Chapter 2

The young kangaroo hopped around, finding something to eat, blissfully unaware that it had made a mistake by separating from its group. Hidden behind some bushes a few feet away, Valentine was watching the young roo. He had been hunting the creature for ten minutes now, waiting for the best opportunity to attack. Valentine mentally grinned as he got ready to pounce but before he had a chance a blur of grey flashed before him and a young werewolf was now on his roo, tearing it to pieces and eating it. Valentine growled, annoyed that the werewolf got the roo first and decided to find another to hunt. As he wandered though the bushland, a flicker of light caught his attention. It was coming from some bushes that were up against a cliff face. Valentine walked over to the bushes and pushed them aside with his paw. Behind them he found a cave with a single lit wooden torch.

What's this? He wondered as he entered the cave and looked up at the torch. He stared at it curiously then it suddenly went out. Valentine stepped back startled. Another flickering light caught his attention farther down the cave. He walked farther down the cave to the next torch. Again the torch went out and Valentine saw another flickering light farther down the cave. He continued down the cave and reached the end of the cave where he found a metal door. He studied the door and found that it slide open. It took him a few tried but he finally got it opened. He entered and immediately the door slid shut. Valentine turned around and tried desperately to open the door back up but failed. The door was stuck. He began feeling dizzy and disoriented. He collapsed to the ground and everything went black.

When he awoke, his head was pounding and he felt truly sick. He put his hand on his forehead, closed his eyes and groaned in pain. His eyes then went wide and he pulled his hand away from himself. He was back in human form.

"How long was I out?" He asked himself. There was no reply, just a whisper that Valentine barely heard.

"Come." The whisper said. Valentine looked around, not sure if he actually heard anything or imagined it. What he saw made him yell out in fright. On the other side of the room was a mummified corpse pinned to the wall with five swords. After the initial shock wore off, Valentine stood up. He walked up to the corpse and looked at it closely.

"Who are you?" He whispered to himself. He took a look at the swords; they looked new, untouched and very shiny. Valentine touched the blade with his finger and pulled away immediately as it burned him.

"Silver blades. Were you a therianthrope?" Valentine questioned the corpse. He grabbed one of the swords in the corpse's thigh by its hilt and pulled on it. It slid out with ease. He threw it across the room and began pulling out the rest of the swords. He held the body as he pulled out the last sword that went through the corpse's heart.

"I probably shouldn't have done that." He said to the corpse as he laid it down on the ground, "I might get into trouble for messing with evidence and what not. But I just felt compelled to take those swords out."

Valentine kneeled down next to the corpse. It was very creepy looking. The jaw suddenly moved, making Valentine yell and fall back in fright.

"That can't have happened. I must have imagined it." Valentine said. He crawled back over to the corpse. He frowned and looked more closely at the corpse. It moved again, wrapping its arms around Valentine and pulling him closer to it. Valentine struggled against the corpse, trying to get away from it but it wouldn't let go. Valentine yelled out when he felt a sharp pain in his neck.

"Vampire." He whispered weakly as his body felt heavy and he could no longer move. Everything went black again.

"You are young for a weretiger." An elegant French voice said. Slowly, Valentine opened his eyes. He was lying on the ground.

"What happened?" He muttered groggily. Slowly, his memory of the corpse came back to him and he sat up. He looked around the room and saw a man sitting up against the wall across the room. The man looked almost 20 and had long blood red hair. Valentine doubted that the man's hair was his natural colour but he couldn't smell any hair dye. The man was wearing the clothes that were on the corpse.

"You are awake. I was afraid I took too much blood. I do apologise." The man said with the elegant French voice Valentine heard before. Valentine just stared at him with wide eyes.

He's the vampire corpse. Valentine thought.

"Do you speak English at all?" The man asked.

"Um… yeah." Valentine said weakly.

"Are you alright? You look pale. I must have taken too much blood. You should lay back down and rest, young weretiger."

"You were a corpse."

"Oui, I was but your blood brought me back to life and I thank you, young weretiger." The man said, bowing his hair in thanks.

"You're a vampire?" Valentine asked.

"Non, I am not a pathetic vampire; I'm a nox noctis angelus."

"A what?" Valentine frowned at the man. He had never heard of a nox noctis angelus before.

The man laughed, "Of course, my kind are unknown by so many. I shouldn't have thought you would know what I am. I am more powerful then any vampire, young weretiger."

"It's Valentine."

"Huh?" The man said confused.

"My name, its Valentine, Valentine Diesel. I am the Leader of the therianthrope clan known as the Sang Clan."

The man smiled, "Really? I did not think the Sang clan would separate from Mademoiselle Melisende."

"The Sang clan was left here by Mademoiselle Melisende to guard something. No one really remembers what though. What's your name?"

"My name is Alison."

"Isn't that a chick's name?"

Alison frowned, "I do not understand. Why would Alison be a baby chicken's name?"

"Oh, sorry, I meant isn't it a girl's name?"

"It can be. But it can also be a name for a boy. Now, perhaps we should leave this cave." Alison stood up and walked over to the door.

"I couldn't get it opened before. I think it's stuck." Valentine said as he got up off the ground.

"It shouldn't be anymore, I was the one who made the door close and you collapse. I'm sorry but I needed you to help me." Alison said as he slid the metal door opened.

"That's ok, Alison, I have to get to my clan now. Would you like to come?" Valentine asked.

"Oui, I would love to leave this place."

Valentine walked out of the cave with Alison following. The morning summer sun was quite hot for Valentine after being in the cave for so long.

"I hate the sun." Alison commented as he shielded his eyes.

"Does it hurt you or something?" Valentine asked curiously

"Not exactly. The sun just annoys me." Alison replied.

"VALENTINE!!"

Valentine turned his head to the direction of the voice calling his name.

"Someone's calling you." Alison said.

"Yeah, it's Neo. He's one of my bodyguards. Everyone must be worried." Valentine said before he called out, "NEO!!"

It didn't take long for Neo to come into sight. He had a duffel bag with him.

"Thank god, Valentine, you're ok. I've been searching everywhere for you." He said as he threw the duffel bag to Valentine.

Valentine caught the duffel bag and opened it, "Thank you Neo. This is Alison." Valentine gestured his hand towards Alison before he got clothes out and began getting dressed.

"Hi, I'm Neo Millstein." Neo looked Alison up and down, studying him.

"Please to meet you." Alison said with a bow.

"Valentine, where did you find this man and what happened to your neck?" Neo asked as he look over at Valentine who was now fully dressed.

"I found him in the cave as a mummified corpse." Valentine answered, watching Neo carefully for his reaction.

Neo frowned, "What?"

"He was pinned to the wall with some swords so I took the swords out and put his body on the ground. He came to life and drank my blood."

"Really?" Neo looked confused. He looked at the sun and back at Alison who was still shielding his eyes, "You standing in board daylight, you can't be a vampire but I don't know anything else that drinks blood."

"Oui, I am not a vampire. I am a nox noctis angelus." Alison said.

"A night angel?" Neo said surprised.

"You know what I am?" Alison asked, equally surprised.

"Yeah, your kind is myth, a fairytale to scare naughty vampires." Neo replied, "I didn't think you actually existed."

"How do you know about his kind?" Valentine asked curiously.

"Your father knew about them Valentine. He told me that the reason the clan is here is to make sure the night angel, with the title Angel of Blood, does not escape his prison. I didn't really believe your father. Judging by your hair, you must be the Angel of Blood." Neo put his hand behind his back and pulled out a silver dagger that had a bluish tint, "Valentine, please move away from him. He is dangerous."

"Am I really Monsieur Millstein?" Alison said as he grinned, revealing his fangs. He had two sets of fangs on his upper jaw and no fangs on his lower jaw. Valentine trusted Neo's word and walked over to him, keeping an eye on Alison.

"Come back here, my young weretiger." Alison said. Valentine stopped moving, something was pulling at him, making him want to walk back to Alison. He fought against it, making it so he couldn't move and was in the middle of Neo and Alison.

"What have you done to my leader?" Neo growled.

"Nothing. I just drank his blood and fed him a bit of mine." Alison said, still grinning.

"What?" Neo was taken aback.

"You fed me your blood?" Valentine said shocked as he looked at Alison.

"Oui, I knew you didn't have a clue who I was. Otherwise you wouldn't have entered the cave and set me free. So I took advantage of that and blood-bonded us. I am sorry young Valentine." Alison apologised. Valentine could feel that he was being sincere and that he felt sorrowful. There was a sudden flash of a memory in Valentine's mind. There were two women, lying on the ground, with swords through their hearts and a third woman standing over them with an evil grin. He didn't know how, but he knew who they were. One was Alison's lover, the other Alison's previous blood-bonded weretiger and the one standing over them was Mademoiselle Melisende. Valentine looked at Alison with sad eyes. Alison saw this and looked away from him. Valentine no longer felt like something was pulling against him. He was free to move.

"I should kill you right now Angel of Blood for blood-bonding yourself with my leader." Neo said angrily.

"Stand down Neo." He commanded.

"What?" Neo said, looking at Valentine unsure. Valentine could feel that Alison wasn't dangerous. He had lost two people, who were very important to him, to Mademoiselle Melisende who had deemed him dangerous.

"He's not dangerous to us. He will not harm our clan. Will you Alison?" Valentine said.

"Non, I will not, so long as Mademoiselle Melisende is no longer your vampire lord." Alison said.

"She is not. She went back to France after imprisoning you." Neo said.

"Then I shall not harm anyone here." Alison promised with a smile. Neo gave him a suspicious look, not truly trusting Alison.

"We better get back to Deemer's. Everyone might start to worrying." Valentine said.

"Ok, you lead the way Valentine. I want to keep an eye on the night angel."

"Fine." Valentine started heading towards his brother's house with Neo and Alison following close behind.

Author's Note

I'm not very confident about my grammar and spelling so it'll help if you point any errors out for me. Thank you