It had all been going swimmingly for him until that moment. He had actually started enjoying himself, getting used to the added power...and the speed. He'd been quick before, oh yes, but now it was like he'd been running through a bog for most of his life. He'd been careful, kept to the woods and sustained himself on squirrels and boar even though they tasted like piss. Then he'd smelled it.

Cinnamon, no, vanilla with a hint of something pepperish but it was the scent he could not name that did him in. It filled his nose and he could taste it on the back of his tongue and he almost gave into the urge to just stand there and never stop breathing in her smell.

But it woke the Beast. And the thing that he had been trying so hard to hold back clawed its way to the forefront of his consciousness and that what he had been could only watch in silent horror as he stalked closer to the village of Jump.

'Jump.' The name triggered something in the human part of his mind, there was something about it that was not...safe. He should be able to recall if only he could focus, but with the smell in the air and the heady sensation that taste might be following soon his mind was scattered.

That was why he was here wasn't it, he had a scattered mind, too scattered to be of use she'd said as she stood over him. His heart broke all over again when he remembered the look on her face. She'd looked so disgusted.

'Thegirlthegirlthegirl! Icanseethegirl! OHDELICIOUS!' The Beast groaned along the pathways of his mind and he who had once been human was laid dormant once more. The Beast breathed in her scent, wallowing once more in that forbidden after taste it left on it's tongue. It looked then with eyes that were sharpened by the unnatural and gazed at her as she walked along the edges of the village.

She was pretty, her short cropped blond hair was like spun gold to his overworked senses and she carried herself with a grace that was uncommon in the lower classes.

Its head started moving in rhythm with the young girl's steps and it's drawn to that pale pillar of flesh that was her neck. 'Soslendersosuckulant!' It thought gleefully, 'So young.' He thought with a guilty pang. There was a dark chuckle from the Beast and he tried desperately not to listen to it 'That'sexactlyhowwelike'em!'

'Someone,' He thought, 'please kill me.' A plea that was harder to fulfil than one might expect.

The Beast may be an instinct driven predator, it may have a subconscious need to satiate itself on the blood of young, or in this case very young, maidens it may be cruel and heartless, but it is not stupid. On the contrary it was cunning and smart and an able hunter. It realized that prey like this, in a village like this one was better snatched during the midnight hours. When leaving it's heavily shrouded refuge in the forest didn't mean an agonizing death from the sun's rays.

It would be able to find her by scent alone anyway.

All the while he was thinking of a way out, someway to get the Beast to leave the gi- the child alone, he'd never asked for this...any of it. It was when the moon had finally started to become visible in the sky that it suddenly dawned on him.

'Wait! I mean, please just wait a second. I knew I heard the name of this village somewhere before and I did.' The Beast had already bounded past the forest's edge and was closing in rapidly on the girl's house.

'SHE TOLD US!' He cried desperatly and the Beast paused with one foot already placed on the girl's windowsill, he felt sick when he saw her clutch the rag she used as a sleeping companion.

'Speak.'

'I-it was right before she threw you-us out. After she made yo-us what we are.' Encouraged by the Beast's silence he continued. 'Two villages are off limits, she'd said. One was...was...Gotham because: even he who would have been our father dreads treading there. But the other village she spoke of was Jump I'm sure of it now!'

'Why.' It was not a question.

'Because...because...dammit. Ah!' It came to him then as sudden as flash of lightning over an open field. 'The Chapel of Janus, er, Father Wilson and his Hunters.' He felt relief washing over him. Relief that turned once more to cold horror when the Beast stepped over the threshold of the girl's room. It chuckled darkly.

'Wecantakethem,orwecanoutrunthem.' He felt his lips turn up in a cold smile. ',shejustsetyoufree. Nomorerunningawayfromme.' His final thought before he surrendered to that heady darkness was 'I hope that those Hunters are as good as she said.'

The Beast leaped at the sleeping girl, a growl escaping from between his lips and his fangs glittering in the light of the moon.

She had started following the creature as soon as it entered Jump, she hadn't yet alerted the others because she could already feel that this one would not be much of a threat. The vampire moved erratically and with a speed that, she admitted grudgingly, surprised her. But he was sloppy and malnourished and his tattered yellow shirt hung from shoulders that were scabbed and torn from either fights or hard living. He was also wearing the most ridiculous mask she had ever seen, though it to hung from his face like he was no longer aware that he was wearing it.

She caught up to him as he bounded up the side of the small house only pausing in her pursuit when he did, poised on the windowsill. She floated behind him soundlessly and grasped one of the stakes that hung from her belt. He wouldn't be the first casteless vampire she'd put down and he probably wouldn't be the last.

Her eyes widened slightly when he leaped from the windowsill at the sleeping form of the young girl in the room. She spoke the words that came so naturally to her and his body was enveloped in a hand of dark energy and torn from the room.

She deposited him non too gently just outside the window, watching in cold detachment when his body hit the ground.

To her continued surprise, and annoyance, he twisted in mid air and landed gracefully on his feet in a crouch. He hissed and glared at her, baring his fangs when she failed to be intimidated. She merely rolled her eyes.

"Come of it, Casteless," she said tonelessly, "You were dead the minute you stepped inside the perimiter of this village."

He chuckled, a sound that seemed to be coming from the back of his throat and spoke "They have sent a girl to stop me?" His eyes roved over her body and even as she floated above him she could feel his lecherous intent. "Such a pretty girl, such a tiny girl." He continued, "Might I have your name before I end you?" He crouched down even further, poised to strike.

The hand that held the stake became enveloped in dark energy and she replied, without any emotion "My name Raven," the corners of her lips turned up in a smirk, "and I will end you."

She threw the stake at the vampire's chest.

A/N And this is the prologue, I hope you like it and I hope there are still people who read fiction on the TT. This is as you may have guessed an AU and there will be pairings in this story though I hope it will be fun enough even for those who do not support those pairings. One of the pairings is probably obvious.

Well I hope you like it. Niaroanc out.