Author's Note:

This is my first fanfic ever so don't kill me! This is a fanfic with a twist. It's set in Malaysia. Why is it set in Malaysia? Simply because its where I live. Most of the places described here will be the names of real places but not necessarily accurately described and they are used only because I love them. Some bits of Malaysian culture will inevitably find their way in. In this piece, it's a little bit of the language. To help you out:

Bomoh – witchdoctor

Sayang – A term of endearment (synonymous with dear, darling, love)

Tudung – A head-covering that Muslim women wear (in this country, they're called "tudung"s. I'm not sure about other countries)

Some parts may seem kind of weird in the story, particularly Kara's character. She doesn't really act like a normal pureblood, does she? That will be explained in later installments/chapters. If anyone's interested, I promise to post more . Thanks a lot for reading!

There was a chocolate sundae, a beautifully delicious chocolate sundae sitting on the table in front of her. She sighed, grabbing the spoon beside the bowl. Steam was wafting seductively off the ice cream where it was slowly being melted by the hot fudge. She dug her spoon into the ice cream and –

BOOM

Abruptly, there was a loud bang and the ice cream slipped off her spoon. She frowned. Nobody messed with her ice cream. She began shaking uncontrollably. Suddenly, a high-pitched shrieking filled her ears-

"Wake UP!" shrieked the voice from her dream. It took her a minute to realize it was speaking Malay.

"What?" she asked, blinking and rubbing her eyes. She glanced at her clock and groaned. "It's 5.30 in the morning! Leave me alone…"

"Hurry, get up, you have to get up!" continued the voice. Mrs. Khalid was shaking her again, more vigorously this time. "Kara, you have to wake up!"

"What's wrong? What's happened?" Kara replied, jumping out of bed as she recognized the hint of alarm in the older woman's voice. She caught the jeans Mrs. Khalid threw her and pulled them on over her pyjama shorts. She threw a shirt over her tank top and followed Mrs. Khalid from the room.

"There's not much time," said Mrs. Khalid, straightening her tudung and walking briskly down the stairs to the kitchen. "The people who live near the forest reserve – they think they've seen a ghost."

"A ghost?" Kara repeated flatly, raising and eyebrow. "Don't they have bomohs for this kind of thing?"

"I don't think it's a ghost, sayang," Mrs. Khalid retorted. She threw Kara a peanut butter sandwich and a can of Milo. "I think its one of your kind," she continued in a lower tone.

Kara stopped dead in her tracks. "A level-E? Wouldn't he have attacked them by now?"

"I don't know," Mrs. Khalid frowned. "All they said was that there was a strange, pale man walking around with torn, bloody clothes. It sounded like nobody had gotten close enough to get any proper details."

"They see a man walking around in a forest reserve and they don't bother talking to him?" Kara inquired, her eyebrow shooting up again.

"Kara," sighed Mrs. Khalid. "Tall, unnaturally pale man with bloody torn clothes. Of course they were scared out of their wits."

"Oh," said Kara, understanding fading into sheepishness. "Right."

"Speaking of which," said Mrs. Khalid as she opened the front door. "Shouldn't you get going before something bad happens?"

"Oh, right. Yeah, I'll just…" Kara railed off, blushing furiously as she ran out the door.

She ran to her car, tucking her sandwich into her mouth and stuffing her Milo under her arm. She fished her keys out of her pocket, unlocked her car then jumped in. She downed her Milo in one go then stuffed the empty can into her glove compartment.

She was five minutes from the entrance of the Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve when she realized her hands were almost slipping on the wheel. She slowed down, keeping her grip firm - thankfully, it was still too early for that many cars to be on the roads. There isn't any reason to be afraid, she told herself firmly. He's probably just a Level-E that needs to dealt with. It's easy, you've done this in training. This has nothing to do with your parents… No, nothing at all.

She turned into the parking lot and was relieved to find it empty. That meant no awkward questions about why a normal (albeit pale) looking girl was about to go striding straight into the lair of the "ghost".

Kara studied herself in her rear-view mirror, attempting to rearrange her features into any expression that didn't read "PANIC". No matter what she tried, she couldn't erase the fear and worry in her large, chocolate brown eyes, straight black eye-brows and full lips. Her messy black hair really didn't help either. She pulled it back into a messy ponytail with the scrunchy that rarely left her left wrist. She took one last look at herself, then sighed, giving up on changing her appearance.

She stepped out of the car and took a deep breath. She could smell fear in the air – remnants of last night's crowd. She sneezed. It was so strong that it blocked out the lingering smell of her car's exhaust, even the smell of the forest. The smell seemed stronger to the east, near the caves.

Kara jogged slowly up the trail, the familiar feeling she got from hiking here on weekends was somewhat marred by the smell of human fear that just seemed to get stronger the farther she went. It was so strong that her eyes were beginning to water. How many people had been here? She blink away the tears and jogged faster. She could already see the tops of the short cliffs that held the caves.

Suddenly, she dropped into a crouch. The trail of fear had abruptly ended to be replaced by a completely new smell altogether. But… it couldn't be. She took a few quick breaths though her mouth then took a deep breath through her nose. She leaned against and nearby tree, surprise etching itself across her features. A human? She sniffed again, her eyes widening. A pureblood? No, it couldn't be. Purebloods normally tended to be much more romantic with their selection of venues for changing. She sniffed once more. Something just wasn't right. The scent both pureblood AND human but it didn't smell at all like a new Level-D. And somehow… they were both mixed into one, strong, clear, scent. Well, there's only one way to find out…

She pushed away from the tree and continued cautiously towards the mouth of the cave. She stared into the darkness. Despite her heightened senses, she could only see a few feet into the cave. She took a few quiet steps forward then paused. Something was wrong. He had to have heard her by now, his scent was incredibly strong here. The strange pureblood/human scent as well as sweat, dried blood, filth… She wrinkled her nose. Stupidly, she decided she liked his scent. Minus the sweat, dried blood and filth, of course. She shook her head. Stupid.

"Is anyone there?" she called in her first language – English. She walked a few feet forward then grabbed a fallen branch that had somehow made its way into the mouth of the cave and focused her mind on its tip. It burst into flame and glowed brightly white; the flame contained by her mind.

A gasp came from somewhere just behind her, near right wall of the cave and her muscles tensed. She held her breath.

"Leave," said a voice. It sounded deep and gravelly, as thought its owner had a horrible sore throat. Or a throat parched with thirst. It sounded weak.

Kara slowly exhaled, carefully releasing her tensed muscles even as she prepared them for immediate use. She carefully cleared her mind and steeled it for attack.

She slowly turned to face the wall and there he was. The ghost. One of his arms was raised to shield his eyes from the sudden glare of her makeshift torch. His other arm was pressed over his chest, his hand clutching at whatever remained of his torn, bloody, once-white shirt. His legs were tense under his ripped up black jeans. He was gasping and coughing in the unmistakable signs of bloodlust.

"Leave," he repeated hoarsely. "For your own good."

Damn. A sane, potential level-E. She hasn't thought of that one. She could have brought a blood pack with her. She dimmed her white torch to a yellow flame and gasped. The ghost had dropped his arm to reveal dirty, silvery white hair and the most… refined features she has ever laid her eyes on.

"Don't you speak English?" he continued. "Leave. Now." His bright red irises glowed in the dim light. He coughed and gasped, clutching at his chest. It must be taking all of his effort to stay sitting down, let alone to talk.

"You're thirsty," she said, sinking to her knees then pulling aside her ponytail and baring her neck. He didn't look or smell very clean but it was the best she could do.

His eyes glowed brighter as they fixed themselves on the base of her neck. His fangs grew visibly longer, extending past his half-open lips. He leaned towards her, letting her scent fog up his senses, giving in to the bloodlust…

"No," he growled. His grip on his shirt tightened. "Who the hell are you? What do you think you're doing?"

"Kara Rai," she answered. "Questions can wait, drink. I know you're thirsty. It's okay, you won't drain me." She could call on her pureblood abilities if he tried, she thought.

"I.. I-I'm," he stuttered, his gorgeous features suddenly twisting in confusion.

Kara signed then sat as close to him as possible without touching him, leaning her head to the right and leaving even more of the left side of her neck exposed to him. "Just drink," she coaxed.

The confusion in his features drained away as the bloodlust took over and his eyes burned into hers. He bent over her neck and bit down hard. Kara winced and blinked away the sudden tears of pain and surprise. She'd never had her blood drunk before and she didn't expect it to be quite so painful. They'd always used needles and syringes when they extracted her blood before. He bit down again, harder this time. She shuddered and blinked away fresh tears of sympathy. How long had he gone without blood? Judging from the smell of his clothes and the desperate draining of her blood, it must have been at least a week, maybe two. She couldn't comprehend that. Purebloods were never left wanting and all her little cravings were satisfied within minutes. She couldn't imagine holding off the bloodlust for that long. What's more, he was a level-E…

Her eyes closed and her shoulders slumped. He was really taking a lot of blood. Thankfully, he noticed. He put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed away from her. He wiped off the little bit of blood he'd spilled and gently pressed his fingers to the small puncture wounds on her neck to stem the bleeding. She kept her eyes closed until she was sure she could open them without her mind spinning too fast. When she finally did open them, she noticed his eyes were still bright red.

"I'm sorry," she said, still blinking to clear her head. "I don't think I can give you any more blood right now."

He moved away from her abruptly, taking his fingers from her neck. "You're apologizing for that?"

"Yes, you need more blood," she said frankly.

"You've just given me something I needed. Don't apologize for that," he said. He looked like he couldn't decide if he was angry, grateful or frustrated by her apparent stupidity.

"Okay," she said. She stood up carefully, leaning against the wall of the cave for support. "However, that doesn't change the situation. You need blood, food, a place to stay, and all the help you can get."

"And?" he said, quirking an eyebrow. He raised a knee and draped his arm over it. He painted the perfect picture – depressed, frustrated, trapped.

"I'm offering you all of that," she said.

"You don't even know who I am," he said, looking down.

Kara sighed. "I'm offering you everything I mentioned not too long ago. So, it's a comfy bed, blood, food and help or the cave. Personally, I'd prefer the bed to this." She tapped her foot on the floor of the cave.

He looked up, confused. She sighed. "I'm not going to hurt you. Come on," she said, holding her hand out. He stared at her hand for a moment then grabbed it and pulled himself off the floor. That's more like it, she thought to herself.

She grabbed her torch and walked backwards to the entrance of the cave."You still haven't told me who you are, you know."

A small smile seemed to play at the corners of his eyes. "I'm Zero. Zero Kiryuu."