For those of you who have read my story MoonMad on FP, then yes, the characters share the same names. Most other resemblances end there. Please read and enjoy. This is a two-part, but if I have enough time I might expand it. I've got my hands full with Exams at the mo...

Warning: This is very different from my other FanFic stories...

It's past midnight, and something stirs in the dark shadows of the room. Aren Llellangen snaps to wakefulness, her cat-like pupils expanding and dilating as she strains to make out details in the murky darkness, her cat ears flicking back and forth as they struggle to pick up any sound. The candle on her desk has long since guttered out and no light pervades her room.

Who is there?

Aren lies rock-still, her heart pounding in her chest. As stealthily as she can manage, she reaches over and touches the mattress next to her, to warn her boyfriend Blake, but with a cold jolt of fear her hand goes straight through air to land on the cold sheet, and she remembers that tonight she's in her room at her house, not his.

She is alone.

Her fear increasing, her ears detect a faint breathing from the far right corner of the room. With a start she remembers that her recently-acquired crossbow is hung up on the wall by the door – too far for her to reach before whoever – whatever – it is reaches her. Cursing herself for her helplessness and Blake for his non-being-here, she forces herself to sit up straight in the bed, and clutches the sheets to her voluptuous chest, aware that under it she's only wearing a baggy grey t-shirt and nothing else. Calling out in as strong a voice as she can muster, she says, "Who's there?"

Only silence answers her, but far from being reassured, she feels small tremors begin to shudder across her body. She's only a tiny 5"3, with an hour-glass figure and tiny size three feet, and she knows that whoever it is she'll be no match against them. Something brushes the back of her neck – the gentle caress of a pair of fangs – and Aren thinks, oh, Goddess, whoever it is – the vampire – is playing with me. Please just let it be over and done with soon…

As she has only recently come into her inheritance – her mother was a tortoise-shell cat 'shifter who had dumped her on her human father when she showed no signs of developing as a shapeshifter – she knows she stands no chance against the vamp. Her father had only just told her of her heritage a few months ago, when at the age of eighteen she had first shifted and ended up stuck in her half and half form. She hadn't been able to shift back since. About a month ago her father had introduced her to Circle Daybreak, and now they were helping her out with adjusting to her new form, and teaching her night-world laws. They were also looking into solutions for her problem – the general consensus was that her body was still recovering from the psychological shock of such a late first change - and in the meantime were helping her train to defend herself in the upcoming war.

Aren knows, though, that even with the little bit of defensive training that she has had she doesn't stand a chance against any vampire, especially if the vamp in question is affiliated with Circle Midnight. She closes her eyesand begins to feels herself start to panic.

A hand caresses, then squeezes painfully, her breast, and then is gone.

In her mind Aren flicks through a dozen different possible escape routes; plans in which the only outcome she can think of is her ending up dead. A hand reaches down and squeezes the base of her tail and pulls roughly along its length, tugging it teasingly. Then the hand suddenly jerks her tail up hard in a way that sends an intense bolt of sexual pleasure through her ass. Aren rises up a little and cries out.

She feels the presence getting closer, and suddenly it is right there, breathing on her neck, and she snaps open her green, slanted cat-eyes but as hard as she tries she still can't make anything out in the murk before her. She scrambles backwards until she's pressed against the headboard, her heart beats furiously, and –

"Surprise." A low voice whispers in her ear. She is suddenly pulled against someone's chest, her back to their front, sat on their lap as one of their arms snakes around her chest and holds her tightly, squashing her breasts, the other warm hand pressed against her mouth to stop her from screaming. She opens her baby cat fangs that she can't retract however hard she tries, and is about to sink them into the flesh before her, when a low, sexy voice says "Don't scream, it's me," and she pauses, confused.

"Gabriel?"

"That's right, sweetheart." The hand jerks her tail again, and she moans, and wriggles her ass against him. She feels him stiffen beneath her and she rubs herself on his hard bulge, but then he is gone, and she thumps back on the pillow. She sits up, shocked at what she just did.

A low chuckle bounces around the room, and whipping her head round, she tries to find its source. Her bronze curls follow her head like a halo.

"Always so very sensual, aren't we, the cat-shifters?" A finger smooth's flat one of the tawny ears poking up through her hair, and then it's gone and she flicks her ear in annoyance, still aching for him.

"Over here, love."

Aren turns round and finds Gabriel's face only centimetres away from her own. His eyes dance wickedly, teasing and flirtatious as he looks into hers. Swallowing hard, she stares into his dark eyes for a few seconds, her tongue wetting her lips, and he grins back at her amused, but then she jerks out of her reverie and pulls back, flustered.

With his dark hair, sensuous mouth and perfectly muscled body, Gabriel Roth is her idea of sexy. The fact that he is also insolent, arrogant, and flirts with every girl he meets only serves to enhance that image.

He is also, as of last month, her new fencing and defensive training tutor. Hence the few flashes of muscled torso she had seen. On top of this, he is also her own personal Guardian, burdened with the job of looking after her as she settles into life at Circle Daybreak. Though what looking after meant, she wasn't sure. . . Gabriel seemed to have an entirely different idea of what it was all about to her however.

Like now, for instance. Sure, she had agreed to the terms of the Guardianship that stipulated that her Guardian would be allowed access to her home whenever she was in it, but she didn't think that whoever wrote the magical witch-blessed contract put that clause in just so that Gabriel could use it for his own stalking purposes. Not that he had ever been in her house before. This time was the first.

Three weeks ago she had been paired up with him for the Guardian-Student link. She still remembered their first meeting…

She was walking down a corridor with a motherly looking witch with a grey bun in her mid-fifties, still baffled by the maze of corridors that made up the main Circle Daybreak Headquarters. They were on their way to meet her new Guardian, the 'possible' that Circle Daybreak's complex organisational team had come up with for her. The witch paused outside a closed set of double doors…

"I'd better stop here, dear," she says. "It's better if you meet your 'possible' alone for the first time, so that you can get to know each other and see if you'll be a 'match' without any outside interferences." She pauses and checks her watch. "He should just be finishing his training session around now." He, Aren thinks?

"He?" She echoes her thoughts out loud. Her Guardian is a he? She had been expecting someone, well, maybe someone female, maybe a little like the kindly witch in front of her… She didn't have many guy friends. To be honest, she didn't really know how to act around them. The ones she knew tended to be either the meaty, grope-y type, or the nerdy, too-shy-to-speak-to-you type. Except from Blake, that is.

Don't worry," she says, seeing her nervous expression, "You'll be fine. Gabriel is a nice enough boy once you get to know him." Boy? Her mentor – she quickly corrects herself, Guardian – is young? Before she has time to prepare herself, the silver-haired witch says, "Go on in, dear. . ." and she opens one of the double doors and gently propels her forwards, leaving her with no time to wonder or scare herself into fear about the person – this 'Gabriel'- who may or may not be her Guardian, her protector, her carer and her mentor for the next six months . . .

Reviews are always appreciated :)

-Marrya