~ Viso, Romania; 1537 ~

Amidst the night engulfed town of Viso, far from the eyes of most people of Romania, since mountains surrounded it on almost all side, nothing can be heard but the screams of agony from the inhabitants of the once quiet place.

Only the screams could be heard by inhuman ears, the wolves howling their love song to the full moon above as the town below writhed in agony as the unholy flames ripped through every cottage and citizen that was in its way. People were torn apart, bone and sinew spread around like decorations on shattered statues and the rubble of homes, screams of those barely alive erupting every so often.

Only one person wasn't screaming, wasn't suffering the pain the town was, but from another. One little boy panting so hard he thought his heart would burst from his chest, his ruby eyes puffy and wet from his crying. His white clothes were stained with soot and dirt, and a little blood that had splashed upon his back, and some in his short lavender hair that sank slowly down his light blue cheeks.

He didn't care what was on him, so long as he didn't have to be hurt like those people. He saw a few of them dying before he started to run from town, from his mother's dying words urging him to escape. He wanted to stay with her, she was all he'd had in life, but the look in her pale blue eyes told him that he would only hurt his mother's heart further if he remained.

Her pendant was banging against his little chest, making a bruise from the speeds he was hitting, and his mother's ruby tipped wand she'd strapped to his back started to feel as heavy as a house. The boy yelped and tripped over a rock as he heard another shrill scream rip through the air, then silence. He was almost afraid to get up, the silence making him deaf from lasting so long. Finally, he lifted his small head up and turned it towards the town far in the distance. His heart sank, forcing him to scramble to his feet and start running again.

'The darkness….the darkness that killed them, it knows I'm out here. I won't let it get me. I don't want to die….Mama….I need you, Mama. Why is this happening?' his mind screamed, his pace quickening more now as the sounds of hateful growls and howling winds grew behind him.

He didn't know how long he ran before the sounds faded, how many times he got scraped across his slim legs and arms before he made it to the forest, but he didn't care. He was alive, in pain, but he was alive. When the boy was sure he was safe, the sounds gone from his keen ears, he collapsed to his knees, all scuffed and stained with his own blood. He breathed in hard as he rested his tired and hurt body, not caring what he was to do next. Surviving was what his mother wanted him to do, so he'd do it, for her sake.

"I don't even know where I am. Mama never took me out of the village….or the house, cause I was born….this way," the boy said in his whispery voice, staring at his light blue hands, the same color as his entire body was," Cause I'm a freak. How can I survive looking like this? Mama….why did you have to die….why?"

The boy started to cry again, smashing his face into the palms of his hands to let it all out, all the pain he was feeling. He was only six years old, what did he know about survival or death. He never thought he'd see anyone die, let alone so many dying so horribly. Then there was the dark spectral cloud that came, the thing that started killing after the town had kidnapped his mother. Perhaps they'd seen him and thought his mother was a witch. They tried to burn her at the stake, he knew that was the fate of witches, but he didn't think it was fair even if his mother was one. Witches had a right to live too, same as he did.

People fear what they don't understand, Merlock. I am sorry to tell you this, but humans are this way, but don't hate them for this, they can't help themselves. Try and forgive….and protect them.

His mother's own words from a few weeks ago, the day he'd tried to go outside to play in the December snow on his birthday. He always had to watch the town children from their attic window playing in the tufts of wonderful, sparkling snow, making snowmen and having snowball fights, catching snowflakes on their pink tongues. He wanted to play with them so badly, he had been very lonely for six long years.

True, he'd had his mother around all the time, but he wanted friends to play with, people his own age, but his mother forbade it. His skin was too different from the pretty peach skinned human children, his little fangs would cause distress and above all, his mother didn't want him to get hurt by their fear.

Merlock rubbed his reddened and sniffling little nose as his tears ceased to fall, his eyes empty of them. He'd cried so much today, he had to bet he'd never cry again. Merlock didn't want to protect the humans, not after what they did to his mother, but they got what they deserved. He just never thought it would happen, he never knew such terrible things lived in the castle a few miles from the town. Still, what was done was done, no one could undo it, and no one could give him his mother back.

He sighed a little and picked himself up, starting as he heard a sigh precede his, a feminine one. Merlock waited a moment, perking his ears up a little to locate the sound's source. He heard a different sound, but still feminine. It was a small yawn. He started towards it. 'Maybe a traveler….sleeping soundly I hope. I haven't eaten since supper last night….she won't mind if I take a little of her food, just a little.' He thought, creeping slowly towards the sound.

As he reached it, he ducked carefully into a bush, peering out ever so slowly to see what he was dealing with. He didn't smell any food, but he smelled something along the lines of very powerful flowers. He stung at his nose, but after a while, it grew pleasant. As his eyes blinked a few times, he let his jaw drop as he tried to fathom what he was looking at.

It was a young woman, maybe in her early 20's, with short and bright red hair wearing a strange white outfit. She was wearing pants, very unlike women he had seen through the attic window and very unlike his mother. He crept out of hiding to get a better look at what she was leaning on. It was an odd thing, shaped like a horse, but it was white and shiny. He poked it with a curious finger, yanking it back instantly. It was so cold and hard too.

Merlock had never seen something so strange, the little flashing orbs and other various shapes on the horse thing's head. He didn't understand it, but there was no reason to destroy it. The woman was a human, he knew that, but she and her strange thing looked very harmless to him. He walked around her and his face lit up at the side of her strange green sack. It was large, probably big enough to hold two Christmas turkeys inside it.

"I wish…oops…." He said, catching himself before he could say anymore. The woman stirred a bit, but didn't wake. He sighed in relief and pushed the bag open, pressing the little snaps he saw that held the thing closed. There was something in there, something that smelled delicious and sweet, and there was plenty of it. 'Candy maybe….Candy counts.' He thought, drooling slightly at the wonderful scent.

It took his senses in so much that he crawled in the sack and starts eating the sweet foods, some very crunchy, some smooth, but all good. He was so busy eating he never even heard the sounds erupt from within the forest, the sounds he'd been running from.

Merlock suddenly felt the sack jerk up, the top getting shut. "What the hell is that!?" he heard the woman say, her movements starting to make his stomach lurch dangerously. When he finally stopped eating and let his ears focus, he felt like throwing up all over again. The darkness found him again, he hadn't lost it after all. He tried to cry out, but the wind got knocked out of him as the sack was rammed on something hard and warm, the woman's back. Then he felt some pressure on his head and a loud whirring noise drowned out the hatred of the darkness. He shut his eyes as his entire body tingled, feeling as if he was leaving his body completely in one sudden thrust. Merlock did the only thing he could in his condition, he passed out.

~ Japan, 25^th Century ~

Jillian Gray got off her Time Cycle gingerly, her suited superior smiling at her in the most dignified manner, his suit of fine black reflecting exactly how she felt. "Jillian, why are you back so soon? Time is not just money, it's for the sake of the future. Why didn't you give me proper warning of your return?" he asked, smoothing one hand through his greasy black hair.

She shook her head with a sigh, her backpack feeling much heavier than it did when she went to the past. "I got the job done, the caravan got out of Viso safe and sound. I took a nap in a nearby forest waiting for you to call me back….then this living and screaming cloud started tearing through the woods at me. It looked like a mess of….I don't really know. It just was so inhuman, I don't know what it was at all. That was why I came back before you called, whenever it touched any of the trees, they either exploded or withered into ashes. I was not intent on losing my life for that….whatever it was, sir." Jillian said crisply, her eyes the perfect reflection of calm.

The man smiled at her. "Good thinking, best not to get involved with what occurs in the past more than permitted, it is against regulation. You are our best Time Detective. It will be a terrible loss to the force if you get promoted to chief when I retire. You'll get the same privileges I have now, talking to the boss straight from the Land of Time. You're not too far off." He smiled, patting her on the shoulder, but she remained stiff, as stiff as she could manage with the weight in her pack suddenly shifting.

Then her sack made a noise, like someone waking up. Her superior heard it too, his eyebrows raising dangerously high. "What was that?" he asked.

Jillian shook her head, taking off the backpack carefully. "I have no idea….it does seem heavier than before. All I had were some candy and granola bars in there, along with some emergency gear." Jillian said as calmly as ever.

"Open it up….let's see what you've got hiding in there, Detective." He said, his eyes curious now as the bag shuffled a bit. Jillian readily obeyed, getting behind the bag before flipping the top open and dumping its contents out quickly.

At first, all she saw was a swirl of blue and white, with a small cry mixed in with them, then shiny silver candy wrappers raining down around it. As she and her superior focused on the bundle, they saw the strangest little boy sitting amidst Jillian's things. At first, she thought it might have been a doll, knowing full well no human could ever have such blue skin, but when it yelped and shook its little head she knew it was alive.

The boy looked up, scared obviously, at them. His small ruby eyes were blinking curiously a moment then became guarded, a small fang seen sticking out of his mouth. He was dressed in a once white tunic, now stained with blood, soot and dirt, tattered something terrible. He had cuts and cruised all over his exposed blue skin, his lavender hair even stained with a bit of gore Jillian bet even he wasn't aware of. He had a curious looking ruby tipped stick strapped to his back, the perfect ruby glimmering like a garnet of pure blood, exactly like his eyes.

"Jillian….what is he? Is he from the time we sent you to?" her superior asked at last. He tried reaching for the boy, but the boy scuttled backwards, hissing. Jillian shook her head, dumbfounded for the first time in her life.

"I have no idea….I didn't even know he was inside. He must have found me sleeping and tried…to borrow my food." She said, as if pondering each word.

The boy looked at her at that moment, his crimson eyes startling her. "I was hungry. I haven't eaten since supper last night. At least I got to live after eating, the darkness didn't get me….or you." He said in a whispery and sweet little voice, sounding apologetic.

Jillian cocked her head to the side, then nodded. "Yes, I saw this darkness. Do you know what it was….uh, boy?" she asked.

He scrunched his face up at her, making his cute face very angry looking. "My name is not boy and stop staring. My name is Merlock Holmes of the town of Viso….and no, the darkness just came suddenly, after….after the town burned my mother to death." He spat out, sniffling suddenly.

Jillian took a breath, then stepped towards the child. He didn't seem to notice her, his mind lost in the painful memory he'd described. "I'm sorry your mother suffered, Merlock, and I am sorry that I have to say this….but you must go back. Keeping you here might change history and tear the tapestry of time apart. You have to go back. I am sorry, Merlock, but you belong in the past, not here in the 25^th century." She said, patting his shuddering shoulder.

He slapped her hand away, his angry look returning. This time he was growling at her, his mouth showing off perfectly the white two fangs.

"Human rules….vampires have no rights. I should have known. You'd leave a little boy to die cause he's different. Humans….there's nothing humane about you things." He spat, then tried to run from her. Sadly for him, he crashed right into the waiting arms of her superior, which sent the boy into a fit of screaming and kicking.

"Jillian, use your erase beam remote on him. It should put him to sleep long enough for you to take him back and leave him in his own time." he said.

Jillian readily obeyed, pulling the pocket size device out of her breast pocket. She put it up to the struggling boy's temple and pressed the button. A flash of red engulfed his head a moment, his body quieting for a moment.

As her superior started to loosen his grip on Merlock, the boy kicked him square in the jaw. "That felt weird….you big bully. What did you do to my head?" the boy demanded and then kicked the man in the shins.

Jillian grabbed him up as her superior went bouncing around the room in pain from the kick, yowling a million curses little boys were never meant to hear. Merlock promptly put his hands over his ears until the man's mouth stopped opening, looking up innocently at him all the while.

Merlock grinned at him, content he'd gotten back at the man. Then he became aware of the woman holding him up and a light pat on his head, like his mother once did. It made him feel a little better.

"Do I still have to go back….If you do, all your tapestry of time stuff will haunt you. I remember everything you said. I'm in the 25^th century and your name is Jillian Gray and you're a Time Detective. Your silly….memory wiper thingy didn't work on me." Merlock said very proudly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Jillian smiled slightly at the boy's retort, patting his head again. "Yes, it seems you are immune to it….possibly because of what you are….but I have never heard of a blue vampire race in history, or any of them for that matter. Was your mother one?" she asked.

"No….," he said sadly, a sniffle erupting from him," But Mama was a vampire, though my father made her into one. She just wasn't something called a pure Azure vampire. That's what she said my father was. I think he died before I was born or something, Mama would cry whenever I asked. Can we talk about something else, like where I go from here?"

"That sounds good. Um, my superior will talk to the Old Timer of the Land of Time, we need to know if your stowing away in my backpack had any impact on history, discreetly. Only the mention of a blue vampire will be made, no names, safer that way. I gather your race would stand out….then we discuss what we do with you here. Till then….I suppose I shall take care of you, Merlock," she told him, rumpling his silky lavender hair, then looked towards her boss," Does that sound feasible, sir?"

Her superior nodded and walked angrily out of the room, giving little Merlock a dirty look. Merlock stuck his tongue out at him just as the man shut the door. 'What a day….now my parents and I have this little blue bundle of spitfire to care for….though, he's a cute one. Perhaps, he might grow up stronger and stronger in the future, a vampire would be a welcome ally to the Time Police. Hmm, there's a thought, and a plan.' She thought, kissing the little boy's cheek lightly before taking him out of the room. He rubbed it off, making disgusted noises, but then he giggled and threw his tiny bruised arms around her neck.

"Heh, sweet, Merlock. But first, let's get you checked out by the Time Police medical staff." She told him, but he shook his head.

"I'm a fast healer, all vampires are, even at toddler ages. I'll be fine in an hour or so, m'lady Jillian. Can we get some mutton or duck to eat instead? Candy isn't a healthy meal, you know." He chirped, his face in hers and looking very cheerful.

"Even better, I'll introduce you to the 25^th century equivalents, hamburgers and pizza." She smiled back. He looked a bit puzzled by her words, but she knew it wouldn't be forever. He'd learn, he'd have to. He was going to be in this century for the rest of his life. Modern Japan was the little Azure vampire orphan's home now.