"Benjamin?" I asked.

I turned my head painstakingly to look at him, gritting my teeth. Almost every movement hurt.

"Shit," I said. "Benjam"in, you look terrible." He did. His face was drawn with indecision – or pain.

He smoothened his face out immediately.

"Tia," he murmured. "How are you feeling?"

"Wonderful," I said sarcastically.

Suddenly, it was like a dam had burst. The words came spilling out of his mouth.

"Tia… this is all my fault. I wasn't there to help you. I should have done something! And I'm putting you in danger just by being near me! I'm so, so sorry. I don't deserve to know you. You'll probably never forgive – "

"Benjamin." I whispered. He was blaming himself?

"I'm sorry," he said ruefully. "I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"Yes. And please, Benjamin – stop blaming yourself."

"How can I? It is my fault."

"It's not. You had no way of knowing!"

"I should have guessed. I should never have left you alone. I owe you that much."

"Owe me?" I asked, shocked. "What do you owe me? You don't owe me anything!"

"I…I…" he seemed to be at a loss for words. He clapped a hand over his mouth and ran from the room.


BENJAMIN'S POV:

Oh no. I'd said too much.

She wasn't supposed to know… not yet.

I ran from the room, careful to keep to a human pace. After a lot of indecision on what to do next, I decided to go hunting. I could feel the raw strength flowing unheeded through my muscles and I picked up the pace.

The need to destroy was suddenly overwhelming. I hadn't felt like this for so long… the need to tear… to cause fear and pain…

I shook my head and with a start, realised that somehow, my subconscious had directed me towards the city. I turned and kept forging a path through the forest, ripping trees out of my way.

I had travelled around five kilometres when I noticed the trail of destruction I had left behind me. Trees were strewn around like matchsticks. They had felt approximately the same weight. I turned and walked back the way I had come. Grimly, I took up the nearest fallen tree and snapped it. I broke it into smaller and smaller pieces until it resembled a pile of firewood. I darted to the edge of the forest and dumped it there. I broke all the trees down and put them in the rapidly-growing pile. I knew it was childish, but I used a piece of wood and scratched "FIREWOOD" in the ground in front of the pile.

The whole task had taken no more than fifteen minutes. I groaned as I realised that I had to find something more absorbing to kill time. I walked into town and absentmindedly down an alley. The darkness pressed around me, but I didn't mind. I was, after all, I creature of the dark.

Suddenly, I stiffened. The alley felt… wrong. There was a strange taint of blood mixed with sweetness… and fear… and pain… oh Isis.

I hissed and stopped moving. My senses went on red-alert. I listened for any sign of movement or breathing. I only had a second's warning before a foot scraped on the damp alley floor and I leaped out of the way.

A dark shape flew at the place where I had just been. It jumped at me again and I rolled away. I sent a tornado of wind at the attacker and knocked them to the ground. As soon as I released wind, the figure went in for the attack again. Oh my.

The dance had begun.

We faced off in the alley, hisses and grunts escaping if one of us managed to land a blow. I ducked and swerved around, using every dirty trick in the book to gain an advantage.

I could see perfectly in the dark and so could my opponent. He was a bit shorter than me, so he was able to duck when I aimed a blow at him.

He had a very light frame – it was almost feminine. The cloak he wore hid his body from me. I had to work very hard to avoid getting crushed – he had the massive strength of a newborn on his side. I could smell his human blood in him. It was strangely familiar… but I dragged my mind away from that thought and focused on the fight.

With sudden inspiration, I flicked a ball of fire at the mystery vampire. It wouldn't burn her but it would certainly do some work on the clothes.

I was right. The cloak burned away rapidly and I urged the fire to become hotter. Layers of material fell away like crisps. As soon as I thought enough material had been burned away, I released fire. In the patch of moonlight we stood in [the moon had just come out from behind a cloud] I could see most of my opponent's body, except for the part covered by underwear.

Shapely arms, flat stomach, big bust…

Wait.

Bust?

Oh Isis. I had just fought a woman?

I sucked in a breath sharply. I heard my opponent gasp as well and try to hide her body. Quickly, I ripped off my cloak and handed it to her. She wrapped it around herself. It fell almost to her knees. Then she looked into my face… and if vampires could cry, she would be. I felt a strange jolt of recognition – but it passed quickly. All I felt was remorse for the poor girl. No doubt that was why she was crying – it would be a shock for anyone to get their clothes burnt away.

"Benjamin." She whispered. I jumped. How did she know my name?

"You don't remember me, do you?" she whispered. "I was just another one of your toys. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, right? Just another useless human you could forget. I've seen you. Seen you with that girl. Your next victim, I presume."

"I…I don't understand," I said. "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

"I loved you!" she shouted suddenly. "Even as you ripped out my throat trying to get at the blood… you were so, so thirsty… even as you realized your mistake, that it was too late and you either had to kill me or let me change… even as you ran away from me and left me bleeding… I still loved you. I thought I would forgive you. But I woke up. And I met others of your kind. They told me to find you, that they knew where you lived. They told me not to forgive, not to forget. You know who I am. You're faking this…bewilderment. You can't fool me again. Not now."

Suddenly, I realised. I realised who this red-eyed, vengeful vampire was. A thousand memories came flooding back, and I suddenly understood why I was afraid of the love I felt for Tia. I didn't want this to happen again.

A beach. Two humans, laughing and holding hands. The sunset a single red gash against the black sky.

FLASH.

Six dark shadows, silhouetted against the sunlight. A man, barely more than a boy, cowering on the ground.

"He is special, this one. He will do great things."

A familiar voice. Or rather, one that would become familiar to him.

He liked the voice. He liked the way it spoke about him. The owner of the voice bent towards him. That's when the pain started.

FLASH.

Voices above him. The young man on the cot opening his eyes. Vivid, crimson eyes, so different from the sparkling, happy black they used to be. The dust motes hurting his eyes. The smell of Egypt magnified so that he could pick out the smell of someone brewing coffee five hundred metres away. Hearing amplified. He could pick up on the fact that out of the seven people in the room, including himself, none had heartbeats.

FLASH.

A dark alley.

"Where have you been for the last year? You come back to me and ask that I take you in? What happened to you? I don't even see you in the face you have now." He hung his head.

"I've been in Cairo," he said woodenly. She shivered at the sound of his voice. It was a voice which was grotesquely altered from the one she had known before. Known and loved.

"I'm sorry… Benjamin. If that's who you actually are now."

Before she knew what hit her, a scrape of shoe on cement and cold lips pressed to her throat. Lying on her back on the alley floor, she knew she was in danger. She tried to breathe.

She regretted rejecting him. She knew she was taking a step away from what could have been forever. She knew she loved him. That was her last thought before teeth ripped into her throat. Dimly, she saw horrified realisation dawn on his face. He jumped off her and tried to stop the flow of blood… with no effect. He stepped back, sorrow etched in every movement. Then he ran back into the night and she curled into herself and screamed silently to avoid the pain.

I took a deep breath in. I had seen and felt what happened in the alley from her point of view. What I'd done to her. She had a right to hate me.

I looked at her. She was looking away, down into the darkness.

"Tassara." I whispered. She whipped around.

"Benjamin," she replied.

The breeze picked up and blew her black hair around her face in a stormy halo. She looked like a goddess, a goddess of vengeance. A power to be reckoned with. A terrifying aura of menace radiated from every part of her.

I took a deep breath and bared my throat.

"Go on," I murmured. "I deserve it."

She looked surprised for a moment. Then she regained her composure. "Oh no, Benjamin. I don't mean to kill you. I'm going to do much worse. You know the law. Humans can't know about our race. So before I accidentally let that slip to your lady love and watch the Volturi swoop down, I'm going make you hurt like never before."

"Wh-what are you going to do?" I asked. Fear gripped me, the kind I hadn't felt since I was human, one hundred and fifty years ago.

That's when she stepped towards me and pressed her lips to mine.

It was horrible, the pain that ripped through me. It was sweet and full of anguish at the same time. I felt the pain she had felt as I ran away. It took my breath away. I tried to pull away but she locked her arms behind my neck in an iron grip. Her lips pushed against mine, trying to get a response. I refused, trying to yank away. It made her angry, I could tell. She tightened her arms around my neck and dragged my head down.

"Tassara!" I gasped when she stopped. "Please! Don't!"

"Does it hurt?" she asked seductively. "Does it make you feel the pain you caused me?" She pushed me against the alley wall.

"That's my gift, you know," she added conversationally. "Making other people feel pain."

There was no way to extricate myself from her arms. I struggled and twisted. I was worried… she was no newborn, she had been a vampire for over a hundred years. Yet she was so strong.

"I'm… sorry!" I gasped.

"I don't care!" she screamed back. "I can never forgive you for what you did to me! Sorry is not enough! I want her! I want her blood, just so I can wave it in your face when she's dead!"

That made me snap.

So many people had gone after Tia's blood. Amun, in a thirst-driven haze. He didn't even like the girl. Raphael, bent on destroying the one who broke his heart. So similar to Tassara. And of course, Tassara herself.

In that instant, things changed.

I saw Tassara in a different light. What I had always suspected, even one hundred and fifty years ago, when we were two innocent humans. Tassara was not the angel I had thought she was. On the beach: I remembered another thing from the memory. Tassara's eyes flashing red as she looked at me. At the time, I had thought it was a reflection of the sunset. But I knew it was no reflection.

"What are you?" I hissed in revulsion.

"Something which you are not. Something no one knows about. Something beyond your wildest dreams. I am stronger than a vampire, more fearsome than a werewolf. I am not angel nor demon. I am not some kind of twisted hybrid."

"Then what are you?" I gasped. Her fingers were actually causing me pain; her nails were digging into my diamond-hard skin.

"I am Tassara, the last remaining lamia on Earth."

"L-lamia?" I asked.

"We bring justice to the world. We destroy those who have done us wrong." I shivered at her voice, it had become deep and raspy, a terrifying change from the sweet musical tones it used to have. "We never forgive those who have wronged us. I gave up everything for you. My fellow lamia cast me out.

"In those last moments, while you ran, I still loved you, regardless of how I was an outcast because of you. And then your tribe of vampires invaded and killed my family of lamia."

I couldn't resist correcting her. "Coven," I told her through gritted teeth. "Not tribe. Coven."

"As you wish. Be it coven or tribe, you and your vampires destroyed my home, even though I was exiled from it. When I woke up and looked down at my new, stronger self, I knew that I was something different and I felt something inside me, a fire that told me to fight, to kill those who wronged me. I met a coven of vampires and they encouraged me. They tended the fire, making it grow bigger and bigger. Never had I felt anything so satisfying.

"And then I came here. And found you. I am stronger, faster, more dangerous and powerful than anyone on this planet. I affect vampires and humans in ways that even I don't understand. Even now, you are fighting for breath, when under normal circumstances, you wouldn't be breathing anyway."

I saw what she meant, unfortunately. I knew that in a fight against her, I couldn't win.

"So did I turn you into the monster you are now?" I asked. "Or did hate and irrational thoughts influence you? Think about it," I urged her as her expression darkened. "Was it really me? I changed you into the lamia-vampire. But did I turn you into the hate-filled creature you are? No. I didn't. You let the dark thoughts fester and poke at you. You got in with the wrong crowd and that's not your fault."

Her tightening fingers loosened for a minute.

"Please, Tassara," I begged her. "Please… let Tia alone. She doesn't deserve to die. She's had a hard life. If you want to kill someone, kill me."

I saw her focus on my neck, the smooth skin, bleached by the moonlight.

"It's a tempting idea, Benjamin, but no luck." She smiled seductively and let go of me.

"You'll get over it, eventually," she said over her shoulder, already walking away. And before I could react, she was running, out of sight in two seconds.

Something glistened on the ground. A vial, filled with blood. I had had it in my pocket all this time.

I pocketed it and started running. And when I reached the house, I was just in time to see Tassara bend over Tia and whisper something. With my strong hearing, I picked it up.

"That's what he is, Tia. I think you should get used to the fact that the one you love drinks human blood."

Then she disappeared. Tia turned her head slightly… and saw me. Her face twisted into a horrified mask and she screamed once, twice, thrice.

Tassara's voice suddenly whispered into my ear. I knew that she would be invisible, standing next to me, Tia completely unaware that the woman who would murder her was in the room with her.

"When the moon is bright,

and you're walking alone,

beware the vampire

He is not well known."

The childhood rhyme told to scare children echoed in my ears, even as I sensed Tassara walking away.

A/N: Am sooooo sorry for the late update. =[
I had exams so I was all caught up with studying etc. I hope I'm not the only person who hates History. In my opinion, the dude who invented the Silk Road should seriously be removed from history books. Him AND his stupid Road.

So anyway, I want to write another story as well as In The Candlelight and I created a poll on my profile. Please vote! Tell me what you'd like. The poll has been open for ages.
Also, let me know what you thought of the chappie. I thought it was a little confusing and crappy but whatever floats your boat, I guess.

Disclaimer: You know the deal. I only claim ownership of Tassara. =]

Thanks to: Mitali and Saloni for constantly reminding me to write in our IMs. Also, Alyaa, Neliz and Taka, for just being there. Love yoouu. =] Oh, and if you add up the Story Alerts and Favourite Story things I have, they come to more than my review count. I can see how many people are READING and not REVIEWING!

new york gal: Wow, you liked the flashbacks? Then I hope you like the (crappier) flashbacks in this chappie. I seriously couldn't do without your reviews. :D

'Twilight for eternity': Haha love youu Mitu. =] Hope you liked the chappie! Reviewww! AND tell me on MSN what you think!

Jade Taylor: I'm seriously flattered that you think In the Candlelight is your favourite! Wow... thanks so much. I'm glad you like it! Hope this chappie is up-to-standard!