Blood Angel..Private to Alana_ and LoneWanderer.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a284/mothermagic/thumb_1769595.jpgAva


The night sky over the city is a glow with the haloed aura from the street lights meeting the dirt in the atmosphere..
The stench of fumes does nothing too conceal the scents of the lives that flourish, dwindle, thrive or waver between life and death..
The streets are lined with the human souls that live in blissful ignorance of those undead that watch from the shadows, and of those almost undead, that watch the shadows.

Thousands of years they've walked in the darkened world..
Feeding, taking what they will, some even existing amongst along side the lives of people that are riddled with terror on seeing their being about to end amongst a blood lust that is unstoppable. There is no compassion shown..They don't select, only take..No one is safe, no one is spared, and yet no one truly knows they're there..Vampires.
A word that strikes fear, and confusion , with only fables to lead you, and rumor to warn you.

As the needs to hunt come to life, so too do the chosen few that strive to protect, and shed the world of the blood lords that hunt and multiply with each kill...
Blood angels..
Those that have perished at the hands of the Vampire, but where faith conspired to 'save' them from the dark side.....
Purgatory becomes the haven for such souls, where but for the need for their kind, their strengths, they would forever exist in a cruel limbo....

Ava's death came on a night where she'd slept in the innocence of her own bed..
And ordinary day, filled with ordinary deeds, immersing and ordinary young woman into her ordinary life...She's left her window open on a balmy night, and slept with the sounds of a neighborhood that had always been her home, around her...A home she can now no longer return to.
She'd woken feeling her sheet shift, and a stony cold hand clamp over her mouth..Powerless, she'd found herself almost catapulted across the room with such ease it had completely numbed her as she hit the wall, and then he was on her..
Her attack had been quick..So quick his hunger had left him draining Ava too vigorously for her to be fully aware of his clawing hands, and the shredding of her cotton tshirt, and what he'd gone on to do to her after.

She'd 'woken' in the cold dark nothingness of what felt like a dream inside a dream..And there, she'd been found..Her life gone, her soul not passed over, but what had made Ava 'Ava' was gone.....
And it began then...
Her choice was limited...To stay in this nothingness for ever, or avenge herself on the kind that had torn her from her ordinary life, unwittingly projecting her into being and extraordinary creature of the night..That belonged no where, with neighter living nor dead, but who now excelled in her ascension to the ranks of slayer.

Tonight, she prowls the streets, looking as if she could fit right in with any of those that file around..
Going through their lives not knowing some of them , tonight, soon, will be prey to some evil that will strike and tear their lives apart. Her lovely face is calm, reflecting the inner peace Ava has acquired over the decades since her rebirth..Her acceptance of what she does tantamount to what makes her tick.
With her western boots, tight beige canvas jeans, and calve length suede coat , she has but two weapons...

A silver gilded Athme dagger, with a serrated double edge and leather bound grip..Tucked inside one boot, there for her hand if she needs it..She walks slowly, before ducking into a back alley, and looks upward to the rooftops..It's time..She can smell the change in the air, and in a blink , the swirling dust gathers around her ankles, and raises her upwards fluidly to the eves, and Ava squats down, to wait....Wait for what? Vampire..For whom she's not sure yet...But she waits...with her second weapon ready to uncoil in an instant..

Herself.

It wasn't the command that struck a nerve with him, rather it was the imperious way it was given, or to be exact, the WAY it was delivered.......

Talon hung in the cool night air and eyed the city below with distaste, his mind focused not on the task that was given to him but the stink that wafted slowly upwards form the streets below.

"Why is it, no matter what century it is, the stench is ALWAYS the same?"

He didn't expect an answer, the whine of the wind solitary reassurance, his eyes not really focused on the tiny dots that scurried about on the streets and sidewalks but rather what he didn't see, that being the presence of his own kind when they should be stalking the streets in anticipation for a nightly meal.

"And why is the council is distancing itself from this "chore"? Sending a lackey to deliver their commands when normally they'd summon me to the high court?"

He mused, stroking the subject that irritated him since he was commanded to "kill", the act not distasteful but the ramifications deeply disturbing once the chore was done.

"What has the council so worried? Maybe I wasn't supposed to meet with them so I couldn't get a reading from them? If that's true then they're scared, and THAT makes me curious just who this woman is, and WHAT she is?"

Curiosity, it was a dangerous quality to indulge in if you were a vampire, the centuries not protecting you, wisdom fleeing the one who practiced in satisfying itself about the unknown, as reason fled the mind and impulse seemed to take over.

"Time to walk the streets of paradise I think, let's see what has the Masters of the Masters terrified?"

Suddenly he felt better, Talon would walk among the living that night and perhaps even feed if he could find something not so polluted with drugs or cheap swill, he'd find the woman eventually but before he took her miserable life he'd have his answers and curiosity fulfilled.

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The later the evening grows, the sounds of the city become broken. People drift, the flickering lights on signs over bars spit in stark contrast a lurid sheen, while she stands watch from the roof tops...Scents are rampant..Alcohol spoils perfumes, stale cigarette smoke bastardizes what had been fresh and pure..And there then are the others..
Those darker scents that bare with them no heart beat. Their scent prolific amongst their own kind..Ava raises her head slightly and sniffs, her eyes calmly scan the sky lined rooftops, but she sees none..The shadows contain those she looks for, but she can't strike until they do...

Slowly, she moves unhidden down to the eves of the roof, looks down, and sees her decent safe of questioning eyes, and she steps off...Her coat billows silently behind her, as she lands gracefully on one foot, and pauses before she straightens her collar and walks with an almost lazy gait from the empty side street to the busier hub where bodies move too quickly to enjoy life, and cars scream and cough their burning fumes..

She hates the city..But it houses easy pickings for the undead to claim..She defines the scents of those she is no longer one of, and those she isn't ..She belongs no where only on the outskirts of both worlds,existing for one reason. To despoil the world of those that spoiled her.

The scents waft heavily..There's a hunt in the makings, and Ava watches the shadows beneath the fringe of her dark hair, her eyes almost hidden.*****less emotionless eyes that reveal little of what plays in her thoughts..The blood scent of those that continue milling around her completely ignorant that some of them wont make it home tonight, doesn't affect her...
She doesn't feed on them...Has none of the need for their sustenance....Her heart doesn't beat..Her nights are her time to linger awake and watch..The days just seem to stop when the sun rises and Ava is no more than another sleeping the time away until the night sky calls her..And that is her weakness..There is no coven protection for her....Unless she makes it back to her safe haven, in the cellars beneath the old abandoned church, Ava has no protection against sun or those that would chose to harm her.
Blood angels aren't welcome in the heavens..They serve a purpose eradicating evil to escape purity , but so too in that purpose they sin in taking that life..It's a double edged sword..

One scent halts her progress...Years..Decades of time have taught Ava to define the rankings of Coven members from one another...This one is unlike most of those she's used to challenging.
He's strong..Very strong..She eyes the rooftops and focuses..Nothing..Just a scent that denies her the knowledge of its whereabouts...She turns..Why would one of such strength be waiting?..Why not just take what he wants and go? Her abilities are strong..She's taken on the best and fallen only twice, to rise better learned to strike again and send another wasted soul to the bowls of hell.
But she can't by the law of her kind strike until either she's attacked first or she intrudes on a hunt..a killing of an innocent. One so strong would take an innocent before Ava would know..before she could track him...Why is he waiting..?What is he hunting that keeps him at bay..?.

Ava stands central in human fueled street and waits..she just waits, defiantly calling him out...Her feet parted, her slender jean clad legs bare her weight ready to spring should the need arise...She'd prefer to keep this off the busy street, but.......
Who ever he is, he's not hunting those around her...Is there a challenge on between two elders for dominance, or....is one her kind, a blood angel, on the menu?....And she smiles..a faint flicker of her fangs elongating behind full lips glints in the flashing street lights...Fangs that dont feed, but never the less know the shredding of cold flesh, before her hands strikes at the heart of those she hunts..Has the huntress become the hunted?...
And Ava sniffs again, turning slowly ..A strand of hair flickers across her cheek as her focus filters out the humans and she stares right at where his scent originates..

And again she waits...

Centuries ago Talon had felt comfortable on the streets, even drawn energy from it as he tried to convince himself he was part of something even if it weren't humanity. The sounds and smells were exciting, the newness of each city carrying it's own flavor and brand of vitality, and he blended into the crowd eagerly as he hunted.

But things changed. Life changed. Even the undead had rules and responsibilities and as time passed his own powers increased making him the perfect candidate as an enforcer of the high council, his own mate long dead and his attachments to any human buried if not forgotten. In time he became a Master, not of others, but in the art of killing, first his own breed when they went rogue, then of other breeds, some mixed humanity and some of more blooded vampirical strains.

Strains that had begun to arise more frequently as time passed, and though he had found no pattern Talon knew it was but a matter of time. So once again he found himself on the streets, not a part of it, but blending into it, his mind reaching out to touch the humans around him and then onto others who should be easily found in strong numbers but surprisingly were few and far.

Fear..... He tasted it in the stench the humans called "air", not from the ignorant mortals but from his own kind, fear of the unknown and the end of existence that it brought to them. Talon began to understand, began to "feel", his mind expanding past the humans and rare vampire, reaching off the ground and into the levels of each apartment, studio and office, probing as it wound itself through the city that he walked in until he found himself at the very heart of it.

It was there that the fear was the strongest despite the absence of hunters and Talon smiled, settling back into the shadows, no longer needing to hunt as he knew where the huntress was soon to arrive. He relaxed and remained quiet, opening his mind and letting the sounds, smell and sight wash into it, then weave through it all with a practiced ease as he waited, the energy of each man woman and beast blending into a kaleidoscope that his mind worked through and recognized without trouble.

She came with a silent rush, her own energies different from all the rest, her power nearly off of any scale he had ever witnessed, but with the raw, brooding size of that power came too the feeling it wasn't entirely focused, or perhaps not as well seasoned and in control as his own. Talon smiled but remained motionless, his own energies quiet and barely ebbing as he used his senses to watch her, to observe the huntress that would soon be his prey, and to satisfy the curiosity that had urged him to be so arrogant.

It was when he realized she had found him that he moved, impressed that she of all creatures would be able to locate where he rested, and when he stepped from the shadows and moved directly towards her he felt a flare of surprise coming from her own energies telling him she hadn't pinpointed his location after all.

It was that surprise he felt that made the decision that night. There would be no death, or even hunting, he was curious to meet this woman whose energies flared so differently, to place a face and name to it, and for once to find out who he had been ordered to kill BEFORE he did so.

He walked with a slow, graceful and confident stride, his eyes on her face and studying her features, finding them pleasing and easy to enjoy as he drew closer, her lips curled into a smile that gave proof she was at least part vampire sometime in her life.

"My name is Talon and I mean you no harm tonight"

His baritone voice rolled through the air and he watched closely as the words and the meaning of them reached her. She knew alright.... Knew just as he did there could be no battle unless he was the aggressor, and he smiled softly for a fleeting second before returning to the sober, emotionless mask he always more.

"Curiosity brings me here and to you tonight, so much so that I ask who you are and why the aura about you flares in both familiar and foreign ways to me?"

Direct and to the point, it was the vampire way, never waste words with an enemy, friend or potential food........

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The shadows rupture, and the one she's scented emerges with a slow unrushed gait. The steady fluid stride of his walk is confidant, with an air of arrogant dismissal for surroundings that don't appear to interest him.
Ava watches him, and he her, nothing around them infiltrates a moment that wavers between danger and quizzical...The noises around them continue as if she and this male were unseen...
They attract no attention, only the attention of one another...That he's old she can sense..There's an air about this one that few but elders would have the right and experience to bare..But that he's not an elder is evident in that he's here alone..No elder is ever unaccompanied..
Ava remains perfectly still, arms loose, her senses alert to the hidden sounds and rhythms of the streets that aren't human..

"My name is Talon and I mean you no harm tonight"

She raises one brow, lazily eyes him from head to toe. So her assumption had been right. She's attracted attention ......A faint smile briefly sheds a softness to the structure of his face. Ava nods slightly once, the truce acknowledged wordlessly.

"Curiosity brings me here and to you tonight, so much so that I ask who you are and why the aura about you flares in both familiar and foreign ways to me?

There are few of her kind. There are few, and those that there are don't know why they exist. While others are turned or left dead after Vampire attacks, there are those that, like her, remain left behind to be used by those that struggle in the unseen battles between good and evil...
That he doesn't know of what Ava is doesn't surprise her..To most she's just another Vampire slayer. Albeit one of the best.
It's not a matter of pride to her, only simple fact. Ava looks at him, Talon, her voice quiet, as she moves to his left slowly, scans the skyline before stepping back in front of him.

I'm Ava.....

His scent is heavily male. A natural uncluttered scent, with an authoritarian lingering weight of ...centuries...of conquests and survivals.
Again, Ava is aware that he's no elder..no Coven leader..There are rumors..Of a select few in the Vampire clans that are chosen to maintain Coven laws with questionable methods, but always always thoroughly effective.
Master enforcers. Those few that have obtained their strengths through the will to survive and battles crossed and won..But what would bring one of them here...To her?.

......Your curiosity flatters me....

I am simply..me.

What ever little advantage she may have, Ava intends on keeping until she's learned more about this one. If he is an enforcer, her skills will be tested..
Not to protect others, but for her to simply to survive him.
He's tall against Ava's 5ft4, with the pallor of his kind, his eyes dark, unreadable beneath his hooded gaze. His clothing is flattered by his form, rather than the other way around..Talons body is firm, not infused with the bulk of swollen muscle. Rather more toned and slender.
There's little he reveals however about himself to her..In just those short seconds since he's shown himself, Ava can only assume that yes..She's been marked.

And you?...Why would you feel it necessary 'mean me no harm tonight?....You plan on harming me another night then?.

Or is that your customary greeting?

Talon used the slow walk to observe the woman, his senses wrapping around her and reading her emotions as well as the changing scent from her body. On the exterior she remained poised and cool, her face held in a near perfect neutral, the only give away slight eye movements that tracked his arrival.

"It is a true pleasure to meet you Ava"

He slowed, then stopped, watching her nostrils flare and hearing her breathing increase slightly, his eyes focused on her face as he allowed a smile to cross his lips.

"And I am the one that is flattered, as there is nothing "simple" about you"

It was obvious to him that she was nervous, her body poised to retaliate at the first offensive movement he might show, his own carefully held cool and calm as he placed his hands together in front of him. She was a beauty, he had been given exacting details of her height, weight and body shape but nothing hinted of the aura she fairly glowed with or how everything about her seemed to fit together so perfectly. For a fleeting second he allowed himself the image of her in bed with him, that energy he felt around her focused on him and the pleasures they could share, his eyes traveling slowly down the length of her body as she spoke before lifting once again to her face as he replied.

"My name is Talon."

He allowed his name to hang in the air, her body tensing for a fleeting second telling him she indeed knew WHAT he was now, the name only verifying her earlier suspicions.

"And like you, I am a hunter, so it seemed courteous and prudent to state my intentions lest my appearance hinted otherwise"

Again he allowed himself a rare smile, his eyes twinkling for a fleeting second as he thought of what the council would say when they found out their enforcer was meeting with the woman they had sentenced to death, his past discussions with them on his "rogue behavior" coming into mind.

"And No, I have given no other this greeting, and hope it will not be wasted, that you might indulge my curiosity, and that in turn I might have something to offer you?"

So it lay between them, the choice of what happened next was hers, in close proximity it would be a deadly and punishing fight, but he would kill her first if only at the final cost of his own life. It was his own brutal code, once he had under taken the "mission" to see it through or die trying, his own sense of honor demanding nothing less. And that was the crux, he realized suddenly, for with this woman....... this creature...... he was not convinced, despite her killing of his own kind, that the sentence fit the crime.

"I promise you a night of peace without worry of harm from me or my kind, in return you spend it with me and answer my questions honestly, if you feel that any of mine puts you at risk simply say so and we too can discuss that?"

A night of peace.... an evening without worry..... how long had it been he had ever offered that, and he wondered..... When was the last time she had ever found such an offer coming from one of those she hunted?

"I offer you my hand, and my word"

He concluded softly, his hand suddenly extended in front of her, the speed of it making her shift as she realized how quick and deadly the offered hand could become a weapon, her control preventing an offensive reaction and giving him the first hope his offer might be accepted.

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His voice is a like a melted chocolate tinged with danger..Smooth, but lethal. She doesn't recognize his name, but she's no fool. His name is just that..A name..The man,.. the Vampire behind it however, is what holds her interest. ''And like you, I am a hunter''..So he knows Ava's a hunter, a slayer..And she knows now for sure what he is..
Her calm is unaffected, but she's not careless. She remains fully aware of him, her surroundings, and differing sounds of the living and the night walkers. He cracks a quick smile, her focus drifts from the cool of his eyes to his mouth where a brief glint of pearly tipped fangs reminds her a smile from such a creature is both seduction and detriment..

"And No, I have given no other this greeting, and hope it will not be wasted, that you might indulge my curiosity, and that in turn I might have something to offer you?"

The scent of death on him adds an extreme provocation to his sexuality..She remains unmoved though..Feelings ,emotions long broken, don't stir in her easily. Being alone for so long does that to a body..There are so few like her, that to form bonds is futile and impossible. Slowly, she looks away, and listens..He wants to know more of her..
To fill his curiosity with her..Or they battle instantly...He out sizes her in ever fashion..But he doesn't frighten her..She has fought her way and survived with foe his equal..And has slain females..Powerful females..And Ava looks at him then, recent hunts play back and she remembers one of significance.....
Is this why he's here?..That Ava has taken an elder down and struck deep into the kinship of the Covens?

"I promise you a night of peace without worry of harm from me or my kind, in return you spend it with me and answer my questions honestly, if you feel that any of mine puts you at risk simply say so and we too can discuss that?..I offer you my hand, and my word"

This one is a sensual beast..Charismatically provocative, with an air of confidence and arrogance to dare promise her no harm..It irks Ava that he should assume she need his protection, or indeed want it..
His hand offered, Ava looks down at it..His unquestioned strength is perceptible in how quick he moves, and she looks back at him slowly, her dark eyes focusing on his ..It also irks her even more that her own curiosity about Talon inspires Ava to step closer to him..The tips of his fingers brushing her abdomen, as she denies his hand, replying quietly and suggestively, her pupils dilating beneath his shadow...

I'll take your word....You can keep your hand..........

You might need it later.

She moves back from him slowly, her eyes never leaving his, lingering a little longer than necessary..Her face reveals nothing, as she turns her back on Talon..Ava moves away, listening, her senses alert, her footsteps fall slowly along the side walk, but only for short distance from him..She pauses and looks back at Taylon..The world benevolently moves around them as if she and he weren't there..There's a tension stretching the air around them...Ava studies him a little more, and a smile threatens her full lips...The sparing has begun..
Offers made, accepted ...One even turned back on him, but with out disrespect. She was not prepared to touch him, or be touched..That spoke too much of trust..And she didn't trust him. But in her refusal, Ava has thrown down her own gauntlet, and let him know he can always ask his questions...and that it will be her that decides if she answers..She enjoys the jolt from what she's sure of, to what is a lot less certain. The scent of his danger appeals to one that knows little more than chasing death..To be the one now chased, harbors with it a sensation of being alive, excited..And that is a feeling long forgotten.

Where to?...

Talon smiled, admiring both the lithe, swaying form of her body as she moved away and the under laying attitude she cast out from it, her last words emphasizing her abilities in perhaps a way she wasn't even fully aware of?


Her refusal of his hand and the teasing comment of "needing it later" didn't deter him, he hadn't lived to the age he was by easily becoming irritated, and over time had formed an appreciation for the art of dealing with the deadliest of his opponents.

It was the same with her. On outward appearance she cast a deadly yet innocent shadow, one that would easily fool you if you stepped into it and send you to an early grave. He had used the same charade himself, walking the thin line between appearing foolish and having too much knoledge, not betraying his understanding of who or what he faced until the time for attack demanded it.

Alana, on the other hand wasn't just playing, it was a serious thing to her, but she too sought something else in it, he could feel it as surely as he could smell her arousal for him, and his.... for her.

"There is a ship...... waiting for us....... anchored off shore"

He spoke softly and remained still, his words revealing an intent based on assumption, the location he suggested a probe into her abilities and self confidence as well. Most of his "kind" didn't possess the abilities to levitate, it was a gift he had gained as he disposed of a vampire in the past, as were the majority of the abilities he possessed and used. In placing the boat in the center of the river he had forced an issue, was Alana capable of taking herself to it..... would she reveal her first ability to him...... or choose either to allow him to assist, or perhaps defy the suggested location?

Any of the choices would reveal much about her, Talon knew, and if she chose to be honest with him and show the first bit of trust they would both move forward in a much more rapid progress.

"It is stocked with what ever you might need, food, drink.... a bed for us, and a deck that will let us admire the moon rising as we sit upon it, without interruption."

His last words were his first clue. If she thought he was the only one the council was sending, she indeed had no idea of what was happening about her, her killing the female vampire was no coincidence or mistake, he was sure of it, and to be honest..... intrigued by the woman who was capable of it.

"So your actions in your life, are they decisions made entirely on your own, or has there been...... outside influences, at times in the recent past?"

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"There is a ship...... waiting for us....... anchored off shore"

Off shore...Away from where she's familiar..away from the security of her sacred domain. Ava eyes him..This is very much playing into his level of comfort, and placing herself on unsure ground. Refusal would defile the offer of a safe night for her..A night where as much as he may learn of her, she may learn of him. That he likes to be in control is evident..No..That he can be in control is evident. It seems to just happen..That quiet structured calm could intimidate some..It lures Ava..Lures her to want to know more..To experience more..To feel more..Strange that he should incite such unquantified provocations..She knows nothing of him, nor he her, only he's here to destroy her, and Ava has to stop him. He wont take her easy..If she goes, she'll make sure he remembers her well..That much she can be sure of.

"It is stocked with what ever you might need, food, drink.... a bed for us, and a deck that will let us admire the moon rising as we sit upon it, without interruption."

a bed for us..It flows from his lips as easily as her breath does hers. The unspoken assumption of earlier is now committed to words, and she inhales a long breath..She's always been at ease with her choices..A purgatory of nothingness for eternity, or ..what she is now.. She chose to exist..To exist in a world of two halves, only she stands on the sideline watching both, not wanted in either, but needed in both. And tonight she has chosen to give one night with him..Her choice.


"So your actions in your life, are they decisions made entirely on your own, or has there been...... outside influences, at times in the recent past?

Ava looks up at him..His face is not classically perfect, but it is one that holds the viewer captive, with its own brand of handsome..Eyes that can be dead with anger no doubt, or wild with arousal are deep set, and almost a gray black. They look at her now intently, she aware of how he peers, assessing her, drawing his own conclusions on her..

You want me to tell you I do what I do because I'm made to? Or because I want to?......It's neither.......I do what I do, because I have to. It's what I am....

I can't fight my nature.

She backs away from him, not fearfully, simply because being too close empowers him whether he knows it or not..He dulls her senses, as she focuses too much on him, she loses sight of what she should be doing. And instantly she hears what she should have been listening for.. In the distance she can hear the scuffle of an innocent being brought down..

Nature calls.

And Ava turns suddenly, and breaks into a run..Heading for the first quiet alley she finds..Sprinting, her burst of speed unsightly, she rises her hands over head, and heaves herself with one solid kick and rises upwards..Her coat explodes around her as the material flaps and snaps..Her hair whipping around her face as she finds her footing elegantly, and stands on the rooftop and looks down...A young woman is being literally shredded by two young male Vampires..Her body flung like a rag doll, as they hurl themselves on her. Ava dives..Story after story of floors of the surrounding buildings meld into one, as Ava rips into the back of one before she's seen..He's divested quickly of his head with one swift swing of her athme, pulled with blinding speed from her boot in transit..The second drops the dieing girl, and launches himself on Ava..The dirt whips, as she struggles briefly to shift her weight , and as he snarls, Ava pushes away from him with such force his body crashes against a dumpster..She kicks back and hugs the wall behind, finger tips dig the wall on all fours..Her fingers digging into the stonework , with her body bowed outwards as Ava snarls at him, her fangs fully elongated.

Two against one..That wasn't nice.

She's on him quicker than he can gather himself from the debris of the trash, and Ava cuts his throat..He struggles, and she drives her dagger downwards into the side of his throat, literally to give herself something to grab onto.. With her legs wound around his waist, Ava swings her right hand back, fingers straight and pointed before she drives it into his chest, and gives a little pull...A heart that never beats is still needed by a Vampire..She dislodges it from his chest cavity, and pulls her hand out empty..He looks at her almost surprised, as his friend turns to dust behind him, Ava falls to the ground with a thud, her second prey powdering in front of her..Quickly again, Ava moves to the girl. She's been fed on twice, her body dieing beyond saving...Ava kneels, pulls the girls dress back down over her thighs to preserve her dignity, and whispers to her.

Forgive me..But it's best.

Placing her dagger over the feeble girls left breast, Ava joins both her hands on the hilt, and quickly thrusts it through the snap of ribs putting an end to a life that would only turn in to one of the lives of those that had just defiled her. Ava whispers softly, lowering her head.

Oh mi Jesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, libera nos ab igne inferni, conduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim illas quae maxime indigent misericordia tua. **O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. **

She rises, wipes the blade on soiled clothing of the girl, and tucks the athme back down her boot..She stands silently, one hand covered in the blood of one of the Vampires, and whispers tiredly, her spirit drained with the loss of an innocent..

You seen enough?

"It would be best....... if we discussed this else where?"

Talon answered softly from his perch, his eyes surveying the carnage a final time before returning to the female who had created most of it.

He had followed, hearing the scuffle as she had, and arriving on the roof top seconds before she destroyed the first young vampire and moved to the next. She was strong, but more so than strong..... swift, her speed equaling his own and perhaps exceeding it, as she had demonstrated with the second male.

That hadn't surprised him, what did was the way she finished the female, judging for herself that the woman would chose the same way and not giving her a choice in the matter. He thought on that for a scant second, then rose to his full height and scanned the horizon, his senses tingling as he realized his promise of earlier was about to be tested.

"You must trust me now.... "

He warned softly and watched the vampire killer close the humans woman's eyelids, then rise to stare defiantly at him before nodding, his own eyes flaring obsidian dark as he sensed the nearness of his own kind.

"Or we die side by side, is that what you desire?"

He questioned softly and extended a hand, aware that his promise had bound his fate to hers for the night, and that though she was swift, the seven that came towards her location at an alarming pace..... were as fast.

The two she had killed were bait, the death of the woman a deliberate and planned trap, one he had considered himself but refused to use himself because it meant the death of too many innocent's....

It had been this way before, he knew, when a promise made had decided his fate, and though the past outcome had not been displeasing it was not the future he would have chosen for himself. Lady fate was busy tonight he thought, entwining events together both from the current and the past, and Talon felt she was aiming it all towards one specific event in the future.

"Unless you are prepared to die, we must go..... NOW, you have alerted the others who waited nearby."

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It makes a cold horrible sense..Suddenly the unusual aspect of seeing two males attacking one female reveals itself for what it was. And Ava had fallen. She'd acted for the benefit of the woman, and didn't question what she'd miss when engaged with fighting two, not just one. And she'd missed what Talon has just informed her of..It was a set up..He sensed it as he'd watched, she couldn't , being too distracted. Ava's eyes flicker behind him, the shadows still give up nothing , but she can sense them.

"Unless you are prepared to die, we must go..... NOW, you have alerted the others who waited nearby."

Her look is cold as Ava looks at Talon..She doesn't need to be told again of her error...The sounds of the alleys surrounding them turn quieter..Even the traffic appears to be muffled on the silence that sinks on top of where they stand. Ava rolls her head from side to side slowly, working tension from her neck, and she then looks down at Talon's offered hand..

At this point she has no choice but to leave with him..Even if she was to leave alone, she carries the scent of one on her hand in his blood..No one knows where her home is..It's the one place she protects and she won't lead them even close to it...They can't enter it, but they can defile her peace in being simply close to it... It's her domain..her haven. And she won't allow them to intrude on the only thing she can call her own... Slipping her clean hand into Talons, the coldness of his flesh against the cool of hers sends a little shiver down her spine in apprehension..

I'll need your help over the water.

On solid ground, there's little can catch her..Water defies her abilities..But the water will break the scent that lingers on her skin...And she looks at Talon..He'd followed her..His abilities equal her own, perhaps more so..The boat is on water, his abilities obviously allow him the skill to carry him greater distances than Ava..Her fingers move to entwine through his as she squats quickly and leaps high, the alley swallowed into the darkness below....The roof tops and sky line fuse together as she follows his lead deftly....They're being followed,..but at street level...None of the others venturing to attempt the rooftops..But who ever they are, they move quickly...

The air changes as the river draws closer, and the sounds of the pursuers begin to fade some......The earthy almost stagnant smell of the river , that washes upwards as the tide rises in the bay, surging the water levels higher..And it begins to smother her and Talons scent.....Her eyes scan for the break between land and water, as they reach the end, Ava clutches tightly Talons hand, and swings in tightly to him..Trying to shield his coat from the blood on her hand, it gives her no option but to wrap her arm around his shoulders, keeping her hand away from him...

It doesn't sit well with her to depend on anyone, least of all on a Vampire..The Vampire sent to end her..It's too close..So close to him now Ava can see his pupils, and feel how his body is tightly wound as the air begins to slow, caress, the speed gone, unneeded, the ship looming ahead..Huge, lost in the center of the wide river, and she stiffens, the contact so close, so intimate. More than what she'd been expecting...

Thank you.

I won't burden you again..

Burden?

The word hung in his mind as he gently lowered them to the deck of the converted ship, his eyes focusing on hers as they touched the wooden surface and for a fleeting instance he held her in his arms.

"You have given me no reason to assume that"

He spoke softly, too aware of her body and the scent of blood, the short trip over the water and the shared closeness NOT unpleasant for him at all. But then he was vampire, and those not of the undead feared them, found them repulsive as she surely must regard him. Once again it became painfully obvious how little of her he really knew despite the councils intelligence, he knew WHAT she was but had no inkling of the answers as to how, why or where.

"My home is your home"

He released her and backed away, nodding to a dark haired woman as she quietly approached, then looking back to Ava as he spoke.

"This is Cassandra, she will tend to your needs or wishes during your stay, the remainder of my staff has been given similar instructions."

He made introductions in place of sharing what was on his mind, the relationship tenuous enough between them as it was, his eyes meeting her own as he regarded his guest.

"The vampires earlier, did you see what markings they wore?"

He opted to change the subject, perhaps go to something that might serve them both in the future, his concern not on why the trap was set but by whom.

"On the back of the neck, each vampire wears the marking of one of the six elders, bear, cat, snake, hawk, horse or wolf....."

He turned, lifting his own heavy strands to reveal the wolf, then turned to meet her eyes once again and continue.

"My elders house was given the task of guarding all the houses, I would have recognized them IF they were from our house as I am the elders "first", but I didn't."

Vampires were infamous for politics, his own house not immune but more resistant thanks mainly to their former elders stern hand, but now that too might change as she was gone. A fact Ava would not be aware of, or appreciate since she made a life of killing vampires, not studying their internal workings.

"It may be important to both of us, to work together during our truce and perhaps afterward, after you've had a chance to freshen up perhaps we can discuss it further?

He nodded to the source of the blood smell, instinct telling him it was not hers, his eyes going over the waves and to the distant shore of the city.

"This is truly my home. I brought you here to demonstrate my honest intent, and to afford you the protection I promised, knowing there were others hunting you"

He confessed and then turned, moving towards the doorway that would take them below, his senses tingling as he turned his back to the one creature that might be capable of actually killing him.

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Watching him distance himself from her slightly , Ava knows the feeling of discomfort in the unfamiliar. Out of the shadows, a striking looking woman emerges and Talon introduces her as Cassandra, who in turn nods her head politely to Ava, but remains silent. What ever her position in his home Talon doesn't reveal to Ava. He goes to great lengths however to assure Ava of her safety with him..that she can trust him..Or in her mind, trust him at least for now...Questions though form..Especially after the question of the markings the two males had bore. Talons a wolf, Ava watches him and then looks away staring at nothing her reply quiet...

Snakes..Coiled snakes.

The woman Cassandra remains completely silent, revealing no emotion, no sign she even hears the conversation between Talon and Ava..Ava watches her sporadically, but detects no indication from her that she reacts to anything he says. The woman's either terrified of him, or simply loyal, unmoved as to what her master says or does. Talon wants to continue their talk, after Ava freshens up, and she looks at him ..The restraint in her poise cracks, Ava growing steadily more ill at ease in not knowing just what the hell is going on, and why so many are after her all of a sudden..And more to the point, why her main source of threat, Talon, is now offering her his protection, even if it is only for one night..

"This is truly my home. I brought you here to demonstrate my honest intent, and to afford you the protection I promised, knowing there were others hunting you"

Uncharacteristically Talon turns his back to Ava, to lead the way below. It's a move that by another would be plain stupid..But Ava can see it's a means for him to prove his point by an action rather than his words..Leaving himself open, his guard lowed to impress on Ava that if he trusts her, she should in turn trust him. The irony of her situation is cruelly apparent..She's on a ship in the company of a vitally strong male Vampire, that awakens needs in her long forgotten, and who has been tasked with taking her down.

I need to be alone.!..To clear my head. She's furious at herself now, her thinking switching from acceptance to angry..In a position where she's reliant on the very male that can harm her, and she's allowed herself to be drawn to..Away from where she's familiar and, once in the haven of her home, safe. Safe from all..Even Talon.
She follows him cautiously...While aware of the maleness and strength in the surroundings of Talons home, she can't appreciate it properly, with the surge of questions launching in her head..This man, this being, this creature, can destroy her..and yet she wants him. It insults her logic and common sense.

A gentle tap to her arm, and Ava looks to see Cassandra had followed them..She points with a slight elegant wave of her hand to the right..To a small corridor, with two doors side by side..Her voice almost eerily quiet as she tells Ava she may freshen up through the second door.

Do you mind if I ...I ..I need to wash up?. And we can talk then.....but..

Look just leave me alone now.

With out waiting for a reply, Ava takes the option to find a moment alone to let her mind process what she knows she can't..Not without knowing everything..Why she's hunted? Whose destruction has she caused to earn such interest and vengeance in the Vampire community after hunting them for so long? And foremost, why is Talon so open to wanting to know about her..to know her ..to make his assumptions as to what can happen here on his boat..The brief escape leads Ava into a guest bathroom, that's not overly large, but utterly beautiful in its fittings....Taking off her coat, she washes her hands thoroughly ..Lost in her thoughts, her questions, her own self doubt, she scrubs them until she feels the skin on her right hand burn. Looking at her face in the mirror, she sees looking back at her a woman that had lost everything at 24 years old, and who came back to be what she still is now some six decades later.

Her coat folded over her arm, Ava heads out, and back along the corridor..The boat is peacefully quiet, and she pauses outside a room with large heavy double doors...She can scent Talon ..Ava rests her hand on one of the doors, and pauses..Before pushing it open only a crack..

Talon? Are you here?

She goes no further just yet...What does going further entail..More questions by him? Yes. More questions forming in her own mind? Yes..Growing more aware of her own discomfort in knowing he attracts her far more than she'd initially thought..Yes. And so unrealistically soon.

Talon?....Maybe I should ..go..

Do you mind if I ...I ..I need to wash up?. And we can talk then.....but..

Look just leave me alone now.

Talon would almost be amused if Ava and he were on the street. It was obvious she was nervous, and if they at opposing sides he'd have an advantage every killer tries for, that is to rattle the enemy to the point where they couldn't focus.

But this was working against him at the moment, instead of gaining her trust and getting her to relax she was growing edgier by the second, even Cassandra could see it and looked aver Ava's shoulder with worried eyes before she led the jittery killer away and to her rooms.

He mentally sighed, then checked the rest of the small group of men and women that had accompanied him before moving to his own quarters to strip down to the waist and start taking a quick sponge bath, his eyes moving to an ancient portrait of two figures sitting beside a small river, the smiles on both faces making it obvious they were enjoying themselves and the presence of each other.

Talon? Are you here?

The voice caught him off guard and proved a vital point, it was obvious Ava wasn't the only one who was rattled, not sensing her approach could be a fatal mistake, and though he knew the truce was still in effect he didn't know Ava well enough to feel she'd honor it completely.

Talon?....Maybe I should ..go..

He moved, collecting a fresh shirt and sliding an arm into it, his free hand opening the door completely before slipping into the other sleeve, his eyes soft and curious as to his guests words and opposing actions.

"I will have my men take you safely to the opposite shore, if that is what you wish, it may be out of your way but it will be safe, though I will miss the opportunities having you here present us both."

He responded softly and backed into his room, his eyes admiring her washed face and how her hair hung around her face, the effect making her appear even younger then the first time he laid eyes upon her.

"But before you leave there are several things you should know, regardless of what happens between us tomorrow....."

Events that had taken centuries to happen, plans made for him when he was a young vampire and involved with a lover not much older than he, circumstances changing them from lovers...... to open enemies, and then finally something else.....

"Your age? How old are you, since your..... rebirth?"

He questioned softly, moving to a massive wall to pluck a book down, then return to the place he had moved from, a place he hoped wasn't threatening to Ava and let them both talk at the same time.

"What if I told you your.... condition was not an accident, rather a deliberate event...?"

He asked the question as he opened the book, then lifted his eyes to meet hers and set the book down on a table he used for writing, his eyes steady as he backed away to let her look at the chapter that detailed experiments with different races of human and vampire.

"Three hundred years ago I began to see subtle changes in the houses, coincidences happening too frequently to be accidental, and when I inquired I was chastised for my curiosity"

Curiosities that had earned him several severe whippings, the end result making him only more determined to have his answers, and his own agenda within the houses had sprung quietly to life....

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There's a collective reaction to Talon as he opens his door fully. Ava looks up at him ready to defend her suggestion, but the opposing words never even begin to form on her lips..Seeing him half dressed, half undressed wasn't what she'd expected...But for her habitual almost disinterested expression, her reaction would have been shamefully easy for him to see. She herself however shuns the feeling, Ava inwardly shakes herself off, and cautiously follows him on into what she knows not to be his own private rooms.

"I will have my men take you safely to the opposite shore, if that is what you wish, it may be out of your way but it will be safe, though I will miss the opportunities having you here present us both."

Standing vacant of any real decision, Ava wavers between her choices..Leaving is wise..Leaving leaves Ava with her pride intact..In danger yes..But danger comes with her world....Remaining leads her further into a situation that commits her to choices that don't feel so casual anymore. Talon is hard to look at with his open shirt, and his fresh clean scent, with out her mind drifting to thoughts that are too intimate.

His voice coddles her. Soothes, enhances, warms, and trifles with her commonsense..It's like a warm whispered mist that weaves its wisps around her ankles, rising upwards in invisible fingers around her thighs holding her still but gently..She listens to him..Listens and watches him..Watches how he moves..She says little yet, until he directs a question to her..Rebirth? The question puzzles her, and she thinks back to the night her bedroom had been assaulted, and a life was taken only to left dangling on the preface of endless nothingness in purgatory.

It happened 60 years ago....I was 24.

Again, he moves, and she watches..A book..A book that looks ancient, and Talon opens it, leaving it set down for her to view...Dropping her coat to an empty chair, Ava moves closer to him..to the book, aware that he's just behind her now as she rests her hands either side of the page, and looks at the hand written details. Details that for the most part mean little to her, until Talon says something that startles her..And hurts her deeply amidst the awful awareness of being totally confused.

What if I told you your.... condition was not an accident, rather a deliberate event...?

Three hundred years ago I began to see subtle changes in the houses, coincidences happening too frequently to be accidental, and when I inquired I was chastised for my curiosity"

Dates..bloodlines..Generations of family names..Some are highlighted , some crossed off, some with question marks attached....Reading down further, the notes begin to look less like records of family names, and more like the records of a blood lines....Reading becomes pointless..She understands what Talon has suggested, but doesn't...She understands the implications..but doesn't...Her feet feel heavy as she turns from the table, and Ava stands staring blankly at portrait of two people, but doesn't 'see' them, doesn't see it. There's upset and complete lack of understanding in her voice. She doesn't blink, only stares, her face impassive, but her voice betraying everything as Ava struggles to comprehend her past, and he Talon says..

What are you saying?...........How ..I mean who? Who'd do this? Why?.........
I......I was attacked...I remember that clearly..I remember trying to push......I remember his smell......I..what...What are you saying?

That my attack wasn't random?...That my kind were created?? Why?..............For what purpose?

Anger hits her then and Ava turns, her fists clenching, her jaw bone twitches in her cheeks as she grits her teeth.

You mean to tell me, I wasn't to die?....I was to be this...this...thing that no one wants now on either side, because I'm neither bred?...
Did they know we'd never find peace!..That we can't even find more of our kind, because we're so few, and our wills won't allow us to leave the innocents.

Jesus Christ who would be so cruel as to leave souls lost and alone?

"I have a theory that is proven in the rest of my notes. And perhaps you're better than either vampire or human, I've thoughts on how to turn the process...."

He could feel her pain and anger, it was like a physical PUNCH only packed with a power and energy he had never quite felt before, and suddenly he gained an insight as to part of her own abilities....

"The house that did this has no compassion, the leader of it is ruthless in the quest for power, her actions I'm quite sure were deliberate and well thought out in advance"

The energies swirled around her like a hurricane surrounds the land it's about to consume, the colors of energy growing in intensity before his eyes and growing into the brighter hues that promised a gigantic explosion was coming soon....

"Peace.... it comes at a cost, and yes, there are few of your race, but not so few it's hopeless.... perhaps in time I or someone like me can show you how to focus.... control your will and that power that spins around you...?"

He wasn't trying to placate her, his offer and hopes were real, he was the first of his kind in the way he thought..... but not the last......

He offered his hope in words, his eyes softening as he watched her rapidly changing emotions wash over her face and through the air around her, the energy inside the room still growing with an intensity he had never felt before.

"Ava... if you keep this up...I'm going to need a new ship....?"

Perhaps he was wrong in revealing what he did, but then it was a calculated risk, he was tired of killing for no reason and would rather not kill at all unless he had a right and good reason.....

But right now he had a bigger problem, it was a five foot four powerhouse standing in his study, her aura grown so large it was enveloping the room and expanding itself around his own protective force....

"Ava... relax"

Talon forced his own mind to relax, concentrating on her aura and merging his own with it, rather than fighting her anger and growing power he chose to merge with it..... and then step through it and to her....

"Ava...... Look at me, I am NOT your enemy...... and if you let me....I will help you"

Step by step he pushed through the maelstrom that howled around her, keeping his own naturally aggressive energies at bay, willing the beast inside him NOT to fight or attack as he moved closer to her.

"You're strong Ava.... so very strong..... but like many in your past you lack focus..... the ability to use all of this....."

Step by slow step he moved through her, closer and closer, until he stood before her and took her wrists in his hands, her fists white from the grip she held them so tightly in.

"Look at me Ava.... into my eyes.... let me HELP us both"

He was reminded of having a tiger by it's tail and thought maybe the author of that quote had met someone like Ava in his own lifetime...... If he could only get her to meet and hold his gaze he might be able to slip inside her mind and help her relax..... he didn't want to "roll" her, but thought it better than the event that hovered over their heads and around a growing perimeter of his ship....

"Let...... Me....... Help"

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Talons explanations, his efforts to offer her his opinions ,Ava tries to focus on. She watches his mouth move, forming words. Words she hears, understands, but doesn't completely process. One female, one lone house leader of a Coven may have propelled the desires to improve on her own houses strengths..What ever happened Ava can't yet fathom..
Talon may well be telling her, but she's past hearing every word now, as a surge of scalding heat flushes through out her....His explanations torment her..All she can hear is when he told her her kind may have been a creation and not some twist in nature...
Confusion makes way for shreds of grief, that surges on to a lack of uncontrolled anger..Her temples hurt..They actually hurt..

"Peace.... it comes at a cost, and yes, there are few of your race, but not so few it's hopeless.... perhaps in time I or someone like me can show you how to focus.... control your will and that power that spins around you...?"

What was he saying.? She's agitated, numbingly so..The room darkens, and something inside her twists..it churns and Ava loses sight of Talon..Words break through..Partial softly coiled words masking his firmness..
He makes her look at him, and again she watches his mouth move, but Ava hears nothing only the thundering in her head, and an emotion that is past hatred. Past anger.

.............I am NOT your enemy..................

He was one of them!..Ava's body stiffens...Her eyes unblinking, her face paling as breathing all but stops..The thunder of blind temper rages through her, and unseen eruptions of her emotions coil in her like a viperous blade. Her fingers flex, claw like as Talon reaches for her wrists to force her to meet his eyes..
She twists, pulling, almost growling at him..Deep down she could lash out and free herself..she tells herself that..But a part of her that her deeper baser instincts guides, wont let her..Refuses to give her limbs the surge to do so..Her arms feel like dead weights, as if Ava was on the outside looking at herself, and screaming her anger on vengefully..She hates him..Hates his kind, and all they stand for. She wasn't meant to be like this..She'd never wanted it..Teeth clenched, chin tucked low, Ava glares at him , but still that deeper embedded part of her begs her to relent, and calm as Talon tells her...

You......I....you..No...

"Look at me Ava.... into my eyes.... let me HELP us both"

I hate you......Take....your hands....off me.

"Let...... Me....... Help"

The room itself seems to spit fire at her....Her knees buckle, her back feels as if it's about to snap in two she's so ridged..Her wrists still held, all she can do is manage to grab his shirt sleeves as she feels her self slowly dropping to her knees..

Whats happening?......My head...my..

Closing her eyes, she blocks him out, blocks out the room and hears only the clawing fragments of her anger that begin to dilute under the weight of the hurt..She's not known the urge to cry in decades, but she feels it now..It would be a welcome release, to hurl herself in to the grief of losing all she'd had and loved, but she blocks it..Blocks it like she's blocked lots of emotions for years and years..But the possibility of what Talon has just shared with her, she can't block..Can't block the disbelief that someone, anyone, could be so wicked, so cruel, so cold, as to rip her life, and the lives of others apart. Sinking forward, her forehead pressed against his chest, Ava's voice is terribly quiet despite the evidence of her fury and uncontrolled flash of unblocked emotions..

Who was she?..........How to find her?..And......

and she looks at him then...His face only a breath from hers, the darkness of his fathomless eyes that seem to see far too much into her....There's a dept there..a strength, a power, a force that soothes her . The last strains of her temper and shock are relegated to numbness, and Ava feels nothing only the hurt..

...........what do you want?....

What did he want?​

He stood before her and felt the power of her emotions open to accept him, swirling around his body instead of buffeting against, the roar of it in his ears dulling just enough to let him realize she was using her mind, not her lips to speak to him.

Her mind was opening to him he realized, a thin tendril that directed emotion and thought to his own, not enough to harm her but more than enough to give him first taste of something powerful and addictive. He reacted as any male creature would, her pain making him want to help her somehow.... to take it away or baring that heal the wounds he could sense, her anger and confusion drawing the reaction in wanting to help her focus her energies....

What the hell did he want?​

It startled him, the very though he no longer looked at her as an enemy of the vampire, that perhaps he had never intended to kill her, and that he really didn't understand what she meant to him, only that she wasn't dangerous.... to him?

"You, I want YOU"

He growled, not with his voice, but his mind, reaching out to her to complete the invisible connection and feeling another form of energy cross over as she "heard" his words.

"NOT as an enemy. NOT as someone who is threatened by my presence. But as a lover and a friend, a woman no longer alone....."

The words came out before he could stop them, the images of her undressed and in his arms as they made love quickly following, and somewhere in his mind he became dimly aware of his arms slipping around her trim body to pull it closer to his own.

"Trust me. If I meant to harm you I would have already tried. Let yourself reach out to another lonely soul and trust it, just this once."

He implored her, knowing the link between them was a fragile, uncertain thing as well as that he was no longer going to hold back. He wanted her, from the first contact with her he needed her, felt the connection between them and also how Fate was playing out a hand that had been carefully kept close to her breast..... until now.

"You're strong and wild Ava, even now you threaten to destroy the craft we ride in, but inside all that strength there lies a great need and weakness, things I feel I've somehow been sent to make right...."

He wanted her as a man wanted his woman, needed her as an equal, and a mate.... The opening into her mind could prove fatal if he willed it, his own trained and precise killing skills making it TOO easy to do so.... if he wanted to at that moment.

But he didn't.

He was sure of that now. He hadn't come to kill her, nor would he stand by to watch her harmed...

"I want you Ava. Not just now. Not just ONCE. All of you.....always....."

He opened his own mind. Shared the loss of his lover and the loneliness and pain created from that loss, then pushed his sight to the future where he sensed a greater love and joy....

"Forever"

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"You, I want YOU"

Ava tries to calm..Tries to focus on Talon beyond her slowly waning anger, only to feel the pain of her attraction to him...His scent is relentless in cocooning her..It controls her, she fights it, it fights back, as too does the stirring pain in her temples...She watches his mouth...Grimly determined, jaws clenched, his eyes dark and wanting...Words..She hears his words but yet he doesnt' speak them..

Only then she realizes it's not sound she hears, rather she feels them...He's intruding on her thoughts, and Ava pushes, shaking her head.. Talons arms hold her, pressing them both together..It's unfair..Her entire body conforms to the line of his, fitting in against him, thighs between thighs, the firm weight of one muscular thigh nestling against her crotch...

Her hands freed because he holds her now, press against Talons chest...She's fought her way out of stronger holds, often held by more than one male....but not now....Nothing seems to work, as the meaning of Talons words sink in..''......just this once."''..and she wavers, her fingers clutching at his chest, the fabric of his open shirt a useless barrier.

"I want you Ava. Not just now. Not just ONCE. All of you.....always....."

She freezes...His past hurtles at her then in a blinding surge of heat..Her mind finding the images flooding her, and the emotions that come with it pain her, and terrify her..Thrill her, drive her wild inside as he reveals so much......Too much....

Why would he want to reveal so much? Why would he allow her that knowledge of his grief, and lonely vacancy that followed.....Why then did he all her to feel what he foresaw in their future....Ava can't comprehend it...Yes she understands..yes, he hides nothing......But what it means to her, is turning her back on everything she's been ....destined for..The she would chose to be apart of what destroyed her, and she avenges every day...every hour she can.

And she cries out..Pushing against him, her body fighting one way to cling to Talon, her spirit another to resist, deny him...Deny what his want reveals in her own want for him..

NO!...Oh God no.....Let me go!!

"Forever"

The fighting is uselessly...The struggling only serves to entwine her needy flesh closer to his...All it does is arouse her more...Each movement against him seems to draw her closer...Her body like a little wanton servicing itself against the firmness of his....The desire kills her..The passion emanates from every pour on her skin, every fiber of flesh that can find him....

Who kisses who she doesn't know...But out of no where, parted lips collide, and Ava is responding hungrily to him...Her spirit agonizes..Her body thrills beneath its own betrayal, and she presses, writhes slowly against him..Her hands search his chest, pause over the little pebbled nipples rubbing against her palm...One hand slips up beneath his shirt collar, to Talons nape, to caress and entwine his hair , as her lips move deftly, her tongue flickering , darting to his mouth..All thoughts of leaving tamed for now..But so too are thoughts of what staying can mean to one that belongs no where....

All that matters is the now, and the moment forming around them, as the madness of thoughts still, and Ava groans and purrs against Talons lips..

They touched. Not of the physical but of a level deeper, more intense...

It sent a thrill through Talon's mind, then his body, as if he were for the first time, truly alive.

Still he was aware, of his hands touching her, his arms wrapped around her body, and how that body fit so perfectly, as if each soft curve were made for his harder features.

She no longer fought him, her fear receding as want and need pushed it back into the recesses of her mind, and for that Talon was grateful, not wanting to force himself on her and in doing so destroy what he admired..... wanted..... and needed so badly.

All of that awareness came with the first gentle kiss, his lips opening to hers, his tongue creeping gently out to taste her, and once again he felt a stirring, this time in his groin, telling him of fire once dead, now rekindled.

He wanted her, body bare and open before him, his own matching and feeding off of her, in blood and in flesh, limbs twisted around each other, writhing, pulsing, making love...

How long they kissed he'd never know, reality came to him as they pulled back and looked into each others faces, her own cheeks flushed red, eyes shining with lust, her nostrils flaring as he raised a hand to stroke her skin, then slide it down her long neck to rest at her bosum.

"I want to see you Ava, ALL of you, I want you to look into me eyes as you undress and see a man that wants you for the woman you are, and the mate you could be, if you chose."

Choice, it was hers after all, even inside her defenses he would not, could not harm, not at this moment in time and perhaps.... not ever, for with that first touch, that first merging of their souls, he felt something more than lust or love.... a kinship as if they were meant for each other..... a destiny that was being fulfilled.

Hands slow and steady they moved to her clothing, deftly undoing buttons, untying laces, pushing aside the fabric that hid her flesh, and yes, somehow protected her from sight, until she stood bare breasted to him and he lowered his lips, kissing a trail of hot kisses down her neck, her shoulder and the swell of a breast, his hand cupping the firm weight and feeling the nipple hard as his thumb teased it, until finally.... his lips tasted that too and dwelt on it for tender, long seconds, toying it into further hardness.

Talon wanted Ava, NEEDED her, but now as they stood before each other and she trembled at his touch he knew it was not the time for haste, rather time for patience, understanding and tenderness. It was the last test, to hold her, caress her, and from her depths lift her own need and lust to meet his fully, until she could replace the energies that still drove the hurricane around them with something different, bringing it back inside her, NO, inside them....

"Tell me Ava, that you want me, want US, let me hear your words..."

He rose to his full height and held her, only too aware her hands had been busy as well, that he stood bare chested before her and as he spoke softly to her the heat of her breasts thrilling him beyond measure.

"Tell me so this is a night for lovers, kindred spirits.... not killers, or enemies..."

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It's been a long time since Ava has known such touches..such kisses...such sensations that coarse through every fiber of her...There's an almost maddening gentleness intertwining with the intensity that is growing and torturing her..She tastes him..On lips that caress and move with hers..On his tongue that strokes, and flickers and tongue plays with hers...Ava knows little peace in her surrender...Her body craves too much...Shudders its need against him...Her thoughts fluctuate between sane and driven.....His arousal trapped between them, in a barrier of clothing mocks her,.... mocks her need for that fullness of being wanted.

"I want to see you Ava, ALL of you, I want you to look into me eyes as you undress and see a man that wants you for the woman you are, and the mate you could be, if you chose."

Their lips remain only a breath apart. His eyes are like blackened coals of promise...He rivets her..Engages Ava in a flood of images that compliment her bodies wants...She sees them..Her mind furnishes her imagination with flashes of undulating bodies, limbs entwined, surging hips, crumpled stained sheets, and even the scent of sex....The first chill sucks her skin as Talon begins to undress her..She even raises her hands over head , her top dispatched, and she stands there semi nude, just the low hung canvas jeans to protect her...........Her fingers slowly move up his chest, as Talons lips find the curve of her neck, his chilled breath like a velvet flicker of icy heat...His shirt is pushed from his shoulders entirely.. The feel of his cool lips moving over the soft pale curve of her breast to her nipple catapults her body to plead wordlessly for her...

She has never known this want...She's not with out knowing the pleasures that can be reached, but Ava has never felt the awe for any man, that she feels for Talon as he suckles from her turgid nipple, and she arches her back, her fingers winding in his hair..Her groans are tantamount to acquiescence..Her body molds itself to him..Every part of her wanting his hands, wanting his mouth, wanting that wayward surge of primitive possession that comes with being claimed.....And she wants claiming...All sanity and reason is gone, and Ava thinks no further to what he's doing, what he makes her feel, what Talon has allowed her see he wants.....And it hurts her pleasure...Hurts that they can't simply 'be'....

Tell me Ava, that you want me, want US, let me hear your words...

Tell me so this is a night for lovers, kindred spirits.... not killers, or enemies...

Resisting him is like resisting breath....refusing the most natural need in the world,..to live...She can't...He's already won this battle..this little war that never even found its battle cry...She'd given up so fast, so easily..Got so lost in the wants of one that she can't possibly hope to love..No..Mustn't love...And Ava knows the grief of seeing herself forever belonging no where...How can they be and 'us' when they have so much bloodshed between them..Are they reaching for more than they have a right to?

I want you.................Talon..I want you.

Not as killers, not as enemies......but as my lover......and for tonight, my kindred................

And her fingers free the leather belt of her pants, letting it hit the floor with a soft thud...She slowly steps from her boots, bare feet silent against the chill of the waxed floor...and Ave never takes her eyes from his...

You frighten me Talon...

You ask for much......

Too much...But I've never wanted anything in my life the way I want you..the way I want 'us'..

Her dagger remains sheathed in the little pouch inside her boot.....She undoes her jeans, one button at a time, her voice quiet, controlled, almost calm....but for the trembling in her hands, and pallor of her cheeks, she looks almost ethereal..The jeans slip over her slender firm defined thighs, to her ankles, and she steps from them, with only a little cotton and lace panties nestled on her hips..

I ask you now.....Do you want me enough, in knowing I'll try to leave tomorrow and go back to doing what I do?.........It's my nature.......I"m a blood angel.....I'll never be more..and I can never be less....Do you want me enough to take me as I am?...Ava.

I want you.................Talon..I want you.

Not as killers, not as enemies......but as my lover......and for tonight, my kindred................

Her words stoked the fire inside, his eyes glowing suddenly in response, much like a hunter finding it's prey, but with one importance difference....

You frighten me Talon...

You ask for much......

Too much...But I've never wanted anything in my life the way I want you..the way I want 'us'..

That difference made him draw back at her next words to consider them, both the meaning and cause of her fear, and what if cost her to confess.

"You haven't to fear me....."

His words ended pleasantly, her lips cutting them off and sending another jolt into him, the taste of the energy she shared without knowing instantly addictive and making him linger on the kiss before she spoke again.

I ask you now.....Do you want me enough, in knowing I'll try to leave tomorrow and go back to doing what I do?.........It's my nature.......I"m a blood angel.....I'll never be more..and I can never be less....Do you want me enough to take me as I am?...Ava.

"I am vampire dear Ava, we cheat death with each setting sun, there is nothing sweeter then what you offer, if even for the this eve..... "

He smiled,his eyes trailing slowly down, then back to meet her own, the want, raw desire and lust welling up within him in a way he had never felt before.

And then he did the same, his hands moving to belt, buttons and pants, the clothing cascading from him as water does from a waterfall.

"Tonight we are lovers, dawn.... you will have the upper hand, I've given my fate over to you and instruction to those with me to honor your word as if spoken from my lips."

He was sure. A final night with this woman, versus eternal life never knowing it, the decision to him seemed logical....

He touched her,a finger tracing her hip bone and upwards, his smile soft as he held her eyes and enjoying the reaction of that touch...

"You are, in every way, a beautiful, erotic..... woman"

He complimented quietly, his voice slipping away as his passion lifted, his fingers trailing over her belly to bring a gentle smile once again as it trembled.

"Vampires, we all are given one gift to compensate the loss of our souls, with the taking of another vampires blood that gift is transferred to the one that receives.... I have the blood of hundreds within my veins, but have never yet used the gift given to me"

Why he shared what he did at that moment he would never be sure, perhaps it was the intimacy of the moment and in turn he wished to share his most intimate secret? Perhaps he wished to give Ava a gift in return for her trust?

The thoughts vanished as they kissed once again, his arms slipping under her body to lift her from the floor, his movements slow and fluid as only an un-dead Master could perform....

He moved towards the bed, his lips hungry, demanding, his restraint gone as he felt her touch and response as he lowered her to the beds silk sheets and slipped beside her....

Her mind was open, if he was to strike now would be the opportune time, he could kill with a thought.....

He kissed her lips, then trailed cool lips to her fair skinned throat, nibbling gently and laughing softly as she squirmed, knowing by the taste and scent of her skin she reacted in pleasure.... not fear. Hand gentle and soft he slipped under lace panties, his touch becoming a dual edged assault on her pleasure sensors as his lips once again found a hard nipple....

With a thought he could kill.... or with that same thought.....

He could reach inside Ava, touch her soul with his, and perhaps in their passion find the cure....

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She doesn't think on his words....On the meaning in a 'gift'...She's never drank from another, nor any one from her...The thought in the past abhorred her..
With Talon however, there is a certain promise of provocative intimacy in the act, that would take them a step closer.....Does she want to take that step? ...

It terrifies her that she could want him so much, ...want to taste what she hunts, want to be tasted by one of a kind that had robbed from her her choices...

And he lifts her...Thoughts die as Talons lips capture hers again, and Ava languishes in his arms, her arms around his shoulders..
The softness of her breasts crushed against his chest, his arms a firm brace that hold her firmly, but don't restrain...
The silk of the sheets is cool beneath her skin, ensuring Ava arches to him reflectively, and she smiles against his lips as she lays back, arms still holding him, drawing him into his bed with her...

The elegant line of her throat exposes itself, on the kisses he leaves there.....Her breast again sought, Ava delighting in the feather light kisses that taunt her nipple, his tongue rolling the tit before sucking...Her sounds are are all consenting...
When his finger tips find her, slipping beneath the little band of her panties, Ava's body stills...

She inhales sharply at the intimacy of his touch, and relaxes , ..falling into the delights of finger tipped touches that probe the soft moistening folds of sex, and stir the response of her loins.

Ava's hands move too.....They move over the firm wall of his back, cup his head as his mouth works her breast, and she shivers on feeling the rigid power in his shaft pressing against her thigh...
She strokes the curve of his buttocks, one hand follows the promised trail then of that dark thread of hair below his navel, to also slip beneath the band of his briefs...

And she groans , her back suddenly arches, her breathing quickens, as her hand finds him.......
Her fingers 'see' him for her...The rippling length stroked, caressed, cupping as she writhes against the incessant pleasure of his mouth and fingers...

She says nothing..but says everything...Her breathless moans are punctuated with gasps of 'yes' as he arouses her further...
Her fingers adoringly explore the swelling muscle that throbs in the softness of her palm..Her thumb rolls over the satin helmet of his cock, her hips following and grinding against fingers that torment her beautifully...
One of her hands cups her breast, tugging her nipple as her belly flutters , her thighs part instinctively further..And the touches continue to painfully excite her...
The room gathering the primal scents of arousal, and Ava knows the intensity of true desire...Of true want...

Her hands push aside the last barrier that impedes her touches over his smooth hips, and she shifts enough to roll gently with Talon to their sides..and she tosses the dark colored briefs aside, and she sees him then..all of him.. Her fingers again retrace the fine trail of hair down his abdomen to pause at the tip of his cock and she looks at him then.....

Closing the space between them, her foot traces the length of his calve and Ava kisses him again...Very deeply, the, emotional implication of such tenderness affects her profoundly...and she whispers against his lips...

You're very beautiful .........

I want to feel you inside me...God I want you so much.

How, Talon wondered, could a vampire warn another species what it was like to meld with his species? "Look out here it comes?" He almost laughed at the pitiful irony in the words, knowing from his first mental caress of Alana's own mind that she was as receptive as any of his own kind, and once trained.....?

Instinct told him the talent she possessed as a hunter would also make her a gifted student, that in short time she'd master the abilities to focus her energies, and once that was accomplished few would stand against her for long, or at all....

It also made being with her a bit more dangerous, that as his energies swarmed into and over her own, the risk of her own instincts retaliating would increase exponentially.... It was a risk he was eager to take, a thrill in his life he would not circle around, to mate with this erotic, sensual woman even once.... quickly becoming the focus of all his pent up desires....

"Relax then my little flower"

He caressed her mind with his own once again, soothing images of them together, his arms wrapped around her to hold and protect....

"Let the first union between us come easy, let your beast within welcome my own, not as enemy.... but allies"

Long ago he had lost his soul, long ago his service and honor was pledged to another in return for immortal life, and over those centuries his power had grown, as had his lust....

"I will take you, it is after all the vampire way, but i will not hurt you, this I promise...if you simply give yourself to me?"

His words were fading, in place of them came his beast, a red eyed and hungry thing that looked at her through his own eyes, the hunger washing out from his to stroke her body as he kissed her lips softly.

"If you resist... if your desire is not real, then say so and we can stop...but only now.... after? After there will be no choice but to slate the hunger...."

In seconds he would lose control, in seconds his beast would come full force for her, and if she fought it would be a memorable but violent and bloody battle... If she opened her self to him.... lowered her shields and trusted?

It would be memorable, to them and for generations to come....

He lowered himself between her thighs, the heat of her hand setting a fire in his groin, a fire he wanted to make burn brighter....hotter.....until it exploded deep in her womb and made her his.... It was the beast thinking and Talon knew it, but rather then fight he accepted.... the swollen head of his head rubbing her sex as he reached for her hands to pin them with his own, his eyes meeting her own and looking for fear.....

"I want you Alana..... NEED you, need your trust.... your body.... and in time your blood"

He moved his hips and pushed slowly into her, his beast swarming up and out of him to tear through him and reach for her, the growl he heard coming from his own throat as the beast began to take Alana's soul....as his body moved deeper into her own....

If she fought, they would both die.... If she accepted his touch and his beast?

Only time and her own actions would decide what happened then...

Ava

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Was it being possessed?..Was it a sought after surrender?..Was it lovemaking at a depth that was a first for her?...A depth that demanded everything...Both possession and surrender...and more? He was so intense...Frighteningly magnificent..
Talon's eyes dark, blackened coals that seared into her..Into Ava's parched soul...Words spoken by him hold her in his grip..His hands stroke her...They sooth but enhance the tempest that coils and snaps inside her...She watches his mouth...His shadow covering her entirely, her thighs creamy soft as they cocoon him...

........if you simply give yourself to me?

If you resist... if your desire is not real, then say so and we can stop...but only now.... after? After there will be no choice but to slate the hunger...."


There's a warning in there.....Does he know the danger in his words is significant to the heights of her arousal?....That his danger is a part of him she embraces, and makes him more?.....
Her body moves beneath Talon with an unbridled hunger...Her head full of him..Full of warnings, acquiescence, passions, fears, desires that strangle her groans to hoarse whispered pleas..

Talon captures her roaming hands, pinning them over her head, Ava struggles beneath him...But not against him...Very much with him..She wantonly giving herself over..There's never been a want for another that could even come close to her want for him...The darkness in his eyes is a thrilling visage of the inner demon of a man that grips Ava's wants...
Feet pressed against the bed, bracing herself as his weight lowers on her, and Ava feels the first provocatively explicit intrusion......Her lips part, a silent shivered groan is swallowed, and she stiffens as he slowly enters her..

"I want you Ava..... NEED you, need your trust.... your body.... and in time your blood"

He terrifies her with his control ...But she doesn't fear him...He holds her firmly, but he doesn't restrict her.....His weight is a seductive source of captivity..And Ava groans a broken single word as he fills her completely.

Yesssss..

'Yes' to every thing...'Yes' to the explicit pleasure that comes in giving over to him. 'Yes' to taking on faith that this is far beyond what she can refuse....or do with out.....'Yes' to the searching numbness that scales her thoughts and fills her mind..Yes , yes, yes..to anything so long as this doesn't stop.

The room fills..Fills with the curling erotic slaps of bodies melding and the whisper of sheets shifting, as she writhes and grinds upwards against him... Her sucking wetness captures and caresses the pulsing throbbing fullness in his girth that stretches her to accommodate him.... The milky pallor of her undulating body beneath his embraces the sensations that flood her...

Ava's eyes close..She can't think of what will happen after...Now is her entire world..Now is what it feels she's been waiting for..Now is what she's starved for , and didn't even know..Her fingers flex and close , gripping Talons tightly as the waves smack and surge around her..She works against him...Chasing the pleasure that waits to be released..All of her is open to him..
She feels the wicked beauty of being taken by all that makes him Talon..All that controls and doesn't control him..

The primitive desire to be had is awake in her screaming...Hailing his wanted ravishment,..his primal command, ..his physical dominance that Ava willingly succumbs to beneath him , as her thighs cradle him, and Talon has her..
She looks at him...Sees the 'him' that is revealed in the name of his passion...and she trills at the promise of tasting his arousal, and knowing his power.....Her face flushed, lips full part in gasped breaths..Her eyes glistening in the dark as she groans..
Arching beneath him, her breasts quivering, her head flung to the side, Ava feeling the pinch of fangs against the fullness of her lips, as she pants hoarsely...

I need you......Oh God, yes... please......I need you Talon.....

All of you...all of you......Please.