Hunger… That was the only thing running through the mind of the fledgling as she wandered alone down the streets. It was nearly two in the morning and she had already fed twice… But she was so hungry… Nothing had been able to satisfy her thirst, her hunger… And it showed. Her face was grey and drawn, her eyes the palest blue, her hair was dull and lifeless. She looked as if someone on the verge of death… And she felt it…

But she also felt something else calling to her… Calling her down the street. It was dark, dangerous… But her body, her soul responded willingly, following the darkness where it may lead her… She smelt blood… Fresh spilt… Fresh killed… Still alive…Allies stomach growled as she gave a moan of hunger. She moved towards the scent… Towards the taste of blood…

It was a man… Apparently passed out on the street, his hand cut by the broken bottle that lay beside him. She would not complain, it was a free meal, one she would not have to fight for. She lifted his hand, licking the blood from his palm, reveling in the taste. But soon that blood was gone, and she sank her fangs into the wrist of the man, sighing as if a human quenching a thirst for water. She fed greedily, quickly, hungry fir the nourishment that he would provide…

Her skin began to recover a healthy human like tone, her hair turned to the softest of gold… Her bright sapphire eyes glittering with ecstasy of the blood. But it was over all too soon… His life was gone in her lips, and she was still hungry… She was still thirsting for life… Life she could take in her hands, slowly extinguishing it… She wanted blood…

Blood.

The heady coppery metallic perfume assaulted Raven’s senses, the scent was strong and drawn out, as if kill after kill were stacking up, saturating, being absorbed into the very being of a killer. Ah, it was the sweetest of smells. By the realms of Dis and the great denizen himself, it was ecstasy just catching whiff of this spectacle. Though he had fed earlier tonight, was still gorged on the blood of that delectable blond, she had screamed so much, suffered so greatly. She had died hard, just the way Raven liked, and still despite this, despite being quenched in more ways than one, Raven set out after this scent of blood.

He moved with a quickness that belied what he was, yet in these back roads of the mortal world, he gave it not a thought. He never considered it much any place, but here, here the beast was free. Raven was free to do what he liked in this forsaken hour among forsaken mortal filth. Swift of foot and sure of nose, the trail was his in an instant. He paused only when the trail tapered or when he came to a kill.

It was an immortal, he realized upon the first body he discovered. It had been fed on crudely, a simple taking of sustenance. No art to or savoring of the kill, just hunger. Raven considered turning about then. He had no time for vampiric refuse, he was more than a millennia in age, had fought some of the greatest warriors to ever walk the face of the earth, and he was a true “Dog of War.” Why should he, waste his time following garbage about, no matter how interesting it seemed, it was garbage just the same. Filth was filth. Yet as those thoughts came, he found his body and his nose had already retaken the trail. He was moving at blinding speed now, not unusual for the immortal, not special in anyway for his kind.

Raven wasn’t particularly fast as the immortal undead went, he wasn’t especially strong either, but skill and endurance, those were his claims to fame, and it was tracking skill that made short work of the man’s search.

Dropping back into an ally way that was a lot like the thousand others he had seen in so many hours, both corpse inhabited and non-corpse inhabited, Raven set eyes upon a sight that nearly brought a chuckle to his full lips. A girl, her scent instantly revealed as that of the immortal that he had been tracking, she lifted the hand of a drunkard that seemed passed out in the dark dank. And then came the sounds of lapping. It was the sound of a kitten with a saucer of milk, an association that the girl’s disheveled and weak appearance couldn’t help but conjure in the Raven Warrior’s mind.

Keen ears teamed with keen eyes took in the scene with a silent mirth. The sound of fangs shearing flesh, this brought a wry grin to his lips, and then the red haired man let his ears take over as he closed his eyes to the sounds of feeding, of need being quenched and the slow steady thudding of the mortal man’s heart. Together these things made a bitter symphony in the night, one that Raven enjoyed immensely. Then just as quickly as it begun, it was over.

The man’s heart stopped with one final spasm as it tried desperately to pump blood that was too low pressured to move, and then it was done. The woman sucked at the wound a bit longer, and then she was done. Death had clamed her meal, and running eyes the color of emeralds or perhaps fresh grown grass over her, Raven took in the woman’s benefit. Her skin was flush, no longer the sickly color he had noted at the beginning of her performance, and her hair had taken on a shimmer of health and now in the light that his nocturnal eyes provided, it was like spun gold.

Raven cast more of his appraising glance over her, and then, suddenly a glimmer of recognition crossed his mind. It made his already presence smile widen three fold, and inch long fangs lengthened a bit at the memories that suddenly came to him. Raven knew this being, or rather he thought he did, and with a wry grin and a sure step he appeared from his vantage point behind a dumpster. He looked her over, and without a word he approached her, his eyes glimmering with an unknown emotion.

“Hello, most beautiful of children…” He said, his fangs itched with anticipation.

She turned around with a start as she hear a voice, a glisten of crimson blood still on her lips. She was kneeling before him... A vampire... his eyes a haunting green, his hair as red as blood.

Her body began to tremble with fear... He was darker... More dangerous than the unknown street... And she knew him... She had never seen him before, but she knew this one... Everything about him was strong... beautiful. But she feared him. His body, his spirit spoke of danger, she could sense it. The fear welling up inside of her made her want to scram, but she held it back as mear trembling as she cowered on the grime of the alleyway before him.

Most beautiful of children... But who's child was she? She had never known, she had never seen her creator. The one who had given her this blessing and curse.

"Who are you..." Her voice was trembling as much as her body... She was terrified of what his answer might be... Her body knew him... Whoever he was. Her body even called to his. And it was that which terrified her most...

A smile, but no, not so pleasant as to be called a smile, Raven's expression was nearly smirking, nearly leering, but in the end it seemed a total and complete stillness, as if he were a wolf on the hunt and had suddenly encountered a human maiden. The wolf was a predator and opportunist; it killed to eat, to truly live, and yet unlike man it killed not out of malice, but rather indifference.

Most animals killed from this point of view, unless threatened or frightened, the beast was indifferent, and thus was Raven as he took in the trembling thing before him. His eyes, a green so deep that they seemed impossible, looked over the terror sheathed immortal, and with a step forward he sniffed the air like an animal, taking in the pungent odor of her fear. It was bitter in his nostrils, which was odd, because Raven liked fear, he liked it a lot. He loved a dying man’s screams for mercy, or a woman’s fatal moan, a sound that was some place between orgasmic and replenishing. He loved the screams that were so much like and yet so varied from the one that the blond girl had given him earlier in the eve as he cut at her flesh with knife and fang, yet he hissed at the bitterness of this one’s fear.

Taking a step back, he shook his head as if that action alone could evacuate his nostrils of that bitter disgusting scent, but it was no avail and he looked at the one before him with a sudden realization. He knew he had recognized her, and now he was more sure than he had been moments ago.

He took the distance between them in an instant. The woman, the girl, she was exactly his height. It was something he remembered liking about her, that and her body, her baring. It was why she hadn’t died, why he had given her the greatest gift that his kind could give. And it was the reason now that he met her with a smile that seemed to shout “come hither” with its intensity alone.

“I am the author of your existence.” He said finally. “Surely I am not so forgettable?” He grinned at the last, his fangs a presence all to themselves in the expression.

Her eyes never left his. She watched his expressions change, her fear waining to curiocity only just slightly as she watched him. His smile... It called to her, he seemed to call for her... And she responded, standing slowly but surely to her feet, her tongue flicked off the speck of blood on her lip. She took a step forward, this man, though as tall as she carried more danger than she ever could. She wanted to touch him... Make sure he was real...

As he spoke, her heart knew the truth, and she could not deny it... "You are... My... My sire..." It was not a question, it was a statement. She knew it to be true. But if he was her sire... She had so many questions for him... But he didn't seem to be one who would tolerate them all to well... But there was one... One she could not stop herself from asking.

"Why did you leave me...." She whispered. "I've been so alone... Lost..." Why had he left her? Why had he condemed her to such a cruel fate, two decades of wandering alone and in ignorance of the dangerous world he had brought her in to.

Raven looked at her, really looked at her. And it was a gaze that was perhaps possessing of a tenderness that was not well and truly of his nature, or perhaps brought out of it by the blood bond they shared. At any rate it was a gaze none might have thought possible from the sadist and it lasted only for the span of a few words.

“I was commanded to leave you. I made you without my master’s permission, and as punishment I was told to leave you where you lie. She said if you survived, then you would survive and I promised an oath never to look for what was mine.”

His gaze shifted then, and his eyes were normal once again. Dark, and seemingly composed of boundless mischief, they took her in slowly again, then moved to the corpse of the drunkard.

“Now I have a question for you.” He said simply, his eyebrows furrowing, and his displeasure etching itself upon his sharp features. “What has become of you, that you are feeding in the filth of the streets. You are of my blood…” His frown deepened, and he took a step toward the corpse, glaring at it.

“You are of my blood, and shall not eat in filth or of filth…” He passed her a suddenly angry gaze. “Is that understood?” His voice said that the correct and only response was "yes."

The answer to her question only made dozens more spin around her head. She looked at him. Commanded? But if he cared for her enough to save her life, why would he turn from her at the will of another? Did he not truly care for her? That could not be true could it?

That was only one of the questions that flitted around in her mind like birds, quick and uncatchable. Who was this sire who would make him leave a helpless fledgling... Was she that powerful? Why had he come to her now?

But she lowered her gaze at the look of displeasure on his face. Why was she hunting so? Roaming in the muck and filth of the alley? "I w-" But she didn't get to finnish as he glared at her, commanding her never to feed in such a way again, to keep away from the filth of humanity like she was feeding on now. "Yes sir..." She whispered softly, trembling under his forceful gaze. "I was hungry... I smelt his blood... I could not resist it..." She was weak, she knew it. She had always known it. Every time she killed, every time she let the monster within her loose. "Please do not be angry with me... I've just been so hungry... As if I could never feed enough..." She pleaded with him.

Even now, she was begining to feel the deep hunger that could only be soothed by blood. That was her third victim in such a short time... How many more would die at her fangs tonight? "What else can I do?" She was helpless now... But her sire... Her maker. Someone who cared for her, who would guide her and teach her. Love her and help her grow was here. She had a place to avoid the sunlight, but that was it. And each rising made her wonder if she really wanted to return before the night set.

"Everything I've had to learn... I learned on my own..." Her voice was soft as if to sooth his anger. "I've always wanted to know... That there was someone who cared for me... Who wanted to teach me. A sire..." But intead she had a hodgepodge of older vampires who tried to teach her all in vain. No one had been able to sooth the beast within her. Perhaps he would... Her Sire.