A/N from Keiko: Thanks for the reviews, even if they're few in number. Luckily, Lomie and I are pulling out the chapters pretty fast with our teamwork, so the waiting time will be less than you would usually expect (of course, I can't say the same for my own fanfics T.T). Hope you guys are enjoying.

Chapter 4

"Finesse"

"So you say you've been a superhero for a few months?" Robin raised a curious eyebrow at Diamond Finesse.

"Five months, six days, three hours, and-" Finesse lifted up her sleeve to check her watch. "-fourteen minutes. Give or take a few seconds." She smiled mischievously, pretending not to know the impact this strange statement had on her hosts. The room was silent for a minute.

"It's not every day that you meet a superhero that...uh...counts down to the minute the length of their...um...superheroism." mused Cyborg. He crossed his arms. "Why do you?"

Finesse sighed heavily, making all of the Titans grow very still.

"My first day of being Diamond Finesse—and not a civilian—was also the last day of something. You see, I knew...I've known Vincent for about a year and a half. One might say that we were very close."

Beast Boy's jaw dropped. "You were going out with a vampire! That's-that's amazing! Did he bite you? And—" Robin interrupted him.

"Did you know that Vincent was a vampire?" He asked, his eyes slightly narrowed. He wasn't accusing her of anything, but he did find it odd that a seemingly innocent girl like Finesse would date Vincent if she knew what he was. Finesse's eyes turned to another direction for a moment, as if the relationship meant little to her.

"I did. Like I told you last night, I met him in Russia, and we hit it off rather well. I was visiting my grandfather. He respected the fact that I was human and fed off other things; animals, I suppose. He told me he wouldn't harm other humans, and I believed him. Of course…" she crossed her arms, shifting her weight to one leg. "...I had to go back to the States eventually. It was hard. Before I left, I found out that my grandfather dwelt dangerously close to the family estate of the Gregoroviches." Some eyes became a bit surprised at this.

"I know my grandfather can take care of himself, but it was Vincent I was upset about. You see, for a vampire to fall in love with a human was extremely taboo, and we had to have our meetings like we would feed chocolate to a dog under the table. Once, Vincent even had to fool his older brother by pretending to capture me and take me away to feed. They had been hunting together that night." Finesse ran her fingers through her slicked-back hair. "...About a week after returning to Jump City, I realized Vincent had followed me somehow."

Raven closed her eyes slightly. She could sense another feeling emanating from Finesse. It was hard to name; it was anger, regret, and sadness all wrapped in one package. Raven opened her eyes again and decided to break the awkward silence.

"What happened when you found out that he followed you?" Her voice was sympathetic, yet firm. This wasn't a heart-to-heart. It was a meeting of superheroes, an exchange of important information.

Finesse was clearly uncomfortable. Her eyes shifted a bit, and she took in a deep breath, sighing. "Well, we tried to date again. Things got…really serious." She exhaled. At least that was over with.

"How serious?" asked Beast Boy and Cyborg together. Robin and Raven nodded together, indicating that they were wondering the same thing. Starfire, on the other hand, was strangely quiet.

Finesse narrowed her eyes. "Really serious." She gave them all a look that told them to drop the subject.

Starfire stepped forward, a look of sad pity on her face. "I am guessing that things did not fare well for your relationship soon after. Please, will you tell us what happened?" She gazed down at Finesse.

Diamond Finesse had not planned for this talk to turn into a tell-all account of her love life. In fact, she hadn't planned to talk about herself much at all. She crossed her legs on the couch she was sitting on.

"Well, since you asked so nicely." She straightened her collar. Her face had taken on a stony yet somehow angry expression. She gazed out the window, not looking at anything in particular. "I laid down rules for my apartment. I wouldn't tolerate any drinking of human blood—this was my hometown, and I felt it was my duty to protect it from the man I loved. Vincent seemed to agree. But then something happened...I'm not sure what."

Diamond Finesse's expression changed to a slightly confused one. She narrowed her eyes, still looking out the window. "He changed. One night, he came home with distinct fingernail scratches on his arms." She closed her eyes. "So the next night I followed him. Just as I suspected, he lured a young woman into a deserted area of a storage yard and bit her. I was heartbroken and angry." She smiled suddenly.

"When he returned home, I asked him what happened. I told him what I had seen, and he told me what he did. He admitted he was wrong, but he begged my forgiveness. 'We vampires,' he told me, 'We vampires may feed off anything we choose, but humans are like our cut of sirloin steak. If we cannot feed on a human, we feel dead on the inside.'" This bit confused the Titans, but they decided not to ask as Finesse continued. She was staring at something in the air, something only she could see, to relieve the tension in her.

"I forgave him that night. Three weeks later, however, it was different. Vincent was smart. He found a way around things. So he kept feeding, not killing his victims, leaving them with what would just look like a hickey for a couple of days. That got me very angry. I told him that if he didn't leave, I would be forced to protect my home and to hunt him down. I remember he had this look in his eyes...he said something to me in Russian, and then he left for the streets. I was tracking him ever since."

Robin continued questioning Diamond Finesse, but Starfire wasn't listening. The situation Finesse had described was eerily similar to Starfire's own lover's betrayal. Robin had seemingly turned on the Titans, donning Slade's apprentice outfit. He had even attacked them. Starfire had been crushed. But the situation had worn itself out, and Robin was the gung-ho leader of the Teen Titans once again. Could Finesse be in Starfire's place? Starfire's heart swelled with pity.

Vincent woke from the deepest sleep he'd had in months. He groggily sat up, his vision automatically switching to "night mode". Damn, he was thirsty. Really thirsty. A funny sort of itch was growing in the back of his throat. It was the dryness that was caused by the lack of blood. It usually was bearable for four days at best, but it was bad this time.

He stood up and straightened his jacket. His superhuman ears picked up the sound of voices two floors above him, but he couldn't distinguish one from another. He glanced around the basement, his eyes taking in the hopelessness of his situation. He walked over to the water heater and turned the knob to off. If the Titans ever wanted to take a shower again, they'd have to come down here. Going into the basement meant that they'd have to at least talk to him.

He paused, and then made up his mind. The Teen Titans were food if he didn't get out. Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth and roared, making mice and rats run into their holes and nests in fear. Vincent heard the voices upstairs stop, and then start again. He scowled.

With one quick motion, he sliced through the cords going into the main electricity box.

"You see, these boots can have pieces of this box fit onto them, and they have mini-jets built in." said Finesse proudly, pointing to her feet. The Titans raised their eyebrows, clearly impressed.

"You keep time, you dated a vampire, and now you wear boxes on your sh—what was that?" Cyborg looked up and over to the stairs. He could have sworn that he heard something from downstairs. Robin stood up.

"What did it sound like?" he asked concernedly.

"I dunno, it was just a noise. Everyone listen for a minute." The whole room grew quiet. Robin's hand was on his bo staff, and Raven had pulled her hood over her head.

"Alright guys. I don't think anything's there." Robin turned to sit down again, but stopped. The lights were flickering. Suddenly, they went out, plunging the Teen Titans and their guest into pitch black darkness. Finesse knew instantly what was up, and sighed.

"And he calls me tenacious?"

Vincent smirked, clearly proud of himself. The Titans would have to come down now. He silently shifted into a bat, his little leathery wings blending in with his surroundings perfectly. He flew up to the rafters and waited.

Just as Vincent suspected, the Teen Titans' voices became more and more audible. In a minute, they were right outside the basement door.

"Alright, guys. We need to be careful here. Stay focused." Robin said quietly. "We don't know where his is down there, and he's probably thirsty." Everyone nodded, but Finesse gave no sign that she'd heard him.

With a loud "HYAH!" Robin kicked down the door. It clanged down the steps and rested at the foot of the stairs. With her powers, Raven quickly brought it back up and put it back in the doorway. Now Vincent couldn't get out.

"Hey, Vincent! Wanna come out of your little hiding place? We just want to talk!" yelled Cyborg. His voice echoed a bit, but Vincent never came out. Cyborg turned on his heat-seeking sight in his robotic eye. "This should find him." he declared. Raven put a hand on his arm and looked up at Cyborg.

"No, it won't. Vampires have a very low body temperature. They're not human, remember." Cyborg sighed and nodded.

"You're right. We'll have to do this the old-fashioned way."

Vincent, the bat, perched upside down on his rafter next to three other bats. He blended in perfectly here. He opened his mouth and screeched, trying to determine how many Titans had come to pay him a visit. He counted in his mind as the echolocation did its work. One, two, three, four, five…six?

If there were six people in this basement, Vincent would have some trouble feeding tonight. He gripped the bar tighter and waited. Eventually the group would break up and search individually, and then he would attack. God, he was thirsty.

He screeched again, only to find out that the entire group had walked over to the other side of the basement. He sighed mentally. How long was this going to take? Perhaps he needed to alert the Titans of his presence some more. He spread his wings and flapped in midair a bit, and then perched upside down once more.

The flying gimmick worked like a charm. The Titans turned around and walked towards his end of the basement, weapons up. Raven stopped and turned to walk left of the group. Beast Boy and Cyborg went right. Robin and Starfire turned around and searched the far end. That only left the unknown person.

Guessing by the sound their boots made, Vincent reckoned that this mysterious person must have been a girl. He screeched, the sonar bouncing back at him almost immediately. Vincent's thirst took over. He needed blood now.

With a cat-like hiss, Vincent morphed into his human form and fell 15 feet. His prey shrieked as he landed behind her and put one arm around her neck in a chokehold and the other around her waist and arms to keep her from moving. Grabbing a fistful of her hair, he bent her neck sideways and opened his mouth to bite her neck. The bite never happened.

First, a spiky heel to the shin caused him to cringe and loosen his grip around her waist. With an amazing display of strength, the young woman threw him to the side, causing him to crash into a pile of boxes. He winced as he realized that his side wound had remained unhealed.

"You know, Vincent, now that I think about it, I'm glad you left. It makes this fight so much easier." Diamond Finesse walked towards Vincent's form that was stretched out among boxes. She couldn't see the look of horror and shock on Vincent's face.

"Vanessa!"

Diamond Finesse put her hands on her hips and waited. Vincent was cornered enough; she didn't need to present her strength.

Vincent, in the meanwhile, bit his lip and bowed his head in shame. He had almost bitten Vanessa. The itch in his throat began to die down; that was much better. It was bearable now. But she'd always had that sort of effect on him: taming his thirst. All except for when he'd screwed up and lost her...and now he'd almost fed on her.

"Are you going to stop being a jock, or do I have to rough you up some more?"

"I was 'roughed up' enough the other night." sighed Vincent. He looked up at Vanessa with a sadness in his eyes. "You just keep hunting me and hunting me, don't you?"