Iylipsi kicked the door open, ignoring the sounds coming from inside the room. Two bodies writhed around on the bed she shared with Darei. Rolling her eyes, she stepped over to the closet and grabbed some of her clothes. She took off what she was wearing and put on the clean outfit, strapping sheaths and holsters around her body. She filled the weapon carriers and was sliding the last gun in place when a loud moan sounded behind her. She shook her head and went to leave the room.

"Where are you going?" Darei's voice came from across the room.

"Out," Iylipsi replied evenly.

"Come back here and join us."

"No, thanks."

A blonde head appeared over Darei's shoulder, "Why not? Scared that I'm better than you?"

"Hardly. At least I don't have to fake it."

"What are you talking about? I don't ever fake it."

"Don't you know that vampures can smell lies, Cherese?" Iylipsi asked the blonde woman.

A haughty laugh hit Iylipsi's ears, "What do you mean?"

"He knows you're faking it. Ask him why he doesn't care," Iylipsi answered, an evil smirk on her lips.

Cherese frowned as she began to understand. She Darei away from her. "You know?"

"What? That you're pretending to enjoy this? You're just another lay, Cher. What do I care is you get off or not?" Darei rolled off the bed and pulled on a pair of jeans. "Get out of here; I need to talk to her."

The blonde vampyre jumped off the bed and turned to look at Darei, "I only fake because you're a bad lover."

Iylipsi winced on the inside. Mistake, Cherese, mistake.

slowly, Darei walked to Cherese. His hand inched up her body to her neck. Squeezing the column of flesh, Darei listed her off the ground and threw her from the room. There was a crash as she went through a wall in the hallway. Darei ignored the loud curses coming from outside the room and turned to Iylipsi.

"So, now where are you going?"

"Out."

"Out where?"

"What does it matter?"

"It matters because you belong to me, and you haven't asked permission to go."

"You'd say no anyway. It's better to ask forgiveness than permission."

Darei walked up to Iylipsi and grasped her arms. Lifting her, he threw her onto the bed then crawled up the mattress towards her. She rolled over and stood up.

Leaving the room, she called over her shoulder, "I've got better things to do."

There was a roar, but she ignored it, and with a thought disappeared from the hallway.

She reappeared in a graveyard many miles from where she started. It was after midnight and the place was empty but for the other dead bodies. Iylipsi's was the only one reanimated.

She approached a grave and sat before it, leaning upon a tomb stone. Resolutely, she stared at Henry's grave, slowly sinking to the ground to sit before her dead lover. His marker looked brand new. Iylipsi bought Henry a new tomb stone everytime his last one fell to dust. It had been nearly 250 years since his death.

"I miss you," she murmured, "and even if you were here, Darei would still be in out way. I haven't seen you in 249 years, love. Why'd you leave?" She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. "But you probably asked me that every day that I was gone, for twenty years, right? I came back though, and you haven't." She tucked her head down and sighed.

His face had never faded from her memory, like her mother's face had, like her father's had. Henry was still there, in her mind, clear as day. And she still dreamed that they'd had a life together, with children playing in the garden, and grandchildren after that.

She had dreamed the other night that she was out hunting and had followed a man into an alley to attack him, only to find that it was Henry.

"You still haunt me, love. I want to remember you, but I can't waste away like this. And Darei won't let me die. He's almost 500 now, but his powers aren't anymore than when he was 300. But 300 is enough to keep me alive, no matter what. So I'm just stuck remembering your face everyday while Darei orders me around." She paused and look up at the moon. It was nearing three in the morning, and she hadn't eaten yet. She sighed.

"I'll come back soon. I promise, love."

She stood and left the cemetery on foot, headed for the now booming town nearby. Her hometown.