The cold November wind braces across Rain’s form as she walks down the darkened path, the leaves of autumn crunching underfoot every so often... The moon was beginning to disappear behind the clouds leaving the world in darkness. “I need to find you.” She says to herself as she slides he hands into her pockets. “Why did you do this to me?” Rain lets out a sigh.

“I don’t even know your name… I can hardly even remember your face”

Just then large snowflakes begin to fall, and the wind begins to pick up blowing strands of Rains long red hair into her face messing it up.

“ I should be feeling the cold right now but I can’t.”

Rain pushes her hair back behind her ears as she continues to think to herself.

“Why did you just leave me the way you did?”

So many questions are running through Rain’s mind she isn’t even paying attention to the person behind her.

Link was walking the opposite direction on the path, taking a short break from PI work before he had to get back to it. His desk was piled up with papers again, and he would have to get those filed away soon. When the snow started falling and the wind picked up, Link sighed, he should have brought his other coat. Slipping his hands into his pockets, he figured he would be alright until he got back to the office.

Staring at the ground as he walked, he groaned as he felt a migraine coming on. Reaching deeper into his pocket for his Tylenol, he discovered something. He had left them in his apartment. Just perfect. Shaking his head, and regretting that seconds later, he figured it was just as well. They were hardly helping anymore.

Doing his best to ignore the pounding in his head, he continued walking, not paying attention to where he was walking.

Rain continues to watch the ground in front of her, all of a sudden she is knocked to the ground by something. She looks up and pushes her hair out of her face, as she does this, the man sees two bright green eyes and a very pale almost dead looking colour to her face. As Rain looks up standing in front of her she sees a rather tall man with dark hair. Rain slowly pulls herself up off the ground and brushes the snow and dirt off of her pants.

“I’m really sorry sir I should have been watching where I was going.”

Rain smiles a bit trying to keep her mouth closed so he doesn’t notice her teeth.

Link was jolted when he ran into someone, though he managed to stay on his feet. Seeing he had run into someone, he offered a hand to help her up but seeing as she got up on her own, his hand disappeared back into his pocket. Shaking his head when she apologized, he tried to take the blame.

"No ma'am, that was my fault. I should have been paying better attention to my surroundings. Sorry. Are you alright?"

Old training habits had Link take a quick look at Rain as he said that though. Nothing stood out, no visible weapon. Though he doubted she had one. The only thing that stood out was her pale skin, though he didn't pay it much heed. He had ale complexion as well, though not to Rain's extent. And in this cold he didn't doubt that some people would be a bit paler than usual.

Rain looks up at the man and finishes dusting the snow and dirt off of her.

“Yeah I’m fine.”

Rain continues to look up at the man.

“Don’t worry it wasn’t just your fault, I should have been paying attention to where I was walking.”

Rain smiles and starts to walk away.

Link nodded on hearing that she was alright. That was good, though eh guessed that it was both their faults. Still, he should have noticed her as he was walking. It wasn't like him to zone out like that. As Rain started walking away, Link just sighed and shook his head. He was probably just exhausted from work. With that note, he figured it was time to get back to work, he had the get those papers filed away tonight, then start looking for a missing person he had been asked to find. And remember to pick up some more Tylenol. Starting down the path again, he was soon back in the grip of his migraine.

Crucible walked through the swirling snow, the white drops dusting the fine silk of his suit. A suit was replacable, when damaged by moisture. A snowflake was gone forever when it evaporated.
Ahead of him was a woman. He'd been following her since she entered the park.
Crucible didn't really have any method for his choices. He never had. When he saw a mortal, he knew what they were. Prey, or cattle. Cattle were like cows, grazing aimlessly, until their pathetic lives were ended by one means, or another.
Prey...they were different. Special; well, as special as anyone could be, when faced with a vampire. In any case, Crucible's eyes were set on this one.
He watched, detached, a long cold cigarette hanging loosely from his lips, as she bumped into a man. They exchanged pleasantries, and moved on.
Crucible allowed the man to pass, staying in the dark, near the edge of the light, before continuing behind the woman.
Crucible was no pyschic; in fact, he was fairly poor at it. But this one brimmed with questions; why's, who's, when's, where's, how's. It was a deliciously refreshing cocophany of confusion. Crucible found the whole thing endearing.
As a person who had spent most of his life detailing those questions, it often seemed foreign to him to simply ask those questions. Very often, it was the answer, not the journey TO the answer, that enamored him.
Of course, this was half the fun; expounding various theories about his prey, which may or may not be correct. In any case, that phase of the hunt was over.
Crucible quickened his steps, allowing his shoes their normal click. She would hear him, she would notice him. She would turn, and see him. Because Crucible allowed her to.
"Excuse me, miss." Crucible said, his voice firm, almost commanding an answer, yet at the same time, low. Low enough for her to have to move closer, to hear better. "A light?" he asked, raising the cigarette between two gloved fingers. He was careful to remain fully in the light, fully exposed. She would see him. Just as he saw her.

As the man begins to talk to Rain she slowly turns around. As she does the wind once again blows her long red hair into her face. Rain pulls her hair out of her face. Afraid to get to close to the man Rain stands where she is and talks loud enough so he can hear her.

“I’m sorry sir I don’t smoke”

Rain smiles a bit, turns around, and begins to walk away.

Crucible licked his lips. A new approach was in order. Something irked him about her, however, something intangible in the way she had spoken. Or had it been the look? Some flash of...?

No, it was feeding time, a time to focus. Crucible shrugged, pulling a gold lighter from his pocket, and lighting the cigarette. He sped up, breezing by her, a thin trail of smoke following him. His first ploy had not worked. But Crucible was persistant.

The pale man spotted a bench, nestled comfortably between light and dark. Crucible brushed snow off with a gloved hand, then took a seat, reclining languidly. She would be forced to pass him, unless she strayed off the path. In that case, it would be a simple matter of primal predator versus prey. Crucible preferred this more civilized method of cat and mouse.

In any case, Crucible took a long drag on his cigarette, letting it drift from between lax lips. His eyes flicked to her, a single eyebrow arching over the pools of darkness created by his sunken eyes.

Rain continued to walk down the dark path, when all of a sudden a strange smell caught her attention, it was the smell of smoke the smoke from a cigarette. Rain ignored it but couldn’t help feeling that something bad was going to happen. Should she take a different direction or keep going? No she would stay one the same path, and ignore this feeling.

As she looked on ahead sitting under a bench was the same man that just asked her for a light only moments ago. Rain turned around and began to quickly walk the other way, hoping he had not seen her yet.

Link sighed as he reached his car. His migraine was still pounding, he couldn't wait to get to his office where he was pretty sure he had some Tylenol. Reaching into his pocket for his keys, he found that they weren't there. Checking his other pocket, he groaned. Where could they have gotten to? Turning around, he started heading back to where he bumped into that woman, maybe they fell out of his pocket when he offered a hand to help her up. He hoped so, he didn't want to walk back to his office for his second set.

Crucible allowed her to go, if only out of eyesight momentarily. She knew something was wrong; but then, that was the point. It wasn't so much a matter of ego, but an excercise in fear. There were things that go bump in the night. Tonight, she had met one of them.

Crucible sat up, crushing out the cigarette. He paused long enough to straighten his coat, then disappeared into the dark of the wood. He moved quickly, quietly, skimming through the trees next to the path, shadowing the woman. He waited until there was a natural break in the lights, and slipped out, the transition seamless. One moment, nothing, the next, he was there, a half dozen paces behind her, and to the right.

There was no pretense this time, no casual cigarette, or query for a light. Crucible's hands were thrust in his pockets, the lidless darkness over his eyes staring directly at her. His hunger was palpable.

Link sighed as he knelt down at the spot he bumped into that woman. The snow by then had coated the ground a few times, he only knew this was the spot because there was a brushed away spot where Rain fell. Brushing away the snow, he was cursing his luck. It was freezing out, he still had that migraine, and he couldn't find his car keys. Just his luck...Sighing, he continued searching, then heard someone coming.

It was the woman he ran into, and she seemed to be in a rush. Maybe she had dropped something as well? Well, he didn't see anything around here. But where could his keys be?

Rain begins to pick up her pace. She can feel the man’s cold empty eyes staring at her, is he playing with her? What does he want? Is he one of them, or is he just some psycho? Rain finally remembers about the man she bumped into earlier.

“ I wonder if he is still around”

She thinks to herself.

All of a sudden Rain remembers what she is now, she is stronger then she use to be.

“Maybe I can take him”

Rain stops as she reaches the point where she ran into the other man earlier that night. As she turns around she can see the other man still following her.



(ooc you beat me to the post lol)

Crucible stopped as the woman did, the winter whipping his coat around, the fabric a contrast to his solid stance. She turned.

At once, Crucible knew something was wrong. His eyes flicked to the newcomer, a man, kneeling in the snow searching for his keys, if his thoughts were to be believed. Crucible drew in a slow breath. He could smell the man, like any prey, he exhuded all the necessary odors; the kind that excited any predator, drew in the carnivore for its kill. Crucible's eyes were drawn back to the woman.

He had initially passed it off as a trick of the winter wind, dulling, obscuring the sense of smell his vampiric nature had allowed. Perhaps there was another reason he could not smell her. Perhaps his inkling suspicions were vindicated.

Crucible licked his lips, simply watching the two warily. The night had suddenly gotten more interesting.

Link was really starting to hate snow. If his keys were on the ground, they were buried. And brushing the snow away looking for them was freezing his hands. Standing up, he almost wished he was back in the Middle-East. No snow there. Rubbing his cold hands together, he was starting to think that he was going to have to walk back to his office for his spare keys. And it figured that his office was ten blocks away.

Looking around, he saw the woman he ran into looking at some other guy farther down the path. Neither was moving, and Link was getting a bad feeling.

Crucible's eyes flicked across the mortal. His scent, his posture, the surface thoughts that bubbled up, easily vaught like a blind fly into a spider's web; it all suggested unease. Good. That meant the mortal wasn't stupid. Crucible had always known that mortal's, for all their shortsighted nature, had a knack, an intuition for things beyond them. Thought not necessarily able to comprehend them, they could often times discover their existence, merely by their brutish sense of caution.

It was all so delicious.

But the woman worried him. More and more, she proved herself no mere mortal. Immortal? That remained to be seen. Something interesting in either case.

Wordlessly, Crucible thrust his right hand down, drawing a silenced 9mm pistol, with practiced ease. He'd been able to draw quickly as a mortal. As a vampire, it was like magic. The pale man's gaze fixed on the mortal, his eyes as shadowed and ominous as the gunbarrel, down which they stared.

"Go." Crucible said the word low, hard, but unhurried. He was in control, of himself, and more importantly, the gun. Slowly, Crucible evaluated the woman. "Stay." The second command carried in its tone, a lighter, softer resonance. Death for failure to comply with the first, intrigue, and expectancy in the second.

Rain let out a sigh and rolled her eyes at the man, giving him a half assed smirk.

“So you have to pull out a gun to get your way?”

Rain shakes her head at Crucible, and then turns to Link and smiles. Just by looking in her eyes he can tell that she wants him to go get help.

Link was one edge when he saw the other man reach into his pocket and pull out a gun. Well, this day just keep getting better and better. And then came the man'd command. Go. Hmm, yeah...Where? If he didn't still have that Marine bravado of never backing down, he still didn't have anywhere to go. His keys were buried in the snow still. The same went to Rain when she tried getting him to go for help, again, no where to go and no one around.

"Sir...Put the gun down..."

Link already knew the response to that. At least he was giving some chance for the guy to just walk away before something happened.

Crucible took two slow steps forward, putting the man within range, where the hitman could have no lapse in accuracy. The gunbarrel didn't waver an inch as Crucible looked over to woman. Perhaps she was not his prey, at least not yet. Crucible glanced over to the man, then motioned.

"Place your hands behind your head. Take two steps forward, and to turn." he said calmly. He kept careful watch on the woman out of the corner of his eye. If she moved, she'd get a bullet. He wouldn't like that, since she intrigued him.

But passing interest had never stopped his trigger finger before. It would not stop it now.

"Kneel, and look up at the sky." Crucible added, still directing his commands towards the man. He did not want to kill tonight. There would be enough of that in the nights to come. Crucible was hungry, though, and he would feed.

Rain sighs again and runs her fingers through her hair.

“I have an idea… why don’t we just leave him here and go some place and we can talk about this.”

Rain slowly begins to move closer to Crucible to get his attention away from Link.

“Look you can take me and leave him, I’m sure you really don’t want to kill anyone.”

Rain was hoping that this would stop the Crucible from killing link, she had a feeling that if she went with him she would be safe, Rain knew that if he wanted to do anything to her he would of done it by now.

Is this what a mortal woman did, whence confronted with something like this? No. The inescapible fact was, she was not mortal. She was one of his kind, a predator herself.

Crucible's eyes glanced at Rain, then the man. It would be easy; pull the trigger, an explosion of gore, and its over. Maybe she runs, maybe not. Perhaps he doesn't pull the trigger. Perhaps he denies the hunger for once, takes control of the primal bloodlust. Or maybe he just feeds.

The tension seemed as palpable as Crucible's hunger. He didn't move, and an unaware passerby might've mistook his hard visage for a marble monument to some Roman general, some politician worn down by years of hard toil.

But Crucible deserved no monument. He was a killer, and it was this fact that allowed him to rationally contemplate pulling the trigger. Was he sadistic enough to do so, simply for the visceral pleasure of a pink mist? Sickeningly pleasing, though the aesthetics of a bullet ripping through the omblegada was, Crucible hadn't yet sunk that far into his hedonism.

Crucible's finger eased a fraction of a centimeter off the trigger. "And by what right do you make deals with me? When it is I that hold the gun?" he asked, regarding Rain with a cocked eyebrow.

Rain cocked her head to the right a bit and gave a curious look.

“What right do you have threatening to take another man’s life, when he has no way to defend himself?”

Rain smiles a bit as she continues to slowly move closer to him.

“I’m sure maybe we could find better things to do then kill this man”

Rain begins to take off her jacket reviling a tight green v-neck long sleeved shirt.

“Now I have an idea… you can come with me or you can kill him”

Rain still approaching Crucible. looks over at Link to let him know not to worry.

Link was starting to hate this sitiation. When he saw the 9mm he should have went straight for his own weapon, the .45 ACP he had in his shoulder holster under his coat. But no, he didn't. When the man started ordering him around, Link didn't move, and soon the woman tried reasoning with him. He was sure these people were crazy. That had to be it. All he needed was a second for the man to be distracted, just one second.

Crucible knew that things had shifted. For one, she had called his bluff And two, the man was being stubborn. It would've been easy to simply pull the trigger, but where was the challenge in that? It would be a nice change of pace to place himself on level with his prey. Or at least let him think so.

Crucible didn't say a word, but moved closer to the man, the 9mm unwavering. "The .45." he said, holding out one hand. The man was of a strong will, but the downside to that was that he broadcast his thoughts like a sonar. Crucible was no great empath, but when someone thought that loudly, it was hard to miss.

Crucible didn't take his eyes off the man as he spoke to Rain. "A hunter is his own righ, mistress. It is to the chagrin of his prey that rationalization holds over him, no sway." he said. Crucible turned his focus back to the man. "You will live, tonight. My curiosity in her has saved you. The .45, if you please..." he added.

Rain looked at Crucible then at Link, she walked about three feet away from Link, then reached down, and pulled Link’s keys out of the snow. Rain smiled as she gently tossed them to him.

“Now go while you have the chance”

Rain once again gave him a look to let him know that she wanted help. Rain looked behind her at Crucible, as she turned back around she scratched her face, and mouthed the word Rain hoping he would understand what she said, and figure out that was her name.

Link's migraine flared right before Crucible had asked for his .45. What was going on? They were never this bad before. His body knew something was wrong, and intensifying his migraine was a way of trying to tell him that something was wrong. Or maybe it was so next time the Crucible read his mind; he wouldn’t get any of Link’s thoughts. Eh, who knows?

When Rain found his keys, he groaned. It figured he would search the wrong side of the path. Catching his keys when Rain tossed them, he turned and headed away from the two. He was going to beat himself up later for running away, he knew his buddies from the Corps would...He made sure he was never running in a straight line, to make it harder for Crucible to hit him. At least he caught that woman's name when she mouthed it.

Crucible slowly holstered his weapon. It'd be in his hand, should the need arise. His eyes instinctively followed the fleeing man. Cattle. Nothing more. So what if he got help? It would only mean unnecessary deaths.

Or he'd be gone by then. Either way, Crucible was not concerned. He turned his focus back to Rain. "You let the cattle run. Why?" he asked slowly, taking several steps towards her. He was sure of her immortality now. "You are a predator, who does not appreciate her prey?"

Rain looked at Crucible with a sad look on her face as she cocked her head to the side.

“And what gives people the right to take another’s life? Of for that matter what gives them the right to turn them into monsters?”

Rain let out a sigh and turned away from Crucible.

“I did not ask for this to happen to me… It has only been a few days, I’m sorry I guess I’m not use to this type of life yet.”

Rain turns back around and looks at Crucible with a sad look in her eyes, he can see one single bloody tear running down the side of her cheek.

“So tell me what right do you have to kill a man for no reason?”

Crucible lit another cigarette languidly. She was new to this. At least she admitted it. Crucible let a trail of smoke waft from his mouth, snorting twin ribbons of smoke from his nostrils.

"The right to kill is innate. You do not need a reason. No one does." Crucible said, his tone hard, bitter. "Only when you SPARE a life, then do you need a reason. Death is inevitable. To refuse it is therefore, not the natural reaction. You ask me why I kill, and I ask you, why do you let live?"

Rain sighed and shook her head. And began to speak in a soft voice.

“My life was taken from me not once but twice now… the first time was from a bullet to the back of my head… I was in a coma for over 3 years… all I remember was waking up in the hospital… there was a nurse there she use to call me Rain, she said it was because I looked so sad all the time... I was only seventeen that is my first memory… The day that bullet went into my head was the day I lost my life, but then I found a new purpose to my life, and now once again I have lost that.”

Rain looked down at the ground it was hard for her to talk about her past.

“I let people live because of what I lost I don’t want that to happen to anyone else. How do you know these people that you kill don’t have families that would miss them? By killing one person your killing not just one person but many… Is it wrong to value life?”

Rain looked at the man with a curious look in her eyes as she wonders what made him so interested in her.

Crucible pursed his lips silently, taking a long drag on his cigarette before replying.
"I don't know that they have families. I don't particularly care." Crucible said. "You see, life is unavoidably unfair. Some are rich, some are poor. There are sick, homeless, the beaten, and the privilage."

"Everyone is different, unequal. 13% of the population is indigent." Crucible said, letting his cigarette drop. He crushed it under his shoe. "Yet everyone, no matter your intelligence, social class, financial well being, is equal. Everyone can die. Everyone, no matter what."

Crucible allowed his shoulders to rise in a small shrug. "I kill, without bias. If you are evil, you die. If you are good, you die. If you have a family, you die. If you are a lowlife scum, with no one; everyone dies." Crucible's smile was dark, humorless; bitter. "I am nothing but a predatory Justice. I remind everyone of one simple fact..."

"Everyone dies. It is the ONLY true and lasting Justice left..."

Rain stares into Crucible’s eyes, there cold and empty.

“What gives you the right to decide who lives or dies?”

Rain asks as she turns and begins to walk away from the man.

Crucible straightened his coat against the wind. He paused, then followed her, thrusting his hands into his pockets.

"I would've thought that much was obvious." Crucible said. "There mere fact that I CAN deal death, gives me the right to choose."

Rain stops for a moment as she turns to look at Crucible.

“May I ask why you are following me?”

Rain gives the man a curious look.

“And as far as I’m concerned this conversation is over you have your opinion I have mine… however I still don’t understand yours.”

Rain turns and begins to walk once again, as she thinks to herself.

“Why is this man so interested in me? Was it something I did or said?”

Rain sighs softly to herself as she waits for Crucible to respond to her.

Crucible shrugged off her comment. She didn't need to understand his opinion, but accept it as his rationale. She asked, why he did as he did, and he answered. Whether or not she understood, why he did as he did, that was an entirely different matter.

"You are Prey. I see you as Prey, even now as I realize you are a vampire." Crucible said, his pacing not changing in the least. "You carry yourself as a human, as some blithe mortal. The sad fact is that you are NOT a mortal."

"You are not Prey, unless you let yourself be Prey." Crucible said, his tone becoming hard, accusatory. "You are a predator now. Why do you not act one?"

As he asks his question he can feel the change in Rain’s emotions.

“Why does it matter what I do with my life?”

As she speaks he can almost hear the fear in her voice. Rain begins to walk faster now hoping he will leave her alone.

Crucible did not speed up, or slow down, but paced with her, keeping his distance. He remained within earshot, however, and pressed the matter. Things had once more shifted into his hands.

"There are few enough of us, those with the power of life and death." he said, his cigarette smoldering, illuminating his pale skin as he took a drag. "To waste that would be a sin against all Nature."

"You restrain yourself. Why? What purpose does the restraint serve?" Crucible mused, his question, though sounding as a rhetorical one, demanded an answer. "Do you really believe that your abstinence will serve a purpose? Other then some selfish, and incorrect moral restraint?"

Rain stops dead in her tracks as he finishes speaking.

“ I thought I already answered that? I tolled you I did not chose this life, I don’t have it in me to kill another person”

Rain knows that she is a killer now. It will only be a matter of time before she can not control her self any longer, even just talking to a mortal now seemed impossible to her, just the thought of biting them was starting to get her excited… But how long could she fight this for she didn’t know. All she could try and do was convince herself that she was not like him or others like him.

Crucible moved in, his gait betraying his predatory nature. He stopped, only a foot behind her, and slightly to the right. His words were almost directly into her ear.

"Choice does not matter." he said, his voice still low, almost sibilant. "I had not choice, at my Turning. It is merely a matter of acceptance. You are a predator now." Crucible began to walk around her, circle her. His gaze was fixed on her completely; captivated and fascinated by the female vampie.
"You lie to yourself, if you think you are not capable. You are more then capable." Crucible said, now standing in front of her. "Accept what you are, or starve, another self-righteous, would-be pariah."

Crucible let his words sink in, before holding out a gloved hand. "I can teach you. If you let me, you will learn what it means to be a true Hunter." he said. "A stregoi. A nosferatu. A vampire."