Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or any of the characters.

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Getting ready for the party, Hitomi brushed her hair in front of the mirror. The feeling of being watched hadn't left her as she kept looking out the window towards the little forest outside her window. As it was getting late, the whole grounds filled with shadows and she scanned them, seeing if any stirred, giving an indication something was there. After a little while she scolded herself for being paranoid. Hitomi quickly finished getting changed, so when Merle knocked on the door she was ready and waiting. Hitomi beckoned her in while she grabbed her bag by the window. They both commented on how the other looked and joked about the men's faces when they would enter the room.

"I hope they brought handkerchiefs," said Merle as she waited for Hitomi.

Hitomi walking toward the window, turned, and raised her eyebrows. Puzzled at the statement, she asked why.

"Because they're going to need something to wipe the drool off with and it's so unattractive if they use the back of their hand," said Merle, pretending to be serious.

"Of course," replied Hitomi, keeping up the pretense. As she made her way back over to the door, bag in hand, they broke into a fit of giggles again.

As the two women walked down the massive staircase toward the ballroom, Hitomi could see late guests scurrying towards the room. As the door was opened for them Hitomi could hear, even from her position on the stairs, music escaping. All sound from inside the room suddenly became muffled again just as the door closed again quietly. On reaching the bottom of the stairs, Merle told Hitomi to wait a few moments as she went on ahead to tell everyone the guest of honour was arriving. Hitomi only had to wait a few moments before her friend came back to bring her into the room.

The whole room seemed to take a sharp intake of breath as Hitomi walked in the room.

There were little gasps and approving murmurs, while Hitomi felt a little embarrassed at the sudden attention. She quickly looked around the room and saw about a hundred people staring at her. The men were looking at little more keenly than what Hitomi was comfortable with and she blushed deeply.

"Psst! Hitomi, look at Allen. It looks like his jaw has hit the floor," whispered Merle out the side of her mouth. Hitomi glanced at him and saw that Merle wasn't exaggerating. The blond knight did indeed have his mouth open. His eyebrows had disappeared into his hairline, making his blue eyes seem as though they were going to fall out his head.

Suddenly, she spotted Van, and was taken a little aback herself. He was what she had always imagined her prince charming to look like. He was standing there a long sleeved dark red jacket and black trousers. His hair, which had grown into a similar style as his father's, had been just like when she had seen him in a vision long ago, though it was still a distinctly 'Van' style, as it had a slightly messy look to it. She noticed that his beautiful dark eyes were slightly larger than usual and his mouth was agape. He shook his head slightly after a moment and walked towards her, and as he opened his mouth to say something to her, he was interrupted by someone suddenly appearing in front of him.

"Hitomi!" cried Millerna as she threw her arms around her friend. "You look simply wonderful!"

By the time conversation finished and Hitomi had been filled in on all the news and gossip, the dancing was well underway. Looking over, Hitomi saw that Van was talking to several older men with a serious look etched on his face. Van seemed to sense this and glanced up at her. Their eyes locked and for a moment they were the only two people in the world.

Their moment was interrupted when the men around Van caught his attention again and he went back to the conversation before.

Sighing, Hitomi looked around and walked over to the large bay windows that had been opened out onto the grounds. A chill came over her as she felt someone staring, as if boring a hole in the back of her neck. Rubbing it, she tried to shake the unpleasant feeling off. As she stared out the window she entered her own little world and thought about Van.

Van. Just his name made her feel happier. Pleasantly occupying her mind with thoughts of the king, she didn't notice someone approach her until he was right behind her.

"How is the guest of honor doing?" a strange voice whispered into her ear. Startled, she stumbled through the door and was about to fall face first outside when two strong arms caught her. As she steadied herself she looked at the person who had given her the scare.

"I'm sorry, Lady Hitomi. I did not mean to frighten you." A young man in front of her bowed as she tried to steady her breathing. As he rose, Hitomi could see what had given her the scare and in the process nearly fell over again. He was one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen. Her eyes went wide and she struggled for something to say.

"Uh...ah...it's okay." She could feel herself going red as he smiled at her.

He had long dark hair that he had tied back and very dark eyes. In the dim light of the candles lighting the grounds Hitomi thought his eyes were black. This was slightly unnerving, as he seemed to be staring at her in a most peculiar way.

"No, my poor manners cannot be forgiven, startling a Lady as yourself in such a way. It is not very gentlemanly." His voice had a slight accent to it, which she found quite pleasant to listen to.

"Who are you?" she managed to gasp out.

"Oh, my! Again, I am so sorry; my manners have totally left me! What must you think of me?" He stood back little and bowed again. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Vincent, my lady." He stood back up again and put his head to one side, continuing to stare at her.

When Hitomi asked him who had invited him and where he was from, he just smiled at her. Showing Hitomi his rather white teeth, he kept moving his head from side to side, still staring at her with those black eyes. Everything about the way the man acted puzzled Hitomi. He spoke very softly and his accent seemed to her to have a slight French lilt to it that made it even more enchanting. Being with this man, Hitomi felt weird. Her head felt fuzzy, and she was finding it quite hard to concentrate on what was going on. Shaking her head a little, Hitomi told herself it was just because she was getting tired. All the excitement was getting to her. Raising a hand to her forehead, she could hear the faint voice in the back of her head telling her to go back inside. To get away from this man. But when he spoke to her again his voice seemed to echo in her head, drowning out her conscience.

"Lady Hitomi, are you feeling well? You seem a little flushed." He crept a little closer to her.

"I'm fine, thank you, just a little tired," Hitomi tried convincing herself.

"Why don't we take a little turn around the grounds to clear your head?" he whispered, standing so close she could feel his body heat. Looking up into his eyes, all resistance seemed to fade away, and she willingly took his outstretched arm. They headed into the grounds.

The conversation was rather one-sided as the two walked past the candle boundary and into the darkness of the long lawn which at the ended at the forest. Hitomi was finding it hard to string two words together until she didn't seem to be able to think about anything anymore. Her companion seemed to know this and talked about idle things like the pleasant weather. Vincent stopped their walk when they reached the very old large tree that separated the well-kept palace lawn and the wild forest at the foot of it.

He turned to face Hitomi, whose eyes had completely glazed over, and touched her cheek. "Hi..to..mi...." he whispered. Leaning in closer, he pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips hard against hers.

Her eyes returned to normal and the spell over her seemed to have been broken. She pushed him away, wiping her mouth.

"What do you think you're doing?" she yelled angrily.

He tilted his head to one side again, apparently quite surprised at her reaction.

"You broke out of the trance. This is definitely an unexpected surprise." Vincent took a step towards her, making her back up against the tree.

"Who are you?" Hitomi cried. Then she saw his eyes. They seemed to change in front of her. The easy, charming gentleman had gone; an animal had replaced it. Even their colour had changed. Gone was the black, now they were yellow. The pupils large and taking in every detail around them as he advanced on her. The sight scared her even more and the feeling in her legs went, making her collapse at the foot of the tree.

"What are you?" gasped the frightened woman. This question plus her reaction seemed to affect him as he stopped in his tracks. He let out a low soft whine.

Hitomi, taking a chance, picked up a stone and threw it at him. As he let out a howl she assumed that the stone had actually hit him and ran as fast as her legs could go towards the palace. But he was too quick, only slightly dazed by the attack. He leapt after her, heading her off so she didn't get very far. As he stood in front of her, he changed even more. His hair had come loose and his incisors grew as she watched. She ran back again towards the tree and when she had reached the other side of it she stopped gasping for breath.

"Lady Hitomi, you have really surprised me. At first, I was just going to eat you, but then I thought it was such a pity to waste such beauty when I saw you by chance earlier today. So my plan changed, and I decided I was going to have a 'romp in the hay' as they say instead," he called to her from the other side other tree. He moved around slowly to see if he could catch her at the other side but she had noticed this, so she ran round the tree as he did.

"Aren't I the lucky one," Hitomi said, trying to figure out when to run again. She shivered when his laughed echoed in the night air.

She ran again to the other side, but he didn't follow. Straining her ears to hear his footsteps, dread formed in her stomach when she couldn't. Unbeknownst to her, he had jumped into the tree and was watching her as she tried to calculate where he was.

"Really impressed me," Vincent murmured. He smiled, revealing his white teeth again. "Shall I answer your earlier questions now, my Hitomi?" he said, laughing at Hitomi jumping. She couldn't figure out where he was, not even from his voice. This was worrying her a lot, so she thought that if she kept him talking, someone from the party would miss her and come looking. She just had to hold out until they came.

"Okay, then. So who are you?" she asked, her back pressed firmly against the tree.

"My name is Vincent. My surname is of no importance. I came from the Earth a long, long time ago."

"You came from Earth?" exclaimed Hitomi. Keeping her back to the tree, she slid around it slightly, trying to see if he was there.

"I landed outside a village near a big forest very near here. I took up with some men I had become an acquaintance of, and we decided to go hunting into the forest. We were on the track of a rare animal. One I knew that if we caught and brought back would bring us all a fortune. But the animal was most vicious and attacked us, killing the other men. It bit me and then I began to change. My eyes changed, hair began to grow on my body, and I even began to crave raw meat." Perched in the tree he watched Hitomi suddenly stop.

"Are you seriously trying to tell me here that you are a werewolf? Are you kidding me?" Hitomi asked. "You're crazy if you think that I, a grown woman, am going to believe that you are a bloody werewolf! I stopped believing in those stories by the time I was ten."

Hitomi was aware that this was not the best strategy, but she was getting really angry, not just at this guy, who must be crazy, but at herself for being in this situation in the first place. Suddenly, she heard a growl from above her and before she could run he had jumped down and had pinned her to the tree.

"This is no story, my lady!" he growled at her. His eyes flashed and his ears started to grow pointed. Hair was growing on his face at an alarming rate.

"I'm cursed!"

In the distance the sounds of people shouting Hitomi's name and lights coming towards them gave some hope to the young woman.

"You don't belong to that king, you belong to me. Come with me now."

Hitomi stared at him in disbelief. As he spoke, his voice seemed to get much lower and gruffer while at the last sentence he emitted a whine. Hitomi was terrified, but anger and annoyance bubbled up inside her, making her grit her teeth.

"I'm not an inanimate object! No one owns me!" she growled back. The voices were getting closer. She looked at Vincent straight in the eye. "And I'm not going anywhere with you."

Vincent smiled at her fearlessness and courage.

"Such a pity to have to kill you." Before Hitomi could stop him, he bit into the soft flesh of her neck, drawing blood. Standing back to survey his work he smiled as Hitomi clamped a hand over the wound to stop the bleeding, with not much luck. As she slowly slid down the tree to the ground, the colour in her face went to an ashy grey. Vincent bent down so as to be at the same level as her. Lifting her face with his hand, he gave her a rough kiss. He pressed his lips hard against hers and bit her lip so as to make that bleed as well. The search party was almost upon them.

"Farewell, my love." He took out something from his pocket, and in Hitomi's last lucid moments she recognized that the object was a small red flower.

"I saw you pick it earlier when you were out with your little king. I just happened to be going through that bit of wood by chance, when I heard your voice. So I've been watching you all day."

He caressed her face while he continued. "I picked this up from when you dropped it a little later. And I couldn't resist your scent. Funny how chance can change your life. Or in your case end it." He kissed her again and licked some of the blood off her lip. Hitomi opened her mouth to say something, so Vincent leaned in closer to hear her over the sound of the searchers who had just spotted them.

"You... bastard..." she croaked. He stared at her and gave a little laugh before he stood up and brushed off his clothes.

"Now, now, that is not very ladylike. I'm afraid I have to leave now, my Hitomi, as I think your friends will be very unhappy to see your dead body. And your little king may get rather angry if he sees me here standing over you. I look forward to seeing you in the afterlife, my lady." With that, Hitomi saw him bow and disappear into the shadows of the woods. The sound of the people shouting her name filled her ears as she closed her eyes. She could hear one voice separate from the others whisper in her ear.

"Don't leave me, Hitomi. Please don't leave me," begged Van. That was the last thing she heard before the darkness swallowed her up.

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A/N: I hope you liked it folks, let me know what you think! Later!