Author's Note: I've finally gotten around to updating chapter 1 (probably should have done that first, eh?). Because this is basically just a spit and polish on the original chapter I haven't run it through my usual beta before posting it. She's been busy and I don't want to keep pestering her about this despite her endless patience so I'm letting all off be my beta. I'm sure if there are any major anomalies people will tell me. Right?

Disclaimer: I do not own Van Helsing or any characters therein except for Mara and Kai. This goes for all future chapters until I introduce other OC's because I'm too lazy to keep typing disclaimers.

Updated 11/01/2007

He crawled out of the water onto the dry land coughing, The muddy soil of the bank giving beneath his hands threatened to send him back into the fast moving water. His arms and legs ached with the force of the fall and the strain of pulling himself out of the swirling current. His head pounded. A dull and steady rhythm behind his eyes as he collapsed onto the bank and there was a sharp pain in his chest that he felt he should look at, but could not bring himself even to lift his head.

Gradually the tempo in his skull slowed and lifted, leaving him staring up at the cloud covered sky. He could feel the darkness at the edge of his consciousness still tugging at him, tempting him to give up his hold on the world and slip into oblivion. He fought the pull with the same single-mindedness with which he had gone after Dracula's servant… the werewolf….

Something about that last thought should have worried him, he realized it, but he could not get his mind to focus. Thoughts and memories came to him as fragmented as the droplets of water thrown about in the river. Slowly his vision grayed and the world swam around him going dark.

A voice came, out of the darkness. Too soft to be understood clearly but sounding vaguely familiar, a voice he had heard in other dreams, in his nightmares. He tried to make out what it said but could only get ideas and impressions that he needed to move, to go somewhere he should not but the voice was persuasive and the pull strong. Just as it seemed he must give in, something cool and gentle brushed through his mind and the pull receded to a small whisper. Slowly the darkness dimmed and lightened and he opened his eyes to stare up at the vast expanse of clear sky. The sun was hanging down a finger's breadth from the western horizon, telling him he had been unconscious for the better part of the day.

With a groan he tried to push himself up into a sitting position, the sudden weight of hands pressed against his chest held him down. Before he could think to struggle a head came into his line of vision hiding the sun, and he found himself staring up into a face shadowed by long hanging locks of dark red hair that brushed his face. The sun shining low on the horizon behind them as it set created a soft golden-orange halo that hid the features and gender of the stranger.

It spoke, softly in a musical language that Velkan did not understand. The strange sound of a foreign tongue cleared the remaining fog from his mind until he could finally think and his last coherent memory surfaced. The werewolf lunging at Anna…himself knocking her away as the beast was air born and his fall over the cliff. The pain in his shoulder! He swore mentally as he twisted his head around to inspect it and found a bloody semicircle the size of his palm where the werewolf's teeth had sunk. He had been marked. With another groan, this one holding more despair than pain, he closed his eyes and tried to push himself up again. A sharp pain shot through his body and he winced, the sound of leaves rustling telling him that the figure tending him was backing up hurriedly.

"Who…who are you?" He asked, sitting up slowly. The being spoke again in the strange tongue and turned to inspect the bank of the river. From his vantage point he could see that it was picking some some plants along the the soft mud of the river. The figure turned to point a sharp look in his direction and the shadows angled so that now he now saw the fine, high cheekbones and full lips set in a very feminine face.

A woman, he thought. And she looks human, but that does not mean much here.

She spoke again, her voice a low alto, and pushed the flat of her hand toward the ground. Velkan took this to mean that he should lie back down.

The Hell, he thought as he tried to summon the strength to stand. I am not sitting caked in mud for any longer than I have to.

Before he could actually stand, the woman returned with a handful of broad-leafed plants and flowers in one hand and a handful of mud in the other. She approached him confidently though her eyes never left him as she came closer, watching him for any signs of sudden attack. Though wary, she did not seem as if she was scared, merely as if she wanted to be ready for it if an attack happened. She knelt beside him and pulled back the remnants of his shirt from over the bite as he watched with interest.

After all, he reasoned. If she was going to kill me or try to take me prisoner I would have woke up bound or not at all.

He watched as she ground the flowers into a paste on her palm and smoothed them over the bloody mess of his shoulder. The leaves came next, covering the entirety of the bite and were sealed on by the mud in what he belatedly recognized as a makeshift bandage. He felt the pain recede as the strange woman studied the bandage for a moment, assuring herself that it would stay on, then backed away.

Using his other arm he pushed himself off the ground and stood, quickly bracing himself against an upturned rock as the world spun slightly in warning. As the dizziness faded he turned his attention to the thick undergrowth of the forest where a path lay waiting to take him back to his sister.

Anna. He thought. She must think I'm dead. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she sees…. He shook his head. No, I can't go back. If Anna sees I've been bitten she will be crushed. Velkan swore softly. As far as the last of his family were concerned he was dead. He turned back to look for the one who had helped him, maybe she would at least offer him a place to stay before the curse of the werewolf started taking effect and he had to leave. When he turned to look for her, she was gone.

He shook his head exhausted and stumbled off into the woods. The sun was sinking behind the clouds and soon it would be night. Not a full moon though. Thank God. The forest darkened and his eyes adjusted. In the falling shadow his tired eyes thought they saw the form of a small human racing through the trees beside him. The last of the light fled and the shadow form vanished as thoroughly as his life, all from one bite.