Chapter One: Birth

Everything went black with the pain that engulfed Sarah in that moment. She couldn't feel anything, except as the fire burning deep within her belly, her veins, winding its way to her heart.

Later, Sarah didn't remember much of what happened that night. She vaguely remembered strong arms carrying her and lifting her away, but she couldn't remember a face that went with them. She awoke alone.

When Sarah could finally open her eyes, it was night again. It seemed as if eternities had passes since she had tried to walk to that neighboring house in the dark. Nothing seemed clear…

But then, instantly, something was.

Hunger. Hunger so powerful it was all Sarah could do to keep from screaming. (a/n: remember that Sarah doesn't know what she is at this point)

Sarah took deep, shuddering, breaths to try to keep herself calm; it didn't work. Her senses took over, honing in for the kill. Again, everything went black as the urge to hunt and to kill took over Sarah's body.

She into a doze covered in human blood.

"You were sloppy, very sloppy. You could have been discovered," the voice came from over Sarah's head.

She moaned and rolled over. Her mind had been happily far away for the past few hours. Now, she opened her eyes; it was sunny outside, and there was a man standing over her.

Sarah shrieked and attempted to propel herself away before she caught sight of her hands; they were covered in blood.

She gasped. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" she said.

The stranger fixed her with a piercing stare and Sarah noticed that he was one of the most hansom men she had ever seen. She noticed this fact very briefly, however; her attention was still on the blood that, now she noticed it, covered most of her body.

"What did you do to me?!" she shrieked.

The man quirked a smile at her. "I think the question is, what did you do to you."

"I didn't do this, so you must have-" the memory of the past night came rushing back, the tramp she had killed, the warm and lustful feeling of blood sliding down her throat – Sarah wretched, but nothing came up.

He put a hand of her back. "You're a new one, aren't you?" he asked in mild interest.

"A new what? Convict? Why, do you have a club or something?"

The man's smile widened. "Not really," he said. "Though what you would call murder is indeed a part of our… business." He paused, considering. "You really don't know?"

"Know what?! That I'm covered in blood and sitting in the middle of nowhere with a stranger, now knowing quite how I got here?!" Sarah knew she was freaking out, but this didn't seem to bother the man much.

"You're a Vampire," he said easily.

Sarah started to scoff, but the sound never reached her mouth. Instead, she remembered the warm blood sliding down her throat… all expression left her face. She stared at her hands; they were bone white, bloodless. Slowly, as an experiment, she put her hand to her neck to check for a pulse; nothing.

She looked up at the man again, her blue eyes wide. "How?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know – someone must have bitten you."

Sarah made an 'eew' face. "That's disgusting," she said.

"No more disgusting than what a messy eater you are."

Sarah glanced down at herself and felt sick again. "What – what do I do now?" she asked.

The man studied her for a moment. "You can come with me for a while," he said at last. "But I reserve the right to leave you when ever I feel the need. Young Vampires are always tricky."

"Why?" asked Sarah, walking slowly over to him.

"Because of their eating habits."

Sarah blanched again.

"Come one, Newbie, let's get you cleaned up. What's your name by the way?" he asked.

"Sarah," Sarah said. "What about you?"

"I'm Douglas. Come one, Newbie."

Sarah followed. She had no idea what was possessing her to follow a stranger – not that it really mattered at this point. She was a Vampire, her life was over, apparently. She thought about her new 'nick name' and nearly laughed.

"Have you tested how fast you can go?" Douglas asked her. She was running to keep up now, although she didn't feel at all out of breath.

Sarah was slightly confused. "Nope."

"You can go much faster than this."

"Like what, a truck?"

"Faster."

"Your joking!" Sarah exclaimed, laughing.

"Try it." Sarah heard a smile in his words. She wondered why he had taken her under his wing. She didn't really care all that much at the moment, but…

For lack of anything better to do, Sarah tried. And was astounded.

Douglas laughed at the look on her face as she came to rest. "I told you," he said imperiously.

Sarah just laughed. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Why?"

"I'm just curious."

"In what terms, then?"

"What do you mean?

"I mean, do you want to know how old I was when I was Changed or how old I am now?" Douglas asked. He was sitting on a tree stump, staring at her and smiling.

"Both, thanks," Sarah said with a smile.

"Well then. I was twenty-three when I was changed… and that was around two hundred seventeen years ago."

"So you're… two hundred forty?" Sarah asked, astonished. "Gee, how long to Vampires live?"

"Forever, if we're not killed," Douglas said. He started 'walking' again, at a much more inhuman pace.

"You're joking!" Sara said. She caught up easily; she could sense that this wasn't even a fraction of the speed she was able to use when she wanted to. And although she wanted to test the limits of her new body, she wanted to learn about vampires more.

"No, I'm not. I've met vampires who are over five thousand years old. There are a great many old vampires in Italy. More than you'll find in America."

"Do you travel a lot?"

"Quite a bit. You have to keep traveling so that you don't attract attention when you eat."

When you eat. The words reverberated in Sarah's mind. Well, you had to survive, didn't you? So long as she ate only bad people she didn't think it'd bother her too much.

"How do you kill a Vampire?" she asked.

"Well, I've had to do it a couple of times… you dismember them, mainly. Then you burn the pieces."

"That's disgusting," Sarah said.

"Which is why I don't do it for fun, only when I need to. Think you can manage a faster pace, by the way? It'll be better if you can. This won't take so long."

"I can try." The truth was that she was longing to try, but she wouldn't tell that to Douglas.

"Well okay then," Douglas smiled, and then he started to run.

At first, it was slightly hard. The Venom hadn't quite had time to drain all the way out of Sarah's body so the great powerful movements required for that level of speed hurt quite a bit. But that was before she lost herself in the joys of running. And oh what joys they were. The wind whistling through her hair, the sight of the trees flashing by, no more than blurs… It was all enough to give her a heady sense of delight.

But at last Douglas slowed down. "You wait here," he said, pointing to a log. "I won't be long."

"Why can't I come?" Sarah asked. She felt slightly affronted; what had she done to offend him? She couldn't think of anything!

"It isn't your fault," Douglas said. "But your covered in human blood and you're a new Vampire."

"Which means…?"

"That you will likely attack any human you see on sight."

"Oh. What are you going to do then?"

"I am going to find you some clean, proper, clothes, and some gear. And I'll tell you what. There's a river that way through the forest. You can wash yourself in that and then you'll be clean when I get back. Deal?" Douglas raised an eyebrow, but Sarah could see that he was still smiling.

"Okay," Sarah said. Then they parted ways.

It took Sarah less than a minute to find the river that Douglas had said she would. Her newfound speed, grace, and agility, were barley even surprising to her now – although she still took a great deal of pleasure in them.

Listening intently to make sure that there was no one around, Sarah took off her clothes and got into the clear, deep blue, water of the stream. Even though it was cold, it didn't bother her. Perhaps that was some other thing about being a Vampire. Then again, she reminded herself, giggling. She was probably so cold now that she could freeze the water by herself!

Sarah carefully washed her self, getting off all the blood. She wished she had asked Douglas to get her some soap or something; getting the blood off by hand required a lot of scrubbing although at least it didn't turn her skin red as it normally would have.

After cleaning herself as best she could, and running her fingers through her surprisingly silky hair a couple of times, she washed her clothes, just for good measure. It was even harder to get the blood out of the fabric, and it was still stained, probably permanently, when she finished, but at least she had tried.

Then, she put her sopping wet clothes back on and went back to the log, completely dripping, to wait for Douglas. He was already waiting for her there, holding what looked like a trash bag full of clothing.

"I wasn't sure what to get you," he said. And from the tone of his voice, it sounded almost like he was blushing. If he had blood, that was.

"Thanks," Sarah said cheerfully. "Um, just a minute."

She ran back to the river. She didn't want Douglas to see her change. She opened the bag. There was clothing of all kinds in there. Women's business suits, jeans, even a cat suit. Sarah wondered how he didn't know what that was for. Or maybe he did and was just teasing her. Either was she felt slightly embarrassed as she put it aside.

After some quick thought, she selected some jeans, an 'Earth Day' tee-shirt, and a black designer hoodie. She discovered that there was also a black backpack in the bag, and stuffed the rest of the clothes – you never knew what you would need – into that. She left her feet, like Douglas' bare. When everything was finished, she ran back to where he was still waiting by the log.

"What are we doing now?" she asked.

"Travel, anywhere." Douglas didn't seem to be paying attention.

Sarah waved a hand in front of his eyes. "Wake up," she said.

"I haven't slept since I was human," Douglas huffed. "Where would you like to go?" It was a test, and Sarah knew it.

Sarah thought about it. "How about up north?" she asked. She had always wanted to see polar bears and the Aurora. And it sounded like she needed to stay out of people's way for a while, being a new Vampire.

"North it is," Douglas murmured.

And they ran.