A/n: This is a new venture of mine! Enjoy! Review and I'll review yours!

Prologue

The moonlight spilled over the clearing; playground equipment lying unused and unvarnished. The wind curved under rocks and through twisted limbs, and street lamps flickered with each breath from the atmosphere.

She stumbled suddenly from the brush, heart racing and mind reeling, cursing her luck under her breath and picking up the running pace she had before.

Echoes of voices and shouting could be heard, and she knew the could be on her in an instant, slipping and melting in wavering shadows around her. She breathed lighter as she slowed to a steady but quick jog, trying to scope out how close the voices were.

She didn’t quite understand why she was running; they had emerged from deep alleyway as she left the bookstore earlier that evening, talking in strange hushed voices, telling her not to fear and not to run.

But inside she could feel a terror gripping her coiled stomach, rigidly coursing through nerve after nerve, her pulse quickening.

The three figures seemed to lust after that thumping pulse under her skin; each time she noticed it quickening, the black haired, pale skinned figures would breathe coarser and thick drool would coat their creamy white lips.

That’s when her instincts kicked in and she dashed away, curving through the tangled trees until reaching the playground clearing, hoping she had lost them in the dark night.

Now she slid underneath the platform of the playground, slowly wedging herself to an uncomfortable position and whimpering in hushed tones.

She could no longer hear the voices anymore.

But she didn’t move.

Deeply inhaling, she held her breath, calming her mind and easing her senses.

“You can’t run from us, deary,” a light, airy voice whispered.

She bolted from under the playground platform, rolling on her aching side and piercing a jagged rock into her upper thigh, thick blood trailing through her tattered jeans.

A man stooped over her, oily inky hear clung to his veined neck. Dark eyes bored into her; his long black overcoat brushing her bare feet as the wind twisted by.

She laid still, eyes entranced in his, a cold feeling creeping through her frightened system.

Two dark shadows burst from the blackness behind him, each placing themselves on either side of his gaunt figure.

Each were clothed in the exact same manner; the woman twisting her straight hair around a bony, rigid finger, her pink tongue licking her lips and a wicked smile painted on her white face.

“So we have found you, finally…such a long time we have been looking for you, oh yes. If only you knew, Pillar, if only you knew,” The man spoke, his voice an eerie soothing chill.

“Can we have her now, brother? She’s bleeding from that fleshy leg. I can smell the blood and it’s too much to take,” the woman cackled, her head cocking to the side, her eyes glimmering with bliss.

“No, not now Sira, she must be whole when we take her to the Lord. She wouldn’t be pleased if we had tasted her power first,” The man replied, watching the frightened girl with pleasure.

The girl quivered, curled up in a ball, and awaited something terrible.

“She’s but only seventeen or eighteen, Grant. The Pillar was said to be older,” Sira shouted.

“And braver. This girl is the Pillar, though, my dearest sister. I can taste her aura from miles away, and smell the blood pumping from the succulent heart. Her power is immense. We mustn’t tamper with her. Orvis,” the man spoke, commanding a glance at the quiet figure to his right. “Tie her up and drag her back to the van. Sira and I are going hunting. The Lord wanted dinner before acquainting herself with the Pillar.”

“Oh Grant, you just don’t stop, now do you?” A voice hurled. The girl watched as the three dark figures turned their backs to face something.

“Violet! Cut the shit. Let us take the girl or we will be forced to kill you,” Grant angrily ordered.

The two remaining figures slowly encircled the girl. She watched as the man argued with a woman, no older than her, the two seeming to hate one another with a passion not known.

“I can’t let you do that. You see, you won’t use her as intended. You’ll rip out her throat, drink her blood, all those other creepy, Vampyric things, and that isn’t what my job is. I’m not here to let you take her. I’m here to hunt you,” She laughed.

The girl was entranced and slightly appalled by this other woman. Dark auburn hair, curled and tied back, flashed under lamps and moonlight. A white corset hugged her hourglass figure; leather pants adorning her long, powerful legs, stiletto heals gracing her feet. If the girl hadn’t felt hope radiating from this woman, she would think a common street girl was playing a game.

“You’ve tried before, Violet. Now try again!” He lunged at the woman, a swift kick from the healed boots colliding with his sternum and sending him backward onto the dirt.

The other two suddenly left her alone, rushing at the woman at amazing speeds.

The woman grabbed each by the throat and head butted them instantaneously, the two falling to their knees and sinking slowly to the earth.

Grant arose from his fall with rage creasing his every feature. He stripped his muscled arms and waist of the long coat, black clothing still clutching at his torso and legs.

“This is way too easy, Grant. You know you can’t take the girl. Now walk away and I’ll hunt you at another date,” The woman joked, holding her ground.

“That isn’t what the Lord wants, and that isn’t what the Lord is going to get,” grant answered, smiling.

“Oh, but I can show you what the Lord’s going to get,” The woman reached behind her and pulled from a back pocket and twelve inch wooden stake, it’s smooth edges running upwards to a sharp, dangerous point.

Grant hurled himself at her, pushing her to the ground. Throwing punches at her face, she raised her right leg upwards and ran in into his groin, his face convulsing in pain.

“You will not take the girl,” She whispered.

From behind, the stake entered his cold flesh with the sound of metal, her hand twisting it deeper into his upper body till only the handle of the stake was left protruding from his body.

Swiftly flicking it out, she pushed him off, watching him slowly writhe and curl until the movement stopped altogether.

“Get up; we need to get out of here fast. The Weres aren’t getting any slower to change nowadays and you are what they want.” The woman ordered, walking over and holding out a hand.

“What the hell is going on?” The girl screamed, confused and not accepting the help offered.

“That’s exactly what I said four years ago. Now get the hell up and come with me. I’m here to give you a chance to live.”

“A chance to live?”

“Believe me, you wouldn’t have one if it wasn’t for me. Now get up.”