tanding waist deep in the pool gave Kevin an unusual viewpoint of the gardens. He had crawled out of the mud pool fifteen minutes before and had walked to the natural pool a couple of feet away, it was more of a pond, complete with koi and other fishes and frogs making their way around him. What little sunlight managed to get past the canopy above cut across Kevin's night vision, which seemed unwilling to fall back and let him see in the light. He stretched leaning back and let his Thirst, which still remained poised just underneath his mind, out enough to try to get his vision back under control. His body remained poised over the pond as his eyes darkened to black and his lips pulled back, exposing his fangs. He relaxed then, sinking back completely into the pool and opening his eyes to see if his vision had corrected itself.

            Everything was back to normal, the sunlight was not as painful anymore, so Kevin walked out of the water and over to where Aeh and the Light Wisps had placed a towel and a change of clothes. Kevin had been called in sick to school, so he decided not to worry about anything school related while he tried to push memories of the night before out of his mind. 

            After sitting on a bench for a while, his mind went back to the attack. He knew that Arias was old, older than even Satine, the Vampire Queen who ruled the vampire world west of Oklahoma in the United States. His blood, therefore had been sitting in that same body for a very long time, which explained why it had burned Kevin when he accidentally drank it. It was like wine, dense and strong enough to feel like a poison. A vampire's blood thickened and became stronger as he aged, it carried more memories and needed more substance than oxygen to keep it going, hence the drinking of blood, but the blood also carried one more thing: power, magical energy. Human's blood didn't have the right enzymes to carry that much power, which made it ideal for vampires to feed from. There were also two kinds of vampire, the first was like Kevin, born a vampire, but without the side effects of the undead vampires until he died. The other kind was the Turned vampire; they started out as humans and were made vampires. They were weaker than born vampires, but only for the first hundred years. They needed more care than a born vampire. They needed blood more often and were easier to kill. Mostly a stake could kill them, and silver poisoning could also kill them, dunking them in holy water or burning them, either with real fire or a Cross. Born vampires usually managed to fight with a stake in their hearts and with an entire clip of silver bullets in their system. Fire, was a different manner, as was holy water, it was just as easy to kill a born vampire with fire of holy water as it was a turned vampire. Some born vampires could even heal a decapitation if the head was attached back to the neck and enough blood was supplied to fuel the healing, and if this happened within an hour of the death. Hunters usually took the head with them, just to be sure.

            Kevin walked back to the house. He was hungry and wondered if he was the only person up and about. His parents were obviously in bed, Arias was locked in the basement. Miriam was also in bed and Joseph; he had no idea, probably it the hospital. But he was still hungry and he wanted food. Debating ordering in, he walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, after he looked around and he went to grab his cell phone, he was ordering in.

            Half an hour later Kevin laid the pizza down on the coffee table in front of the TV. He turned it on and started channel surfing while digging into the pizza. By the time he was done flipping through the channels, he had also finished the pizza, he ended up watching a tennis game. He leaned back and tried to do something htat eh had not tried in a while, he tried to call fire. Making fire was natural to vampires, one of the magical abilities that a vampire was born with. But making it was not easy, just as humans were able naturally to run for great distances, but refused to do so, because the need never rose so vampires never bothered to learn to make fire. Some refused out of fear, because there was always a slight chance that they might lose control and accidentally burn themselves. Finding a vampire who could, or rather, would was difficult, but Arias had learned once upon a time, and he had taught Natalie, who in turn taught Kevin, but had been years ago, and Kevin had not practiced since. He decided that after last nights incident, he should probably gain a comfortable advantage over any other vampires, or at least a surprising turn.

            Kevin closed his eyes and felt inside himself, into his heart, and in the center of it, he found the flame that kept him alive. In his mind's eye it burned with a black core, and around it a bright white halo. The black fire was cold, like the grave and the dead, like vampires. The halo was warm and alive like that of humans and Lycans. He felt for the center and once he could feel it trapped in his mind, he willed it out. Pulling fire from his heart and through his body, not physically but psychically, and manifesting it as a small dark flame hovering over his hand.  It burned cold and painfully sharp. Kevin then switched it quickly to the outer halo and he felt the flame, no larger than an inch, warm his hand. He poured a little more intent into it and felt it grow. Then he opened his eyes, he saw the small flame and he smiled, it would take him a while to make more of it, but when he could, it would be the most dangerous weapon he could use against any opponent, and even a powerful ally that he could call forth to help his friends.