I will be starting a new story soon but there was a lot I felt needed adding and changing with this early story. I hope you enjoy it. Fascination will be deleted in a couple of days as FF insists. Love Jules xx

Chapter One

Alice

To say it was raining would have been an understatement, it was actually hammering down, bouncing back up from the sidewalk hard enough to sting the legs of anyone not wearing pants. Passing cars hit the puddles and threw up spray which soaked pedestrians walking too close to the curb. It was the kind of early evening when anyone with any sense was headed home. Umbrella's struggled to remain up and the right way against the gusts of wind that blew between buildings catching people unaware.

The cafe was packed with those sheltering from the weather, sitting in small groups talking together while nursing steaming mugs of coffee. The aroma of cinnamon, hazelnut, and chocolate vied with the scent of roasted coffee beans and the atmosphere was thick with steam from the coffee machines and wet coats that were draped over chair backs. The same steam condensed against the windows obscuring my view of the street outside but I knew he was there. I'd sensed his arrival and now all I could do was to wait for him to make a decision.

I tried to curb my anticipation, wondering what he was thinking. My vision told me he would be here, outside of this particular cafe at this particular moment in time but that's where it stopped. What happened next was fluid, he had to make a decision and so cement his next move. It was frustrating but I'd gotten used to this shortcoming in my gift.

A part of me wanted to rush out of the brightly lit cafe, across the street through the rain to him, and drag him inside. To explain why I was here, why he was here, but I knew I shouldn't. That the decision was his alone to make. If he came to me of his own free will I could offer him a new way to live, give him hope for the future. If not, if he chose to walk away, I didn't want to think about that. He was going to be a lost soul for a very long time, but I thought that was probably how he saw his future.

That there was someone for him down the road I had no doubt, I'd seen her. The trouble was that this woman was only one path that he could take. I knew that the two were destined to meet eventually, it was the dips and diversions in his route that concerned me, would he have the strength of will to survive them all? His future was much like the view from the coffee shop window, distorted and unclear. Come on, Major, come inside and say hello.

The Major

I found myself standing in the pouring rain on an almost deserted street in downtown Philadelphia with no clear idea why. Across the street was a coffee shop, the place that had drawn me here. My present mood was reflected by the weather, dark, grey, and depressing.

It was almost impossible to see into the coffee shop, the heavy rain ran down the windows and the heat inside condensed on the cold glass turning it opaque. The place looked pretty full, lot's of humans sheltering from the storm and chatting among themselves, oblivious of the fact that not only did a predator watch them from across the street but that another lurked much closer, sitting amongst them in fact.

I was unable to isolate the other vampire among the figures, but I sensed her presence. She was anxious and expectant as if waiting for someone. Perhaps for me, but how could that be? How could she know I would be here watching her? Or was her heightened sense of expectation nothing to do with my presence? The only way to tell would be to confront her but I was not ready for that.

Leaning against the wet brick wall at my back I was oblivious of my rain-soaked clothes or the water that dripped from my hair and ran down my neck. The same discomforts that had the humans passing by cursing and hunching their shoulders.

Did I really want to become involved with a nomad, even if that nomad was female? I had left my friends Peter and Charlotte because I could no longer bear the overload of emotions emanating from them. Pity, concern, fear for me, these were no better than the fear and agony of my prey that I had run from when I left Maria, and I yearned for some peace. The kind of peace I could only experience in solitude. Being an empath was a curse and one I would gladly be rid of if that were possible.

A couple passed me, arm in arm, catching my attention momentarily. I envied them their intimacy and wondered if I would ever experience true love. The only closeness I had ever felt with a woman was with Maria, my sire, and that had turned out to be false. She had changed me and she had controlled me, turning me into the kind of monster only seen in nightmares. I had done terrible things both with and for her. The kind of things that still haunted me to this day.

I truly believed that I would have ended my life if not for my friends who returned, again and again, putting themselves in terrible danger in order to persuade me to leave Maria and go with them. To start a new life well away from Mexico.

What none of us had counted on was the baggage of my own personal hell coming along too. How could I outrun the horror of all that I had done? The torture and slaughter of innocent humans, their pain and terror, were trapped inside my head and would not be denied.

There had been so much blood spilled, so much carnage. I was steeped in it so deeply that not even an ocean of water could wash me clean. I would never be able to lift my head up again, I was truly one of the damned.

Coming out of my reverie I turned my attention back to the coffee shop just in time to see an elderly woman exit its refuge. She struggled unsuccessfully to put up an umbrella before abandoning the idea and hobbling away as quickly as stiff arthritic joints would allow.

Through the slowly swinging door, I caught a glimpse of the female vampire sitting close to it with her back to me. Who was she? And why was she here? Was she friend or foe? Could this be a trap set by Maria in order to get me back? She no longer trusted me but that didn't mean she had given up on luring me back. Maria hated being thwarted and had been enraged by my departure. No one turned their back on her and lived to brag of it. Yet here I was, still free after insulting her as her loyal commander and lover by walking away.

I wasn't prepared to take any chances so even though I sensed nothing untoward, no ambush laid to wait for me to trip it, I turned and walked away from the lights and smells of the coffee shop seeing only darkness split by the forks of lightning that lit up the sky from time to time. I was tired of wandering alone but even more determined to remain free.

As I did so I nodded my head, sure I had made the right decision. I neither deserved nor expected anything more than the isolation I contended with day after day, month after month, year after year. A crushing loneliness that I knew I would probably continue to feel until the end of time.

Alice

I peered through the momentarily opened door over an old lady's shoulder to see a shadowy figure across the road standing as still as only a fellow vampire could and I knew from his stance that he'd made his decision.

He turned and walked slowly away, his shoulders hunched, but not in an attempt to minimize the effects of the storm. His posture mirrored his attitude, beaten down by the world he now inhabited. If only he knew he was walking away from a chance at happiness and peace. I felt both frustrated and saddened knowing his decision meant that he must continue to suffer for decades or possibly even longer before another chance presented itself.

I sighed then jumped down from my stool and made my own way out onto the rainy streets of Philadelphia. I'd been waiting here for weeks and it had all been in vain. My head told me to turn and walk in the opposite direction, my heart cried out for me to follow him and try to change his mind. I stood irresolute for a moment and then turned away, it wasn't my place to interfere with fate.

My own future was already mapped out. I knew where I needed to head and that I would find happiness and acceptance there. Did this make me feel guilty? Of course, but I was powerless to change the future for the man who had turned his back on me. Now I must do what I could for my own preservation. My story was equally as tragic and heartbreaking as his but my gift meant I had hope. I could see the end of the long hard road I had traveled not far ahead, and that allowed me a brief moment of relief.