Zoé faltered, eyes wide with confusion.

'What in the actual fuck?'

The young man was wailing in pure agony, his screams weaving and carrying- ringing amidst the current of strong winds. And then, only a few seconds later, it was over. He suddenly fell silent, the absence of his screams adding an oddly ominous quality to the howling wind- like a banshee had passed through the area. Now, he was still holding the sides of his head in a death-grip, knuckles straining and hands shaking as he dazedly looked through the ground.

The smell of fresh vitae reached her on the wind- suffusing her nose.

Drip

A drop of dark blood dyed the snow between his shoes.

Then another.

And another...

Zoé's eyebrows rose in surprise- her anger and determination fading into the background as morbid curiosity took to the forefront. What was happening to him? That didn't look like vitae overuse- he hadn't drawn on anything yet, maybe the fight with that Inquisition agent was taking its toll?

The young man lowered his hands- splotches of blood staining both palms. His expression utterly blank, unreadable- his gaze distant, vacant.

'A brain hemorrhage?' She was considering what could have caused something so severe when the young man suddenly shuddered as though deeply chilled. He looked up- the heavy wind crazily whipping his hair around his face, and the ragged shreds of his clothing.

He closed his eyes. Heavily fell to both knees, and hung his head- his chin nearly touching his chest.

Drip... Drip...

Dark blood would bead on the tip of his nose and steadily drip onto his shirt and into the snow between his thighs.

'Fuck it.' Zoé took the opening.

And against her own better judgment, she actually felt bad for the guy. He was innocent, or at least as innocent as a person can be. He hadn't asked for any of this. And now he was suffering. And if her Prince found out about him, or even worse, her Clan... they would both suffer horrendous consequences. She steeled herself- this was for the best. Innocent or not, his living meant her death. And she wasn't planning on going gently into that good night just yet.

Far from it- she was just getting started.

Her figure blurred as she dashed behind him- snow cascading around her boots as she slid through ankle-deep powder and jammed her right knee into his upper back, then reached forward and grasped under both sides of his chin and pulled back as she applied forward pressure with her knee. He was painfully arched backwards- his figure almost making a 'C' shape as his stressed joints popped and creaked in their sockets. The position had Zoé looking into his pale, upside down face. Two small streams of vitae leaked out of both nostrils, and out of the corners of his mouth. His eyes were closed, mouth unmoving when he should have been screaming. His expression calm, almost serene, despite having someone trying to rip his head off.

'Caine... He's really fucked up.'

She almost felt bad again- almost.

'C'mon, you've done worse- finish it and everything goes back to normal.' Her jaw flexed as she gritted her teeth- the muscles in her arms noticeably straining harder.

That was when the young man's eyes flew open- a bright, thin crimson ring lining his grey irises.

Their eyes met- her instincts screamed. Zoé blinked.

'Oh fu-'

A vicious, predatory glint appeared in his eyes.

He came alive as though he were a completely different person- twisting sideways with renewed vigor, his right elbow hammering backwards into the side of her abdomen.

"Shit!" Zoé's grip on his chin slipped.

And before she could do anything else, his left elbow crashed into her other side- a few lower ribs fracturing beneath the strike. She hissed through her teeth and redoubled her efforts, refusing to let go despite her loosened grip. And he, in turn, started methodically pistoning his elbows backward in low horizontal strikes- each blow falling like a hammer and shaking her body. But she didn't loosen her grip, and only pulled harder.

'Goddamnit!' She cried internally, where the in the actual hell did he get this strong?! Not even Runner had hit this hard!

And so they stared one another down as they each attempted to brutally murder the other- him breaking the sides of her ribcage and her snarling in equal measures of pain and determination as she desperately tried to rip his head off and end the fight.

One particularly strong hit was all it took- her grip loosened further. His chin tore free of her grasp as he pivoted sideways on his knees- slamming his right elbow into her side so hard she was jarred off balance. He twisted with the hit, spinning himself around on his knees while keeping his elbow planted in her side until he came up behind her- wrapping both arms around her waist and heaving up, then falling sideways and back, slamming her onto the ground.

Zoé shouted as the side of her head bounced of the snowy ground- the world momentarily blurring. Then something crashed into her ear- her head again bouncing off the ground as everything went blurry and she heard ringing over the snowstorm.

'Goddamnit, this fuck!' She dazedly shielded her head with a forearm and tried rolling away- only for the man's left hand, wedged between her and the ground, wrapped around her waist- holding her steadily in place as his right fist rained blows from above.

Thump!

She moved her arm, letting his fist crash into her ear again, only this time, her hand flashed out in a claw- the elongated nails biting deeply around his wrist and holding it firmly in place as she snapped her head back. Crunch!

She was rewarded with the sound and feel of breaking the bastard's nose- his grip around her waist loosening. She released his wrist and rolled sideways over his flattened arm- coming up into a crouch and shaking her head as her injuries regenerated. Her blurry vision snapped into focus- the young man slowly got to his feet. He turned to her. Their eyes met.

Zoé hacked and spat a wad of blood into the snow- then rose out of her crouch, her eyes not leaving his. She clenched her hands into fists- the knuckles cracking as they sized one another up.

The young man's eyes flashed crimson a moment before he blurred forwards- opening with snap kick that sailed past her thigh before effortlessly maintaining his balance and transitioning into a blinding combination of horizontal cross body punches.

Zoé's eyes widened as she was forced to dodge backward- shifting her weight into a back-footed stance to avoid a horizontal backward elbow strike he delivered with his left elbow by spinning through with the momentum of a right hook.

'Tricky bastard!' She fumed; the move briefly exposed his torso as the elbow strike sailed inches past her face while his other arm was at his side- thump!

She ducked and lunged, shoving out with both hands and catching him in the chest- throwing him off balance. She immediately pursued as he stumbled back- unleashing a snap kick into his stomach that doubled him over. However, he immediately retaliated with a rising right leg diagonal kick. She saw it coming from a mile away based on his posture and snapped out with a boot- catching and kicking his right ankle back to the ground.

He responded with a frustrated growl and a fast left jab- his arm blurring forward like a striking cobra. She managed to divert the strike with a forearm- forcing him to follow through with a lunging right knee to her abdomen. She stiffly caught and shoved down the knee with both palms overlapping below her waist and took the brief opening as he was unbalanced on his back foot- lashing out with throat punch. The strike landed fast and hard- she felt something give with a crack.

His windpipe crushed, the young man was pushed back a step as he reflexively gasped and choked-

'Now!'

As she pulled her right hand back, she took an advancing step and directed her whole body through the movement, delivering a high horizontal elbow that caught him across the jaw- snapping his head to the side.

She planted her back foot and delivered a crushing roundhouse- the wind whistling past her leg as it soared directly for his head. However, there was no anticipated resistance- her kick completely missing its mark.

'Fucking shit!' That should have ended this!

She was forced to follow through with the kick's momentum to reset her stance, hoping that the bastard was forced to avoid the strike in a manner that gave her time to regroup. Her kicking foot planted heavily into the snow, and then there was a blur sailing at her face.

She didn't even have time to register the palm strike before it broke her nose and crushed the cartilage into her brain- her entire head whipping backward as she was thrown clear off her feet, screaming in pain as she crashed onto her back in the snow.

Somewhere... within the recesses of her 'soul', The Beast's nose twitched.

Zoé groaned as white-hot agony burned through her skull. She couldn't see anything- couldn't feel the front of her face aside from a numbing warmth.

'That looked like it hurt- now get up.' The memory of her Sire's voice echoed in her mind in response to the overwhelming pain- like some fucked up Pavlovian response. And so she did, automatically rolling onto her side- just in time to avoid an axe kick that slammed into the snow where her head had been a moment before! Snow and chucks of asphalt burst into the air as the heel of his shoe sank into the ground.

Thu...ud!

She blurred, her figure more discernible than before as she suddenly reappeared over ten meters away with a pained yelp- falling to her hands and knees and coughing a mouthful of blood into the snow.

Somewhere... within the recesses of her 'soul', The Beast growled in its sleep.

She staggered back to her feet, fighting back the rising anger trembling in the back of her mind.

'Not again... never again.' She swore as her stumbling walk rightened and her nose popped back into place. She worked her jaw as it too snapped into place before turning around to face the young man.

He hadn't pursued. Those crimson-ringed, gray eyes silently observing her struggles. His disregard- his disinterest made clearly evident by his lack of expression. That look stoked the embers of a fire she'd thought put out for the time being.

'This son of a-' She paused.

'This motherfu-' She gritted her teeth.

"You bastard..." She audibly growled- her eyes going bloodshot. She couldn't even insult the fucker properly until he was dead!

Thud!

Zoé's tangled auburn hair crazily whipped around her snarling face as she dashed against the snowy wind- practically materializing in front of the young man after crossing over fifteen meters in the blink of an eye. Crouching, she wrapped her arms around his waist- her combined momentum and weight lifting him off the ground and carrying him to brutally slam into a brick wall of a department store bordering the road. He grunted, grimaced in pain as a series of spiderweb cracks spread out across the brick wall- a dusting of red-clay brick, snow, and mortar raining down on the pair as he wrapped his left arm around her torso to stabilize himself and raised his right arm overhead like a guillotine before dropping it- delivering a series of vicious, downward elbow strikes onto her upper spine.

She grunted in pain and snarled, baring her fangs and sinking her teeth into the side of his abdomen- her jaw strongly flexing as she shook her head, ripping and tearing through skin and muscle as dark blood seeped around her lips.

He gave a deeply pained shout that turned into a low throated growl- a single blackened vein bulged against the side of his neck as his eyes went bloodshot; thump!

He viciously brought down his elbow again with twice the previous strength and speed. The impact buckled her knees as a tremor ran through her, and before she could re-adjust her grappling stance or mentally recover from the teeth-jarring pain, she felt him roughly grab a handful of her hair and pull. A tearing sensation ran down the back of her skull and fiery agony burned across her scalp as her head was yanked away- the mouthful of flesh she was biting into ripping free of his abdomen.

A sledgehammer crashed into the side of her head, causing her to reflexively spit out the hunk of bloody flesh- stars and darkness exploding across her vision as the next moment she was laid out on her stomach on the snowy sidewalk. And despite the piercing migraine pounding at her temples and the suddenly fuzzy, wobbly surroundings, she scrambled onto all fours- desperately trying to climb back to her feet. A shoe sailed into her side- she cried out in time with the sound of breaking bones as she crumpled against the strike- flying sideways and slamming into the same brick wall before collapsing in a heap.

A warm hand roughly clamped around the back of her neck and pulled- raising her into the air like a kitten by its scruff.

All she saw were those cold, gray eyes... and then she was weightless, the pressure around her neck gone as the dark, white-washed world blurred past. Her upper back hit the ground first, then the back of her head as her momentum had her lower body rising into the air like an uncoordinated contortionist as she unceremoniously twisted around on the back of her neck and crashed onto her stomach- sliding over a meter through the snow before coming to a stop.

Vibrant darkness. Distant sounds. Fuzzy numbness.

Her eyes flew open as she sucked in a deep breath of wintery air- her senses returning one thing: pain.

Her left side ached fiercely as the bones shifted and mended back into proper position, while her loose, aching jaw, snapped back into place with a crack that she felt uncomfortably reverberate through her skull.

She clenched her jaw- eliciting a minor stab of pain as the remaining ligaments and muscles around the jawbone regenerated.

She was mad.

Slamming her right palm onto the snow, she leveraged herself up, propping herself onto her left forearm as she looked up at the young man from the ground.

Bloodshot, shining emerald irises murderously glared from behind a messy curtain of stringy, snow-crusted auburn hair.

The young man took an aggressive step.

Zoé tensed, preparing to call upon her vitae. And if she were completely honest with herself, she would've admitted that a sneaking twinge of anticipatory fear ran down the back of her neck. This was one of the single most brutal, difficult fights she'd ever been in, including the two bastards from earlier in the night.

Her accidental Childer, only a few hours old, was somehow more capable than some centuries old Sabbat warlords. What was happening? Had her Beast weakened her to such a state that she couldn't even handle a fledgling? No. Of course not, she was being stupid- she wasn't imagining the man's strength, speed, or fighting prowess. But what didn't make sense was his capability to channel vitae and resist the lure of his Beast. At such a young age, no matter how talented, a fledgling needed to feed constantly as their minds and bodies adjusted to the transformation. They would be prone to emotional outbursts, loss of rationality, easily enraged, angered, annoyed, frightened, or paranoid.

It should have been an incredibly difficult, emotionally turbulent time where they needed their Sire to guide them.

The thought surfaced memories of her own Sire- strong, smart, cruel, cunning... caring.

She ignored the feelings those thoughts evoked.

The young man's fierce expression flickered a moment before he suddenly seized- his figure turning rigid as a plank. He uttered a single low moan of pain, his face contorted in anguish as his posture slackened the next moment- the red veins in his bloodshot eyes receding while the blackened veins along his neck and forearms gradually vanished. He swayed and staggered- falling to one knee, barely catching himself with his left hand on the ground as he took deep, shuddering breaths. His left arm visibly shook- even the strain of supporting his own meager weight proving nearly too much.

'Huh?'

The murderous glare in her eyes softened as she watched the young man... her Childer... her child... suffering through vitae strain. Untrained fledglings would often overdraw their vitae to perform their Clan's birthright supernatural abilities, whether that was feats of speed, strength, cognition, or near-invulnerability.

The preliminary Blood Bond relayed an inkling of the pain suffusing his mind and body. She suddenly felt a very strong urge to help him- to assist him in finding a proper rite of passage. Her blood sang, urged, commanded that he be made into a proud member of the Clan.

'Did... had the Beast known...?' She entertained the notion for a second before her Sire's words and the Traditions echoed through her mind.

The glimmer of softness in her eyes hardened into stone, and her kind-hearted nature protected beneath a frozen exterior was once more locked away beneath the ice. Sentiment born of vampiric instinct to protect one's blood was weakness. She would not be weak. She could not be weak. Not now- not ever. Weakness got you killed, weakness got your friends killed... and friends- friends got you killed. Alone was better. Alone was safer.

So fuck this warm feeling in her chest. It was probably internal bleeding anyway.

'This thing is a mistake. You know this, idiot. Now fix the fucking problem.'