Ahavalin closed his eyes, malevolent voices coming at him from every direction. They turned into screeches, and the vampire yelled himself and fell to his knees, cradling his head in his hands...

And then it stopped. Ahavalin sighed and hung his head, his right hand painfully releasing Foulfang's hilt. Through the small ordeal he had not drawn it, but kept it right in place. There was no telling what the enemy possessed.

Ahavalin's keen senses soon picked up something. He could hear two things approaching- though there were another two accompanying them. The crossroads between the forest paths were inconveniently located- an attack by an enemy would be easy.

As his thoughts deepened, he felt his breath stop abruptly. What had happened to the child? She had been sitting upon a tree stump and then...

Ahavalin clenched his fists. He had been fooled. Perhaps his age was catching up with him. He grinned unsteadily at his private little joke. How could a vampire become old? Quite honestly, he surprised himself sometimes.

His hand shifted to Foulfang's hilt again as he heard the four beings approaching. Ahavalin closed his eyes, relying on smell and hearing as his eyes. become one.

The sound of stumbling announced that someone had entered the clearing. He could mentally sense great power emanating from it- and the aromas flowing from her defined her as a woman. Ahavalin opened his eyes to see a fairly young woman, dressed in black with a red coat flowing around her. Her hair was brownish-red, and a large sword hung from her back.

“You will pay for your misdeeds, creature. Your kind is all the same."

Ahavalin smiled, revealing his sharpened teeth. Much to his surprise the woman did not recoil, but seemed even angrier by this.

"What do you think to prove? I have rid this land of many of your kind, and you are no exception."

Ahavalin's response to this was unexpected. A flash of grey light filled the clearing, and feathered black wings sprouted from Ahavalin's back. His hair turned pearly-white, and he threw off his cloak to reveal a full black body-suit.

"I think you just might have to make that exception."