Title: The Ultimate Prey, 3/3
Author: Amiroq. aka Gypzy
Email: fitchett@netaccess.co.nz 
Size: K
Series: Vampire's Kiss
Rating: R (for blood and guts)
Codes: Au?, V; K/T
Teaser: Sequel to Vampire's Kiss. Harry comes face to face with an old foe.

Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek, I own Kalisha and the Vampire's Kiss possible alternate universe.

Warning: last time I wrote a story with this much violence, I think it was the Price of Love, I was told by an irate mother to put little warnings on my stories like 'do not do this at home'. Me, being me, took her advice to heart and this is my little list of warnings for kids.

Do not play with stakes without adult supervision. These may cause serious injury, blindness or death.
Do not attempt to jump out of windows if you are higher than one storey, or off the top of a cliff. This will most probably result in broken bones, the number of these being relative to your altitude.
Do not suck blood at home. If you take more than two litres from an adult, they will start to feel dizzy, and no matter how much you take you'll probably be carted off to a looney bin.
Do not pick up drunk, seedy men in bars. This can result in sexual assault and/or emotional trauma.
Most importantly, do not forget to leave donations of food on my front porch with a label reading, "For Amiroq. aka Gypzy, because I love her stories so much." Forgetting this may result in lack of feedback from said author, refusal of archive rights and the silent treatment.


The Ultimate Prey, 3/3


B'Elanna stared out the window, watching the very last rays of light from the sun blink out as it sank below the horizon, leaving her with a black pit in her stomach. Sundown. She wondered vaguely what Harry was doing now - had he arrived at the warehouse? was he talking to Kalisha? or fighting? - then shook her head quickly. "Just don't think about it," she whispered fiercely. It was going to be fine.

But her thoughts returned to what he'd told her, how powerful the female vampire was, how she had some of his soil, where they were meeting... "Cnr Swahain and Yole," she said aloud. She knew where that was, they'd passed it on the way to the hotel after picking that guy's pockets, the guy that had got them set up for the next few months. And then to what Harry had said, before he'd left: "Don't go to the warehouse, B'Elanna. Just wait here."

He was still in her head, too, holding her in the room like a padlock. But it was faint, like he was seriously injured, or wasn't really concentrating. Of course he wasn't. He was at the warehouse, right? Facing down with Kalisha. A chill tingled down her spine at the thought, and she shivered. She pulled the window closed, and walked back into the bedroom to wait.

---

A few minutes later, she changed her mind, and strode back toward the window. It opened easily, and she climbed onto the ledge nimbly before looking at the ground far below, taking a breath... and jumping. 

The wind rushed against her, below her, holding her weight. Weight? She almost laughed. It all seemed so effortless, she was totally weightless. She was a feather, soaring through the sky like an eagle. So this is what flying is like, she thought dimly.

She landed on the outskirts of town, softly as though she hadn't been four storeys off the ground a moment ago. Glancing at a sign, she orientated herself and started walking.

---

A sound at the entrance of the warehouse caught Kalisha's attention, and she smiled slightly, feeling Rahan's proximity as a sharp tingle in the back of her mind. "You came."

"You thought I wouldn't?"

"Perhaps."

"You were the one who ran in Aswan."

She turned around slowly to face him. He'd aged, slightly, matured in some inner way that wasn't entirely visible. Well, it had been more than two thousand years. His hair was shorter, in a style similar to an undercut, a few inches long. In his eyes, she saw... a fire, like hatred, or rage, or something, that engulfed them, lighting up the dark colouring like a floodlight. He looked more alive than when they'd last met, somehow. "I was younger, then," she whispered, and glanced at the bag he carried, and the medallions round his neck. "I see you came prepared."

"It seemed prudent."

She slipped her hand into her pocket, feeling the comforting weight of the small silver box she kept a sample of Chinese soil in - his soil. Hers was in a locket round her neck, like his, although the jade symbol on hers was vampyr, not Chinese, and meant 'Baby Dragon'. Clutching it, she reached out with her mind to his, touched it tentatively, then wrapped around it. "It was a pleasure to see you again," she said under her breath, but knew he heard.

She walked toward him, watching him walk back as if in a trance until she had him pinned against the opposite wall. She explored his mind slowly, savouring the experience, knowing it would never come again after she squeezed tight enough to kill him. The fire in his eyes faded, then disappeared, as she searched deeper and she watched, entranced. Memories came to her mind as if from a babbling stream: a woman with short reddish hair in a Starfleet uniform, scared for her life; a young man with strikingly white hair and a cadet's uniform;  fireworks, dark green trees with scarlet bottle-brush flowers, a sunrise. She pressed more, felt his strength ebb, and dug with sharp claws. A woman with black hair and laughing eyes - half-Klingon, from the looks of it. She felt an aura, black like a vampyr, and realised the wench was one of them. A creation. "The wench will die with you," she muttered hoarsely.

"Don't count on it," a voice said behind her. She tore away, spun around and moved forward all in one movement - and felt herself be impaled on a wooden chair leg. Energy poured out of her, and as she looked down she saw it wasn't the only thing - there was a red sticky fluid coating her front, the makeshift stake, and the dusty floor. She tried vaguely to pull the wood out, but her hand fell limply down, followed a moment later by her body.

---

Harry felt himself being pulled back to reality with a throbbing headache. It was dark. He groaned, and a soothing hand stroked his forehead gently. "Ssh," a disembodied voice whispered, and he settled down. After an undefined period of time, his headache simply.. dissolved, and he realised why it was so dark. His eyes were closed. He opened them to find himself still in the warehouse, with B'Elanna sitting next to him. There was a shape past her on the floor, but when he tried to look at it his eyes wouldn't focus.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to sit up. She pushed him back down with a hand on his chest, then left it there, much to his pleasure.

"I saved your ass. Your girlfriend over there was sucking your mind out or something."

Now he *did* sit up, ignoring her efforts to stop him. "I told you to stay in the hotel room!"

"And if I had, we both would have been killed. Are you okay?"

"I think so. I'll deal with you later," he added with a low growl, just to let her know he wasn't going to drop it. She just grinned back, and helped him up.

"Come on, it's nearly dawn. Someone might notice us if we stay here."

As they left the building, he noticed the first rays of light appearing over the horizon.

FINIS