Disclaimer: I don't own "Warriors of Ice", that belongs to Rhapsody, the band.

A/N: By the way, I have twelve completed chapters of this story all ready and waiting to be updated, and I update as soon as I get a new review (nudge nudge, hint hint, wink wink) OK?

Chapter VI

I walked slowly towards the woods, silent as a shadow. I looked like a secret, white hair streaming out behind me, skirt of my nightgown blowing around my ankles, moonlight shining on my skin. I smiled as I neared the edge of the forest. It was so peaceful out tonight, not a cloud in the sky to obscure the diamond-flecked blanket of midnight-black velvet above me. The pearlescent moon shone benignly, smiling down on the sleepy world below. There were no words to describe the poetry of the night, so I did not search for any. I just stopped where I was, gazing up as the moon began to eclipse, turning blood red. Soon it was just that, a drop of red blood in the sky. I felt emotion rising in me, moved by the beauty of it all. Softly I began to sing:

"Demons of abyss wait for my pride
On wings of glory I'll fly brave and wild
I'll stop your madness, your thirst for blood
to bring them peace where love must reign…"

"Is that a fact?"

I frowned and looked around, wondering who had spoken. Seeing no one, I shrugged and told myself I had imagined it. I smiled and closed my eyes, inhaling the sweet scent of the night, delighting in the blessed silence. Ah, peace. This was everything.

A twig snapped behind me, a deafening sound in the stillness. My eyes snapped open and I spun around. Nothing there. Just the statues around in my garden, outside of which I now stood. Wait. One of them looked…wrong. The statues were all marble, but this one, one I had never seen before, seemed to be carved of cracked and impure jade, or corroded copper like the Statue of Liberty. Curious, I drew nearer, but only slightly. I didn't want to be too close to it. Its golden eyes gave off an eerie glow. Too lifelike. I shivered slightly, though was a warm night. This statue made me nervous. It was almost as if it could come to life at any moment and tear into me with its strange cloven, clawed hands. Wait a minute, cloven hands? If I didn't know any better, I'd swear this was…

The statue grinned at me, and I realized just what I was facing.

"Kain! No!" I gasped, stumbling back. "It can't be!"

"And yet it is," replied the "statue", walking towards me.

"It's not possible!"

"Not probable."

I didn't know what to do. It's difficult to be reasonable when you're faced with a character who, by your world's standards of reality, shouldn't exist and who you know to be a ruthless, inhuman, literally bloodthirsty dictator from another world. Taking all this into consideration, I did the most intelligible thing I could do.

I ran for my bloody life!

Desperate, terrified, I bolted towards the woods, knowing Kain was following me and that he was much faster than me. Thorn bushes tore cruelly at my bare arms, twigs scraped at my feet, low-hanging braches swung in my face, but still I ran on. I cried out as my long hair got tangled in a tall shrub, but I pulled free quickly. I reached the base of Hangman's Falls and had to stop to catch my breath. My nightgown was torn, my arms were bleeding a little from various small cuts and scratches, but the damage seemed minimal. I was lucky, I suppose. Then I felt the screaming pain in my left foot. Leaning against the gnarled black tree, I examined the sole of my foot. There was a shard of broken glass stuck deep in the skin. I groaned. I couldn't walk back with it there, but I didn't know if pulling it out was the best idea either, as that would leave the wound open completely to whatever else there was to step in on the forest floor. Not a pleasant thought. Closing my eyes, I grasped the shard and yanked as hard as I could. I had to bite down on my lip to keep from crying out, but the glass came free with a sickly shiiiick. Still leaning against the tree, I ripped off a piece of my skirt near the bottom. Carefully I sat down and slid over to the edge of the crystalline river. The water came from a spring, so it was fresh and reasonably pure. I bathed my throbbing foot in the icy waters, shivering and then relaxing as the pain numbed. That done, I wrapped the piece of my skirt around my foot tightly, in an effort to protect the gash and stanch the blood flow. I rose and gingerly applied pressure to my foot. It didn't hurt much, so I rested the rest of my weight on it. Uncomfortable, yes, but I could stand and walk.

"Hmm. Very resourceful."

I spun around. Kain stood before me, watching me. I stumbled back, nearly falling into the river. That gave me an idea. I backed up into the river, shuddering as it swirled around my ankles.

"Stay away from me!" I warned. I remembered how water's touch was acidic to vampires from Nosgoth, and hoped that this maneuver might deter Kain, at least for a moment. Hah. He just smirked at me and an instant later I was standing right in front of him with him between me and the river.

"Oh-" I said, but never got to what was supposed to follow the "Oh". I can assure you, it wasn't "dearie me". Faster than I could blink, Kain had laid hold of me and had his fangs in my throat. I couldn't even draw breath to scream. Realization hit me moments before I hit the ground. But Kain wasn't finished with me yet. Kneeling beside me, he lifted my head and I saw that his wrist was bleeding. My stomach turned over and I tried to turn my head away.

"No," I said weakly, hardly able to hear myself. Kain didn't respond, just held my head still and pressed his wrist against my mouth. I closed my eyes, trying to shut out what was happening.

With a sharp gasp I shot up in bed, looking all around frantically, looking at my arms and legs, feeling my face for cuts of any kind. When I found none, I calmed slightly. Fenrir came over to me, concerned. I caught my breath and smiled weakly at him.

"It's all right. I'm OK," I told him, but he wasn't convinced. Hell, I wasn't convinced! There was a strange taste in my mouth that I couldn't quite identify. Fenrir nudged my foot with his nose, and I gasped in pain. Wrenching my covers away, I inspected the sole of my foot. There was no bandage, but there was a huge deep gash. I gaped at it in shock.

"What in the Hell…" I whispered, reaching down towards it then jerking my hand back quickly. I realized what the taste in my mouth was and gagged, stumbling into the bathroom and spitting in the sink. Blood and saliva splattered all over the sink, but I didn't care, snatching up my toothbrush and vigorously brushing my teeth. All the while I kept thinking, 'How? How is it possible? And why? Why? Why…?' So many questions that needed to be answered, but I hadn't the resources to answer them. Unless the answer lay somewhere in the games…but no, I knew those games inside and out, forward and back. How could this be happening? I shook my head and rinsed out my mouth. The taste of blood now replaced by vanilla mint toothpaste, I sat on the counter and examined my foot. The gash was bad, but it shouldn't need stitches. I opened my mirror-cabinet and took out a cotton ball, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, a tube of Neosporin, medical tape, and a roll of gauze. I swabbed the injury with the peroxide first, watching it foam with mild interest. When it had dried, I carefully applied Neosporin and wrapped the gauze around my foot, securing it with the adhesive tape. That would prevent infection at least, but I still needed to show Mom or Dad. How I would explain how I had gotten the injury I wasn't sure, but they still needed to see it.

Patched up and calmed down, I sat on the edge of the sink for a moment gazing at my reflection in the mirror. Who was that girl anyway? Someone I didn't know? Who? And why did it seem that supernatural beings who didn't, supposedly, exist in this world were after her? What had she done? I shook my head wearily.

"Too many questions," I said softly, "too many questions." Sighing, I rose up, gingerly applying part of my weight to my injured foot. It didn't hurt so much now that it was wrapped up. I wanted to go to Mom and Dad right then, but it was past two in the morning. It would have to wait until tomorrow. Maybe by then I'd lose the inane notion that I had to tell them. Maybe.

"C'mon Soul, get up!"

"Wha-?" I muttered, opening my eyes. Dad stood at foot of my bed and my radio alarm was blaring at me. I groaned. It was time for school. School was the last thing I wanted to do, but I had missed too many days of school this year already. Grizzling, I rose up and stretched.

"Rise an' shine, Sleeping Beauty!" Dad said in an insufferably cheerful tone. I glared at him and he desisted. As I swung my legs over the side of my bed, Dad noticed the bandage on my foot.

"Oh, what happened?" he asked in surprise.

"Huh?" I asked thickly. I followed his gaze down to my foot. "Oh, that. I don't know. I had a dream about running through the woods and getting a shard of glass stuck in my foot, I wake up and there it is." Dad just stared at me for a moment. "Dad, stop looking at me like that. You asked, and that's what happened. I don't know. I really don't." Dad didn't look convinced, but he nodded.

"Well, I want to have a look at that when you get home, OK? And no gym today," he said. I nodded. "Good. Now get up and get dressed, you're going to be late!" I rolled my eyes, but got up. I waited for him to leave before getting dressed, of course, I took my mind off the strangeness of the dream and the injury in my foot by thinking about my party that afternoon and the upcoming three-day weekend which I would be spending all alone. Mom and Dad had grudgingly agreed to let me stay behind while they took Daman back to college (he had come down especially for my birthday). The trip would take a few days since his college was a twelve-hour drive away and Mom and Dad wanted to stop and rest the night between states. Whatever they did was just fine with me, provided I got to stay alone the whole time. If only I had known…