Forsaken Pt. 02: Natures

She sniffed the air, her black nose wiggling. A smell came to her, a rabbit. With a low growl, she sprang into a run. Crashing through brush, she came upon the animal, with it's eyes wide in fear, it's ears laid back. With a burst of speed, the rabbit was gone and the wolf followed, a rumbling sound coming from somewhere deep in her throat. She toyed with the frightened animal, allowing it to remain ahead of her by a few feet. With her claws digging furrows in the ground, the wolf ran, reveling in the hunt. Her brown eyes flashed in the moonlight as she sped up, catching the rabbit by it's hind quarters. The rabbit cried out as it's flesh tore, but it slipped from between the wolf's teeth. The wolf pounced on it, grabbed it's neck with her powerful jaws, jerked her head and bones snapped, the rabbit went limp.

Tearing the rabbit apart, the wolf fed. Then a scream caught her attention. Her ears swiveled forward and she growled. The wolf lifted it's head to the sky and began to grow bigger, her fore legs lengthened, her hind legs thickened and buckled. In a matter of moments, a woman was in the wolf's place, on her hands and knees. Lowering her head, Alana pulled her legs forward and pushed herself to a kneeling position. Cocking her head to one side, she listened, but heard nothing. All of a sudden she felt very much vulnerable out here in the desert, naked and alone. She crossed her arms over her breasts and hugged herself as a chill raced up her spine.

Another scream pounded at her. Her fear turned to rage as she recognized it as Eric's, her lover for the passed two years. Standing up, Alana lifted her hands into the air. She closed her eyes and screamed. A breeze picked up, then the air began to rush around her, blowing her hair about. Dust, rocks and vegetation swirled upward. The wind increased, setting her breasts to swaying and pulling bigger and bigger rocks from the ground. Alana closed her eyes, raised her face to the night sky and slowly lowered her arms, then thrust her hands out, clenched them into tight fists and screamed again. The wind immediately stopped and she lowered her eyes.

"Well, still throwing tantrums, I see." A voice said behind her.

Alana opened her hands, which were bleeding from cuts where her nails had punctured through. In each she held a dimly glowing crystal. She turned to the voice, which belonged to a tall, broad shouldered man. Her lips curled in a savage snarl.

"Leviathan..." She spat.

The man, Leviathan, bowed and grinned at her, "I see you've learned a new trick." He pointed to the glowing crystals.

"I've learned more than that..." She said, then stepped away from the man. "You killed Eric..."

"Ahhh, the human's name." He replied. "I had to get your attention, my love."

"Love?" She asked, her voice accusing, "Love? You don't love, you conquer, you command, you destroy, you devour."

Leviathan shot his arm out and grabbed Alana by the throat, "Don't you ever talk to me that way!" He yelled into her face. He slid his hand down and cupped one pale breast. Alana shuddered and he grinned. "I don't know how you changed back, Lucrecia, but you shouldn't have, now you look so...human and weak." He squeezed her breast hard and she closed her eyes.

With a laugh, he let go and stepped back.

"Yes, I don't know how you did it, but your still a vampiress...I can feel it." He looked her up and down, then frowned. "Definitely not an improvement, Lucrecia...but still you are enough to make my blood boil."

"My name is Alana...Lucrecia died a thousand years ago." Alana told him.

Leviathan laughed, "Alana is it?" He shook his head. "No, Lucrecia did not die...I know she didn't, for she stands before me...a little different, but still my Lucrecia."

"You kill the man I love and think I'll come running back to you?" She asked. "Get away from me...or you'll regret it."

"Will I?" Leviathan's eyes flashed. "Come to me, my lover." He commanded Alana.

Alana smiled, but not of arousal, as Leviathan had intended, but something dark, cold and inhuman, something Eric would not have recognized, "Sorry, Leviathan, but you can't control me...I am my own now."

Leviathan gave her a surprised look, "How? You must obey me, I am the first!"

"And I'm the second..." She said, drawing herself up, seeming to grow, till she looked as cold and regal as she must have when she was a vampiress. "You have no power over me, not any more...I am no longer one of you."

With blinding speed, Alana ran at him, bringing a hand up. Leviathan gasped as one crystal buried itself in his stomach. Alana whispered "Radiance" and the crystal flared into life, sending it's blinding light out into the darkness around, into Leviathan, who screamed. His flesh surrounding the crystal burst into flame. With a pain filled cry, he took hold of the crystal, his hand immediately began to smoke and yanked it out. Cursing and bleeding a clear liquid, he threw it to the ground and brought his foot down on it. It shattered and the light died.

"So...you have...indeed...learned much..." He put his hand over the wound, putting out the fire. "I may learn much from you...Lucrecia...I...will...come back..." He threw his hands into the air, growled something unintelligible and changed into a bat. With a screech, he was gone.

Alana ran to the camp, where she found Eric's limp form sprawled out beside the fire. She kneeled and laid a hand on his chest. He had no apparent wounds, but he had no pulse. Alana laid her head on him and cried, the tears burning in her eyes. After nearly a half an hour, she pulled away from him and wiped her eyes, then kissed his lips.

Standing, she looked blankly around her. Shuffling towards their tent, she began to sob again. Each hitching breath nearly causing her to fall. She fell into the tent and laid there, her heart pounding, her mind numb and let the tears come. After a while, she fell asleep.

She awoke to the stifling heat of the desert day. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling of the tent. She laid there for long moments, uncertain what to do. With a start, she realized, and this made her feel sick and guilty, that she had left Eric's body out there. She stood, dressed and stepped outside. She was surprised to find Eric still where she had left him, without a trace of a smell.

She dug in her pocket for the other crystal, which she gripped firmly. She squeezed, shattering it, and still kept squeezing, till she had a fine powder. She sprinkled this over him and it began to glow. She cursed under her breath.

*****

The warehouse was silent and gloomy in the weak moonlight that filtered through the dirty windows. Alana strode to the lone table, with it's creaky chairs, in the otherwise empty chamber. Almost silent footsteps behind her brought her about.

"Alana..." Yoshi said as he came towards her. "I came as soon as I could..."

"Thank you." She responded, feeling awkward about meeting this Hunter alone.

"What is it?" He asked. "I assume it has something to do with Eric?"

Alana nodded, though he probably couldn't see it, "Yes..." She quickly told him about the incident with Leviathan. "He did something to him, he's not dead, but he's not alive either."Yoshi looked thoughtful, "Leviathan..."

"You've heard of him?" She asked.

"Oh, yes...his file is especially long...and I've run across him." He shuddered. "He is most...unpleasant."

"You don't even begin to know." She said softly.

"You two knew each other?"

"A long time ago, after we became vampires, he killed my husband and took me as his wife...it was so different back then, we didn't know what we had become, what we could do, nor our weaknesses." She explained. "My husband was a weak man, and becoming a vampire didn't change that, Leviathan easily killed him...I can't say I was too sorry, he wasn't a very nice man, but Leviathan was worse, by far."

"Our files don't indicate that you two were together."

"No, they wouldn't, Eric told me that the Hunter files only go back about five hundred years, this was three thousand years ago, Yoshi, and I grew tired of being his slave, being his animal, tired of being a vampire. I got away from him nearly a thousand years ago." She said, her voice flat.

They were silent for a while, then Yoshi pulled a chair out and motioned for her to sit.

She smiled slightly and sat. Yoshi pulled another chair out and sat facing her. Her face was strained, hurt, but something else was there also, something hidden just underneath, a strength, a power. A power Yoshi could feel, one that he respected, as he did Alana herself. He reached out a hand and laid it on one of hers. She smiled gratefully at him.

"What is it you need me for?" He asked her.

"You can help me, Eric told me I could trust you." She began. "I sense something within you, you are not what you appear."

He smiled at this, "Yes, you can trust me...as to what you sense, I am not aware of it myself."

"Still, it is there..." She pulled her hand away from his. "Leviathan is powerful, probably the most powerful vampire that exists."

"You are not sure you can beat him by yourself?"

She nodded, "I'm strong, but I don't know how strong he is anymore...what has he learned over the millennia?"

Yoshi stood and walked to a wall, where he flipped a switch, turning the overheads on. In their harsh glow, Alana looked even paler. He turned to look out one dirty window. With Yoshi lost in thought, Alana put her arms on the table and laid her head on them. She closed her eyes, a lone tear running down her soft, round nose to fall to the table.

Alana's soft crying caught Yoshi's attention. He quietly turned and was shocked to see how crumpled she looked, as though her life was slowly ebbing away. In that moment he decided he would help her, though it was madness to fight one such as Leviathan.

*****

The day came and Alana stood looking down upon her camp, her home. She put her arms out and closed her eyes, more tears falling. "All I seem to do anymore is cry." She thought to herself. The morning rays washed over her and her pale skin caught up the golden light and reflected it. She opened one hand into a claw, the other she turned the palm to the ground. A crackling sound filled the air along with a smell of ozone. A sob escaped her. In her clawed hand a burning orb, almost a small sun, with bursts of flame flinging out, to fall back into it, formed.

With a savage snarl, she flung the orb into the camp. It hit the ground and exploded, incinerating everything about it. The heat of it washed over her and she screamed in frustration. Then the air rushed about her as it ran back to fill the vacuum created by the orb's explosion. Everything was gone. The ground scorched, the fire pit a jagged rend in the earth.

She turned away, with tears still falling. A hand touched her face, wiping away the tears.

She fell into Yoshi's arms. He held her, eyes wide at the power he had just witnessed. He stroked her hair, feeling strange as he did so. Like he was betraying Eric. "Why should I feel this way?

I'm just being a friend to her..." He thought. With a startled cry, Yoshi pushed Alana away from him.

"I'm sorry, Alana..." He said. "Something...happened."

She nodded, wiping her face, "I felt it too, Yoshi...you have something buried within you...and I'm bringing it out."

"How?" He asked.

"I don't know." She responded. "Perhaps it's just my inherent power. I can't be certain...Even now, none of us know what exactly vampires can do and I'm more than that...my abilities are...nearly untested."

"That fire ball?" He asked.

"Something I learned a long time ago...though, it is more powerful than it used to be..."

She looked towards the sky, then at him, "Come, we have traveling to do...Leviathan is asleep, so let's get going."

"How? Walk? In this heat?" Yoshi asked.

Alana laughed, " I have an idea, though, you may find it uncomfortable." She took hold of the hem of her blouse and pulled it up. Yoshi turned away quickly, which brought another laugh from her. He turned back, only to find her standing naked, with her clothes on the ground around her. He looked like he would choke and she laid a hand on his shoulder. Her face was flushed with color, a determined look upon it, excitement in her eyes, he guiltily saw that her nipples were erect with that excitement. Then she dropped to her hands and knees. With a soft growl she changed into a wolf. One big enough for him to straddle. Her idea became clear to him and he laughed uncertainly.

"Well?" She asked, her voice low, throaty and inhuman.

He threw a leg around her and sat, feeling rather foolish. With a howl, she was off. He nearly fell from her back, but he caught a handful of her neck fur. She ran with an even, steady gait. He could feel her muscles rippling along her back with each fluid movement of her limbs.

She made a low, vicious sounding chuffing, which he realized was laughter. He sighed and just tried to keep from falling off. The sun was setting when, with a sudden jerk, he was flung forward, over her head. Instead of hitting the ground, he was caught by a strong, slender hand.

"Hmmm...and who might you be?" A feminine voice asked. He was set on his feet with a near throw. "You are strong...perhaps I shall keep you for my...pet." The voice laughed. "As for the wolf..."

Yoshi turned just in time to see the woman whom the voice belonged to reach out to the still form of Alana. With a growl, Alana changed, kicked out a leg and brought the woman down.

She then flung herself upon the other and punched her in the side of the head. Crying out in pain and surprise, the woman threw Alana off and rolled.

Getting to her feet, Alana smiled tightly, "It's been a while...Dedrah, that is what you call yourself now, is it not?"

"Lucrecia...I didn't know you were still alive..." Dedrah said.

"Spare me...you are Leviathan's lover...you surely knew I was around."

Dedrah spat, "Lover?" She laughed darkly. "I haven't been with Leviathan since..." Dedrah thought a moment, "Somewhere in the 1700's."

"Then what are you doing here?" Alana demanded, her brown eyes flashing.

Dedrah took a step back, "I am here...because He called me...I had to obey."

Yoshi walked to Alana's side, "Who is this, Alana?"

"Trouble, Yoshi...she's trouble." Alana replied.

"Yoshi?" Dedrah smiled, transforming her face into something beautiful, nearly untainted with vanity and lust.. "I knew a Yoshi once, a long time ago...he was...something special."

Alana laughed softly, "This Yoshi is not your type, Dedrah..."

Dedrah cocked an eyebrow, "Oh? Then is he yours?"

"No."

"I am a Hunter." Yoshi explained.

"Hunter?" Dedrah's eyes widened, then she stared at Alana. "What are you trying to do, Lucrecia?

Kill Leviathan?"

"Actually, that's exactly what I'm going to do." Alana answered haughtily.

"You are a fool then! Leviathan is too powerful...he is your master as well as mine, Lucrecia..." Dedrah said.

"I doubt any one is master of Alana...not with her strength." Yoshi said.

"What do you know of it, human?" Dedrah asked him.

"He knows more than you do, Dedrah." Alana said. "Now, either get out of my way...or I will move you."

Dedrah's eyes narrowed at this, then a smile slowly crept onto her face, "Hmm...no, I don't think so, Lucrecia..."

Alana sighed and shook her head. She clapped her hands together, muttered something and a light began to spill from them. Never taking her eyes off of Dedrah, she flung her hands open and something bright and throwing off thin shafts of light shot from them. Before Dedrah could do more than widen her eyes, it struck her in the chest, burst into a glowing liquid, which washed over her. Dedrah screamed as her flesh began to smolder, then she fell to her knees, clapped her hands to her face, fell flat and made no other sounds.

"Sleep, my old friend...your nightmare is soon to be over..." Alana whispered to her as she knelt beside her.

Yoshi touched Alana's shoulder and she stood, giving him a small smile as she turned to him. She sighed again, lowered her head and whispered something he couldn't hear. Then she raised her face to the darkening sky and whistled, a low, trembling, crystalline tune to the heavens.

The tune faded away and she lowered her face.

"Let's go, Yoshi...it's not far now." She said to him.

"I'm ready."

"We'll walk the rest of the way...I don't feel up to changing." Alana told him.

He nodded, "All right."

As they walked, she told him more of her past with Leviathan, "I was his from the start...I hated him...yet I could do nothing about it...he controlled the rest of us." She gave Yoshi a look, then shook her head. "You Hunters have absolutely no idea what we are...or where we came from...you never stop to think that there must have been a point when we didn't exist..." She ran a hand through her hair and blew air out from between her lips. "Hell, I don't know where we came from...I just have vague memories of waking in the night to find myself somewhere other than my husband and I's bed chamber...a place of darkness, yet something shined brightly...figures moved about me, touching me, hurting me...figures that were ethereal, yet solid enough to do what they were doing to me and the others...I remember a needle being shoved into my arm, drawing my blood...though, at that time, I had no idea what they were doing...when I was human, we had nothing like syringes...nor lights that shone without oil."

Alana stopped, ran her hands over herself, then bent over and grabbed her ankles. When she straightened, her face wore a frown, "These memories always cause nausea..." She explained. "At first, when I awoke, I thought it had been a nightmare...then I stood and the sunlight streaming in through a window touched my thigh and I screamed...I was so scared...and I had no one to turn to...who would even believe me? My husband was the same as me, there was no help there...nor was there anything else...I was alone...but it didn't stay that way...Leviathan came for us...my husband wouldn't give me to him, so Leviathan killed him and took me...he renamed all of us...giving me the name Lucrecia, Dedrah had been Malindral...I don't know where he got the names from...perhaps he made them up...except his...I know where he got that one...Leviathan is truly evil, Yoshi...he always takes by force what he could just be given...the first time he came to me...I cried for what seemed like hours after...but I could do nothing...for some reason, he had a power over us...perhaps it was meant that way...a binding force..."

"The blood-need first made it's presence known during one of those...times with Leviathan...I bit him...but his blood made me sick...he got mad and hit me in the stomach...but the blood-need was strong...all of us were feeling it...Leviathan took us on a rampage...on a tiny village...we slacked our thirsts all right, at the cost of every person in that village...I couldn't believe what was happening...I even grew to like being with Leviathan...what ever had been done to us seemed to have side affects...we all became filled with insatiable lust...the need for that was almost as strong as the need for blood..."

Yoshi looked off into the distance, towards the direction they had been going, "You don't know who did this to you?"

"No...Leviathan used to curse them...and praise them...I think he knew..." She said.

"Do we keep going?" He asked.

"No, now we wait...he'll come...it's in his nature..."

She sat on the ground, crossed her legs and closed her eyes. Yoshi took his sword from it's sheath and stared at the refracted moonlight that danced on it's blade. He shook his head, raised it and went into a kata.

"You are very good." Alana said to him.

He pulled himself back from a swing and smiled, "The sword is like no other weapon...it is fluid, sensuous, serpentine."