Authors Note:: Hey everyone, this is a repost of a story I wrote a while ago. The old version has SO many typos, and the format overall sucks because it was my first time posting. Well, here I go again. Please review, it really means so much to me! I'm a first time writer so any tips would really help me out! I hope you enjoy it!!! Much thanx to Tabitha Wexley and AquariousF2 for taking time out to review my old version. Your comments make me smile ( ::

Disclaimer: The characters in the story are not my own. ______________________________________________________________________

The fading sun lit up the sky with fiery tones that almost made the cold chill of the English countryside bearable. Sunset brought about a feeling of unrest in her. She knew the approaching night could not be delayed and yet there was always a sense of timelessness at dusk; the sun perched atop the mountains as if prolonging his farewell to her, giving her one last kiss goodbye. But she waited for another.

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"Don't strain it. If it's properly taken care of, you should be out and about in no time."

He gently patted the boy's newly set leg and offered him a comforting smile. The boy was brought in an hour ago with a fracture and an ear- splitting scream. Tobias was amused to see the boy's changed demeanor-his face was split ear to ear with a jubilant grin.

"Six weeks then, doctor?"

"Six weeks. And then you'll be obliged to play a game of football with me."

The boy's grin lit the room up once more, this time accompanied with an ecstatic nod.

"Now off you go." The boy hobbled out the door, his thanks muffled behind a thousand-watt smile. Tobias sighed a sigh of relief and of satisfaction.

He loved his job. He loved Selene.

"Oh shit, Selene.." Tobias muttered under his breath not noticing Adam enter the room.

"You're damned amazing Tobias. The boy comes in and damages our hearing with his bawling and now he's blinding everyone in the waiting room with his smile. You need to show me how you do that sometime."

"Adam, what time is it?"

"Not sure. Probably six or so," Adam replied while turning to grab his coat, but his response fell dead in an empty room.

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"Selene, have you gone mad?"

Samantha trudged towards her through the tall grass of the farm.

"Have you not noticed night fall around you? Or need I remind you of the cold? What are you still doing out here?"

Selene rolled her eyes. Here we go again.

"It's not even dark yet, Sam. I haven't finished turning the soil."

"Since when has turning the soil kept you from dinner..It's that boy, isn't it?"

Samantha vaguely remembered his face. She had seen him a couple of times creeping about in the woods around their farm. He tried in vain to be elusive and his desperate attempts at being invisible had cast a smile on her face. She harbored Selene's secret rendezvous with this mystery man from their parents- it was the least a big sister could do. She still had yet to approve of the man herself, but she definitely could understand why her baby sister would brave cold and darkness for the man. He was terribly attractive- tall and well built, the man unquestionably had no problem with women. His high cheekbones, dimpled chin, and straight chestnut hair only added to his disarmingly boyish charm. His good looks provoked wariness in Samantha. Her sister was young and naïve and Samantha would have no one playing with her baby sister's innocence.

"What boy?" Selene feigned. It was Samantha's turn to roll her eyes.

"Your dinner's getting cold. Be quick about this. Understood?"

"Yes." Samantha was already heading back toward the cottage, when Selene's voice turned her around.

"Sam.. Thank you."

Samantha smiled in reply and went on her way. Selene watched her go. She remembered how she idolized her big sister in her childhood. Samantha was the beauty of her family. Hell, she's the beauty of the county, Selene reflected. And the twin girls Samantha had bore received almost all the love Selene had in her. Almost.

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Tobias ran until his heart threatened to burst. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees, trying vehemently to catch his breath- only to have it knocked back out again. He spotted her in the distance, waiting patiently for him. She hadn't seen him yet, and he took advantage of her obliviousness. She was beautiful as always. He never seemed to get used to the feeling of stunned admiration when he saw her.

Samantha was every man's dream, including Adam's who couldn't seem to go a day without asking if Tobias caught a glimpse of her during his meetings with Selene. Tobias couldn't care less about Samantha. She was beautiful. She wasn't Selene. That made all the difference.

His eye's willed her to look at him. And she did.

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Selene's heart stopped. She found it ironic that she felt so alive when her heart stopped beating. She felt so alive with this man. His look of stupor and enchantment gained him a delighted giggle. She stared deep into his eyes as he approached, unable to break contact, unable to stop beaming at him. He closed the distance between them and claimed her the gentlest kiss. She thought she felt her heart start beating again. They never needed words, and as the night deepened, Selene succumbed to her conscience calling her back home. One last kiss goodnight and she turned homeward.

"Selene."

She turned to face his pleading eyes.

"I want to go with you."

"Maybe one day," she smiled.

Her last sunset passed like a dream- a dream long forgotten.

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Tobias died at the age of sixty-seven. Selene attended his viewing, almost believing that she felt her undead heart ache when she saw his aged features, lifeless in a box. Her own features remained flawlessly unchanged since their last night together. She had loved this man- so much so, she refused to give him the life she now partook of. She refused to take away his days, only to replace them with endless nights. She let him believe the lie- that wolves had slaughtered her family that night, before dragging her off into the darkness, never to be found. In a sense, it was the truth. They buried Tobias that night. Selene buried her dream with him.

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The unofficial queen of Ordoghaz looked down upon the humans scurrying about on the cold wet pavement of Budapest. Rigel busied himself with his camera directly across from her, taking breaks now and then to glance at her. His eyes surveyed her intently. She was definitely everyone's favorite subject. She was intriguing on all points- so beautiful she had Kraven on his knees and yet her eyes failed to hide a sadness so profound. No one dared contest her. Though she was not an elder, nor the head of the manor, she was the adopted daughter of the oldest and most powerful of beasts- and all understood with tacit recognition that she was the queen of the coven, after Amelia.

Selene gave her order. Rigel obediently jumped into action.

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The South Terminal was crawling with humans. They could have been invisible- their presence never registered on Selene's radar. Decades of training and hate honed her focus. In the underworld, in Selene's world, humans were of no significance.

Selene scanned the subway terminal, left to right, for the abhorred lycans. A sick joy pounded through her cold veins. She looked forward to their impending deaths. She looked forward to hearing her bullets rip through their worthless flesh and smelling the pungent aroma of gunpowder and blood, feeling it inflate her dead lungs. Her undead heart beat faster with anxiousness, pulsing her frozen blood throughout. Her heart still knew how to beat and she thought it a curse.

She wished she could stop its meaningless beating, end this long lifeless night, but her duty was not yet completed. She would avenge her family's merciless demise with the same merciless rage. Their ghosts haunted her in her dreams; unrelenting cries for help, implacable screams for her to save them. She dreamt of nothing else. The man she loved was a dead dream to her, an old hazy recollection commingled with broken memories of sunlight and warmth from a past life.

A man clamored down the rain drenched subway steps with the grace of a drowned cat. His stressed disposition pinned his preoccupied eyes to the wet floor. He didn't notice her staring. He couldn't have known that at that very moment, a dead heart was beginning to remember a dream long forgotten.

Tobias?

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Damn rain!

Michael reevaluated his decision about moving to Budapest. Shaking off loose droplets of rain from his hair and jacket, he slogged on, cursing mentally the rain, the weather and the bustling crowd in the subway. His mind raced,

Damn it, I'm late. Ferencz is probably already there..I should ju—

A pair of piercing hazel eyes bore holes into his. She was ridiculously gorgeous, emitting an unearthly beauty he'd never seen before. He looked absolutely stupid, unable to hide his stunned attraction. She would have gifted him with a delighted laugh, had she remember how that sounded.

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Selene's heart stopped. She found it ironic that she felt so alive when her heart stopped beating. She felt alive with this man. And she stood with him, unable to hide the look of shock on her face. She was the perhaps the fourth most powerful vampire there was, after elders, with years of controlled composure under her belt- and yet this man seemed to take all her power away. The train came screeching into the subway station, ripping Selene's senses away from him and she had a chance to slip away.

It's not him. It's not him. It's not him.

She forced herself back, concealing herself from his searching eyes. But she couldn't force the frenzied thoughts away. His face caused her heart to stop. Somewhere inside, she knew his touch would cause it to beat again. She wanted to call out to him but years of cold and darkness taught her how to hold oceans of pain silently within.

I want to go with you..

He walked on, both to her relief and utter disappointment.

Never again. It's not happening ever again.

She hated the part of her that wanted it to. In the abysses in her cold heart she felt her soul awakening. She thought she had buried it long ago with the rest of her hope and her humanity. She thought she had buried it long ago with Tobias. In a single moment, her entire life had been taken away on a fateful night. Now, in a solitary instant, she felt her life rising up out of the grave is had been deferred in for a century. She felt herself awakening from a cold dark nightmare to a dream she thought she had long forgotten.