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Prologue:

I watched him for over an hour before my theory was confirmed. Understand that this is a very difficult thing for me, usually they are the ones who watch us, but I manage. I am relatively good, for my kind, at shielding my mind and my aura, so unless I come within fifty meters or so, the creature can't tell I'm there. This may sound like a long way away, but in actuality, i'm probably the best at it in all of England. I have no clue about france. I don't keep track of their hunters. But I know enough that none are on this property at this time, they'd give away my cover. As I was saying, sometimes it's difficult to identify these things. They look mostly like humans, indeed, some humans dress like them, and it's hard to tell the difference. Many a stupid human has been killed because they were dressed in that goth style they like so much, and a hunter couldn't tell. But I know the difference. I've never killed a human. I hunt Vampires.

The proof for me lies in a couple of things. The first is easy enough, they don't like sunlight. Neither would you if your skin lacked all pigment, they burn very easily, and that hurts. Second, the skin itself has a bleached bone quality, again, lacking any pigmentation, they look like albinos, most of the time. Third, their aura can usually be dated, if you can read auras. I can. Pretty much, if it's older than one hundred and twenty, it's probably a vampire. Then, they have incredibly active senses. If they are noticing things normal people would not notice, such as the vampire who noticed me from forty meters away, hiding to the side of the street. Another way is tosee their fangs. There are, unfortunately, humans who wear false fangs as well, but they're relatively safe, as long as they don't attack anybody; Vampires hide their teeth, while humans don't. Then the obvious one where if you see a vampire feeding, it's most definately a vampire. Unfortunately, if you see a vampire feeding, you are most likely the food.

None of these methods could identify this vampire. He did not avoid sunlight, his skin had some sort of external pigmentation on it, his aura was less than fifty years old, he hadn't noticed me all day (though that doesn't prove much. I'm still alive. That probably means I'm decent.). I hadn't seen his fangs, he kept his mouth shut. I hadn't seen him feeding, but if he's a fledgling, he may still be humanely feeding on animals and such, or just refusing to feed. Some vampires do. In fact, a lot of vampires are really decent creatures, with their own set of morals and their own codes of behavior. If they didn't require human blood to survive, I wouldn't hunt them. They do not often, contrary to popular belief, attack out of spite, boredom, or hatred. Or even a longing to see torture, but over time they close their eyes to these feelings of humanity, and eat, because they are hungry. When a man is starving, he has been known to eat all order of things, including other humans. Vampires are the same. But this one had not, so far, done anything incriminating. The thing that tipped me off in the first place was his movements. Vampires are generally precise (a set of words not often seen together. At least, not often enough.), and can be spotted because of the way they move, always with purpose, sometimes it's as if they don't move at all, just are somewhere else. This proves nothing, just feeds suspicion. There are humans, and tristes more so, that move like that. But the telling thing for me was when i'd watched him and he finally rested. For twenty minutes, he rested. Vampires do not need to breathe, as all other creatures do. Unless they wish to speak, they generally don't. This one wasn't.

Now that I was sure of my target, I didn't want to kill him. I had watched him in dealing with the people that wandered to and from his house, and he was gentle. I watched him and grew hungry, as I knew he must be. Had to be. He hadn't eaten anything, anyone in the entire day. He was avoiding feeding. This was, in my eyes, a heroic thing. For a Vampire to, out of his last shreds of humanity, deny himself that which keeps him alive... It's a heroic thing indeed. In watching him, I've come to know him. Is this the way vampires feel, watching their prey? They find us mortal, struggling against the chains of death. It must be a difficult thing, at least at first. I find that I can't kill this creature untill he has proven me wrong. In fact, since I've not seen any master vampire around him, and he is obviously a fledgling, perhaps he does not know. Perhaps his teacher was killed. Perhaps he is innocent.

He looked up at me, quite suddenly. His eyes fixed on the spot where I was hiding, I almost stopped breathing. I had dropped my shields! He could read my aura a mile away! I couldn't outrun a vampire, I knew. And now that surprise was out of the picture, I dropped my shield completely and extended my aura as far out as I could. He was most definately a fledgling, I could see fear on his face. My aura is now very large, but very weak. It works like a baloon, the farther you push the walls out, the thinner they get. it is very easy at this point to wander right through, but in playing with vampires, much of the game is bluff. He thinks, now, I am strong. I stand and move toward him.

He inhales. "You don't look like me. What are you?" He speaks his words carefully in english.

"I am a nightmare to your kind. If you touch me, you will die." I made sure that at every accented point, I cracked my aura against his. I was drawing it in, tighter, closer. The same effect worked in reverse. When it appeared strong, it was actually quite weak. Now it appears weaker, but has startling effects when I throw it at this vampire's aura. He actually flinches.

"A triste, then?"

"A hunter." I drew my entire aura into myself and held up my hand, forcing much of it into the hand. You can not make your aura ever focus on something other than yourself. You can't make your aura leave you. But you can redirect it to other parts of yourself. Now he sees my hand as a brick wall. He can't get near it, or it will penetrate his aura, it will kill him. This is a trick of my own. It helps to be clever when dealing with creatures of higher power.