He’d made a fuss about her leaving, pulling at her trying to get her back into bed. Lance was like that, he loved to have her near him, loved to know she was there. He’d been alive longer than she had, been alone longer and now that he had her he didn’t seem to want to let go. She didn’t mind, she had chosen him, she had chosen to spend eternity with him. She could have chosen another, someone else to ease the loneliness that decades and centuries of existence could bring, but he made her laugh, that was why she had chosen him. It was not the most critical way of choosing a mate, but he also knew a lot, he knew this knew world she had get accustomed to. He showed her everything and she was drowning in the thrill of it.

He had finally allowed her to leave, under the stipulation that she be back long before dawn. He had some plan for her she knew, he wasn’t the most subtle man and keeping a secret from her was almost impossible for him to do. She had to feed, he had already quenched his thirst and now she needed to do the same. She would have gone with him earlier but she had friends to entertain, mortal friends. She still did that, she still spent her time amongst the living.

The cold night hair swirled around her sweeping her hair about like a dance. Soft blonde curls bounced gently around her shoulders as she strolled through Cedarwood Park. Her hands were stuck into the pocket of her leather jacket that was the colour of blood. She wore black leather pants and a dark multicoloured top with black boots. Her skin was much fairer than usual against the dark colours, the colours and the fact that she needed to feed. Her skin was always lighter when the thirst was upon her.

She continued her walk, a wry little smile on her face. She could remember walking the Champs-Élysées decades ago, when women wore their hair short and dresses were called, ‘flappers’. She had walked there, a night like this, with a cool breeze and no one with her. The twenties had been a hell of a time, women got the right to vote, they wore more revealing clothes and tore the town up every night. She had spent those years in France with Celeste enjoying the change in time.

A giggle? Her mind fast forwarded to the present, to the reason why she was out there…to feed. She saw them then, the girls walking together, three of them. She kept her cool, trying not to alarm them, she would feed and be gone and they would never know the difference.

“Excuse me, do you have the time?” she asked the girl with bright pink hair. Her friends looked back but didn’t stop. “It’s ten past ten,” she told Thea. She smiled at the girl, “It’s early then,” she said her voice soft and melodic as her eyes met the girls. “Yes,” the girl replied, her voice monotone. “You will wait here. You will sit and not move,” Thea said, her voice firm and commanding. The girl obeyed, sitting on a nearby bench without protest. Celeste had taught Thea well, taught her how to make them obey and do what she wanted. It was easier that way, easier so as not to hurt them.

She moved with vampiric speed after the others, “Sleep,” she said into their minds and instantly the girls went limp in her arms. She laid them on the ground, well out of the way of prying passersby. “Come,” she ordered the third as she stepped into the darkness, her pale skin radiant for a moment in the moonlight. “You will remember nothing,” she told her. “Nothing,” she repeated as she gently took her face into her hand and leaned her head away exposing her neck.

She sank sharp fangs into her throat, a sigh escaping the girl as she drank. Her blood was sweet and mingled with alcohol. The taste was so sweet and yet so strong. The reached the ground together as the girl weakened slightly as Thea drank from her and then stopped. She sealed the wounds with her own blood; a quick prick of her lip and a few drops of blood was all that was needed. The girl would be fine, now on to the others.

She held the second girl in her arms, ready to taste her blood when she felt someone else’s presence close by. She stopped. She licked a drop of blood from her lips and stood slowly her crimson eyes scouring the darkness and finally settling on a finger hidden within it.

Dmitri had been spending too much time with his fledgling and decided to hunt on his own for a while. He needed the time alone, he wasn't used to have someone follow his every step, truthfully his fledgling was becoming cumbersome.

He strived in being alone, after living as such for so long, though he couldn't imagine a day without Angelia, his beautiful angel. She had saved him from the pain of centuries and was deeply in love with her, very deeply. He was wondering how to start this night of hunt and his eyes swiveled to the pale skin woman. As he inhaled he smelled the scent of a vampire. She was one.

He watched and smiled. She was using the word of power and wanted to laugh. He couldn't help himself, he was a brawny, strong man. He had been a warrior in his time and he had none of these mind tricks, they were a disgrace to a warrior as himself. His mind was well-protected against the telepathic vampires and the only one that managed to get by his defense with barely a scratch was Chi, the oldest ancient he had ever met. A kind one really.

He knew the instant she knew he was there. He had been standing under a tree and even though the shadow hid him from view and vampire would have caught on his position. He took a step out into the light and watched with wry amusement the other vampire. "Having fun?"

He didn't move any closer, some vampires were over-possessive of their prey and frankly an over-possessive would not be a good thing right about now. He didn't want a fight on his hands...at least not yet.

Her eyes remained crimson as he stepped into the light, a vampire much older than herself, much older. She smiled for a moment, white teeth and fangs with just a hint of red from the blood she had just drunk. “I wouldn’t call it fun…necessary would be the better word,” she replied with a soft voice. She didn’t find feeding off the living fun; she had never seen it as such. She had fed and killed in her past, in the time when she had just become a vampire and did not know when to stop herself. It had been what she needed to live, but she could never find it amusing.

Thea wasn’t one to bring conflict when one wasn’t necessary. She had seen too many times what the disagreement of two bodies could do and she cared for none of it. Was it that she couldn’t fight? No. Any vampire worth their salt learned to defend themselves at one point or another, and though she was a mere babe compared to the one before her now she could defend herself. Would she win would be another question, a question she had no desire to discover an answer.

“Do you like to watch others while they feed? Or did you happen to pass by while I was…” she looked at the three sleeping girls, “…indisposed?” She smiled again, one where lips didn’t part to show her pearly whites. “Or were you looking for something for yourself?” she questioned, her arms hanging loosely at her sides.

Was that what he wanted? Did he want to chase her away from her well earned meal? She was not possessive of her prey; indeed there were so many humans about to find another would be easy. However, she knew there were some who could not bother to find their own, or share if the need be, they liked to take…that was all they understood. The question was which was he?

Dmitri had no wish to steal a meal. What would be the point? He liked to catch his prey as the blood was pumping through and they were scared shit less. That was his type of food and he wouldn't go around stealing another's, he was a warrior and had honor.

He took a few steps closer and nodded thoughtfully. "Feeding is necessary but it can also be fun, it's really up to you to decide if it can be both." Dmitri thought it fun, almost the same way a child thought climbing trees was fun, yet he was a killer at heart. It was hard to change when you had been a fully trained warrior and was expected to kill depending who's side you were on.

Dmitri shook his head. "Watch? Oh no, I was passing by and got intrigued. I'm always curious as to how people feed. It's a learning experience. Of course I could never use a word of power to stop anyone. My skills don't quite lie in that direction." He briefly wondered what would happen if Angelia found out that he had talked with another woman. She wasn't quite the possessive type, but she was always worried that she'd lose him. Truth to be told he had the same fear of losing her.

Dmitri chuckled, imagining what she thought. "Keep your meal, child. I don't want it, besides I like something with a little more life in it, not these lifeless lumps."

She studied him with questioning eyes, this vampire who seemed to think the hunt fun. Okay, she would admit she had found exhilaration in chasing down a victim, planning a trap and executing, when she was younger, when she was new. However, the fear in their eyes broke her heart every time. She knew that fear, she had lived that fear. She had having to impose it on another. However, she was aware that not everyone shared her sentiment for human life, for the lives they had at one point or another. She respected it; she still cherished it, the human body and life. They could do things that they vampires could never do again, and though it might mean little to the man before her, she envied humans.

He would call her a fool more than likely, it would not be the first time. Celeste had called her that many times, as she wondered why she did not kill her meal. Once, and only once had they ever quarrelled and that had been over killing their victims and letting them live. Celeste liked to kill every time; she knew when to stop but chose not to. She thought Thea should be the same, she was not. Perhaps it was the differences in their creation, Celeste had wanted this, she had sought out her sire and he had obliged her, Thea had it forced upon her, she had not accepted it willingly but out of fear and desperation.

After that first fight, both tempers flaring and Celeste no longer seeing Thea as a church mouse but a woman with deep emotions who would defend and arguing them admirably, she no longer pressed her. They fed as they chose and neither spoke on it again. That was why she was Enashe, they liked humans, they lived amongst them and did not see the necessity in killing to live. It was also more practical. If you killed every time you fed there left a great many bodies to be disposed off and that could draw attention to their kind. She knew all too well what it could mean if humans discovered them, she had been discovered once and they tried to take her life by flames.

“I see,” she replied softly to his statement. She had made her choice long ago and derived fun from elsewhere. However she could not judge those who sought their entertainment in the hunt and kill, and she would not challenge such a vampire should his anger be turned upon her.

He stepped closer, but she did not stir from her position. She smiled, “I had to ask,” she replied her eyes softening to a lighter red from the deep crimson of before and then finally to their natural blue pools. “I do not wish to hurt them,” she told him honestly as he spoke of lacking the ability to command with a single word the mind of a mortal. The ability had its perks and one was altering the human mind so they could not remember what truly happened to them, why they were sitting alone on a bench at midnight.

“I thought as much,” she replied coolly as he showed disdain for her method of feeding. “Well if you do not desire to take my meal, may I finish?” she asked politely. It was her nature, perhaps because of the time and place she was born always to be a lady…if possible.

Dmitri lived to hunt. Before he had been a warrior, he had been a scout and had been one of the best, not once had he gotten caught. It would have been a disaster to have gotten caught. That training had helped him in the first few times that he had hunted. Later he had learned the practical way of hunting with his abilities.

Hunting for him was a pleasure, he was the true vampire hunter. He loved the kill and was sure to do anything to do the kill. Despite was Angelia thought of him, there were times where he was a monster. He lived for the fear and the pain that he could place in others. He made him enjoy it every time.

He shook his head. "There is no weakness in letting them live, you and I have different ways of hunting. Your way in perhaps more mind oriented while I enjoy the hunt and the kill. Perhaps I am more the animal for it." He knew that in some vampire eyes he would be seen as an animal. The fact that he was aware of it, made it interesting in itself.

He waved his hand in front of him. "Sure go ahead finish, I'll go grab a snack and be right back." He smiled, waved at her and vanished to find himself a meal.

She did not move till he spoke, her face still as glass but her eyes speaking poniards. She could not help it; her eyes had always been the give away for her. She had tried for a while, to hide her emotion and feeling, and though she could wipe her face clear of any reaction she could not do so with her eyes. She had stopped trying now; it made little difference if others knew how she felt.

Her eyes showed her pleasure in his words. Yes, there were many way to hunt and everyone had their preference. At least there would be no argument there. It was nice to meet someone who didn’t feel there way was the only way to feed. Lance was different as well. He liked to see the shock on their faces and the fear but he always wiped their minds clear afterwards and he did not kill either, well mostly. There had been times when he had killed, when he had let the thirst take control of him and then she was there to console him afterwards. He tried hard not to now.

She smiled slightly at his words. “There is a little animal in us all,” she admitted. She was no saint when it came to the hunt, she could not forget that. “Thank you,” she said, her eyes instantly turning back to crimson as she went back to her prey. “Enjoy yourself,” she said casually before picking the second girl up and sinking her fangs into her neck. Sweet blood touched her tongue and her face grew warm in the cool air.

When she was finished, she set the girls back on the bench and walked away, her hands in her pockets and her cheeks flushed with their blood. There was no sign of the mystery vampire as yet, but he was probably lurking somewhere having fun. She hadn’t even gotten is name, though she was sure there were many other vampires in Demaitre, in fact she knew it, but she hadn’t met any. Then again, she had only been there two days she had plenty of time to familiarise herself with the coven. She was pretty sure the vampire was not of the Enashe.

Dmitri had wandered around the general area, before getting the feel for the number of inhabitants out on a night stroll as himself and inhaling sharply he could smell every single one of them. It was part of his animal genes, he suspected, besides smelling warm-blooded creatures weren't a very hard thing to do.

He stayed poised for a moment rooted in spot, shifting and filing away smells, looking for one in particular. He found it quite fast, a young woman walking alone. He eyes looked in her direction and he moved towards her. He watched her as she walked down a path, clearly making her way quickly to the other side. She was either in a rush or worried about something.

It was time to pull out his charm. He could be charming in a gruff sort of way. He walked towards her, clearly being the type of guy a woman would want to meet. Well-dressed, imposing but not overly much. It was all practice and he liked everything about it. He could be who ever he wanted to be.

"Are you alright miss?" Concern, another thing he was good at. If he showed concern, they would more likely warm up to him as well as warm him up. The woman was startled, though seemed relieved to see him. He was well-mannered enough to show concern and to talk to her, before taking full advantage of the confidence that she had in him. He covered her mouth and dragged her in a bushed off area. No one would find her, until she was starting to decompose. Dmitri always made sure to kill his victims.

He strolled off a few minutes, whistling a soft tune to himself. He had done nothing wrong, he was simply trying to survive. He came up behind the other vampire that he had met earlier that night. "Miss me?"

She continued her stroll, casual, relaxing and peaceful. The Cedarwood Park was lovely, Demaitre, was lovely, at least so far. Thea couldn’t find a single reason to hate the city yet, not one, and the blood was good as well. She could still taste the girls on her lips.

She was savouring the taste when she sensed him, smelt the mingling of blood and death. She smiled even before he spoke. She had been right; he had been off having fun somewhere.

She looked at him with cool blue eyes, “Miss you? Was I supposed to?” she said playfully, her mood improved after satisfying her thirst. She sniffed his sent inconspicuously. “Was she good?” she asked, her head straight ahead. “Leave her body out of sight?” she asked with the same casual behaviour she always did. Thea could smell the woman’s blood on him, it was sweet.

The cool breeze brushed her hair from her now warm face. “Have a name?” She asked politely. “Or shall you just hang around me and I call you…you?” she said with a smile. She always had a friendly nature, it didn’t always play with all people, but most liked her.

Dmitri chuckled. This vampire was a fun one and seemed curious about him and very playful. He could keep himself in check around playful natures, he was a warrior and warriors had honor that was just under the need to survive.

He shrugged. "I thought that perhaps you would miss my underlying presence and my casual conversation, but I see that I have not been missed." He pressed a hand to his heart and had a sorrowful expression of his face. "I have been deeply wounded, by this lady's disinterest." So he could be playful too, he wasn't at all wounded, but it was fun to play as such.

Dmitri smiled. "She was sweet as always and completely sober, the real way that I like them. Alcohol ruins everything." To him it did, blood was better when it was untainted and that was the only way he would take it.

He frowned at her. "Do you take me for an idiot? I may be a Tarepha, but I'm not a total dumb ass or animal. I hide what I kill and I don't want to Amman of my back." He didn't like the Amman and it was no secret as to why. They were a mild annoyance, one he had to deal with. So instead of dealing with them, he tried not to get in their way, it worked better that way.

He gave a courtly bow. "My name is Dmitri, fair lady and you are?"

“I’m sorry that you were mistaken,” Thea said with a smile. She could tell that his hurt was not genuine, it was the same manner in which she’d played with…she wiped him from her thoughts. “I shall try to remedy that if we should meet again,” she teased back.

She had been enjoying the stillness of a night alone, but she would not protest to company, sometimes they enhanced an evening and others diminished it. She would see what this vampire brought to her night. Tonight she would not have missed Lance if he had been with her and gone, in fact she had barely thought of him since she left the coven. Her attachment lay in his presence, in having him close by when she needed someone to laugh with and talk to. She appreciated his humour that was why he was still around, that was why he had been chosen.

She smiled as he expressed his pleasure in his meal. She had to have been good for him to say more than two words on the matter. Most could define their meal in a word…satisfying or good. He made a sentence. She had to agree that alcohol tainted the taste of pure blood, but it didn’t bother her as much as it did him. Sometimes, with the right one it gave it an entire different and not unpleasant taste.

“I’m sorry. I seemed to have offended. It was not my intention,” she responded to his statements. The Amman? She had heard of them, vampires who tried to keep the balance and enforced their laws upon others. They weren’t into killing, but if another vampire did, they made sure to cover it up. Lance had told her all about them, and the other covens long before they arrived in Demaitre. She would not have a problem with them.

She smiled at his bow and curtseyed in response. “A pleasure sir,” she replied. “My name is Thea.”

Dmitri chuckled and then looked at her seriously. "See that you do, I would hope that I am not easily forgotten." He was amused, he didn't like being forgotten and he always thought that he would never be. Didn't warriors have their stories told in historical books, even if they weren't named?

He hoped that his presence would be nice company, it had been awhile since he had spent company with someone other than his fledgling or his beauty. He dearly loved Angelia, but he needed time to be out side and to enjoy the other things of life.

Most of the time, to Dmitri food was simply that food. There were times where food was a lot sweeter than that and sometimes it required more than one word to respond to explain it. "What your meal satisfying or was it better than that?"

He shrugged. "Don't you worry, your pretty little head. I get offended quite easy. Though I try not to show it, warriors don't do that." Even though he hadn't been in a war in centuries, he still considered himself a warrior.

"WEll Thea, the pleasure is all mine." Dmitri may have been a Tarepha, but he had a noble and good heart, it simply didn't extend to mortals.

“Wouldn’t we all?” Thea said with a small grin. To be forgotten was not something anyone wanted, at least not truly. Some wanted to hide from their pasts and claimed that they wished no one to remember them, but the truth was they did want at least one person to. “I assure, I will not forget you,” she added calmly.

The history books were full of men who wanted to be remembered, or who were just because of their acts. For good or bad history recounted the lives of these men, the affects they had on the world and the future. Thea would never been in any such book, she might appear on some small family tree, a name with one line coming from it and another name. However, the latter no longer lived and the name on the family tree that represented her had changed as well.

She looked at Dmitri, “It was refreshing. They each had their own unique tastes that blended well together,” she replied, his question eliciting a smile from her. The girls had satisfied her thirst and delighted her senses, for Thea that was good enough. Now, the rest of the night belonged to her, she had a few hours till Lance would expect her. She wondered what he had planned. Sometimes she thought he had something to prove with his gifts, or that it was his way of ensuring she never left him? He needn’t prove anything to her and she had no intentions of leaving him. She had made a choice and would stick by it. it was true she was not the only woman in his life, there were the odd ones here and there that he found fleeting pleasure in, but Thea was his heart. She knew it, as well as he did, and he didn’t seem to mind that it was not the same for her.

“I will keep that in mind. Don’t you worry about my pretty little head,” she replied. “A warrior? You were a warrior?” She asked as she continued walking, taking the bend in the path. “What century?” She asked making casually conversation. Her courtesy extended to all people, mortal and immortal, but she was more cautious with the immoral, their tempers were more testy than mortals.

Dmitri was tall for a man of his period, well perhaps not very tall, but he was tall. He stood at 5 foot 8, but today that was different. He was even considered short by todays standards. He wasn't ashamed of his height knowing that being this tall was simply a result of genetics.

"I'm glad that the meal mixed well for you. It's good to find blood that complement each other, because it could be a total disaster without that." He rarely fed one after the other, mostly sticking to one meal at a time. He would probably feed again before heading home, but he was delightfully satisfied now.

"I was a warrior, I fought in the war that brought the great city of Kiev down. The city that is now the capital of Ukraine. It was a long time ago. I was born around 1000 AD. I was actually doing war around that time. It was one of the most important battles. I enjoyed myself, though it was a long time ago."

Thea’s mixing of blood habits was a well trained habit. If she had to rely on one source to satisfy her thirst she would kill them every time. She had been blessed or cursed, depending how you saw it, with a thirst that needed to be quenched nightly. When she had first become an immortal, the thirst ruled her like a master does a slave. She had to heed to its every call and several lost their lives to her hands during that time. Since, she had learned that a little here and a little from there helped her to calm the hunger and allow her prey to live another day.

“That it would be. However, I’ve learned how to select carefully,” she informed Dmitri. She’d been mixing blood sources for decades now; she knew what she was doing.

“A thousand AD?” Thea repeated. He was older than Lance. “You are old,” she teased. “I am but an infant compared to you. I was born in 1838, in Norfolk Virginia, in the United States. Though it wasn't called that then,” she told him. “To live so long you must have seen very much,” she continued. “I have seen a lot in my time, or so I like to think, but I know there is much I have missed. Some by choice.” She spoke of the wars that had erupted during her time, wars she chose to sleep through. She could not stand war, death and mayhem were not things that delighted her or that she found intriguing.

“You enjoyed war?” Thea found that contradictory. How could someone enjoy war?

Dmitri enjoyed the kill, it was part of who he had been and what he had become. He didn't like mixing blood and wouldn't do it unless he was ravenous and he would kill them all anyways.

It was remarkable that he could be so calm and collected, so social as well. He hadn't been very social in his youth, always being hungry and never caring for others. He supposed that he would have two women to thank for this. Chi for throwing some humanity into his humane side and Angelia to throw both of his sides together, he wasn't a man with a split personality anymore.

He raised an eyebrow. "I may be old, but there are some that surpass me in age, wisdom and power. They are the dangerous ones and some seem so fragile and vulnerable that you would never expect it of them. Once they strike you realize your folly. Happened to me once, she ended up being quite nice."

"I suppose that you can say that my joy in war comes from my upbringing. My father and grandfather were both warriors. It's a trait in my family, I suspect that we were descendants of the fighting Vikings. Probably held that trait from them." He shrugged. "I don't know if it was the war that I enjoyed or the excitement that filled me when I fought." He shrugged again. "I simply know that I liked it."

She continued her stroll enjoy the night and the new and strange company. “Are there? I have never met any so old before, though I supposed I always imagined there would be. There had to be a first, didn’t there and from them many more,” she said calmly her mind wrapping around a strange prospect. What would it be like to meet the first? Was the first male or female? Where were they born, what language did they speak? She smiled at her on wonderings.

“Thank you for your warning Dmitri, but I never underestimate anyone’s capability. It would be a very foolish practice don’t you think?” she asked with a wry smile. “Lance isn’t nearly as old as you are,” she said casually, “and I never underestimate him.”

She listened to Dmitri with rapt attention. His upbringing was to blame for his joy of war. Where was he raised by wolves? It might have been a harsh line of thinking but the truth was the idea that anyone could be raised to love war was unfathomable to her. “The thrill of the kill,” she said casually. That was a feeling she could understand, a feeling she could communicate with. She remembered the rush she got when she had first been turned, that first taste of life’s nectar…it was intoxicating, she had never known any feeling to surpass it, none but…love. There was a feeling she had not experienced in some time. A feeling she was not inclined to feel either. He had cured her of that.

Dmitri nodded. "Yes they are some ancients that are considered almost too old to still be alive. I stayed with one, when I was in France. Right now she would be about six thousand, I believe and if that isn't old for even a vampire, nothing will be." He then shrugged. "No one even know who the first was, though we do refer to a very old vampire that is still alive as the Father. He's insane and I believe lives in the forest in Europe somewhere. He hasn't been seen in a while yet I'm sure that he is still alive."

Dmitri laughed. "Sometimes we underestimate, simply because we don't expect it from some of the vampires we live next to every day. I can act like a total gentlemen and I like to think that I clean up nicely, but I need the death of a mortal to survive. I can be very non dangerous, right now we are having a conversation, but if I don't like the direction it takes..." He let the sentence hang and shrugged. He didn't think that the sentence needed to be finished.

Dmitri could almost see her train of thought. "Back in my time, people fought all the times. They fought in wars and they gained land that way. It was a way of life. Today it's very different." The thrill of the kill was something he intimately, since the first day he had held a sword.

Thea gave a small smile as Dmitri spoke of ancient who were almost too old to be alive. “You stayed with one?” she asked curiously. She had only ever stayed with Celeste and after her Lance. Celeste was older, much older but nowhere near the kind of age that Dmitri was speaking of, and Lance wasn’t that much older than her, not even two decades her senior. “Six thousand?” she said in shock, the surprise evident in her voice as she stopped and looked at Dmitri’s face seeking out if he was tricking her. He was not.

“I don’t think we will ever know,” she said softly as he spoke of the first vampire. “I don’t think we’d want to break the spell that is our existence and find out from where it is we truly come from.” Wouldn’t it be interesting to discover that their race was some accident of fate, some huge biological error that erupted an entire subspecies of mortal, immortals? No, it was better not to know.

“I bet you do,” she said with a smile as he spoke of cleaning up nicely. “I don’t agree with you there,” she said as he spoke of needing to kill a mortal in order to live. “I have fed and had my fill yet all are alive. I needn’t have killed them,” she said gently. She looked into his eyes as he left his sentence unfinished. “Quite,” she said with cool look on her face before breaking into a small smile and resuming her walk.

“In my time, we were about family and business. Of course there was propriety and finding a good husband,” she said with a weak smile. “Then we decided to become another country from England, and they didn’t take it too well, fought a silly war over it that got a lot of people I know killed. That taught me that I didn’t like war. Then of course my son died,” she added, “then I really knew war wasn’t for me.” She let her remark remain unexplained as to how her son had died. She had loved but two things in her entire life, and her son was one of them, he was the only one who still remained in her heart.

Dmitri nodded. "She had seen the turn of time more times then any of us could imagine." It was true and she was an amazing woman, who used her youthful body and exotic looks to entice any man that would be useful to her. It was amazing what she could accomplish while doing very little.

He hesitated and shrugged. "Would it be so bad to truly find out where we come from? I think that it would interesting to find out where it started and how it expanded from there." He never was much for knowledge but there was always a chance where it could be important to know. Finding out who the ancestor of vampires would be a knowledge that could overcome anything.

He lifted an eyebrow. "In my time, we fought for territory. My people wanted their own place to call home, so we fought for what we wanted. It was how it was done, when most of Europe didn't have nations especially Eastern Europe."

“I don’t know,” Thea replied, her mind slightly distracted. “I like the mystery of it, of not knowing. If we ever did find out, I wouldn’t want to know. Call me sentimental but I like a little mystery to life,” she said with a small smile.

“We all wanted our own homes. I suppose we were lucky that we never had to fight for what we wanted, at least not when it came to our homes. I was born in America; we were relatively a bran new country with lots of space. There was no need to fight over it, at least not all the time.” It was true; America hadn’t been settled by easy means, many died so that others could take over, a fact.

“So what brought you here?” Thea asked curiously. “You’re from Europe, why did you leave there for here? I would think it would be more interesting there,” she said honestly. Thea had rather enjoyed Europe while she was there, especially France. French wine, French cuisine and French men were all especially appealing. She hadn’t been there in years but she was sure maybe she’d get there again someday.

Dmitri shrugged. "Sometimes too much mystery can be a bad thing. Sometimes knowing things can save your life, other times it's better to keep your mouth shut." Ge rather know more, one day it might actually save his life, not that he required knowledge to save him, his brawn was often more than enough and it wasn't bad looking either.

He shrugged again. "I had to leave. I had trapped my sire and I may have killed him. So I left and preferred staying away. It's not like I have anything there for me. Everything I need I can get right here. Besides I found love here and some vampires I know live her as well." He smiled his eyes softening. "I have a family here of sorts, besides what is a warrior like me suppose to do? There are no wars I can fight, not while I'm a vampire."

How true Dmitri’s words were he would never know. Had she thought about that the night he walked back into her life, she would have been wary. However, blinded by the sheer joy she walked into the arms of something else, something that walked in the guise of someone she once loved, and then turned on her when the chance arose. “You might right,” she replied.

Would knowing what was standing before her that night really have changed anything? Would it have stopped him from making her into a creature just like him? More than likely not, but it didn’t change the fact of what had happened. She was standing there now, an immortal because of him.

She looked at Dmitri with questioning eyes. “You trapped your sire?” she asked curiously, more interested in that than what he had found in Demaitre. Thea had long wanted to exact revenge on her sire for making her, but she had put him out of her mind, but at such a revelation she couldn’t help but consider what she would do if she had the chance to get back at him.

“I suppose there is nothing for a warrior like yourself to do in these times. War is very different now. We press buttons from across the world and somewhere else people die. We have become a world of distance, everything kept at a distance where it’s safe.”