I looked into his eyes and knew that he was no beast. I looked into his eyes and kindness dwelled within. He had claws that that could tear out my head and he had jaws that could bite off my head. But what does it matter that he has these instruments to kill? I read the grief deeply hidden and knew that he would never harm a creature that was kind to him. I believed in his gentleness, and I knew my trust would never be betrayed. Believe - The Hues of Life A fountain of scarlet sprouted in the silvery moonlight shining upon a black black form guzzling hungrily at a newly dead corpse. Only the gleaming white fangs and glittering scarlet orbs took shape, not even the moonlight bright enough to bring the blackness visible. Had the sheet of light been able to define it though, the eye would have found the shape of a powerfully built wolf a size bigger than the average adult male; however no living being dared near enough to see. Unfortunately for the hunter, he had hunted alone, armed with only a bow and silver tipped arrows. If he had known of what he had meant to face this night, then doubtless he would have either stayed home or teamed up with other bounty hunters instead of letting greed get the better of him. It was too late for him, and it would be too late for any living being that came across this creature of night that lapped at the slowly congealing blood. Pawing at the gashed throat to pour out more fresh blood that did not come, the creature snuffled disgustedly and raised its wet muzzle to the moon. With a plaintive howl that filled the night with terror, it bounded away from the mangled body in search of yet more prey. Inextinguishable flames danced in scarlet orbs that scoured the countryside for prey, and even though it had just fed, the creature flew across the ground with an insatiable hunger. In the beginning, when it did not know that it could not take the form of a wolf, the creature had turned into a bat with strangely elongated fangs. Flitting through cities, towns, and the countryside, it fed little by little upon various living beings. Such small amount of blood as it could get, however, was not enough to satisfy its hunger, for however small it might turn into, the original mass did not change, nor did the driving urge to feed, to kill, to devour lessen any. As time passed and the hunger drove it beyond its insanity, the crazy idea had entered its brains. Why not wolf shape? Why limit itself to the convenient but all too small body? So it had shifted, and succeeded. Having become wolf shape, it hunted bigger prey and struck the more easily with incredible power. So wolf it stayed, and wolf it meant to remain. What matter that wolf shape was not its true shape? The mass was similar enough, and there was no point in turning back to the curiously weak body of two legs. No matter that the hunger grew stronger each day, demanding more as it ran. No matter that more chance there grew to be found by a hunter powerful enough to destroy him. There was no other choice. Hunger willed, and it obeyed. Contrary to ignorant legends, it thrived even under the sunlight. Where there was prey to be had, there it was. Certain creatures, however, it did not turn its fangs upon. "Oh! There he is again!" "Ooooh! Isn't he so big!" "Look at him! He's so huge!" "He is not a normal wolf, that is certain." "Oh, stop being such a spoilsport! C'mon! Let's play with him!" Piping voices brighter than the sunlight fell upon the creature as it snoozed in the corner of a field full of colorful flowers. Shaded from the direct sunlight, it faded into the shadows of the covering leaves, yet the children found it, and clapping small hands in joy, they ran at it. Raising eyelids heavy with sleep, the creature drowsily regarded the small figures bursting with excitement at their new playmate. Shimmering wings grew out from their backs, their reflections turning the creature's scarlet orbs rainbow. The near transparent yet colorful wings mesmerized it, and bemused, it let them come closer, easily absorbing the shock as they tumbled over its body like wolf cublings themselves. Breathless laughter filled his keen hearing, a sound that normally would have annoyed, but coming from these angelets, it soothed and calmed, quieting even the ever gnawing hunger. Easily pawing away one that tugged too hard at his fur and thrusting another away with his muzzle as the childling pulled at his whiskers, it gently waved its fluffy tail in unnamable contentment, raising a joyful cry from the children as they reached for the moving target. When the strange angelets went away to their homes at night, the creature fed, scouring the countryside for prey but careful not to run in the direction that they went. However delicious they appeared and smelled, it could not think of turning its teeth and claws upon them. Because of them, its hunger gradually subsided. Prior to the encounter, it had fed day and night, for hunger drove it every single second of its existence, but now, the hunger was not as demanding as it used to be. Before, the creature could not have survived the hour when it did not feed, but after meeting those little angelets, it felt the compulsion less and less as if they cured it, as if they drove it back from its insanity. Even now, it curled up around an angelet that had decided to stay a little longer than the rest of her kin. She lay against it, tiny arms flung around as much of the black furred body as they could, curly ringlets of mahogany mingling among the coal black fur. "How wonderful you are," she cooed contentedly, rubbing her soft small cheek against the sleek fur. Not quite understanding her words but knowing that it received encomium, the creature looked into the child's beatific face, and finding only affection in her brilliant leaf green eyes, it muzzled the soft mahogany ringlets, feeling warmth spreading from within. "They're warning us away from you, lovely lovely creature, but I don't care," the angelet whispered on, squirming ticklishly as the creature's wet nose brushed against her face. "You can't mean us harm, and I don't believe that you are insane, the way they say you are. Are you, darling?" she gazed into the creature's gentle eyes as if looking for the answer, and smiling in satisfaction, she replied for him; "No, of course not. If you truly were, you would have eaten us, me, by now, but here you are, letting me use you as a cushion! Of course, you aren't going to eat me!" the angelet exclaimed affrontedly, giving a tiny decisive nod. Tilting an ear, the black creature stared back at the solemn face, slowly blinked, and gave the softest cheek a small lick. Instantly falling into a giggling fit, the angelet flung her tiny arms around its thick muscled neck. "You are such a treasure!" "No, he isn't," the immediate denial to her exclamation fell upon them from an unexpected quarter, and the angelet flung her head up, eyes wide in surprise. "What do you mean? I thought you already went home!" pouting, she rose to her feet, tiny fists on her waist. With shimmering blue wings flapping slowly in the late afternoon breeze, the slightly taller angelet made a face. "I couldn't very well leave you alone with the creature." At this offending statement, the younger angelet's cheeks puffed up even more, making her face look like a round puff of cloud that floated on a sunny summer day. Having heard the near silent footfalls of the other angelet, the said creature had not been perturbed, but seeing the smaller angelet upset, it slowly rose to its feet and nudged her whose head barely reached its own. She staggered a little, her cheeks losing air as she gave a startled cry. "See? It's not safe being with him," the boy angelet pointed out accusingly. "He might be in his lucid moments when he's with us, but if what the grownups say is true, then he might turn on us any minute. We should let the grownups know where they can find him so they'll take care of him." "NO!" Clutching onto the far bigger creature by her side, the angelet cried with all the air she could muster in her tiny lungs. "You promised! We can't let them know!" "But if you're right and he's safe, then it shouldn't matter if they know where he is or not." "You...you're mean! You know what they'll try to do if they find him!" the angelet argued heatedly, tears starting to well up in her large brilliant eyes. "They...they already decided to hunt him! I heard them! They'll k-kill him if they found him! And I'm not going to let them harm him!" Until then, the creature had been half listening to their piping voices, but as the wind shifted directions, it stiffened, its soft maroon eyes sharpening as it stared in the direction where the boy angelet had come from. "It's too late..." the boy's low voice showed some alarm as he saw the creature's reaction. "Come on. We're going home. It's night, and the creature has to go feed, too." "No..." still unaware of what the creature had scented, the smaller angelet clung to its raised hackles. "I don't want to go yet." "You have to come!" The boy angelet's shout barely rose above the sudden growl issuing from the creature. "What...what's going on...?" Sleek locks slipped through white fingers as the creature of night sprang away from the startled angelet. "No! Don't go!" she gave a forlorn cry, starting to run after it, but it had melted into the darkening twilight, leaving no trace of its whereabouts. Having barely heard her, the creature ran away from the smell of menace coming from a large group of humanoids. They smelled similar to the angelets, so they must be kith or kin, but the threat he sensed from them had no resemblance at all to the younglings. Swiftly navigating through the underbrush, it concentrated on locating the hunters' whereabouts. Ironically enough, it had never wanted for prey. How could it? Preys came to him without asking, and sometimes, it was more than enough. If it had been within the creature's choice, it would not confront this many hunters/prey at once, but hunger demanded, and it obeyed. However much it had been at peace with the angelets, it could not deny the insatiable hunger. Locating the hunters' positions as they swiftly ran after it, the creature abruptly changed direction. When hunger demanded, it obeyed. Its loping strides would carry the creature behind the hunters. A tiny scream. What had gone wrong? A burst of overwhelmingly sweet sweet blood. The creature looked in incomprehension at the fallen angelet at its feet. The hunters had it surrounded by now, but it took no notice, its sole concentration focused upon the mangled patch of shimmering wings and scarlet fountain sprouting from incongruous shaft of wood embedded in the tiny body. How little it took to destroy the shell that encased such a bright affectionate soul, and how soul shattering the leaf green eyes that widened in shock and pain. Its howl rose and rose into the night, covering the strengthless whimper coming from the broken angelet. Surrounding both the target of their hunt and the unwitting victim of their attack, the hunters shouted confusedly, some trying to rush forward to rescue or attack, while others held them back for fear of the beast that had bounded out of the shadows to stand over the tiny bloody form. It nuzzled the pale pale face that had been so bright cherry only minutes ago, and receiving only a faint response, it proceeded to lick away the blood that flowed from the gash in her tiny shoulder. It was the sweetest blood the creature had ever tasted, yet how bitter, how frustratingly never ending it seemed. How could this have happened? How could he have let this happen!? "No..." A voice, hoarse from disusage or from tears that could not ever spill. It...no, he heard it, and memory flooded his mind, threatening to lose him from the world, from the now, from the tiny angelet who had loved and befriended him. "No," he repeated, firmly this time, remembering that he had words to speak with, that he had hands to caress the pale cheeks, now blood spattered in a ghastly parody of the blooming cheeks that had been. The shallow breaths told him that she was still alive, but barely so. In another moment her heart could stop from so much loss of life blood. Ignoring the hunters who confusedly milled around him, he helplessly crouched by the slowly dying angelet, his heart torn between his own memories and the desperate need to do something, to save this child whose miraculous existence had brought him back to sanity. As he stared numbly at the pale face, her eyes opened, pulling him into an expanse of summer leaves. Seeing him, the angelet managed to lift up the corners of her lips, which opened to whisper. Even in his human body, he still retained abnormally keen hearing. Even then, he had to strain his ears to catch the words; words he thought would perhaps condemn him, but it was worse, her words carried on dying breaths. "Lovely...lovely, creature..." Her eyes closed as did her lips, and his heart seemed to still as well. ' Lovely...lovely, creature... ' He stared at the angelet's face, now serene as if in knowledge of her finality, and his face hardened. Stilling his limbs with an iron will, he reached for and quickly pulled the arrow from the tiny body, and unheeding of the cries of horror around him, pressed his lips to the wound, drinking in the blood at the same time closing the jagged opening in the flesh. The knowledge was there, had always been there, to close those wounds from which he drank blood. With the healing there came a price, however, and the price, he had not wanted this angelet to pay. Yet this was the only means he could think of. His healing was merely that of the surface. He could not heal within, tiny as her body was. Further healing was needed, for it was obvious that her vital organs had been torn by the vicious arrow, arrow that had been meant for him. With the arrow, he slashed his palm open, deeply so that blood quickly welled up. Careful not to spill the blood, he cupped his hand and raising the angelet's upper torso with the other arm, brought his blood to her lips. "Drink, ma petite," he whispered, yet the tone commanded, and brows furrowing, the angelet opened her lips, even though her eyes did not open. Blood trickled through her tiny lips, and none spilled over as her throat moved convulsively to allow the foreign fluid to pass. "Good girl," he murmured encouragingly, yet his scarlet eyes were hard as rubies, his aristocratic brows knit as if in pain. Yes, the knowledge had been there, ever since his first kill under the tutelage of one who had turned him into this monstrous being. Drain the blood of the victim, and give own blood to create another creature of the night. He had not wanted this knowledge. He did not want it now, for it enabled him to bind another creature to insanity, yet he could not let her life slip by, she who had called his darkness lovely in her innocence. Staring at her face, he did not notice the tiny hand that rose, and it took him by surprise when a small hand clasped his wrist that fed her blood. Flinching as if she had struck him, he could not take his eyes off her as her lashes first fluttered, then rose to reveal her eyes. With unexpected strength, her tiny hand gently pushed his away, and she grimaced. "That tastes awful," were her first words, clear lucidity neither increasing nor lessening the brightness of her leaf green gaze. He had succeeded. Stunned by the knowledge, he blinked, his throat hurting from the tears that he could never release. "Thank you," such lovely words from this lovely creature who seemed in no way touched by the night, and he would have wept if only he could. Instead, he closed his eyes, clutching her tiny form to him, and for the first time since his death, giving a prayer of thanks to the one who watched over them from the heavens. He had not drained her blood, only drank enough to know her and to close her surface wound, and he had given her his own tainted blood to heal from inside. Done only in half measure, he had been so afraid that his inhuman powers would not touch her at all, that her life would slip away nonetheless, or that she would become a creature like him, forever thirsting so that life seemed an endless eternity of blind hunger and blood that never satiated the need within, driving the mind past the brink of sanity. How wonderful her lucidity, how miraculous her first words. "She's alive...!" The murmurs around him instantly shocked him out of his wonder. Quickly glancing around, he found all eyes staring at him and the angelet in his arms, and panic threatened to seize him. For now, they were filled with wonder at her life, but they had seen what had bought her life. Later, they would remember, and wonder, if she truly were alive, if she were not in truth, dead, a creature like him, to be hunted and killed. In that moment of bitter knowledge, one insidious option crept into his mind. He could save her from certain death. He could save her from their fear and hatred. He could take her with him, take her under his wing, and she would be safe. How tempting the thought! And how he longed to do so, but he knew that he could not. That way lay madness. He was lucid now, yes, but what then when the hunger drove him? Could he resist the tasty morsel by his side? Even if he were able to, would not his madness invade her sanity as well? No, he would not take her with him. Steeling himself, he caught and held the gaze of the closest hunter. "You never cease to amaze me, mon vieux," the voice came upon him suddenly, but he had known the moment the other had come within his range of sensing. "I had thought that it may take you at least a decade to come into your own power, but it has been barely a year. How did you do it, I wonder?" If he had not been so exhausted, so heart achingly drained, he would have lunged at the man, no, the monster that had started this insanity. "Do you keep watch like a spurned lover, mon seignior, le duc?" he managed a retort, his mind threatening to blackout from sheer exhaustion. "Ah, but you forget," the voice that came back was smooth, indicating that the retort had not even glanced the target. "I created you for my own amusement, Valentine." "Then I hope this was a spectacle worth your time away from the court," he spat, unable to push from his mind, a pair of leaf green eyes that stared at him in incomprehension. "This is merely a beginning," he could hear the smug smile in the voice, and he gritted his teeth. "A good beginning, however. You have already learned to harness your powers, and you managed to wipe memories from more than one faerie kin! This is indeed splendid!" The unfamiliar terms barely registered in his befuddled mind before le duc continued gloatingly, "You have even managed to mindwipe one of our own kind." At those words, he did flinch. "I wonder though, how long our new hatchling can retain her sanity. But never mind her. Faerie kin will take care of her when she shows her true colors. Until such time, I wonder what other spectacles you will amuse me with, Valentine." Laughing softly, the presence faded, and he was left alone in the moonlit darkness, the chilling words almost making him go after the angelet that had saved him. "What have I done....?" Voice, dark as the deepest of shadows dispersed in the night, but he knew that none, least of all himself, had the answer to his question. Lovely...lovely, creature . . . . . .

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