Disclaimer: Themes, not mine, characters are. Please don't sue me. All I'm doing is obliging the voices in my head.

Author's Note: Huh, this is the fastest I'm ever writing a story, fanfic or not, but anything to please my readers! Many thousands of thanks go out to Leanne and Jenni who were kind enough to comment.

Leanne: More dialogue, you say? Granted, except not in this part. There is a bit more dialogue than the last in this chapter, but I'd already written it by the time I'd read your review. But don't worry, next chapter will be much more "dialoguey".

Author's Warning: Okay, from now on the chapters will take about 2/3 days to churn out. I'm writing this as fast as I can, it's just that I have to do a bit each day after college and with work plus homework, life gets pretty full. But I promise, a part every three days, at least! Please let me know if you are reading this fic, I know it hasn't got the greatest of titles, but its good! I swear! Just a few words would suffice, so hit that button!

Some sort of mushy-ness ahead, but then not. If you get my drift. Don't worry, I don't. Just enjoy, and please review!

Enjoy:

A Lost Tale:

Chapter Five

~I didn't here you leave

I wonder how am I still here

I don't want to move a thing

It might change my memory~

He looks at her from the shadows, his face hidden. He'd searched for her for an eternity, it seemed to him, but in reality were only a few months. He sighs as he sees her turn time and time again; she sleeps uneasily. He feels her restlessness; it filters down to him. But yet, all he can do is stare at her across the room. Stare at her beauty that seems to be fixed in his mind. Stare at the face that has haunted his dreams, and waking hours, ever since she'd disappeared on him.
Finally he walks over, and slides as quietly as a shadow into bed with her. After only a slight hesitation, he takes her into his arms, and then smiles at what he sees. The girl stills immediately, turning around only once more, to plant her hands on his chest, and put her face in the curve of his neck, where her breath tickles him. Sighing, she quietly falls into a deep slumber, a smile curling her face. And for the first time in a long time he slept soundly.

~*~

I wake immediately—long stretches have not graced me for a long time—and am immediately surprised I was asleep. I have not had a good sleep for…well…lets not go there, I think. The memories are locked away and will stay there. I look around my room, as I slowly sit up. Something seems different. There's a smell in the air, strangely familiar yet I cannot place it. And what is this feeling I have? Like I might smile today. What is going on, Sierra, I ask myself as I swing my legs out of bed, and get about getting ready. What is different? I sigh and try to place the thought out of my head as I warm a glass of blood, and sit at my large table, watching the dust flecks play in the ray of sunshine on the table.

 I am in Mauritius, the place I have been hiding for the past six months. Hiding like the coward that seems to have suddenly sprung up in place of the real me. Or hiding like you've got something to run from, a little voice said. Or maybe someone?

 Hush, I tell the little voice. I do not want to think about such things. But in truth, they were all I could think off. There was nothing else for me to do. And even if there were, I would *still* think of that…thing. I sighed softly. Shaking my head and telling myself severely to snap out of this melancholy I decide to go for a rigorous workout. This house—mansion I should say—is equipped with a gym fit for a 15000-year-old vampire. Running up the flight of stairs to the third landing—and yes there's a fourth—I decide to go at it right now.

Hours later, I am finally tired of finding things to do. I have checked all my accounts, read over my stock reports, read three crime novels by J. Herbert, cleaned the house from top to bottom *and* had a great work-out. But it still only about seven pm, and there is nothing for me to do. Sighing I decide to go the games room, and watch a video. My collection is quite impressive, and I think tonight should be all about action. I do not have the heart for a romance.

  Right then, just as I think that, just for a moment, black eyes with gold depths flash in my mind, and the shock is so sudden I have to gasp and grab at the stair banister. Wildly I look around. The image was so vivid it seemed like…*he*…was here. But I know the only people in the house are the housekeepers, and they're in their own wing. Get a grip, I tell myself. You're losing it.

Resolutely I walk up the stairs. As I step in and close the door, I sense something that sends shivers up my spine. Slowly my head turns, and then—I could swear this—my heart that has been beating for the past 15millenia stops for just a split second, and then resumes beating ten times the normal speed.

  There on my favourite deep armchair, cool as a cucumber, sits the object of my fears and hopes, day and night dreams, thoughts and fantasies. Lifting his head, Drake Blackthorn fixes me with a black-and-gold stare. "Hi," he says, and—this is one of those times were reality is *definitely* better than fantasies—his voice sends shivers up and down my back. His voice sounds relaxed, as if I never left, and I have to swallow a few times before I can speak.

"Hi," I croak out—my throat is suddenly dry. I stumble over to the drinks-stand and I drink whiskey in great gulps straight from the carafe. Its hotness burns my throat, but it does nothing for me, and after a few seconds I turn back round, and face…*him*.

  He is staring at me, and I can't look back at him, so I look around my room. "How have you been?" he asks, softly, his voice a caress to my ears. "Oh, you know," I babble. "Fine. Living. Or kind of, you know us vampires, we're not really living, we're more—"

 A whoosh of air and my words die in my throat; he is standing right in front me. Softly—in slow motion to me—he reaches out and trails one of my red-highlights. A rush of feelings go through me like elemental water, and suddenly—this always seems to happen with him—great tears fall from my eyes.

This time, he doesn't wipe them away. He just brings his hands round my waist, and suddenly I am where I was meant to be; enveloped in his arms. My head finds his shoulder, fitting him perfectly, and my tears stop instantly. Its too good being held by him, and if this is a dream, I dont want to wake up for a long, LONG time—make that ever.

 But alas, it's not a dream, and he lets go of me after a few minutes, though he keeps hold of my hand and leads me over to the chair he was sitting in. Thoughts flash through my head. What's he doing here? How did he find me? What does he want? But the answers come soon as he sits me down and sits on the floor in front of me. He is still holding my hand. "Why did you leave?" he asks, looking at me.

"Straight to the point, huh?" I joke to mask my discomfort, but of course he does not find it funny. He just looks at me with those dark eyes, and I can't even lie. "I couldn't stay. It was too dangerous."

He shakes his head. "What do you mean?"
I sigh. "Come on, Drake. What do you think I could mean?" I shrug his hand off and get up, facing the dark windows and imagining the scene if ever anyone found out. "Everyone would be out to kill us. We would have no peace." I turn and face him. "There is no way we can work."

 He gets up and walks towards me. "Why not?"

 I shake my head, and look away from him. "Don't be silly, you know what I mean."

"No, I dont. Why dont you enlighten me?" His voice has hardened almost imperceptibly, but of course I can hear it. Yet, I cannot get angry. I know he is only doing it because of this soulmate connection. It does not mean I have to like it, however.

"Drake, we cannot be together. There are people after me, and people after you." He has lifted one eyebrow, and I am surprised by how familiar that look on his face is. I know it is the same one that graces my features whenever I do not want to listen to something.

 Sighing again, I begin to feel myself get exasperated. "Look, Drake, you yourself wanted to kill me when we first met!"

 At that moment, I know I had gone to far with what I'd said.

 The look in his eyes hardens until the black almost obliterated the gold spots, and his lips are set in a straight line. If I was so not so strong, I am sure his look would have frozen me. But I am strong, and I hold his gaze, matching him look for look.

At last he turns away, and while he walks back to the chair, a shudder passes through me inwardly. I might be strong, but I am not that strong. His presence is so intense that it unnerves me. Even now, I can feel the soulmate link, murmuring to my mind. I may be one of the oldest, and I may have years and years on Drake Blackthorn, but there is infinite darkness to him. Something that even I would have a hard time comprehending.

Drake sprawls in the chair, and the look in his eyes has softened, though I am not fooled. I do not move, and continue to look at him. This time, however, it is I who backs down after a long moment. I turn and hoist myself up on the window seat, and when I am seated I do not look back at him. I look at the floor, admiring the carpet I've seen a million times before.

I feel him staring at me, and I know his eyes are pensive. He is thinking, but he has cloaked the soulmate bond so I cannot feel what about. To be honest, I am glad. Being so near him is giving me a headache.
Yet there is a profound sense of comfort having him only feet from me. I wonder how I managed to be without him for almost half a year.

But of course, I did not. I see that now he is near me again. The past months had been…well, lets just say that I, Sierra Rion, seasoned vampire, had trouble dealing.

 But I will have to deal.

Later, though. Right now, I can't take much more of his stare on me, so I stand up and walk toward the door. "Choose any bedroom you want," I say when I reach the door handle. "You're free to stay here." He does not answer, and I am slightly surprised. I know he is not one for sulking.

So I look. Big mistake. Because just as I turn my head, I realise he has stood up to be only inches away from me.

I glance up to find his eyes only inches above mine, and his lips only inches below that.

Oh God, who said that vampires were cold? Au contraire, I can feel his body warmth emanating, bathing me. He is watching me with hooded eyes, but still I feel the static sparkle out of them.

He reaches out and tilts my chin up, so my lips are only millimetres away from his. I am feeling decisively hotter by the minute—no make that seconds—oh Goddess, can vampires spontaneously combust?

His lips brush mine, and static bursts up. My eyes close involuntarily then snap open again. He is watching me, still way too close, but with eyes that show surprise. I get the feeling he did not expect what just happened.

Neither did I. I'm trembling, shaking, all from one tiny kiss, although God knows what I've been up to for the past thousands of years.

But my so-called soulmate has not finished his sweet torture.

"Any bedroom?" he asks, his voice deeper. I wet my lips to speak, but that doesn't work, so I only nod. A faint smile touches his lips, and he leans even closer, his breath caressing my neck as he whispers in my ear. "How about yours?"

Mesmerised by the sound of his voice, it takes a second for the words to sink in. And then I'm mad.

"What?" I yell, furious at his insinuations. I may be 15 thousand years old, but I do *not* just jump into bed with anyone. Including my soulmate.

Drake is watching me, his lip curling into a smile.

I am Not Pleased.

But just as I open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, something wrenches violently, horribly, agonizingly painfully somewhere in my stomach, and I stagger back, falling down.

The pain…oh God…I grit my teeth to keep from crying out as waves of agony crash over me.

~*~

Sometime earlier…

"Hurry up, Witch…or I could start getting bored. Or hungry."

"Topaz," Devon warns softly, although he can fully understand her frustration. The Midnight witch he is paying good money is larking about. He trains his ice-blue eyes on the young man in front of him. "Hurry up, Medric."

Medric nods, Devon notices absently, but the witch also is looking decisively unhappy. Topaz on the other hand, is sitting outside the circle drawn in her living room, her face expressionless—except for her eyes…those…

They burn, Devon realizes. They burn with the intensity of a scored lioness. Burn with the intensity of a lioness that's lost her kin and her kill all at the same time. And Topaz looks as if she's getting ready to hunt.

Devin blinks, not willing to look to deep into those eyes. He is centuries old, but Topaz…she scares him.

A brief memory flashes through his mind, three days ago when Topaz kicked his door down.

She had been angry, yet frantically worried underneath that blazing inferno of fury. "Sierra!" she'd shouted, hunting through the house. He'd stepped out, having picked up on the maelstrom of emotions flashing through the apartment.

Sierra, she explained, has disappeared. Five months, Topaz had said, and counting.

I dont know where she is. And I'm worried.

Devon had looked at her, his eyes taking in her anger that concealed the anxiousness, and he'd nodded. He too had been worried. Sierra, he'd thought, knew how to take care of herself. But she would never have disappeared without telling them.

So he'd made the arrangements. He'd found the spell and found the witch to perform it. And all the while, in the back of his head, the thought that maybe…maybe it had been *his* fault. He, who had send her after his hunter.

Devon shakes his head, dispelling such thoughts, looking at the Witch instead, repeating himself. "Medric. Hurry."

Medric raises his hands, his voice gravely intoning words that mean nothing to the two vampires in the room. But they feel the Power as it drains out of Medric and into the circle. It becomes a cone, and Devon steps back, as the dark Power lashes out.

I hope he can control this, Devon thinks, a skitter of fear moving through him.

Because the one thing that Devon fears most is Witchpower…even though his one and only is one of them.

NO! Devon shook his head briefly, pushing down those memories. You will not rise again, he thinks with utter conviction. Leave me be.

Topaz is hissing, leaning back just as he is. The room gets hotter and hotter, and soon it feels as if a fire is banking.

But only the Fire seems cold.

The cone becomes deeper yellow; changing from the blue…and suddenly he sees a shape…

~*~

The pain is horrible, excruciating. It reminds me of the time I was changed—against my will.

Drake is on the floor, shaking me. "Sierra!" he shouts, his worry—and fear. Fear!—displayed in that one word.

I'm gasping, trying to breathe, trying to ask what is going on. His hands are supporting me, bare flesh connecting with mine. And it gives me the way.

~What is happening~ I ask, my mental voice laced with pain I know he can feel.

~I dont know!~ he is frantic—and I can't blame him. It feels as if I'm dying. And then something worse happens.

The air in front of me shimmers yellow, and suddenly—briefly—it disappears. It feels as if I've been yanked out and back in. It is the most disconcerting feeling. Almost as if I've been—transported.

~NO!~ the shout is what brought me back. Drake is holding me now, cradling me in his arms. He is looking at me with the oddest expression in his eyes…could it be…

A sharp new pain and I scream out loud—the sound striking into his heart. His eyes are finally showing. Showing what he was hiding.

Worry. Fear. Pain…anguish.

And through all his bravado I see he did not fare any better than I did through these past months.

~Stay with me…please~ he asks, frowning deeply, the pain he is feeling briefly becomes my own as I slowly; hesitantly reach out to touch his cheek.

And then something hooks its sharp blade behind my heart and jerks, and before I can even answer—before I can scream—I disappear and reappear.

Into a room where fire burns and my skin seems to sear. All of a sudden I am screaming again, because oh, the one thing we vampires hate almost as much as wood—is fire.

And this fire seems to hurt so much more – but it suddenly disappears, coolness instead bakes my skin.

But by now I am swaying and then I faint—but not before a scream reaches me, anguish and horror laced in an intricate pattern…

~NOOO!!!~

~Oh I am what I am

I'll do what I want

but I can't hide

I won't go~

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