Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Children of the Night ❯ After Eden ( Chapter 8 )

DISCLAIMER: Just to let all of you guys out there know that Sailor Moon still doesn't belong to me, but the situations in this story do…enjoy!

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Children of the Night

Chapter 8-After Eden

By: Hime

Updates at himes_fanfiction-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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"Destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to your ruin."
--Aesop

~*~*~*~

"You live with a were-creature and a human?" The lady in black asked Faye.

Serena bristled. "I'm a witch, thank you very much."

"Touchy isn't she?" The lady in black asked Faye as if Serena wasn't there.

"She can be." Serena gritted her teeth at Faye's answer. "Moonlight, I would like you to meet Sahra and Serena." She pointed to her friends in turn. "Guys, I would like to introduce you to Moonlight."

"What kind of name is Moonlight? Is she a born again vampire?" Sahra asked.

"Excuse me?'

Faye had her hand against her forehead as if to ward against a headache. "Don't mind her; she's an idiot."

"I resent that!"

"And I resent you following me." Faye rounded on Sahra.

"Let's not argue now-we can do that when we get home." Serena said calmly.

"The witch is right. I have more important things to do then watch you argue with your roommate, though interesting it might be."

"Yeah, listen to the vampeal spy."

Shock registered on Moonlight's face for a brief moment before it regained its blank countenance. "I prefer being called an 'information specialist.'"

"No matter what you want to call yourself, you are what you are." Serena shrugged. She could tell that she was irritating Faye's "information specialist", but she didn't care. Witches hated vampeals after all.

"Yes, I am what I am." Moonlight smiled without humor, purposely letting her white fangs withdraw from her upper jaw. Serena gave in to her urge to yawn in the vampeal's face with boredom. 'As if I didn't live with a vampire.' She thought to herself with some contempt. At this, Faye grew alarmed. She didn't need blood to be drawn from Serena or the dust of Moonlight on her hands. Dev would kill her if Serena dusted his lifemate.

"Moonlight, put your fangs back into your mouth and Serena stop aggravating someone who could rip your throat out in a blink of an eye. I don't need any of this crap from either of you." Faye snapped. The two turned to look at Faye before turning to look at each other once more. With an audible sniff, they both turned to look away in unison.

"Wow. That almost looked rehearsed." Sahra said, her eyes wide.

Moonlight tried to stifle the small burst of laughter the wereleopard's comment had caused. While the witch's attitude was irritating, the leopard was amusing.

Serena shot a look at Sahra who turned to give her an innocent look. Giving a sigh, Serena let her shoulder's slump in defeat. What kind of witch was she to let a vampeal live?

"She didn't do anything to you. You don't even know if she did anything to anyone else. You should know better then to just judge someone else." Faye told her friend sternly.

"Even if she's never harmed a living person, which I sincerely doubt, she's disrupting the balance of nature. She is, literally, the living dead." Serena couldn't help but shudder in disgust.

"I can't change your mind about my kind. In all reality, I don't care enough to try. I will tell you this though-I felt the same way you do now. But life is not black and white and you never say for sure what choice you will make when faced with life or death."

"Whatever happens to me in the future, I will never make the same choice you made." Serena stated with a calm dignity. "I would rather die once, then face death every morning."

Sahra made a high-pitched whining sound in the back of her throat. "Don't talk about dying."

Serena's eyes softened as she looked at her distressed friend. She gave Sahra a small hug and said, "Don't worry. I'm not going to die anytime soon."

In a soft tone that only Faye heard, and perhaps Sahra if she had been listening, Moonlight said, "You never know what will happen in the future." Faye looked at the vampeal with unblinking eyes.

Without taking her eyes away, Faye addressed her two roommates. "Both of you keep quiet until this meeting it over." Faye could feel Serena's angry gaze on her back but the blonde witch didn't make a comment. "Now that we all know each other and where we stand, tell me, is he still alive."

Serena and Sahra turned to look at each other with wide eyes. Who was this "he" that Faye was asking about?

"You know the answer without me telling you."

"I still need to hear it." An edge of desperation made Faye's voice sharp in the quiet night.

"Yes, he's still alive."

Right before their eyes, Faye seemed to sink within herself. "He's supposed to be dead. Father said so." She murmured to herself, wrapping her arms around her body as if to ward off a chill.

"Your father lied. Seeing as how special he was, the council wanted to do some experiments on him. You're father tried to stop them but he was voted down by the rest. They had him for over a century before he escaped."

"You mean he's been loose for over a century and they haven't yet destroyed him?"

"They don't even acknowledge that he's alive."

"But they're the ones that-"

"I don't know why you feel disbelief that the council would do something like this. You know they're all just hypocritical bastards looking out for only themselves."

"That's not true! My father is part of that council!"

"Yes and he lied to you didn't he and he's still lying. He went along with a hundred years of horrible testing to his own-"

"Shut up. I don't care if Dev will hate me for it, but if you say anything more about my father I will kill you." Faye's voice was calm and deadly, much like her manner.

Moonlight's eyes flashed first with hurt and then with quiet anger. "I guess you don't mind his part in all of this."

"He's still my father and it's because of him that you're still alive."

"No, it wasn't his hand that stayed my execution. I know from Dev that you were the one to convince your father to suggest that he and I be labeled outcast instead of rogues."

Once more, Serena and Sahra looked each other in confusion. What the hell was going on between the two of them?

Faye continued speaking. "I only talked to him, he didn't have to agree."

"Whatever." Moonlight reached behind her head to pull her hood on once more. Turning away, she said, "Since he's been loose, he's been killing and experimenting. Dev and I don't know what he's up to, but we know it's nothing good. Be careful. All his victims have one thing in common-they all look like you." Moonlight ignored the horrified gasp that came from Serena. "Make sure the payment's in the safe, you know the combination. Goodbye Faye. I hope to see you soon, under better circumstances."

As the vampeal vanished into the night, Faye lifted her hand in farewell and said, "Thank you. Give Dev my love."

"Why would she give this Dev person her love?" Sahra asked an equally confused Serena.

Turning to face her roommates, Faye answered, "Because Dev is my brother."

~*~*~*~

"You made us walk in silence while you thought everything out and we're home now, so talk already. Just tell us what's going on." Serena demanded from the silent vampire. They had just locked the door behind them when the short blonde grabbed her taller friend by the shoulders and began to shake her.

"And tell us what did Moonlight mean when she said it was because of you that she's an outcast and not a rogue. What's a rogue and what's so bad about being one?" Sahra chimed in, not willing to be a silent participant.

With a low snarl, Faye shrugged off Serena's grip and stalked toward the kitchen. Serena and Sahra followed at a much slower pace. When they cautiously opened the swinging door, they saw the vampire looking haphazardly through the cabinets.

"Where the hell do you keep the liquor? I know you have some, you used it in a couple of spells you were brewing in here." Faye continued to search, pulling open door after door.

Serena stepped forward to lead the vampire to a seat. "Um, that's cooking brandy, I was trying to make a desert."

"Well, where is it?" Faye made a move to stand up before Serena pushed her back down into her chair.

"No, no. That stuff taste bad."

"I don't care. That's the only alcohol we have in the apartment." Faye gave Serena an accusatory glance before putting her head down on the kitchen table, using her arms to cushion it. "I just need a drink." Her voice came out muffled.

With a frown, Serena stared at Faye before turning on her heel and left the kitchen. In a couple of minutes she was back with a black pouch. Slamming it down on the table, she said, "Here. Chivas Regal."

Without looking up, Faye turned her head to the side, and stared at the black pouch with little interest. "What, no glass?"

Without a word, Serena reached into an already open cabinet and took out a short, squat glass with a famous blonde cartoon character and her black cat on its surface. "Enjoy."

Sitting up, Faye reached for the glass with one hand and pulled the bag down from the bottle with the other. Picking up the scotch, she looked it over. "It really is Chivas Regal. And you were hiding this in your room? What are you, a closet drunk? Is that how you know cooking brandy taste bad? You've been dipping into the bottle?"

Serena slammed her palm onto the kitchen table, causing Sahra to jump in surprise. "Don't take your anger out on me." She fairly hissed. "The scotch was a gift."

With a quick flick of the wrist, Faye broke the seal and unscrewed the lid. She let it drop to the table before pouring herself a healthy shot into the glass. "Here's looking at you, kid." Mockingly, Faye raised her drink in salute toward the angry witch before downing her drink in one gulp. Without hesitation she poured herself a full glass before drinking that down too.

When Faye began to pour herself a fourth glass, Serena's anger melted into concern. "Hey, slowdown. You might get alcohol poisoning."

With an ugly laugh, Faye tossed back her scotch and gave a smirk. "A vampire does not get alcohol poisoning. Only those with weak constitutions like humans can die from alcohol. We don't even get drunk."

Ignoring the crack about human's "weak constitutions", Serena asked, "Then why are you drinking like that if you can't get drunk."

"I'm a great pretender."

Serena and Sahra looked at each other before turning to watch Faye. Serena's eyes were filled with exasperation as she looked at the scotch swilling vampire. 'Sometimes that girl is so annoying. For someone so old, you would think she would have grown up by now.'

Sahra's eyes were filled with something akin with awe. 'That has to be her sixth glass. I wonder why she doesn't just drink straight from the bottle. It's not like Serena's planning on drinking it anyway.'

Finally, enough was enough, and Serena grabbed the bottle away from Faye.

"I knew you were a closet drunk."

"Just shut up." Recapping the bottle, Serena put it back into the black pouch and put it on the counter. Faye held her glass up to Serena. "Don't forget to rinse it now." If Serena had been a vampire, she would have bared her fangs already. "Okay fine, don't rinse it. I don't care, it's not my cup anyway." Serena snatched it out of Faye's hand and placed it in the sink, rinsing it out a couple of times before leaving it there.

"You've had your drink. Actually, you've had more then half of the bottle. So tell us what's going on around here."

Taking a deep breath, Faye closed her eyes and let her head fall backward, ignoring the strain she felt on the back of her neck. Serena and Sahra took a seat on the remaining chairs. Letting her breath out in one loud whoosh, Faye opened her eyes to look at Sahra. "Rogues are what we vampires call those vampires who make a vampeal illegally. Their offspring are also called rogues. You can only make a vampeal when given special permission by the Vampire Council. If you're labeled a rogue, you will be hunted down and destroyed. An outcast vampire or vampeal will never be part of the vampire community; they will always be living, if you can call it that, on the outside fringes. Moonlight is an illegal vampeal. My brother changed her over because they love each other and she was going to die of cancer. If they had been labeled as rogues, they both would have died. As outcast, they make their way by being spies, as Serena called her. Many vampires on the council use their services."

Serena fumed quietly as Faye talked before asking, "Why are you talking about rogue vampires? I asked what's going on now. I didn't ask for a vampire culture lesson."

Without looking at Serena, Faye responded, "No you didn't, but Sahra asked about them earlier. And since she's the only one in this room that I like at the moment, I chose to answer her question first."

"What? I'm the one who gave you liquor!"

"Yeah, and you're the one who also kept bothering me while I was drinking it." Faye smiled at Serena's low muttering. It was the first time she smiled all night long. It didn't last long as she thought about what she had to tell her two friends. The first two friends she made in such a long time. "Okay, so you wanted to know what's going on. Well it wouldn't make sense unless I told you about my past." Faye's face was blank, but her eye's were bleak. "My family used to reside in a small town in the countryside of France called Dimanche. We lived in an old castle, quite drafty and falling apart. But it was still a castle with towers and a dungeon. I was born there and raised there, in that castle and in that village. And one day in that village, I fell in love. His name was Marcus and his father was a wealthy merchant. My parent's didn't approve of course, but we didn't care. My parents told me that being with him was a mistake. He was not one of us and he would never understand what we are. Marcus would think of me as a monster if he ever found out that I was a vampire.

Serena gave a small sigh. "Forbidden love. Just like Romeo and Juliet." Faye gave a bitter smile at the allusion.

"Still, we were happy, but Marcus was human and humans tend to die." Serena's eyes closed as she berated herself for bringing up the Shakespearean tragedy. Faye paused for a moment, blinking away the tears that had sprung in her eyes. "We were riding late one night. He said it would be romantic. And it was until that highwayman stopped us. Marcus wrestled for the gun and in the melee it fired. As soon as the gun went off, that bastard ran away, leaving Marcus bleeding there on the ground. We were miles away from town; there was no way to get help for him in time. He was dying there in my arms."

"So you turned him. You made him into a vampeal" Serena's quiet statement hung in the air.

"I told him that I loved him and I that I could save his life. I told him what I was. And he told me he still loved me and he still wanted to be with me more than he feared eternal damnation."

"I thought it was illegal to make vampeals?" Sahra broke in.

"This was before the council passed the law."

"So then what? I mean that can't be the end right?" Serena asked.

"No, that wasn't the end. You see, it takes three days after you die before you rise again as a vampeal. After exchanging blood, I held him until his heart stopped beating. When he died, I rode back to town to tell them what had happened. My parents knew that I had changed him, but it was too late for them to do anything. So three days later, when he rose from his grave, my parents sent us both away to a small town to await decision from the council."

"And what did the council decide? That you two couldn't be together?" Sahra asked.

"Actually, I never did find out what they decided for us."

"Why not?"

"Because in the end, the answer was not needed."

~*~*~*~

Moulines, France 1743

"Shall we go to dine then?" He turned away from the window to look at her. She was beautiful; more beautiful now then she had looked to him two weeks ago. Even in the dark, without lighting the candles or the fire, he could see her so clearly.

"I don't feel like eating right now."

"Please. You have to eat. You need the blood."

"I never realized how terrible I would feel to think of my fellow men as food. To feed off them as if they were cattle." His voice was low, almost too low for her to hear. She wasn't sure if it was low with regret or self-loathing. The rustle of her skirts as she turned away from him was loud to his ears, his hearing magnified beyond comprehension.

"Do you regret becoming a vampeal then?" She asked. A moment later his arms enfolded her from behind, and she shivered in his embrace before his flesh leeched some of the warmth from hers. "Never. As long as I'm with you, I don't care what happens to me." Her arms reached to clasp his tightly, before she stepped away from him. "Then come with me to eat." With one last look out the window he stepped forward, his hand out to her. 'As long as I'm with you.' He repeated to himself and let her lead him out the door.

~*~*~*~

"See, that wasn't so bad. And from now on, like we did this time, we'll only drink from those who deserve to be preyed on; those who prey on others." She rubbed his back in soothing circles as he leaned his forehead on the bricked wall in the alley.

"I almost killed him." His voice was raspy with horror.

"But you didn't." He stood up then, and took a huge breath, a breath he didn't need to take now that he was…different. Stepping away from her, he looked out into the busy streets. No one had looked into the dark alley all the time they had been there. People walked by, never thinking about what was hiding from them, in those dark spaces between the buildings. Behind him, he could hear her talking to the man in a low murmur, telling him over and over to forget what happened. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn't hear that voice, but he did. It sounded like his father. As if in a trance, he walked out into the busy streets and blended in with the crowd. With a fast pace he followed the sound of his father's voice and he was soon close enough to his father that he could smell him. And he was close enough to see his father get pulled into a dark alleyway.

With a roar, he started to push his way through the crowd, not caring if he sent those people flying when he used his inhuman strength. Running, he got to the alley just in time to see a man dressed in black raise his knife into the air above his father's head.

"No!" He cried and surged forward, ripping the knife from the robber's hand and then pushing him away, sending him to meet the wall, with the other. Satisfied that the would-be thief was unconscious, he turned to his father in concern.

"Father." He said, with a hint of fear in his voice that he had come too late.

"Marcus?" The old man's voice, cracked with age and disbelief as he whispered his son's name.

With a relieved grin, Marcus stepped forward, opening his arms wide to embrace his father; the only other family he had.

"Marcus!" Faye was calling to him, and he turned his head toward her voice. His attention averted, Marcus didn't notice when his father slowly brought out a silver pistol and aimed for his chest.

~*~*~*~

"Marcus!" She shouted, in concern and with some fear. For all his newfound abilities, Marcus was quite hesitant to use them and he might get hurt. She called his name again and worried when he failed to answer once more. "Marcus!"

A shot rang out into the air. Faye's head turned to the direction of the sound. The voice of an old man was heard and soon, people began to shout.

"You are not my son!" Another shot was heard. "He's dead, my real son is dead! Someone, help me kill this monster who has stolen my son's face!"

Faye took off in a dead run, her heart beating against her chest, every beat telling her to run faster, get there before it's too late. Roars of townspeople were heard and a cry from a single man was borne on the night air. 'Marcus!' Faye thought to herself. 'Please, please…' she pleaded, but to who, she had no idea. She turned the corner just in time to see the jagged end of a handle of a broom speared downward into a body hidden by the crowds.

"No!" She cried, and rushed forward, shoving her way through the crowds, not caring when those she threw flew across the street, landing in awkward positions, breaking an arm or even breaking a neck. The rest of the crowd loosened and backed away from the body. It was then that she saw him, his body bloodied, his eyes closed, and the wooden spear sticking out of his chest. With a savage yell, she ripped the spear out of his heart and let the offending piece of wood fall to the ground. She went to her knees and watched as blood welled up in the wound before running down his side. In keen sorrow, she brought his head onto her lap and she ran her hands over his face, stroking his cheek, his brow with loving hands all the while whispering his name over and over. When his lids stayed shut, never opening to allow a glimpse of his beautiful gray-blue eyes, Faye closed hers and rocked back and forth on her knees, tears falling onto his face before running down, looking as if he was the one who was crying, even in his death. After a few moments, Faye quieted and with gentle hands, moved Marcus' head off her lap. Grasping the bloodied spear, she used it to help her stand.

"For all your idiocy, you used the only weapon that could truly kill him." She said, looking at the crowd around her. They stared back at her, shocked at what had just happened and shocked at her reaction to seeing the body of the monster. "Isn't it unfortunate that there are a lot of things that can kill all of you."

"Lady Pierre d'Sang? Faye?"

Faye turned in the direction of the voice and saw Marcus's father standing a good two feet away from her, his eyes filled with confusion, his hands still holding a piece of wood he had used as a club on his own son.

"Hello, Father-in-law." Faye said quite calmly before hurling the spear in her hands at his head.

~*~*~*~

"You foolish girl. Do you realize what you did? You slaughtered nearly twenty people before the riders from the council arrived." Faye's father scolded the girl in front of him. He had been yelling at her for the past week and all she did was stare straight ahead with a blank stare on her face. In fact that was all she did since those council members managed to smuggle her back to her parents castle after they had hypnotized the town that a small band of bandits had looted and killed as they rode through the city. They also did some pilfering to make the story look more authentic. "You almost jeopardized everything, just because your toy died."

For the first time in days, Faye stopped looking into nothing and stared at her father with her unblinking golden eyes. They had a feral look to them that made him take a step backwards.

"He was my husband." She hissed, standing up in her anger. "We were married the day we got into Moulines. And those, those…" She couldn't think of what to call those townspeople, nothing she knew was as horrible as what they had done to her love. "They killed him! His father helped! And they would call him a demon." At this, Faye broke down crying, burying her face into her hands and collapsed onto the sofa. This crying seemed to scare her father even more then her earlier outburst and he looked at his wife for help.

With a dirty look toward her husband, Faye's mother stepped forward and sat next to her youngest child. Gathering her in her arms, she murmured against Faye's black hair, "There, there Faye. You have to take care of yourself, even though your husband is gone. If you don't, what will happen to the child?"

"The child?" Both father and daughter asked in surprise, Faye shocked out of her tears.

"You didn't notice it then."

"Notice what?"

"That you're pregnant."

~*~*~*~

New York City, Present Times

"Faye! You were pregnant?"

"Yes. It turned out that I was about three weeks pregnant. My mother said that she could hear the heartbeat and that's how she knew.

"That's amazing. So what did you have?"

"I had a monster."

~*~*~*~

France, 1751

"Mother, I have a present for you. I left it waiting outside the door."

Faye almost shuddered at that sweet, high-pitched voice but she caught herself in time. A mother doesn't shudder at the sound of her child's voice. Instead, she pasted on a smile and went to the door to look. His giggles followed her. Slowly and with great care she opened the door and took a cautious look out. Seeing nothing, her face became puzzled.

"Look down silly." Her son called out to her.

Taking a deep breath, Faye looked down, prepared to see what horror her son had for her today. Instead she saw the dead body of a gray cat lying there. On closer inspection, the body looked unharmed and its chest seemed to be moving as it breathed. What a surprise, her son left her something that wasn't dead. Maybe he had found the cat injured and was moved with sympathy, enough to bring it home to his mother to save. With soft eyes, Faye reached down to pick the cat up when she smelled something, smelled it--the scent of death. Her son behind her gave another burst of giggles as she paused over the cat. With a trembling hand, she nudged the cat and to her horror, hundreds of little white maggots fell out of the dead cat's skin. Faye screamed in surprise, in horror and quickly backed away. Upon noticing that the maggots were starting to wiggle their way into her home, she quickly ran for the broom and swept them and the dead cat away from her home. Her son's giggles gave way to full-borne laughter at her antics. Once Faye was satisfied that the maggots were far enough away from her home, she began to shake her broom out, trying to get all the maggots out of it before she brought it into the house. Striding back into her home, Faye put the broom away before facing her son. He was quite a handsome little boy-with his porcelain hued face and hair a deep midnight black like his mothers, his dimples and his gray-blue eyes from his fathers. But where did his evil nature come from?

'Because he is an unnatural child.' A voice whispered in her thoughts. And Damis was an unnatural child. He was the first child born to a vampire and a vampeal. Though it happened very rarely, vampires had been known to have half-breeds, children with both vampire and human blood. But vampeals couldn't give life-they were dead and no fruit ever grows out of a dead garden. But then Damis was born, the first of his kind. In the beginning, Faye had been overjoyed with her child. He was a miracle, born from the love of his parents. But as he grew, he began to do things; very bad things. He would start fires as if by accident and when the animals of the town started to turn up missing, Faye decided they had to leave, go somewhere more secluded; somewhere where Damis couldn't hurt anyone. Couldn't hurt anyone except his mother. He had been five years old when they had left and now he was eight.

"Damis, that wasn't a very nice thing to do." She told her son as sternly as she could. She tried to keep any other emotion from her voice, as that would just encourage him even more.

"You didn't like my present?" He asked her, his voice innocently curious as his eyes danced up at her.

"No I didn't." Faye waited to hear what he would say next.

"Someone's coming."

"What?"

Damis cocked his head to the side in concentration. "Someone's coming here. In a carriage."

Faye went to the window, and sure enough she could make out a moving dot riding down the road. She turned to look at her son but he had disappeared, and she heard one of the windows creak open. 'Where is he going?' She thought to herself before thinking that it was probably better that whoever was coming not to meet her child after all.

~*~*~*~

"What do you mean, the council wants my son dead!" Faye hissed at her father between clenched teeth.

Her father sighed, before continuing, "The council has decided that he's dangerous. He has to be put down now while it can be done. We don't know if we will be able to kill him when he's older and his powers start to come in."

"But he's just a child. My child. Your grandchild! How can you sit there and tell me you want him dead."

"It wasn't my decision. This is what the council decided and we have to follow their orders."

"No we don't!" Shaking her head in denial, her hair went flying back and forth.

"We do if we want to stay alive."

"What kind of mother sacrifices her own child to live?"

"And what kind of mother would allow her child to grow up into a monster."

"What? What are you talking about?" Faye stopped to look at her father, her eyes wide with shock.

"You know what I mean. Why did you and Damis move out here in the middle of nowhere? There is something wrong with him and you know it."

"So you feel that just because he did some bad things when he was younger, that justifies his murder now?"

"Tell me the truth. Has he stopped doing those bad things?"

Faye had to look away from her father as she remembered what had just happened twenty minutes before her father's arrival.

"So he hasn't. If he continues to grow, who knows what he will start killing when he loses interest in animals."

"Like you care about humans."

"No, I don't care much for them other then the fact that they are food. But you do. You will always have a soft spot for the human race because you fell in love with one. That's why you don't want to kill Damis, he reminds you of Marcus."

"If I killed Damis, it would be like I was killing Marcus."

"To compare that child to Marcus is sullying to him. What, don't look surprised at me. I may not have liked him but I am not blind. Marcus was a good man. Probably hated 'preying' on his fellow men when he was a vampeal, right? His son unfortunately is not so good. Do you think Marcus would have liked to know that his son likes to kill, that he's amused by death?"

Her head fell forward, her long black hair hiding her face from view. "I love Damis, but he scares me. I don't want him to hurt anyone." She stopped speaking and took a deep breath before continuing, "I can't be the one to do it." She whispered. She felt her father's hesitant hand on her head before he began to stroke her hair slowly; something he hadn't done since she was a child.

"That's why I'm here."

~*~*~*~

New York City, Present Times

Silence and then Sahra asked, "So you left it all to your father and it turns out he lied?"

"When Damis came back from wherever he went, my father pretended he was just visiting his grandson. He gave him some candy and after Damis had some, he passed out. I thought he had died; I didn't hear his heartbeat anymore." Faye shook her head in disbelief. "Whatever my father gave Damis, it must have put Damis in some sort of coma, where it slowed his heartbeat until it was imperceptible." Then with a bitter smile she said, "Or perhaps I was too relieved that I didn't have to worry anymore that I didn't even want to check if he was alive or not."

"And now it turns out that he's been out for a while, experimenting all these years and all that he experiments on looks like you. How creepy it that?" Sahra asked. Serena jabbed her elbow into the wereleopard's side.

"Ow! Why'd you do that for?"

"I'm so sorry Faye. For all that happened to you." Serena put her hand over her friend's and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I don't deserve it. If I didn't try to kill my own son, perhaps this wouldn't have happened. Perhaps I could have taught him better."

"Perhaps you would be dead."

"Sahra!"

"But it's true. If Faye's thinking about what could have happened if he lived, that's also a possibility."

Faye was silent. It wasn't as if she had never thought of the same thing. It's just that she thought it made her a horrible person to think it.

"People; everyone has some good in them, even vampires. I believe in that. I have to." Serena said haltingly. "But people and vampires are born with souls. If Damis is a child of a vampeal, perhaps he was born without a soul. If so, it would be better for him to not live in this world. All it would cause is hate and anger on his part and fear and death on the other."

'Can someone be born without a soul?' Faye thought to herself. 'If one can be born from death, can they be born without a soul?'

"Well it doesn't matter anymore whether or not he has a soul. He's been killing people for a long time. That Moonlight person said he's been experimenting for a long time. That means he's had a lot of victims. I don't want there to be anymore. I don't want you to become one." Sahra said seriously, as serious as Faye had ever seen her. "We have to stop him; it's as simple as that."

"It's not as simple as that." Serena blew her breath out in a rush. "We have no idea what type of vampire or vampeal powers he has. And he's been loose a long time. Enough time to really get good at whatever he's doing."

"And so what? Are you saying that we shouldn't stop him?"

"No, of course we try to stop him. What I'm saying is, even though we are more than your average three humans, he is some sort of miracle child." Faye flinched at Serena's use of the word "miracle," Serena didn't notice and went on. "We need more help. People who actually know how to go about this sort of thing."

And the light bulb went on above Faye's head. 'People who actually know how to go about this sort of thing.'

"I think I know some. Hunters." Faye said breathlessly, her smile a bit skewered on her face.

"You know some hunters?" Serena asked, her eyes wide.

"Yeah. One of them is your boyfriend."

~*~*~*~

Author's Notes:

Yes I am aware how long it's been since I last updated but hey, I gave you an extra long chapter to make up for it. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. You know, you pre-reader was laughing throughout this chapter even when it wasn't supposed to be funny. ~_~;

Before this summer is out, I hope to have one more chapter of both my series done because after this summer I might not be able to write for 5 months or so. This fall, I will be going to DisneyWorld to work there and since I'll be living in one of their apartment complexes, that mean I won't have a computer in my room. Also, come on! I'll be in DisneyWorld. Who has time to write when we're working 5 days a week and there's so much different and new stuff to try? There are computer labs so I will try to write, but don't hold your breath. ^_~

Hime

5/20/02