The only sound in the room was the deep, ragged pants of someone under a lot of stress. A gloved hand was slowly turning the dial on the controller, and the pointer was nearing the last notch. Rifka's eyes glowed, first red, and then white, casting shadows across her face as the color brightened. Soon the dial could turn no further, and Alucard set it down.

"Do you have control?"

Rifka's gave him a throaty growl, and he found the way her dark eyes glittered at him oddly arousing. "I have control!" The words came out a seething snarl, a great deal of her energy going into resisting the pain. She groaned and shuddered then, closing her eyes tightly.

"You're doing amazingly well, Catwoman. Maybe you weren't completely overcome by the Beast, after all."

She hissed and shuddered, shaking herself off and trying to reconstruct her mental defenses against the pain. "What are you talking about?"

"Maybe you've been letting the Beast take over!"

Rifka's temper flared, her lips sliding back over her fangs in a vicious snarl. "What purpose would that serve? Killing without remorse? Waking up with no memory and therefore no guilt?"

"Aren't those the perfect reasons?"

With a heated roar Rifka rose to her feet swiftly, stalking about the room in an effort to expel the energy flooding into her created by her anger. As she spoke, her hands whipped through the air in expressive sweeps made vicious by her emotions. "Why should I give up myself for that? Who says I need the Beast to do my dirty work?!"

"Oho." Alucard regarded her favorably, and Rifka curled her lip at him, her face flushed and her eyes darkening. She threw her arms out to the sides.

"I'm as much a beast as she is! The only difference being that I have a mind to pick my battles with! She goes blind with pain and attacks anything within reach, like a cornered animal. I would attack my antagonist!"

"How do you explain how easily you've come to control her, then, Catwoman?"

Her spine straightened and she glared at him; not with the beast's blind wrath, but with the controlled ire of a proud woman. An expression he was quite familiar with, from Integra. "I asked you to introduce the pain slowly so I could adapt to it and widen my threshold. Though it is burning through my stamina quickly, I can stand here under the full strength of that dial and not lose myself to the creature inside me. What once was an unbearable agony can now be shut away – ignored until I must address it."

He smiled at her. "Clever."

"And I should address it soon, Alucard…" She reached out to press her hand against the wall, a shudder running through her. She closed her eyes, and had to force herself to open them again. "Make that 'now'…"

He didn't miss the change in her tone. "Ah." He slowly turned off the controller and watcher her drop to the floor with a gasped curse. She became human again, her chest heaving and her muscles trembling. She continued to curse breathlessly, curling into a tight ball and flexing her hands. "There's really no name for what you are, is there?" He asked with a regretful tone.

She ran her shaking hands over her hair, pushing it back from her face and smoothing it down before looking him in the eye. The shadows under her eyes were back, but he could still see some fire in the brown depths. Did she know how attractive she was, all breathless and guarded like she was now?

"You mean, besides 'mutant'? I suppose not. I've heard that the Werewolves are born, not created in labs… I've heard of Changelings before but never seen one… They're probably just myths. Me? All I can honestly do is heal myself, and take the form of something between a human and an animal. No… I don't know what to call that."

She pushed herself up onto her hands, and he could tell she wouldn't be able to stand. Silently, he got to his feet and went to her. He gathered her in his arms just as the exhaustion caught up to her and she collapsed against him. "Is it important to you? Fitting in?" He held her close, wanting to feel her heart beating against his chest again.

He was surprised when she leaned into him willingly. "It can be… A heart can die from loneliness." She looked up at his face again and he stared into her sad, brown eyes, marveling again at how beautiful the haunted look made her.

"I don't remember when my heart beast last, but you can stay here. If anything, I bet Integra would enjoy trying to find your intended classification. It has to be documented somewhere."

"Maybe back in Russia…"

"That's certainly a logical place to start."

"If you find Vandella's original notes, I'm sure he mentioned what he meant to call me."

"You believe he was a thorough note-keeper, then?"

"Yes, very extremely so, from what I remember." She sighed and let her head fall limply against his shoulder. "Alucard… Please… I need to rest."

He grinned at her words and couldn't help it; he had to tease her again. "You said 'please' again…"

She was too tired to give him much of a reaction. She stared up at him, her haunted eyes blank. "Yes. I did."

"For someone that gives so much sass, you really don't like being teased, do you?"

"Free me from my collar and try me after that."

"It's a deal."

He lifted her off her feet as he stood up, and brought her back to the bed where he gently laid her down. Her eyes had slid closed along the way, and he drew the blankets over her figure, pausing with his face close to hers. After a moment of staring down at her thoughtfully, he reached out to touch her face. Blinking in surprise, he looked at his hand.

"What is this feeling, you odd, intriguing creature? I've never felt this… and yet… Maybe I have…" He trailed off, gazing at the sleeping woman for just a moment longer, and then he vanished from the room.

Integra looked up when she sensed the Monster join her in her office. "Well, Alucard? What have you learned about our guest tonight?"

"She's a mutant, my Master; Mostly human, almost something else. She can draw power from pain to heal her wounds, and to transform into… a hybrid creature of sorts. I've been working with her, and if she keeps improving she should soon be able to shift at will."

"You've what?!"

Alucard grinned at the woman's exclamation. "You know I've never approved of inhibitions. I desired to free her from hers, but since we couldn't figure out how to get her collar off, I settled for teaching her control instead."

Integra stared. Was it her imagination, or did Alucard seem rather taken with the creature in her guest wing? "Not a Freak beyond a doubt?"

"Not even slightly, my Master. She's unlike any magical or man-made beast we've encountered to date. Not Werewolf, not Freak and not Vampire. All she knows for sure is that the man who collared her mixed her DNA with that of a wild Jaguar."

"Does she have any idea where we can find information on that operation?"

Alucard gave a deep chuckle. "Russia."

Integra sighed with irritation and pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. "Oh yes, she's bloody brilliant." She shook her head. "Is there anything else?"

"Only one other thing," Alucard was turning to leave when she asked, and he paused, his creepiest grin forming across his face. "She's also a virgin."

Integra's eyes flew open, but all that remained of the Monster was his wicked, cackling laughter.