The winds were slowly settling down as the mist continued to embark over the buildings above and moving on to new territory. The night sky threw a dark shadow over the city and began to release sparkles of rain. How long has it been now? Perhaps two minutes or two hours? I sat on the ground leaned up against the brick wall behind me staring into the direction she disappeared in after trapping me in this alley and taking drops of my venom with her.

I was in a state of shock if that were possible for our kind. My entire being shook with waves of fear and unpredictability. In all my years of being a vampire, I had only been scared on two different occasions. One was decades ago after my rebellious face and when I returned to Clem and Chalice. I was scared and worried that they would not accept me back after I had massacred so many humans that I deemed unworthy of life after a decade of gruesome murders. The other time just happened several minutes ago.

There was a slight stinging sensation coming from my right hand that originated from the surface of my thumb. I brought it into view as I examined the unnatural and simply impossible scar she had left behind that would forever be a symbol to her. It looked like a perfect little crescent scar with a light blue hue. I pressed my thumb to my index finger to determine the amount of discomfort I was going to receive and felt a minor burning sensation as I did so. How was this possible? If she had bitten me it would be clear. The only thing that can leave marks on an immortal body is the bite of another immortal, but how can something like this occur?

I used the wall behind me for leverage as I helped myself off the ground to finally stand on my own two feet again. My breathing for a short while was irregular and heavy. It had returned to normal only seconds after she departed and my subconscious believed me to be safe. I knew it was not a conscious decision. I lifted my arms in the air as a test to see if the invisible force was still somewhat present, but luckily I found this not to be the case. What was that? Is that what one calls when one is paralyzed with fear? That couldn't be. No. I decided to strike, but something that I could not see stopped me, and rooted me in this very spot.

I had to get home. I dusted myself off quickly and grabbed Chalice books from the ground. I took a wary look into my surroundings and not just in the direction she had evaporated in. I was alone. I hastily made my way back down the alley and detected that there were still no humans occupying the street as for now. Perfect. I bolted out of the alley with inhuman speed and back down the street to see my car sitting where I had left it. I almost tore the door off when I secured myself within and roared the engines to life. My car screamed in surprise when I launched out onto the open road.

I wanted to get away from here, away from Port Angeles and away from her. There were cars honking brutally when I passed them with impossible speed and ignored everything regarding driving laws. Tonight was a night that I would remember always, and forever look back to and shiver in the dark confrontation I had to partake in. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw the misty lights of the metropolis fade in the distance.

What did she do? Why did she do it? She thanked me, but why? I squeezed my eyes shut and let my ears guide me back home. Her glowering gaze haunted my present mind and once more she had left wild fires of destruction within me. What sort of vampire was she? Where there any answers out there? Did anyone know what was going on here?

The slight burning sensation in my thumb seemed to ease as I swiftly approached our house. Though the insignificant tingle of pain in my thumb faded the crescent like scar remained and would eternally be a reminder of the events of tonight.

We shall meet again, Raven Wolff.

How did she know my name? My memories traveled back to the clearing of four days ago in attempts to conclude whether or not my name was heard. It was the only time that she could have gotten that information, but I already knew that it wasn't the case. If she paid attention and somehow I knew she did than she'd only know Clem's name. He only introduced himself and never mentioned any of our names, but rather presented us as his family.

I raced past the city limits and couldn't wait to get home. There had to be something in that book of Clem. There must be something that we missed or overlooked. I strongly believed that such a vampire could not have gone unknown by the Empire. According to Clem, Acheron sent out many of his agents to track and record every single vampire they found and transfer the information back to the ancients. Acheron himself had met a plethora of vampires over his four thousand years. There must be something!

The lights in our house were on when I pulled in the driveway and let my car rest. I turned off the ignition and... just sat there. I closed my eyes and drew small and shallow breaths. I can't believe how easily I walked into her trap especially since I had already guessed that it could have been one. I looked at my thumb and saw the scar almost glow when the moonlight touched it. It looked like one of Gnash many battle scars that he obtained in the south during the wars. Only my scar was much smaller and in addition was not caused by a bite. I got out of my car and took a hold of the bag with Chalice' books.
I was glad that I didn't forget them during all this chaos.

I walked up the stairs slowly and stared defeated at my feet taking one slow and deliberate step after another. I stopped in front of the entrance to the house. They all must have heard me coming. Strangely enough, I thought I would see Scar standing on the top step worried and already informed about what happened, but she wasn't. I took a small step and tried to reorder my facial features into something appropriate and normal rather than hysterical.

I opened the door and found that Gnash and Garnet were still at it with that moronic video game. I looked at the watch around my wrist and noticed to my surprise that I had only been gone for an hour and a half. It had seemed longer to me.

I walked right through the deserted dinning room to the kitchen and discovered that Chalice was finally finished with her frantic baking. She was in the process of washing all the cook wear and wrapping her pastries. The kitched was completely tranformed. I wondered how long it took her to clean it all even with her special gifts that vampirism granted.

"Here are your books, Chalice." She smiled excited at me and crossed the kitchen with unseen movement. She took the bag and peeked inside as her excitement reached new heights.

"Thank you, Raven. I have been looking forward to these for quite some time now." She reached up and gave me another small kiss on the cheek. I smiled back at her and had to use all the strength I had to convince her of a normal and regular Raven. I didn't want my small encounter to be public knowledge just yet. I had to see Clem first.

"You're welcome, Chalice, If you'll excuse me, I have to see Clem." Her eyes twitched with curiosity, but let it go and nodded kindly.

I turned away from her and allowed my moments glowing countenance to fall back to its original disturbed and grim state. As I walked up the stairs, I identified the thoughts of a very annoying small thing that was waiting for me in the hallway where Clem's study was. Scar! She must have seen something after all that caused her worry. As I turned in the hallway she suddenly stood in front of me.

Are you okay, Rave? I was so worried over an hour ago. Why didn't you take your cell with you! I was ready to make a run for Port Angeles!

Her eyes were trembling with worry for me. I immediately regretted my earlier thought about her being annoying, but then she was thinking about taking me out back and slapping me.

"What did you see?" I asked her in low and quite voice. I didn't want anyone else to hear just yet. Her brows furrowed agitated.

I saw almost nothing! Those strange distorted fluctuations in my visions returned. But for a small second, I saw a glimpse of her. The vampire that we met in the clearing that settled our dispute with the nomads, I mean. I saw her approach you. I think. But that's about all I saw. Clem is in his study as you probably already know. Might if I accompany you or should I watch from a distance?

She tried to hide her smile poorly as she thought the last bit of the sentence. I shook my head amused at her. I motioned my hand behind me inclining her to wait until I wanted everyone to know. She didn't actually know what truly happened just yet, but she would, soon enough. She would probably know before Clem will.

She smiled and danced around me down the hall heading to her room to watch. I was somewhat hesitant. I considered for only a split second not to tell Clem, but I had to talk to someone and it would only be him. I took the last few steps to stand in front of his door and as always waited for him to invite me in.

"Come in, Raven."

I heard his friendly voice echo from behind the door and pushed it aside to see him sitting behind his desk. He chuckled when he saw me come in.

"Well, this seems to become more frequent, doesn't it? Not that I'm complaining quite on the contrary. You must have heavy things bothering your mind lately to come and see me so often, son."

I closed the door behind me and gave it my best effort to put my usual mask of comfort on, but it failed. His smile faded as he absorbed my mood and furrowed his brows.

"Is there something troubling you?"

His expression much like Scar, was one of pure worry. How would I begin this? Where would I even start? Perhaps it would be prudent to begin with a suspicion that has been conquering my thoughts for the better part of twenty minutes. I ignored his question.

"May I talk to you?" I took a seat in one of the two chairs in front of his desk and hid my scarred hand in the other, and away from detection.

"Anything, my son." Clem was now both worried and curious. It seemed that curiosity was truly something that all our kind had in common.

"Well, I was wondering if you could... Well you see I..." I frowned at myself and glowered at my entrapped hand.

"Raven, you seemed shaken. What's going on?" Clem leaned forward and folded his hand in front of him on the desk. I took a deep breath and very much planned to form a complete sentence this time.

"I was wondering if you could tell me about the ancients." When the thought at first occurred to me after the little discussion, Clem and I dismissed it quickly, but for some reason, now it seemed to be a reasonable explanation concerning her. He looked troubled at first, but was as always still willing. He exhaled slowly and swallowed before continuing.

"What would you like to know?

"Well, let's start at the beginning. What defines an ancient? What makes a vampire deserving of that status?" I had been wondering about that anyway. Surely, it was age that glorified a vampire to such a rank, but what age. He cleared his throat.

"Well, according to Acheron, an ancient is a vampire that has lived at least two hundred lifeages of man. In other words, a vampire who is at least two thousand years old. Basically, any vampire that was born before B.C.E could be considered an ancient."

I blinked confused. "Why that specific age?"

"It is around that time when the changes began to occur."

Changes? I think I do remember a time when Clem spoke of the gradual change vampires undergo do to advanced age. He spoke of the fact that we become more powerful along the way depending on our age. But I think I remembered him stating that there wasn't a difference in abilities other than talents between a vampire that was three hundred years old and one that was fifteen hundred years old for example. Clem noticed my confound state and continued.

"As you know, vampires are unable to change physically much because we are frozen at whatever age the transformation occurs. However, one can determine the difference between a century old vampire and a millennia old vampire by the fairness of their complexions. Acheron and his brothers and sister's physical likeness are much paler in comparison to yours or mine because they have seen the lifespan of four millennia."

I absorbed Clem's wisdom and took it with me into the past four days when we at first saw her. That was when I noticed how pale she was in comparison with us. Perhaps, this instinctual feeling of mine was leading me down the right path. But, there was something else that was bothering me now thinking about Clem's words about Acheron's physical complexion, and hers.

"Clem, could you do me a favor? Imagine Acheron in your mind, please. It would help if you could invoke a picture of what he looked like after he fed."

Clem's eyes narrowed suspiciously. I think he realized that I knew something he didn't. He nodded and closed his eyes.

His mind became completely blank and was filled with blackness. Then suddenly, Acheron appeared in his thoughts. His pale likeness was surrounded by his long and jet black hair. Acheron was pale in comparison to Clem. His eyes were a bright crimson color after a good meal. Clem did well, but now he would have to conjure something else too.

"Thank you, Clem. Now, keep that image and please summon up the memory of her and compare it to Acheron. Please." Clem nodded slowly as he formed his thoughts.

Her face appeared in his mind and formed right next to Acheron's. Clem's eyes popped wide open immediately only after a fraction of a second, and the images disappeared and were replaced by bewildered thoughts.

"So, you called a four thousand year old vampire like Acheron an ancient because of his fair skinned nature. What would you call a vampire that was so much paler than him then?"

I was right! My earlier suspicions had been confirmed. When Clem was terraforming his thoughts and brought the needed images to light, he immediately noticed the difference between the two. She was so much paler than Acheron and her eyes were much darker as well. On that however, I could not create an appropriate hypothesis since it only appeared that she was underfed.

"It's not possible! Acheron, together with his brothers and sister have searched the world for the ancient vampire elders that lived millennia before they were even born. I understand that the world was a rather large place, but he sent out dozens of agents into all directions to seek out those old ones. The best they could find were vampires that were almost the same age as them such as my Egyptian friend, Aaron." Clem was ready to continue denying the obvious when suddenly he stopped and a new memory entered his thoughts.

Two of the agents that Aro sent out centuries ago never returned. That could explain why he was still so bound on discovering the identities of vampires that were way older than him. They're a threat to him and his rule. He was contemplating his own truths.

"Don't you think it's a little suspicious that two of his guard never returned with the information he sought? I know that the Empire guards were loyal to their master much due to the fact that Willow keeps almost all of them that way with her emotional straps. But don't you think it's a little strange that they never returned after being ordered to inquire about those old ones?"

Clem circled his thumb with his index finger nervously and was deep in thought. He shook his head.

"They could have been exterminated by others of our kind, son. Some vampires are very aggressive in nature and seek fights for no apparent reason."

"Clemente! You just saw in your mind what others might not have seen in centuries or even millennia. There is a vampire out there right now with complexions that would even put Acheron, Duncan, Draven and Vega to shame! Could it not be possible that some survived the wars as well as the long span of eons and simply stayed hidden? Away from the Empire? You know what Acheron would do if he'd found one of them. He would do the same thing to them like what he did to his own creator, Cerberus." Clem was surprised by my rather loud and upset tone and I sensed that everything downstairs just became very quite.

Cerberus was an ancient vampire. The creator of Acheron, Duncan, Draven, and their wives with the exception of Vega and Layre. Acheron killed his immortal father with the help of Duncan, their wives and other guards because he knew that Cerberus was too powerful for him alone. Physical body color wasn't the only thing that changed about us. It appeared that after millennia of walking the cold road of immortality, our strength and speed increased as well. Therefore, Acheron would have been no match for his maker alone when he killed him during the fifth century A.D since Cerberus dated back to the ancient wars between Kemet and Greece in the fifth millennium B.C.E.

Clem rubbed his temples and exhaled defeated. There were parts of him that wanted to accept this new revelation, but then there were also more skeptical parts that deemed all of this to be ludicrous.

"You once told me that Acheron killed Cerberus because he was a traitor and wanted to destroy the Empire, but doesn't it make more sense now thinking that he killed him because Cerberus was more powerful, and would have ruled the Empire instead of him?" Clem looked at me with a torn expression and glimmers of already profound knowledge in his eyes.

"But then again, you already knew that didn't you?" Raven released a dry laugh through his teeth and shook his head.

"I had always assumed that was the true reason, but perhaps I was too distracted by Acheron's apparent benevolence to truly ever embrace those reasons."

It was good for clem to finally see the dark side of the Empire rather than just their goodness of keeping our world in order and secret. I carefully placed my hands on the table still hiding my injured hand in the other.

"Now, why don't we discuss the ancient vampires rather than those of Acheron's stature. Shall we?" Perhaps in the old tales lay the answers that I wanted concerning her.

"Not much was known about them apart from some abilities they had. Although we do have a considerable knowledge of the wars that erupted that long ago, and are pretty sure of what happened and how."

I furrowed my brows by this new conclusion. So strength and speed weren't the only assets they gained over the years?

"What abilities?" I tried to imagine what sorts of abilities were possible other than their talents if they had any.

"There were no specific scripts concerning them. All those who remembered were now gone. There were only whispers of their abilities. However, there was one that Acheron witnessed himself. It was an ability used by the ancients quite often during the wars. It was a way of gathering information without even the need of words or inquisitions. If I remember correctly it was called Venenum Memoria."

I narrowed my eyes. The language was latin. If my translation is correct, then it meant something along the lines of poison or venom memory.

"The ancients would take and drink drops of venom from others in order to gain all their memories."

I instantly froze. Oh God! My entrapped hand was being crushed by my other as I tensed up and remembered the confrontation in Port Angeles all too clearly. If what Clem said was correct, then that would explain how she knew my name.

Thank you. Her victorious grin plastered itself all over my mind. But why? For what reason? How was that even possible? For me, there was now no doubt whatsoever that the mysterious vampire we met was in fact an ancient of a world beyond memory.

Ironically enough, she took my memories.