Donovan Corven sighed slightly as the girl let her head fall onto his chest, her eyes looking placidly at the screen in fornt of them. It was the second time she had done so since the movie had began and again he could hear the blood rushing through her veins and arteries.

It was like a symphony to his ears. The thudding of her heart a mighty drum, the swish of the fluid below her skin sweeter than any string, and the twich of muscle underskin much more carrying that the clearest horn. It made him want her, want her more than he could remember wanting any girl ever. Or at least any human girl. But then that was probably his hunger.

For the girl wasn't anything special, not particularly beautiful, or brilliant. She had been some girl he had met at a house party after taking a victim there, he had thought forward to his next need of a meal and here they were. Though here was not where he wanted to be or at least where he wanted to take her. Still it was dark and he was sure that he could keep her alive if he was careful.

He kissed her softly on the neck, his lips pressing gently on her mocha colored skin. Then he listened for her reaction, but was surprised as she looked up and him.

"Finally. I thought I would have to throw myself at you." she said.

Donovan smiled.

"No, you most assuredly don't have to throw yourself at me." he said looking her.

Life simply was good sometimes.

Donovan kissed her again, this time on the lips and found it rather funny when she slipped her tongue into his mouth, but he didn't fight it. Instead he kissed her back deeply and let his hands wander absent mindedly over her body, spending time at all the curves. She moaned softly into his mouth and he relished the taste of her.

Her blood will be sweet..he thought, and found that as she broke their kiss, he couldn't wait. He kissed her neck again, this time using his tongue to tickle her skin as he came down to her collar bone, then up again.

"That feels good." she commented as he came back up, but he was no longer listening.
He kissed her skin for a few moments more then his fangs penetrated her. She moaned in ecstacy and pain, as he drank from her slowly and his hands continued their work on her body. He drank from her this way for what seemed like forever, that was until her body jerked slightly of its own accord and he realized that he had feed long enough.

He pulled his fangs from her rather easily, and sat her completely back into her seat where he had pulled her from. Her neck was stained with red, but she was breathing. With a kiss on the forehead Donovan left her there with only a whisper in her ear.

"You were sweet...I thankyou for your gift to me."

Then he was outside of the theater, hoping no one had noticed him leaving the girl, or the slight stain of red on his lips.

Angry, hurt, and unbearably frusterated, Karanina roamed the streets without destination and without much attention to where she was walking. Her bright eyes reflected her malicious thoughts as she mumbled Russian insults directed to her sister. " Treacherous wench,"she thought bitterly. " How dare she snub me like some unruly dog? If she thinks I'll be compliant after this insult, she is direly wrong."
Unfortunately, with her attention on her inward rantings, she did not see the other vampire standing outside the movie theater, nor did she sense him. Instead, with an utter lack of grace, she nearly stumbled right into him. Luckily enough, she was able to catch herself before colliding with him. "Oh! I'm sorry!" She stammered in Russian, then suddenly remembered where she was and switched to English. "I'm sorry, sir, I did not see you. Forgive me for being so clumsy." Though embarressed, cheeks flushed with it, she smiled politely.

"No, it is I who am sorry." Donovan replied, in Russian, then rather surprised with himself he switched back to English. "That is to say, sorry I should have been watching where I was going." he said, his voice only giving a hint of his Mississippi origin.

It was only after a moment that Donovan realized that she was of his kind. He could smell the scent of fresh blood on her breath and it took him back to the theater. His mind briefly betrayed him, with thoughts that he thought he should have long been rid of.

I should have taken more....she could have still survived had I drank my fill....

And most horridly to him.

Why should I care if she died....

Along time ago, Donovan had promised not to take life, and he would stand by that promise. And his beliefs about killing humans.

"You speak Russian?" asked Karanina, shocked. "It has been a long time since I heard my native tongue spoken from someone other than my sister." Bringing up Ulyana caused her anger to resurface, but she supressed it quickly. As she looked up at the man, she noticed the faint stain of blood on his mouth and realized he was a vampire. She scolded herself for not sensing another immortal presence, and began to feel anxious. She had never confronted another of her kind without strong Ulyana there to quell any arguments, did this strange vampire harbour any dark intentions. "F-forgive my manners," she said, using her sister's routine to stall any unpleasent ideas. "I noticed you are one of my kind, my name is Karanina Suvorov, might I inquire yours?"

Donovan gasped, then placed the back of his hand to his lips. It came away with a smuge of crimson. He had been a bit sloppy.

"Forgive me my rudeness, I am Donovan. Donovan Croven. It is nice to meet you Ms. Suvorov." he said, forcing a smile. Then he reguarded her with large amber eyes and sighed.

"Yes I speak a bit. I've had a long time and a good teacher to teach me much." he said, refering to his three hundred and four years of life and the priest Roger Wolf.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you." he said, noting the thoughtful look on her face.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr Corven. And you did not disturb me," she replied, relaxing as she now believed he meant her no harm. "Only startled me." She grinned and played with the ends of her hair as she spoke, "I too, have recently fed. Perhaps, though, we should increase your distance from your kill, so as to not attract attention." She casually assumed that he killed his victims, like she did and had been instructed to. "That is, if you would like be to accompany you. To be honest, I do not know my way around this city, and I think I have made myself lost with my wanderings. Eventually, my sister will come for me, but until then, I would love company myself."

Donovan's amber eyes looked her over for a long moment, but he made no move to speak, instead he looked back toward the movie theater letting out a slight sigh that was visible on the cool night air. Then he took in a couple of deep breaths that were not really needed and turned back to face the other vampire.

"There is no hurry. I have made no kill, nor do I think I am ever likely to do so." he said lightly, watching for her reaction.

Donovan had run into few of his own kind in his three hundred and four years of life. He had no idea how she would react to his statement, but then he had stopped caring a long time ago what others thought of the way he lived his life. It was his to live, and his victims his own to spare.

"The girl I fed from, she is sleeping soundly within the theater. She will awake and remember nothing other than the fact that she was very pleased with her adventurous date." he continued evenly, still wondering what her reaction would be.

Karanina bit her lip at hearing he had not killed the girl, her maker had told her that there were vampires who chose not to kill, they had their own reasons, and it was best not to question. "I should not have assumed, I am sorry. I hope you will not see me as a monster for what I do... it is the way I was taught." It had been a long time since she felt like she was the wicked one of a group. Her mind took her back to the park, where three young boys lay dead, victims of the twin's hunger. It would have been just as easy to leave them alive, with the amount of harmful substances they had had in their bodies, they would not have remember anything anyway.

She had been taught not to question others, but she need something to distract her from her regretful thoughts. "If you do not mind my asking, why do you not kill your prey?"

"Don't at all worry about assuming, I'm well aware that many of our kind kill. That is not at all a thing for me to judge." Donovan said simply, his amber eyes taking in her movements and the emotion that he could see shifting like shadow behind her eyes.

Then hearing her question about his reasons for not killing his prey, Donovan sighed once again and watched as the vapor of his breath disappeared into nothingness.

"I think I don't kill.....well because I think it poisons the soul....a long long time ago I killed a man, his family, all of those that I thought had wronged me. It left me cold and dead inside like a tomb, made me know that I was dead, living on borrowed time. That is a horrible feeling. My father was an Algonquian Chief and Shaman, my mother a Vodoo Priestess, and my teacher a Christian Priest. All of them believed in life and the warmth that it provides, each sees it in their own way, but each believed in it. And I think that is what made me believe in that warmth and the right it has to exist. Feeling that cold deep inside was not what I wanted for my life." he said, again watching the mist fade from existance.

Karanina followed his gaze and watch the pale cloud of breath fade into the darkened shadows. With it faded her anger, and she began to feel the emptiness that one feels when one has no purpose.

"The only person who has shown me warmth or compassion is my sister, and even she has a distorted way of doing so. The reason I do not feel so entirely guilty about killing, is that I believe that the majority of people have already done something of which they deserve to die for." She paused, and looked at him, though his face was still turned away. "I suppose it is not a very good reason, but it is something to comfort my conscience, my soul if you will. Or atleast the half I possess. You see, my sister and I share a soul, atleast that is what we believe. So, it does not matter if I am good, she has already damned herself enough for us both." She said this matter-of-factly, and without bitterness. For often the acts of evil her sister had commited were to ensure the saftey of Karanina. She was beginning to regret the anger she had felt earlier.

Donovan turned back to her, with a look of purest sadness in his eyes.

"We have all done things damn worthy, us the vampires and them the humans. Mortal or Immortal, we are much more the same than any of us would ever admit. That was what a holy man once told me. That is why there is so much hatred...us...them. But you know what I think we really have in common?"

He asked this with a slight smile.

Startled by the sadness, Karnina let her eyes fall. Never had she felt sorrow like that which shone in his eyes. She had only seen that that type of sadness once before, in the eyes of one who had seen it all. His words absorbed into her mind, spoken clearly with conviction. She understood completely, but she liked to believe that everything she had done worthy of damnation had been unintentional and forced upon her.

When she heard his question, she returned her eyes to his and smiled back cautiously, arching an eyebrow. "No... what?"

Donovan's smiled widened a bit and the sadness in his eyes seemed to disappear.

"Forgiveness and faith....that was what he told me. We can all be forgiven. Us and them. And we can all have faith. He versed me in all of the bible stuff and at first I can say I thought it was all a bunch of....well I thought rather badly of it.

But in my life I've seen what faith can do for people, it was worth a try for me and I think it showed me that even we aren't as bad as we think we are. So I doubt that you or your sister are damned." he said, looking into her eyes hoping that she understood.

"Forgiveness..."Karanina repeated the word under her breath, as if the word were some fragile thing and if she spoke it too loud it would shatter. Then she shook her head abruptly, "No. I mean, yes, I suppose some vampires are redeemable, and most humans... but, not Ulyana and I. We have done horrible things," her voice grew dark as she spoke, "terrible cruelties to save our own hides." She gave a rueful smile, "No god in the right mind would forgive us."

She turned her head, as if something had caught her attention, but truly she could no longer meet his gaze. "Faith is for those who still have hope. My hope has died away, and I have accepted whatever fate lies in death."

Donovan took a step forward and placed a large and rather callused hand on her shoulder. Then he brought his lips forward until they were inches from her ear and he could smell only her in the night air.

"And what is it that makes you so horrible? Why are you beyond redemption?" he whispered, then before she could answer he placed his other hand on her chin and gently made her meet his gaze.

"I'm not foolish enough to think that I could know half of what you, or your sister know of this world. I am young as our kind goes, but I have faith. Faith that what I believe is the way to live my life and faith that everyone can be forgiven. Especially someone with as good a heart as I believe I have seen in you." his voice was still a whisper, but held the force of an ocean roar.

"I think you need to forgive yourself. And whatever it is you have done, you are worthy of forgiveness."

Karanina meant to shy away from his touch, but when he started to speak, she was frozen to the spot. The closeness of him made her tremble, and his questions made her head ache. She didn't want to remember all the things she had done, but the memories were always there, the vivid images of her own pain and the pain she had inflicted on others.

To answer his question about what she had done, she stammered, "I was born in 1904, my mother died at my birth, her frail body could not handle twins. My father blamed us for her death, our life started off badly, we were destined to evil. In the year 1918, he sold us to his rich friend to pay for war damages. We did unspeakable things for him. But Ulyana decided he did not treat us well enough, and she convinced me to help her kill him. She said it was our only way to escape. We poisoned him. We were only fifteen, but that was barely the beginning. We became whores,"she hissed the word bitterly as the past feuled her anger,"to the rich and powerful, and if they treated us poorly, we killed them. We were merciless, but so were they. When we were changed, in 1922, we kept our wicked life, so that our safety was always ensured during the hard times." She stopped, her eyes rimmed with blood tears. "That's not even all. We were horrible," she moaned.

"I do not have a good heart, and I can not forgive myself," she tried to regain her composure by wiping her eyes on her jacket sleeve and giving him as strong a look as she could give.

Donovan took her look and smiled at her, as best he could. Which maybe wasn't that well considering he kept seeing that pain in her eyes as he looked at her. And then there was the thoughts of his own past that came to him.

"The things you have mentioned are horrible, yes, but I sorry they pale in comparison to that which I am guilty of. You see I was born here in America, Mississippi to be exact, in the year 1700. I was born on a Plantation, for you see my father was a war captured slave and my mother sold by her people after they were convenced by the slave traders that she was an evil witch. This made me a slave by birth, I had never been a free man, I was property. And I lived as such for most of my life, though it was not a bad life. That is until my master fell ill and was forced to hire a foreman to manage his lands and slaves. The foreman was a disgusting individual, he raped, killed, and beat all of us that he wanted each day and fed us straps. What did he care, we were just property of some old rich coot, thrown away and done with as he wished." Donovan said, his voice now nearly a growl, but he paused for a few moments and regained his composure.

"We lived like that for quite sometime, that was until one of my friends, a man about my age named David tried to escape. Well I guess in a way he did escape, he disappeared for a few days, and like most that disappeared we believed he was dead and buried. It turned out that we were half right....David reappeared one night and asked me if I wanted revenge on our master and his foreman. It was that very night that he turned me and we slaughtered all of them, the foreman, the master, their wives, and even their children. All of their souls were thrown into eternity because I was angry......" he said, his own eyes beginning to leak crimson.

"If a monster can indeed before forgiven, I have no doubt that you can, My lady." he finished, looking into her eyes simply letting the tears run their course down his features.

"I'm sorry," she said pitifully. "I did not mean to cause you pain. It seems we are both haunted by our own demons." She reached up and used the ends of her sleeves to tenderly wipe away his tears. "Though I believe your anger was justified, what that foreman did was terrible. Dying is not half of what he deserved, pardon me for saying. Perhaps, then, some of what I did was justified, but I can not help feeling guilt."

"You know, I used to have faith in God, a long time ago, before I was turned. Maybe I have not lost all of that faith, but I can not help thinking, how can God allow creatures like us to exist? " she sighed, and appeared to close in on herself and grow stable again. "If God is there, why do we feel so alone?"


((Sorry, but I have to go, it's sleepy time because I have school tomorrow))

"I can't say I know why it is that we exist," he said musingly "but I was once told that if we suddenly feel farther from God, it is we that have moved."

"Maybe what I did was justified, but as you said that does not take away the guilt. I fled after what I did, after the monster that I had become was put away. I fled from man and God, but even when I thought I was alone, that was not so." he said with a sigh, as the brushed a few more tears from his eyes.

"You are never alone, those were the words that my teacher said to me, after I wandered into his church one stormy night. I was weak from not feeding and because of my skin tone rather well beaten. He had no doubt about what I was, he knew much more than most humans. But he fed me, from a lone dairy cow and promised me a place to stay and more blood if I would simply be his student. I agreed, though I really wondered what he was up to, but in the end I realized that he hadn't been up to anything. He had simply cared....that was what made me realize....I should care." Donovan's tears were now gone and he looked at the other with a steady expression.

"You have your sister, she has you. You should not be alone, but even if you are know that you never truly are alone."

His words washed over her in waves, so full of wisdom was this one. "..its is we that have moved," she repeated. "I have not heard that explanation before. It makes sense, after all, they say God can be anywhere, but it takes man to go there. I guess I did not spen the time to see the meaning behind it."

"Let me say this, Mr Corven: Monsters kill without reason. You had reason, the 'eye for an eye' reason, but sometimes that is only fair."

When he finished the breif story of the kind priest, she stayed silent for awhile. As soon as she did speak, her expression had changed, she was gloomy again. "My sister and I were not shown such kindness, not even my the old crone, our maker. I guess we were never really given the chance for self-redemption, because we could not see our own errors when almost everyone around us was the same, ruthless and without kind-hearts."

"I know I am not really alone, Ulyana has always been there for me, but sometimes, I feel as if a chasm has grown between us, and it takes to much effort for either of us to jump across. I take comfort in the idea that maybe God is there with me, but I still feel so forsaken. I'm sure you felt that, like all things good had left you, never to return. That is how I feel, when I feel alone."

Donovan nodded.

"Yes I can say I've felt that way....three hundred and four years is a long time to live. I'm happy for life, but sometimes life does seem like a curse." he said, in agreement.

"But again faith is still the answer. Faith in your sister, for I don't doubt she loves you, rather you get along all of the time or not. And have faith in life. Life is filled with ups and downs, corny as that sounds, but its true. I think you could trust a slave on that one." he said with a light chuckle.

"You do seem trustworthy, though I've only known you a short while. And trust me that I take your words to heart. I think, when I get home, I will have long talk with my sister, maybe I can still salvage some of our broken relationship." She smiled carefully, but she felt a little nervous, what if Ulyana was home already? What if she was angry that Karanina had not gone straight back to the appartment?

"I must admit, Donovan-if you don't mind me calling by your first name, that this conversation with you has infused some faith within me. I am sincerely glad I had this chance to talk to someone who looks at the world with compassionate eyes, I must thank you for all your insightful words." She said all this with pure honesty, and deep inside she was very grateful that this stranger on the street had given her this glimpse into a better world.

"I am glad to hear that, I didn't have any family other than my parents and it was impossible to stay after what I had done. I found out that they lived to a ripe old age after being sold to another master, but I never got another chance to see them. I would never wish such a thing upon you and your sister." he said, his eyes slightly alight with the notice of the smile on her face.

Then he listened closely as she spoke again, a smile creeping onto his lips as he did. He was surprised to say the least at finding someone like her, most of the others he had ever met seemed as if they had never been human. They had been consumed by power, anger, or vengence. But Karanina Suvorov was different, she had a good heart. Though she had denied such earlier, Donovan was now more sure than ever of that fact.

"Actually I would prefer if you called me Donovan, it is my only true name. Corven would be the name of the man that had once been my master. I can't say why it is that I still use it, but it seemed proper some how..." Donovan trailed off on his point and instead focused on another.

"I believe that it is I who should thankyou. It is not everyday that I meet such interesting company or gain so much to think about."

"I hope Ulyana and I can be close again..." she said distantly. She could not imagine how the conversation with her sister would go, but firstly she would have to explain her absence if indeed Ulyana had beaten her home.

When she listened to him explain his name, she shook her head sadly, "I can not even envision being so possessed by someone you must take their name when you have none of your own. Donovan I will call you then, and you may call me Karanina." She hesitated, then said, "Actually I prefer Kara, or Karri, my full name sounds too formal."

"Oh, please don't thank me. I just as too many questions," she had the urge to blush when he called her 'interesting company'.

Donovan simply smiled as he listened to Karanina. Her voice had become a rather nice melody to his ears. But besides the melody he noticed the content.

"I have no doubt of it." he remarked slightly. Then his smile grew a bit.

"Karri it is then and I guess that would make me Don or Donny. Donovan may be a bit formal as well. And as for you asking too many questions, well I personally love curiosity. I hope I didn't talk you to death though, with my rambling, I believe that is something else that I learned from my old teacher."

"Well, Don...Donny,"she grinned. "I don't mind your 'ramblings' in the least, they seem to put things into focus for me. You've made me think about things I've tried to avoid for many years, and I thank you again. I guess your teacher taught you well, "she said affectionatly. "As for me, it seems my teachers were not as good. Maybe I should just think for myself,"she added with a little chuckle.

Then she sighed faintly, "Though, as I speak of my sister, I fear it is past time I go home. I don't want her angry at me or you, so, if luck is with me, I will hopefully arrive before she does." She paused to think for a brief moment, "Perhaps you would like to join me? I don't think we have much food or anything to offer in the apartment, but it is still a more comfortable atmosphere to talk in than the streets."

At first Donovan didn't reply, instead he flexed absently muscles that had been inactive for quite an extent, considering movie and convesation. Then he took the motion to his neck, where it left his dreadlocks falling forward into his face, but a quick hand brought them back to their proper place. From there he smiled slightly at Karri.

"I gladly except your offer, that is if you don't believe that your sister would mind. I mean I do not want to be an inconvenience, to you or her." he said slightly.

Karanina felt her own muscle’s tension from standing still too long. The walk home would remove her discomfort, hopefully. She responded to his faint smile with one of her own.

Karanina shrugged in a dismissive motion. “You would not inconvenience me, I quite enjoy your company.” She carefully did not include her sister in her statement, because she was not sure how Ulyana would react. Ulyana would have no reason to get mad at Karanina for making a friend, would she? Perhaps though, she could get mad at Karanina for wandering the streets alone, but that had been Ulyana’s fault anyway. “Besides, if Ulyana is not home, then I would love to have your company at least until she arrives. You would be, of course, free to leave any time you wished.”

“If you’re coming,” she turned to face the other way, “I’m pretty sure its this way.”

((If he does come, we can continue this in the Living Spaces board.))