Author's notes: Thank you for the review and I will be looking at your stories soon wink. Anyway thanks again for your kind words and I am glad to say that here is another chapter.

Disclaimer: I only own my girl at the moment, I don't own vampire hunter d, the song All of this Past or even some of the names of the evil people in the story…though they are my own characters. Anyway enjoy.

Chapter 2: Here I go again.

A woman of 25 sat with her long legs slung across a desk of mahogany in front of her. She rocked back slightly on a chair that was minimalist, her hands dangled at her sides while her head rested on her chest. For all anyone who saw her knew she could be asleep. Her breathing was even and soft, barely distinguishable against the hum of the air con. She seemed to be one of the few people that would be easy to kill.

Of course that was what D thought as he entered the room she rested in, even though the uneasiness in him was growing. Outside were a receptionist desk and a coffee machine. Everything looked like it had been used recently and was in clean, working order. He felt uneasy about the fact that this place looked the way it did. Even if he was being paid 50 million to kill this woman his mind was screaming that something was wrong. This place didn't seem as deserted as it was claimed to be. He sighed, releasing pressure from his spine, and approached the desk while glancing wearily around the room.

To his left and on the right hand side of the door was a large bookcase. The books were placed neatly on the shelves and were in alphabetical order…not something a rogue creature would do. No dust had settled there either. The books were either well used or were well cared for, either was a very uncomforting thought to this tall stranger. In the middle of the six shelves of book there was a seventh. This one lacked any form of books or journals but a long, slender, delicate sword.

As D examined the weapon he realised that there were conflicting messages coming from the item. The blade was slender and much like a rapiers blade, signifying a woman's blade, but it was longer than normal and had a wider base towards the hilt. That marked it as a male's sword. The blade was of a folded metal which D could not distinguish but the shape of it was much like that of a samurai's sword. Along the shaft there was strange writing engraved into it, and then filled with gold. It glittered unnaturally against the light around it. This sword had wards written all over it causing that unnatural glow and the hunter intended not to lose his life from the slightest touch.

The hilt was also much like a rapier's covering the hand (if you chose to grab it) with protection from other on-coming slash attacks. The part that covered the hand was covered in dragons, angles and demons all fighting though it looked like they were dancing. Upon the cross piece were two out stretched wings also symbolising that it was for use by a man, but the actual covering was too small even for a slender dunpeal to slide his hand into.

Across the handle was gold filigree embedded in an amber hand piece. The sword was a two handed weapon and had a pure platinum bead plastered between both of the hand pieces. At the pommel there was a strange emblem carved out of a small chunk of gold. It was a winged serpent, a wyvern, wrapped around itself with its tail gliding down the handle. This sword belonged to a powerful family and proved that the woman he was about to kill was the right one.

He was glad of that for he could see that he wasn't about to slaughter a poor farm girl who had come in out of the cold. He kept his eyes on the room…he was also being paid to find anything of value and report. He couldn't really understand why he was doing this sort of thing now, before he killed her, but it felt right somehow…sunset wasn't for another six hours yet.

Next to the bookcase was a large mahogany corner cupboard with a glass front to the small door. The upper half of the cabinet held dragon statues of many colours, amulets of strange, exotic origins and an old musky teddy bear. At one time this small trinket had been pure and white, now it was a mockery of its former self. Even if it was a sickly looking thing it had been loved well. Who ever that bears had belonged to had left their mark on it. There was room between the toys neck and its arms to prove that someone had hugged it too death. Its small black beady eyes stared out at D on an angle and the small brown thread mouth gave him a saddening smile. It had been years since that toy had been held by anyone.

Next to the corner cupboard was a wide cabinet taking up almost one side of the room. It held glasses, tumblers, tankards and more than two bottles of wine and, did his eyes deceive him, Baileys? It would have been a perfect place to relax and to have shared a good laugh with some friends…if he wasn't on the job, and of course if he had any such thing as friends.

The only other things in the room were the woman and her desk. She hadn't seemed to move though her face had lolled to one side and was now tilted towards him. It was strange that she hadn't heard him moving around. Then again when a vampire was asleep nothing but true death would awaken them. He smiled and looked her over appreciatively.

She was probably around 6' 4'' with out the heels that she was wearing. Her face was peaceful in dream sleep as if nothing would ever bother her. The innocence of a child is something most vampires can not pull off but she was doing well. Her skin was pale almost white despite all that she had probably killed. It was strange that she wasn't of a dead blue hue that most of the undead possessed. In fact if he didn't know any better he would say she looked like an ill human that was tired and had just fallen asleep.

Gentle loops of dark, chocolate brown hair (much like the colour his was) fell across her perfectly sculpted cheeks and nose. Her chin was sharp and refined but with the hair the way it was she didn't look like she was razor sharp. Her lips were very feminine, small, delicate and as red and as dark as any rose. Her eyes were closed so D could not see what colour they were. He could only speculate on that. They had long gentle eyelashes curling up towards her forehead. They weren't as long as some women's but they would probably make her look very attractive. Across her lids she had dusted some purple eye shadow. Slim neat eyebrows were raised and curved in the signs of sleep. Her ears were slightly pointed and signified that she was either a vampire or a dunpeal.

Her body was slender and stream-lined as if she had been fashioned to run and catch her prey. This was something most vampires did not have. Her skin moved over well toned muscles that told D of her true strength. Her hands were truly those of a woman's. Small and delicate with long fingers and lengthy nails. He knew better than to fob this girls nails off as fake…they could probably sever his major arteries. He could see the fine sheen to them as he stood a foot or so away, this signalled that they were as sharp as steel. They were filed to a slightly rounded point and were white, as if she had painted nail varnish across them. Something told the hunter that she hadn't used any suck beauty product and this irked him. Why was she so strange if she was just another vampire?

She was wearing clothing much like his. A black bodysuit covered in tight leather armour. It accentuated all her curves and feminine wiles. Along the rim of each lacquered black piece of armour was a thin strip of silver. The outfit was so much like his that he wondered, humanly, if they had ever gone to the same tailor. Her boots were long, up to her knees, and were like black patent leather that had been scuffed a bit. The heels were about three inches high and sharp as if they could do some major damage if enough force was put behind them.

She wore very little jewellery for a woman. Around her neck she wore a simple thin chain of silver clasped behind the back of her neck. On the pendant was a minimalist style wyvern just like the one on the end of the sword across the room from her. On each hand she wore a ring. The one on her left hand was white gold with a small oriental dragon carved in black across the band. The other was silver with a small diamond embedded in it surrounded by emerald. On her left ear she wore a small wyvern earring but on her right….

Her right ear held a strange ornament. Her lower earlobe was pierced twice, and her cartilage at the top of her ear. The cartilage piercing and second lobe were joined by a string of coloured beads that were strangely muted so as not to clash with her clothes. On her final piercing on that ear a string of beads ran straight down, beads gently glittering and after the last one a stream of faintly glowing silver thread. If it had been on anyone else it would have looked gaudy but against this creatures slender neck it looked delicate and enchanting.

D frowned as he drew a rough dagger from his belt. There was no room here for him to draw his sword and swing so he placed the dagger roughly over her heart and raised it to a suitable height. What happened next happened so quickly that his mind had barely registered anything… As his hand plunged down towards the creatures chest and her hopeful demise her hand rushed up and grabbed his wrist in a bone crushing grip. A vampire would never have been able to hear the movement of the blade while it was still light. She had moved faster than quick silver and had amazed him with her strength…the sun was still up. He felt the pressure increase and heard the crunch as his armour started to crack involuntarily. He looked towards the window behind her and slid open the curtain. Sun spilled onto the vampire…

…Yet nothing happened. No fire, no bright sparks nothing but the slight groan from the body that held his wrist. He looked down towards the woman and saw an unnaturally coloured eye staring back at him. They were a bright icy blue flecked with fiery silver lacing over and around the pupil. The darkness of the pupils was shaped like those of a cat. It followed his movements with unerring accuracy.

"You know I didn't think it was polite to attack a woman in her home." Her voice was low, soft almost like a purr of a contented cat.

"I do believe that you are the one that is impolite." D replied in an impassive tone. Her other eye opened and both narrowed at him.

"And who told you that? In fact what are my crimes?" She reached up with her other hand and ran her fingers a group of muscles in his wrist. It triggered him to let go of his blade. As it slid from his grip the same hand caught the knife. She tossed his wrist to the side with mild disinterest. It sent him backwards enough for her to rise. Her eyes were still half lidded but this time they were not in defiance but that sort of lazy look a cat gets when it is warm and contented.

"You have settled here against the villagers will and I have been hired to remove you." Her eyebrows arched gently at this.

"They have not objected for over 30 years. Who paid you hunter?" She crossed her arms but kept that odd look on her face.

"A rather rich man…I don't need to disclose my client's names."

"Hmmm…but I know…" she took a step forward, "Who you speak of." She smiled a cruel grin and flashed her canines.

"You say you have lived here for 30 years?" a curt nod answered him. "But I have looked at the murder cases in this area and none of them state 'death by vampire'." She laughed then. It was a high mirthless sound as if she found what he had just said offensive.

"What do you mean by vampire? Now that is an insult I haven't heard in a while." The edge in her voice was sharp, cutting in the cool of the room. Her eyes met his and he saw an emotion that very few vampires have in their eyes…despair. "I swear I'll kill the bastard for this!" She turned away from him towards the door. "So how much was Mr. Brandywine willing to pay…to kill me?" D regretted being unable to draw his sword at the sound of her voice, he would be able to kill her if only he could. She walked over towards her sword and lifted it gently from its resting place.

"And how do you know my client?"

"I've lived here long enough." She pulled a plain tattered sheath from on top of the books and slid the sword in with a fine metal sound.

"Then you know why he wants me to kill you."

"In all honesty I don't." she attached her weapon to her belt and opened the door that lead into the hall, "He has been trying too hard to get me killed recently…way too hard." She stepped out into the hall and held the door open for him. "Did he give you any ultimatums?"

"Pardon?" he asked thinking over what had happened and what was about too. The woman now stood leaning against the reception desk her brilliant blue eyes glowing in the slightly darkened hallway. There was enough room for a duel here.

"Did he say you had to bring me back dead or alive?"

"Either…though he preferred dead." A grin crossed her face then that made his skin crawl…it was the look of a hunter.

"I have a plan…though I will need your help." D felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth but would not let it hold. She seemed to withdraw then, the light playing across her eyes making her at once suspicious of him. She kept her distance but moved towards the door. "On second thoughts you should remain here."

"I have no reason to stay here and you," he drew his sword and pointed it at her, "shall not leave unless I have completed my job." She smiled and stepped forward towards the sword, its point now a mere few centimetres from her neck.

"I've heard that a person should never come between a hunter and his prey…" she flashed her fangs, "But what happens when the prey fights back?"

"They die." He replied leaning forward fully expecting the blade to pierce soft flesh.

He blinked as he moved and she had vanished. He stopped confused and bewildered at how fast she could move…if she had. A hand touched his shoulder moving him slightly so that he was looking down her sword blade. "I have no more time for pleasantries dunpeal." She slid the blade under his chin and rested it against his artery. "Now I suggest if you wish to live that you answer my questions." D nodded slightly letting a smile grace his lips.

"How do you know I am a Dunpeal?"

"Simple," she replied coolly running her left hand down his arm to grasp his sword hilt, "You walk in daylight…no vampire can do that." He nodded letting the handle of is sword slide from his fingers as she rested her hands just over his. She held it there for a second making sure he had let go then drew it too her side.

"That is very true." He sighed titling his head to face her, "But what are you? Aren't you a dunpeal too…the sun does not harm you after all."

"I am…" she smiled letting his sword drop to the floor, "Complicated."

"Tell me, how do you know my client?"

"Mr Brandywine? He is a pompous arse that I have had to deal with too often in the past ten years."

"Why only ten?"

"He had finally inherited his fathers industry after his death. He owed me money."

"That is not a good enough reason to send a hunter after you…"

"I defend this place!" she cut him off with a stern but sad lilt to her voice.

"How can you, you have not lived here that long."

"Haven't you been listening to anything I have just said?" he shook his head and laughed. "He spun you a tail didn't he?"

"My client told me you would lie. You came to the village only a week ago and started to attack…other villagers around the area." Her eyes narrowed and took on a frightening luminance, "Now the villagers are terrified of you."

"Have you asked them?" she sighed and shook her head at the look that crossed his face, "No I suppose you haven't. It's not in a hunter's routine to do that is it?" She shrugged and took a step back but kept her sword towards him ready to strike if he moved.

"What are you going to do?" D asked his voice void of emotion and his body still as an animal waiting to pounce for his sword.

"I am going to do something I should have done a long time ago." She could see him glance down at his sword. A child like grin swept across her pretty face. She then placed her foot under the hilt and flipped it upwards so she could catch it in her left hand.

It was a fluid movement that was so graceful it almost took D's breath away. She was fast and soon her lily white hands held the hilt of his sword as she drew away towards the door. "If I kill him…" she asked quietly, "Would you still hunt me?"

"I am not a killer of dunpeals…"

"Selene," she whispered, walking towards the door, "And I am not a dunpeal." She was now by the door to the lobby. She smiled and bowed low. "I'll see you later…"

"D," he nodded and held his hand out for his sword. She grinned and threw it into the wall just behind him. It embedded its self into the green plaster of the reception wall.

"We will talk later D," Selene smiled, "But for now I have to go after Mr Brandywine…again!"

Author's notes: Ok that was a long chapter but I needed to set the scene sorry.