I put my robe on, and left my family's quarters, making sure not to disturb my parents or my brothers as I left the small confines of our room.  I moved down the halls of the Citadel, my bare feet touching the cold stone floor, each step reminding me of....him.

        Although I still didn't know quite what to make of the mysterious creature that I had met not once, but twice the previous day, he still filled my thoughts.  A mountain of questions raced through my mind; who was he?  What was he?  Even though he bore a striking resemblance to a vampire, it was clear from his actions that he was not one of them.

        I arrived at the outer rim of the Citadel, and looked out over the massive moat surrounding our only haven from the vampire scourge.  The moonlit sky lit the entire corridor an unnatural white.

        It had actually started out as a pretty normal day, if you can call our lives normal.  My father is one of the vampire hunters that keep our home safe, and he was busy training my brothers in the art of the Hunt.  My mother and I were performing our usual duties, washing dishes and helping the other women with the massive amount of laundry that the population of the Citadel manages to produce in a day's time.

        As usual, the workload overwhelmed the materials that we had brought with us, and I was sent to the storage closet on the north tower to get more soap and brushes.  On the way, I encountered Joshua, my younger brother.

        "Hey, Sarah!", he teased, "Is all that washing tiring you out yet?"

        "Leave me alone", I shot back, "Mother is waiting for me."
        However, he was not about to back off, "Boy, I'm glad I have a real job."

        "You're going to have an equally real black-eye if you don't go away!", I said, looking back at him.

        "Oh, you think you're so tough just cuz you're Father's little girl?", he said, pushing me from behind, "Well just remember that us men are the ones who keep you lazy women safe from the bloodsuckers!"

        I pushed his hand away from me, and gazed right into his immature eyes, "You've never seen a vampire in your life, Joshua.  All you know about them is what Father has told you."

        I turned, and started walking away from him, and he grabbed my arm, "You'd better not be defending those, those THINGS.  Cuz if you are, I'm gonna tell Father that you're a vampire-lover, and he'll have you thrown out of the Citadel, and the nasties'll be sure to suck your blood out and leave you looking just like a raisin!"

        I don't know what came over me, but Joshua saying something like that just enraged me.  I shoved him into the wall behind him, and gritted my teeth as I glared at him.  Then, without warning, he rushed at me, and shoved me twice as hard.

        The impact knocked me backwards, causing me to lose my footing, and fall over the overlook behind me.

        I screamed all the way down.  The fall seemed to take forever.  As I fell, I looked back up and saw Joshua's face looking down at me.  The sheer panic on his face made me forgive him.  I knew that he hadn't meant to push me over the wall.

        Before I could think another thought, I splashed down in the water of the moat.  Several of the guards that were down on the ground saw what happened and rushed towards me.  I was a fairly good swimmer, and was about ready to push myself back to the surface, when my whole body got sucked towards the bottom of the moat.

        The moat was fed by a river that washed into it from the north and ran west towards the abyss through an underground tunnel.  I had apparently gotten caught in the current and was sucked into the tunnel.  As I vanished into the darkness, I saw my father, clad in his armor, jump into the water with a rope tied around his waist, and try to grab for me, but without avail.

        Fortunately, the tunnel isn't very long, and I was washed out of it and down a small decline.  I lay motionless for a moment or so, and then lifted my head out of the water and looked around.  I gazed upon the large mesas that surrounded the endless swirl of the abyss in the center of the formations.  It's massive glow and swirl was almost hypnotizing.

        I watched it spin for a few moments before I came to my senses, and finally realized my situation.  I was a human female, only 13 years old, at least a quarter of a mile away from the Citadel, and totally unprotected.  Part of me said to sit and wait for my father and the others to come and find me, but my instincts told me to get out of sight and to safety until help arrived, if it arrived.  The council was very reluctant to let even the Hunters stray far from the Citadel, considering the fact that very few ever returned alive.

        I made my decision to try and find a safe spot for the time being, and to at the very least get out of the water and wring my dress out.  I pushed myself to my feet, and made my way around the top of the small water-fall that poured into the center of the lake.

        I slipped only once or twice in my effort, but I finally made it to dry ground.  I leaned up against a large rock and pulled my shoes off. After dumping what seemed to be half the lake out of them, I slid them back onto my feet and began to wring the bottom of my dress out.

        Something moved behind me, and I felt my heart skip a beat.  My head slowly turned, and I saw what could only be described as a monster moving towards me.  The creature was slightly taller than I was, but scaly and black, with a long red tongue whipping about its face.  It made a hissing noise, and dashed towards me.

        I let out a scream, and backed up, only to bump against what felt like a person standing behind me.  Slowly turning my head, I saw a man close to six feet tall, with jet black hair, glowing yellow eyes, and a scarf covering most of his face.  He didn't say anything, he only stared at me.

        As he looked at me, I noticed his clawed three-fingered hands, which my father had taught me was a trait of a vampire.  I didn't know what to expect.  I was sure he was going to attack me, but another part of me wasn't afraid of him.

        The hissing sound of the creature caused me to look away from him.  That horrible thing was mere steps away from me now, and was readying itself to strike.

        To my infinite surprise, the man pushed me behind him, and slashed at the beast with his clawed hand.  The attack drew massive amounts of black blood from the creature, and it howled in pain.  The man slashed again, and again, leaving the monster a bloody-heap.  Shaking the blood off his hands, he pulled his scarf down, revealing a pair of fanged upper-teeth, and no jaw whatsoever.  A light emerged from where his mouth should be, and a green mist began moving from the monster towards it.  After a moment or so, the man pulled his scarf back up, and turned away from the beast, who fell over and burned away.

        The man looked down at me for a moment, and then knelt in front of me.

        "Are you unharmed?", he asked, his voice sounding so gentle.

        I slowly nodded, tears running from my eyes, and my hair still dripping with water.

        "It is not wise for a human so young to be out here alone", he said, "Are you from the Citadel?"

        Again, I nodded.

        He looked around, in the direction of the Citadel, then to the direction that the monster had come from, and then back down at me.

        "I suggest you return there quickly", he said, "That vampire wretch will not be the last."

        "SARAH!!!", I heard a voice yell.

        I turned, and saw my father and several other Hunters coming down the side of the mountain and towards us.  I turned back to my savior, just in time to see him fade from sight, like a shadow hit by light.

        My father and the others arrived quickly, and we all returned to the Citadel without further incident.  My father kept telling me how lucky I was to still be alive.  He said that the monster was a vampire scavenger from the fallen city to the north that they had destroyed some years ago.  I described to him the person who had saved me, but neither he, nor any of the other Hunters could identify what it was.  Everything pointed to his being a vampire, except for what he did to the monster after slashing it.

        Several hours later, after I had taken a bath to wash off all of the river grime, I was walking to the chapel on the south side of the Citadel when I heard the alarm.  The alarm meant that a vampire had invaded our home.

        To this moment, I have no idea why, but I ran towards the yelling and screaming, not sure what I was going to find there.

        The noise was emanating from the vault, where an ancient relic from Nosgoth's past was kept.  However, as I ran in, I stopped dead in my tracks.  Standing in the center of the vault, amidst the bodies of several Hunters, was the same man from earlier.  His head turned when I entered, and he gazed at me.  I knew at that moment that he recognized me.

        Then, his eyes looked above me, and at three Hunters who approached the door.  I turned, and saw that one of them was aiming a flame-thrower at both of us.

        "Die, you unholy spawn of evil!!!", yelled the Hunter, pulling the trigger on the weapon and letting lose a wall of fire that was headed straight for both of us.

        I'm still not sure whether the Hunter simply didn't see or if he didn't care who he hit as long as he killed the man.  However, just before the fire hit me, I felt myself get scooped off my feet.  Then, there was a tingling feeling as everything seemed to turn to liquid for a moment.

        After my sight cleared, I saw that the vault had somehow become distorted, and all the Hunters were gone.  There was nothing but silence all around us.  It was about then that I realized that my clothing was gone, and that I was totally exposed.  I blushed as I covered myself as best I could with my arms, however the man seemed to take no interest in me, other than keeping a firm grip on me.

        "Do not struggle", he said, his voice echoing through the ominous silence of the distorted room, "Your physical contact with me is the only thing anchoring you to this plane."

        I did as he said, wrapping my arms tighter around myself, and leaning my head against his massive chest.  With a mighty leap, he jumped out of the vault and ran down the corridor from it.  We reached the iron gate that protected it.  I expected him to kick it down or something to that effect, but instead, he, and I, walked right through it as if it were made of water.  It was a very strange sensation.

        He continued to run away from the vault, stopping only when he reached a door.  Then, his eyes flashed bright yellow, and the same feeling I had experienced before happened again.  When it subsided, I saw that the bluish glow was gone, and that there were people standing around, watching the gateway to the vault.  Inside, the sound of the flame-thrower could be heard.

        Someone screamed upon seeing the man with my naked form in his arms.  Immediately, everyone backed away, and several Hunters gathered around.

        "Let her go, Demon!", yelled my father, aiming his crossbow right at the man's head.

        The man kicked the door behind us down, and then released me.  I fell to the ground, and curled into a ball, trying to cover myself.  Someone, I don't know who, wrapped a tunic around me, and pulled me away from the man.  Just as they did, I turned my head, and saw him fade away again, just like he had at the lake.  Although I'm still not sure, but I believe he waved good-bye to me as he vanished.

        In the end, only four Hunters were killed, but only after attacking the man, who had acted only defensively.  All that was missing from the Citadel was an old artifact that had been found in the mountains years earlier.

        I was checked for bite marks, but none were found.  The Hunters who had fired at me claimed that the man had grabbed me and we faded away, much like I had seen the man do.  My scorched dress was still laying in the vault when they had ceased fire. 

        The man had left nothing but speculation in his wake, and it was still uncertain as to how he got into the Citadel, but no vampire hoard ever came, and the day was otherwise uneventful.

        As I stood there, looking out at the night sky, I wondered where the man had gone, what he was doing now, and if he was thinking about me as I thought about him.  I wished that I at least knew his name so that I could say a prayer for him as thanks for saving my life not once, but twice in the same day.

        Although he did look like a vampire, he was anything but what my father and all the other Hunters had said about them.  I also thought that if there were more vampires like him, then maybe one day we could learn to share the same world together.

       Maybe.