It was a surprisingly warm day for England's weather, and Rose sighed deeply, breathing in the air. Kain and she would be heading out the next day to catch a plane and get back to America in time for school to start again. Since it was their last day, Rose and Kain were out walking in the outer part of town, enjoying the day. Or, rather, Rose was enjoying the day. Kain was walking silently next to her, there only because she was and she had dragged him out.

"You have to admit," Rose stated with a happy smile, "it does grow on you."

"Much the same way a cancer does," was the sardonic retort. She sighed, annoyed, and looked up at him.

"You so love to ruin my good mood, don't you?"

He was about to answer when they heard a car tire screech. Both looked up to see a large black van slam to a stop and a handful of men jumped out. Rose's eyes widened; she recognized one of the males as the older brother of the man who Kain had killed before she had left for college. A few of them leveled guns at the two and opened up, aiming for Kain. The master vampire made a surprised noise and collapsed slowly, knowing that it was easy to lure a person to lower his guard if they thought he was dead. The lead male, the brother, ran up to Rose and grabbed her. She pulled back and laughed at him, realizing what a fool he was. The man, angry with her, pulled back and slapped her across the face. Her face twisted with the blow and her skin was left stinging. She slowly turned on him, her eyes narrowing. No human should be that strong.

While Rose was recovering from the blow, the man dragged her to the van and threw her into it. He jumped in after her and his friends climbed in after. They slammed the door shut, and the boy's brother, obviously in charge of the whole operation, growled to the drive, "Go!" He looked back at her.

"Your friend died because he killed my brother. You, however, will suffer."

He met her angry gaze, then glanced around, realizing they weren't going anywhere. He leaned forward toward the driver.

"Hey, what the hell is going on?!"

"I don't know," the young man responded, "I'm flooring it!" Everyone looked at Rose as she laughed maliciously and settled back in a seat, buckling herself in. When she felt their eyes on her, she spat at them, "Idiots!"

There was an abrupt jolt as the van was pulled backwards, and then a moment of stillness before it was picked up into the air and heaved down the street. Rose, who had been expecting such a reaction from a very pissed-off Kain, had been the only one buckled in, and, coincidentally, the one who came through it best. When the van came to a halt, she calmly unbuckled herself, stepped carefully around the sprawled bodies—some alive, some not—and picked up the man who had hit her. She shoved the door open (or, rather, ripped it off its hinges, as the van was on its side now) and climbed out, dragging the man's moaning form behind her. She was surprised he was still alive. She jumped down and heard the body make a satisfying SMACK! as it hit the ground. Kain met her, glaring at the van and the man being dragged behind her. He ran a hand over the wounds which had just begun to heal.

"That hurts," he hissed with genuine malevolence. Rose held up the man who had started to come around.

"This one hit me. Can I have him?"

Kain's glare of hatred at the man paled the boy's skin, and a cruel smile twisted the master vampire's lips.

"Yes, I think you're about ready to feed from a living being now."

"Wha— what's going on?" the young man asked brokenly. Kain didn't answer, but let out a laugh that chilled the boy down to the marrow of his bones as Kain grabbed him from Rose's grip and led her into one of the side alleys. He twisted the boy so he was facing her and held his head to the side, exposing his neck. Rose, still broiling with rage that one so lowly would dare to strike her, eagerly grabbed his shoulders, bringing her mouth near his neck. She paused, enjoying the fear that shone in his eyes and the slight little whimper that ran through his body. If she hadn't been so angry, she would have been scared of herself. Where was the human side she was supposed to possess? There was no forgiveness here; just the cold, calculating persona of one of nature's finest predators.

She gently pressed her lips to his neck and felt his fast pulse throb through her lips. It felt so tangible that she almost might roll the taste around in her mouth. She ran her teeth down his skin, scratching lightly, but not drawing blood, seeming to draw the blood hunger up with his fear. She let her lips slowly slid up his neck across his jaw, and she smiled lovingly up into his eyes, knowing he gave up his life to give her the strength she needed. The young man whimpered again, seeing that love, but knowing it was the same love that a farmer might look upon a prized sow. Rose leaned forward and nipped down his through, then paused as his pulse began to beat in her head. Her own heart sped to match it, and she let her fangs slip out into a slightly harder bite. As soon as her fangs broke the surface of his skin, blood welled up, slipping down his neck and onto her tongue. Orgasmic pleasure and burning pain raced across her body as her mouth clamped down to his neck, refusing to let go. The sweet liquor ran down her throat as her muscles shivered in pleasure. She followed unspoken and silent instincts, her fangs being used not to suck blood through, but, rather, to keep the cut in his flesh open to allow the blood to spill out into her waiting mouth. She might have been sucking at the wound, but she didn't know for sure. All she knew was it seemed the blood willingly poured into her mouth, eager to join her body and fuel her.

Slowly but surely, the blood flow grew sluggish and finally came to a stop. She released the wound and Kain dropped the body, an approving mentor-like smile on his face.

"Very good, Rose. You didn't hesitate or dive too quickly into it. You have the knack of an instinctive killer."

"That's all wonderfully said and done," she responded, her British accent becoming more heavily pronounced as the blood ran through her veins, "but I'm still hungry." She stepped over the body, pressing her body tightly up against his and fastened her lips to his. She felt his tongue lick across the blood on her lips gently, then slip between her lips, tasting the flavor of the boy. She nipped his tongue lightly, and he chuckled as he pressed her back against the wall.

"What the fu—" a voice intruded. There was the unmistakable sound of a hammer being pulled back. Rose hissed and Kain growled, looking to the imbecile who interrupted them. It was one the human males, surprisingly alive, but covered in what looked like glass rips in his skin. He pointed a gun toward them and a low snarl rumbled in the back of Rose's throat at the annoyance. Kain moved away from her and bore down on the male, looking like an appropriate harbinger of doom.

"We will kill you!" the boy managed out, terrified, but holding true to his goal. Kain merely reached out, grabbed the gun, and bent its muzzle at a bizarre, unnatural angle. With his other hand, he caught the boy up by his throat and lifted him into the air.

"Child, I don't know who you work for, nor do I care, but you do not THREATEN ME! You have no position, no possible power that could stop me should I choose to do something!" He jerked the boy's body toward his face, and Rose idly thought to herself that he reminded her very much of a rag-doll in Kain's grasp.

"Listen to me very closely, child," Kain hissed, "I won't you to take a message to these people you work for. Tell them that they will leave me alone, and I won't hunt them down across the face of this planet to torture them for a thousand years. They are daring to attack a much better predator than they are, and I am not about to let them have the audacity to challenge me! Now, get out of my sight!" He threw the boy away and he smashed into the windshield of a car across the street. Kain turned to Rose and shoved her back against the wall, kissing her roughly. She responded to the pleasure and the pain in kind, intuitively finally understanding why some people liked pain. She knew now it had to do with pushing limits, not taking pleasure from the pain itself.

"I thought you weren't going to kill him," she murmured into his ear as he bit at her throat.

"I didn't," he responded. "He should live through that." He bit her lips lightly, not making any effort to avoid piercing the skin.

"My wonderful little fledgling."

"My lord and mentor," she answered, knowing whether or not she'd admit it, that was exactly what he was to her.

Rose dragged herself out of bed. It was early morning, and she was preparing herself to get back onto a normal 'wake up in the morning, not evening' routine. She walked, or stumbled, more accurately, down the stairs and plopped down in her normal chair next to her father who was listlessly glancing through the newspaper. Lara entered the room and leaned over Raziel's shoulder, eyes quickly scanning the pages. Raziel glanced over at her.

"Not hungry?"

Rose shook her head in a negation. "It's too early for me to think about food."

In actuality, she could still feel the blood of the young man pulsing through her veins, and the hunger that rested in her belly was not for normal food. She wondered if devouring souls would cause this kind of hunger in her as well. It rather scared her when she began to think on a more sadistic thought process, but she had learned not to worry about it. After all, she was only one-third compassionate and caring being. Most of her being was composed of two of the strongest hunters in all of existence.

The door opened behind her and Kain walked in, looking the same as always. To anyone who didn't know him, they'd think he was constantly awake and moving. Rose, though, had become practiced when dealing with him, and she knew by the slight twist in his walk and the small curls in his silver-white hair that he, too, had just awoken. The tightness around the corner of his eyes indicated that he was not happy with being up this early, either.

"Well, what's this?" Lara's British accent broke into the silence. She was looking at the newspaper.

" 'Young man killed in violent death'," she read off, " 'after having apparently been thrown off a building into a car. Police suspect rival gangs, as a van was found nearby with several dead bodies'." She looked up at Kain and Rose as the two exchanged a mutual look.

"You two wouldn't happen to have anything to do with that, would you?" Lara inquired.

"Of course not, Lara," Kain responded with a slight smirk. "Do you really think I'd do something like that?"

She looked at him a moment, then cursed. "Damn it, Kain, I told you I didn't want you corrupting her until she's older."

"But it's so much fun," he answered with a malicious grin. Lara glared at him and Rose sighed.

"They're talking about me like I'm not here again."

"This happens often with your mother and Kain," Raziel assured her. "They seem to share some sort of mental link."

Rose excused herself after a while longer and headed upstairs to finish packing. Within an hour, Rose and Kain were out the door after Rose said her good-byes, and they were finally on their way back to the States. Her plane trip passed much like the first, except she cut out the boring first part and spent her time with her master vampire. After the flight finally came into Massachusetts (and the trip seemed much shorter to Rose), she happily got off, knowing she would finally get to go back to her apartment and sleep. It was only ten in the morning here, so she could actually make up for some of the sleep that she lost before she went to school the next day. She got her things all back to her apartment, knowing Kain had gone back to his place already. She dropped her stuff on the floor, telling herself she'd pick it up later, and had just flopped down face-first on her bed when the phone rang. Cursing, she reached over and picked it up.

"Oh, you are home!" came Diana's cheerful voice.

"Oof, I just got home," Rose answered.

"Wonderful! Come on! We want to go bowling, and go out for dinner, and maybe go see a movie! You need to come."

"But I just got home!" Rose whimpered.

"Ah, who cares! Get your butt out of bed and get down to Main Street and meet us. After all, today's the last day of the break, and we haven't gotten to see you all day. Oh, yeah, and Becca says something about getting a computer game you wanted to play."

"Blood Rayne?"

"Yeah, that's it, but she's threatening to tell you the end of it and spoil it for you if you don't get out here."

"I suppose I can't take a rain check, can I?" Rose inquired.

"Nope!"

"Fine, I'll be there in about five minutes."

As she quickly changed clothes, she glared in the direction of Kain's apartment.

'Lucky bastard,' she growled to herself mentally. 'He gets to sleep in!'