Disclaimer: The Night World and all concepts associated with it belong entirely to the talented L. J. Smith. This story and its main characters belong to me. All original Night World characters and events apparent/mentioned in this story belong to L. J Smith.

All characters and events in this story other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.



The Night World isn't a place. It's all around us. It's a secret society of vampires, werewolves, witches, and other creatures of darkness that live among us. They're beautiful and deadly and irresistible to humans. Your high school teacher could be one, and so could your boyfriend. The Night World laws say it's okay to hunt humans. It's okay to toy with their hearts, it's even okay to kill them. There are only two things you can't do with them.

1) Never let them find out that the Night World exists.
2) Never fall in love with one of them.

These are stories about what happens when the rules get broken.


/PLAYGROUND/- a Night World fanfiction by dashboard

Extended Summary: He's cold. He's lethal. And he's absolutely ruthless. She needs to kill him before he has her for dinner. Only problem? She doesn't have a clue who he is. So how the hell, exactly, did Circle Daybreak expect her to find someone she didn't even know existed until, hmmm, let's see- two seconds ago?


PRELUDE: The Tainted One

/Executioner: an official who executes a condemned person/

He laughed as the vampire crawled away from him.

"I'm faster than you. I'm smarter than you. I'm stronger than you."

Damien stated matter-of-factly before pausing for effect, the corner of his mouth lifting into a sadistic smile.

"Therefore, you're going to die."

Tracking was his favorite game. And he was about to enter the playground.

Oh, he'd find them. All of them. Especially the one who was manipulating it all from behind the scenes. And then, well, killing just happened to be his second favorite game.

There was only room for one master manipulator in this world, and he was it.

Pathetic Daybreakers. I'll break them all. He chuckled at the inside joke, casually stabbing yet another toothpick into the body of his most recent conquest. It barely managed a whimper. Now pain, pain was a drug. It was the one thing that could break you and yet make you feel more alive than ever before.

Damien took a moment to observe his handiwork. He always enjoyed admiring the product of his own twisted mind. Tilting his head to the side, he congratulated himself on the creativity. It looked like a much, much more interesting variation of your average porcupine.

He liked being unpredictable- it was what made him such a good tracker.

The vampire continued dragging his body painstakingly slowly across the concrete. The rusty smell of bad blood tainted the air with a sour aftertaste. But, blood was blood and in a flash, Damien was beside it, smiling down endearingly at the vampire boy who was still trying to get away despite having lost half of his gut content to the asphalt. And most likely part of his actual gut as well, Damien added thoughtfully.

Death had always fascinated him. One long pale finger traced along the trail of blood, before Damien bought it to his own smiling lips.

The boy's hands were clawed and bleeding as he desperately dug his fingers faster into the cracks between the pavements. At the gentle lilt of Damien's soft, deadly voice, many had become desperate.

Yes, Damien seemed to have that effect on most people. Kristian Damien Redfern was a fate worse than death.

But he had changed his mind. He was going to let this one go.

After all, where was the fun in a game with only one player?


A/N: Just so you all don't run off screaming, the rest of the story will not be this dark or depressing- it's just a part of Damien's character, lol. I like humor; some of my favorite Night World books are the ones with moments of humor that just manage to catch me off guard in a train or a bus, making me look very much the part of the mad Asian girl cackling in the back seat. This is just a short prelude, which I hope you all enjoy. Feel free to drop in a review on what you like or don't like- I promise I don't bite ;) I'm always looking to improve my writing. Anyway, Chapter One will be up soon, featuring my other main character and some of L. J. Smith's original Night World characters (cough, Circle Daybreak, cough). Well, that's all for now.

Cheers,

dash