A/N: So, as mentioned on my profile, here is the first chapter of James' POV of Held. This story was written with the fantastic Liyorah and she's writing Victoria's POV, which can be found here: .net/s/5856335/1/Held.

The hunt itself was entertaining. Tracking a helpless human down while they did everything they could to avoid death at my hands; drove interstate, got on a plane to Australia, took leave in Europe, I knew all their tricks.

It was over all too quickly though. The hunt itself could only last so long and, as humans are such fragile creatures, there's only so much torture they can take before they die. I wanted a game that would last so much longer; months, years even. I wanted a human to kneel at my feet and beg for my bite, beg for death and I would laugh and drag my game out for as long as I pleased before killing them.

But that would take control, patience, skill...

But I had all three of the criteria.

I tapped my fingers on the small table in the corner of the club. Clubs were the easiest places for me to hunt when I was looking for a victim; here, with the flashing lights and dark atmosphere, my pale skin and red eyes were concealed to great effect and, if any one of the pathetic creatures here did happen to see my rather inhuman features, they hardly looked out of place.

I scanned the large room, considering. If I was to go ahead with my plan then I would have to choose my victim carefully. Anyone too weak would be too easily broken and I might as well just hunt them conventionally, anyone too strong, someone with nothing to lose or gain, wouldn't care if they lived or died and would provide no sport. I needed someone strong, but with a weakness.

I would definitely take a woman - Lord knew how much men and their false bravado irritated me. Besides that, I was, to use the term the humans were using now, straight. Also, women were more exciting; they panicked early but allowed you to lead them into a false sense of security. A few croons and 'It's alright, it's not very far along, just down here, I won't hurt you' and they'd already forgotten their panic. By the time they realised that something was very, very wrong, it was far too late. Then they started to beg.

My plan was taking shape. First, I needed a victim, then I needed their scent so that I could track them easily later on and, thirdly, I needed them to trust me, just a little bit, so that I wouldn't have to take them by force when I actually did come to kidnap them.

I scanned the club, wondering if there was a suitable pet here. Pet, hmmm, was that the right term? Yes, I think so. I had intentions to use the human female I chose for sexual gratification, among other things, during the course of her captivity.

As I searched, my eyes settled on a group of young woman dancing across the other side of the dance floor. They all looked to be in their early twenties; young, energetic, alive...

I studied each of the in turn. I brushed off the pair of identical brunette twins who were so drunk they could barely stay upright and were giggling each other's names "Kate, Stacy, Kate, Stacy". A shorter, slightly pudgy blonde was also immediately passed over because of the nervous terror in her eyes, she obviously didn't want to be here and would break much too quickly for my liking. I wanted six months with the human before they started pleading for death, at least!

So, out of the group, that left two who might be suitable. One had a Eurasian complexion with black hair, wide eyes and a few freckles. She was pretty, by mortal standards, if a little drunk. There was a hard edge to her that would be fun to soften and snap off before killing her. The second who might be suitable was a red head who had her back to me.

Turn around I thought I want to see your face. Turn around.

"Sutherland!" came a male voice and the red head turned to face the speaker. She had a large pair of vivid green eyes that were full of strength, resilience and determination. Her eyes were the dominant feature of her face, the rest of her paled into insignificance when compared with her deep green pools of defiance. I licked my lips; I wanted to see those little emeralds leak with tears, see her shoulders heave with sobs and hear her voice beg for her death.

I laughed softly. I'd found my pet.

I watched her talk with her boyfriend, laughing about something he said and smacking him playfully in the chest when he said something that annoyed her. To use a modern expression, it was obvious that the girl 'wore the pants' in her relationship.

Not for long beautiful girl.

I left my seat and slipped over to the bar, waiting for the girl to stop talking with her boyfriend. The male was irritating me, I could already feel the sweeping, possessive urges I got towards my prey when I went on the hunt; the desire to ensure that I had them all to myself with no interference from anyone else.

When the male was called over by one of his friends I seized my chance and slithered over to the red head before she could get back to her friends.

"Good evening" I crooned seductively to her and she turned around and gave me a quick look up and down. Her eyes said it all. She, in her strappy high heels, leather pants and white t-shirt gathered at the wrists and waist, belonged here. Me, in my worn backpackers shirt, weather stained jeans and shoes that I'd stolen from somewhere so that I could mix with human society without looking too conspicuous, did not belong here.

She was cordial however. I introduced myself to her and she did the same to me. Her name was Victoria Sutherland. Victoria, that was ironic.

"How about a dance?" I asked smoothly and she hesitated for a moment and glanced around for her boyfriend before saying "Um.., sure why not" and I led her over to the dance floor. Aside from one comment about the temperature of my hands around her waist, she didn't seem to notice that I was particularly different. While we danced, we talked and I found out that her father was Justice Phillip Sutherland, a well known judge in his home state of Massachusetts and her mother was the Massachusetts state coroner. When I asked what she was doing in New York she told me she was pursuing a classical studies degree majoring in ancient Roman languages and politics at Cornell. She asked me what I was doing and I made up a story about studying a law degree, she gave me an odd look and adjusted my hands back to where they had been earlier, they'd slid a little bit lower than she was comfortable with.

I offered to buy her a drink to try and keep her lips moving but it turned out that she didn't drink so I offered to dance with her again but she declined and bade me good bye and went back to join her friends and boyfriend, almost throwing herself back into his arms. I'd alarmed her, that was unexpected but not unwelcome. I stood by the bar and watched for a while. Her boyfriend seemed a little upset that she'd been dancing with me. He sent me a look that said, quite clearly 'Keep your hands off my girl'. I flashed my slick, venom coated teeth back at him and gave him a look with a similar message 'Keep your hands off my property'. He looked away and I smiled before leaving.

My discussion with Victoria had yielded her scent and an interesting little bit of background information. Her parents probably had a few contacts within the law, there would be uproar when she disappeared and it would be so much fun to taunt them with phone calls (the kind that couldn't be traced of course) about what I was doing to their little girl.

With the scent of my soon-to-be pet still filling my nostrils I went out into the night to hunt. I would kidnap her within the week and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't too thirsty, because, after all, the end result would be in me luxuriating in her blood as it slid down my throat and I wasn't going to kidnap someone unappetizing, there would be just no point.

A/N: Well, what did you think? Be sure to click on the link up to top to read Victoria's POV of this chapter. Also, I know I've got to put the last chapter of God's Gift but I'm waiting to see if I get any more votes on what to write next. So far I've got ONE! If you want me to write something after God's Gift go to my blog and read the After God's Gift post.