Midnight Studies (Open)

[Cain]

Cain, was young... well if one thought about it he was older than most of those that moved through the Safehouse. Cain was unique thought, under orders not to leave, after all it was unknown who had killed his Master. He could still remember him of course the way his blood had ran upon the ancient stone, how it spread in a pool and how that Vampire had tried to consume it as the mortal lay dieing. Master Werner, had taught him everything he knew about vampires, and had taught him about self control. The marks from the training a permanent pattern across his lean muscled body. At times he would find himself tracing them, to remember those days. He could also remember the rush of feeling as he killed the monster that had killed his master.

Yet that was the past, it didn't matter, at the moment he was within the dank corridors of the Archives, his age having allowed many of the elder hunters to forget what he was and the younger ones to wonder what he was and why he never left. It was fine by him, he did not deserve the rights granted to the humans. He was less than they, and his cousins controlled fully by the night were even worse. At least he could speak the name of the lord and pray to him for guidance... Even if no answer would ever come... after all why would God guide the hand of a Demon... named after the Cursed son of Adam himself.

He had taken it upon himself to keep the archives chronicled and orderly, organizing the volumes and keeping the long halls straitened and cleaned during the long days of his existence... for he did not live, how could one live if he had no soul... For that matter did one like himself have a soul, was it possible to earn one, to fully be human and live as one. He would never know as that was not his place. His master had told him to protect mortals, that was his duty. They may not see as much as he or even be able to taste the scent of a beating heart as it entered his lair, but he did. He moved silently a cloak wrapping around him hiding his face withing its shadows as he moved. He had a visitor in this place. He could feel his fangs itch, he was hungry, he was always hungry though. He closed his eyes for a moment focusing his mind to force the thought away. His will crushing the need behind the mind that was his as he continued to move.

[Spencer Redfield]

The black combat boots that Spencer Redfield was wearing made a thud sound as she took one step at a down heading down to the archives. It was bad enough her night hadn’t gone well with a vampire decided to try and save her life, now she had to venture down there. The vampire had thought she was going to save her from the big mean vampires she was fighting when in truth, Spencer had been looking for a good fight. Fighting was something that got going and it helped make her night that much better. The vampire whoever she was had ruined that little bit of pleasure the young hunter got. Now she was simply pissed and annoyed. Wanting to get more information on lycans, Spencer knew she needed to check the archives. Why no one had put them up on the computer yet still baffled her a bit. However, there was nothing she could do but make her way to the archives.

The reason for her dislike for the place was due to the creep that lived down there. Now she wasn’t usually this judgmental however, given how secluded he made himself, Spencer wasn’t even sure if he had a face. The guy down in the archives reminded her a bit of the Phantom of the Opera granted she didn’t think he was going to actually be falling in love with someone. From what she heard, the guy had been down there since before anyone could really recall. Anyone who did know if his existence wasn’t around anymore. The massive hunter deaths that occurred seemed to take who he was with them. From what she could tell, he wasn’t a treat to them seeing as they kept him in the Safe House. The problem was he was simply far too creepy for her liking.

Sighing, she pushed the doors open to the archives, her nose scrunching up as the smell of the place finally hit her nose. Yet another reason as to why it was she didn’t like coming down here. Since she could remember, Spencer had always had a love for literature and reading meaning this place was a haven to her. However, she didn’t spend as much time as she would like between the old shelves and lost in the crisp pages of a book or scroll. If only there was a way to lock herself in there and absorb all the knowledge, how she wished she could. Rubbing her face, Spencer slowly walked into the room trying to get a good look at where the guy was before she started on her search. It simply made her feel better personally to have her eyes on the guy just in case he tried something. Stopping where she was, Spencer sighed again trying to remember the guy’s name. What the hell was it again? “Hello? Anyone here?” she asked sill trying to remember the guy’s name. Once she got out of here Spencer was going to insist someone put everything up on the computer. “Cain?” she called frowning when she didn’t see the guy. Her nose twitched again when she took in another whip of the place.

[Cain]

Their were times when he would wonder why it was that he hid his face, why should he have to hide his own face from those that he worked with. Those few that given a chance he would spill his own lifes blood to protect. For all that his name described as him, he was something else, a protector of the people. He knew his duty and yet his orders held him chained to this place. Sure the ones that had told him not to leave were long since dead and yet none had told him he could leave... Of course over time they stopped giving him blood... instead he had to find ways out to acquire it from the blood banks. He would never drink from a mortal, even the idea of it made him remember the feel of the silver chain cutting through his skin. Instead he would sneak out from time to time and gather as much as he could from a supplier that was willing to help him get blood. He never mentioned that he was a hunter. But then, he didn't hunt anything did he.

All these thoughts rippled through his mind as he moved silently through the catacomb like historical vault noting the random antiques also held in cases amongst the historical texts. Weapons forgotten or something special to a special family he really didn't know. Either way he moved towards the entrance, in a way he liked the random visitors, they brought a change to the boredom that suffered through his life. His nose questing he noted a few minor facts, the smell of blood, not fresh, perhaps dried upon some clothing and unnoticed. The beat of a heart, one that he recognized from her visits to the archives in the past. Mistress Redfield, he held no special animosity towards her though he also knew that she would likely kill him if she found out what he was, even though he had done nothing to the hunters.

“Hello? Anyone here?”

Stupid question, he thought as he continued to move, wondering if she ad figured out his location or if she would at all, blame the decades of skulking, but he preferred not to be noticed and yet some, like her hated not knowing where he was, hated the idea that he lurked in a shadowy corner like a spy, or something that might attack them. Then again it wasn't like they had any reason to trust him, they didn't know anything about him. Of course their were gaps his own history as well. An unknown parentage, and an unsure future... at least one of his parents had to be a vampire the other human, it was the only way to explain his current state.

“Cain?”

He was by this point behind her, lurking as he tended to. He hated saying anything, but then she had called him by name, as such he had to answer, after all she was worth more than he was. He was just a monster, she was a master of the house. She was a mortal but that in no way made him better, especially seeing as his own survival hinged upon the survival of the human race. So he stepped forward, a small rustle in his cloth as he let himself hunch in on himself, taking up the act of an ancient scribe rather than an 80 year old damphir. Coughing lightly as if to clear is throat, he began to shuffle forward as if it was to difficult to lift his feet from the floor.

“Mistress Redfield...”

Only two words, but spoken with more deference than most would give, it would lead to questions had not acted the same way every time he ever ran into the young ones. They never really thought about how a hunter could get old as a hunter, or perhaps they thought that he was simply so skilled that he had managed to kill more of them than had tried to kill him. Either way they tended to steer wide around him. Which was fine, he hated to talk, their was no purpose to it, nothing that lead to him being better able to protect someone.

[Spencer Redfield]

The smell in the room always got to her and it didn’t help that there were no windows down here. She wondered why no one thought to at least try and air the place out a bit. Granted with Cain living down there it was a wonder anyone wanted to come down to the archives to get their information. The fact that the guy hadn’t left the place since before she could remember, always worried Spencer a bit. Of course he hadn’t seemed like a threat at all to them. At least since she had been staying at the Safe House there hadn’t been any attempts on anyone’s life that she knew of. However, Spencer was still going to be on her guard around the guy. For one, he didn’t seem to want anyone to know anything about him. Always keeping to himself and having his face always covered so no one would see it. It often made Spencer wonder what it was that he was hiding. The connection always reminded her of the opera that she had watched once in her life. It was at the time that she had dated a corporate hot shot from a law firm who was quite sophisticated. Problem with that relationship had been that she was too much Brooklyn trash for him to handle.

That was a completely different topic for now, but it seemed to come up sometimes. Spencer knew she wasn’t the best person out there, but she did know she wasn’t simply Brooklyn trash as some would consider her. Shaking those thoughts out of her head, she continued to try and figure out where Cain was currently in the room. The lighting wasn’t the best and that meant taking a bit of time to find where the man was. If he was still there. For all she knew he could have finally left and the place was deserted for now. That would be far too much good luck for Spencer to handle. Her questions asking whether or not anyone was there might seem stupid but she had been hopeful that maybe for once when she came down here she’d be alone. For a brief moment she thought she was lucky, however the shuffling and coughing behind her caused Spencer’s hope to waver.

Turning around quickly, she jumped back at how close Cain was still not getting used to him being able to sneak up on people that well. Pushing some hair out of her face, she sighed glad to know where the man was now. At least she thought he was man, assuming that by his voice but given that she had never seen him it could really be anything. “Sorry, I thought you might have been out. Which would have been completely unexpected but you never know right.” she added wondering if he would ever show anyone how he really looked. Tugging her shirt down, Spencer wasn’t aware that there was still dried blood on it from the early morning fight she had in the park. There had been a group of vampires and another vampire who decided to scare them off. Had she not shown up, Spencer would have had more blood on her hands as it was her job to get rid of the vermin. “And don’t call me Mistress, that’s just weird. Especially when you’re referring to a no body from Brooklyn.” she added before turning her attention to the book case beside her for a moment. “Maybe you could help me, I need some information on lycan, specifically ones from this area around 13 years ago.” she added knowing there was hundreds of news papers laying around all there in case they were needed to seek out old crimes that happened in the city in the past.

[Cain]

85 years, it was a long time to a mortal, to a human as they scurried through the world never patient enough to watch for what lurked just out of site. Vampires were different, why be in a hurry when time itself was your ally, an enemy in the human ranks, the very cattle of Vampire kind, was nothing to them, in 50 years or 100 the one that had fought would be gone and turned to dust. Oh sure their were things and places that a true fully vampire would fear and avoid, Consecrated ground among the places they were not able to enter. Which was the true secret of the Hunters Safe house it was a place safe from vampires, if not their various pets. Yet in many of the places like this one, the Hunters housed their knowledge of the past, how to fight them. Histories compiled and nearly every newspaper that was released for the area it was housed. It was why this particular Archive was so massive, the Hunters had at one time nearly destroyed vampire presence in this city, oh sure mortals had aided in some small ways but it was the hunter, that had been the key the linchpin on what the victory had been won with.

This woman, was new to that world, relatively speaking she had years hunting the monsters that waited for the fall of night to spring from their traps. It was a dangerous place the night and one that Cain, despite the fact that he hated that reality, felt home in. He was at least in part a vampire. He needed the blood of humans to sustain himself to allow himself the control to be in their presence and not try to kill them. It was no small thing that she had jumped at his arrival, after all how could a man that had been here long before she had learned of the place possibly be able to move as silently as he could. Even when as he moved towards her his feet shuffled making rubbing noises against the floor almost as if the act of lifting his feet was beyond him.

“Sorry, I thought you might have been out. Which would have been completely unexpected but you never know right.”

“Can't leave child, masters forbid it, told to stay, not allowed to go...leave only to get food, necessities of life,”

His reply was true, he had been told not to leave his quarters and eventually the entire building in his mind became his home. However the place he felt most comfortable was here in the archives far from the sun and day time light. The depths of the earth chilling the room and aiding in preserving many of the ancient documents housed in the chambers beneath the New York streets.

“And don’t call me Mistress, that’s just weird. Especially when you’re referring to a no body from Brooklyn. Maybe you could help me, I need some information on lycan, specifically ones from this area around 13 years ago.”

He looked at her, he didn't understand why she claimed to be nothing important, after all she was more important than he was, more important to a monster that wasn't allowed to fight. She was allowed to hold the line to hunt the beings that haunted the world. Something that he was supposed to be doing. After all what was his purpose if not to keep those of mortal form safe in what they thought was reality. To hide the facts of the world from them to let them live unafraid of the darkness. He did mull the thoughts and let his mind wander back to 13 years before, wondering which hunters had been here and why. Yet nothing came to mind, was that year so empty of things happening that their had been no hunters meandering through the place. Their were gaps of time like that, where no hunters would be in the building for a year or more. Yet here he stood always in a silent vigil watching the world change as he did his best to keep the archives up to date.

“Don't remember their being Hunters here back then, might just be age clouding my memories... Perhaps something in the papers... or... maybe something else...”

His words quieted as he pondered that night, he doubted it tied in but then it was the first thing close to action that he had come upon in years. It was also a night that once more he had failed in his duty another mortal lying upon the floor blood pooling as it ran, yet the man upon her lapped it up as if it was an expensive wine. He had known by smell what it was and also knew that he was unarmed and had no chance at beating the vampire. No being in that room was tearing at his control the smell of mortal blood sharp in his nose.

Shaking his head he shuffled off, ignoring the mortal woman, sometimes age was good, helped to hide the past from one self the points that one failed in their duties as appointed to them by their predecessors. Slipping through the paths of the room he forgot to shuffle, and even to move like a human might. He had forgotten that their was another presence behind him. His memory of the event, he had written it down and wanted to try and remember. He couldn't piece it together properly the last 13 years had been more busy than many of them and it was harder to remember that night. As if he was afraid of that memory, at something that he had forgotten a failure that he had not realized until later.

“Lycans, not animals, protect her... Protect the girl from the monster.... asked them to protect her as... couldn't needed food, yes had to eat was hungry wasn't safe with me... Cant Mortals hurt us...”

He stopped remembering he had been followed slowly he turned to see her. His eyes burning as he looked at her, perhaps it was her eyes that scared him, something about her. But he was afraid of her, afraid of what she would do if she was to put everything together. He was after all an unarmed hungry Dhamphir that needed to eat. She was a human mortal hunter, trained to kill things like him. Would she understand... would she leave him be let him hide in his shadows.

“I know nothing of that time and no Hunter put any information in this archive... Leave me alone, Child...”

He nearly growled at her...

[Spencer Redfield]

When Cain explained that he only left the archives for food, the young woman simply shrugged for a moment. “We have plenty upstairs you know. It might do you some good to get out of here once in a while. Sunshine is supposed to be healthy for you.” she added not aware that he was half vampire. She simply figured he was some old guy who refused to leave the basement like a hermit. She wasn’t too concerned on the matter right now as her mind was elsewhere.

Since her mother was killed, Spencer had always been looking for her sister. That night Spencer had come home to find her father standing over her mother’s lifeless body. The moment he had seen her, the man had run, jumping out the window as if falling six floors down wasn’t anything for him to worry about. As this happened, Spencer had ran over to her mother’s body checking to see if she had a pulse. Not finding any, the child still in tears and now covered in blood, had ran to the phone calling the police as she looked out the window her father had gone through. Once the call was made, she ran to the bedroom where her sister was supposed to be sleeping however, the crib was empty and the window was open. What happened to her, Spencer would never know but she wouldn’t give up trying to find the small child. When the police had come to find the mess, Spencer had told them about her sister. She had explained who Mia’s father was. Not only that but she had to explain how her own father had gone missing. Problem was no one believed her when she said that he had been drinking from her mother when she first walked into the apartment. They told her that her mind was simply covering up the trauma of what happened in a creative way.

Letting the subject drop, Spencer just kept all the details to herself. For a good time while being stuffed into an orphanage and foster families, Spencer would always ask the social worker about whether or not they had found her sister. It got to the point that the police closed the case. Just because the police gave up didn’t mean Spencer would. She started researching and once her hunting started, the young woman started questioning vampires when she could to gain information. The latest information she got was from a vampire rat. He was the kind of guy that would sell out his mother just to get paid or to stay alive. He didn’t drink from humans so Spencer didn’t feel the need to kill not when he could give her information that she needed. His latest info had been about a lycan family in the area. The reason it was news was because vampires weren’t too keen on having lycans in their territory. That night, a group of vampires had run into some lycans not to far from her apartment. It was better than nothing and Spencer’s goal right now was to find those lycans and question them as well. Problem was she didn’t know where to start. The only thing she could think of doing was seeing if they had been caught in the papers. If they had run into a group of vampires there was going to be some kind of damage or report seeing as a fight between them wouldn’t be kept quite. At least she hoped it wouldn’t, but with the right amount of money things could go away for people. When he started talking about hunters being around back then, Spencer frowned a bit not sure what it was he say trying to say. At this point she was getting confused as to what was going on.

His ramblings continued on and Spencer was getting more confused by what he was saying. Lycans? Protecting someone? What was he going on about? “Protect who? What are you talking about?” she asked baffled by the whole thing. All she had asked was whether or not he had seen news papers from 13 years ago. Telling her to leave him alone was what got Spencer worked up that moment. She had clearly just sparked something in him and now he was going to play dumb. Oh that was not how I worked. “You were just babbling on about something that happened 13 years ago. What was it Cain?” she asked ready to pull her gun out from where it was nestled at the small of her back. ”Tell me now, don’t make me use this.” she added her patience running thin as she reached behind her back pulling the gun out to show she was serious about the matter.

[Cain]

So many years, spent wasting away in the depths of the world, only rarely having the chance to act to protect a life. It was something that had wore at him over the years. He had been trained and raised to protect others. He fought not for himself but for the future of not only one race but all of them. For it was in his half human heart that he believed that perhaps their was a place for all creatures even if the acts of those that lived in the past told him otherwise. History was a poor teacher as the actions of man had always been biased the history books biased and different in every portion of the world. Yet he remembered that night, he could remember the sounds and smells of that night the scent of blood on the air as he moved towards the store. He was running low on his stores.

“Protect who? What are you talking about? You were just babbling on about something that happened 13 years ago. What was it Cain? Tell me now, don’t make me use this.”

He could hear her moving only not away from him. So many actions he could take so many things he could do. What options did he have. This woman, this human woman was going to try to force him to remember the only person that he had saved in nearly 100 years. Her young life, so vibrant and powerful as he took her from that cradle. The sounds of the new born just a room away, the purity and innocence of the child was something that was nearly irresistible for a vampire. The taste of something untouched by life the essence of existence in the world around her. She was pure in a way that only a child could be.

“Cain, is not who I am but rather what I am... You wish to know that which I swore not to reveal to anyone, I swore it to the ones that I placed her in the care of, to keep from the vampires. They swore to protect her as they would their own daughter...”

He turned, unsure of why but letting the cloak fall from his form, as was almost always the fact his upper body was bare, the scars trailing across his body making him look like a pieces of a jigsaw puzzle glued together. He could remember the pain of each stroke of the whip across his body. The touch of the silver as it tore into him. The purpose of the why he was forced through the pain. Pain was nothing new to him, survival and punishment was always their it had been even that night. He had to fight his own need for blood even to give her up. He wouldn't give this child the chance to ignore his own thoughts to be so insensitive to that which he was and to what he could do... So he moved, the movement not something a human could follow, and yet it was not an attack as his hand grabbed her gun hand and lifted it. His fingers wrapped around her hand as he pointer her gun at his chest.

“If you wish me dead for not speaking of my secrets, perhaps then you should tell me yours. Otherwise pull the trigger and end this existance, I will not stop you and look forward to such an end. My master murdered before my eyes, My mother and father unknown to me. I am only what I was trained to be, a hunter, a protector of mortals. I was meant to protect you and your ally's to protect those that could not life blade or gun to protect themselves and yet instead I cause my masters death and I cause a mothers death, my inability to strike to take action caused death... I will not compromise the safety of the one person I have made safe, to someone that will not tell me what is important about the child that was saved from a Vampire... Tell me child what is so important about a 13 year old that you would seek her out and slam her face into the reality that her mother was eaten by a man while she slept innocent and safe in another room... Tell me or Kill me... either way I will say nothing on the subject... They will tell her when she is an adult... when she can make the choice...”

He could only stay there staring at her his eyes sure, his hand not letting hers waver, or allow it to move, his feet planted as he stared at her. Slowly he removed his hands and stood waiting her choice. Death or life, the choice in his life was never in his own hands... it was the hunters that had chosen this punishment and only a hunter could fix it...

[Spencer Redfield]

There were no words for what Spencer was feeling right now. Her mind was all over the place as she tried to piece together everything she was hearing. It wasn’t all facts just yet and she could simply be jumping to conclusions but it seemed that the guy here knew where her sister might be. At least that was what it seemed like with everything he was telling her. Not that he had actually said anything yet. She simply mentioned something in his mumblings about a little girl and that had got Spencer to jump to the conclusion herself. Having been looking for her sister since she could remember, Spencer was anxious to find something anything that would give her some kind of lead. It was really getting to her, to have this hanging over her head. At this point she didn’t even need to meet the girl. All she wanted to do was find out if she was okay, and if she was happy.

Once Spencer found this out she would be satisfied. She didn’t intend on interrupting her life and telling her that she had a no body for a sister. Her conscious just needed to know that her sister was alive and well. That was the only thing that kept her going right now. That and the need to protect her small family as they were all she had left in life. Keeping her gun in her hands, she didn’t step back when he turned around and pulled his cloak off. It wasn’t till she saw all the scars and how he really looked that her resolve changed for a moment. Taking a step back in pure shock, Spencer’s eyes stayed wide as she took in the sight of how mangled his body looked. The only thing running through her mind at that moment was that this wasn’t normal nor was it human.

When he took her hand with the gun and pointed it at his chest, Spencer didn’t flinch. Her mask was back up, the shock still there but hiding. Her purpose right now was to find out where her sister was and if he knew something she would get it out of him. Having killed many vampires in her life, her hand was quite steady as she cocked the gun the moment it was at his chest. “I have no secrets. You are the one hiding down here from the world. You alone are a secret.” she told him her blue eyes boring up into him. She wasn’t scared, not after having faced enough vampires to finally accept that if she was going to die, she wouldn’t go without a fight. “My mother was murdered in front of me by my father. You on the other hand might still have family alive, so don’t give me some sob story about being hurt by life. You’re not the only one and there are people out there far worse off than you yet they don’t hide down here from their problem.” she threw back his way, her hand never leaving its place holding the gun to his chest. If anything she ended up stepping closer to get the gun right at his heart.

“On that day my dear father decided to take my mother from this world, he also decided to take my new born sister. Or so I thought, but here you are telling me that you were the one that took her from me. From her family. It’s because of you I’ve been haunted by her disappearance, by the need to find her. By the guilt that for some reason it was all my fault when I was merely a child at the time!” she yelled her voice getting louder as she spoke and the emotions flooding out at the same time. Her emotions where making her rage mix in with her pain as tears pooled in her eyes threatening to spill. However, her resolve was strong and she was able to keep them at bay. “Tell me where she is!” she yelled jabbing the gun into his chest before tilting it to the side and pulling the trigger shooting for his shoulder instead to show she didn’t care who’s life she had to take but she would if he didn’t tell her what she needed to know.

[Cain]

For Cain, time seemed to freeze that moment that he held the gun to his chest wondering what was going through her mind. What would she choose to do, would his pointless existed be ended or would he be forced to continue with this life of banishment. So he stood and waited in that single moment waiting for her to respond. Waiting on her to decide his fate or perhaps her own. He heard the mechanism in his watch click the parts moving as the minute hand moved in his pocket. Her voice almost seeming to berate him.

“I have no secrets. You are the one hiding down here from the world. You alone are a secret. My mother was murdered in front of me by my father. You on the other hand might still have family alive, so don’t give me some sob story about being hurt by life. You’re not the only one and there are people out there far worse off than you yet they don’t hide down here from their problem.”

Cain's only reaction was to stare at her... had their been another person in that building that night, in the room with a vampire... He had thought anyone that would have been their would have been or soon were to be dead. But he wasn't hiding from his problems... he was accepting of his punishment for failure. He was ordered to stay and short of leaving to gather supplies he never left. He stood still though, not moving as she dropped the safety and even chambered a round. He could only stand and breath and ponder that it was rather amusing that he had just replenished his supply of blood the night before. Death was it his door and he knew it, yet he was ready to die, he had lived long enough and it was a blessing he wished and waited for.

“On that day my dear father decided to take my mother from this world, he also decided to take my new born sister. Or so I thought, but here you are telling me that you were the one that took her from me. From her family. It’s because of you I’ve been haunted by her disappearance, by the need to find her. By the guilt that for some reason it was all my fault when I was merely a child at the time! Tell me where she is!”

He could see the pain and frustration in her, to be so close to something that she wanted and yet he didn't know what to tell her didn't know what he could say that was allowed. He was held by a strict guide of ethics a code of honor that told him what to do. If she was indeed a sister to that child didn't she deserve to know that she was okay. If not couldn't he console her anyway. The chances of the same situation occurring at the same time on the same day were so tiny that the odds were in her favor. Then came the bark of the gun, then the tug of silver through his arm... he hated silver... not because it burned him because it didn't but rather the fact that any would caused by silver left a scar on his body and more than that it healed like that of a normal humans wound would. It caused him to grit his teeth as pain flooded his nerves. He managed to stand even with his teeth and fangs bared at the pain of it. The blood starting to run from his shoulder. The bullet and only broke through the meat, the bones and the veins untouched and yet you don't get shot without pain, without blood and without a massive mess to clean later. Even with that though he only stared at her his need for blood rising even as he forced it down and away... he didn't go through hell to lose control because he was shot...

“I can't tell you where she is... Redfield... I can't tell you because I don't know... the pack I gave her too swore to me that they would keep her safe ,if the one that I saw came after her... and to keep her as far from this city as possible... More likely than not they went to Isla de los Lobos... It is to the Lycans what new york is to the vampires... And so you know... I don't cower in this halls because I want to or out of fear... I cower for the same reason as I gained my scars... It is a punishment for failing in my tasks... I was imprisoned here before you were even born... And so you know the Scars... are from my master teaching me to control my hunger... to control the monster in my heart... Beyond that there is nothing I can say to you.”

He stopped for the moment... and turned from her, he didn't like being exposed as he was, and yet he had felt in necessary for her to understand that he had never had what she had. She had been given love... he had received pain and torture... Everything she had seen and been through had made her strong had helped her grow... he had been collared and trained like a dog... and he was still a bad dog with a lesson to learn... So he planned on going and confining himself to his quarters.

“If I has known you were there when I took her I would have... But I couldn't fight him, I was unarmed and he would have killed me, and the girl both... I did what I could to get her free and safe... how you take it is up to you...”

[Spencer Redfield]

The pain and frustrations of the past thirteen years flooded her completely the moment she worked out what Cain was trying to say to her. This was the first time in years that she actually had some kind of clue of what had happened that night. Being 12 at the time when her mother was killed didn’t leave much for her understand or actually work out on her own. It wasn’t till she got older and started looking into things that Spencer finally figured out that life sucked royally. It had started when the cops had come by to tell her that her sister disappearance was put to a close. They had no leads and figured it was a waste of time to even try on with it. That day, the young girl had started her own investigation. With no leads or ideas where to go from there, she had simply continued from dead end to dead end not wanting to give up. It had been one of the reasons neither of her two closest friends knew about her sister or knew that she even had one.

Not having anywhere to go with it, most people thought it was a lost cause. There were times she wanted to tell them, but felt it really was something they’d laugh at her about. With little education to speak of, her opinions and theories weren’t often taken into consideration. Finding out that her sister was alive and someone had helped her was a blessing and a curse at the same time. It was a blessing because she knew that her sister was alive and probably better off than she was, and it was a curse because it meant that she was probably far better off. She had been taken from a life from foster care and the orphanage, and having little money to her name. Listening to his explanation, the grip she had on the gun tightened, her hand still steady as the first bullet gave it’s warning. “What pack? Got a name I can go off of or are you going to tell me you didn’t bother to even find out. Giving an infant over to god knows who because you felt it would be safer for her.” she spat her rage seeping through as she tried to push her emotions to the back to focus on finding out some kind of information.

Having a hard life wasn’t easy and it seemed Spencer was really losing it right now. After years of having it build up, finding this out really set her off. At this moment, she wanted nothing more than to empty her clip into Cain because she could and it would make her feel better. Cocking her gun again, she resisted the urge to simply empty the gun out. “Why her? Why did you she get the good life with a family that loved her? Why couldn’t you have waited taken me? What made her so special!” she yelled the tears finally falling as she pulled the trigger again.

[Cain]

What could Cain have done differently so many years before, how many mistakes had he made in his near century of life he could only begin to guess. Could his hiding within the Safe house have attributed to more deaths than if he had been the hunter he was trained to be. Had he hunted them and killed them would this woman before him have been able to been raised innocent of the things that went bump in the night. Had he not been afraid to facing the new born vampire would he have been able to protect that mother or was she already dead when he had arrived. Could he have taken the child or find the other after she was taken to foster care... He knew he could have but what then... the damage was laid and the path was before her. The infant untouched by the darkness that had existed pure to its influence still had the chance to see what the other side was like. She would be able to see past the darkness that clouded the air between raises... was it possible that she would be able to broker a peace simply by proving that life could exist between the three... It was old thoughts in a mind young to the ramblings of age... yet his life how much longer could it be.

“What pack? Got a name I can go off of or are you going to tell me you didn’t bother to even find out. Giving an infant over to god knows who because you felt it would be safer for her.”

He could feel the Rage his senses almost letting him see the boiling rage around her. The writhing aura of anger that coiled in her soul and made her heart race. He could smell the tension of it the chemicals exuded by rage and blocking a smart mind from making intelligent and rational choices... But in war... in life how did ration ever take place. Cain had no family had never felt love or compassion he had been raised as a weapon by his master one to cut down the coven. Yet here he stood his master dead and still following the orders of those that had once lay bleeding and dieing, afraid to ask his aid... Afraid to allow a person of mixed blood to join in the battle he had been raised to fight in. Was their mistrust founded... was this life as a librarian all he was good for or was their more to it.

He had no words for this mortal woman, this child to his aged eyes. Any word that came from his lips would strike the wall of anger and never come to her mind as it was meant but twisted and torn to pieces by the rage that blocked her senses as surely as a cloth would block her eyes. So instead he watched the blackness of the gun, stared at the death that could come the slug within the chamber that he could see with his heightened vision. Sure he had wanted to leave had tried to leave but her words had forced him to turn to gaze once more upon her the pain in his face the tiredness and sadness the deaths he blamed on himself compounding on his misery as he looked upon her. He had no idea that he could choose to leave this life that he was not forced into the shackles that bound him that he held them in place himself that he feared breaking them and being himself of standing against her anger... instead he shirked it and once more turned away... He had to leave to fix the would and remove the silver of the bullet, if not it would never heal and he would need that arm in time.

“Why her? Why did you she get the good life with a family that loved her? Why couldn’t you have waited taken me? What made her so special!”

He felt the rounds slam into him, each one a roaring boom and a sensation as if he was being torn apart. He had always thought he knew the feeling of pain he could still feel the pull of a silver whip across his back and chest... The gun was a new unknown pain to him. It hammered into him and he felt it tear through his other shoulder, then another shot lower cutting through his hand and making him stumble the pain tearing through his control and blood seeping uncontrolled from his veins. Yet still they came a fourth found his wrist barely missing the veins that could cause his life to be stolen and then two more in the legs his knee's shattering from the force of the bullets and tossing him collapsed upon the floor. His body sprawled upon a piece of blank parchment that only as he lay his blood pooling began to reveal script... So it was he lay his lips peeled back in a howling snarl of rage unable to move unable to heal from the silver given wounds.

He had always known that he was less than them, that he was a tool and weapon and yet he had never thought that they would have the dishonor of shooting him in the back of forcing him face down into the earth to bleed and not watch the sky. Was he to live he wondered as he saw the blocks of stone below his face, he could not see the human, only smell and hear her. Yet that same pain angered him and forced him to ignore the pain in the arm that had a functional arm... the one that still had the wrist and arm working even iff the bullets had torn through his shoulder to drag himself to sitting and leaning against the bookshelf to stare at the human. He could feel his life leaving him. The bullets leaving wounds that would have to be taken care off before long of the blood that gave him life would leave him and his life... his cursed existence would not matter. Tears streaked his eyes as he looked at her wishing that she could see what she had done but knowing that all the vampires had ever shown her was the beast never the part of them that was human that had feelings and desired the part that only wished to see the sun and exist.

“Not all of my kind are as your father are... you saw the dark half of my people but I am not them, I was raised as a human... I was raised to feel but was given to emotion I have never felt compassion only pain... Love is not an emotion I have felt... Only solitude...”

He could hardly breath the words becoming a gasp as he tried to breath... Blood still came from the wounds... How could she understand that he wanted her sister to see Vampires and Lycans as people that he wanted her to see what she herself would never be able to see. His vision was blurring and he wished for more time that he would not be forced to end this existance so much more could be learned or done he so wished for more in the future and yet now it was taken from him... His mistakes catching him and taking him to an early grave.

“I gave her over... to let her see that we are not all monsters... yet all you see me as is a monster you see my fangs and think that I drink from your kind that I kill your kind... You don't care that I am no different than you that I fight for the same reason as you that I seek my own family lost to time... I am a nobody condemned to die by those that raised me... Had you gone with her had your fate been changed would your sister be safe here at your side... or would her blood have been spilled along with mine...”

He could feel it in himself, the beat of his heart laboring, he wondered if this was what it meant to die... Inside he cried for the chance to live and yet he knew he needed blood and that even all he had in his room would not be enough to allow him to live... He shuddered as he watched his red blood oozing from his body... he wondered why he bled as a human why he did not catch fire as a vampire why his death was to be so slow and agonizing... Why each hole in his skin burned like fire and yet no fire would yet appear... Again his body shuddered with a wracking could as he realized he could no longer feel his legs of arms...

[Spencer Redfield]

In all her life, Spencer would never have thought that she would be thrown into such a world. Often times when there was far too much time on her hands, the young woman would think far too much. She would wonder what her life would have been had her mother not had been killed. If her father hadn’t fallen for a vampire only to come back and ruin her life further. Would she have ended up finishing high school like a normal person, with her family there by her side? Would she have a little sister that annoyed her yet one she loved none the less? Would she have ended up being someone with an education working in a good job she liked instead of at a pawn shop that would get her no where? Those were some of the questions that Spencer had always asked herself as well as if she would end up finding close friends like she had now. Had she taken a different path would it have lead her to meet Miles or Randel?

Often times Spencer would wonder why she had been directed down this path one that made her a killer and alone. Yes she had her two friends and they were family but in the long run she didn’t have anyone to really live for. Starting out, she had been in search of trying to find out what happened to her sister. But knowing that the girl was safe and didn’t need her at all broke something in the young woman’s resolve and spirit. Everything she had fought for in the last good half of her life seemed to be for nothing. If her sister didn’t need her Spencer really didn’t have anything for fight for or to live for. Her whole reasoning for being alive just flew out that window with Cain revealing all this to her.

Feeling her spirit completely vanish from her, Spencer’s sparkling blue eyes dimmed into what seemed like a black colour all together. The finger she had against the trigger of the gun started moving on its own as she proceeded to empty the entire clip into Cain. She wasn’t thinking that he could be human and it was killing him. No she didn’t think about that at all. Any sense of remorse was long gone from her face as she continued pulling the trigger letting bullets fall where they may into Cain. “I’ve only seen darkness from vampires and nothing more. They are monsters nothing more. You might be raised human but that does not make you one. At least we have one thing in common, we won’t feel love again.” she added her tone of voice having an eerie calm to it.

Not caring one bit that she was hurting Cain that he could feel the silver burning in his body or that the loose of blood could kill him. None of that mattered to her in that moment when her whole resolve had broken. The tears continued to fall from her eyes as if a tap was turned on and left like that. Despite them spilling down her cheek, her expression remained the same, stone cold. When he continued talking insisting that her sister was better off, the rage took over for a moment, a first sign of emotion since the cold mask had fallen into place. “Of course she would have been safe! I’d have protected her. How dare you even think that I’d let anything happen to her!” she yelled emptying the last of the bullets into Cain before her hand fell to her side. The moment the clip was empty, she just stood there staring at the man as if she didn’t see him there. She watched as he suffered with the amount of silver she had just emptied into him.

Seeing the life fading from Cain’s eyes, Spencer found herself snapping out of the killing mode she had been stuck in. Instead of acting like she was simply talking to someone getting information from the, Spencer had kicked herself into killing mod. It was the mind set she was in when trying to kill vampires. Hunting was something she had done a lot over the years and after killing so many of them, the young woman had developed an immunity for their death. She didn’t see them as being humans once but simply animals. The reason for this was because to her they were, at least the ones that killed humans or used them as slaves. However, in that moment, Red realized what she had done. Cain hadn’t really hurt anyone at least not that she knew or seen. It wasn’t fair and the young woman was realizing that now.

Shaking her head she dropped her now empty gun letting it fall to the floor before running over to where he was. The gun made a thud sound echoing through the area they were in. At this point the young woman was at a loose for what it was she could do in this situation. Looking at all the bullet holes in the man, she wasn’t sure which was the worst as it all started to blur into one massive red stain. “Shit… I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking…” she admitted not knowing what exactly had come over the young woman.

[Cain]

Its not something that many would realize, or even admit to themselves. A monster lurking in their hearts waiting for a moment of weakness to shatter the shackles of reality. For Cain his moment is this as the life of him trickles from his body and he feels his very body burn and die piece by tiny piece. Yet at this same moment there is another part of him the part that makes him a Dhamphir... the part of him that is the vampire that for so long has been held shackled to the human mind of Cain. Yet in that moment at the bridge of death it knows... the instincts of the Vampire can shatter the chains to a moment of pure instinct. A lack of control brought on by fear and hunger.

He could not tell you how he knew how close she was or even the words that she spoke, yet at the same time he knew she was their the heat of her very closeness pressing against him and driving him. His mind knew that if her skin was broken if his fangs slipped through her skin without her having a chance to react he could possibly be restored. The vampire could care less about the consequences of that moment. His death was coming and her life could save his own.

How he knew she was close he could not explain only that she was Only that he could feel the heat of her against his nearly numb skin. It was hard to explain how in that moment for that instance all of the control that Cain held, every scrap of will and control that screamed in his mind to stop and let him die crumbled as the vampire in him took control as the part of him so long shackled and bound broke free. If one was to look it could be seen in his eyes a slight reddening of them as his hand twitched and moved. Slowly and surely it moved to coil into her hair and drag her closer as if to whisper some words to her. Yet even as she moved closer his mouth opened and the fangs glistened as he could feel the life of her through his hand.

It took only a moment... One moment on edge and the next his fangs pressing into her neck, it was in many ways a lovers caress as they latched on the pain of it not existing as the vampire understood that the pain would make her fight that it would lead to her knowing sooner what he was doing... No the vampire chose to make her feel pleasure at the touch of his lips and fangs. Even as he bit into her, as he tasted the first of the drops of blood he felt something else in him some familiarity with the feeling of fresh warm blood running through his veins. So he drank in the blood and let it fill him and so he lost himself to the feeding and to the memories of his mind.

In some distant memory he could see bare flesh and a face above, voices that his mind could not understand speaking as someone spoke words of soothing as she held him. Was this woman he saw his mother was this moment at deaths door showing him the moment of his birth, dredging up those moments at near death so that he could die knowing who his mother was. He also remembered his fangs breaking his skin as she held him and his teeth small as they were digging into the vein in her neck. As he drank he heard voices and panic.

[Spencer Redfield]

For the first time in a long time, Spencer felt a panic rise in her. The young woman had always fought vampires and killed them without a second thought. To her they weren’t human but usually they had killed someone else before. That was the reason she killed them, because they had decided to take another life. They were playing God and Spencer was making sure they didn’t go around killing anymore people. However, in this situation, Spencer had overreacted. Cain hadn’t really done anything that she knew of that pointed to him having killed anyone. The problem was that she was too strung right now finding out the information about her sister. Knowing that she had finally got a leg up on something that happened twelve years ago was a god send. However when Cain refused to tell her about it, she snapped. All that she wanted to do was find the young girl so she could know if she was okay. There weren’t many things that gave her peace these days and it would really take a huge chip off her shoulder if she finally knew her sister was at least alive and well.

Still trying to see if Cain was still alive, Spencer sighed heavily pushing some blond hair out of her face as she leaned forward to see if there were any signs of a heartbeat. Before she realized what was going on she felt a prick at her neck but that quickly subsided as if she had merely imagined it. Instead a sense of calm and pleasure hit her body and she didn’t know why. For some reason she felt herself relax, the feelings of anger and panic leaving her body quickly replaced with that of pleasure. Why this was happening she didn’t know but her eyes closed as she let herself get lost in the new feeling.

Despite the pleasure that she was feeling, Spencer could feel her body getting weak as she slumped onto the floor, most of her muscles giving way as she found herself lying on the floor completely. The only images going through her mind were of when she had actually been content before. It had been when she was around the age for four when her dad had taken her to the zoo. It had been before everything happened. Before he left her mom and before her life was ruined completely. She had been a carefree child then not having to worry about taking care of herself. The more Cain drank from her the less energy she had left. Soon the young woman fell into pitch darkness losing herself in the memory of a once happy life.

[Cain]

The voices the memory if indeed that was what he saw swirled and he could here a voice calling orders, he could feel hands upon his bare skin, pulling and tearing at him. He hungered for more blood though and so he drank his fangs and tongue lapping of the warm blood as he spilled into his tiny body. Eventually he was torn from the body, his eyes saw the pale form as he was pulled from it. Held outstretched from another piece of meat Cain tried to get back to his mother his voice screaming out his tiny body fighting as a man he would recognize even in hell moved before his vision.

Cain could see the familiar pain in him, even as he raised a gun to his forehead, it shook slightly and slowly dropped. He had no idea what it was that he was seeing only that he wanted to learn what was happening. He strained to remember even as the moment was falling away life returning to him, hot blood seeping into his body and kick starting the healing inherent to all Vampires. A single voice cut through the darkness a command to those present...

“None of you shall bear witness to what happened here... the animal is not my grandchild and never shall be he is an animal a monster an Aberration that should not exist... Treat it as such...”

Then the world change, pain returned as he felt the hot blood seeping down his throat the power that sank into him from it the life of the blood swirling in him. He could feel the need for the blood as it drove through him as the silver was ever slowly forced from his body as he slowly healed from the wounds raved into his flesh, so easily torn by the gun. It was only second later that he began to realize what was happening, that his mouth and fangs were clamped onto the woman's neck. It took more precious time for Cain to clamp down on the vampire in him and retract from the bite leaving the woman on the ground she looked pale from loss of blood and yet he could still see her pulse as it bit slowly in time with her laboring heart. He knew though that her neck would could kill her if he didn't care for it soon. Vanishing the scion of a vampire and human returned to the woman with a first aid kit for her and a massive black bottle full of chilled blood.

He needed to drink, to regain the needed control, his urge was to bite her and finish her off as he wound tape around her wound. Stopping the bleeding though was easy and he didn't want her to tell others what he was. He also had to ensure she wasn't going to kick him out of this hidey hole. This place that had for so long been the only home he knew, So he sat in a corner watching the woman, ensuring she stayed living as he sat and drank the blood that he held within the blacked out bottle...