A.N. Today you only get this story; I have a court issue tomorrow: I was going 40 in a 25 headed into a school zone :P Long story short, I have to go beg for my license tomorrow because I'm just shy of 20 :/ Hope you enjoy my second chapter!

"You… You can tell?" The woman asked, shocked. I nodded. "Most people mistake me for elven." She said, and I smiled, letting a fang show.

"I know how that is. But as soon as they see the fang, they realize how wrong they were. But the village I grew up in was okay with it. My mother married the local hero; my dad saved the entire town, and possibly even the town, not only once, but twice. He saved another town from a full-scale attack from the Zzyzx Empire with nothing more than a watering can! But anyways, what are you doing out here?" I asked, honestly curious. She'd caught my interest; she was the first being like me I've ever met. Mom may be a vampire, but she didn't understand my struggle; I have two parts of me. The part of me that's like dad: I'm close to the Earth, I can hear her voice, but never clearly. I can tell when she's sad, angry, or at peace. I also have my mother's side: I crave blood, but not unless I smell it. Tomato juice can sustain me, but not indefinitely, like mother. I can last of it for weeks, maybe even months, though.

"You too, huh? How random. I didn't expect to meet another of the clan out here. What's your level?" She asked, and I looked at her weird.

"What do you mean, level?" I asked, and she looked at me, shocked.

"How can you be vampire and not know about levels? Each vampire, when born, is given a level when their born, based on their parentage and how clean their blood is. Without proof of your blood… You can't claim any vampire heritage. No matter how much you have, the tribe would never accept you as more than, well… A slave. It was nice meeting you, but I cannot associate with you." She said, and I blinked, taken aback.

"Wait! My mother was a full-blooded vampire." I said. She stopped in her tracks, and turned back to me, fire in her eyes.

"Don't you dare claim to be a true half-ling! None have been born in over three hundred years, because the gene pool has become so polluted that none of the young can be more than a quarter without being inbred!" She said, then calmed a bit, looking sad. "We don't even have the ability to pass on the spirit song anymore." She said, and I gasped.

"But… I can Sing." I said, and she looked at me. The one thing my mother had taught me was the spirit song, but our connection went even deeper than that. I could use the spirit song to talk to them, but they could read my mind, tell what I want, and they whisper to me, tell me things sometimes. The only person I have ever met who could do it was Candy, and mom suspects their might be vampire blood somewhere in her lineage. But, back to what I was saying, the ability to Sing was regarded highly in all vampire tribes, and everyone could do it. But the half-ling children didn't always get this gift, and since the vampires were getting closer and closer to going extinct through inbreeding, it had become somewhat of a rare thing.

"Impossible! I can tell that you are a young child… But there is a strong aura of power coming from you." She said, and she walked around me in a circle. "Prove it." She said, and I nodded.

"I'll try. But the spirits have been… Distant lately. Their voices have become garbled, and they seem to be almost… Disappearing. " I said, and she frowned, but I closed my eyes. I reached out with my mind to the spirits around me, and I… Sang. The songs words had been lost, even to my mother, for a long time, until my father found them.

"Pray to heaven with a song

As the winds caress me

Send a prayer up to the light

So that it might help me see

Searching through my memories

Memories, my memories for you

For you

I have come this far having lost every hope

Hope of finding you

But I swear no matter what I've had to face

You've never left my heart

There are sweet memories

They live all around us

How can you not believe in our love

My full heart belongs to you

My life your love leads

I've always stood next to you

In your time of need

Embraced by the warmth of your gentle gaze

I've given you my love

I look for you now in my memories

Heart never mending,

Love never ending

Pray to heaven with our song." I sang, and the spirits materialized around me, circling me, sensing that I didn't need them so much as I wanted to prove I could summon them. They were happy to be of help; they were sad that not as many people could converse with them anymore. And to have a physical form, however fleeting, is something they cherish.

The woman looked shocked, and a single tear made its way down her face. "I haven't heard that song in over a thousand years. And in that time, I never realized how much I've missed the spirits being manipulated. Our society was once so grand… But our women were becoming infertile, and the men, to try and fix it, bred with the other races. The elves and the dark elves created almost perfect vampires, but they were more in tune with the earth than the spirits; they were Earthmates, not vampires. Humans, though. Humans created imperfect vampires, but they tended to take on the powers of vampires more than other humans. Now there are so few vampires left that any that pop up have thought they were the only pure vampire left. My husband and I are the only full-blooded vampires in the area, or so we thought. If what you say is true, your mother is very lucky indeed. Come, I want to show us to our village." She said, grabbing my hand. With that, we ran off into the trees, at speeds normal humans can only dream of; though she ran almost too fast for even me!