Blood.

The one thing he craved that kept him fully satisfied was calling him. Closer and closer. More and more. There was nothing that could stop him. The power he controlled was unlike any of the others. He would show them all what true power looked like.

After over one thousand years of watching the people around him fall either by the hands of others, or them rotting away, humanly things seemed to lose their significance.

Death, agony, fear. They were all the main curses of the world that were inevitable. Haunting the earth with such evils was only a part of his life now. There was nothing in this world that could stop the inevitable.

There was nothing in this world that could stop him.

Slade Parker gripped the fence with one hand while the other was wrapped in the blonde girl's hair. Her head was tilted to the side, giving him just the right angle to dig in.

Warm drops spilled over his chin as he pulled away, smiling from the pure pleasure of the moment. Soaking in all the raw human emotion he could, he felt himself drifting away from the sorrow that consumed him. He was letting go for the first time in ages and enjoyed every second of it.

Licking his lips, the sweet taste consumed him once again. He craved more.

So much more.

He leaned forward again, pressing the girl more firmly to the metal railing. She didn't hesitate to obey. It wasn't like she had a choice, but it was clear that she was enjoying it. The sensual feeling she was getting was obvious as she groaned in a way that made a low growl escape Slade's throat.

Lucky for humans, getting bitten wasn't at all painful. In fact, if they didn't try to fight the compulsion, the effects of the feed were almost euphoric. Once Vamp teeth break the flesh, all screams subside and they give into it. Some even enjoying it.

And this girl, was one of the ones who enjoyed it.

Her hand slid up the back of Slade's neck, bringing it into his hair, tightening her grip as more of her juices entered him. Slade brought his head back, revelling in the pure ecstasy of her dark blood warmed his whole body. A smirk graced his face as he brought his tongue along the river of red that ran down her neck.

"You. Are. Delicious." His tone got darker as he spoke between the kisses following the stream. Thick liquid iron coated his lips as he looked to her glazed over eyes. His lips tilted up even more after seeing her blinded looked. "Kiss me."

Without vacillation, the blonde brought her mouth over his, taking her own blood back into herself. Slade wrapped his arm around her waist and propelled himself to one of the brick walls of the alley. Removing his hands from her waist, he brought them down to her thighs and brought her legs up so they were wrapped around him.

Her back was pressed firmly against the wall as Slade pressed himself closer. The wall worked with him to keep her there as he grabbed her face and pulled her to him. A small hint of bliss still hung there, but he was able to keep the cravings down.

Now all that he was craving was her touch.

Warm skin traced the line of his jaw as she placed her hand on his cheek. A sharp breath entered him at the contact surprised him, but he kept the impact deep inside his mind. The small bit of humanity he had left tried to break its way through, but he wouldn't let it. He wouldn't let it control him anymore.

He was free of it, and he was never going back.

Slade removed his right hand from her hair and brought it back to her thigh, gripping it tightly as she let out a little whimper. Whether it was from fear or pleasure, he didn't care, he just wanted to keep going. His hand going further up her dress, tearing at the black fishnets she wore, wanting to finally get some relief.

No more tearing of the flesh was happening tonight. He was full and now he wanted something a little extra.

"Shh. Shh. Shh," he shushed her with a smile on his face, and whispered, "If you don't struggle, there's nothing to worry about." His lips moved against her ear, making her shiver from his warm breath, but she didn't seem afraid. That was the beauty of being compelled. If you didn't want them to be afraid of you, they wouldn't be.

Trailing his thumb over her swollen lips, he gazed deeply at them before bringing his mouth back down on them once more. The feeling of her giving in again made him grin with triumph. He situated the both of them correctly, he reached for his pants, ready to take what he'd needed for way too long. Right before he could pull up her skirt any further, he was interrupted by a voice that stopped him cold.

"I can't say I'm surprised by this." The cold derogatory voice filled Slade's mind with an overpowering desperation to get out of there, but he was cornered.

Nowhere to go.

Hastily, he put the blonde down, not even paying attention to her anymore as he stared at the man who interrupted them. Not wanting to seem as desperate as he felt in that moment, he just smirked at him and lifted his head up in disdain.

"You," the man continued, slowly walking toward him, "always were fighting for some kind of attention." He looked over to the girl for a second, who's confusion was clearer than water on her face, and then grinned at Slade like he had some sort of plan.

"What do you want, Edric?" Slade's voice came out as a low growl, tightening his fists at his sides.

Before he could even blink, Edric was already draining the life out of her. In less than a second, she fell limply and cold on the alley floor. Edric wiping the excess blood from his lips with the red handkerchief from his suit pocket, was a site Slade never wanted to witness ever again.

"I wasn't finished with her yet," Slade sighed as he looked over the cold corpse that had such warm skin only a moment ago. Too bad, she was a breathtaking kisser. No doubt she would have been even better when she'd give him all of her. What a waste of a beautiful woman.

Edric chuckled before sticking his handkerchief back in his pocket and putting his hands in his pockets, staring at Slade like he'd break at any moment. At first he thought he would, but after he looked unbothered by his presence, Edric was confused. Also, disappointed. He was expecting their reunion to be a little more satisfying.

Slade crossed his arms and let a sick smile cross his face as he knew that things were not going as planned for his old enemy. "It's been sixty years, Ric. You don't scare me anymore." He said this with such conviction that he almost believed it himself. "Why don't you turn your attention to Arella for a change?"

"Your sister is of no concern to me," Edric said boredly, leaning against the brick wall next to him. "She was a great distraction for a couple decades, eventually she just got too noisy. I thought of snapping her little neck, but I knew you'd probably gain too much out of that."

Alarm finally made it onto Slade's face. "Does she know where I am?"

Ric finally knew he had him, a feeling of success driving him forward. "She doesn't yet, but I'm sure since I was able to find you so easily, she's hot on your trail."

Without thinking, Slade propelled himself towards him, taking Ric's neck into a death grip. "Tell me where she is!"

Edric grabbed Slade's wrist, not even trying as he removed it from his neck. "Still as temperamental as ever, Slade Parker." Reversing the roles, Slade was now pressed to the wall and Ric secured his neck between the wall and the elbow digging into his Adam's apple. "I'm surprised you aren't more thankful. I did after all alert you of the person who is trying to rid your sorry ass of this earth once and for all."

"Thankful?" Slade hissed, pushing on Ric's arm, trying to prevent in to go any further. His voice was hoarse from the pressure as he continued, "I'm supposed to be thankful that you killed my mother and turned my sister right in front of me? You destroyed everything."

"Sorry for making your pathetic life as a college drop out suddenly worth while." It wasn't really an apology. They both knew this. "If I remember it correctly, you brought it on yourself."

The memories of that night were rushing back in lightning strikes, and it was more than enough to bring an unsettling shock through him. The thought of all the blood that stained that living room carpet didn't bother him as much anymore, but at that time, it was the most horrific scene that ever played out before him.

He tightened his eyes closed, in an attempt to close out the thoughts of what happened a century ago. Getting over it was never something he'd do, but blocking away the emotions was something he was really good at. In fact, it was something that most Vamps were good at. Nothing could hold them down.

Before he passed out from lack of oxygen, he felt himself drop against the cold concrete as he almost coughed up his lungs. The flaming feeling in his throat only took a couple seconds to overcome.

Looking up, Ric was looking down at him, satisfied that he had finally gotten to him. He got up, using his knees as support as he pushed himself into standing position.

"What do you want?" Slade finally said, after getting his bearings.

"Oh, I don't want anything," he assured him. Edric put his hand on his shoulder, usually it would be a comforting gesture, but this was just to be threatening. "At least, I don't want anything right now. You've got enough to worry about as of late. The faster she finds you, the faster she will get rid of you. I guess you could say that's all I could ever want."

"Then why don't you just get it over with?" Slade hissed, shrugging Ric's arm off his shoulder. "If I'm such a disappointment to the two of you, then why don't you just kill me now?"

Ric's lips tilted up in amusement. "You know very well why I can't do that. I take great pride in my daughter. I want what any father wants, for their children to achieve their life goals all by themselves."

"She is not your daughter!" he jumped at the man, his face contorted into it's real form. There was nothing he wanted more than to tear him limb from limb, but he was stopped. His leg buckling under his as he felt a kick to the back of his knee.

A scream tried to exit his lips, but was blocked by Ric's hand, blocking all sound. "Once you're healed, I'll be gone, and you will have a chance to run. Trust me, you won't get far." He moved his hand to his chin, while the other gripped the back of his head.

"Say hello to your sister for me," Edric smiled as he added, "son."

With a snap and an explosion of pain, darkness came, and Slade felt nothing.

Ernest's eyes opened slowly, seeing with blurred vision before her. Once her eyes adjusted, she could see the beautiful brown eyes with little specks of green splattered here and there.

A small smile came over her lips as she raised her hand to place in on Tatum's cheek. His skin was warm as ever as she brushed her finger over his cheekbone, making sure he was really here and this wasn't a dream.

He'd been gone for days, and last night when they were attacked, and she thought she'd never see him again...

She didn't want to think about it.

"You're here," Ernest croaked. It was still hard to speak since the leader of the pack that attacked them attempted to choke her to death the night before.

Tatum eyes were threatening to spill tears, but she didn't know why. She was going to live. Everything was going to be okay. Still, he had this look on his face like things weren't okay. Like there was something that she was missing.

"I should have been here."

That's what it was. He was being guilty and trying to take responsibility for something that was out of his control, like usual. There had to come a time when he had to figure out that he couldn't always be there to keep things from falling apart.

"Shh," she hushed him and sat up a bit to pull him into a hug. "I'm okay. No one was hurt. They were only after me, but Kain scared them off."

"After you?" Tatum asked, more than confused. "What would they have to gain by trying to kill you?"

"We don't know." Kain's voice rang from behind Tatum. He was leaning against the frame, she didn't know exactly for how long he'd been standing there. "All we know is that we are now on high alert. No one is going to be coming in or out of this house. Not until we figure out what is going on, and who's involved."

Tatum squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, thinking about Diana in that motel room with hopes of his return. "I can't stay. I have to go back."

Kain crossed his arms over his chest, bringing his full attention to Tatum. "Go back? You mean back to wherever you were the past few days?" The skepticism in Kain's voice wasn't good. It was almost like he was questioning him. "Where were you exactly?"

A small hint of panic crossed Tatum's features at his Alpha's question. "I- uh-,"

"Where were you Tatum?" Kain's demeanor changed quickly. In just a moment's notice, he had Tatum's front pressed firmly against the wall. "Where. Were. You?"

"This girl," Tatum let the truth spill out. There was no point hiding something like this, it would only end up getting worse. "Diana. She needed my help."

When Tatum felt himself being pulled back and then shoved back into the wall, he knew this wasn't enough information. He groaned before continuing, "Okay, she's a Vampire. She's not like the ones you knew, Kain. I swear, I am only trying to help her. There's something wrong with her. She's sick, and I need to go back and help her."

"As far as I'm concerned, every single one of those creatures are sick!" Kain pulled his friend from the wall and threw him to the floor. "What are you trying to do, Tate? Huh? Bring a group of them right to us?"

"Kain, stop!" Ernest's desperate voice brought Kain out of his enraged state. His gaze shifted over to her, shame crossing his features.

Tatum let out a relieved breath. There was nothing he hated more than when they fought. Kain was his best friend, the person who turned him and would always be there for him. Getting on his bad side was never a good idea, though. Having a temper like his made him not see clearly half the time, making it really easy to lash out.

Since Kain seemed to calm down, Tatum explained himself. "I know you've had a bad history with Vampires, but this one is different. She doesn't even like to be associated with them. She calls herself an Extortionist."

"What's wrong with her?" Kain managed to growl.

"I was hoping that Ernest could figure that out."

The two men looked over to her for the approval that Tatum would need to bring Diana here. At first, Ernest looked conflicted as she gazed over to Kain. He was top dog here, so if he didn't like her answer, he could change it.

"Bring the girl here, and I'll see if I can figure out what's going on," she finally answered, "but she is not welcome to stay. After I figure out what's going on, the Vampire, Extortionist - whatever she is - is gone."