The man strode forward towards the child who appeared to be listening intently to his approach, though refusing to turn around and face him, until he towered over the tiny figure. In the limp light of the moon hanging over them, the man cast a daunting shadow onto the ground before the child.
"Hey, kiddo." He murmured, tone low and undeniably intimidating, though he didn't purposely mean it to be. He didn't want to scare the poor kid to death before he had a chance to kill it himself. That was part of the fun after all, "Wanna play?"
Slowly, the child turned and the man could see green eyes slightly clouded in nervousness peeking up at him from an impish, freckled face.
Before the kid could react the man grabbed its elbow, nearly lifting the child off of its feet. The youth gave a feminine cry of worry, though this didn't extract any kind of reaction from the man, for all he knew the child being female would only make her crimson life liquid taste sweeter. He could see it now, the tan caramels of her face drained sallow, eyes bleak and lifeless while his belly was full and satiated.
He bent closer, trying to get a peek at his newly captured prey, expecting the typical frightened and confused eyes that children most often rewarded him with.
This girl did not respond the way he'd been excitedly expecting however, those eyes with which he looked so enthusiastically into were not frightened, in fact, their green depths were rather furious.
Before he could respond he suddenly found her tiny palm swinging forward, slapping the unexpecting vampire hard across the face, causing him to relinquish his rough hold on her small arm in surprise. The girl took off the moment she felt freedom of his cool touch, though the vampire refused to be far behind.
Despite the violence, the man wasn't agitated though. In truth, he was far from irritation actually.
He loved it when his snacks became so feisty, it made it all the more fun to catch them… and kill them.
He caught up with her easily, running alongside the now slightly panicking child with ease, feet practically gliding over the snow. It would be good to knock back that temper of hers just a bit.
"How old are ya, kid?" He asked, dodging around a tree and resuming his place at her side.
To her credit she was a fast little thing even in the grips of the deep snow, though not fast enough to get away.
She was stubbornly silent, stubbornly incompliant, and the stubborn frown that he could see on her face didn't aid in her plight as, slowly, the fun of chasing the mute girl ran out.
With a bored sigh, he lightly tackled her, albeit a bit harder than he meant to, sending both of their bodies skidding across the forest floor. He allowed the child's body to take most of the damage, practically riding on top of her as though she were a sled, till they came to a skidding stop at the base of a tree.
He smirked, looking down at the tiny girl under him, who seemed to be just clinging to consciousness, glaring up at him dangerously again. Yet, she still refused to speak to him.
An ounce of blood trickled down her forehead, appearing from the crazed red curls framing her face.
"If you beg I might let you go." He said softly, and though his voice sounded sincere it was an empty promise.
He never let anyone get away. He'd made that mistake once, and never again would he do that. He let his fingers stroke red strands of hair that stuck to her face with the gentleness of an intimate lover.
The vampire leant down, icy tongue licking away the scarlet droplets from above her eyebrow with a satisfied hum of indulgence.
The girl glared up at him mulishly, seemingly aware of his lie. Or she was simply too stubborn to lower her pride for five minutes, either was infuriating.
The man quickly grew impatient once again with her incessant silence, gripping her shoulders tightly. It wasn't like him to make children suffer, but this one child was completely intolerable. He was positive he was hurting her, he could see the tiny pinpricks of blood seeping through her shirt where his sharp, vulturine nails dug into her skin, but her intense emerald glare remained locked onto his face, mocking him.
"Oh, come on, kid!" The vampire cried in frustration, shoving her shoulders hard into the dirt with a frustrated growl. She was taking absolutely all of the fun out of his hunt.
"I'm not a kid!" She finally retorted, anger bursting back into her face, "Don't call me that!"
"You've got some stranger practically about to kill you and that's all that you can think about?! Me calling you a kid!" The man’s face almost sank into his palm, what the hell was this girl’s problem?
"Don't. You. Dare. Call. Me. That." She hissed, threatening as an alley cat, voice rising an irate octave, "I'm not one!"
"Fine, how old is the big girl now? A whole fourteen years old?" The vampire purred, egging on her tantrum. She may deny being a child, but she was huffing and puffing like one.