Chapter 1

The black of night, the time that most people are spent sleeping is the time when the battles occur that help keep those people alive. Wars are waged to keep the humans safe from those that would kill them all. While most of those that fight for humans are human with special gifts, a few are not humans.

One of those humans is out tonight hunting. He is forty-six years old, with graying brown hair, he shows his growing age. His keen brown eyes look around him, trying to find his prey. He finds a scent, and follows it to its source. It takes him to an abandoned complex. He slowly walks in, careful not to disturb his quarry. He sees a light in one of the rooms on the second floor. He walks to it and prepares for the attack.

The door swings open and he unleashes a power bolt into the room. The bolt hits the wall and its energy dissipates, blackening the area it had hit. He looks in the room to find no one inside of it. The source of the light is a fireplace. The air in the room smells of hickory, and he turns around to look somewhere else. He turns into the barrel of an old Colt Revolver.

“And what are you doing in my study?” The woman in front of him asks in her Scottish accent. She is an attractive woman with black hair, and green eyes. Even so, something about her made him feel uncomfortable, and that was the sign he needed. He jumped to the side and kicked her in the stomach. She stumbles backwards and looks at him with anger in her eyes. He jumps at her and takes out a knife, slashing at her. She nimbly dodges it and hits him hard in the stomach. He grunts and hits the floor.

She sits on top of him and asks, “What were you doing?” He replies, “Looking for you, Vampire.” “Well, you’ve found me.” She hits him in the back of the head, causing him to almost blacken out. He loses his grip on his knife and she smiles and takes it away from him. He growls and hits her with one of his power bolts. She flies off of him and hits the far wall.

“You stupid Vampire, you don’t stand a chance against me.” She licks her lips. “Wrong, foolish human, you shall die.” She rushes towards him, and he unleashes volley after volley of power bolts at her. She skillfully dodges them and closes with him. She grabs him and throws him into the side wall. He impacts, and his shoulder blade gives way. He falls to the floor and she smiles down at him. “You may be a Dark Mage, but you’re still human, so you never stood a chance against me.” She fires a power bolt of her own into him. He grunts and feels the blood dripping from his body.

He looks at her. “Go ahead then, finish me off.” “Gladly.” She fires a fireball into him, burning his flesh, turning him into nothing more than a smoldering ash. She gets a dust pan and brushes his ashes into it, then throws it into the fire. She grabs the book that was on the coffee table and sits down in the seat close to the fireplace and continues reading her book.

At his house, Jenos can feel something wrong with the night. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He is twenty-three years old, and another person that fights to keep humanity safe. He then senses a silent scream of pain. He stands up and screams. “No! Father!!!”

Chapter 2

Jenos wakes up, wishing that it was just a dream, that his father was still alive and well. He gets up, gets dressed, and goes to his father’s room, and finds it empty and the bed still made up. Depressed, he walks into the kitchen of their home and sits down at the table. He remembers all the time the two had spent together, especially after his mother died. “Alone, I’m alone now. I’ll never see him again.” He bangs on the table. “Why?! Why did this happen? Why did he have to die?” He gets up and goes into the bathroom.

He splashes his face with cold water, trying to wake himself up. With the water dripping down the stubble of hair on his chin and moustache, he looks at himself in the mirror. “I may have lost Father, but I’m not going to let that stop me from completing what we had started.” He exits the bathroom and goes back into the bedroom. He opens up the closet and pushes a button hidden behind a shoe box. The button activates, and a small door opens up. Jenos puts his hand inside and pulls out his .45 Berettas and holsters. He places them between his underwear and his jeans. He then grabs his two knives and places them around his ankles.

Jenos exits the house and goes into the crowded street at 8:32 am. He walks to his job, a security guard at the 1st National Bank in Worchester, New York. Another boring day where nothing happened, as it never does. He finishes work at 6:00 pm, and prepares for his hunt. He heads for a darkened alley and then starts a chant.

“Wind blows, air flows, ground below. Footsteps of the man, that walked these steps, show me his path, guide me with thy light.” The ground starts to give off a glow, shining a dull yellow, showing him the path of his father. He follows it and gets ready for battle.

In her study, Mackenzie Tathal is reading another book. She senses that someone is in the building, looking for her. She smiles. “So, someone else wants to try to take me on, fine by me.” She exits the room and hides. Jenos enters it not too long afterwards. He enters calmly, not going in with his guns blazing. He goes to the chair she sat in and notices the book. He picks it up and starts to read the beginning of it. Mackenzie enters the room and doesn’t see him waiting for her. She heads towards her chair and stops when she sees him in it.

“Hi, I guess we haven’t met, have we?” Mackenzie looks at him dumbfounded. She thinks, “The nerve of this man, trespassing in my house and making himself comfortable in MY chair.” She speaks, “What are you doing in my house?” Jenos looks up. “I was waiting for you.” She is shocked for the second time. “Waiting for me? Do you even know who I am?” He shrugs. “Don’t know, don’t really care. I’m lonely, and I noticed this place, then the light, so I figured that someone had to come around here sometime.”

Suspicious, Mackenzie walks behind the chair and looks over the back of it. Her arms go to him, pushing him against the back of the chair. “And why would you think that I would want to keep you company?” “Well, seeing as how you yourself are alone, I figured that maybe you want some company like I do.” She just looks down on him and glares at him. “I like my privacy, now leave me alone.” Jenos gets up and looks into her green eyes. “No, I won’t leave until both of us aren’t lonely.” She grins, showing off her fangs. “Fine, I won’t be lonely with your dead body around.”

She grabs him and throws him into the wall. He impacts and draws his right hand Berretta. He shoots at her, and as with his father, she nimbly dodges the bullets. He runs out of ammo in the clip and she closes in on him. Jenos drops the weapon and raises his left hand, firing a power bolt. It connects, and she flies back into the other wall.

“I came here to talk, I didn’t intend on fighting, but I was prepared to avenge my father if it came to that.” Mackenzie looks at him, for the first time looking at his features. She notices the resemblance between the man she killed and him. “Hmm… so you are his son. He didn’t fare very well, so what makes you think you could avenge him?” Jenos and Mackenzie circle each other. “Because I fight for honor, I won’t allow myself to lose.” She smiles at this. “Yes, you humans are very obsessed with your pathetic honor.” She stops circling and fires a power bolt at him. He raises his right hand and absorbs it. Surprised, she asks, “How did you do that? I don’t recall any humans able to absorb energy. Your father certainly didn’t.” Energized, he replies, “Absorption isn’t all that common, even among Dark Mages, but some of us can. My father lacked that ability however…”

Mackenzie rushes forward, then jumps up and tackles him. They tumble on the floor, fighting to keep the other from being on top. After a few tumbles, Jenos ends on the bottom and uses his legs to push her away from him. She hits the wall, and he rams her back into the wall. Her legs give and she falls to the floor. Jenos catches her, and slams her back onto the floor. He gets on top of her and asks, “Why do you want to be left alone so badly?” She glares at him. “I don’t want to be bothered. Us vampires like to live alone.” She then knees him in the gut. She grabs him and rolls over, getting on top of him. “Now, what shall I do with you?” Jenos grins at her. “Well, pretty much whatever you want, it seems.” She licks her lips, and he prepares for the end.

Chapter 3

Mackenzie bends down, and kisses him. Jenos blinks his eyes and wonders what the hell is going on. She breaks it off and sits up straight on his stomach. “You look surprised.” Jenos stumbles on his words, “Well, yeah, I guess, I mean, what the hell happened?” She lightly laughs at him. “Well, we kissed. You do know what kissing means don’t you?” He glares at her. “Of course I remember what it means. I’m wondering WHY it happened.” She leans down on him and playfully licks his cheek. “Because, I’m having fun toying with you. It’s been a while since I’ve last done this.”

“Oh really, are you sure that you’re in control?” She looks at him and is taken by surprise as he kisses her back. She closes her eyes and enjoys it. She thinks, “Gods, it’s been so long since I was kissed back.” He wraps his arms around her and breaks the kiss so he can start to lightly nibble and kiss on her ear. She looks at him, slightly saddened that she must kill him. She thinks, “Even if I have to kill him, I can at least enjoy him while he’s still here.” She licks his cheek and rubs her hand on his chest. She speaks, “You know, it’s been so long since anyone has actually responded back.” He stops and looks at her. “What, with your looks? You gotta be kidding me.” She shakes her head. “Nope, I haven’t because I’m a vampire.” “Ah.” He kisses her cheek and hugs her. “I’m sorry that that happens to you.” She shrugs it off. “I’ve learned to accept it.” “True, but still…” She shakes her head. “It’s not so bad.” She kisses his forehead and starts to get up. “You must leave however, I want to be left alone.”

Jenos doesn’t let her go. “No, I told you that I’m not going to leave here if you’re lonely, and wanting to be alone implies that.” She looks at him and sees how serious he is about it. “Really, so you’ll stay here with the person that killed your father?” “Yeah, I don’t want you to have to be alone like I am.” She begins to wonder whether or not to kill him like she planned. She thinks, “What is with this guy? I’ve killed his father, the person he said that he’d avenge if he had to, and he wants to keep me company. As much as I think this to be a trick, I don’t really want to be alone. Alright, I’ll keep him alive a little bit longer.”

“Fine, just let me get up will you?” He lets go of Mackenzie and gets up after her. She tells him to follow her to her resting chamber. Jenos is led to a room not too far from the study, just two doors down. Mackenzie turns the knob and enters the room. She goes to the night stand and takes off her earrings. “So, what do you think of my place?”

Jenos looks around the room. There is very little in the way of furnishings. The bed and the nightstand are the only things on the far side of the room. On the left is a desk with a chair and some papers on it. As he looks around, she reaches in one of the drawers and draws a tranquilizer gun. She turns around and fires one into him. He jerks at the feel of it and pulls it out just as he is hit by a second, and then a third. He falls to one knee and groggily looks at her.

“Why, what?” She puts the gun down and knees in front of him. She kisses him and says, “Because it makes it easier to probe you.” She grabs Jenos' head and focuses on probing into his mind. She looks for his purpose in coming after her. “Yes, you did come here to kill me.” Satisfied, she is about to stop and kill him when she notices one of his more recent thoughts. “Yeah, so she killed Father, but she’s as lonely, if not more so, than I am. Damn she’s good looking too, hard to kill a pretty face. Shit, don’t do this, don’t do this.. Humans can’t fall in love with vampires… can they?”