Jarreth fingered the emerald ribbon around the box of cookies. He tried to ignore the itching on his hands from the instant hives which had risen on his skin where his neighbor’s sweater had touched his flesh. She had been wearing a wool sweater. As soon as he fed, the bumps would disappear. He cursed under his breath as the hunger threaded through him and pounded against his fangs. She had come on a bad night. The little snack he had earlier in the city had barely taen the edge off. He needed to find someone to suck on before he pounced on an unwitting victim.

Unconsciously he ran his tongue along the curve of his descending fang. The vampire had to admit Diana was sweet to look at. The curve of her neck had seemed very inviting. The spicy aroma of her blood had mixed with the cherry scent on her lips. It made him hunger. It made him want her as he felt a tightening in his groin. Yes it would be nice to bed the wench and then trash all off her brightly colored decorations. His mouth started to water thinking about her, but the annoying itch on his hand and the pungent odor of molasses wafting from the gingerbread men inside the cookie package brought him back to his senses. His nail caught on part of the plastic ribbon splitting it down the middle. In one quick swipe of his nails, he ripped the decoration from the package.

How could she even think about leaving me cookies! I don’t eat…cookies! He smiled at the thought and then his annoyance of his new neighbor got to him. She was a walking Christmas card. Humans! Can’t they get the clue?

His eyes drifted over to her display of Holiday cheer. It made him sick to his stomach and the thought of hunting tonight after seeing the happy elves which he had so tactfully placed in fornicating positions had been removed and replaced with new ones.

Does she have a cache of elves? How many does this woman have? No matter. She won’t have that many when I’m done with them.

He was about to go over and do more handiwork on her thoughtful display when he remembered he had the box of cookies in his hand. Sighing, he could be nice and give them to one of the Santas on the street corner or even place them back on her porch so she could reuse them for whatever holiday do-gooder cheer thing she was involved with, but decided against it.

Let her see how much I enjoyed the cookies!

Not bothering to be neat about it, he tore his hand into the box and grabbed one of the cookies. He took a moment to stare at the painstaking work Diana had used to decorate the little brown men. She had used gumdrops for the buttons, raisins in place for eyes, and a small neat line of yellow frosting for the mouth and around the purple gumdrop buttons to match. It was so sickly cute he cringed. A cruel smile lit his lips as in one gesture he crushed the cookie in his hand. For a moment, he thought he heard the pastry screaming for mercy. The gingerbread crumbled to dust in between his fingers. He left the crumbs on his front lawn for the birds to find in the morning. He did the same with the rest of the contents of the box, leaving the desecrated package next to his front door on the snow filled steps.