He had sold his mansion and its furnishings. He had auctioned off his possessions. He had stored his money in his Camaan Islands accounts. He'd had a custom coffin made and delivered. Now he lay in the black marble coffin with the lid closed, pondering why. The gold fleur de lis etched into the coffin lay undisturbed. He wasn't sleeping, though. He was thinking.

In truth, he simply wasn't happy with any of it. It just didn't suit him. For some reason, this coffin and this place seemed to suit him more than the modern world did, more than the classical world he'd built up for himself. He'd told himself in the past that he needed a woman, but he hadn't seen Rebecca in centuries and doubted he ever would again. Besides, he didn't know how to 'date' in the modern world. And...there was something else, as well...

He kept thinking of her. Every time he thought of trying to satisfy his unhappiness by trying to find love, he thought of the wife he had lost so long ago. To this day, he still remembered the screaming and the sight of his wife and child being bludgeoned to death...

He had surpassed the shudder-when-thinking-of-it phase long before now, but it left him barren inside still. He didn't know if he could ever really love anything again, even after seven - almost eight - hundred years.

A vampire was moving about outside his coffin. Not right outside, mind, but certainly within the crypt. He wondered briefly who would be back here this time of night. It was only eleven-thirty, after all; most vampires were out hunting, partying, or doing whatever else it was that other vampires did. Him? He didn't know or care. All he knew was that he was lonely, and that loneliness had begun to set into a depression. Oh, he covered it up well enough with the parties he went to and the women he brought back to his mansion - the mansion he'd now sold, along with everything that was in it - but the fact of the matter was that having been truly alone for so long was finally beginning to catch up to him.

Or maybe it was just his age getting to him. Perhaps he was senile.

"Anything interesting happening tonight?"

The coffin remained closed, but his voice could be heard well enough by a vampire. And small talk? Interesting. He disliked small talk, yet he found himself resorting to it more and more of late. Perhaps for the company. He didn't really know. But there was only the one vampire there, and he needed something to break the monotony.

Alexandra had come to the coven to look for Raven, but unfortunately he had left before she got there... on an errand for Kie. So she'd decided to simply wander about. And well... A coffin in an open room caught her curiosity because... Well she never really saw that too often and it was just unusual.

Most vampires of the coven had elegant beds, grand rooms and furnishings from their times or from their favorite times. Kie's room was a perfect example of that, but all the other rooms too were pretty much like that.

And the vampire was inside... Alex could smell him. He was old... Not that old though. Raven would kill him in an instant. So she wasn't afraid of him.

But why a coffin?

"No... Nothing interesting... Just a vampire who makes a fool of the name." She said with a sigh as her finger traced the etching.

But she moved away then. Nothing too interesting, as she had said to the poor misinformed creature. A vampire with some identity issues and mixed conceptions of what vampires really were... Nothing interesting at all.

Next time Alex would make sure she had Raven take her along on whatever he did. After all, anything was better than being away from him.

Ah, but there actually a number of coffins in the room. All of them had their own unique designs and sizes, of course, but they were coffins nonetheless. It was a way to keep out the light completely, since a spark of light here and there made its way into the crypt on occasion. It was deep and dark, sure, but it had been known to happen: a certain kind of reflection, someone leaving the door to the crypt open in the last hours of the night, or so on. So, yes - he was one of those that had chosen to sleep in a coffin down here.

"Is that so?" he asked indifferently. "And how can I be a fool - " he began, opening the lid of his coffin. He sat up and leaned against the beautiful, plush red interior.

" - if I am doing nothing?" he finished.

""The coffin darling..." She said with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean... Even our dear leader has moved beyond the coffin. We are several meters under the surface... The halls are dark and winding... No light can pennetrate the haven for our kind." She said as she slid on to the top of one of the coffens, streatching out comfortably over the top.

"You have nothing to fear here. No vampire has been burned in the coven walls, you can ask Kie about it if you wish." She said as she leaned up on her elbow. "It's fools like you who give the rest of us such reddiculous stereotypes. And I for one and tired of them. I have an appartment... Were light is even likelier to get itn, but I still do not sleep in a coffin. There are... More modern protections my dear." she smirked.

Was she playing with fire? Oh... That would be fun... It would be fun to see just how far she could push him...

Well, she didn't have anything else to do.

"Have you ever considered the reason the coffins might have been used in the first place? There are countless underground stations throughout the world, after all, and there have been for millenia. Stereotypes are what keep the mortals from figuring things out. Look at their media, after all. Even fifty years ago, they had dramatic films about our kind. Bram Stoker helped greatly to spread the fictional model of the vampire, as have countless authors and film producers and directors since. Now mortals have - I don't even know what they're called. Eye pods, or something. I'm not up-to-date on technology...but why should I be? Let mortals do what they will. Point being, stereotypes help to hide us in plain site. When you're used to believing that people stab other people with needles and vampires are only beings of fiction, it's easy for creatures of the night to hide. The Amman count on it, and the rest of us use it to our advantage. Besides, assuming a mortal did manage to somehow miraculously find their way in and out of this place alive and healthy, all they'd find is coffins - not underground passages with beds and television sets."

He rose and stretched, more out of habit than necessity - a habit that he'd had as a mortal and had never bothered to cease - and then proceeded to step out of the coffin and close the lid. He sad down on it casually.

"Anyway, coffins are more convenient. They are compact, can be very comfortable, and a common site at a cemetary. Most likely these would be thought simply to be reserved coffins, as so many cemetaries now have in stock. I don't need much, either."

Leo frowned, her chin still on her fist as he spoke. Oh... SO he was one of those vampires. The ones that had difficulty changing with the times and adapting to life now.

"I don't see how that could work... People... Well, they'd just assume you're insane if they found anything." She shook her head, her golden mane glinting in the torch light. "This day and age... It's hard to get around unnoticed. Driving, shopping, anything like that. Consider me 'new-fangled' or what-have you, but you have to learn to adapt in this era." She said simply.

"A house, an apartment, car.... You can't just walk around in cloaks and what-not, blending into the world. Identity is important and everyone wants proof. This world... It's much different even than the one that I grew up in less than half a century ago."

"I know you oldies don't like change... I learned that well from my sire, but in this world there are so many ways for them to track people, to learn things... The cops of this world are already on high enough alert without adding our deaths to the mix darling... This world requires a more savvy and cleaver vampire, to keep ahead of the cops." Her eyes never left him, curious about this rather old fashion vampire.

"Ask Raven... Or even Kei... They wouldn't lie to you, not about this."

"Hm. Perhaps. Perhaps not. I suppose there is some use in technology. But why use cars when you can cover ten miles in but a couple of seconds? Why use aircraft when you can glide on the cool breezes of the night skies? And the authorities' suspicious natures can be dealt with easily enough. There are still plenty of places to hide in this world, though we still have not found a defense against the sun."

"You don't get it do you?" Alex asked as she narrowed her eyes curiously.

"Look. Humans now can track that sort of thing. They know when something's not right and they know when someone doesn't belong. They see you flying through the air, and they're gonna start asking questions." She said simply. "They're a lot smarter than some vampires give them credit for. Especially if you haven't kept up with technology." She said, looking right at him as if to force him to see her point.

But of course you couldn't ever make an idiot see truth could you now.

"They have cameras that can catch you running that fast, they can ID any body you leave laying about. They can find your prints or something and realize that something's not right when you don't turn up in their systems. You are dead to this world... So you either need to blend in... Or die for good."

Her smile then was a smirk, as if a challenge.

"Just die for good...." She whispered as her eyes glistened with delight.

"And would you be the one to kill me?" he asked dryly. "The mortals are our food - plain and simple. The fact that we do not rule them is merely an insult to us, and one that most of us - including me - have gotten over. But personally, I would prefer an open challenge. It would give me something to do, and how can you kill someone that's already dead anyway? You can't burn fog, nor can you target it, and I can become such easily. I am not a weak vampire - not after almost eight hundred years."

"For claiming to be so old, you sure are ignorant." Alex snorted as she sat up.

This man was truly an idiot... Not even attempting to see her point of view and most likely because she was just younger. Age had nothing to do with knowledge or even wisdom in some cases. A good teacher could indeed pass on wisdom, a way of thinking and learning.

But there were some who just didn't get it.

"Humans far out number us, and guess what. If they really had it in their mind to kill you. They'd find a way. Just like I could if I thought you were worth it." You could kill a vampire, and depending on the vampire it could even be fairly simple. Sometimes a single silver bullet could do the trick. For some give them a holy object and others, well if you could get a stake into them and simply paralyze them, the sun could do the rest for you.

But she wasn't going to waste her breath on him. Kie was much more interesting and maybe she could see if Kie was in for a bit of alone time. She might not care for the coven as a whole very much, but Kie had come to grow on her in some odd way truth be told.

"Open war between humans and vampires... Every egomaniac's dream... But no. Those for vampire domination would loose believe it or not. Because there would be vampires fighting for the humans. Without them, this world would not change, there would be nothing in this world worth living for." She said lastly.

"Find a human woman and fall in love with her. Care for a child who's mother and father you've slaughtered, and you will see the joy and delight of the human world."

That was a blow. It brought back something in him that he had forgotten for some time.

"I..."

He had been about to say...something. Now he couldn't remember what it was. His mouth closed and he looked down at the floor. There was a look of sadness on his face now, a look of despair.

I knew joy, once...the satisfaction of mortal life. But no more...

"Perhaps..."

It had been a half-baked thought at best, but now even it was lost to him.

He got up and walked across the room. He leaned against the wall. Suddenly he felt very, very old. He must have looked his age, too, though in truth he wasn't very old physically. Had he been mortal, a tear might have been seen upon his ancient face...but no. There were no tears for the dead...or from them.

His face hardened finally.

"Do not speak to me of family. How so very little you know."

So, he could be shut up now couldn't he?

Grinning with glee at the thought she scooted off the coffin and was just about to leave the room to seek out her mistress when he snapped at her.

She glared slightly.

"About families? No, I know nothing of them. I never had a real one. My parents ignored me because my siblings were better. I never had any real relationship until I found my sire... I tried though... There was this mortal boy." She smiled fondly.

"Josh... He was the most adorable thing, so nervous and the way he smiled always made me smile too. But I knew he would not be happy with me, as a vampire. I loved him for a while, but then because I knew it would not be best for him, I let him go."

Alex frowned again though. "But no. All I know is that humans have a way of bringing life back to our kind. They have a light, a warmth about them. If you simply let it... It can change you." She said quietly.

"But if you even bothered to listen, I said nothing about family." Her lips twisted into a cruel smile.

There she was going on about love - love! - and she knew nothing. She did not know how it was to love someone so passionately, so deeply, that you would give your very soul to be with them forever. She did not know how it felt to have them ripped away from you screaming. She had never lost a child...she could not know.

"You imply many things, whether you would realize it or not. Words can be a weapon, as I'm sure you well know, and they are clearly a weapon you know nothing of."

He sighed. This conversation was getting him nowhere - and she was starting to irritate him. He had to admit - at least to himself - that it was not entirely her fault that such old memories had been dredged up. Still, she had instigated this whole thing. Yes, he had started the conversation - but she'd turned it into a war of words, not him.

"Or... Perhaps I know exactly just how to use them." She grinned.

Oh this was so much fun indeed.

"Obviously... I've hit a nerve... A very, very sensitive one." She licked her lips eagerly, a lioness stalking her prey. Moving closer to him the grin didn't fade, the look of eagerness hadn't abated. Usually it was a look she reserved for Raven alone... No... There was no desire in this look, and desire was all she felt every time she looked at Raven.

This was something different. Like a cat playing with it's food first. He was older, stronger... But she was winning.

"It seems.... As if you did have one..." Her eyes flashed with delight. "Did you kill them? Look into their terrified eyes as you tore their throats out and feed like a greedy little savage? Did you enjoy it?" There was a sadistic glee on her face as she moved around him slowly.

Had he not controlled himself, the little bitch would no longer have had a head. As it was, the singular grasp he suddenly had around her throat would have killed any mortal in an instant. No doubt it was painful even to a vampire. He could hear - even feel - every bone in her neck shattering, could feel the pressure as her head threatened to pop off. There was no sadness or hardness in him now. had it not been for his eyes, there would have been nothing to see. It was several long, intense moments before he finally let her drop to the ground.

He took deep, shuddering breath before speaking.

"You clearly know nothing of love, however you would use the word. You are a wretched creature with no humanity in you at all, yet you would speak of such things as though you actually remembered them. You are no better than a beast."

Perhaps he was being hypocritical. He had played with mortals as she now toyed with him, after all - but that was different. He lost what made him human long ago - and yet, somehow, a piece of that humanity still remained, however distant it was. She, however, seemed to be purely a creature of the night.

The grin never left, even as his grasp tightened. He couldn't strangle her, she didn't breath.

In fact, as she felt to the ground she began to laugh, a light musical tone as she looked up at him. "I know nothing of love? How... How could you say something so stupid yet again?" She stood up, stretching her neck slightly.

"No... I never had a family. But I do know love. I do know kindness... Compassion, protectiveness. My sire is my only love. I would rather be tortured by the likes of you and have my heart torn out than see him suffer even for the blink of an eye." She gave a little dismissive snort as she turned away.

"You couldn't even possible know what that's like. You're the beast not me. You are a cold and pitiless creature who's never cared for another soul at all. You killed them and delighted in their blood didn't you? You felt no pity, felt no remorse at their deaths did you?" She asked as she looked over her shoulder, her eyes ice blue once more.

He turned away from her. She didn't deserve to see him suffer.

"Some of us," he said quietly, though of course nothing was too quiet for a vampire. "Some of us have already had their hearts torn out."

He said nothing more at that point. So, she did love someone. Well, he hoped it worked out for her. But for him, he doubted love still existed anywhere in this world.

"For someone with so much compassion, you seem to share little of it with others."

"Then shouldn't you try to feel something again? Anything again?" She whispered almost seductively as her arms slipped about his waist.

She laughed ever so slightly though as he said that while she had compassion she never gave it out. "Why should I? Why should I give it to anyone but my love? Anyone but my sire, my only comfort and joy in this world."

The way she whispered against the back of his shoulders made it sound as if she were talking about him. As if he were the one she loved, the one she wanted.

Oh, but toying with emotions was what she loved to do. What she had been doing even when she was human.

"Why don't you ever let people in? Why do you keep blocking me out"[i] She whispered into his mind, a lilt in her voice so it wasn't recognizable as hers. [i]"Don't shut me out... Let me in... Don't run away from me.." She whispered again.

She sneered. She was toying with him.

"And yet you play with me the way cat toys with a mouse, wench."

He thrust her away from him telekinetically, pushing out a violent and strong wave of psychic energy. He turned to her.

"Were you not a spider trying to spin me into a silk cocoon, perhaps I would welcome your attentions, but I am no fool."

Perhaps an old fool...but not quite so much that as she thinks.

"If you so love your sire, why then do you toy with the emotions of another?"

She gave a small grunt as her back hit the wall, and glared for a moment.

But Alex laughed at his question. "If I love my sire, why do I toy with other people's emotions? Did you even think about that question before you asked it? I play with others because it fun. It has nothing... nothing at all to do with my love for Raven." She said as she moved close to him again.

"I love to play... I love to tease and taunt..." She looked at him with a laughing look.

"What's the matter... You don't want to play? You don't want to have a bit of.... Fun?"

"Hmph. Temptress," he muttered.

A century earlier, that would have been quite an insult. Perhaps he was a bit old-fashioned - but fun? Please. He could understand that with mortals, but mortals were stupid because of their ignorance of the world around them. Vampires weren't just fantasies, after all. Even that had lost its pleasure eventually. There were few things now that truly gave him pleasure.

"Indeed." Alex said softly as she grinned a rather naughty grin.

"But... Can you honestly say that you're not tempted? That you don't want to feel a warm body against yours? Can you say that you don't want to hear a woman cry out for you and only you?" Like a snake she slid around him again, her body pressing close against his back.

As an old fashion person he would think sex had to do with love. But it didn't. Sex had nothing to do with love, that was learned back in the sixties.

She didn't care about sex, it wasn't a betrayal of Raven to have this man if she wanted him. And Raven had said so. He knew the difference and he knew that she loved him and only him and that nothing would change it.

"You don't want that? You con't want to hear me scream? To cry out for you?"

He stepped away from her easily.

"I can have that any time I want it. While mortals may not have the stamina of vampires, they are nonetheless quite useful in that department. Love, however, is different than sex. Sex is a part of it, but not the whole part."

He heard nothing of her thoughts, for he was no telepath, but it didn't take a genius to figure out the innuendos.

"You're afraid." She stated simply.

"You're afraid that you'll want me more." She grinned as she narrowed her her eyes challengingly.

"You take me once... You'll want me again... And again... And again." She whispered. "That's why you won't touch me. That why you're afraid to even look at me." Why else would he keep pushing her away? Why else would he keep avoiding her gaze?

"No, sex and love are different. You can have sex with someone you don't love. You can love someone without wanting to have sex with them." She said simply. "Is that... That what you're afraid of? That you'll get the two mixed up and I'll just break your heart?" She laughed, grinning at him.

"Scardey cat."

((That's pretty much what he just said. :P ))

Dominik said nothing. There was nothing to say. Yes, he was afraid - but not of that. He knew well the difference between sex and love. He'd experienced both. No, he was afraid of something else entirely: loss.

His wife and child had been brutally murdered during a time of intense and bloody warfare. It was true that it had been a long, long time since he'd been mortal. But he didn't think he could handle losing someone again, even as long as it had been. Whether a woman left him after ensnaring his heart or whether she was taken from him in some manner - it didn't matter. He just didn't think he could handle that again.

The silence dragged on as a result. It grew uncomfortable - for Dominik, at least.

It was in the silence that she struck, using all of her strengths and talents. She knew that seducing this man would take all of her cunning.

He was too old for her to influence or read his memories, but Alex was still a talented telepath. Having much practice with Raven, she knew how to send a person images, emotions... And perhaps... Just perhaps in his hesitant situation, he would get them confused as his own.

She lay naked over a bed, her blond hair fell around the dark blanket. But she only flashed it into his mind as she pressed her chest against his, tiptoeing slighly to kiss him with desire. Desire. That was what she pressed into his mind. That was what she wanted from him. No love. Just lust.

Lust for her body, for her beauty.

Alex would make sure that the two never got confused. She would make sure he would know the difference.

She flashed the image again, sharing it with him for a few more moments than before. Would he fall for it? Was he so lonely, so lost and in despair that he would fall into her arms?

He blinked, shook his head - and then she was there, pressing against him. He took a step back. She was no mortal - there would be no point in taking her...no point in taking her and feeding from her. He ended up clearing his throat. As she leaned up to kiss him, though, his lips instinctively closed upon hers and his eyes closed...

NO.

What was he doing? What was she doing, better yet?

He snarled, thrusting her away with a massive blast of telekinetic force.

"Get out of my head, wench!"

Wench...that was the second time he'd used that word. Perhaps he'd gotten so used to thinking that women were playthings he'd forgotten how to treat them like women. Regardless, he didn't like being manipulated - though of course, that could have just been because he was usually the one being manipulative. He was usually the one in control...

Alex didn't relent as he pushed away from her. She was determined to break him, to have him here tonight. She had almost thought the battle won when he returned the kiss, even leaning into her.

But she heard him yell and then was knocked off of her feet by a strong force.

The blast sent her flying on to one of the coffins, her head hitting the lid with a crack. Her body slid off and slumped to the floor unmoving. She would have gotten up laughing as she had last time, but she thought that he would at least slightly be under her control and hadn't been expecting the attack.

She hadn't been able to brace herself for it.

The scent of blood now was clear in the air and there was a dark red spot that was seeping through her blond hair.

Great. Now he'd done it - he'd killed another of his coven. Perhaps the coven leader would be sympathetic...no. Why was he rationalizing? He shouldn't be rationalizing. She got inside his head, tried to control him like - like - like he was a mortal! She deserved what she'd gotten. Besides, she was a vampire. She'd heal fast.

He turned away from her and put his hands to his head. He needed some air...

He heard her start to stir behind him, but he just put his hands down and started for the doorway. She'd be fine in a few minutes - probably a little miffed, but she had no right to be, the treacherous slut...

As she began to stir it was Ravens voice in her mind that Alex noticed first.

He was panicked? How... How long had she been out? What happened? She could smell her blood and her head hurt terribly.

But after soothing him that she was alright, Raven said he would be there as soon as he was finished with his task.

Alex stood up with a soft snarl. "Temper temper..." She hissed softly as she touched the clump of blood on the back of her head. "When my sire gets here... He's not going to be to happy... And I'm sure Kie won't either... I don't have any reason not to tell them you attacked me... And that wasn't the first time tonight..." She threatened.

"I hadn't thought I was any real danger to you... Yet you just have to try to hurt those weaker than you... Don't you? Either that or I'm sure Kie will work on getting that temper under control."

Of course she would heal without a scar, without any sign of damage, but Raven would still be pissed that he had attacked her. Sure she had provoked him, but not that sort of response....

"You're lucky he's not coming back for a good while. Feel free to run. I wouldn't blame you... Just hope I don't convince him and help him to track you down and slaughter you like a weak human... Like your family." She hissed, the grin flickering back onto her face.

A couple of hundred years ago, he might have felt the same way. He would have been the same person. But not now...

He leaned against the doorframe and looked at her levelly, seemingly drained for one so old and powerful.

"So first you try to control me, and then you would have me hunted down for defending myself."

There was nothing more to say on the subject at the moment. He probably could have said something, he just didn't feel like it.

"And for some of us, death isn't that much of a threat anymore."

He shook his head and sighed.

"I may not be tired the way a mortal is tired, but I am tired in my mind - and in my heart. You cannot understand this. You have not lived as many centuries as I have, and you do not have - "

He had been about to say that she didn't have the pain in her past that he had in his. But he stopped himself.

"Do what you want. I don't care anymore."

He might have been ready for her to seduce him now, however painful it might have been. A vampire was not someone he could control, after all. Like his wife, a vampire was freedom incarnate. It meant responsibility on the part of both to bring pleasure to the whole, even if it was only a one-night stand. But most likely that had been a passing phase, and anyway he could hardly think right now.

"Defending yourself? Against a fledgling like me?" She snorted slightly. "Granted I was persistent... But only because you need it. You need me, or at least someone to help you feel again." She said, for the first time, being serious.

"You asked me how you can kill the dead? You can't. But you and I, we're alive, you just can't feel it. You can't accept that you're alive and your family is dead. They are dead... You are not. You will join them eventually, we all have to die sometime. But you... You're not even trying to live again!" She said fiercely. "Your life isn't over yet, but you don't really know that!"

She stood firmly, glaring at him slightly. Had he really just given up on life?

"I was trying to help you... I was trying to help you feel again, feel alive you idiot." She said as she stomped her foot in an almost childlike manner. "But you couldn't just accept that could you! You don't really want to feel alive, you don't want to remember what the warmth of another can do to you... If that's the case... Go to Kie. She'd have no problems giving you the death you seem to want so bad."

He scowled.

"Desiring death is a fool's game. I desire no such thing."

He paused.

"But when there is no point to your existence, there is no point to anything. And manipulating my mind for one night won't change that. Besides, you said it yourself: sex and love are two different things. Sex is just - sex. Love...love is different."

"You don't know what I can do obviously." She said simply as she crossed her arms over her chest, frowning stubbornly. "I might not love you, so what. But I have other powers... Other abilities that you couldn't even imagine. I might not love you, or make you love me, but that's not what I want to do." She moved closer to him and unfolded her arms.

"I can light the spark in you that's gone out. I can give you a purpose in life again if you want. You've forgotten what pleasure is like haven't you?" She said softly as the back of her hand caressed his cheek. "How long has it been since you've been with a woman? One who only wanted to please you... Not a woman you fucked as you killed her." She asked wanting to know.

He had asked why she had so much compassion but kept it inside... Maybe she didn't.

He was a pathetic thing really... He didn't have a reason to live... How could you have that purpose without love. All she wanted to do was to make him see that. She wanted him to see that he could love again. That he wanted to love again.

After all, she hadn't been joking when she told him to take a mortal lover or adopt a mortal child. She hadn't been joking at all.

He couldn't help but laugh slightly as he turned his back to the wall next to the staircase, her hand thus brushing his chin as it fell away from his face. How long had it been? It had been seven hundred years. For the first couple of centuries of his immortal life, he had known only anger and hatred against the mortals. They had become food to him, and he treated him like the cattle they were. Perhaps he had simply grown to used to dehumanizing them so he wouldn't have to think about the one he'd once loved. Perhaps he really did lose his humanity when he was turned. Regardless, most vampires he'd met were only after their own agenda and kept 'friends' only until they diverged from what their plans were; when they no longer fit into their plans, they became mere 'acquaintances'.

Perhaps he had simply never realized that vampires were capable of love. Vampires were monsters, after all - demons. Cold-blood killers. They were devils sent by the evil Apollyon to destroy God's creations. How, then, could such creatures feel anything? And yet he felt very real pain...he just hadn't admitted it to himself in a very, very long time. It was ironic, really; he was a creature that could not feel, and yet he felt all too strongly.

"We are not truly immortal. There are many ways to kill us."

He didn't immediately realize the significance of what he was saying, but his chuckle stopped when he did. He despaired again, thinking of his lost wife and son.

"Why bother?" he asked in a flat voice.

"Why?" She whispered as she once more slid her arms around his waist, resting her head on his back. "Because eternity is a long time to spend alone."

And wasn't that the truth? Wasn't that the way it really was? To keep on living without another person to share your joy your pain and everything with... What was the point? Why would someone want to torture themself like that?

She began to kiss at his neck again, gently this time though, her arms pulling her closer to his body. "It's too long for any of us to spend alone... We are still human after all... And as humans we all crave a connection... Touch... Love..." She whispered into his mind only because her lips were busy.

But then they were up at his ear.

"Why do you push me away?" She asked just like before, a soft whisper at his ear. But this time, she wasn't playing around. She wasn't messing with his mind. "I only want to help you." She murmured as her arms slid from his waist, caressed up his back to snake over his shoulders. "I want to help you live."

He looked at her critically. He really didn't know what else to say. She was right, of course. But he had not 'lived' for a long, long time. He didn't know how to live anymore.

"And why would you help an old man like myself? Compassion is a good way to get oneself in trouble, after all."

"Call it... my sweet nature." She said with a little grin.

"But tell me... How could an old man, as you called yourself, get me into trouble?" She asked with a little laugh as she caressed his shoulders.

"Because I'm sure if it was to get into trouble I was looking for... I wouldn't have ended up here... Maybe if I wanted to cause trouble though... And I always love that." Alex laughed again.

She told Raven in his mind that she was fine... That it had simply been a misunderstanding between her and the other vampire, because she could feel his anger and worry for her.

"But really. What trouble could you cause me?"

He smirked, a small sign of the boyish nature coming back into him.

"I once had a dozen Tarepha after me - and more than that, really. The Amman had to protect me."

It was a boast, certainly, but it wasn't an exaggeration.

((Sorry.... was trying to think of what to put))


"And that has nothing to do with me and how you can get me into trouble." Alex said simply, turning away from him. "My sire is more than a thousand years old, and we have the favor of the Leader here. What use are the Amman? Why would I fear anyone?" She asked haughtily. After all, it was the truth. Kie would take her side should Raven ask it. And Raven himself would never let any harm come to her.

"But whatever. Since you're about as much fun as a pile of saw dust, I'm going to go look for some real fun." She said with a sigh as she headed out of the room.