So much had changed since I last walked through the door of my apartment, and all as the result of a fated phone call… his words even now echoed through my head.

“We’ve found her!”…

I remembered my first encounter with Helena with a soft smile and for a moment my fingers briefly brushed across my neck. Our deep bonding had freed me from the torment of my past, allowing me to finally feel at peace. This was the first time I had left her side since then, but it was a journey I felt I needed to make… I needed to finally close of the last vestige of my past, but the sight that greeted me was unexpected… the apartment block that I once called home was now abandoned and undergoing major renovation, the topmost floors having been gutted by a vicious fire…instinct told me that it would have started in my penthouse apartment… perhaps an effort by Reynard to cover up my disappearance… I watched as the clouds began to thicken and roll in the heavens high above me, this night had been dark enough but now it was plunged into and almost apocalyptic scene as a deep crack of thunder shook the sky and the first splatters of rain hit against my leather jacket. I forced my way into the building and began to make my way up.

It didn’t take long to reach my apartment, though it had now been sealed with a heavy iron door and swathed in yellow police tape that proclaim the area to be a ‘crime scene’ and ‘off limits to unauthorised personnel’ I ran my fingers down the edge of the door… the tape had already been torn, a sign perhaps that I wasn’t the first to have entered recently… I took hold of the door and heaved it inward, feeling it crack against the frame as it bowed to me…

I strode through… my feet crunched against the blackened remains of my old place, nothing remained… my heart dropped a little when I gave thought to all those ancient texts that I had housed in my library, the stench of burnt wood still lingered in the air, making each breath I took cloyingly bitter. I comforted myself with the thought of the library back home, so extensive I had to fully explore every text that lay hidden there, delighting at how many of them were original first editions… my senses peaked for a moment, it felt as though a shadow had fallen across me… but the room was empty but for me… I spun about, my hand dropped to the hilt of the sword that hung from my waist; I could feel the intricately moulded metal that held the crest of Wallachia at its centre, there was a brief flash of lightning and my eyes were drawn to the balcony windows which lay shattered, no doubt from the explosion that engulf my old place… there was movement, fleeting and brief, but I cast my mind ahead, its probing fingers reaching out… I found nothing, where I should have at least found something there was emptiness… someone was taking great pains to block their presence, a skill I knew only to well.

I burst through to the balcony just in time to see a fleeting shadow disappear over the edge of the building, illuminated by a flash of lightning and on to the roof as the harsh rainfall battered against my face. I braced my foot against the lip of the balcony and launched myself upwards coming to an easy rest on the edge of the apartment block. Slowly I scanned the roof… I couldn’t see any sign, but the fact that my mind still brushed against this unseen barrier was enough of an indication that I wasn’t alone… I gently dropped onto the lowered floor of the roof, my footsteps kicking up a faint misty haze. My hand clasped against the hilt of the sword and slowly withdrew it… the rain shimmered against the blade and each bolt of lightning that tore across the heavens was reflected back from it. Slowly I made my way across the roof, the rain slapping against the black leather that camouflaged me against the deep night. My eyes closed as I tried to pick up on any sound no matter how slight that the storm may be masking, from my right came a gentle hiss… a sound I knew well, the sound of a sword catching against its scabbard as was drawn. My own grip tightened and I continued to look forward as my ears pricked to each slight noise, the movement was almost imperceptible against the background of the storm… Helena would have little trouble in picking them out, but I was still embracing these new abilities with which I’d been blessed.

Again the sky flared as the electrical storm punctured the night and the storm intensified, the brief flare drew my eyes to shadow… approaching fast… there came a faint whistle as a blade sliced through the air, I bought my own around and only just caught it in time… the impact from the strike vibrated through my arm and I caught my first good look at the attacker, lean but powerful, his long hair as black as the storm that raged about us, his sharp eyes given over to some deep force that seemed to control is actions. He kicked out with his foot as he tried to push me away, I feigned to the side and the strike hit nothing but air… I pushed myself back to give me some room and assess him a little better, his gaze sought out mine and a sly grin cut across his face and he twisted his sword about as he prepared to charge… his movements were fast as he started towards me before I had readied myself, he closed in and I bought my sword to bear… our swords clipped and he instantly dropped lower and twisted his strike which hammered into my side… I staggered backwards, embedding the tip of my sword in the roof to maintain my balance.

But for the orchestral beat of thunder and the scything lash of the rain against the roof, the air between us stilled… my heart was pounding hard against my chest as I became aware of a wetness beneath my leather… so attuned where my senses now that the redolent scent of my blood filled my nostrils, met moments later by a sudden dull ache in my side. The last exchanges had cost me, but how… how was it that this man had been able to so swiftly penetrate my defence and strike a telling blow? I felt the sliced edges of my flesh burn as the tissue slowly began to knit together.

He stood stoically a little way from me; a cloud of haze rising as the rain thrashed across him… only his deep eyes betrayed his intensity and his need. I searched out the slightest sign that he was about to move, but for now he seemed content to watch me as my breathing heaved like some wounded cornered animal… an animal, that’s what he thought of me… I felt a flash of my deep fire run through me… his very presence here mocked what I was and what I had become. My tortured legacy had become even more twisted but I was stronger for it… my Harker bloodline had completely fused and been absorbed by my dear Helena’s gift of her own dark legacy. That was when I felt it surge through me and my grip tightened on my own blade, I was aware he had seen the transfer in me as his eyes narrowed and his own grip shifted… I glanced down at the sword that rested in my hand; it seemingly pulsed with a menace of its own… I wondered at long history of those who had held this in battle, wondered at how many had fallen to its cruel edge, how many souls had been torn from this earth at its behest, I felt its hunger to despatch one more flow through me.

I saw his stance shift as he faced me, matching my own as we both readied ourselves for the inevitable… for an instant my eyes were drawn upwards. Through the raging storm, the moon had punctured the swirling tortured magnitude of cloud and for that moment I felt its soft rays reach down to me… caressing, empowering and revitalising. I felt my mind descend into the red haze of blood lust as my feet bit into the roof and I charged forwards… a second slower, he launched himself towards me with a grunt. As I ran, my arm took a deep swing back and then sharply forward as I released the sword high into the air… it cart wheeled upwards, slicing through the sheets of rain as the moonlight glinted across it, bathing its ancient blade in its hidden strength.

I watched as his eyes followed its path… bringing his own sword back as he prepared to strike out at me… without missing a step I slipped my hand into my jacket and gripped against the silver stake… silver, its very touch should cause me pain, but this felt warm and almost comforting against my skin, as if it had come over with me when Helena and I had joined… we neared, he ground to a halt bringing his blade across, coursing through the air, the storm screaming around us as the lightning tore across the blackness. I pulled the stake free and twisted as I ran towards him, thrusting out with my feet as I did so… pushing at the floor and launching myself over him…twisting through the air as I bought my feet over myself to land with a silent grace directly behind him. His worthless strike had overbalanced him and he was unable to react to me in time as I spun the stake in my hand and drove it forward, the vicious point that had claimed the darkness of 27 vampyres now tore through human flesh as it crushed through his shoulder and sliced through the top of his pectoral… his cry echoed out as a thin mist of blood turned the rain red…

My eyes were drawn skyward as the rain lashed my face… the sword had reached its zenith and now dropped towards me. I planted my foot into the small of his back and thrust him forward, staggering him to the floor, as the blade arced to the earth…the sleek metal seemed to glow from the effects of the moonlight upon it… my hand struck out, my fingers embracing the hilt as the newly imbibed essence of the sword flowed through to me. The warrior spun onto his back… grunting as the blunt end of the stake caught against the floor and twisted in his shoulder. His eyes flared as he saw me standing over him, with a scream he bought his own blade to bare, which I easily sidestepped but it gave him enough leeway to flip to his feet… and now it was his turn to breath heavily as a deep red wetness flowed down his chest.

At the sight of this I felt that aching hunger that had all to readily consumed me, the sight of his blood exploded like a supernova within me, and I battled hard to hold myself fast as it mixed with the rain and flowed quickly to the ground.

Concentrate Kassie damn it!

I was suddenly shaken with the speed he moved at; despite his injury he drove himself forward the tip of his sword carving a channel of sparks across the roof as he swung it upwards… my own blade was bought to bare and the clash echoed through the storm as the night was briefly lit by a shower of sparks. He recovered quickly and we began to trade exchanges, the space between us turned into a sheet of blurred silver as each thrust was countered and each strike parried… I felt a rage building through me, partially through the closeness of the cloying scent of his spilt blood which invaded each breath I took and partially because of his speed in fending off my attack…

For many minutes this deathly ballet danced under the storm-wracked sky, the flaring of the clouds as the lightning waged its own war above us… our eyes locked as intensely as our weapons, neither allowing an inch of quarter… then for a moment I saw his eyes flick to my side and a thin grin cross his face before the mask of battle fell across him once more, and it was then, for the first time I became aware that I wasn’t alone on the roof… this seemed to spur him on and he drove forward, his blade cutting through the air where moments before I had been standing, he thrust again, the sword slicing through my jacket as it trailed behind my movements… I swung about with a jarring parry that staggered him a little before bringing the pommel of the sword down in a crushing blow on the stake that pierced him. He cried out as the pain shot through him and I swung my leg around, my heel slicing through the air and cracking against his cheek... he fell backwards and I lunged for him, driving my blade deeply into his side…

My senses screamed out and my mind flared as I picked up on a shadow racing towards me from behind, a faint metallic hiss as pair of thin blades was withdrawn. I pulled my sword from him as he fell and swung it about; a trail of blood following the tip bringing myself about to face the new threat… my glimpse was fleeting as she came up to me… her blue eyes shimmered, her long golden hair streaming out behind her… as she neared me she crossed her blades, catching my sword between them and driving it to the side where the tip bit deep into the roof. Her foot drove against me, wrenching the sword from my grasp… I was staggered… but regained my footing quickly… her thin sallow faced grinned the lust for the kill gripped her, a look I knew only too well. With a scream she launched at me, the twin blades crossing through the air as she spun about… I twisted quickly and one whistled perilously close to my head… the second cut from the side and I was forced to drop to the ground, feeling the blade clip across my hair… springing to my feet I launched out with my heel which narrowly missed her… her lithe body bent at an almost impossible angle as I bought my other foot around at head height… damn she was quick, frustration bit deep into me as I pressed my attack… she twisted about and bought one of her blades behind, arcing towards me… I raised my forearm to intercept and there was a solid clunk as the steel hit against the iron bracer beneath the leather of my jacket… with a scream she spun across me and rained down blows for her twinned weapons, my forearms twisted in front of her as I attempted to parry each one with the bracers… my foot struck out and caught her in the gut… she doubled and staggered but didn’t stop… her eyes burning like a beast possessed she drove herself forward…

I bought my arms up and shifted my stance as she neared… the first strike came from the side, I pulled myself back and felt it fleetingly tug against my leathers… she stepped past me and the second strike whistled from overhead, I raised my arms and crossed them, catching her blade as she did mine… bringing my leg up I hooked it over her arm and drove it down which ripped the weapon free of her grip… I flicked it around and caught my fingers against its thing hilt… without losing a step she lashed out, the two blades clashed and slid together, locking at the handgrips… my hand struck out and wrapped against her throat… my teeth bared as the rain hammered my face… I could feel her blood pulse beneath my fingers and I had every intention of draining each drop of crimson from this bitch… she met me with a defiant grin and it was then her face betrayed her and I caught a brief glimpse of a shape behind me in her dark eyes… I had no time to react as a heavy arm wrapped across my throat and pulled me backwards, his other arm hooking against mine as I struggled. With a hiss the woman paced towards me and placed the tip of her weapon against the leather that covered my breast… she moved to run my heart through with the blade…

“WAIT!!…. Lucretia… stay your hand… Vincent, bring her to me!”

The voice rang out against the storm, his voice… through the haze of rain I saw him… the instrument of my betrayal… Reynard. My eyes ripped through him, my thoughts hammered against his mind, for a moment I thought I felt his will buckle against me before he was able to compose himself.

“Lets get in out of this rain shall we?” he wore a defiant grimace.

I tried to struggle against Vincent as he pressed me close to him and began to walk me towards the open doorway, the point of Lucretia’s weapon forever poised to deliver the damning blow should it be needed…

… I was free of the rain and the water dripped from my body, pooling at my feet. My captors manhandled me down the stairwell as we followed my one time mentor… we had descended about three floors when Reynard swung open a doorway that led into part of the apartment block under heavy renovation. Many of the walls had been torn away leaving much of it open plan and surrounded on all sides by full length panes of glass, the sound of the rain clattering against them filled the space around us. I was held roughly, the blade still poised as Reynard continued towards the window, he placed his hand against it and gazed out at the storm that battered the capital, I heard a faint sigh come from him… and with his line of sight still fixed upon the skyline, he spoke…

“Believe it or not Kassie but it is actually good to see you again, it is just the circumstances that I regret..”

I tried to wrench free of my captors but Vincent’s grip remained strong and Lucretia wormed the tip of the blade through the leather of my jacket and it stilled me when I felt the coolness of the metal against my skin… “Quite the welcoming party you held for me..” I spat as I felt the tip of Lucretia’s blade draw a pinprick of blood…

Reynard grunted derisorily, “Yes they are quite single minded aren’t they, quite focused too... it was fortunate I interceded when I did as they can get quite carried away sometimes..”

With the blade still in place, Lucretia moved around the face me, her thin fingers reaching up to my face and tracing down the contour of my cheek… her mind flared against mine for a moment and I was suddenly consumed by an image of a young woman laying prostate on the steps of the Vatican… her head slowly rising up, her eyes burning and an enraged scream filling the air… quickly I shook my head free of this sight, my eyes narrowed and I regarded Lucretia with something I hadn’t felt for some time… a sense of fear… it was as if Reynard could sense this and he turned from the window and watched for a moment…

“Yes, Kassie… she rose from a dynasty almost as tainted as yours… surrounded in fifteenth century Italian decadence… violent and twisted…there is much blood on her hands…” his voice trailed off

There was something wrong, even before I was turned I could sense a Vampyre, but I could determine nothing of this kind from Lucretia, and yet if Reynard was indeed truthful about her then she should’ve passed into the footnotes of history several centuries ago… Reynard sensed my unspoken question..

“There are darker beings than Vampyres Kassie..” he smiled and I watched as he slowly made his way to a thick oaken board that lay at a forty five degree angle attached to a heavy frame from which were secured chains… he ran his fingers over the pitted wood for a moment before regarding me again… “Bring her..” his command immediately followed and I was unwillingly manhandled across to the frame… Lucretia moved the blade away and picked up one of four shackles from the floor, circular in shape, the inside face filled with short sharp spikes designed to pierce the either the wrist or ankle… I tried to resist but Vincent tugged one of my hands into the open and his partner clamped the shackle hard against me, I cried out as the metal bit deep, drawing a small taste of blood… and then a second clamped down hard… Vincent finally let go of me, leaving me standing a short way in front of the frame as he walked behind the device and picked up the chains that fed through the oak and were secured to me… he tugged sharply and I was lifted form my feet and fell hard against the wood. For a moment I was left breathless, which was time enough for him to secure the chains and clamp two more around my ankles, holding me fast to the board.

Reynard walked across to me, I almost saw a tinge of regret in his face… as if perhaps not everything this night had been his doing… his hand rose and he brushed some of the tousled wet hair from my face, before glancing across to Lucretia… with a look that almost seemed like a warning. With that he turned and left, departing into the stairwell… my mind wondered a little and I could see his shape drifting slowly back to the roof, a heavy cloud of despair hanging over him… I was suddenly bought back by the sound of Lucretia’s heavy coat dropping to the floor… her chest heaved under her top as her breathing deepened. I sensed Vincent step back a little, allowing this woman my undivided attention. From her waistband she pulled a thin bladed knife and she came towards me, her knee resting against the board as she hovered her body inches from mine… she mimicked the movement with the blade that she had done with her fingers a few minutes before, the blade tip caressing my cheek before running gently down my neck and across the front of my chest just below my chin…

Her eyes flicked up at mine for a moment, her face split by a thin grin… my face scowled in response as she returned her attention to the knife blade as it threaded down the fastenings on my jacket, each time it reached one she increased the pressure and cut through it… continuing downwards… cutting each time until she reached the last one and it dropped limply to my side… she teased the blade back up across the thin leather vest top I wore… taking care to run the knife between my tightly clasped, leather clad mounds as my breathing began to become a little shallower… she lowered her head and flicked her tongue out across the leather, my nipples framed by the tightly hugging material… and she encircled and teased across them.