(this starts from the beginning of a battle between a wizard type werewolf named Calix, D, and D's friend Sara. Since I posted the beginning of the story (but no one really told me what they thought) in the Darkness forums, I'll start here.

Basically, D and Sara are working together (imagine that!), and their meeting is also a long story. I'll post a different thing for that if you guys want. The pair were paid by a village named Lurach in the North to hunt this wizard werewolf and kill him. His power is great... so great in fact that they have a damned hard time doing it too. In case you don't know, Sara is a mutant resulting from the world's state... lots of biological shit going on anyway.. but that's not important.. yet... it just means that whatever blood is lost, whatever injury, she is cured quickly. This takes place in Calix's lair.... and Calix wants D...)

Sara bit her lip to keep from cursing at this fool, but for all her fury she was still stark terrified. The werewolf waited not a second more as he lunged toward them - D would not be caught by surprise, as he brought the sword up, slicing neatly upward at the oncoming enemy's body. The creature leaped overhead, sailing with the grace of a feline and landing neatly in the snow several feet away.
Sara grumbled, wishing she had more ammunition... hell, wished she had ANYTHING to attack him with! But all she had at the moment was her bat, which she'd never bothered to use against the other werewolves. Now, she thought, I highly doubt I can bludgeon this werewolf, who could snuff my life with a whisper if he pleased. Yet she wielded the bat anyway; it was better than nothing.
The werewolf reached into one of his pouches, took some sort of orange powdery substance, and cried out strange, odd words. Then he hurled the powder toward us, and the stuff caught fire at once, in the form of several fireballs. The attack bore down upon them like half a dozen little fright trains, all screaming and blazing wildly at once. Sara flung herself into a pile of snow, feeling the searing heat pass over her head, stinging her cold body. D landed somewhere nearby, after leaping over them. She could hear faintly the explosion resulting from the fireballs hitting something other than them.
Suddenly, something seized her ankle. Her world spun upside down, and then she was flung quite wildly like a ragdoll into the side of a shed. Her body made a dull thud as she slid down into the snow once more. >I'm getting rather tired of being fuckin' flung around like this!< she thought numbly, standing up again slowly. The werewolf was coming toward her. No clue where the hunter was, but she had to face this guy somehow. She bent into a feral attack position, her eyes blazing as she readied the bat for a home-run swing.
The crazy beast barreled over her, but her swing cut up into the elongated jaw, sending the creature reeling backwards several steps. But she was also pressed roughly back into the shed, and she rolled out of the way, neatly ending up back into her crouch, but with more room to move. The werewolf, with the rage thrice that of a bear's, roared and lunged back at her again. She lifted the bat again, but it was almost wrenched out of her hands. Her feet left the ground. She hung suspended in the air, clinging helpless to the bat that was caught in the monster's grip.
He shook her, again and again. The young woman gritted her teeth, curling up, sending a useless kick to a face that was too far away. She wasn't thinking of D at this moment. Rather, she merely thought of the battle right now between herself and this nasty son of a bitch.
Calix couldn't shake her off the bat, so instead he reached out, and yelled as he grabbed her head with his gigantic paw, and her breath seemed to vanish instantly. She squirmed like a rabbit, grabbing at the huge hand until, blessedly, it dropped her once more to the ground. She found her bat, which she'd dropped, and skittered away to safety, hacking and coughing.
D had caught up with them, sword flashing bravely and heroicly once more. A massive paw shot out, knocked him away like he might knock away a fly. The hunter, his pale face calm and collected, was mask to the hidden rage in his eyes that gleamed like the fires of hell. He sprinted across the snow to close the space. Then Calix, slipping a hand into another pouch, suddenly blew a cloud of purply, stinking smoke. D slowed. Calix smiled.
"Sleep, little hunter... sleep..."
D fought it, until finally he could fight no more and collapsed under the influence of the chemical.
Sara quaked, didn't know what to do. Her mind floundered, trying to think of some sort of plan. >I can't fight him like this... I'm not strong enough!< Her teeth chattered with cold, but she had to think, had to come up with a plan.
Calix walked toward her, reaching the same pouch as before. Sara sucked in her breath, backing away, backing away.
"Sleep, girl. Soon, it'll be all over..."
The smoke came. It clouded her vision, rose like a gray phantom, obscuring all other senses. The air carried a sudden acrid taste like medicine. Sara's eyes watered, cold ached in her joints, and pain gnawed throughout her body like a ravenous animal. She collapsed under the burden, and the cold and the exhaustion reached out its claws to claim her mind and send her into darkness.

* * *

Warm. Very warm. A pervasive stiffness ached in her joints. A large blanket lay over her, nearly so heavy that it impeded her movement when she tried to roll over. A fire roared loudly nearby and its heat scalded her tear-streaked cheeks. While her body could not move, she could move her head. She turned her head away from the fire--
"...D...!!" Her voice croaked, and she cried louder to the man, or rather, cried out in horror. "D!!"
There was blood that dribbled on the floor from a dozen slashes of abuse that covered his body. All such clothing that had covered him before had disappeared except the leather pants, which were barely substantial enough to cover his body. She sat up, struggling out of the constricting blankets to get to him. But before she could lift a finger to aid him, she felt a harsh hand clamp her on the shoulder and spin her around. She crumpled under the stare of the wizard, who gave her a small smile.
"You can't help him, girl... He's too far gone to be of any use to you. He has no more love to give. He's dying."
Sara peers up at him, hatred and terror hand in hand burning in her dark green eyes. "You're killing him..."
"I need his blood, girl... I need his blood to live, because I'm dying myself." The wizard brushed his hand idly at her as though he were growing bored with her. His long gait carried him across the room toward D, and he reached out, his finger catching blood, and he licked it.
"Dying? Pfft... well... I guess there's more to it than meets the eye..but why do you need D's blood? Is it because he's a dhampire?"
"Why, yes...precisely... his blood is unique.." Calix gazed at D with fixed lust, though it was not lust for the man but for the precious elixir that burned in his veins. "You're a very smart girl... it's no wonder that he loves you so much..."
D's eyes opened, at first unseeing before they focused on Sara, over the right shoulder of Calix. "Don't listen to him... whatever he says, don't listen."
Sara nodded, before standing up. "So, D has to die...?"
"Maybe... it all just depends... there's a fifty-fifty chance your lover will live or die. Given the circumstances, and the amount of blood he's lost... and how *thirsty* he looks... I may have to kill him before he breaks free, driven by his own hunger. I have enough here, in this glass, to suit my purposes."
Sara couldn't help but hate how this was turning out. Actually, she hated it freely. She hated how he spoke of D as though he were a friggin' general store to just go and get an extra pint of dhampire blood for whatever his shits and giggles. She clenched her hands until she sensed her blood going from her body. She looked around herself while Calix buzzed like a happy bee over his supply of dhampire blood. Furious, she looked for anything to use to kill this guy with. Then something hit her. She looked over at the wizard werewolf with a sigh, and then walked toward him. She grabbed him and pulled him to her with astounding ferocity. "Why not me?"
"What?" Calix was a little bit alarmed, to say the least. "What in the world are you saying?"
"Why can't you have my blood instead? It's just as good... why do you need dhampire blood? Haven't you considered maybe... mutant blood? It's so powerful.. you can even ask D... isn't it good? See?"
Calix blinked, finding himself holding a beautiful mutant girl in his arms. He grasped her suddenly, possessively. Sara gazed into his eyes, forcing herself to put out any hate for him at least for the moment. She counted on the reclusive wizard's lust to take over, and it was....
The last moment, she cried out D's name, and at once she was flung through the air, and smashed against something hard. All she knew then was Calix was screaming incantation, and the air shook violently with an explosion. Taking into account that she was weaponless, she looked around. Her vision doubled, but she was rested, and she reached, grasping something that looked like a mace in her hand. Her feet swung about so she could stand, and when she did her head throbbed like a son of a bitch.
She saw Calix, with D grasping him around the throat on his back, trying to choke him. Calix was no longer the attractive man, but was now a twisted, dark creature, screaming unholy hell. Another explosion rocked the room and her vision vanished entirely. She fumbled in the darkness, calling plaintively as she heard a struggle, growling, and then the most unlikely voice that was calling for her.
"Sara!" It was the Symbiot. "Sara, follow my voice--"
She did. Mace in hand, she crawled along, her mutant ears picking up the keenest sounds even after the deafening blasts.
"STOP! Right in front of you... bash the goddamn bastard! Don't worry, just do it! I can't get D to listen to me! Do it!!"
She picked up the mace, her body shaking. She couldn't see worth the damn, her body frozen with cold and pain and much fear. But she lifted the mace anyway, her hands cold, barely feeling the rough texture of the grip. She brought it down, crying out in alarm as something met it. The sickening crunch that followed also ended the blinding darkness and light flooded back into her aching eyes. She covered her face, sliding backwards on her bottom. She saw D, bloodied as he was, crouching atop the wizard's back, his eyes a frightening blazing red. She could have sworn he was possessed, his eyeteeth long and deadly. Then for a second it seemed he came back to himself, for he raised his left hand forward, and the mouth of the Symbiot opened, and took a great gulp of breath that seemed endlessly eternal.
It soon occured to her that it was sucking up more than just plain air. She saw the wizard's body shrivel, unable to sustain itself without the magic. When it was through, and D pulled away, panting and shuddering with sickness, he gazed at the body of the wizard with indifference. To him, it was just another body. He reached forward with his right hand, the other clenched (the knuckles ivory white), and pulled free the necklace of bones around the corpse's neck... then he tucked it into his pants pockets.
He looked at her, and blinked. It was as if he'd forgotten she was there entirely. Then he stood up, gathered up the rest of his clothes as well as his sword, and hung the medallion around his neck. It was now that he fought the thirst, and though he did not outwardly show it, his body twisted inside for replenishment. He walked to the table which contained the bottles of blood, gazing at each in turn, before he took one, and drank it. Sara watched this in mute fascination. Then he threw the rest of the bottled blood into the fire. He dressed himself, casting a long cloak he'd found in the corner about his shoulders. "Come... let's go."
Sara stood up, still wearing her boots. She took up her coat and guns which were also very much hidden. Wordlessly, they turned tail and ran through the halls. Sara took up the rear as D followed his senses, heightened by thirst, to lead them to the clear air. That first gust of clean, cold air nearly took her breath away, and she stood dumbly, covering her eyes as the sunlight sent the snowy landscape ablaze.
"Wait," D hissed, seizing her arm. She almost thought he was going to bite her, but then as her vision focused, she saw figures standing there, as numb with surprise as anything. For there stood before them a pack of hunters, like themselves. The sun glinted from the steel covering of a large snow-tank, its exterior still ticking from the heat of the engine.

Thirsty... so thirsty....
D sat in the passenger compartment of the tank. The hunters were gracious enough to listen to their story before they came to any conclusions. The necklace of teeth that D had taken was proof enough for them, and so volunteered to give them a ride back to the village to see if those under Calix's spell had awoken yet.
For the moment, D descended into mad-fits of false slumber. He had chosen a spot in the back, where no winter sunlight could touch him. He was at his weakest, and those who saw him recognized him at once for what he was. This phantom of a man was no man, but a dhampire, true as the sun rises in the east. His eyes remained close the entire time. Even his left hand, silent since the death of Calix, said nothing. Which was all the better. He listened, meditating over the rumble of the tank's engine, listening to the sound of the snow, roughly crunched under the spiked rotters beneath the tank.
Then he was keenly aware of Sara, who sat across from him, wrapped in her blanket. She did not watch him, but instead took a chance to look at these hunters who would have come to try to destroy Calix. Or perhaps they'd heard wind of Sara and D trying to do so themselves, and came to help. Or steal the bounty.
First there was a lean, quiet woman, with dark black hair and her own pair of swords. Each sword looked to be a formidable weapon, edged with mythril silver. This one, she guessed, was Raven. She wore a long leather duster, skin-tight body suit, the collar of it going up to her throat.
Next was an old man. Her wore a cross, hung around his neck. His eyes were a faint shade of green. He must have been blind, for he gaze sightlessly before him, seeing all he needed to see with his other senses. He wore simple peasant's clothes, and had no apparent weapons.
Third was a young man, but he seemed much older than he looked. A veteran of the vampire slayer life, he carried no weapon but a long bow and a quiver of long, lean silver arrows. He, too, had a bodysuit, throat carefully guarded, and an archer's glove to protect his fingers when he shot. His hair was a dusky blonde that spiked up and back, as though constantly facing the wind head-on and his hair sort of stuck that way.
She hadn't seen the driver yet. The last, though, was an older man, with a handsome face and strong, prominent features. He wore what appeared to be richer clothing, like that of some prince, but also armor as well. He leaned now against a staff that appeared perfectly harmless. But her quick eye caught sight of a switch near the handle which might release even MORE mythril silver points to each end.
Then she looked to D. He seemed entirely out of place in this group. A stranger would have known he was not one of them. She frowned, watching his throat as he swallowed. He shivered, his breath shaking as he breathed. *I have to give him some blood when we're alone... or he'll surely wreak havoc and get us both killed...*
Someone poked her in the arm. It was the archer. "Hey, you... you're dhampire friend looks sick... if he's thirsty, we've got a stock of blood we use to lure skiddish vampires out..."
At this, D opened one eye, the steely blue gaze going to the archer coldly. "...no... I am not some animal to be fed scraps... My problem is not your concern."
"Oh, I think it is," Raven snapped, turning on D. "You'll take what we got by choice, or I'll ram that sword so far up your ass you'll taste steel. Got it?"
D's eyes narrowed. For a second Sara feared that he might retaliate violently. But then his expression melted, and he looked away indifferently. This was, by his standards, some form of consent.
Raven looked at him a moment longer... before she turned, indicating the archer to go into the next room in the tank and fetch him something. When he returned, there was a bottle of blood for D. He gave it to Sara, who gave it to D. Then Raven said, emotionlessly. "Go into the next room and do your business there. We understand that you must be exhausted, but we don't tolerate vampires or dhampires."
"I understand," D said, and stood up, moving into the back room, shutting the door. Sara huddled further into her little corner. They obviously didn't know she was a mutant, and assumed her to be human which was just the same with her. Then Archer asked her a question that burned her to her very core with anger.
"You hang out with that freak?"
She took a breath, and cast him a glare. "In case you forgot... that 'freak' killed Calix... and that 'freak' is also the nicest guy you could ever meet." She was met with disbelieving stares. Then she continued smoothly, "But, it's assholes like you that make him cold. He has to be... because of what he is, you never give him a chance." She turned away. "Hell with you... I don't expect any of you to understand..."
Silence. And then a voice she did not hear floated to her ears. It was a very kind and understanding voice, drawing her attention to the one who spoke. It was the old man, his melodic, fatherly tone giving her a strange warm feeling she hadn't felt in years. It made her think of her grandpa, who was a mutant, too, who was the only man who understood her before the day he passed away.
"These young'uns are as yet unable to understand the nature of the vampire, young lady. But do not hate them for what they believe. Dhampires are a rare sight nowadays... but their spirits endure, in mind and in soul. We don't see many vampires, so we hunt mostly werewolves now... that is why we are so surprised to see his kind."
Sara watched the old man. He seemed to look past her, through her. Or at somplace within her she didn't know existed. Either way, the gaze both unnerved her and strengthened her. And she nodded, smiling, although he could not see her. "Yeah, well... they have crappy manners. But I am grateful you gave us a ride. Are we heading back to town?"
"Yes," Raven answered. "To check on the people. When we got there, everyone was sleep where they were. We had to check a few people to make sure they hadn't busted their heads so bad that they died. It was quite a job... then we went to the mountains."
"And found us?"
"Yeah. And a load of werewolf corpses. So we thought, 'Wow, these guys must be pretty tough. There must be a dozen of 'em!'"
"Nope," Sara replied. "Just us two." She paused... then she stood up, hugging the blanket around her shoulders. She stepped into the next room, where D was collapsed on the floor, the empty bottle of blood in his hand. She took the bottle away, and then set it aside, reaching toward him and stroking his face. He stirred a little, looking up at her.
D only saw Sara. Her kind face encompassed his entire view, and for a moment he blinked. Then he reached up, clasping her hand in his. His nails gently dug into her skin, released. "Sara..."
"It's alright. It's okay to sleep now, D... Don't worry about the hunters, they won't bother you as long as you're in here. And I won't be very far. We're going back to town to collect our bounty. Then we can both get a horse and we'll ride off somewhere else. How's that sound?"
"Will it be warm?" he whispered, smirking half-heartedly.
"God," she smiled. "You bet!"