Summary in full: Helene Laroche is meeting a mysterious woman over and over again throughout the years. As a vampire, not much intrigues her but this stranger seems to be the answer. She finds herself in the center of a world of trouble with renegade beings. Everything from evil vampires to power hungry werewolves. The mysterious woman is revealed to be Leah Clowes, a girl that has bumped into Helene through out the years. As the years pass like water through her fingertips, Helene sees chances in the mists. The mortals being to know of the supernatural.

Helene will come to know Leah and rely on her. She will need her strength and knowledge when she comes face to face with a world that knows her. Not to mention the evil power that threatens her very immortal life.

Author's Note: This story has gay, lesbian and bisexual characters. It also contains sex scenes, violence, and ideologically sensitive material.

Chapter 1

The sun is shining just outside but I can't see it. It's been a long time since I've seen the sun shine proudly in the sky. The only light I seem to know is that of the moon and the streets. I look down at the clock ticking away on the wooden desk just feet away from me. It says that it's almost time for me go. I'm going to leave the place I've been living at for years. People seem to know that I'm not one of them, one of the normal.

My eyes are stinging as if someone just poured a bat of acid in them. I can't feel the seat under me and pulse is racing more so than usual. What I have done, it isn't the best thing one person should do, draining the life out of someone to take their money. I felt a sigh escape my lips, it was time. The sun began its decent under the hills of the English countryside. I have been living here since 1910, it's 1920 now. Ten years of not aging in the same place. I had to do this. The ship was going to leave for the states soon.

I gathered up my things and headed for the door when I was stopped by one of my friends. I think you can call him a friend. Hector Stanly gentle smile pierces me. "So, you are finally leaving are you?" he asked me. I nodded my head slowly. His green eyes seemed to smile and taunt me.

"They know Hector," I said sharply. I held on tightly to my baggage. "They know exactly what is going on and we just can't come out and say what we are." I tried to sound stern but I trembled and stumbled over my speech.

"It has been a long time since you've been here with us but they don't have to know you," he said. He leaned his lanky body against the door frame. His handsome face was grim with set lines around his mouth. Hector was the type of man to be clean, presentable but he hid the darkest of fantasies under his smile. I shook my head violently.

"There is no way I am going to be living underground like a rat," I said. This time, my voice did not tremble. I did not stumble. His eyes scanned my face. I remember flaring my nostrils. Finally, after a moment of awkward silence, I had pushed him aside. "Thank you for following me this far Hector but it's time for me to move on."

"You mean it's time for you to run away," he sighed. I turned my head around to see him coming up behind him. Expertly, I dodged out of his way. He was a quiet stalker that much I had to give him. "Damn it Helene! Where are you doing? Where are you going?" he pressed me. I felt his hands on my arms and I shook him off.

"I'm not sure yet," I replied. "I could be anywhere by tomorrow. The states are growing Hector. I can go from one place to another and no one would have to know me."

"Am I going to see you again?" His voice was small, almost childlike.

"I'm not sure. Goodbyes are nothing more than second chances Hector," I said to him over my shoulder. "Perhaps you can find me and want to live the life I want to live. If you can even call what we do living. Goodbye Hector. I wish you all the luck."

---

At nine o'clock I was already onboard the liner that would take me to my new home. I looked outside the window and my eyes automatically drew to the moon. Its soft light danced across the window and hypnotized me. I was lost for a moment before I felt a woman ask me if I needed anything.

I shook my head. I didn't even want to look at her. Her jugular would be too much for me to bear. It had been about 3 days since I had fed on a human. My eyes, they were stinging and my body felt tense. I couldn't risk feeding off another person where I was. I didn't want to be discovered. No one would understand this need.

I finally came out of my stupor to notice that I was sharing a room with a woman who struck me as a bit odd. She was shielding herself from the window. I walked over to her with a cocked eyebrow, "Are you alright?"

Her eyes peered at me. They were amber in color, almost green but not quite. She looked slightly upset or even scared. I could sense it on her. "It's the moon," she replied. "It unnerves me."

I noticed she had covered our only window with a blanket. "What is your name?" I ask her. If I was going to share a room with such a strange human, the most I could get out of her was a name.

"Sarah," she replied. She never gave me a surname and I never asked for one. I nodded my head. "What's yours then?" she asked me.

"Helene," I replied. I never gave her my surname and she never asked for one. It was a most equal situation. Slowly I lay back on the bed and allowed the boat to rock underneath me. We sat there in silence for most of the night. Her amber eyes never left me.

"Aren't going to sleep?" she asked. I shook my head. "Night owl are you? So am I." She shifted in her bed and laid there much like a dog would have. Once again, I cocked my eyebrow at her. She was odd. After spending so much time in the company of humans, I learned to just stay still and avoid eye contact.

Slowly, my eyes were turning a shade of red. It's the shade they would turn when I hadn't had anything to drink in a few days. It was most annoying when I was in such close quarters with one of them. Something told me that this human wasn't really human, was she?

Halfway through the night, she fell asleep. Her body was curled up into a tight ball and sometimes she would growl in her deep sleep. It clicked in my head finally. She wasn't really human, she was a werewolf. The fear of the moon, the eyes, her demeanor, it all made sense. I smiled at her. She was just going to have to go through her life as an outcast just as I would have to. At least her life would have an end.

I knew that werewolves didn't have the life span that I had as a vampire. I hated that word but it was being slowly introduced. I took out a book while she slept and read until the sun peaked over the water's edge. Thankfully my companion covered the window. I didn't think she was going to wake up in time to uncover it.

I threw myself under the covers and hid from the rays. It was time to close my eyes and go into a deep sleep. It was the only time I could escape the world. It was my own little death each day.

---

The next couple of days I spent either in my cabin with my strange roommate Sarah, or out and about when the sun went down. I couldn't be in direct sunlight; I couldn't even look at it without starting to decompose. I suppose it's the price of being a walking corpse. That's the way I looked at myself.

Unfortunately for me the ship docked in the states when I had been asleep. Sarah's hands were on my shoulders shaking me awake. "Miss Helene," she said. "We're here. Be careful Miss Helene."

I looked up at her. The cabin was still dark. She even doubled the window because she knew what I was. We both knew what the other was. It was almost like ESP of our kind. "Thank you Sarah," I said. I rose from my bed, gathered my things and covered myself up in a long trench coat, a fedora and a pair of sunglasses, best invention if you ask me.

Sarah smiled at me, "Are you ready then ma'am? Are you ready to start new?"

I smiled back at her and replied, "I think I am Sarah."

Outside, I rushed away from the crowd and somehow I misplaced Sarah in the mayhem. I had to get to a hotel and quickly. I could feel the eyes on me, people wondering how a woman could wear so much under the beating sun. I made it to a small hotel in New York City's time square. Once inside, I took off my hat and glasses.

There was a small man at the desk. I quickly booked a room with him and rushed up the stairs. I crawled into the room on fire. As I took off my coat I noticed that my skin was starting to decompose. It was turning a ghastly grey color and my veins were protruding through the skin. Only the night would heal this so I made sure my windows were tightly covered. Afterwards, I retreated to the bed where I covered myself tightly with layers of covers. Once again, I allowed myself to die. I slept like a rock.

---

Over the next few nights, I fed on those who allowed me to feed off of them. There were a small percentage of people into the occult and supernatural back in England but this number seemed to be much larger once I was here. Men and women both threw themselves at me and allowed themselves to be my feast.

I never took more than they could handle. I was never proud of myself for taking too much to the point of death or worse, the creation of another being like myself. I would find myself in speakeasies floating around, sniffing out the blood type of my choice. I was searching for those who wanted it when I came across an odd smell.

It wasn't the smell of another like me or that of a werewolf. It was something I have never smelled. I looked over to a see a woman hunched over a bottle of whiskey. Her eyes were barely open as her raven hair fell over her eyes. All of the other women in this place were dressed in short dresses or skirts, very feminine such as I was but not this woman.

Her dark blue eyes came from behind her dark hair. She was looking right at me. I stepped backwards. I couldn't explain my fear; this was something I have never experienced before. In my own stupidity, I fled from the pub and down the street. My heart was thumping my chest and my breathing was shallow. I began to walk aimlessly down the streets and I wondered about her. Why did she terrify me?