The Beginning of Eternity (Alana)

[Kolarik]

It was snowing. The big, fluffy white flakes dropped slowly to the ground, fluttering on a gentle wind. He’d seen snow before and packed his fair share of snowballs, but it seemed as if it had been some time for him since he’d been able to experience snow again with such excitement.

No one was outside tonight. They didn’t get snow here very often and when they did, they were not prepared. The entire city stopped. Most people had chosen to remain inside where it was warm. But not Kolarik. And not Alana.

They walked down the street, the entire city seemingly a winter wonderland. Their footsteps were the only intrusion upon the newly fallen blanket of snow.

Flakes of snow collected in his shaggy hair and from time to time he shook his head and they fluttered off, continuing their journey to join the others on the planet’s surface.

They had just fed only moments ago, and Kolarik was far from sluggish. In fact, he was still feeling the rush of the taste of mortal blood. A broad grin could be found on his face, a somewhat triumphant expression, as he and Alana had rather easily seduced the latest of their victims and now the entire night was theirs to do with as they wished.

“I used to love snow as a kid….” He commented, glancing up at a streetlight as the snow swirled around it. And then he looked to Alana, his cheeks slightly flushed with the tint of blood.

And then his head tilted slightly and a curious expression crept over his features.

“What were you like as a child?” He asked, trying to picture, for a moment, the powerful, seductive woman beside him as a young girl.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana's pale beauty was enhanced by the dim light the glimmered off of the snow. Her upturned face bathed in contentment, and smiles. She had found a new pleasure in her existence. Before she had met Kolarik she had been empty, incomplete as it were. Always to be found bent over her journal, deep in thought, and lost in the past. At times she sat in Roon's garden, lost there, silent as the night that surrounded her. Her sweet scent of jasmine mingling with the roses. Now she wandered freely, enjoying the time they spent together. Finding pleasure once again.

She stuck out her tongue catching a few flakes there. Laughing softly at her own playfulness. She could also feel the pleasure Kolarik took in it. The new sense of life, and the past memories.


“I used to love snow as a kid….”

The words gave her pause, she had no memories of snow, no memories of this small intense joy. She did not answer his statement unsure of what to say. Even to her it was an odd thing to not have. She slid her hand in his, wanting his contact, needing to make new memories.


“What were you like as a child?”

Those words brought her to a stand still, he jerked to a stop beside her, before he realized they were no longer moving. Her face already pale grew translucent. Her eyes gathered the shadows that always seemed to cling to her.

"I...... I do not know." Came her soft whisper. She looked to him, suddenly very childlike with her unsure expression. Alana had never discussed her past with another except Mockadane. He who had taken even the smallest of memories from her.

"I can only find one memory, and even that is not mine." She wanted him to ask, to push her to tell her story. She wanted to share a piece of her self and exorcise the demons that clung there....

[Kolarik]

He sighed contentedly as her hand slid into his. The fact that her hand felt so tiny in his was what had prompted his question of what she had been like as a child.

And before he knew it, he was stopped in his tracks beside Alana. He turned to look to the woman he spent so much time with now. The color seemed to have drained from her cheeks and a look of concern drifted into his eyes.

I...... I do not know.

Her reply was so soft, even to his sensitive hearing and her expression made her look as he had never seen her. Vulnerable.

He had put his arms around her then, holding her close to him though neither one of them needed the heat of the other to be warm.

I can only find one memory, and even that is not mine. She’d added as her eyes had gazed up into his.

“And what is that memory?” He asked, a hand moving to cup her face, his thumb caressing her cheek. He wanted to know more, to know the entire story, but first, first he wanted to know the one memory that she’d had to cling to for the eternity she had lived thus far.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana did not answer at first, instead she laid her forehead against his chest taking comfort there. Her arms clung to him, never had she felt as lost as she did at that moment. It was as if her only hope in remaining tangible was to lock herself in his embrace.

She looked up into his eyes, seeing the concern, and the need to help, to hear what she had to say. Her hue shifting eyes glazed at her thoughts fixing on a color her Uncle Mockadane would have recognized as his sisters. Her mind cast back to the one memory that haunted her, the one that kept her incomplete. It haunted her still...

“And what is that memory?”


At his question the Sith Lordess began to speak. Her voice far away, and soft. "I look to be around the age of seven or eight. Yes I do believe that is my age. It's so bright outside, the wind is sweet with the falling petals of the flowers growing in trees. I am running, chasing a figure, one that I love more than life itself. She is so utterly beautiful, looking back over her shoulder at me. The sun glistening in her hair, her smile for me alone. I catch her, and her laughter is like a rush of life through me. I look up into her face, the sun blinding me for an instant before she bends. Her words giving me all that I need. "Mommy loves you Alana...” and then it is gone. That is all there is of her, but my heart tells me there was so much more to be had with her, so many memories if I could just grasp them." Her soft moan escapes as her words stop, her face buried in his chest.

"Then my days darken.... I come back from somewhere, somewhere that I cannot remember. I seem to be the same age still, my uncle appears catching me up in his arms as I race though the garden looking for her as I always did." Alana's breath caught... It was the most painful of her memories, the one that took so much to say.

"Do you still want to hear?" She muttered into his shirt front, which had become wet with her blood tears.....

[Kolarik]

He could picture her memory as she described it. Perhaps it was her words and her voice that made it so easy, perhaps it was the link between them. As she buried her head in his chest, a soft moan of sadness escaping, he ran a hand through her hair, gently holding her head to him for a moment until she could speak again.

Then my days darken.... I come back from somewhere,
somewhere that I cannot remember. I seem to be the same age still, my uncle appears catching me up in his arms as I race though the garden looking for her as I always did.

He heard her breath catch, felt it as if it were his own.

Do you still want to hear?

He could feel the wetness of her tears and reached to cup her chin, lifting her face so that he eyes would look into his. She had such beautiful eyes. It didn’t matter what color they had shifted to, always within them he found something new. He bent to kiss the tears from the corners of her eyes.

“Of course I want to hear, Alana.” His voice was earnest and the protective gaze that he gave her as he looked to her for once seemed to defy his younger age. Though she needed no physical protection, he would be there to protect her and the fragile emotions that she seemed to be struggling to keep in check.

"I want to hear all that you wish to tell me, good or bad."

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana looked up at him, the feeling of overwhelming protectiveness warmed her. Made her feel safe, and able to go on.

“Of course I want to hear, Alana.”

She nodded at his words, biting her lips before starting. "He held me in his arms... He was always so big to me, and I loved him just as much as her. He replaced the father I never had. I remember my small arms slipping around his neck, laughing as I always did when lifted so high. But his face was so drawn.... so hurt. He looked so sad....." Alana whispered softly lost in the memory.

"I cupped his face, my hands looking so tiny there. I asked him what was wrong, and where my mother was. His face darkened when I asked this, and I remember my heart clenching, knowing it had to do with her. She was always in the garden when I came home, but this day it had not been her. He told me then that my mother had went away, that she would not be coming back. That her life had ended. I remember screaming, and struggling against his powerful hold. His words killing me. She was my light you see, and now all that was left were shadows. He let me go then, unable to control me or perhaps hurting to much to hear my pain any longer. I ran then, I ran for the one place I knew I could always be sure to find her. I went to her room, and when I opened the door, her smell was there, strong and enduring. I can still smell it, and in my child’s mind I thought if I can smell her then she had to be there. I called to her, I kept calling to her. The next thing I remember is Mockadane's voice, and his hands caressing my hair. I opened my swollen eyes, I was lying on her bed clutching her dress to me, holding onto it like it was her." Alana glanced away, her voice falling silent for a moment. Her pain all too apparent.

"That is all that there is. I know there’s more but I can't get to it. It's lost. My next memory is when I am seventeen, rebelling against his hard love, his endless teachings. His admonition of how I needed to be perfect like my body was. How I had to protect myself always. I could not be perfect for him Kolarik, I could not be what he wanted. So I left, and became a bounty hunter as he was. I made my way until Soth found me, and introduced me to Master Saurron, and my new destiny. I did not see my uncle until after I had been turned, and what he had to tell me is a whole story unto itself. One that ties into what I have just said." She paused, her hands sliding over her face, the telling of it had taken a toll. She wanted to finish it, she wanted to tell him all of it but she didn’t know how he would look at her if he knew what she really was, and what her becoming a Vampyre had taken from the world....

[Kolarik]

He had listened intently the entire time. Every word of it was interesting to him. Not purely because the story she told was fascinating in itself, but because it was Alana telling it. Alana who had become so important to him in so short an amount of time.

When she paused, her hands moving to cover her face in a sort of gesture of surrender and exhaustion, he did not push her. Instead, he let her breath for a few moments, resting in the comfort of his arms. And then in time, gently he peeled those delicate fingers away and held her hands in his to his chest, the pounding of his heart palpable.

He bent to kiss her on the forehead. Not that he didn’t desire to kiss her lips, but in this moment he was there as a friend, not just a lover and he wanted to know all of her, not just the part of her that awakened the sensual side of him.

“And what is the story that he told you?” He asked, dark eyes peering into hers, intense, yet patient. As before, he wanted only what she was willing to give him. If she wanted to tell him, he wanted to hear.

[Alana Stormcloud]

She took comfort from him. Silencing the demons of the past momentarily, in his arms she could hold them at bay. A shiver passed through her in-between that moment, making her realize she had to finish what she had started.

"I had been in the Shrine for some time when he finally came. Mockadane, who was friends with Lord Soth, and worked for Master Saurron. He had found out that they had given me the dark gift. He came.... With a small child in tow. One who was so familiar and she captivated me. Her name was Nala, she was so innocent, so endearing. There was no fear in her eyes when she ran up to clutch my hand. I knew by the way my uncle looked at me that he had something to say, something that would put bitter blood between us. I needed answers but I was so afraid to hear. You see Kolarik, I wanted to love him as innocently as little Nala." Alana took a deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut.


"Lord Soth and Uncle Mocky exchanged bitter words. Soth took the child into another room, saying my uncle and I had things to discuss. All the while I kept wondering why that child looked so familiar, and why I felt such a need to protect her. I turned to him then, questioning, wanting to hold his answers at bay. He looked so sad then before he started, sad, and angry. It reminded me of when he told me my mother was dead. He brought out a Holographic imaging cube..... He asked me if I had ever heard of a man named Dr. Anton SIclid. He knew I had not. He said to me." Alana repeated his words verbatim, letting Kolarik know that it was engrained on her heart.

(Mockadane)
"The galaxy unfolds into an infinite treasure trove of experiences and this is but one tragic tale with many possible outcomes! I know what the memory of your mother has led you to believe... and the truth, I could have shielded you from, until that fateful moment that You accepted the dark gift from Saurron. And it was YOU who accepted it!"

"His words stabbed into me, but it was the one tear he shed when he spoke that broke me. I had no way of knowing that the things he had to say next would shatter my soul."

(Mockadane)
"I had a sister, we weren't twins but we were as close as they are, and we lived comfortably in our parents home until one fateful evening. The news of the illness she had contracted came as a devastating blow to my thoughts of life as well as my physical sanity. After an exhausting search of medical advisors, nothing promising presented itself until a colleague gave me the GIFT! With her permission I placed her body in temporal-stasis while I cloned a harvest vessel to retrieve the vital organs to refurbish my sister. The sparti-cloning cylinder made a perfect match of My sister without the genital defects of the predecessor. Then the most unusual thing happened. I grew attached to the one being that I knew would save my sister by forfeiting herself. When the time came I couldn't bring myself to follow through. Soon after ... you left and then the follows a long span of life in which I don’t wish to speak about...."

Alana looked away after she repeated her uncle’s words, it seemed a lifetime ago, but it was still so fresh, and it was a wound that bled to this day.

"He went on to tell me what a perfect being he had created. I was not what I had thought, my memories were not my own. But implants placed there. I was nothing more than a vessel for someone he had loved. He had created me." Shame filled Alana's face, she had in truth never been human, but a creation that had been meant to die."

Blood tears stained her porcelain skin, her face was bowed as she spoke. "Do you think that they have souls??" Or are they just empty?" Alana had not yet spoken of the small child Nala, the who summed up the irony of it all.


(ooc:) http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20828 If you wanna read the whole thing :p

[Kolarik]

(ooc: Thanks for the link. I read it and think I get whats going on, but if this post doesnt make sense, just lemme know and I'll edit or whatever. :) )

IC:

He released a quiet sigh before he reached to brush the tears from where they fell upon her face.

Her head dropped, her gaze leaving his.

Do you think that they have souls?? Or are they just empty?
He was silent for a moment. These were not things that he knew much of, but he was pretty sure she was asking if those who had been created as she had, others like her, had souls.

As the snow continued to fall, Kolarik held Alana close to him. The streets were silent, and the beauty of the night would eventually prevail.

“They are not what I am concerned about.” He stated softly.

“Its you that Im concerned about, and I find it hard to believe that you are empty, Alana.”

He raised a finger to her lips, seeing that she had been about to speak.

“Just let me speak for a moment….” He requested, his dark eyes staring into her ever-changing hues.

“There is more to you than the simple fact that you’re a vampire.
There is something about you that is, without the influence of vampiric blood, interesting and seductive and passionate. And I don’t believe that you get this only from another, but from you, from the soul that has chosen your body.”

He leaned to kiss her forehead once again.

“That’s all any of our bodies are, Alana. A host for a soul. And that your body was created as it was…”

He shrugged.

“In the end its no different. All bodies eventually die and their souls live on and take new bodies.”

His head canted slightly.

“I am in no way belittling your story…” He added quickly and with sincerity.

"You have every right to feel the pain that you feel...."

[Alana Stormcloud]

“There is more to you than the simple fact that you’re a vampire.
There is something about you that is, without the influence of vampiric blood, interesting and seductive and passionate. And I don’t believe that you get this only from another, but from you, from the soul that has chosen your body.”


Alana wanted desperately to believe, to let go of the dark pain that had always infested her. She looked up into his eyes, wanting to see acceptance, and not disgust. Perhaps her being what she was made her avoid clones. An unnatural hatred born of who she was.

"A soul Kolarik, or just implanted memories, and emotions? The little girl Nala.... She is what I am, she looks like me, and she has our mother’s eyes." Her words were bitter.

"They knew my master Saurron and Lord Soth. They had there own reasons as to why the dark gift was given to me. Saurron wanted to teach Mockadane a lesson in life, and Soth wanted to prove a point. But all the while I was caught up in the fabric of there lies. I do not blame them, I do not even truly blame my uncle, he did what he thought best for his sister, and then for me. But he took something so precious, something that I held close to my heart. The memory of my mothers faces smiling down at me, the sun washing through her hair. Her voice telling me how much she loved me. He took them, and now I have nothing. I loved her Kolarik, but now I wonder is that to was implanted. Did I love at all? Why did he catch me up in his arms as a child, and tell me she had died, why couldn’t he let me keep my innocence?" There were so many questions, questions she knew her uncle would never answer. He could not cleanse her pain because it was his own.

"How do I have a right to feel pain? How do I have a right to any emotion? I gave up one life to have another, and in the process killed the only mother I had. When I became what you see before you, she died."

[Kolarik]

He let her speak without interruption, for it was clear that she was wrought with emotion and perhaps even anger. He could hear it in her voice and the expression on his face allowed a sense of sadness at her pain.

“I believe you have your own soul, Alana.” He finally replied. His eyes cast away for a moment and then back to her. It mattered little to him that she was what she was. He was not disgusted at all. But he was concerned, for what did matter to him was the fact that all of this upset her.

“And you have a right to pain just as anyone else does. You have a right to mourn for memories that have been lost. You may have destroyed the memories of her, but just the simple fact that this can upset you so much, that you ever cared for her in the first place…”

His hand reached to brush her hair from her face.

“Of course you’re capable of love.” His hand remained there for a moment, his thumb brushing away another tear.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana nodded as she looked up into his eyes, her own softening with his understanding words. She ran her fingers over his cheek, her thumb brushing his lower lip, settling there.

"Sometimes I wonder if the memories are hers, the emotions. She is me and I am her so perhaps it is what she experienced. One day all of this will come to a head for my uncle and I. For all the love we share there is a river of bitter regret, and blame we harbor. One day we will have to face our demons together." She stated in sad tones.

"What of you Kolarik. Now that you have listened to my story, will you tell me your own?" She asked her thumb still poised on his lip running over the soft flesh that knew her so well....

[Kolarik]

He had bowed his head slightly at her words. He wasn’t really one for conflict. It wasn’t that he feared it, it was just that life seemed just fine without it. But with all the words that she had spoken, the emotions she had displayed, he knew that conflict for her would be inevitable. He only hoped it brought a sense of peace this time, instead of the bitter regret she now felt.

What of you Kolarik. Now that you have listened to my story, will you tell me your own?

He hadn’t answered her right away. Instead he had held her hand in his and together they had begun to walk along the snow covered street, their footsteps the only thing to mar the winter wonderland around them.

“Im willing to tell you whatever you want to know…” He began, glancing over at her and then back to the snow before them as it fell.

“Its really not that interesting, though….” He added with a shrug. At least, he didn’t think so. His life was what it was, and what he decided to make of it. He refused to look back at the things that had gone wrong and find bitterness. Instead he chose to make the best of things.

His hand squeezed hers within his. He had learned much more about her than he had thought that he would, and he was still caught up in processing all of it, tucking it away in his memory to mull over later, perhaps.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana's cool skin warmed against his as he led her over the soft blanket of white. There breath barely creating a stir in the frigid air. She pushed her tale from her mind, wanting to be rid of it for now, until sleep took her into its embrace. There it would haunt her soon enough.

"Everyone has a tale Kolarik, be it short or long. All of them are important, and interesting if the one who listens is interested. I am interested Kolarik, to hear what you have to say, to know you the way you now know me." She glanced at him as they walked her smile tender, she had given him a huge piece of herself. One that had lay on her heart, its talons still there. But in the telling of it a small part had let go, and given her a moment of reprieve.

"I would know you better...” She stated simply, though it told much more than she voiced....

[Kolarik]

As she spoke he was silent, nodding in assent to some of her remarks. No one had ever asked him before of his life and perhaps he was a bit taken aback by this, unsure of how or where to begin.

I would know you better...

He stopped in his tracks with this comment from her. Her words were stated simply enough, but he thought that he might have detected something more behind them. His eyes stared into hers for a moment and then they drifted to the rest of her, to her lips and the rest of her body that he knew so well before they came back to look into her eyes. Eyes that he now knew were haunted by concerns over who and what she was. Concerns he wanted desperately to make her forget.

And then he groaned quietly. Looking at her, being in her presence…it awaked everything within him. Even in her vulnerable state when she had been telling him her tale, he had wanted her. Wanted everything about her.

“Alana….” He began, stopping as soon as he’d begun, for his lips had lowed to hers. She wanted to know him and he was willing to tell her. Willing to tell her everything and anything she wanted to know. But first he wanted a kiss from her. And this was maybe the one thing he was not willing to tell her – how powerful her spell over him happened to be.

Her presence was intoxicating and he found that he could never get enough of her. A part of this was the fact that he was newly turned and the lust for blood was strong. But a larger part was something altogether different and had nothing at all to do with being a vampire, but with Alana herself.

As their kiss ended, Kolarik gazed down at her, the expression in his eyes making it rather clear that for now he would be content with just a kiss, but that later when they were alone, he would want to know more of her.

And then slowly as he stared at her, a smile began to spread over his features, a somewhat shy expression accompanying it.

“What would you know of me?” He asked, tugging on her hand and beginning to walk again in an effort to have less attention focused directly on him. He honestly wasn’t sure where to begin or what she wanted to know of him. None of it seemed important to him, but if she felt the need to know, he was willing to give what she asked.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana sighed softly at his kiss, a kiss that was a promise of things to come. She had not realized until the touch of his lips how much he had seduced her, how much she enjoyed being with him. How much he had come to mean. Her hands strayed into his hair, the kiss deepened without regret. She had never been one to be tamed, not even as a mortal. There were few that had held her heart. He seemed to have a way of grasping it with both hands. The way he spoke her very name was intoxicating to the Vampyre Lordess.


“What would you know of me?”

Such a simple question, open to so many possibilities. A smile tilted the corners of her crimson lips, banishing the shadows that had clouded her eyes.

"I would know all of you Kolarik. I would know you as a child, unto an adult." Her sirens voice caressed his name. Calling forth the memory of nights spent in her arms...

[Kolarik]

Everything stirred within him as her voice, soft and seductive called forth images to his mind of their nights together. Everything screamed for him to lead her back to the Shrine for he wasn’t sure how much longer he could bear the torture of behaving himself. Not that he had to. Being a vampire, he had learned quickly, was like being given the right to do anything he pleased at any time that he wanted.

But there was something fun about forcing himself to wait, for he knew that when they finally were alone the waiting would be well worth it.

Instead he gave her a sidelong glance, his gaze lingering before he grinned and looked away.

“I was a good kid.” He replied, answering her question perhaps a bit too simply. One glance back in her direction told him he was supposed to elaborate a bit more and after a moment of thought, he obliged.

“My father left when I was pretty young, which was probably a good thing….and my mother couldn’t keep herself together enough to take care of me.”

He glanced back at Alana, seemingly not at all bothered by telling her this. And the truth was that he wasn’t. He’d had a better life going from family to family than he ever would have had if his own family had remained intact. It was sad, yes, but that was just the way his life had turned out and he accepted it as such. Seemingly.

“I pretty much ended up in foster homes until I was old enough to be on my own and then took the first job I could find.”

Though he didn’t know it about himself, the easygoing demeanor he’d created was his way of hiding from himself any sort of hurt. And his craving for the attention he’d never received as a child was evidenced now in his behavior – the way he seduced women. He’d never been involved in anything more than a one night stand. It was his way of protecting himself – basking in the adoring attention and leaving in the morning before the woman had awoken. If he was the one to leave, he would never know the pain of being left. Not to mention, he’d never truly learned how to love, never having had a real example of it to model.

Which was perhaps why everything about Alana intrigued him. It was different with her. He had awoken beside her the first night and had no thought of leaving. Rather, he’d been relieved to see that she was still there.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana listened quietly as he spoke, walking beside him in there easy grace. Her head tilted to the side stealing glances at him. He to had, had his share of hardships, a lost child wandering the world of uncaring adults. She could tell that his mannerisms were a defense, protecting him from the harsh realities he had grown up in. Perhaps that is what drew her too. Both had been lost and alone at one time.

Her heart clenched, an anger flashing through her, she did not ever want him to feel that alone again. Her eyes widened at her own thoughts, it had been a long time since she had felt this protective.

“So it brought you to a place where you had to survive, using you “luck” as you put it, to make ends meet? It led you to me.” Her smile was playful and enticing, trying to lighten the somber mood of before. She pulled her hand from his slipping it around his waist. Tugging at him she pulled him down into the snow, her soft laughter echoing through the empty hills.

“Tell me more. Tell me of your learning how to use your luck to gamble.” She requested, enjoying the sound of his voice unwilling to let the moment to end….

[Kolarik]

As they tumbled down into the snow, Kolarik’s laughter mingled with hers. He had shifted as they fell so that Alana fell onto him, his body cushioning the fall. He let his head fall back for a moment into the snow, enjoying the freedom he felt.

Never before had life felt so simple, so easy and fluid. Hooded eyes looked to Alana, the expression on his face both playful and alluring. The innocence of his youth, the hint of color to his cheeks – he looked alive. And he was – everything in him felt alive being here in this moment with Alana.

He lifted his head slightly, begging a kiss from her.

And then she had requested to know more. To know more of his gambling. He chuckled before he sighed contentedly, his arms wrapped around her as the snow continued to fall about them.

“You’re relentless….” He commented, though the way he said it made it very clear that this was something he rather liked about her.

Finally, he gave in.

“I worked for the fire department right out of school. It was a bunch of hard working guys and when their shift was over they all liked to go out to the bars or strip clubs…some of them liked going to the track and betting on races.”

He shrugged somewhat sheepishly.

“I tagged along with ‘em mostly because I was the youngest guy and I just wanted to fit in. I hadn’t really meant to start betting on anything, except all of them were putting in bets on one race and kept on me until I finally just gave in.”

He shook his head, rolling his eyes at the memory.

“It was a hunch, that’s all. I just had a feeling and I went with it and it worked out. The problem was that it was a pick pretty much out of nowhere and no one expected it to be the winner.”

He shifted slightly, pulling her a bit closer to him as he brushed newly fallen snow from her hair.

“After that it just became sort of a game…I suppose the same way the hunt is a game now…”

He stared at her for a moment.

“Is there anything that you miss about being mortal…?” He asked.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana settled her head against his chest as he spoke, listening to the deep rumble his voice made. Her eyes slipping closed, as he carried her into his mortal existence. There were many times she had wondered what would have become of her, had she chosen a different path. Being a bounty hunter was in itself a dangerous job. She had always taken chances, mocking death as she skirted it time and again. She had known the lore of the vampires through her uncle’s stories. She had thought them fabrications until Soth, and Saurron. Alana rubbed her face against his chest, pushing away the chuckle that wanted to spill from her.

The Sith Lordess wondered if there was more to this luck Kolarik spoke of than met the eye. But for now she was contented to leave it alone.

“Is there anything that you miss about being mortal…?”


Alana glanced up at this question, her chin resting on his chest. Her hue shifting eyes glimmering in the porcelain skin, almost too colorful to belong.

"There are many things I miss my sweet. The innocence, the stress, and pushing against time. The golden glow of the morning. I miss rushing to a hunt, and the terror that fills you when a blaster is shoved in your face." She laughed at his expression, the things she missed being strange.

"I miss the excitement all mortals feel when death is breathing down there necks. The rush of life grabbing you, and taking you down a ride that you know will end but not how." She tried to explain. Alana had always been one for excitement. It had not changed with the dark gift....

[Kolarik]

At first, the things that she missed seemed odd to him. He had not been turned long enough to really truly miss anything, but he could understand, after a moments thought, the thrill that she was speaking of.

It had been somewhat similar for him. Fire breathing down your back was very much the same terrifying feeling as a blaster in your face. The rush of death being there – and somehow evading it – proving you were better than it had been that time.

He smiled as he thought of Alana as a bounty hunter. It wasn’t all that much of a stretch to picture her as one.

He shifted slightly, moving an arm so it came to rest beneath his head, making it easier to look at her as she stared at him, her chin propped on his chest.

Her eyes stood out tonight. They shimmered with pools of color and the falling flakes were reflected in their luminescence.

“Tell me about being a bounty hunter…” He suggested.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana lowered her head kissing a path across his chest, perhaps to ward off his question. Or perhaps to just delay the memories. She sighed softly, drifting back to the time she had loved. To the sweet moments of mortality. She had thought herself so complete then. Until life dealt her a different hand.

"I was one of the best, taught by the best. My uncle though he tried to shield me from a lot did not hide his life style well. I would watch people grovel and offer up everything they had to get him to hunt someone. Or the one's who begged to be let go. Mockadane almost made hunting an art. When I left at Seventeen I went to work for another, a man that did not have the finesse my uncle had. For awhile I did his jobs, learning what I could, gathering a name for myself. When I was approached by someone to hunt my boss, I never had a second thought. He was dead that very night, and I took over his business. I had a friend who worked with me, not bright when it came to life but a wiz kid with crafts and computers. I later found out he was not who appeared to be, he had been in fact using me as protection. He had a bounty out on him." Alana chuckled at the memory, her eyes lost to the past.

"He was the only male who fooled me completely. Well besides Mockadane. I still to this day do not know where he disappeared to. In fact it was the day I first met Lord Soth. That was a day to remember. My ship commandeered by a woman who had been hurt, a hunt for something she needed, and the end to my mortality. Life can throw you some curves can it not?" She smiled playfully up at him.


"I loved being a bounty hunter. It was very fulfilling. I had killed so many, and I had felt remorse at times. But it was in the end no more than a job."

[Kolarik]

He played with her hair as it lay spread across her back. And he listened to her story, picturing Alana as she told it, her silken voice able to carry him off to the world she had once lived in. A world so very very different from the one he’d lived in, yet so very much the same to some degree.

He closed his eyes for a moment, allowing the snowflakes to fall upon closed lids. When his eyes opened again, they remained collected on his lashes for a moment.

“Why haven’t you gone back to it?” He asked, still having an idealistic view of life as a vampire. To him, there was little he was lacking at the moment. After having worked so hard his whole life, the life of a vampire was a welcome vacation.

As he asked, his gaze remained on her eyes. Within them he could see that she had left for a moment, traveling back in time to a life she had once known. And rather than denying her this, he remained quiet, allowing her to speak when she was ready.

As he waited, his gaze trailed down to her lips and it was there that it lingered before his dark eyes gazed upon her neck. Her hair fell forward over it as her chin rested on his chest, but even the faintest memory of what it felt to taste her blood – what it felt when she took his, caused him to stir slightly, releasing a sigh that sounded like more of a low growl.

[Alana Stormcloud]

“Why haven’t you gone back to it?”

Alana herself had pondered this very question, why had she not gone back to the life she had loved. The one moment in time as a mortal she had been totally secure in herself. A time when ever her uncles shadow had not fallen over her.

"When I hunt now it is for the glory of the dark side, and to sustain my nature. When I was turned by Master Saurron he told me that my old life was gone, that a new one was beginning. I guess it was easier to just let it go. He also told me there are none such as we, so to hunt for a bounty when money is no issue, where it is not a matter of life or death nipping at your heels would be redundant." Alana explained in a flat voice. Almost as if she had been programmed to say those lines. In truth it was what she had convinced herself of so she could forget her past.

"Besides I do not regret what I now am, I do not regret being what lay beyond the dark side. Because it is true Kolarik, there are none such as we are." She said gently, her fingers finding purchase on his shoulders.

Alana pulled her self up, her face hovering above his, a soft kiss placed on his cool lips. She could feel his want of her, the need to taste the blood that flowed through her veins. To share the erotic moment yet again enticed her to no end. The Sith Lordess nipped lightly at his full lips drawing a small amount of blood. Her tongue darted out licking at it.

"Would you, my sweet, go back to the life you once had if given the chance?"

[Kolarik]

She spoke of the dark side, which meant little to him. He knew it existed, had tasted it, certainly throughout his experiences with Alana, but he cared little for it. When he hunted, he hunted because he needed to, and because he loved not the hunt, not the kill, but the seduction. To see those who initially looked upon him with disdain begin to fall in love with him – this was what he hunted for. The glory in that feeling.

As Alana shifted, she teased him with a light nip. He closed his eyes and released a ragged sigh, a lazy grin tugging at the corners of his lips as he felt her tongue lick the drops of blood that gathered there.

Would you, my sweet, go back to the life you once had if given the chance?

His eyes opened again with this question and he chuckled.

“No, I wouldn’t.” He answered with not a trace of doubt in his voice.

His eyes met hers studying her for a moment.

“I only asked why you didn’t go back to bounty hunting because a part of you seems to miss it. I know you don’t need the money, but maybe the normalcy of it, the thrill of the hunt would provide you with a distraction….”

He grinned.

“So long I don’t have to compete all that much with it….” The tone of his voice teasing enough to suggest that this wasn’t a concern of his.

“I wouldn’t like playing ‘second distraction’ from vampire life…” He added, his eyes carrying the amusement he felt.

[Alana Stormcloud]

“I wouldn’t like playing ‘second distraction’ from vampire life…”

Alana tilted her head back and gave a full throated laugh at this. He had a way of enticing her even with his words.

"I think you would always be my first distraction my sweet." Her grin was as playful as his. Her hands dipping into his hair enjoying the feel of the silken locks.

"As for going back to bounty hunting, it would not be the same. I hunted as a mortal, chasing death, trying to always stay a step ahead. I have now tasted death, and become one with it. Soon I will show you all that can be gleaned from what you are. The sweet games that can be played with the mortal mind." She pushed up higher on his chest her lips hovering just above his, her sweet breath washing over his face.

[Kolarik]

His eyes had closed again as she ran her fingers through his hair. Her touch was something he would never tire of, despite the eternity for which he could live.

And then his dark eyes opened again to stare into hers as she spoke of bounty hunting and the games she wished to teach him.
He gave her a curious gaze that faded with the satisfaction of being seduced by her. Her lips hovered just over his and her breath upon him, teasing him made him groan. He should have talked her into going straight back to the shrine rather than torturing himself here in the snow.

“I think you might be playing those same mortal mind games with me….” He stated before he brought his lips to hers, refusing to wait any longer for her kiss. As she had done to him, lightly he nipped her lip as well. Though for Kolarik, this simple taste was not enough.

The drops of blood that fell from his lips to hers were too much of a reminder of what he had tasted before. He could feel his desire for her as it overwhelmed him, causing every touch of hers to feel electric on his cool skin.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana gave a soft sigh at Kolarik's teasing kiss. It was all he needed to hear to know that she to felt the effects of there passion. The cold wind blew across them, layering them in the falling snow flakes. They did not melt but rather adhered to the vampire’s cold skin. Her eyes twinkled with mirth as she looked down at him. Her mouth finding his again and again.


“I think you might be playing those same mortal mind games with me….”

"That my sweet I would not do. But the mind games I speak of are far more than what I stated. Close your eyes, and I will show you." As his eyes slipped closed Alana began to whisper in the vampiric tongue mixing it with Sith magic. It was something she had trained hard to perfect, it was something she excelled in. His gasp told her that she had created the place around him.


Kolarik stood in the rose garden of the Shrine, the sweet smell of the blood roses permeated the air, as he turned in wonder at what she had created in his mind he spotted Alana. She sat on one of the benches that were placed in the labyrinth. Her body in a white, sheer gown. The purple moon of Roon shone clearly through it. A warm wind lifted the small tendrils of hair that framed her face.

"All of this though it appears very real to you, is but a mind trick. The breeze, the scent of roses, my dress." Alana smiled and stood up her arms extended as she gestured to each in turn. Her shape clearly visible with the light behind her.

"We in fact are still in each others arm on the snowy embankment. This is what you can do Kolarik, a mortal stands no chance against this unless they are a more powerful force than you. For a mere human it would be like reality. I can make it as sweet as I want or as horrifying." She moved to him her hand extending to his face, soft finger tips trailed over his cheek.

[Kolarik]

He didn’t struggle to free himself from the illusion she had created, rather he sank into it, accepting as a mortal might accept the wonder of it. And besides, the image she had created wasn’t one he wanted to end any time soon. ;)

As she moved to him in the illusion, her fingertips trailing his cheek, his eyes had closed and his hand had come to hold her hand there.

The blood of mortals he hungered for. He needed it to sustain him. But the blood that ran through Alana’s veins, it was not just hunger. It was like a drug to him, a full on addiction that he had no desire to curb. Every taste that she allowed was like a sip of a forbidden element, a liquid fire that was fully capable of consuming him.

His head turned to her hand that had rested upon his cheek and kisses were trailed from her fingertips to her wrist, the pale skin illuminated by the soft light of the rose garden. Teeth emerged, wanting the blood that he could see pulsing through her veins. And this was where he was the most vulnerable. Caught in the illusion, giving in to all that it allowed, he let her know how much he needed and desired her.

Dark eyes gazed at her, passion induced simply by her proximity to him.

His lips had lingered on her wrist before he have turned away, teeth clenched as he willed himself to have some semblance of control.

“I want it to be real.” He stated as his tongue passed over his lips and he released a quiet sigh. He was a vampire now, but there were so many elements of the mortal side of him that remained – including the innocence of raw emotions.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana could feel the palpable need she had created in him, she to felt it. His very actions stirred her blood like no other. His pure innocence in his want. The mortal coil that still clung to him made him all the more desirable to the Sith Vampyre. For a moment she stood there her breath almost as ragged as his. When his lips passed over the tender white flesh of her wrist her eyes lit with need.


“I want it to be real.”

With those words she let the illusion slip, the snow had settled in a soft layer on them. She still hovered above him, her eyes still filled with need. She to could not resist the urge to taste his blood, to feel there power flowing from one to the other. Alana grasped his shoulders pulling him to the position she had been in. Pushing her hair aside, her neck exposed to his immortal kiss.

"There was never a need to wait my sweet." She whispered in a husky voice, looking up at him an open invitation in her smile.;)