back at Kate. She was slipping, fast. Harry looked at the horizon, seeing more pink light, and listened for sirens but there were none yet. Under his hands, he felt Kate's heart stop.
He froze, looking at the girl before him. He had not cried once since he had changed, not even over Sam, but there were tears in his eyes now. In the weak light, the blood on Kate's neck looked almost the same color as her auburn hair.
"Not again," Harry said, and put his hand over her heart. He pumped. After some time, he put his lips on hers and pushed his breath into her lungs. He went back to pumping. Behind him, sunlight started to creep across the ground. He gave her mouth-to-mouth again. There was the sound of heavy boots as he went back to pumping her heart. In the corner of his eyes he saw men in dark clothing appear. They pointed things at him, but he kept pumping.
Not again, Harry thought, his eyes stinging. He kept pumping.
Suddenly, Kate coughed and drew in a ragged breath. She opened her eyes and smiled faintly at Harry.
He heard sirens in the background, but his ears started to fill with a rushing sound as the sun caught up with him. As he sat on his knees besides Kate, he threw his arms into the air, and looked up.
It was as if he saw the blue sky for the first time. There was the soft pink of sunrise, flowing into deep blue streaked with elegant swirls of white. He could see the tiny droplets of water that formed the billowing clouds as they glittered in the new sun.
"There are gems in the sky," Harry whispered, "don't let them go to waste."
He let his gaze fall upon the ball of orange and felt its warm touch that he had missed for so long - smiling even as it turned him to dust.13