Author: Catherine

Sleep had come easier this morning than others. The weather was changing and Catherine could sense a change in other things as well. Moving through the thicket a mile or so outside the city she had found the area safe enough to take as her haven yet close enough that she needn't fear being caught in the rays of the sun. Sinking slowly into the ground as the needed sleep began to over take her.

Flashes of light and the sound of gunfire forced her to stay low to the ground. The scent of fresh blood struck her like a hammer as she moved caustiously forward. The only sound over the booming was low moans...not to far ahead. The going was slow even in the stolen trews and shirt she had pulled from a dead boy, how many nights ago....four, five. She crept closer listening to the moans grow fainter as the scent of the hot blood asaulted her senses. Finally the hunger pulled so hard that she flung herself growling upon the still warm form, pushing the head to the side as a scream rang in the darkness, sinking her sharp blood teeth into the pulsing artery letting the feel of the blood urge the beast to the take control as she drank deeply. Pressing the struggling form to the muddy ground and sating the undeniable hunger that had gripped her. Feeling the struggles lessen the scent and taste of the blood would not let go as she continued to drink deeply...the last gasp of breath and death shudder from the form bringing her to the present slowly as she pulled back, licking the final drops of blood from her lips.

Pressing against the still form, settling back in the mud, blood soaked into the front of the billowing shirt, pressing against her bare skin as she regained control of her senses. Swiping the back of her hand across her mouth leaving streaks of mud across her face as she focused on the form before her. The scream that ripped from her throat as she stared into the dead eyes of a child echoed loud through the quiet of the trees. She had not noted the ceasetion of gunfire as she fed her hunger...but now her own scream echoed in her ears. There before her lay a small body, the gaping hole in the lower torso not registering on her muddled mind as she scrambled back clawing at the wet ground, making purchase with heels moving away from the body.

"No....St. Peter...in heaven no...." the words tumbling from her cold, muddied lips as she stops, pulling her knees to her chest rocking slowly. Her eyes riveted to the staring eyes as she wrapped her arms around her knees, unmindful of the wet dirt or the distant sound of horses approaching. Her head bowed as she shuddered...nothing registering with her but the child's body laying there.

The jangle of reins brought her head up with a jerk. She hadn't noticed the passing of the time. The horizon had lightened some as she looked toward the sounds. Horses...riders moving through the muddied field slowly, some men on foot, she could make them out as they moved slowly. Their voices rang softly across the space as they searched for any that were alive among the dead littered here. She hadn't noticed the other bodies scattered around her, the smell of the blood tainted ground reaching her as she stood slowly. Hidden slightly by the breadth of a tree trunk she watched as they moved amongst the dead. She had been alone so long it seemed....to see others she almost gave in to moving toward them, speaking to them but she held back. Her growing instinct told her that it would be unwise to make her presence known to them yet she longed for the sound of another voice.

She found herself longing for the voice of her sire. The voice that droned on low into the hours of darkness those days following the death of her father and all in the carriage. How long had it been...hours, days....weeks? She couldn't remember, she couldn't remember the events after the second night with her sire. She had remembered what she was told, the words sinking in slowly as she walked and listened. So lost in thought the scream made her jump and stumble from behind the safety of the tree trunk as she fell forward into the path of a rider and his mount.

Lifting her gaze as the sky behind him made his silohette loom menacingly ...she let out a feral growl just as his sword pierced the soft tissue of her shoulder. The searing pain making her scream out before she grasped the hand holding the sword...pulling with all her strength as the blade pierced deeper into her body. The sound of his strangled scream as she tore into his exposed throat with her extended blood teeth, spurting blood in her face as she pulled harder and they tumbled to the ground in a heap. His struggles weakening as the sound of feet pulling as if in a suction coming across the field ...her body atop his as his hot blood splashed her and ran down her throat. The blade of the sword slipping from her shoulder as she pulled his arm back ...her lust and pain giving her strength as she felt the struggles cease. Lifting her gaze past the prancing horse....she pulled back from the soldier as a bullet whipped past her left shoulder smashing into the tree with a sudden thud. The sun was lightening the morning sky as the other soldiers ran nearer.

"Sire......" the word ripped from her throat as she struggled from the depths of sleep, tearing up through the ground. Her hands covering her face as she shook sitting there in the small clearing, the first evening star shining in the darkening skies. Crimson staining her cheeks as she lowers her hands sweeping the area quickly hoping again that she would find her sire near. But as always she was....alone.