I had been a Strigoi for almost a month now. That's thirty days of being a monster. Four weeks spent lusting for the blood of everyone around me. The only thing keeping me going was the fact that by being a Strigoi and using the power it gave me to hunt other Strigoi, I was protecting Lissa and Dimitri.

Dimitri, I missed him with all my heart and I knew that he was probably blaming himself for my death, for his inability to protect me. It was all I could do to not run as fast as my Strigoi legs could carry me and return to him. I knew that I would be a monster to him no matter how much I had remained the same, hell, I was a monster to me too. Just yesterday I had caught myself fantasizing about drinking from a girl who had walked by me on a busy street.

The hunt for Strigoi I had placed myself on had been a bust. I had been stalking through clubs and bars trying to spot a Strigoi looking for a victim. I found nothing, not one Strigoi in one of the most attacked areas in the world. The proximity to an academy meant that Moroi traveled through Missula more frequently than almost anywhere else.

It was frustrating I had been taught to act as if Strigoi were around every corner just waiting for a Moroi to come close. Yeah right. That turned out to be just a load of bullshit. I had goned a month in a "high risk area" without a sighting, and I was looking for them, hunting for them, and not one could be found.

Just my freaking luck.

I was at a club. Again. It pissed me off that I hadn't seen anything other than drunk college kids for a month. In this club the beat was far too loud for my newly enhanced hearing and the flashing lights just gave me a headache.

After the eighteenth shot that's alcohol content refused to get me the slightest bit drunk, I decided to call it quits. And besides the blood rushing through the crowd of people was rapidly becoming irresistible. So I made a rapid retreat to the exit.

Outside was even worse. A fight had broken out and a bloody nose forced me to sprint down an alleyway a block down from the club. To avoid any temptation to run back and drain the first warm bodied person I could find I had pinched my nose tightly and shut my eyes.

Then I ran into something. A cold mass that gave slightly when I ran into it. I opened my eyes, there were four Strigoi surrounding a human girl. The cold mass I had hit was the back of a Strigoi who had obviously been human, a very fat human.

They turned towards me thinking I was dessert. But when they realized I was Strigoi too they smiled a welcoming but still cold and evil smile. One of them a female with short brown hair spoke.

"Looky here. It seems we aren't the only vampires in the area." Vampires? "Wanna little taste?"

It was obvious that they were fairly new Strigoi and that they were humans once but vampires did they seriously not know anything about what they were? Anyway my arrival caused the girl who had been passed out on the sidewalk to be temporarily forgotten.

A stocky male held out his hand palm up in a dramatic gesture that reminded me of Darth Vader. "yes, sister of the night join our coven. Help us establish control over the city." Well apparently not. These idiots probably believed in the whole death by holy water scam too. This was going to be kinda fun.

I looked over the pitiful crew before me, a fat male, a small female, a stick thin male and a short and stocky male all gathered about ten feet in front of me, easy.

I crouched, bending my knees only slightly. Then with a speed that seemed far too fast for a new Strigoi like myself, I lunged at the "coven." I hit the fat male first grabbing his head and twisting it as I pulled up. It tore off with a sickening tearing noise. Dropping the head I made a second leap at the thin male kicking him chest with both feet. He flew back and cracked his head against the wall hard enough to leave him out of the fight for a while. I used the force of the kick to change direction. I leapt back and stood straight up with my hands behind my back. The stocky male jumped at me with his arms out stretched. It looked as if he moved in slow motion even though his speed was faster than anything a dhampir could do. I backhanded him. He flew into the wall and bounced off crashing next to the headless corpse.

The female, however, was smarter than the others. She pulled a knife from the waistband of her pants, a large serrated combat knife, and took a martial arts stance that was clearly from a movie. I began to laugh. I had years of training and conditioning in a multitude of martial arts. She watched kung fu movies. I began to walk towards her as I got close she lashed out faster than I expected. Her knife sliced across my cheek cutting a shallow line to appear on my skin, it didn't bleed. I took a step back and touched the cut with my index and middle fingers. The skin moved together and fused back into one smooth piece. Strigoi heal fast but not that fast.

The female used this time to gain a major advantage. She reached down and pulled the human girl, still unconscious, up by her hair and held the knife to her throat.

"Back off or the bitch gets it!" she snarled at me.

Now I was desperate, I had to save that girl. She didn't deserve to die doped up on Strigoi saliva and week from blood loss. No one did.

The desperation I felt triggered the darkness that lurked in the corners of my mind. I could feel them become active trying to make me act like a Strigoi. These shadows were far stronger than those I received from Lissa before, they were almost physical. I could actually feel their presence in my bones and blood.

To regain control of my mind I pushed the shadows out with a mental shove and I felt the shadows being forced out of my head into my torso and out through my hands.

The female Strigoi gasped and dropped the knife and the girl. She stared at me in horror, her eyes wide and her mouth dropped. I looked down at myself to see what had happened to make her so scared.

My hands were on fire. MY HANDS WERE ON FIRE! They were covered in black flames that seemed to grow and shrink at random. I focused and imagined them growing larger. They did the flames responded to me. Awesome. Freaky scary and completely messed up but it is badass.

I pointed at the female and imagined her bursting into fire. The fire from my hands flew towards her and smacked her in the chest. The flames spread across her chest and over her entire body. Within seconds she was nothing but ashes.

I moved on to her rest of the Strigoi, draining them of any blood they had before lighting them on fire. I needed to get as much blood as I could the more I got the less the people around me were in danger. I moved back to the girl. She was hurt but not badly, she would live but medical help would help.

I picked her up and ran her to a hospital. After compelling the doctor to fix her up with no questions asked and making sure that this would not be reported to any authorities I left. I needed to move on and get away from the area.

Mabye being a shadow kissed Strigoi wasn't a bad as I expected.

Sorry about the slow update. Life had to be lived and it took me away from this story for a while but I am back.

-vox ad umbram sum