"Um...." Holly completely forgot what she was going to say. No one kissed the back of peoples hands before and it suprised her. "Oh the vampires want to kill me and Josh brought me here so I'd be safe." She said.

{Whats a bracer?}

(One of these, you wear on your arms as armor)

He frowned. "The vampires want to kill you? Why you? What did you do?" He grabbed a chair and sat down, setting his bracers down.

{Ohhhhhh}

She didn't answer him right away. "I...welll...I saw alana kinda attack a human. I'm also a vampire hunter and Josh and I were in the forest by the castle then we, well mostly josh, Set it on fire." Holly said. She smiled a little bit. She looked at Andre waiting to see what he thought.

"Hey, I put that fire out when we left!" Josh protested. ((He did; I think I forgot to mention it but I meant to. He whipped the flames off of the trees and let them die in midair as we ran out of the clearing. Werewolves are very close to nature; none would ever start a forest fire if they could help it.)) "Besides, it was the best way I could think of the protect you from the vampires while I rescued the other idiot human... No offense." Josh added hastily. He obviously has very little experience interacting with others, so he is rather clumsy with words and is rather tactless.

Holly stuck her toung out at him. "I was a bit busy holding on for dear life when you were running." She said to Josh.

"Alright, alright," he raised his hands and stood up between them. "Sounds like quite an adventure." He looked over at Alana, then over at Holly again. "So, you're a hunter too, then? Aren't you a little young to be fighting full grown vampires?"

Josh sighs. "Fair enough."

"I'M NOT THAT YOUNG! I'M 15!" Holly yelled at Andre. "They killed my parents, something has to be done." She said angerly.

Andre took a step back, putting his hands forward in surrender. "All right, All right. I'm sorry."

He looked away. "That kind of thing is exactly why I became a vampire hunter... to stop vampires from creating people like you." He turned, walking over to Alana. "Much to young, but she has more right then I to be here," he muttered under his breath.

He walked over to Alana. "Well, well. A Vampire, here. I never would have thought to see the day." He bowed slightly to her. "Andre Sophronia, at your service."

Shifting back to his four-legged wolf form, Valdac stalked away to leave the group alone. Padding quietly around the clearing, Valdac snuffed the air to trace himself back to his old home.
He came upon a small house, made crudely of thick branches lashed together, mud, and grass. Pushing the door open with his nose, he went inside, and brushed the door closed with his tail. Sitting softly in the middle of the one room dwelling, Valdac looked around, his tail swaying slowly side to side. The bed in the corner still stood, the goose down mattress still stained in blood. Closing his eyes, the memory hit him like an iron fist...

Valdac carried her limp, marred body into the clearing. He remembered the looks and snarls he got from the other wolves. Not caring about what they thought, he carried her to his home, tears sliding down his cheeks. Getting inside, he laid her down on his bed. She was cold, and the heart she possessed was bery slow and weak feeling. Though unconscious, Valdac spoke to her. He told her of his love for her, how he wished this never happened, and how sorry he was for letting the hunters get to her. Knowing she would not make it til the morning, she being only half vampire, he simply held her cold hand, and fell asleep at the bedside.

Opening his eyes, Valdac chuffed and rested his head on his paws. The scent of her blood was still faint on the air from the matress. It killed him to be in there still. Something kept him in there though. Yawning, he closed his eyes again, and decided to sleep until noon.

Holly smiled she got her point across to andre. She turned and walked away from everyone. Holly wandered around the werewolf camp not really knowing what to do. She was passing little huts that the werewolves lived in. She was humming quietly trying to get her mind of of everything. She notice inside one house was a man still as a wolf, he looked like Valdac. She looked at him quietly stopping her humming wondering why he was still in wolf form and why he was sleeping on the floor. She just stood there day dreaming about what it would be like to be a vampire or werewolf. The night fell around her, or so she thought, and she unconciously sat down and slowly fell asleep leaning against valdacs hut. The sun had been out for a while when she slept. The night she thought was coming was just her own sleepyness. She woke up and the sun was right above the trees. She opened her eyes and quickly covered them. "Oww. Its bright out."

((Um, it's not night, it's morning right now. Our characters were up all night, though, so it's not surprising that Holly and Valdac would be going to sleep; but they are sleeping during the day ^_^))

{Fixed it :D}

((No, I meant it was morning when we *got* to the camp. It was night when Josh rescued you from the Lake, we spent the night going to the Inn, meeting Alana, and running to the camp. The meal we just had was breakfast.)

{ohh...ummmm.....lol....now is it better :P}

*Josh also sleeps through the morning, having spent most of the night running. The Alpha and his honor guard return to patrolling the camp.*

Helen heard no answer from Alana. For all she knew, her fellow vampiress could be dead. Werewolves were called the enemy for a reason. They were sly, cunning and untrustworthy. She came to an abrupt stop and threw her fist at a nearby tree, causing the bark to collapse and the tree to split open. Helen wasn't one to lose her temper. Well, sometimes she did, but that was only once in a blue moon. She knew she needed to feed in order to keep her cool. Since there was no way to find the werewolf camp without Alana's directions, she would have to wait it out.

After taking a breather for a few minutes, she began her way towards the village to find a human to prey upon. 'Though I'd prefer to take the blood of the vampire hunter,' she thought with her teeth and fists clenched. She stopped running about a quarter mile before the line of trees ended and began walking. As Helen walked, she fixed her crimson hair, pulling it into a half-up bun and tied it with a dark green ribbon that matched the dark green on her dress.

The village was as busy as ever. The marketplace was full of vendors and wagons selling all sorts of objects from far away places and also local made items. She walked down the cobblestone road, her gray eyes scanning all those who were wandering the streets. Which one to choose?

Holly stood up and wandered around the camp some more. As she did she moved into the forest. The trees were dence and it was quite dark. Not relizing it she was headed away from camp. As she kept walking the trees seemed to get closer together and the paths were dissappearing. She turned around and looked behind her. "Uh-oh...." She muttered. There was no way she was going to find her way back through the forest. She turned and kept walking straight not really sure where she would end up. She hoped there wouldn't be any vampires where ever it was.

((Oh, sorry, I didn't explain about the edges of the camp, I figured somebody was going to ask, not go exploring. My bad! But there's actually no way to get from the camp out into the forest, or vice-versa, other than the underground tunnels and one other secret emergency escape. While wandering near the edge of the camp, she would quickly come to a point where the trees were too close together to squeeze between, and have no choice but to turn back. Also, those trees would have smelled *awful* to her, so she would have wanted to steer clear anyway.

I know I'm sort of railroading here, which is never a good storytelling tactic, but I'm really not meaning to; I'm just trying to keep things clear so they don't get confusing later, and the werewolves have been perfecting this hideout for over 200 years; any easy to exploit mistakes or weaknesses have been long since taken care of. They'd have to be; the vampires outnumber the werewolves by at least four to one and they don't die. One mistake could mean the end of the werewolves altogether. So they're very very careful, and they pay very close attention to details, especially when it comes to protecting their main hideout. The vampires, on the other hand, can afford to have their castle widely known about; although one vampire would certainly fear one werewolf, vampires as a species have had nothing to fear from werewolves as a species for centuries. As such, over this time, the vampires as a group [not individually] have become somewhat complacent, while the werewolves as a group have become exceedingly cautious.))

{Grrr....thats alot to remember.}

Holly kept walking and twisting to get through the paths of trees. When she became boxed in by trees that were so close together she couldn't fit through holly sighed. She turned around to leave. As she moved back through the trees it seemed to have a lingering smell in the air. She took a deep breath trying to place what the smell was and why she hadn't noticed it before. She walked in a straight line but had to keep swerving through the trees. When she got out of the forest she was on the opposite end of the camp. "What the..." She muttered looking behind her. She hadn't traveled very deep into the forest she had gone in a circle. "And I though I was lost." Holly laughed and walked slowly through the center of the camp looking for anyone she knew.

"Oh, damn."

Siegfried blinked in the morning light. He had fallen asleep with his clothes on again, still holding the book that he had been fastidiously poring over last night. He sighed and swung his legs off his bed, glancing around the room. The apartment off the library hadn't been used for some time before Siegfried had arrived at the castle. The rooms were very elegantly furnished, but they were rather small and felt a little cramped. The magnificent four-poster bed in which Siegfried had so recently been dozing had once been very fine, but it was now rather faded and dusty. Siegfried didn't mind. He liked that he could be close to his books.

Yawning, Siegfried shuffled over to his wardrobe and pulled out some un-rumpled clothes. He was still wearing the jacket and pants that had been soaked in the encounter with the werewolf and humans. Siegfried grimaced as he pulled them off. He was going to have to ask the laundry to do some extra work on them now.

Dressed and holding a new book underneath his arm, Siegfried left his library and headed down the worn stone steps to the nearest way out of the castle. He was starving. Time to find a quick breakfast in the village. When he got outside, he noticed the little plumes of ash and smoke still rising from the burned grove. What a fiasco that had been. He wondered what had happened to Helen. Although their encounter had been brief, he had enjoyed her company. Perhaps he would see her down in the village.

15 minutes walk brought Siegfried to the marketplace. He took a seat by a crowded stall and settled down to wait for breakfast to walk by.

((Hey guys! sorry for my prolonged absence, but I'm back now :) ))

*Josh walks up to Holly*

"So, you say you're a vampire hunter, but I haven't seen you do much fighting. What kinds of weapons do you have? Any martial arts training? Anything?"

Valdac woke as the noontime light shone through the window onto his dark fur. Stretching his body out and yawning, he lay there in the sun for a moment. He didn't want to face they day, or do much at all in fact. It's not like anybody would worry about where he went if he disappeared. In the off chance that somebody would care, he sighed and stood up. Shaking the dirt from his body, he pushed his nose out the door slowly, and the rest of his body followed. Trotting over to Josh, he sat down next to him. Valdac, too, was curious about the type of weapons that Holly used.

"Uh, I um had a lighter and a dagger but I lost them when I was running away the other day." Holly said turning red. "I learned some martial arts stuff but not much." She added. She wasn't exactly trained to be a hunter very well. Its not like she wanted to be untill after her parents died. "I'm not really old enough to buy alot of wepons you know." Holly said quickly.

'So the meal comes to me,' Helen thought as a middle-aged man with a strange look in his eye walked straight toward her. She stopped walking and sized him up as he approached. Tall, lean, and he had the look of a thief. The evil and greedy look in his eyes told her that he had anything, but good on his mind.

"Good morning, Madam," said the man as he bowed and flashed a crooked grin. "Pardon me for bothering you, but you seem like the kind of lady who enjoys the finer things in life." He glanced down at her dress, jewelry and tidy red hair. Clearing his throat, he continued talking. "I'm an aspiring artist and have some paintings I think you would be interested in." He winked and chuckled very softly to himself. Had he been drinking? It was hard to tell, his bad breath stench overpowered any hint of alcohol. It was obvious that he was a liar, though.

Helen stared into his as she said, "Paintings, you say? Show me the way." The man looked a little aloof because of her reply. It seemed that he thought she would decline his offer. Helen smiled and the man's grin faded. Without a word, he took the vampiress' arm and began walking her toward a very small alleyway. As soon as they were out of the publics eye, Helen pulled her arm out of his and shoved him into the brick wall, knocking him to the ground. The smell of blood filled the air and Helen could feel her thirst kick in. She kneeled down and ripped open the sleeve of his shirt, biting into the veins that stuck out in his arm. A sweet, deep metallic liquid poured into her mouth at a slow rate, giving her time to enjoy the taste. A few minutes later, he was sucked dry, pale as a ghost and nearly seconds away from death.

The crimson-haired vampire stood up and stared at the man as his mouth lay open and blood dripping from his his head and his arm. He was slumped over and sitting on his bum with his back leaning against the wall, head tilted to the side. Helen leaned forward and looked into his faded green eyes. Was his life flashing before them? She had always wondered what it was like to die. Not that she was interested in ending her life, she just found the idea of passing on fascinating. His shallow breathing became shallower and shallower until finally he breathed no more. Her hand reached out and shut his eyes. As she pulled her hand away, she noticed the cross hanging from his neck.

"May you go to the paradise you foolishly believe in," Helen said as she straightened up and walked out of the alley. Even though she had just killed a man and watched him take his last breath, she was in a very good mood. The vampiress was now energized, less angry, more relaxed and was having an easy time controlling herself in public.

Helen felt like buying more jewelry. Making her way back to the marketplace, she smelt a familiar scent. "Siegfried," she said to herself before she saw him. She wandered her way toward him and took a seat next to him. The way he was watching the crowd, she could tell that he was on the hunt. Her eyes scanned the crowd, then returned to Siegfried. "Catch anything?" she asked, using fishing terms.