Hi there everyone. I hope you are all safe and healthy. Sorry for the long absence but I'm now back and ready with a new adventure. I'll try to post at least twice a week so please bear with me. Love Jules xx

Chapter One

Texas. Late 1920

"Mama, mama, come see. A woman is hiding in our barn and I think she's hurt. There's blood everywhere."

I ran outside, barely able to hear my daughter's words over the howl of the wind. The sky was dark even though it was just past midday. There was a storm coming and it looked like being a bad one. Pa was carrying supplies down into the storm cellar where the twins, barely two weeks old, had already been placed in a drawer lined with blankets out of harm's way.

The oil lantern swung wildly as I pulled open the barn door casting strange shadows and illuminating first the bales of straw and then the wooden ladder leading up to the hayloft.

Mary pointed to the furthest corner where I could just make out a crumpled figure. At first, I took it for one of pa's bird scarers, but then it moved, groaning piteously and as I held the lamp higher I could just make out that it was a girl. She appeared to be around the same age as my Mary but this girl held in her arms a wriggling bundle that made a muffled cry. The blood and there was plenty of it told me that the girl had just given birth here in our barn and that she was dying. I knew enough of the process to tell that much.

The girl was a stranger, not from around these parts, and sending Mary back to the cabin for a blanket and her pa I knelt down beside the girl who stared at me with wide terrified eyes. She spoke urgently lifting one arm to clutch mine weakly.

"Please don't let him get my baby. Hide it, please."

She tried to hold the infant out to me but she was far too weak and then with a final effort she pulled herself up to a sitting position.

"Please. Keep it safe. Please. He'll kill it if he finds it."

As her eyelids fluttered and her breath became ragged gasps I knew there was no point in attempting to question her further. Instead, I nodded my head and took the infant from her, cradling it in my arm as I heard Pa and Mary approach.

While Mary took the squirming bundle from me wrapping the infant in the blanket, Pa took out his knife and without a word cut the cord. We heard a gurgle from the girl's throat and she slumped back against the rough boards, lifeless.

Knowing it wasn't safe to linger out here I took the baby from Mary's arms and we hurried back to the house, loose timber and debris being thrown around the yard by the strengthening wind.

With a final backward glance towards the barn, we headed down into the storm cellar and fastened the door behind us praying we would survive the next few hours. Only then could we decide what to do with the girl's body and the tiny baby she had placed into our care. Who had she been so afraid of? The baby's father no doubt, but surely he wouldn't harm an innocent infant?

Pa and I discussed it in whispers while Mary attended to the twins and the boys played quietly with their carved animals.

I had already decided that if no one came looking for the girl we would bury her in the pasture under the old oak tree and bring the baby up ourselves. It would be hard, another mouth to feed, but she had been so frightened at the thought of the infant's father finding it, I couldn't bear the thought of handing it over. Pa insisted that if anyone came looking for the girl we had to tell them the truth and hand over the child but no one ever did so we laid her to rest as I had planned and brought the little girl up as our own. I told our neighbors that she was my poor sister's baby. That my sister had died in childbirth and her husband was unable to raise the child. No one knew that I had no sister. Pa had met me in a distant town when he was in the militia and brought me home with him, a stranger to these parts.

It was years later, pa was long dead and my children were all grown up and living with families of their own, when I finally discovered a little more about the mystery of Annie, the child gifted to us by the dying girl so many years since. My son Joe had come to visit and I knew he had something on his mind so when he asked me to take a walk with him I had taken his proffered arm and we headed towards the creek.

"What is it, Son?"

"I know you told us never to say anything about that night mama but a man came asking about the girl yesterday."

I stopped walking, turning to stare up at him only too aware of what night he referred to.

"A man? Who? And how do you know he was talking about Annie?"

He guided me to a fallen tree and sat down beside me.

"I was in the store when this guy came in. A real spooky looking guy, really pale-skinned and wearing dark glasses in the rain. He was talking to Herb and I was curious so I listened in. He said he was looking for news of his cousin who ran away from home after disgracing her family by getting herself in the family way almost twenty years ago. He said he found out about it from his aunt just before she died. He promised her he'd find Jessie and her baby and make sure they were looked after. He said he'd followed her trail as far as Fort Stockton then lost it so he was trying all the places close by."

"What did Herb say?"

He shrugged, "Not much. It was such a long time ago. He didn't recollect anyone like that and said if she'd turned up around here it woulda been news for weeks. The guy sounded really vexed and asked where the local doctor at the time lived now. Herb told him Doc Craddock passed away a few years back and when he asked if there would be any records Herb sent him to the sheriff's office. There was something really strange about the guy, he gave me the creeps. He was so intense, cat-like. I got the feeling that you wouldn't want to get on his wrong side. I just thought you should know. Do you think we should tell Annie?"

I thought about that, I had told her the story of her arrival a couple of years ago, she knew we loved her like she was our own but I thought she'd had a right to know the truth. She told me then that she'd always known she was different, that she could feel things about people. If they were good or bad or if they were hiding something or had been doing bad things.

I asked Joe to drive me over to the school where Annie worked and now lived, but when we got there I could see we were too late. She'd packed hurriedly by the look of things and was gone. Her car was missing and her neighbor came out to speak to us as we were leaving.

"Mrs Brenner, Annie asked me to give you this."

He handed me an envelope.

"She was in an awful hurry, said there was an emergency and she had to leave. Is everything OK?"

I tried to look calmer than I felt right now.

"Sure. Was she alone?"

He nodded then rubbed his chin, "Yep, but a stranger came asking about her a while back. About an hour after she left I reckon."

"Oh? Did he say what he wanted?"

He frowned, "He said he thought she was related to him. That he'd come to look her up. When I told him that he'd missed her, he asked which way she'd headed. I tell you, Mrs Brenner, I didn't like the look of him so I said I hadn't seen her go. There was just something about him I didn't take to. Did I do right?"

I shook my head, "Yes, and thank you."

Satisfied he had been right he went slowly back inside.

In the car, I opened Annie's letter. It was short, only a few lines.

"Dearest mama, By the time you get this I'll be gone and please don't come looking for me. I sense trouble is coming and that I could be in danger but please don't worry. I'll be fine. Love you always Annie xx"

I passed it to Joe knowing somehow that none of us would ever see Annie again and praying that she was right. That her gift would continue to keep her safe and one step ahead of the stranger.

Oklahoma. Late 2002

It was almost over at last. My life had been a disaster, fraught with fear, hope, and a deep desire to see my child safe. Every moment of every day I had expected to be discovered. I ran, and when I could run no longer I did all in my power to ensure her safety. To leave her, knowing that I would never see her again, broke my heart, but it was my final gift to her. A life free of fear and constant vigilance. A life free from the relentless soul-destroying flight from the monster who had gifted me with this terrible existence.

I opened my eyes as I heard the door open and saw the nurse in the soft glow from the corridor.

"Still awake? Would you like something to help you sleep? Some pain relief?"

I shook my head afraid that if I allowed myself the relief that medication would bring I might let down my guard. Rather the agony of my final hours than the chance of risking everything at this stage.

"I'm OK. Thank you."

She frowned, she didn't understand, none of them did. How could they?

"Well, if you change your mind, you only have to buzz."

I nodded again and she left, shaking her head in puzzlement. I knew they would be discussing me at the nurse's station. I was a constant topic of conversation. The stranger who had appeared in the E.R six weeks ago in the final stages of Leukemia with no medical history, no papers, and no name. They would have turned me away, I was sure, but for the large sum of money I had been carrying. The residue of the savings I had managed to accrue since I had discovered the truth and left my baby years before.

I couldn't afford to leave a paper trail so I lived frugally, often sleeping under the stars and worked jobs that paid cash with no questions asked. I had used soup kitchens from time to time, but they asked too many questions and I never stayed at a shelter for more than a night or two.

At first, I thought I was just getting old before my time after the hard life I had led but then it dawned on me that I was sick, really sick for the first time in my life. I knew instinctively that this was a sickness I couldn't beat with a couple of days rest and a pain killer or two but I fought on. I knew I had to keep moving and I only surrendered when the pain and weakness finally became too much to bear.

The oncologist told me that I had a few weeks at most, so my money would outlast me which was a blessing. I didn't want to die in the street and be picked up like trash. I deserved better, just a few days or weeks with a soft bed and a few kind words. It wasn't much to ask, surely? I knew the answer to that. Yes, it was dangerous. To stop running was to risk him catching up with me. Yet, I couldn't force my pain-racked body to go any further. And now here I was, hovering on the brink of death and yearning for the peace and safety of the eternal darkness, but my weak and feeble body kept hanging on, day after pain-filled day, refusing to relinquish its hold on life.

Yesterday the doctor had told me he hadn't expected me to last out the first week but here I was in the middle of week three. We both knew it was almost over. I had lost my appetite completely and sipped only on ice chips. I could feel the cancer feeding on my last reserves of strength, gnawing like a huge ravenous rodent. The pain made me feel delirious, but I held onto that final thread of stubborn strength to hold my tongue and give nothing away.

In the darkness, I allowed myself a moment to remember my daughter, the tiny infant I had held so briefly before giving her up to my friend. A friend who knew only that I was in terrible trouble and needed somewhere safe for my child. A refuge from evil. I had no idea where she had taken the baby. I had not dared even name her. I wanted nothing that could be forced from me to enable him to find her. Even my friend had vanished, but then she had connections, places to go, and many who would hide her, hopefully even from him.

I could still remember my horror when I discovered that I was different, that I knew things without being able to explain how. Others at school called me a freak and teased me unmercifully until I finally broke down and told my mother, It was only then that she told me the truth, as far as she knew it that is.

I learned that my grandmother had been different too. She had never known her real parents although for years she thought the family that raised her were her parents. She had discovered her mother had died giving birth to her but before she died she had begged the people she called mom and pop to keep her baby safe from its father. I learned he or someone had come looking for her some years later but my grandmother had sensed the danger and left beforehand.

She was a very courageous and clever woman and although it had taken her many years somehow she had come to learn the truth. That her father had been some kind of supernatural being who would have taken her away from her mother after her birth. That it was from him that she had inherited her special gift, the one that had kept her safe from him.

My grandmother had married later in life when she felt safe to settle and was expecting my mom before she discovered that he was still hunting her and when she did, she understood that her baby would be special too and that if he ever discovered where grandma was then he would take her baby too. My mom was only a baby herself when grandma fled but not before he had murdered her husband when he discovered she wasn't home and that her husband had no idea where she was.

My grandmother knew he was closing in and she gave my mom to friends on a reservation where she sensed mom would be safe and then she did the only thing she could think of to keep mom's identity and location safe. She took a bottle of pills and died alone in a motel room miles from where she'd left her baby.

The story had come full circle and I'd perpetuated it when I knew the same fate awaited my own child. I was thankful for the letter my mom had left for me with her friend to be given to me when I became a woman. It contained all I needed to stay safe. The sad thing was that I was already pregnant by then, a silly fling with a boy on the res that had unexpected consequences. I couldn't get rid of the baby, I just couldn't, so I started the cycle all over again hoping that just maybe this time it would finally come to an end.

The door opened slowly and a tall dark figure seemed to glide into the room and over to my side. As light from my uncovered window illuminated his face I gasped. I didn't know him but all the same, I guessed who he was. The pale skin, the dark glasses, the strange way of moving so effortlessly. If I hadn't been so sick and weak I would have known he was here.

Still, I had planned for this, just in case. I knew what to do. Slowly and as casually as I could I slipped a hand under my pillow and sought the hard shape of the syringe. This was my get out of jail card, a lethal dose of heroin I had bought many months ago on the street when I knew I had to stop running. It hadn't been easy to smuggle it into the hospital with me but having lived on the streets for so long I had a few tricks of my own. I had practised so often I could manage the actions without looking or even thinking about it.

He looked down at me and smiled triumphantly.

"Katherine, Kat. You've caused my master much trouble and now see, I almost missed you."

So, it wasn't him but it was one of them. Maybe he hadn't been immortal after all as my grandma had feared. Nevertheless, he or at least someone was still hunting after all these years. Chasing down grandma's descendants.

"Where is it, Kat? Where is the child?"

I felt the sting as the poison traveled into the vein in my wrist and smiled inwardly. It would be over in seconds, the dose was so large and I was so frail. As I felt my life ebb away I forced a few last words from between cracked lips.

"Gone where you'll never find it."

The room darkened and I felt my heart stutter, the poison was working fast, too fast for him to do anything about it. He hadn't even realized there was anything wrong. How could he?

He leaned closer.

"Where is it? I will have the child. A true hybrid. Where is it, Kat?"

I wanted to laugh, to tell him she was one thing he could never have, and his eyes narrowed, he had sensed something was wrong. His hand snaked out and grabbed my wrist as my world went black. My daughter was beyond his reach… forever.

I had beaten him, defeated the creature of my nightmares, and hopefully ended them for good.

The Olympic Mountains, Washington State. 2005

A scream rent the stillness of the forest as she stared in horror at the sight before her. A figure shimmering as it phased from creature to human form knelt above another, obviously human. The second figure lay broken on the ground, its features distorted by the ghost of an unfinished scream. She didn't need to get any closer, she knew who it was by the blood-soaked clothing that lay tattered about the body.

The reaction came without conscious thought and she threw herself towards the kneeling figure screaming accusations as she did so.

After that everything happened in a blur. Her hand caught the tanned face across the cheek with a crack as she sobbed out, "Murderer. You killed him. You ripped him to pieces. Why?"

The figure tensed then a snarl of fury erupted from the mouth which was suddenly full of sharp fangs. The claws that appeared at the end of long furred legs ripped into her and she felt the agony of slashed flesh and the hot blood pour from open wounds yet still she continued her shrieks of condemnation until a claw swipe across her face stopped her in her tracks and she fell to the ground to lay beside the first body. Her father's broken and mangled body. His distorted face was the last thing she saw as the pain overwhelmed her and darkness descended.