Alesco:

I hear the dart before I see it. My eyes are firmly on my father's face. He is my father, yet he isn't. I hear the pounding of his heart, smell his fear, his face is red from exertion. He is nothing like he was as a vampire and yet he is distinctly him. It is confusing, yet I feel a gladness that I am with him again, that I know he is safe and alive. The darkness lifts from me again, like a rising cloud.

A look crosses my father's face, terror or dread or shock. At the same time, I hear the master's voice fill my head. "No!"

I glance to the side too late. I hear the wooshing noise of the feathered dart and glimpse it rushing through the air just before I feel the sharp jab of its needle strike my chest, sinking into the flesh. For a moment I am disoriented, confused. What just happened? I glance down at the feather sticking out, shaking slightly from the impact and I lift my hand to pull it free. My hand does not respond, does not lift. Instead, it hangs limply at my side.

I feel burning now, moving out from my chest, spreading quickly through my body. It's a burning pain like fire in my veins. A hot and furious poison, reaching for every corner of my body. I fall backwards as the agony consumes me, driving all other thoughts from my mind, all other concerns, all other impulses.

I hit the ground and my body starts to thrash and twitch, writhing. I feel the burning heat fighting my natural cold. The fire colliding with the ice, backwards and forwards in battle, vying for control.

The heat is flowing through my veins like blood, as though I am alive. I feel it reach my heart and feel the long-dead muscle straining against it, rejecting it, as though driven to stay frozen and still. I feel other battles and other changes all over, every corner of my body being transformed, yet resisting the transformation. It is pain beyond anything I have felt or imagined.

It rages on, a war within. I do not know how much time has passed. But now thoughts are returning. Ideas. I remember father  is here, and Wynn and Darren and Mother. The image of my human mother, as I saw her in the mirror of the master, flashes through my mind. I feel the heat lessen, feel it merging with the coldness, tentatively at first as though my body and the poison of the dart are treating for peace, looking for concilliation. Warmth is born. The burning has ended. I feel the cold and I feel the heat, all over. My heart gives a single thump and something courses through me, moving like a stream.

Another thump and the stream continues. I concentrate, the pain ebbing, dissipating, leaving me with each heart beat. Something feels strange. I know the dart should make me human. Look at my father. My heart is moving and my veins are flowing, but it doesn't feel complete.

I move my tongue, licking where my fangs should be. I feel the sharp, pointed teeth, right where they were. What is happening?

I open my eyes. My heart gives another thump. It is beating, but not enough, not like the other humans. My vision is clear. I concentrate my hearing and I hear hearts and breath and mutterings. My senses are as strong as ever they were, or more.

"How can it be, Alesco? You are unchanged!" I recognise my father's voice, he's crouching next to me, looking at me with sweat on his brow and a worried expression on his face.

"She has changed. Hear her heart!" The master says.

"Yet she remains unchanged. Look at her, her yellow eyes and pale skin." My father answers him.

Something has changed. I am different. I feel the warmth flowing through my veins, feel the occasional thump of my heart. Yet my fangs are as they were, I feel like me. I am me. Though the  darkness that had been clouding me is lifted, I am as I was before we came.

New emotions are sweeping in on me, grief and regret, fear and uncertainty. What have I done? Memories of consuming blood, of biting down on the human, of watching the master swallow him. My mother's face flashes through my mind, and Wynn.

The pain is gone, replaced by a new strength. I lift myself up from the ground. I feel the warmth and pressure as my father puts a hand out to hold me down. "Alesco, stay down. We must make sure you are ok. That you are not hurt," he says.

"I am fine," I say, pushing myself up despite his hand. I am stronger than him still. I feel stronger than ever despite my heartbeat and living veins. It makes no sense. I should have turned, should have changed, should have been brought entirely back to life, I should have become human.

I rise to my feet, my father steps back from me, I see uncertainty and confusion on his face. Fear.

A new voice fills the night. "Move down, lights on full." It says. I look beyond my father and see a slender man in a grey uniform. He is up the hill a little, amongst his humans, but I see the glittering sliver of the badge on his chest. Director. He is giving orders. By his side is another human, a half-smile on his face.

I stare at him and see something new. Something beyond his physical form. Swirling clouds of darkness are within him, rising like mist from a river. I recognise the shadows as those that consumed me. The one to his side, wearing the half-smile is the same, swirling clouds of darkness.

There's a familiarity to them too. I turn, ignoring the slowly advancing humans. I look at the master. He has his arms raised and I see the darkness of the forest creeping forward, edging towards us. Fabian is by his side, whispering in his ear. The dark shadows are within them both, Fabian and the master. I look around, viewing the other vampires, the other humans and see nothing within them. Two on each side, each consumed by the dark shadows, the swirling mist that consumed me.

"Vampires! Stay with the darkness. Release the humans from the prison of their flesh."  The master's voice drifts through the trees. The vampires are inching forward with the darkness, towards the advancing humans, towards father and I. Yet the master is remaining where he is, allowing himself to be overtaken by his soldiers, as the director is doing.

"Alesco. I see you are no longer vampire, but nor are you truly human. Join us again." The master says. "Come to me."

The pull I had felt in other times is gone. He is no vampire, just as the other is no human. I see it clearly. They are as one. It's clear to me now, as though I have known it always, as though it was only forgotten. They need to be destroyed.

There is power to the warmth in my veins. I summon the energy and open my mouth to speak. "Stop!"

My voice fills the forest, bouncing from tree to tree and reaching to the sky as though magically magnified. "Stop now!"

The vampires stop. The humans stop.

"No!"  The master says. "Move, as I command it!"

Almost at the same time the director shouts, "Keep moving, and fire at will."

Some of the men don't move. Others fire their guns. The feathered darts fly through the air, heading forwards the front vampires. They fall innocently to the ground as I knew they would. Unable to penetrate the magic of the master.

A few vampires move forward as the darkness grows.

"Stop!" I say again, louder still and I raise my arms. They all stop.

"Kill her." The master and the director both speak at the same time. Fabian moves towards me, and the man at the director's side, still wearing his half-smile, moves towards me too. I recognise him now, he was the one who escaped us when we captured the humans.

"No!" My father shouts, jumping between me and the director's man. I reach out and push him away. He cannot resist my strength and he falls to the ground. I stand there, watching them come. One from each side.

As Fabian reaches the border of the light. A figure launches himself at his back. He stumbles forward as Darren rakes at him with clawlike fingers and tries to pull him back. Fabian shakes him off easily, throwing him against a tree. He jumps back up, ready to pounce again, launching himself forward.

"No!" The master raises a hand and slams him against the tree again. Everyone is watching now, humans and vampires, as these two creatures approach me. Time slows down for me, they come in slow motion.

"These creatures that approach me are neither vampire nor human. We have been deceived. I see it clearly, I see their magic, their darkness, their power." I say. No one speaks. All eyes are watching. I feel rather than see the master and director moving backwards, slowly, away from me, yet watching all the same.

I know I am stronger than ever. I feel the magic within, feel the strength of blood and life, and the strength of ice and death. I am all and more.

They reach me, Fabian on one side. "Mike." he says, nodding at the man who has arrived from the human side. They know each other. Of course they do, they are as one.

Fabian pounces, moving like a blur, Mike moves just as fast, fist clenched and on course for my body. Despite their speed they move slowly to my eyes. I step back and watch them collide with each other, with force, each flying backward.

Fabian growls and Mike curses, they are on their feet again flying at me, I see rage burning in their eyes, see the power intensifying beneath their physical form. Fists flying and fangs bared. I step back again, and reach out as they collide, holding them together. They are strong. Fabian turns on me and the force of his blow knocks me backwards. I hit the ground hard, but leap up immediately as Mike's fist flies towards me again. I move to the side, dodging.

Somehow it all comes naturally to me. I am stronger than ever and I am moving as though I had trained for a lifetime. Mike's other fist flies out in a blur, and collides with my face. My head snaps back but I keep my feet. A rage is burning within me now and I feel the darkness descending, strengthing me further. I call on it, feeding from its power.

I grab for his throat, my hand moving faster than a bullet and close around it. His eyes bulge and fill with surprise. He struggles against me but the darkness has consumed me again, and I am stronger than he. Fabian lunges for me. I kick out and my foot hits withhis stomach, sending him backward, flying through the air.

"No!" The master calls out. As Fabian lands I see Darren pounce again, but this time he is not alone, Wynn is there, and together I see them slashing and biting him. I raise Mike into the air and turn to the humans.

"You see, he is no human! No human can fight as he does."

I look to the sky, holding him still, and howl to the sky. Half night and half day, like me. I hear the wolves responding, hear their padding feet moving to respond.

"It cannot be!" The director's voice rings out. "She's taking control!"

"Impossible!" The master says in response.

I know what must be done. I bare my fangs, sinking them into Mike's flesh. He screams, a high pitched sound, strange from his lips and terrible. Black, vaporous blood is cascading from the wound in his neck, like mist rising and falling. I throw him with force and he lands with a crash. The wolves pounce from the shadows and descend upon his prone form.

I turn in time to see Wynn and Darren thrown back as Fabian rises. I see the rage and hate gleaming in his red eyes. He moves towards me, fast, consumed by his desire for revenge, without logic or reason.

I step to the side as multiple guns click in unison. Fabian stops as feathered darts, more than can be counted, pierce his chest and legs and arms. The poison alone is not enough, I move behind him, grabbing his head and biting down, fast and true, opening his neck. Black blood escapes him, like shadows running from light. I drop him where he is and step aside as ten wolves move forward and pounce upon his body.

The black smoke rises to the sky.

I look from side to side. Men are standing, guns trained on me, vampires watch through glowing eyes. I scan them all, and find Darren and Wynn and Father. They are alive.

I look for the master and see his billowing robes at the back, edging further away, not coming closer. I turn and find the director. He is standing back, gazing at me with golden eyes. I must destroy them. I know it. It is the only way to end this.

"You are not enemies of each other!" I shout. "Your enemies are those who called themselves master, those who called themselves director. They are of the same kind, we were but pawns in their game." I don't know where the words are coming from, but I know they are right. "Bring them to me and we may break the curse, end the fights!"

Men turn, guns cocked and ready, towards their director, vampires turn on the master.

"Fools!" The master says. "I am your master."  He raises his arms and the nearest vampires fly backwards. "You cannot fight me."

He swipes his hand down, and I see a vampire fall, head rolling to one side. He swipes again, and another falls. Rage fills me and I move towards him, faster than even the fastest vampire. I am behind the master and I tug his hood down, revealing his true head for all who have never seen it. Gasps fill the air.

He hisses, turning on me, but I am faster still, fuelled by rage and determination, I grab the back of his scaled head and hold it in a vice grip. I turn and see the director jump behind a vehicle as feathered darts are fired at him. I see him throw two men like rag dolls hard against a tree, hear the sickening crack as they hit. This has to end.

I squeeze on the master's neck with crushing force. He hisses again and tries to break free, thrashing and twisting, dropping his robes and revealing his full snake body. I see the venom dripping from his cobra fangs.

The humans are firing dart after dart at the director, who is moving fast, dodging and jumping. One man, brave or stupid, lunges forward at him, dropping his gun. The director catches him in mid air and throws him against a tree. I hear the snap of his bones. But it was all that was needed, a single feathered dart pierces his skin. He looks down, shocked, as more darts hit him, one after the other.

He opens his mouth and I am surprised by his words. "Game over!" He calls. "Game over."

I feel the master hissing, but the tone has changed. The director lifts into the air, carried by an unseen force. The master is rising too, I can feel it. Despite my strength, I cannot hold him back, I feel my own feet leave the ground. I let go as we continue to rise and fall lightly to my feet. I watch, with everyone else, as the two creature are lifted into the sky, out of reach, and disappear over the trees towards the sea.

They are gone.

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