This story is meant to be set roughly 200 years into Kains ruling of Nosgoth. So there are still quite a few humans running about and such.

Chapter 1

The Village

In the dark shadows of the cooling night there lurked a lonely woman, casually running her fingers through her long golden hair, and quietly humming to herself.

Her emerald eyes glanced over to the ale house, situated on the outskirts of this tiny village, practically sitting on the forests doorstep. Somewhere, in the distance a wolf howled at the pale, ice white moon, which cast a gentle glow across the land.

A faint breeze rustled some leaves on the tree tops, and a few moments later, the silent night was broken by a laughing drunkard, loudly leaving the pub, saying his good-byes to his sweethearts and clumsily blowing kisses as the door came to a close in his face. Alone now, he stumbled across the mud road, muttering to himself with an idiotic grin stretching across his fat, slimy lips. He wasn't physically in good shape, he may, in his younger years, have been a hunter, maybe even a soldier of some sort, but now, the last years of incessant drinking and eating had taken their toll on his once firm, masculine stomach, and it was now a large unkept mass of flab, hanging off his body like a sort of parasite, which he occassionally scratched and rubbed. His hair was greasy and had it been clean, it would be a mahogany brown, coming down in light curls and bouncing freely about his face and shoulders. Now the curls resembled old bed springs, poking out lazily and shining grusemly in the moonlight.

'Disgusting', she thought to herself, as she raised her soft rose pink lip in disgust. Reaching down she neatened up her elegant dress, which was white, golden and mostly purple, the sort of purple the midnight sky turns in the winter, almost complete black, but with a hint of that wonderous dark lavender colour. She took a deep breath through her nose and sighed out through her mouth quietly, before she approached the drunkard.

He looked up at the golden haired woman approaching him, and had he been sober he may of treated her like he would treat the daughter of a rich aristorcrat, which she may of been. She seemed to glide towards him, lowering her eyelids to let her long jet-black eyelashes flutter silently.

"Well..." He grinned, as he straightened himself up and lowered his head, trying to be polite, but she knew this was an act. "What is a lady, such as yoursellf," he slurred "doing out in the village so late at night, and all on her own?" He let his eyes survey the rest of the village, then the shadows from where she emerged, yet there was no sign of a guard of any sort.

"I am lost." She replied, stepping closer to the man, she caught his eyes falling to examine her breasts, and she placed a cold finger under his chin to bring his gaze back up to hers.

He smirked, straightening up once more, and he was roughly about four inches taller than her, and she glanced up to him from under her dark eyelashes, the moonlight reflecting in her flawless green eyes.

He wrapped one of his bulky arms around her svelte figure, letting his sweaty hand rest on her right hip, and he began to direct her in the direction of his home, on the north point of the village.

Once again the wolf howled, closer now, probably lurking in the forest, and she thought she could just discern a faint rustling sound in the bushes between the trees.

The man proceeded to stumble across the street, attempting to keep hold of this beautiful young woman, who had knitted her eyebrows in disapprovment and frustration, she hated having to do this, but it wasn't long now until she could...

"Why don't you stay with me tonight, then, maybe tomorrow, you can find your way back home." He said, tightening his grip round her, and now dragging her down the street; in his mind, she was now going to his house, and once there, she would have to repay him for his generous hospitality...and he would be the one to choose the way in which he was repayed.

Before his left foot could reach the ground he felt a great pain rush through his chest, it only lasted a split second and forced the air from his lungs, then it seemed that his entire torso went numb, as the force from whatever had hit him in the chest caused him to fall to the floor, spluttering as blood came flowing from his mouth. He looked up to the shadow looming over him, holding something to its mouth, and as his vision became blurred he realised that it was the woman whom he was in the process of planning his night with. She was now holding his heart in her right hand as if it were a mere apple, and she was sucking on it slowly. Upon finishing it, she loosened her gip and let it fall to the mud road like rotten fruit. Then, his vision became darker, and darker, the moon ceased to shine, the ominious figure of the blood-drinking beauty seemed to lose its shape, and mix with the night sky like runny paint, until everything became black...

She licked the blood from her lips, and surveyed the dark street, which was, for the moment deserted, and flicked her long hair over her shoulders. She looked down at the drained heart at her feet, a small puddle of inky ebony coloured blood shining in the moonlight like a serene lake under the night sky.

A wicked grin slid across her delicate lips as she recalled the expression upon the mans face as he watched her drink his life-blood from his still pulsating heart, how dissapointing though, that he didn't even live long enough to ask her that oh so familiar question, "What are you?", such a shame that he would never know what it was that killed him.

She was soon distracted from her thoughts as she heard the rustling once more in the bushes by the trees, followed by the chilling howl of the wolf, which sounded frighteningly close, in fact, it may have even been watching from the intense shadows of the forest just before her.

A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered her encounter with a werewolf, a ferocious snarling beast, lunging at her with its razor-like claws and bloodstained teeth, twice her size and with glaring eyes filled wth contepmt, hunger and malice. Just the thought of it also reminded her of the life threatening injuries it had inflicted upon her, but neither had claimed victory, both were so exhausted, each staggering uncontrollably from the great loss of blood and both in so much pain that just lifting an arm sent an agonizing stabbing sensation though their bodys, so they each took one step back at a time, watching the enemy closely, fists clenched at the ready.

Since that day, she has never once encountered that same wolf, one of the few creatures in Nosgoth that proved a real challenge to her, and in a way, she hald a deep respect for it, it's agility, strength and determination to beat her, and she only hoped that it thought the same of her, and that it wasn't waiting for another fight somewhere in the forest.

She focused on the shadows, squinting to try and discern whatever it was that made the rustling noise. It may have only been a bird, or fox, but at any rate, she couldn't afford to be ambushed here, not on the edge of a village where most of the men would still be awake. Imagine how she would look standing at the foot of the decapitated body of a man who's heart was right beneath her, even worse, what if it was vampire hunters, who had just watched her tear out the vital organ and drink from it, there was no chance that they would listen to her usual 'excuse', which was "I am no vampire fool, have you ever looked into the eyes of the damned? I have, and they are golden, mine are not.." And it worked, because it was true. Vampires irises were a beautiful almost incandescent yellowish gold, and every vampire hunter knew this...but if it was a band of hunters, she wouldn't be let off this time, and her secret would finally be revealed...

In the shadows, the moonlight that seeped in through the thinning foilage shone over something moving silently, moving towards her cautiously, with ruffled silver fur and an arched bony spine almost slicing through the creatures skin.

A werewolf.

As it emerged from its hiding place it straightened its horrific long back, reaching a height of roughly 8ft, over 2ft higher than her. She froze, paralysed with fear and shock, could it be the same one? No, this one was bigger, it's legs and arms were undoubtedly better built, meaning that it was clearly stronger, and that this would be a harder challenge for her to compete with.

Yet as she looked on the creature seemed to morph slowly, first, it began to shrink slightly, the fur covering its body shortening to reveal pale skin, apart from the fur upon the top of its head which became longer and turned a perfect snow-white, covering the most part of its back. Finally, she began to make out that it was a man, his chest bare, masculine and pale, and as the fur disappeared from his face it revealed his handsome features, a perfect nose much like her own, thin jet black lips, high well defined cheek bones and those fierce glowing golden eyes. She knew this man, or vampire, as he was, oh yes, she knew him well; the ruling vampire of Nosgoth, the feared, hated and powerful...

"Kain." It was dangerous to even whisper his name in a mortal village, for if they knew that he was here, then the alarm would be raised, and any man or boy able to fight would come charging out from their tiny abodes, swords drawn, swearing to protect their families and send him from whence he came. In other words, they would be slaughtered. Kain was not exactly re-nouned for his mercy or leniency, he was a ruthless killer, regardless of age or sex.

She stared at him, not noticing the other six figures emerging from the forest, not disguised as werewolves, but in their true vampiric forms. Each standing a little behind their master, watching the beautiful woman with keen eyes.

Kain stepped forth, folding his arms and sighing as he looked at the corpse.

"My dear, you have all the mortals you need inside you dungeons, why come praying on humans in Raziels village?" he said smirking. She caught a glimpse of Raziels handsome face, and his lips curling upwards in a smile which indicated that he expected an apology of some sort.

She breathed deeply, kicking the corpse aside and walking to meet Kain, and then placing her hands on her gently curving hips, and spoke...

"Forgive me Raziel, I shall make it up to you." She said looking past Kain and smiling innocently. Raziel continued to smile and Zephon shifted restlessly behind him. Then she turned back to Kain, who was roughly half a foot taller than her, and he looked down at her, one eyebrow raised waiting for her to speak.

"How did you ever find me?" Kain broke out into a quiet chuckle, his huge chest shaking as he did so, then he lowered his head and looked her straight in the eyes, his lips breaking out into a malevolent grin, bearing his ice-white teeth. "I always know where you are Vana, it is easier to pinpoint you than it is my other children, because you are of my own blood."