It was a stormy night like any other this time of year. No one would have noticed anything out of the ordinary in the quiet alley behind Toni’s laundromat.

That all changed as an ethereal crack echoed out in the alley, followed by a man suddenly dropping out of thin air.

Displaced air kicked up a minor storm in the alley as he landed on his feet, only for his legs to buckle, making him fall to his knees.

He sat there, slumped over forward. Unconscious and not breathing, eyes unfocused and empty.

His body was malnourished and naked, covered in dark tattoos that seemed broken and twisted. Randomly beginning one place and ending a completely different one, like fractured puzzle pieces.

His build was wide-shouldered and lean muscled, around 6’4 with dirty dark blond hair hanging in wet lumps down to his eyes.

Anyone meeting his gaze might have sworn his pupils were red. But upon a second look, they would be a silvery gray.

The rain hammered down on him in fat cold droplets, until suddenly his still body shook, and he desperately heaved for air like a diver surfacing, fighting for oxygen.

GASP

My eyes came up quickly, scanning my surroundings for dangers. I was running on instinct, barely capable of forming a conscious thought.

Quickly rolling to my side to get cover behind a dumpster, I peeked out towards the road.

The streets were empty, and the pavement cracked or worn down; the streetlamps lighting the opposite side of the road gave off a pleasant warm yellow glow.

Not seeing any activity, I crept forward until I looked down. It took my brain a solid minute before I noticed what was wrong and taking almost another before forming a single word in my head.

“Clothes,” I thought to myself with a sense of necessity.

I looked around until I noticed a small neon sign reflected in the storefront windows across the street.

The building to my right was a coin-wash laundromat.

I found the alley-way service door leading into the store and carefully broke the metal handle with a sharp twist of my hand, making sure not to cause too much noise.

Inside, I found a switch and turned off the lights in the front and began looking for something to wear. After looking around for a couple of minutes, I found a pair of worn sweatpants my size in a hamper, with a paper sign saying “Lost and found” but not much else, although maybe the bra and billy hat could be my new look.

Now reasonably covered, my mind was slowly waking up. I took a deep, calming breath and closed my eyes.

“I made it. I’m finally home.” Relief and happiness making my voice shake slightly.

“Just gotta keep a low profile. Don’t wanna end up in prison. Or worse, in a lab somewhere with lab coats slowly taking me apart to find out how I tick.” I thought to myself with a shudder.

I went out the front this time, ignoring the rain on my bare torso. My body ran hot enough that it didn’t bother me. In fact, it was quite soothing. Although a part of my mind, the Instinctual part, hadn’t calmed down yet.

I felt it look over every little noise and movement. Yelling its paranoid warnings of something wrong in the air. Something that wasn’t supposed to be here.

I followed the scent of ocean down the street until I came to a fenced-in shipping yard full of containers and large cranes. In the distance, across the half a mile wide canal, I saw large buildings and skyscrapers, some lit up with activity. It looked like a huge city just a couple of miles away.

“I should start heading that direction, maybe find a shirt along the way.” I thought to myself.

A sudden high pitch scream and angry yelling tore me out of my own thoughts. The heavy rain had distorted the sound, but it unmistakingly came from the shipyard.

“Child." A dark part of me worriedly rumbled in my head.

I quickly scaled the fence and jumped to the nearest container, landing atop it with a soft thud, then I kept going across the jungle of steel, my body warming, getting ready for a fight.

I came to an abrupt stop at the origin of the scream and laid down flat on my stomach on a three-high stack of shipping containers peering over the edge.

Below, with their backs turned to me, three men in expensive-looking suits and coats were cornering a small girl against a container. She couldn’t have been more than eleven years old.

She sat with her back pressed against a container, a slight trickle of blood running down her lip and a quickly bruising cheek. She was shaking in fear, staring up at the three men as blood and tears mixed with the heavy rain.

“Damned little bitch bit me! Let’s just kill her and be done with it!” the asshole closest to my stack of containers said, clearly finding a sick joy in the look of terror on the little girl.

“The boss said alive. The court of whores will do anything as long as we have this one,” the middle one said with a sneer, sounding like the one in charge.

“And if they act up, we can just send them a finger or two.” he continued, his face twisting and rippling beneath the skin as he grinned at the first guy.

I don’t know when I’d stood up, but I felt my teeth grit so hard they might have shattered as I stared down at the three men. The little girl looked up slightly and saw me. She had a look of fear and anguish on her face, eyes pleading for help, as she could barely see me through the rain.

Something snapped. It wasn’t an audible sound, but all three men turned to look where I had been moments before.

Finding nothing, they looked at each other, confused. The third one, who had been silent until now, saw me first as I was coming up behind his friend.

“VIN LOOK OUT!” he yelled, startled.

“Too late.” I thought grimly, fury and hatred flooding my mind.

I had already swung the twisted piece of rebar I’d picked up as I circled around the containers. A piece of concrete struck his head and shattered. But unexpectedly, his head only seemed to cave in slightly.

“Not dead,” Part of me stated, disappointed and puzzled.

I had expected his head to disappear in a gory mess, but it had felt more like I’d struck a tree with a bat.

But I was too busy to ponder the man’s uncommon durability. After all, there were still two left.

The leader and his now not so mute partner looked at me in shock before doing something I wasn’t expecting. They hissed, each revealing inch long fangs, two above two below.

“Vampires.” I growled out, my voice wrong and vibrating the air, causing the shadows to shiver imperceptibly around us as a feral part of me recognized what they were and seethed with animosity.

The former mute got startled and pulled out a handgun, but the leader quickly put his hand on the barrel, shaking his head but never looking away from me.

“No guns. They would hear it and come.” He said grim expression on his face as he reached into his coat and pulled out a small sword, the blade about the length of his forearm, the former mute quickly catching on pulled out a hatchet.

Both weapons were tinted black, but had an edge lined with silver.

Groan.

The guy I’d hit earlier stirred beneath me. I didn’t hesitate as I quickly swung down hard towards his head to finish him off before the other two could close the distance between us.

I channeled a bit of my power and glowing red runes appeared along the length of the piece of rebar just before it hit him; the effect was quite satisfying as the two vampires halted in shock just outside my reach, bloody bits of their buddy’s skull landing on and around them.

I looked back up at them, the battle haze now taking over as my vision tinted red.

As I straightened; pulling free my now bloodstained piece of rebar, I gave them a twisted, vicious smile.

The leader roared as he charged at me, swinging his short sword in practiced arcs.

I had never learned proper swordsmanship, always making do with experience and brutality. A combination which proved quite lethal with my particular skill set.

But as I walked forward to meet him, I realized something with a frown.

“I’m not moving quite right.” I thought to myself, looking down at my body.

My body felt heavy and slow, like I was moving through syrup. Every attempt at trying to will any significant amount of power into it stalled and fizzled out.

After closing the distance between us, it quickly became apparent how impaired I was.

Every slow attempted attack I made, he would counter mercilessly. Deep gashes appeared on my body as he continually drove me back.

He was getting more and more confident, sneering at my pathetic attempts to block him.

That same dark voice roared inside me, demanding his life cease to exist for his arrogance and insolence.

He began swinging in larger and heavier arcs, as he seemed to think he had already won.

That was until his blade hit the corner of the container I had backed up to; embedding the blade several inches deep.

In that moment, I moved forward and pressed the palm of my empty hand against the side of his face. He looked confused for a moment before he noticed the smoke and sizzling sound of flesh.

He screamed as he fell away, clutching his face. Between his fingers, a glowing red rune of agony continued to burn his flesh to the bone.

He looked up, with one eye ruptured, running down his face, just in time to see my swing impact his head. I channeled a third of my remaining energy into the swing. The runes on the rebar glowing cherry red, before it sheared the top of his skull off at a 40-degree angle.

His body dropped as I stood there huffing for air. Thick dark smoke rose from my wounds and covered them, giving them a look not unlike dark carbon fiber.

I looked back to where the third vampire had been, but he was gone. Only the girl remained sitting there wide-eyed, looking at me in shock, until her eyes moved to slightly behind me.

Instinct moved me to the side in time, making the first shot only clip my shoulder.

The second didn’t hit at all as I swung my body around and threw the now smoking piece of red-runed rebar like a javelin with everything I had left. It flew off as if fired from a cannon, and I vaguely heard the impact on steel as I fell to my hands and knees.

Backlash wreaking havoc on my body, demanding the price be paid for using something I shouldn’t have.

Trying to catch my breath while on my knees, I looked up.

The little girl was now standing about 6 feet from me, shaking in the icy rain and clutching a wolf plushie, staring at me with big brown eyes red from crying, her long curly brown hair soaked from the rain.

“She looks worried and scared, but not of me.” I noted.

I stood up shakily and looked down at her, standing in the rain in her pajamas, part of me still scanning for threats.

“She looks cold,” I thought worriedly.

Looking around us for something to cover her from the rain.

I settled on the coats of the first two vampires, putting one on myself and wrapping her in the other like a blanket.

I kneeled down and looked into her eyes.

“Do you know where your home is, little one?” I asked her in as soft a voice as I could. She startled slightly, likely expecting the voice she’d heard earlier.

Her eyes got even wider, clutching her wolf even tighter as she gave a small nod and pointed towards the city, to a towering black building with large letters saying Eve.

“The building that says Eve?” I asked, and she nodded again.

“That’s a couple of miles away... will I make that?” I thought to myself, the building being on the other side of the canal. The nearest bridge had to be a mile away and it would be another three miles to the building.

“I sure as shit don’t have another fight in me. If another one of those vampires pops out, that’ll be it for me... Us.” I thought, frowning slightly.

“I’ll take you home then.” I said before looking back at the girl, who now looked conflicted.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, trying to sound friendly.

She hesitated for a little while before saying.

“I’m not supposed to go with strangers.”

I made a show out of looking deep in thought before I turned back to her and spoke.

“A good rule to have. Hmm then, how about this?” I said, holding out my hand.

“Hello, my name is Aleks’Andros. You can call me Aleks for short.” I said with a friendly smile, like I hadn’t just killed three people in front of her.

“Three Vampires.” Something in me argued.

She looked at my hand hesitantly for a moment before reaching out and shaking it, saying.

“Hello Aleks, my name is Sasha Nikoleve.” she replied, slightly unsure.

“Well then, now we know each other, so we’re no longer strangers, right?” I said, very proud of myself.

Sasha Frowned and looked up at me like I was stupid.

“I don’t think that’s-” I picked her up before she could argue any further, making her yelp in surprise.

As the bundle of fabric and brown hair settled in my arms with a small glare, I started walking.

I had underestimated how scared Sasha had been; she had seemed strong and unafraid after the vampires were gone, but that proved not to be the case as she continuously looked around, worried and almost jumping out of my arms every time she heard a loud noise or a car turning a corner.

“Can’t really fault her for being scared. I would have been too.” I thought.

“Sasha, have you ever heard the story of Roskva and The Fenris Wolf?” I asked, doing my best impression of an elementary school teacher.

Sasha turned to look up at me like I’d said something profoundly stupid again.

“No?” she replied.

“Great! Long ago, a young girl, much like yourself, was brought to the realm of the gods to be a servant. Her name was Roskva.” I quickly began as to not give her time to argue.

***

One day Roskva went to the great forest surrounding the city of the gods, to forage for nuts and berries.

The forest was so vast that you could not see its end, not even from the highest tower.

Roskva had been warned many times to never wander into the forest. It was dangerous and therefore she could only forage at its edge.

But one day, frustrated with her small harvest, Roskva ventured deeper into the forest and got lost.

Many hours passed as she walked through prickly thorns and over rough paths.

She finally reached a clearing with a great flat rock in the center.

As she sat down, she cried. The sun was setting, and the forest was dark and scary, and she was all alone.

But just as she was about to lose all hope, she heard the trees rustle and creak. Behind her, by the edge of the clearing, she saw a massive form.

A great enormous wolf as big as a house. It could have swallowed her whole.

But instead of crying out and running away, Roskva smiled, wiping her tears away.

This confused the Great Wolf. Everywhere it had gone, people would scream and run away, so it asked the little girl.

“Little one, why do your tears stop, and your smile appear when you see me, do you not fear?” the rumbling voice of the wolf rolled over the clearing.

Roskva shook her head and spoke.

“I cried because I feared being alone and I could not find my way home. But now I’m not alone, because now you are here.”

The Great Wolf walked forward and laid down its massive body in front of Roskva and stared at her with eyes as blue as the sky.

“Then, little one, where is your home?” the Great Wolf asked.

“I do not know. I live in the halls of the gods in their city, but I do not know the way.” Roskva replied.

“Then climb onto my back and I shall bring you back home.” the wolf said.

Roskva smiled and climbed onto the giant beasts back, laughing as the Great Wolf stood up.

On their way to the edge of the forest, the two talked and shared many stories. To whereupon reaching the edge of the forest, the Great Wolf felt sad at not being able to talk to the girl again.

“Little one, what is your name?” The Great Wolf asked.

“Roskva” She replied.

“Little Roskva, my name is Fenris, the Great Wolf of the plains, and upon my name I swear friendship with you. You may come and go in this forest as you please and never shall a thorn prick you or a path elude you. For you are my friend, and I am yours.” Fenris finished. The trees seemed to rustle in agreement, as if he and they were one and the same.

Roskva hugged the Great Wolf goodbye and would come to visit him many times throughout the years. And in all that time, none ever dared harm her, for she had the protection of the Fenris Wolf.

“And that’s the story of Roskva and the Fenris Wolf.” I finished.

Sasha had seemed resistant to the story until midway through and now seemed to consider something before asking.

“Did they stay friends?” Sasha asked hesitantly.

“Always and forever.” I said with a gentle smile.