My eyes opened against my will and I stood up, it took a moment for my vision to focus. That was the only thing that told me that I had still be hibernating was the time it took for me to really wake up. I saw the wall of energy shimmer before disappearing prior to the barred wall in front of me opening. My legs took me forward toward the sound of three separate heartbeats waiting for me in the darkness. I tried to stop myself but just as before I couldn't. My heart racing with each involuntary step, I followed a man with two others on either side of me. Desperate, I pushed against that which held me one more time with all the mental force I could conger up. I was still moving in the direction I least wanted, but my steps did slow. I was able to flex my fingers and turn my head, this really upset the men around me.

"We must hurry, It is starting to overcome the device much sooner than we anticipated."

So, they had anticipated my abilities to overcome some kind of device. Mind control? Or something stronger? Even though I was stronger than they thought I would be, I felt weak and tired. My throat was ablaze in a wildfire of massive proportions. I needed to feed, soon. They made me walk into one of those compartments again and forced me to sit down on a rather comfortable bench seat. One of the men sat across from me with a strange looking piece of equipment pointed at me like I was about to pounce him right there and then, which I just might have if I had the ability. The other two men sat at a console in the front though this time the Star Trek doors didn't close.

I watched in amazed horror as the scene through the cockpit viewer started to move, down. A flying ship, shit! The scene outside was replaced by a wide room with a circular... thing, I wouldn't call it art, seeming to be the climax of the designing. As I watched the ship I was in lower, the circular thing moved as a kind of light made it's way around. Suddenly, a bright blue water looking substance appeared, like that which I saw when I was last in the back of one of these things. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of going through that "water" again. Before I could think any further it rushed forward with an added whine to the hum and without warning there were trees and mountains through the viewer. What was going on? An irritated hiss pushed through my unmoving lips. I saw something flying in the distance but it was to far away even for my vision to make out just what.

The ship approached a small clearing in the dense forest and landed in it's mists. I watched as the man across from me got up joined the other in the cockpit before the doors closed and the hydrolic door opened. Abruptly, my body slumped forward with sudden fatigue. My body my own I got up quickly and ran through into the open before they could do anything else. I glance behind me to see nothing in the clearing but I wasn't to surprised and just continued to run. I was starting to feel light-headed, and not from lack of oxygen. I had only ran two miles before I caught a delicious scent that set my mouth watering and my throat afire. Blood. Rational thought completely left me as I stopped and crouched behind some leafy bushes, I listened as the sound of branches creaking under foot approached. My lips curled away from my teeth as I sighted the source of that glorious smell. They weren't human, but they were humanoid, sort of. To low for anything to hear, I became aware of the noiseless approach of dozens of people. Vampires. I hissed in warning, these were my prey, my hunt, my relief. Before any of them could near me I uncurled from my crouch and soared into the air, my jump took me twenty feet from my starting position. One of the humanoids saw me and fired with a smooth stick-looking thing at me, a white burst of energy fit me in the chest but didn't do anything but piss me off at the fact that he hit me.

My growl was much more vicious than the roar from the thing, I leaped on him and sank my fangs into his neck, it had a bone mask covering it's face. It's blood tasted more wonderful than it had smelled. It was drained before I was done, looking up I see four more of these things notice me. Smiling, it only takes me thirty seconds to finish them off. My smile disappears as reason returns, with a vengeance. I sense them before anything, a miniature army of half-crazed, half-starved vampires running for the same thing that I had, blood. And they'll attack anything that tries to stop them. Hissing, I extend two inch talons and dig them into a nearby tree and climb up before any of them sense me. I climb out onto a sturdy branch and lowered my body quietly against it. From my spot safely in the tree, I watched as the others slaughtered every last one of the living humanoids. I was sick with the thought that I had just killed five of them myself, I had once vowed never to take life (spiders and the like a exception), and here I am. I was a murderer, a cold-hearted murderer and I despised myself, loathed myself beyond belief. The vampires below me stiffened, some of them screamed in surprise before straightening up and running back in the direction that they had all charged. My muscles locked as I felt a familiar pull belonging to my body, but I didn't move. That was why the others had stopped, they were being recalled. But I had overcome the "device", just as the men had said.

I was free, for now, of being pulled and pushed around like a marionette on a string. With every fiber of my being I wanted to run before someone found me. Especially when I saw two of those men searching the area, examining the few vampire bodies that they came across. My breathe froze, my heart stopped, and I pressed my body as close to the tree branch as I could without snapping it in half. They were starting to look around, taking in their surroundings, it wouldn't long before they spotted me clinging in the shadows. I couldn't escape, I never would, and the second they found me... A shudder raked my body at the thought. It took me a moment to realize that it wasn't just the shudder that raked my body, fur was growing from my skin. My clothes were disappearing into my body like liquid being absorbed into a sponge. My legs shortened and my spine lengthened, my skull shifted until my jaws were elongated and filled with sharp canines. My ears pointed and moved until the rested on top of my head and inch before touching. Paws took the place of hands and feet. I shivered before standing of pour paws, balancing with ease on the branch. Looking at my body I knew what had happened. I had changed, I was a big jungle cat. My fur was pitch black, my tail long and slim. Eric and Sam had never told me that vampires could do this, change there form. I doubted that they could, something told me that I was unique among vampires. Different. Untamable. Feral. Wild and free to make my own decisions as I saw fit, if I was willing. Far beyond my understanding, I somehow knew that I could shift into other forms, I knew my limits but I could break through those if needed.

In my sudden explosion of discovery, I didn't notice the men shining a showy, over the top version of the flashlight into the trees around them. The light fell on my and didn't move away. I glared at them and growled in defiance. They didn't know it was really me, but if they thought I was going to let them take me, as a jungle cat, back to one of those cells they were sadly mistaken. A savage growl reverberated through the trees as I jumped from my branch and landed on the ground in front of them. My tail twitched as I watched them step away from my rumbling form. I saw myself through their eyes for an instant, sleek and graceful body and eyes the color of coal. I bared my teeth in their minds and realized that I was doing that in reality. Standing, I hissed and whirled around. I leaped over fallen trees and raced through the forest as though I was flying, my heart soaring at my freedom. I heard no one following me, they wouldn't have been able to even if they had been able. I ran until the sun set in a blaze of orange and pink. I wasn't tired but I slowed to a walk anyway, taking in my new surroundings. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be tall and short coniferous-like trees and the ground under my paws was soft and springing. The area was filled with life, animals that I had never seen or thought to imagine. I saw a deer-like creature with horns that spread out to cover it's back and a foot in front, it was an unusual animal but tasted fabulous.

Seeing no reason to turn back into a vampire, I stayed a big cat, the only of "my kind" that I could tell. Within a year of my arrival everything in the forest treated me with animalistic respect, after all, I was the greatest huntress that this planet had ever encountered. After a while though, time lost all meaning and I wondered the land in a depression brought on by my isolation. Before He came to my home, I had read just about every "good" vampire book that I could and almost all of them said that vampires were solitary hunters who struggled to stay human, but I ached for... someone, anyone , who I could spend the passing time with. Gradually, I lost my taste for blood, I still hunted and fed but I didn't take all, and in the process leaving a lot of survivors behind. To make it easier for those that I didn't finish, I discovered that I could produce a kind of venom that when applied to a wound, no matter the damage, it would heal to perfection. But it wasn't just the loneliness that depressed me, it was this entire world. The only thing that I recognized was the soft forest floor. The colors here were way to dark, almost black, and the sky was more green than blue. It had only one sun, but two moons. And any time of day, if you looked to the west, you could see a Saturn looking planet hovering over the horizon. It was beautiful, but alien and disturbing.

For now, I sat on top of a yellow clay precipice overlooking an entire valley that I had just come across. The only reason that I had stopped to watch was because there were no trees in this valley, it was the first meadow land that I have found. My night vision allowed me to see everything clearly, the red and white flowers that grew over every surface, the giant boulder that rested across the expanse, even the smaller animals scurrying between the long blades of grass. But I wanted to see this valley in the sunlight, who knows, maybe I'll stay here and call it my new home. A heavy sigh produces a cloud of condensation in front of me. I was rather surprised to see this for I didn't feel cold, reasonably warm actually. How odd.

In the east, I detected a slight lighting in the sky, sunrise was not far now. If the valley looked as I pictured it in the light I would wander down and survey the entire area, looking for the right necessities to my survival before deciding to make up permanent residence. I closed my eyes and sighed again before lowering my head against my furry chest. Nothing had been permanent in a long time, not since Him anyway. An involuntary shiver ran down my spine as I pushed the thought of Him away. I may be friendless and solitary, but I would never be desperate enough to cling to those memories. I flicked my tail in irritation as I opened my eyes. At that moment, an unbearably loud explosion of sound tormented my super sensitive ears. The detonation was quickly followed by a blinding flash across the sky followed by a awful crash. When my eyes adjusted from the blue-purple streak running through my vision, I noticed an abnormality in the valley. It was no longer perfectly uninterrupted grasslands and meadows for it had a deep trench running half the length. It looked like a string of C4 had been blown up by the depth and the distance the soil flew. Had a meteor hit? What were the odds of one hitting as I watched from above? For that matter, what were the odds of anything hitting while I sat and watched?

All the animals that had been scurrying about a moment before were half a mile away in a mad dash to escape, but there was one heartbeat still in the valley and it was larger and stronger than any of the animals. My eyes narrowed in suspicion as I stood and made my way down the side of the cliff into the once unspoiled valley. I started at a brisk trot once I hit horizontal land and made my way to the line of upturned dirt. As I neared, I felt a strange heat radiate from the two foot deep streak. I climbed into the ditch and studied some kind of debris, it wasn't metal but it also wasn't rock. Not a meteor. So what had left this horrid eyesore in my valley?

I look right and see a steady incline in the ground, the starting point, I look left and see a steady decline ending in a huge pile of earth, finish line. Sighing, I turn my body in that direction and start walking. As I neared the end point I see more and more of that strange not-metal-but-not-rock debris. It had a bluish-purplish-grayish tint whatever it was. I slow my pace as I reach the pile as the end. Heat radiates from inside and the fur on the back of my neck bristles as I stop next to a much larger piece of debris sticking out of the pile. This was just to weird, heat mixed with really strange material. What the hell? Could this have been caused by another alien species crashing their freaky little ship? Possible, and if so, there would most likely have been at least a pilot whom is now buried under about fifty pounds of soil.

Coming to this reasonable conclusion, I leap onto the top of the dirt mountain and start digging straight down. I didn't have to dig long before I reach more of that strange material but this also had what looked like a black... canopy over a small portion. Cockpit? Wasting no time, I tear my claws through the canopy with a deafening screech. Pealing what is left of the canopy back with my canines I peer inside, sure enough, there is someone inside. But he isn't what I expected. He looks vaguely similar to those humanoids that I had killed my first day here, but this one had no mask. He was slim and would have been tall had he stood up, his skin was paler than any human shade, he had a slit on either side of his face along with a rather intricate tattoo pattern around his left eye. His hair was long and white and could seriously us a brush. His clothes were different too, made of some sort of black leather-like fabric that was form fitting. Dark red stained the right side of his face starting from a unattractive gash in his hair line. More red came from a angry hole from his abdomen area. It looked quiet painful and I guess he was either unconscious from the force of the crash or from loss of blood, or both. I do not know why I grabbed a mouth full of fabric between my jaws and prepared myself to pull him out, maybe it was because I was still a good person and felt sorry for him, or I was just trying to make up for killing those five before. Which ever the real reason, I dragged his limp body from the crashed ship and out of the dirt mountain. I don't figure that tumbling down the side would do him any good so I carefully made my way down inch by inch and did my best not to jostle him to much. After I reached level ground I tow him past the debris field and release my hold when we are in a section of intact meadow.

I don't know how severe his injuries are but I know that as long as the heart beats my healing venom will work. Just in case there are more damage that I couldn't see, I extended my fangs and produced enough venom that they dripped. I gently bite into the soft flesh of his neck and inject a far amount into his banged up body. I pulled away and sat next to him on his left side and waited, I wasn't sure what I was waiting for but I watched anyway. Unease permeated my body as his convulsed as my venom got to work. I hope he wasn't in any more pain than he most likely already was. There isn't a whole lot more that I could do, I realized this with a sense of agitation, I shifted my weight before laying with my furry back against his side. Maybe this was all that I could do, I don't even know if he felt me. Sighing I rest my head on my front paws and watch as the sun finally makes an appearance over the horizon, with that mental picture in my mind to calm myself down I fell asleep.

TBC