"Pain is a patient teacher but the true teacher is the one who bears it."- Shadowgirl

Dimitri started walking away from Danny. "Come with me," he said.

Danny followed Dimitri through the stone maze of the sewer. Each vampire they passed bowed their heads.

"Why are they bowing their heads?" Danny asked.

"It's a sign of respect for those who are superior to themselves," Dimitri answered quickly. "Walk with me."

Dimitri and Danny walked side by side. They walked to a room with a washtub.

"Clean yourself up, we have a long journey ahead of us," Dimitri said. Then he closed the door and left.

Danny looked in the mirror and was shocked to see how dirty his face was. Dried blood had formed on one side of his face. He washed that off then proceeded to wash to rest of himself. His clothes were a mess and he noticed a clean pair of black clothes on a chair. He put them on and it was no surprise that they fit him perfectly.

He heard a light knock on the door.

"Yes?" Danny asked hesitantly.

A male vampire who looked a little older than himself entered bowing his head.

"You don't have to bow your head just for me," Danny said.

The vampire looked up a little startled and a little intrigued. "I was sent by Dimitri to look at your wounds," the vampire said. He then proceeded to examine Danny's forehead where a bruise was and cleaned the sword wounds on Danny's cheek and shoulder.

"What's your name?" Danny asked.

"I'm not permitted to say," he replied cynically.

"Why?" Danny asked.

"Dimitri claims that since we are One we aren't required to know each other's names," the vampire said bitterly.

"Well, my name is Danny," he said outstretching his hand.

"My name is Ethan," he said hesitantly smiling. Ethan shook Danny's hand and a vision of fire appeared in Danny's head. Ethan drew his hand away quickly. "You are the prophecy!"

"Yes," Danny said quietly. "How did you know?"

"Our kind can sense your power," Ethan said. "I never truly saw that you were that powerful."

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked.

"Nothing," Ethan said. "I've said too much all ready. Your wounds will heal soon."

He turned quickly to leave.

"Wait," Danny said. "Will I see you again?"

"At the end of your physical journey, yes," Ethan said. "But you must walk your spiritual journey alone."

Dimitri walked in the door a few seconds after Ethan left.

"I see you have met Ethan," Dimitri said. "He is a special lad indeed. He is apprenticed under the Great Seer and is currently assisting me with some duties."

"I still don't understand how vampires can sense this power in me," Danny said.

"It's an inborn sense vampires have," Dimitri said. "If you concentrate you can sense your power and other vampires."

Danny thought about the flash of fire he envisioned when he shook Ethan's hand.

"Come, it's time to make the journey to the Great Seer," Dimitri said.

Danny, Dimitri, and some other vampires made their way out of the sewer and into a dark van. This time Danny wasn't tied up and everyone wore less conspicuous clothing, as compared to the black boots and robes of before. Ethan wasn't among them and Danny wondered where he was.

"Where are we going?" Danny asked Dimitri.

"To the airport," Dimitri replied.

"The airport?"

"The Great Seer resides overseas," Dimitri said.

Danny remained silent for the duration of the ride, but the vampires whispered amongst themselves occasionally gesturing at Danny.

They abandoned the van at the airport and Dimitri drew Danny aside and whispered, "if you do anything to deliberately draw attention to yourself; these people in this airport will suffer a most painful death."

They went through security checkpoints until they made their way onto the airplane.

One vampire whispered to Dimitri, "the weapons and other supplies are safely onboard in the baggage area."

"What?" Danny said overhearing.

"Mind control goes a long way on mortals who don't share the vampire mind capacity," Dimitri said.

Danny sat near the window and Dimitri sat next to him. The other vampires were dispersed throughout the plane.

The pilot sounded over the loudspeaker. "Please be sure that your seat belts are fastened and that your tray tables are in an upright position."

The plane took off and Danny stared out the window inwardly saying goodbye to his former life. Once the plane was stable in the air the pilot said, "the takeoff was a success and the flight to England should be relatively free from turbulence."

"England," Danny said quietly.

"Yes, it is the residence of the Great Seer," Dimitri said.

"Aren't vampires usually associated with residing in places like Transylvania?" Danny asked.

"Transylvania is one of the oldest places in which vampires are associated with," Dimitri said. "However, it is not the birthplace or origin of vampires. It's where the first records of vampire lore were. . .allowed to be recorded."

"Then where or rather how did vampires originate?" Danny asked.

"Vampires started as early as the first great civilizations," Dimitri said. "We were present in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Americas, China and any other civilization that arose. In each civilization there were individuals who thirsted for power. They sought each other out and made a pact in blood to continue to achieve power. They communed with nature and its dark ways, only through the darkness could they gain power. They arose in their respective civilizations and became shamans, medicine men, priests, and priestesses. Certain individuals gained powers like increased night vision and clairvoyance.

"Eventually they realized they could increase their powers by drinking the blood of others, to utilize the power of another's life force in order to increase their own. Sacrifices were made and they bred. Eventually the children of those in power gained more powers with each birth, there were essentially the first vampires as they continued to drink blood. The life force within them provided the ability of the teeth to elongate and take blood. Eventually they could no longer bear children of their own because of the mixtures of blood. Those in power could sense their power falling so they mated with commoners but their children weren't as powerful. Though over time they discovered that the fledglings could drink a certain amount of blood and achieve their powers. They of course had to choice in the matter; they either accepted their fate or died a slow, painful death. Once one's life force is fed with blood, it desires more and more to survive."

Danny was silent for a moment but asked, "then what about Vlad the Impaler, the whole Dracula concept? Most myths and vampire related things are associated with him."

"Vlad was one of those people who thirsted for power," Dimitri said. "As a human he was Vladimir but as a vampire he was Dracula. The things written about vampires are based on a grain of truth, but have been twisted through time. Vampires still possess a sliver of humanity but we are not humans. . .we are above humans. Because of that shred of humanity we are able to walk among them and feed on them. We can be seen in mirrors, have our photos taken, eat garlic if we so choose, and walk among the sunlight. Though we cannot take blood within the sun's rays, the blood will not take to the vampire so we restrict our hunting to night and in the shadows. However, . .that does not mean we cannot kill. We can do that quite well."

"Wait a minute," Danny said realizing something. "Vladimir. . .am I. . .are we distantly related to him?"

"Our blood line runs deep," Dimitri said with obvious pleasure. "Our ancestors are tied back to the beginning of our kind. Vladimir is one of our greatest ancestors, his power was immense."

"His power was evil," Danny said quietly.

"Come now Danny," Dimitri said. "All power is based on some sort of evil. Some are more prevalent than others though."

Danny remained silent and stared out of the window of the airplane. His thoughts dwelled on Dimitri's words, what the Great Seer would tell him, and the effects of his whole prophecy is was involved in. Eventually he drifted off to sleep.

He dreamed of fire and of a ball of fire falling from the sky. . .

Author's Note: Well, I finally updated. Took me a bit to type out what I had in my notebook handwritten and then edit what I wrote. Basically I thought long and hard about the type of vampires I have portrayed in my story to make them original. They are and aren't your typical vampires. I've finally started reading 'She-Who-Must-Not Be-Name's' books and am glad that I haven't taken any of her ideas because I started this a couple years back before I started reading her works. Shame we can't write stories involving her work and post them. Anyway, a review would be nice.