My wrists jarred against the restraints, the spikes tore into me and more of my blood flowed down my arms but I was deep in the thrall of a primal desire and forced myself against the metal even further… the rain mixed with my blood and turned the roof red… the lightning arced across the clouds and slammed into a conductor on the roof of a neighbouring building… there was a flash of white light and a shower of sparks that lit up the night sky, I felt the electricity in the air as my movements softened and I rested my body back against the frame for a moment… then with a scream I tensed my right arm and thrust against the shackle as powerfully as I could… there was a crack as the wood splintered, the metal speared hard against my flesh… and then freedom as my wrist tore away from the frame… I bought it around to my face eyeing the deep wounds that crossed my wrist; they looked like the teeth marks of some great beast… I placed the wounds against my lips and for a moment drunk deeply from them, I had lost too much precious blood already, I could ill afford to waste any. With one hand free the remainder of my restraints proved to be little trouble and with a splash I dropped to the sodden roof, the tainted water flowing around my naked feet…

With an ancient desire born from the legacy that flowed through me I strode to the door with purpose, almost wrenching it from its hinges… as I stood there I tried to calm my mind and allow it to wander the rooms of this desolated building… I touched upon the room where Lucretia had so gleefully indulged her desire… and further on through the building… the bright flash of silver, I smiled… the presence of the stake sang out to me and just beyond that there sat a squat dark shape as Reynard busied himself in collecting my possessions for his own purpose… sure in his own mind that I would have no further use for them… softly I padded down the cold concrete stairs… the faint dripping of blood marking my trail… as I neared my betrayer.
I eased open the door and slowly crossed the floor, keeping Reynard locked in both the gaze of my eyes and my mind… as yet he seemed unawares to my presence. With each breath I could sense his blood as it pulsed through his body, with each breath my hunger grew and with each breath my desires burned brighter. Then I sensed an unease in his mind… slowly he lifted himself from my jacket, the fear almost tangible. He tried to compose himself, but as he turned to face me he couldn’t mask the fear that glinted in his eyes.

“It’s a pity that you never demonstrated such resolve when you faced Helena, before she tainted your bloodline” he stammered…

“My bloodline was already tainted Reynard… I was a ‘Harker’ a fact you rarely let me forget, and something that you used to keep me under your control, hiding me away… controlling my actions… but Helena freed me from the wheel of deceit that you kept spinning. She freed me from the darkness and renewed my life by taking my old one…” I slowly continued my way across the room.

“Pah!” Reynard spat… I felt his spirit raise inside, perhaps he knew the inevitable consequence he faced now but cared little for it, determined not to go quietly into the night and secretly I was glad of that.

“Make your peace Reynard…” my voice a low hiss as I closed in on him.

He responded with a grin… “Its you that shall soon be at peace Kassie…” he deftly pulled a gun from his waistband… my gun… I stopped before him, silently cursing myself that I had been so absorbed with revenge that I had made such a basic mistake… the same ploy they hoped would work against Helena… my top lip curled up, revealing the white flash of my teeth as my body tensed… I launched forward…

There was a flash as the bullet exploded from the barrel of my own SAA… my senses screamed out as the silver ripped through the air, but as a result of the punishment inflicted upon me I couldn’t move fast enough and Reynard’s aim was true… there was a sudden explosion of pain that seared through my right breast, burning its molten path through my weakened flesh… driving onwards to my heart… my hand raised outstretched… my eyes wide, a look of pained anguish and defiance as my strength failed me and I dropped heavily to my knees, my hands stretched out on the floor as my breathing faltered… my chest in the grip of a powerful heat that reached out across every fibre of my body… I was desperate to scream as I tried to prepare myself for what I knew was coming. I had sent 27 of ‘my’ kind to their ultimate obliteration and stood and watched as an incandescent fire exploded for their own hearts that rushed through their body, consuming them in a bright ethereal fire until they collapsed into ash… and now I too would share that fate. The pain crushed against my chest as my eyes closed… the last sight was the satisfied look on the face of my slayer…

…the darkness, the deep embrace of the abyss… I felt the crushing pain around me lessen as the darkness slowly shrouded my mind… was this what death was like?

No!… Something felt different… I wasn’t alone… I felt her, despite the terrifying prospect of my extinction, to feel my sweet Helena or even a projection of her from our linked memories here with me at my greatest time of need bought me comfort…

as the blackness bared down on me I felt her arms embrace me… her sweet lips lower closely to my ear and silently whispered to me, her words flowing over me, massaging my soul… my head fell slowly back as I gave myself over totally to the sweet dark embrace…and there we stayed as the fingers of the darkness began to reach out for me… their deep chill began to claim me… but then I felt something else…

I gasped deeply, the pain tearing through me as my eyes bolted open… I should be dead, why wasn’t I dead… consumed in a dark fire that would obliterate me… my chest was a burning centre of pain, but even now I could feel it as it slowly ebbed away… why? My memories of the darkness that had embraced me and the sweet touch of Helena still lingered, her soft embrace, her whispered words still echoing around my head.

I raised my head and saw Reynard looking down at me, his forehead deeply furrowed as he regarded me with a mixture of shock and fear… he knew the bullet had struck my heart and knew as I did what should have resulted, but here I was before his still dragging air into my lungs as the fire in my chest slowly receded…

Testing my weight I tried to push myself to my feet, the blood pooled around me as the rent in my breast pulsed crimson and its flow mixed with that of my other injuries as I slowly rose. All the time my eyes were fixed on his, I could feel the deep primal lust fill me; the dark gift bestowed on me by Helena needed to be satiated. As I reached my full height I took my first long breath, feeling it scrape and ache against my chest as my body slowly started to heal. My fingers rose to my naked breast, feeling the wetness at their touch and the ripped flesh beneath them that marked the passage of the bullet… I allowed myself a smile as I recalled the words that Helena had softly spoken to me when I had fallen into the darkness. The sight of my face smiling and masked in blood was too much for Reynard, the gun fell from his grip and clattered against the concrete as he slowly started to back away from me and I slowly began to advance on him, my naked feet padding across the floor leaving a trail of bloodied footprints…

I pulled my hand from my breast as I advanced… my eyes fixed with a determination as he suddenly backed up against a plate glass window high above the streets of London…

“But…. How…. You should be…” each word laboured for release.

“My heart is not yours to take Reynard. I gave it to Helena willingly and she holds it safe and protects it… as I do hers…” my mind recalling those softly whispered words against my ear as Helena embraced me in the crushing clinch of the abyss.

My mind reached out to his and I brushed upon the frantic turmoil that had taken him… desperation now gripped Reynard tightly, I flooded his mind with my own and he screamed out as my pain flowed through him… his screams awakened the darkness inside and my slow pad towards him turned into a sprint as I charged towards him, determined to wipe the last living link to my past… my cry mixed with his as I slammed into him, instantly the plate glass behind him mosaiced and exploded into starburst of glittering fragments and we both fell from the building…

The chill wind sheared across us both as my blood fell like rain… my hand clasped tightly over his face, my nails digging deeply into his temple as his dying scream buffeted my hand… the building rushed past us both as we fell… I dragged myself closer to his side and hissed at him…

As we plummeted I bared my teeth and ripped at his throat, not a graceful puncture, rather I sheared through skin and tissue, his rich blood filled my mouth, my hunger desperate to be stilled while I had the chance… his agonised cry echoed in my ear… I wrenched free from his neck, a trail of his blood following us as we fell. Against the wind, I shifted my position, remembering all that Helena had taught me as I braced myself for impact of the approaching ground… I glanced to Reynard whose terrified eyes regarded me through the spaces between my fingers as the ground rose up to greet us.

There was a sickening wet crunch as his head drove hard against the pavement… and for a moment I stayed my position, resting on my haunches… my legs ached from the force of the impact… I looked to my side and slowly lifted my hand from the slick red pulp that was once my most trusted friend, the man who bought me back from the brink as I lay dying in that graveyard after my battle with the Farrow… and the man who would ultimately betray me in an attempt to claim his greatest prize. I gingerly rose to my feet, my entire body burning with pain of my wounds and the effects of Helena’s gift to me as my body tried to repair.

I rolled my head back as the rain massaged my tormented body washing the blood from me, caressing me as though it were her gentle touch and for a moment my mind was cast back to that first night we shared in her coffin… a tender embrace when compared to what had occurred previously or since, a simple act perhaps but one that forever shaped me… my eyes snapped open and my gaze was filled with the sight of the full moon as it shimmered through a break in the clouds, the deep bond flared between us and in that moment I knew that Helena was too gazing up at the moon, her mind filled with thoughts that reached out towards me… hunting me, seeking me out, calling me… and I felt a powerful desire to return to her side.

Briefly I returned to the building to collect my affects, wincing as I slipped my leathers over my wounded body and making my way to the roof… resting against the X frame I looked out over the cityscape of London as the comfort of the night began to give way to the first frail brush of dawn. Lucretia and Vincent had long left, unaware their mentor was dead and under the belief that I wouldn’t survive the day. I lifted the stake to my lips, still coated with his blood… my tongue flicked out and teased up its length, drawing some little sustenance from it and remembering the tight bond that it created between Helena and I that night… with a sudden start I sprinted towards the edge of the roof, my foot drove into the ground as I launched myself from the building and into the fragile cloak of the fleeing night….