The following few days were touch and go. Initially, we hid in a small orchard, Dante putting up a small protection charm while I rested. He was startlingly kind to me, and I to him, and it became clear that his situation had been similar to mine. Dante was the bastard son of his mother's relations to an unnamed wizard, his mother later marrying the Minister when Dante was still in school. Minister De Lombardi had not been and unkind stepfather to Dante, but Dante had always felt he was an intrusion in his mother's 'new life', especially after his younger brother was born.

He explained that after school, his mother had implored Mr. De Lombardi to take Dante on as his personal assistant, and Mr. De Lombardi had reluctantly agreed.
Then the War of Vampires came. It seemed that what Mr. De Lombardi had told me was true, for Dante's story confirmed it, though Dante implied that they had hired Illuminati to purge Rome.

When asked him why he had complied to leading me to his mother's death, he was silent for a long time, his face clearly troubled.

"She was not a woman I knew. She was different from when she was alive." He looked up at me with those sad black eyes. "I do not know what occurs when one becomes a vampire, but it was not my mother."

His eyes were upon me, as if he expected me to hold the answer to his mother's fate, but I held my tongue, reluctant to speak of something I did not fully understand.

We traveled using any means possible, reaching the border of France in less than twenty four hours. It was a difficult journey over cliffs, rocks, and rivers, and Dante knew nothing about healing his injuries, so he crudely bandaged his hand and tried to limp through. Three days later, I forced him to stop and rest, expressing concern over the infection that was beginning in his hand.

"It would seem that the entire world is ready to be purged of vampires." I said thoughtfully one night as we looked over the hills of eastern France, the countryside bathed in the dying sunlight. Dante shivered slightly, his body close to mine as if expecting warmth. I could smell the growing infection in his hand, but he was reluctant to let me look at it. Dante remained silent for a long time, his face troubled as he wrapped himself tighter in his cloak.

"Integra, I am sorry for this happening to you." He spoke slowly in his charming, slightly broken English.

I looked up at him from beneath my bangs, raising one eyebrow. "What is happening to me?"

"I did not think that vampires were like you before. I see now that…it is possible for humans and vampires to exist in the same. Now we are both hunted like animals."

I shook me head at the nonsense of his words as I struggled to decode it. "It is nothing new. Vampires and humans always struggled for dominance: Vampires hunt humans, humans hunt vampires. It is a cycle that will never end so long as the two races exist. Article 12 can only do so much for us, and still, it's seen as a mere suggestion by many, not a law…"

His black eyes followed me, his mind slowly comprehending the English. It was now one of those times that I wished for some of Anna's talent for foreign languages.

"Do you ever wonder about how vampires beginnings?"

"Do you?"

"Yes, I think. I wonder if vampires origins can make us exist together."

I smiled slightly at his pipe dream. "You should get some rest, Dante. The infection is spreading to your brain, I believe."

He nodded slowly, rolling in his cloak and clasping his slender fingers in the fine black velvet. He looked thin and fatigued in his sleep, and I stood to go search for food for both he and I. I knew the infection was slowing him down, but he refused to do anything about it, clearly concerned for our mutual safety above his own comfort. I explained to him that it would be useless to return to Britain with a corps, but he remained adamant that he would be fine, though I could sense the doubt in his mind.

As I left our hiding place, I paused, looking back. There was something about him that was like Anna, though lacking the poisonous fire that she possessed, he was strong, stubborn and relentless about those he assumed friendships with.

I went into the small town, using a fair amount of energy to transform myself into mist, hoping to avoid the watchful eye of any wizards that may inhabit the village.

I waited silently in the shadows, waiting for some feeble, waking human to fall pray to my technique: vampires cannot enter houses uninvited. As I have stated before, I can use a small amount of manipulation, the weaker the mind the more effective I am.

This was, perhaps, the fist time I have truly felt like a monster, preying on the weak out of desperation. I told myself that it was for Dante's safety as well, but then I found myself asking why I cared so much. It went, it seemed, beyond the selfish wish to prove my innocence, as if I were bringing him to England for a higher purpose that I had yet to understand.

It was a series of questions I could not immediately answer, but had come up many times during our week-long travels from Italy to Northern France.
I found a small shop that was still open, taking a few blankets, some food, and what I suspected, and hoped, due to my extremely limited French, was some antibacterial salve.

Outside, I walked openly in the shadows, my senses ablaze. My sense of smell was useless in a town full of strangers, the scent of pumping blood fresh in the air, thus I fell upon my keen hearing and sight to aid in my hunt. I came across a drunk laying in the ally and stopped to ply him with questions and perhaps lure him into being my next victim.

He looked up at me wearily from beneath two great, grey eyebrows, and spoke in slurred, angry French, telling me get out. I backed away as he rose, my eyes wide. He took a swing at me, and I spotted an Illuminati pendant hanging about his neck. My body went rigid as he pulled out a gun.

"I have found you." He snarled in a thick, Dutch accent. "You filthy abomination."

I nearly dropped the blankets, backing away. I couldn't run off to Dante, I couldn't lead them to him…

"Ye have been judged and found wanting, oh child of darkness. Ye forsaken child of God."

I pulled out my Winchester, shooting him in the shoulder to delay him as I retreated onto the rooftops.

I could sense others moving around me, a man in a long coat leaping onto the rooftop.

"The Bride of Vladislav Dracula, we meet for the first time, und ze last." The man said in a dark, German accent.

"Sayonara." I said suddenly, backing almost directly into one of the men that surrounded me, my hand grasping the pendant around his neck. I yanked him forward, using him a a human shield as the chain snapped, rosary beads bouncing on the hard rooftop. The rest of the Illuminati that had gathered there opened fire on their comrade, but I disappeared into the night, my body becoming one with the low clouds that hung over. I was untraceable as a cloud of mist, save for the supplies I had to carry back to Dante. I swooped into our hiding place to find Dante trapped in a restless sleep. Wrapped him in the blankets, rousing him and forcing him to eat.

"We have to get out of here. I'm certain they've got an eye on the English channel…"

"What now will you do?" He asked, offering me a chunk of bread.

"I don't know. You have the ability to apparate, but my hands are tied…" I said hurriedly, cleaning up the encampment. "I should have…" I heaved a sigh, looking up at him and tossing him the salve. "My judgment hasn't been the best of late, and I'm sorry for getting you into this situation."

He looked down at the salve in bewilderment, then casting me a nervous look.

"Integra…" He raised the tube to get a clearer look at it. "What is this for?"

"Your hand." I said thoughtlessly, looking around. "You need to head to England…I'll meet you in the churchyard in the village of Chedder…" I stopped, my senses ablaze as the hair on the back of me neck stood on end. There was another vampire here….

XxX

A/n: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

She still doesn't know about this. She fails at stalking.

Review plox?