Author's Note: Part of the reason I'm writing this story is to flex my writing muscles when it comes to the romantic stuff that I will inevitably address in Forever Night

Author's Note: Part of the reason I'm writing this story is to flex my writing muscles when it comes to the romantic stuff that I will inevitably address in Forever Night. I love plotting and cliffhangers. Romance, however, is not my forte (though it probably should be if I want Twilight fans to read my stories). That is why the Garrett/Susan relationship in Forever Night involved a courtship of exactly one chapter. This story has a plot, obviously, but I'm also using it as training for the end of Forever Night. Though I love writing this story, too.

3. VULNERABLE

She stared at me blankly, her eyes full of questions.

I reached across the table without thinking, and gripped her hand in mine. Her skin was so warm it felt like it was burning. Warmer than any human skin I'd ever touched.

She jerked her hand away from mine. Her face looked…horrified. And then she was moving, standing from the table and walking briskly out the door.

"Sabine," I whispered as she left me. Why had I done that? I should never have touched her. I shouldn't want to touch her. But for some reason, I did. I wanted very much to touch her again, to keep talking to her, to find out everything about her, and not just her secrets about her more dangerous side. There was something very wrong with me.

I followed Sabine out the door, ignoring the curious glances of the bartender and the other patrons, and I was out in the cold, though my breath made no mist. She was not visible on the street, so I caught her scent and followed.

She was fast in her human form. I tracked her for over a mile before I caught up with her, still running, seemingly at random, as if she had no idea where she was going. Which she probably didn't. I was close behind her now, but I didn't know the best way to approach. She answered that question for me when she stopped short in the middle of the street, sniffing the air again. Ah, yes, she was as aware of me as I was of her. Only my scent sickened her, my very presence agitated her. I should have felt the same way about her, but for some strange reason I did not.

Still, she was in the middle of the street and in broad daylight. I could not approach her, I decided, as I noticed the odd pedestrian passing her. She waited for a moment, and I hugged the shadows below the wall of a destroyed building. She turned and stared at me. I was visible, though I was not in the sun. And her face curled in…anger? I could not tell. And then she marched straight towards me.

"Why do you keep following me?" Sabine demanded, her face still furious. I tried to think of an appropriate response.

"You…seem lost," I said, trying to be honest without giving anything away.

"And you seem far too interested in someone you only just met. And I think there's something wrong with you. And I know there's something wrong with me. So maybe you should stay away." She did not yell, but her voice, and her face, were vehement.

"I can't," I responded, too quickly, before I could stop myself.

"Try," she suggested, and spun from me. I could not stop myself from reaching out and grabbing her arm, either. What the devil was the point of having a vampire mind if it couldn't stop my body and my mouth from doing and saying things that they shouldn't?

Sabine whipped her head around, her greasy and dirty hair like tendrils as it flew across her face. "Get your hand off of me. Now." I released her immediately, and then I surprised myself again.

"Can I buy you something to eat?" What, now I wanted to go out on a date with her? Good Lord, Garrett, are you going to ask her if she wants to take in a movie as well? The thought crept up on me despite my best efforts, the idea of being in a darkened theater with her. I pushed the image away. She was evil. She'd killed Danny. I had to kill her. I repeated it over and over again.

Sabine looked as confused as I felt. I tried to mask the request, though I very much wanted to take her somewhere for food. But I could not let her know that.

"Or, could I give you some money? You look very hungry, and I know from yesterday that you have nothing."

She shook her head. "I told you, stay away from me," she said quietly, and then she walked away. I pulled back, further into the shadows. I didn't know what I should do next.

I had to find out more about her. If Sabine knew she was a werewolf, then I could kill her in her human form. But if she didn't, then the task would be much harder. I should be willing to kill her, not just because of what she was, but because of what I was. How many people had I killed already? I'd lost count, but I knew it was thousands. There should be no issue for me in killing a very dangerous human woman. And if I waited for her monster to return, then I was killing more than just one human.

But my mind wavered, picturing her in the alley, naked and helpless, her green eyes piercing me, green eyes that were too familiar to the ones that had pierced my soul when I'd still had one. She seemed so innocent when I thought of her that way. She was not dangerous. She couldn't be. Nothing dangerous could ever wear the expression she'd worn when I'd first found her.

I waited, as long as I could, and then followed at a slow, human pace, tucking my jacket around me and pulling the cap I'd stolen out of my pocket and over my head. It was cold out. I supposed I looked normal.

Sabine returned to the river, and I lost her scent at one of the boats that were ferrying people across. Good, the medic had at least given her some money. I paid the ferryman without a word, and then paced the west bank of the river until I found her unappealing scent again.

We'd landed in Old Town, still mostly destroyed from the war, and she'd moved north to New Town. It wasn't in much better condition, but it was more livable, and there were a few businesses in operation. Sabine had meandered through the streets, and I had no idea what she was seeking. She'd managed to find the New Town Market Square at the end of Freta Street, mostly destroyed like the rest of the city, and she'd lingered at a few of the food stalls. So I was not surprised when I followed her scent into yet another alley, and found her crouched protectively over stolen vegetables, devouring them as fast as she could. She was so absorbed that she did not notice me until I spoke.

"Please, let me buy you something. That hardly smells appetizing." Truly, it didn't.

She shot up from her crouch and came towards me, once again full of anger. "Was I unclear? Did I not make myself understood? Stay away from me!" She gripped the food to her body and marched out of the alley.

And straight into the shouts of an angry Polish woman.

I had no idea what the woman was saying, but she shouted loudly and pointed at Sabine, and others in the square took notice. Sabine dropped the vegetables immediately, but it was too late. A policeman, a hundred yards away, looked up from his conversation at the scene, and began moving towards her.

It was the same as the bar. I was moving before I could stop myself. One moment, I was in the alley behind her, and the next I gripped her arms and pulled her with me, out of the square. I wasn't surprised when she was able to match a pace that was far too fast for a human and I didn't have to carry her. I was just glad that night was falling, and I did not have to cover myself. I pulled up, when I saw an open stall that smelled of cooked meat, paid quickly for what appeared to be sausages, and led her into the Royal Baths Park in Old Town, better preserved than other areas of the city. I sat her on a bench overlooking a small pond, and handed her the sausages wrapped in paper.

Sabine looked at me once, and then she began to eat. If she had devoured the vegetables before, she was positively ravenous at the smell of cooked meat.

I watched her eat. I wanted very much to see the werewolf in her, and in this moment she was probably closest to her other form, but I could only feel sorry for her. How long had it been since she'd eaten anything, much less something she'd enjoyed? Or at least, something she'd enjoyed as a human. She'd probably enjoyed a lot of meals as a werewolf. I wondered if Danny tasted good to her. That was a good way to think. Concentrate on her as the werewolf, and not as the human. The very lovely and appealing human. More appealing to me than anyone in half a century. No, I had to think of the wolf. The extremely deadly wolf.

Sabine finished the meal in moments, and then she looked up at me, embarrassed, as she wiped the signs of her meal from her mouth. The look was so attractive, it rocked me away from my forced thoughts of her as a werewolf, and once again the human, and male, desires overcame me. I shuddered and looked away.

"Thank you. Again," she said quietly, and I looked back at her. She looked so vulnerable, and my overwhelming desire to protect her once again overcame me. She did not need protection. She'd broken a man's wrist with but a flick of her own. She was a werewolf, for God's sake. People needed protection from her, not the other way around.

"So, you know," she started, and then she looked at the ground, unwilling to continue.

"Yes?" I asked, wondering where she was going.

"You know that there is something wrong with me?" It was a question instead of statement.

"Yes," I replied, and it was not a question.

"Every month I…lose myself. I go to sleep, and I wake up somewhere else. I'm naked and alone." She looked at me again. Her face was hopeful. And strangely enough, there was some trust in her eyes as well. I suddenly realized that what she'd just told me was something she had never revealed to anyone else. And she didn't know what she was. I tried to decide if I could kill her even if she was unaware, but I already knew the answer.

"Do you know why?" she asked tentatively

"I do, but I don't think you want to hear it," I said.

"And you're…different as well?" she inquired. Still curious.

"I'm different, but not the way that you are." I didn't want to talk about myself. Even this monster could not understand, could not bear, the monster that I was.

Sabine waited impatiently, and when I said no more, she decided to voice her observations.

"You look different. You smell different. You feel different. Too cold. You move too fast. I move faster than anyone I know, but you're faster than me. And there was something wrong with your skin, before, in the sun." She stopped, and looked at me expectantly.

"Yes, we're both different. We should leave it at that."

"Then why do you follow me, if you don't want to tell me what's wrong with me? Why do you keep helping me?"

"Because I always do the wrong thing," I said simply.

"Helping me is wrong?" she asked.

"More wrong than you could possibly know," I replied. Suddenly, I very much wanted this conversation to end. Everything about what I was doing was wrong. I hadn't looked at her, and I tried to keep my eyes averted. I stood up from the bench, and felt her hot fingers as she gripped my hand.

Her face was so full of fear that it nearly broke my will. But I had to be strong. I could be strong. What was another human life to a mass murderer?

I pulled my hand away from her.

"Garrett," she whispered.

I did what I had to do. I walked away from her.

"Help me," Sabine murmured. I looked back at her, arms clutching her knees to her body, rocking back and forth. Just as she had in the alley. I wavered.

"'This bad begins and worse remains behind,'" I sighed.

Hamlet often did the wrong thing.

I always did the wrong thing. No reason to stop now.