Title: Predators of the Night. ( A Dark Hunter fic)

Author: Stephanie Gautier

Summary: A favourite characters relative comes to town with 3 distinct problems. First of which are her family, secondly of which is where she is from and lastly her inability to commit to love.

Will the hunters of the night be able to help our heroine? Will she be able to live and love? Will she live at all?

Notes: My updates will be a few weeks apart each time after the school term starts again.

Notes 2: This is my first attempt at a Dark Hunter Fic. The prologue contains no mention of the familiar Dark Hunters however that will come in the 1st chapter. This is just to introduce the new characters.

Notes 3: This is rated L, However, this is for future chapters and hopefully will work out right as I have never written a higher rating then a T.

Disclaimer: The Characters you recognise are the property of Sherrliyn Kenyon and o can only wish they were mine. Those you don't recognise are probably mine.

Prologue.

The wails of two young children filled the night air.

"Mama, Mama, pomoz nam."

Screams pleaded with Gods who could not or would not answer.

They ran towards a man whom they knew would help; the only certainty they felt at that time.

8 years old and enduring more then a child should ever have to know, or feel.

Fear for their family shot through them as they continued to race through the darkness to find the man whom their mother called another child of the night. Another man whose black eyes held hope.

A distant crash and cry of pain the children recognised only served to increase their wails, increase their fear.

Shrieking now, finally the man heard their cries.

Straining to hear the source of the terrified sounds he almost collided with the children making them as they ran to where they were told he might be.

" Hush, little ones, I'm here now." He answered them in their native tongue. "What scares you so?"

"Mama," they continued to cry. Then one of the boys drew up his courage and continued bravely." She fight with the bad man. He hurt Marek. Mama said find you. Tell you the children of the night are coming out to play."

Crouching down to their level he took both boys into their arms. Trying to reassure them, promising to try to help their family.

Cursing inside his head as a wave of fear assaulted him for a young woman whose kindness and courage alone kept him sane after the death of his child.

Cradling her children to them soothingly, he walked towards the house next to the bar where their "aunt" held domain.

She would keep them safely out of sight until someone could come to collect them.

And someone will, he thought, I will make sure someone will, even if it takes shadedom to accomplish.

He was both Kattagaria and Dark Hunter yet he was completely bound to human form.

Powers of old only allowed him to flash to places in the present, not even his brethren could force the change in him.

Reaching his destination he slowed his gait and knocked on the door loudly. Hard.

It was Gosia Lenarkiewicz's first night off in months and she was relaxing in a bubble bath of almost scalding water. One vice in which she shamelessly indulged. That and a certain dark man who came to her at the dead of night and dissapeared before the dawn began.

Giggling, the 26 year old woman grinned as she recalled the first time she met her best friend Madzia's saviour.

Janusz Takisienski. The man had such a raw power that she almost felt an animalistic pallor inside him.

Something she felt should scare her but didn't.

Sinking back into the water she felt herself begin to drift off. A memory of his overpowering presence she relaxed, a few minutes later she heard a loud frenzied banging on her door.

8

" Gosia," she heard her dark man yell. "Otworz Drwi! Open the door dammit. Gosia!"

Hearing him yell the children began to whimper again.

"Ciocia, Ciocia, Ciocia," Came the moans of the children, Fear clearly conveyed through their collected cries.

Jan banged on the door again and again, stopping only when he heard her feet thundering down the stairs.

"O moj Boze!" Exclaimed the other woman, "What happened? Is everything ok?" Suddenly stopping as she thought about how the kids would take her worry. She knew Magma tried not to let the boys see how bad off she could be.

As if sensing her thoughts he broke in answering both questions simultaneously. "I don't know but I am going to find out and help. Take care of the boys for her?"

"Of course, you know they are always welcome here, aren't you misiaczku?" she addressed the boy, trying to ease his worry.

On that note he handed the boys to her, kissed them on the head and left, leaving his lover to deal with the two little boys whose mental instability cut through him worse then anything else in his life.

MEANWHILE

"Marek, get up little boy," pleaded his sister in Polish. "Kochany move your butt we've got to get moving little boy."

Tears poured down her face as she watched her brother try to process what she had said. Her heart broke at his ignorance to her blatant baiting. Something he would normally never do.

"He'll be back any minute son. I'm too hurt to do much damage. Come on we haven't got anything left to fight with. We must run Child. We must"

No more words were spoken as the young woman had to tend with him collapsing in her arms, a weight she could not hold. Her knees gave out and she struggled to get them back on the field.

Blood poured out of various wounds on her body and she knew it was only a matter of time before she joined her brother in the realms of Morpheous.; if that were indeed where the unconscious go.

Standing again she began to drag the prone body she held with her.

Madzia was sure her attacker was not human, at least not conventionally so, and she was sure that her father and his new "Friend" would soon find them. Finish what they had started.

Bitter betrayal coursed through her body although surprise wasn't present within her thoughts.

He should have only come after me. I'll kill him for this he has to know that. I'm the one that screwed him not them. Son of a bitch!

Hatred coursed through her veins, giving her the strength she needed to get moving again.

"Jan "She called mentally knowing that if he heard her he would come. Praying he got the twins to safety.

Hoping she hadn't doomed them to death with her cry she became aware that she may have just sent out a psychic flare to the SOB after her and Marek.

Hearing her cry Jan flashed straight to her unaware that at the same moment her tormenter had intercepted the same call.

sometime later

The slayer had met the Hunter at the source of the call only to discover the battered female wielding a sword and calling on the Goddess Athena for guidance. And Artemis for assistance,

Immediate responses had a battle rage within seconds.

"Clang" went the sound of the two swords the men wielded striking each other.

Yet again. Collisions, attacks, defence. Strike block, strike block, Slash. Went the repeating pattern.

Animal against Hunter neither gaining the upper hand, both mindful of the woman whom lay near them, clinging to consciousness. Distracted momentarily the slayer seized upon his chance and stabbed the Hunter.

Immediately going after the girl.

He had a plan as to deal with her, first he planned to rape her, a fighting female was always such a treat. Only then would he take the final pleasure and kill her. Complete helplessness.

Poetic justice and a pay check all rolled into one he thought. "Oh how I love my life." He sang in a curiously demented voice not noticing the interaction going on between hunter and human.

Madzia would not give up this fight so she stood her ground and fought with everything she had left.

Attacking at the creature intent on her demise. She held a picture of her family in her mind. Her strength her safe haven, everything she had fought for and would continue to do so.

Magic coursed through her body and she infused it into her sword. She knew she could not kill him. But damned if she would not hurt him too. She only needed to but the time to escape. Time to recuperate and find help.

Signalling to Jan who was now on his feet.

They attacked together and she threw the Rosary beads her grandmother had once given her. Temporarily blinding the slayer (as he was called) they both slice through the slayer three times. He turned into a tiger and disappeared but not before he swiped at his two opponents. Breaking her already bruised ribs. And knocking the hunter back off his feet so he could not follow.

Pain made her queasy but she kept her feet under her. Staggering towards her brother she asked the dark man whom she called friend to transport them to Gosia's. Well, outside Gosia's anyway.

Knowing it was far from over she shot herself up with morphine and asked Jan to transport the four of them to America. Somewhere in Louisiana.

Renting a car she made her way towards the location that Artemis had given her. Driving past the sign welcoming them into New Orleans se finally began to relax.

Looking over at the twins sleeping in the back seat, faces angelic and unscathed, she smiled. Her little boys were her life. She didn't know what she would do without them. If I'd lost them there would be no place on earth I wouldn't hunt him down in.

The older boy felt like her son more then her brother and she refused to let him die.

Nick would tell her where to find the help she needed. Not something she would ask for off the streets.

Glancing down at the card she held, a card she had received from her aunt and cousin with an address for them

The Gautier residence.

Someone would direct her too him she was sure.

Maybe the hospital would be better. No, I must trust Artemis in what she told me even If she was holding something back.