A Kiss from a Rose on the Grave

Disclaimer:
I Do Not own any of the Shaman King characters, the place they live in, or indeed anything to do with them. I also do not own the Night World, or any of the principles of it- especially the soulmate principle. I do not own the song 'Kiss from a Rose' by Seal.

I do own my characters, and everything about them

That is Gul, Sparrow, Astrid, Fahd, Steren, Sher, Tierra, Lorccan, Shyam, Torqueo and Jasmine. I own where they live, etc.

Chapter 1 - Not Quite a Lie.

She never meant to run away.

At least, that's what Gul Thawne's mind frantically counselled her. One mistake, now she was dead meat. Almost a joke- because Gul Thawne was already dead. Or, to be more accurate, one of the undead.

It hadn't seemed so bad at the time, in fact when you've just been run over and happen to be dying of blood loss, life (albeit a half one) really doesn't seem all too bad.

Gul had always considered herself a nice, normal human being. She'd never been 'popular', but then again, she also wasn't a loser. She managed to scrape above-average grades, liked to go shopping, and to the cinema. But not drinking. Or 'partying'. Ironic, because that was exactly what she had been doing the night she died.

Growing up in the fairly small town of Oakeswood, Gul happened to know the town like the back of her hand. This, Gul reckoned, was a ridiculous thing to say because one generally did not spend hours staring at the back of one's hand. Anyway, Gul was walking home her normal way, feeling very pleased with herself, for it isn't everyday that you get a chance to snub one of the sluts, and dump a parasitic boyfriend- all in one fell swoop! So pleased, that she didn't notice the car until it was too late.

A battered old Mercedes, with a nice rusty chunk of metal on the front. It pierced her stomach, right through to the other side. Gul crumpled to the ground and the last thing she heard was some one asking her if she wanted to live.

What a stupid question, of course she wanted to live.

Then she blacked out.

-----

Darkness. Darkness, and head splitting pain. A smell of ... lavender? Easing open her stinging eyes she saw a face hovering above her own. A very familiar face. Gul struggled to put a name to the face.

"Sparrow?" A girl from school.

"Yes, How do you feel?" Sparrow looked at her searchingly. Very intense. Actually Gul felt very odd; dizzy, and she couldn't get a good breath.

"Oh dear." Sparrow swept dark brown hair out of her eyesight.

Gul felt something sharp prod in the bottom of her lip. Two sharp things, truth be told. Raising a hand she felt her canine teeth. Sharp, they were long and sharp. The teeth contracted at the touch of her finger. Sparrow sighed.

"Do you remember anything about last night?"

Gul shook her head. Sparrow was talking, but it wasn't important. She felt hungry, and thirsty, but the thought of pizza and coke bought bile to her throat.

That's not right. That's not what I want.

She caught a whiff of something outside. Something... Tasty.

Then she stopped breathing.

She literally couldn't. Gasping for air she stumbled outside.

Everything became a whirl; scrambled images that made no sense invaded her vision. The only thing that mattered was the smell.

The next thing Gul knew, she was taking long gulps of sweet life-giving fluid from a deer. Her senses returned, sharpened; even then it was a while before Gul realised she was drinking from a deer. Not a can of coke. Drinking Blood. Some new sense tingled and told her that Sparrow was behind her, arms crossed, waiting for her to finish.

Gul opened her mouth, appalled. But Sparrow spoke first.

"Don't ask any questions. Wait until we get inside, and I'll explain everything." Her tone was final.

Don't think about that, not now.

She yawned. Loudly.

Damn law.

Damn school.

Damn bloody country.

Gul hitched her new uniform. Awful thing. The colours were nasty, and it itched like hell. This was the third school she had gone to in the last few years. After a while, they would get suspicious of a girl who didn't change as she got older. But, then again, that was the main part of being a Made Vampire.

You just don't age. Period.

There were nice people in each school, some she had even wanted to befriend, but she couldn't. She might make a mistake one day, let something slip. Or forget to feed. That could not happen again.

I won't think about it now. New term, new school, new life. She thought stubbornly.

Gul's vision wandered toward the secretary and the two agents from Circle Daybreak. The secretary had an incredibly vacant look on her face, while she stared blankly at one agent, a witch. Meanwhile the other one, a vampire, bustled around the office no doubt looking for a schedule. Gul knew what the witch was up to, and it she knew it involved a whole lot of brainwashing.

Gul stared blankly at the blackboard. She had been through about 4 lots of this type of lesson, each at a different school, and there was no variation whatsoever. She instead allowed her senses to encompass the room. There was a boy sleeping with his eyes open, an incredibly small one, and one with blue hair... Gul became bored and started blanking out the human minds. One witch and two shapeshifters, members of Circle Daybreak.

Gul looked across at the witch. She looked about as bored as Gul felt, her grey eyes were hazy, and her flaxen hair fell around her face. She must have felt Gul's eyes on her because she looked over. As she met Gul's green-orange eyes she mouthed- Unity Sister.

Gul sent the same message to the girls mind. Her name was... Steren. The bell rang, and Gul stifled the urge to jump. Sometimes an overly quick reaction wasn't the best thing to show in public.

Gul looked at the unappetising food on her plate. She moved it around with her fork, and briefly wondered if the cafeteria was trying to poison the students. Steren saw her pick out little bits of tomato from the disgusting mush, and laughed.

"I think it's supposed to be a casserole." She told Gul.

"It looks more like somebody ran over a rabbit and mixed it with compost" Gul replied.

"Yeah. This is why most of us bring our own food. Besides, it's not like you need to eat it."

"I suppose."

Gul looked at the others on the table, Steren had introduced them earlier. Sitting opposite her was a well-built blonde guy called Shear. A shapeshifter, a lion, and he most certainly looked like one. Complete with a shaggy mane of ruddy blonde and deep yellow-brown eyes that looked regally composed. Next to Shear was an equally big guy, but almost the completely different. This was Fahd, a panther, and he was Shear's opposite from the soot dark hair to the emerald green eyes. He was now meticulously picking apart his ham sandwiches, separating the meat from the bread, while his huge friend scarfed down a cheeseburger. Steren looked disapprovingly at Shear as he wolfed down his meal. She shook her head and turned back to Gul.

"You know the famous Raksha Keller?" Gul nodded, she had seen Keller briefly at a Circle Daybreak meeting once. "Fahd is some sort of relative to her." Steren finished.

Fahd looked up from his meal and nodded.

"Impressive." Gul said when they seemed to be waiting for an answer from her. "I'll just be a moment."

She got up and made her way to empty her tray and noticed the attention she seemed to be getting from a certain table. Gul was, by nature, a very self-conscious person and hated any kind of attention. So she made her way back to Steren, walking briskly.

Senses tingled; she felt eyes on her; turning slightly as to not make it obvious she found the source. A girl with short blonde hair was staring pointedly at her. The girl was sitting with the humans in the class she had noticed earlier. The one with blue hair had an incredibly simplistic mind, one was boring, and the other was sleeping. But the girl was another matter, Gul felt in her ear the tingling that she felt instinctively whenever someone tried to read her mind. She blocked the girl out easily, Gul had seen a lot of mind readers in her time, and had learnt how to deal with them accordingly. This girl was like a bull in a china shop, definitely not a night world member. Gul slipped back into her seat feeling slightly disturbed. She took great pride in her telepathy skills, and no-one she had met before had bested her, but a human with telepathy was quite odd.

Gul was about to open her mouth to ask Steren about it, but she noticed two figures walking toward their table. Two vampires. Gul noticed Steren stiffen slightly as they approached. Shear noticed where they were looking and said through a mouthful of burger to Gul-

"The girl is Brynhild, and the guy is Shyam. They're both Lamia- and very dangerous. They've probably noticed you and wonder if you want to join with them."

The girl sat down first and looked at Gul, completely ignoring the others- and getting to the point straight away.

"You're new here, and you're a Daybreaker. But if you change your mind now, we might go easy on you."

Gul paused, seemingly thinking it over.

"I have better things to do than sully my weapons on you, but if you stay around any longer I might just make an exception."

Brynhild snarled, suddenly more bestial than pretty.

The boy Shyam seemed to be having a staring contest with Fahd, and it was only broken when Fahd looked away with contempt.

Shyam snorted, grabbed Brynhild's wrist and pulled her away.

Steren looked at her in wonder.

"You just messed around with the Night World big shots in the school."

Gul shrugged. "I've met worse than those two idiots. They didn't even conceal their thoughts- I just walked straight into them, and I don't think they even realised."

Shear smirked, leaned over the table and clapped Gul on the shoulder.

"Good on ya mate!"

Gul allowed herself to smile.

Anna Kyouyama sat with her arms crossed and her eyes closed, deliberately ignoring the sounds of the insolent males around her. Unfortunately, it was of no avail. She peeked open one eye and called out to her fiancée and his gang of idiots.

"YOH! If you don't shut up you'll find yourself doing so many sit-ups that you won't be able to get up for a month!" Anna closed her eyes, and savoured the momentary peace. Of course, like all good things, it didn't last long.

She sighed and tried to remember why she had told the blue-haired idiot to come to school with them.

Nope, if there was a reason, it had gone now.

Anna turned her mind to more important matters, namely the new girl in their class, and why she couldn't read the girls mind. Anna was no fool. She knew of the Nightworld, and of the creatures that dwelt there, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what they were. Anna also knew that the people the girl had been sitting with were Night World creatures, but being a human she hadn't been able to distinguish them.

The bell rang and Anna stood up, lost in her thoughts. She walked mechanically to her next class, Art. Still in a daze, she walked in to someone and almost fell over. Or she would have if the person hadn't steadied her.

It was the girl. She really was pale; her skin was almost translucent, like melted candle wax.

"I'm so sorry, could you help me? I'm looking for..." The girl paused, and looked at her timetable. Instead of bothering to say it the girl pointed at the next period. She had art, in Anna's class.

Anna looked at the girl, steadily. Gul flushed at Anna's intense gaze.

"I'm sorry, if it's too much tro-"

"Follow me. By the way, I'm Anna."

The girl blinked. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Gul."

Gul hated new schools, but years of practicing talking to complete strangers had given her a definite confidence boost. Neither Steren, Fahd, nor Sher were taking Art so Gul made do with her new found 'friend' Anna. Of all of Gul's lessons, Art was her most favourite. She had been good at art before she had been changed, but years of seeing the wonderful sights of the world had inspired her no end. She could feel Anna watching her absentmindedly sketch.

Just as Gul was about to add the finishing touches to her picture the door opened and a flustered looking boy charged in. Anna looked up and spoke to Gul.

"That is Horo Horo. One of my friends." Anna ignored the questioning look Gul gave her at the obvious nuance in her voice, and the sneer that crossed her face.

Gul watched the boy gasp an apology to the teacher and make his way over to where Anna was sitting, to practically fall into the seat.

Anna spoke frostily. "I hope Yoh got to his lesson on time."

Horo Horo waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah. 'Course he did."

Anna's eyes narrowed. "I'm not even going to ask what you were doing. This is Gul."

Horo Horo grunted and seemed to notice Gul for the first time. He looked her over and smiled warmly.

Gul glanced at the picture once again.

"You're sure it's a fridge?" She said sceptically, pointing to the 'drawing' on Horo Horo's paper.

Anna looked up and added her opinion "Looks more like a cloud to me."

"I'm thinking along the lines of..." Gul waved her hands around frantically. "I don't know."

Horo Horo moaned and buried his head in his arms.

"I hate Art, why did I choose it again?"

Anna replied. "You didn't, Pilika did."

"Oh"

Anna noticed Gul look absentmindedly out of the window.

"Is something the matter?"

Gul looked very flushed, and dazed, and it took a moment for her to reply.

"Wha? Yeah, I'm fine." Gul gazed down at her picture, she was having trouble focusing on the picture.

Oh no, not now.

Gul wandered up to the teacher and asked permission to leave the class, thankful that coherent thought had not completely gone yet.

She stalked along the hall, moving swiftly, melting into the shadows and not making a sound.

One person was out of class, a girl, one of the ones that Anna had called a 'wannabe popular'.

Gul felt razor sharp fangs prod the bottom of her lip, and she pounced.

The girl turned around, but before she could react Gul had hit her on the underside of the chin and darted in professionally. She located the blue vein in the girl's neck more by instinct than by experience and drank deeply as the girl fell limp in her arms.

Gul touched the space in the middle of the girl's forehead and walked away.

A pair of Yellow-Rimmed Blue eyes watched her from the shadows. He smirked, and loped off to find his master.

Anna watched the girl carefully as Gul re-entered the room. Horo Horo also looked up, both of their artwork forgotten. Gul seemed to float, rather than walk, and both of their shamanic senses tingled strangely as she sat back down.

As Anna stared at the girl, it was clear that she wasn't normal - of course to the naked eye she looked normal, but to a shaman she looked ... ethereal - Anna glanced over at Horo Horo and saw his suspicious glance as well.

Guls eyebrows rose at their stares. "Call of nature." She excused herself.

After all, it wasn't really a lie.