Watching and waiting had become his life.  He had joined the council only a short one hundred and fifty years ago and had been protecting the sanctity of the paranormal world ever since, the only thing to surprise him had been a tiny little ball of fire that fell into his lap when he was not expecting it. The tiny human child had come from the same portal his elven partner had just given his life to close.  They had been one step behind the mage who had been trying to merge Teiera to all other dimensions by using the portal.   He had stated that Teiera was the lead world and all worlds in all dimensions should flow on the same path and open all the Leigh lines to connect between the worlds. Findalansa had been the one the council had assigned to watch over him to make sure that he, the progenitor of his line did not end prematurely.  He and Fin had followed the mage to the portal where Findalansa informed him that he needed time to close the portal, he had followed the mage through the portal and fought off one of his minions when he noticed the mage held a young child in his hands.  Dangling there while the mage held her by her neck wearing nothing but her thin night dress and dressing gown he noticed her scent was strong and very poignant.  It actually hurt his fangs.  Her scent was about to drive him crazy he wanted nothing more than to sink his fangs into the soft fleshand he had to fight the urge.  The feel of flesh giving way and slipping tightly around his fangs as they punctured her throat, and the rhythmic thrumming of her heart as he drew her sweet life force into his own body his fangs extended without a thought. He hadn't had that problem in over eight hundred and fifty years. It took all of his will to stop himself as he stamped down his desires the mage threw the girl at him.  With a speed born of his race and agility to match, he deftly caught the child while keeping the mage in his sight.  He placed the child down and charged the mage headlong grabbing him by the collar he turned and quickly dragged the mage back through the portal by tossing the mage before him.  He stepped from the portal in time to see Findalansa’s eyes glowing with untapped raw power as he pointed at the portal.  Fin poured all the power into the portal and it shattered with an explosion that threw him from it but he had heard her voice only a split second before the portal exploded he had managed to twist his body just right to catch her.  Touching her made his blood burn with a sweet ache but he put her down his eyes never leaving hers as he told her to stay put.  He turned to where Fin had dropped to his knees in time to see the mage standing behind Fin and with a twisted silver dagger he thrust it into the back of Fin’s skull and he saw the blink of the mage shifting his position from behind Fin.  When he turned the mage was once again behind the child and holding her with the dagger to her throat. He couldn't remember how it happened but he did remember when he came to there were five other enforcers holding him down.  They claimed that he had entered a blood rage and when he looked around himself he saw parts of the mage lying scattered around.  He had only entered a blood rage once before in his life and he had regretted that day ever since however he felt at this moment that he would not have that same problem his desire to protect her was beyond all consuming.  The human child was thrashing around in the arms of one of the werewolf enforcers she only stopped to point at him then began to scream at the top of her tiny little lungs.  Everyone present was surprised at the strength of the child and the volume to which she was screeching and it was grating.  The werewolf’s we’re having a difficult time concentrating on the task at hand.  The werewolf walked towards him and the child calmed instantly reaching out her arms toward him, the closer she got the child reached farther nearly jumping from the werewolf’s arms.  A male enforcer stepped between the werewolf and the vampire blocking her from his view.  He heard the child instantly scream and the disgruntled sound of the female werewolf as she attempted to keep control of the human child.  He could feel the rage in his chest and he felt the power surge within his own body sparking in the air around him.  Those around him let go and he stood slowly almost as if the air itself lifted him off the ground.   The male werewolf that had stepped between them turned to face him and though he was larger and fiercer than the vampire the werewolf backed down when he looked deep into the vampires eyes.  Stepping forward the werewolf moved aside and the vampire was quickly at the human child’s side.  He picked her gently from the arms of the female werewolf. The child hugged him so tightly and he could feel her shaking slender form relax against him as her sobs wracked her body.   He felt the trust from the child and though they we’re blood bonded and her blood called to him.  He could resist much easier now that she was in his arms.  He knew he could not return her to her world now that the portal was gone, and he knew he could not keep her with him as his job was too dangerous.  She had seen some of the supernatural world and he was afraid it would manifest itself in her life sometime in the future. He had to place her with a normal human family in this world and he would watch over her that way.  Jon and Susan were the closest human friends he had and he knew they were trying to start a family for the last eight years. He hopped they would take her in as their own.  He inspected the child and noticed the deep bleeding wound in her shoulder, he extended his fangs and bit open his finger smearing his blood over the wound he waited for it to heal and when it didn't he forced some of his blood down the child's throat.  This healed the wound the mage hadcut quickly and he felt himself relax.  He took the child and reported to he council nearly ripping off the head of Maximus when he came close enough to sniff the child.  When he completed that he turned and left the council and as he had left the building he was stopped by Sandreal sister to Findalansa and one of the oracles priestess.  “Lord Xander the oracle wishes to see you and the child.”  Without waiting for his reply she turned and led the way below the building deep into the earth where the oracle slept. He was not prepared for how the oracle would react to the child nor was he prepared for his own strong reaction.  The oracle sent them from the building and he had not been called back for two years.  He placed the child with Susan and Jon and with their blessing he would visit the child once a week at first then once a month after a year he visited twice a year until she turned ten years old then he visited once a year and when she turned fourteen and she graduated high school. Then she went off to college and he never met her face to face again he only watched over her from afar until the day of the accident. She had been crossing the street her head stuck in a book relying on her inborn sense of awareness but she did not see the speeding car that came literally out of nowhere.  He had been watching her every day but that one and when he got the call from Jon that she had been in an accident he knew it was life threatening just by the wavering sound in Jon’s voice.  She had been unconscious and he bent the rules of the supernatural world and he began forcing the humans looking after her to forget his passing and turning them away from her room.  He looked down on her broken and battered body.  His very soul ached and he reached out and gently lifted her into his arms. With a step quick as a flash he had taken her to the roof and kneeling down he cradled her gently in his arms, tilting her head he sliced open a gash in his hand and he attempted to pour some of his own blood down her throat. When she did not swallow he began to panic slightly as he could hear the beating of her heart as it slowed near to stopping and he quickly opened a larger wound in his wrist spilling more blood down her throat and then he massaged her neck assisting her with swallowing.  Finally he heard her bones reknitting themselves and he knew she was recovering.  She opened her eyes and he looked into them and for a moment time seemed to stop but at the sound of the enforcer behind him he swallowed and removed himself from her memory knowing he could never see her again.  If he was close to her he ran the risk of feeding off of her or turning her because he was finding it very difficult to not sink his teeth into her flesh and revel in the sweet taste of her.  It was with great difficulty that he walked out of the hospital only to see her from afar as she graduated college Summa Cum Laude he watched from a distance but was still drawn to her and managed to bump into her and fighting the hope that she would remember him he could not speak to her.  She had dropped her diploma and smiled up at him she was only seventeen, and already headed for her master's and doctorate she was going into surgical medicine.  He bent down to help her pick up the diploma and their eyes met.  She asked if they had met before and smiled at him beguilingly when he didn't answer she blushed and brushed it off and then moved on mumbling under her breath “must not have, pity that he’s hot.”  He couldn’t help the arch of his brow as he felt like his life was empty and his heart was dead without her.  She had brought light and warmth into his life but he would not allow his darkness to overshadow hers. She graduated Teiera University still at the top of her class and became the most sought after graduating surgeon of her generation.  At twenty three she was one of the three up for head of her department in the Tiarl City Memorial Hospital and many knew she had been working on a secret cure but the project had been so secret no one knew what she was working on curing or where she was at in her research. Destine was the name the oracle had given her and it was what he had informed Jon and Susan when he gave her to them.  They had kept the name and nicknamed her Des.  Some of her friends for she only had a handful called her Des, or Tiny.  Her thin tall willowy frame led them to calling her the later as she was abnormally thin and she never once complained.  He knew she felt on edge always he had seen it while watching her when she was doing the nightly rotations in the emergency room during her clinical trials. She could sense when a supernatural was around and always hurried a little faster without making it seem that she was aware.  He worried about this tiny ball of fire that never once shied away from him but simply reached out to him and fought to be near him.  Feeling responsible for removing her from her home he watched now in silence and darkness only leaving when his job demanded he do so.  Now the council was calling for him and he was not sure what they wanted this time but he needed to let them know this was a time of peace and they should be more at ease though the hair on the back of his neck was now standing on end.  He was stopped in the hall by Sandreal, “Lord Xander” she bowed to him and he nodded to her in return.  “The oracle is calling for you.”

He entered the large room and sat on the cushion on one side of the room.  Sandreal moved to unhook the screen that hung from the center of the room and let it fall to the ground with a near silent swoosh.  Shortly after he could see the oracle through the near see through screen enter the room.  She made her way over to the cushion on the opposite side of the screen.  “Xander, thank you for coming.” He smiled and bowing low placing his hands palms up on the floor before him for a moment he sat back up and nodded saying “The honor is mine Oracle.”  Without waiting the oracle began, “I have had a vision, Destine is there and so are you.  The both of you are encased in darkness and I see much blood and feel so great a pain.  But I feel that should you choose not to do as the council asks something far worse will happen to the light of the world.  I am going to tell you now you will have a choice soon and it will not be easy for you to decide, this is the time I have long foreseen coming. Just remember there is a light in this world for you that will be open and welcoming if you only accept it.”  The oracle’s eyes rolled back into her head and her body began to sway as she spoke in a surreal voice that echoed in the stillness of the room.  “This worlds light will extinguish there is only one chance to save it with the right decision.”  The voice stopped and the oracle slumped forward Sandreal moved forward rushing to the side of the oracle.  “You should leave no Lord Xander the oracle has spoken and the rest is up to you.” With that she dismissed him and tended to her lady.  Xander stood thinking about all that had been said.  Strange encounters with the oracle were not unheard of but this had been the strangest he had seen.  She had never had a vision while speaking with him.  She had in the past informed him that speaking with him was relaxing for her as she never saw a vision in his presence, so why would she have one now?  

He stepped from the room and his new watchdog had been outside waiting for him.  The male werewolf had been assigned as his new partner slash guardian slash jailer.  The council had become more concerned that he as the last and first of his line would come to an inconvenient end.  His line was special, they manifested so many strengths and developed more as they aged and yet none of this had saved any of his offspring before.  Just the thought made his blood boil in anger.  He did not say a word but nodded as Jones informed him the council was waiting for them.  They rode the lift up to the top of the building and walked down the long corridor to the large double doors that were guarded by a tall willowy woman with flowing green hair that constnatly seemed to be moving as if the wind was blowing in the room. And the second person standing guard was a human dressed in a suit with a book at his side. Obviously to his eye they were a Nymph and a Mage, the latter left a bitter taste in his mouth.  He walked past them and heard the Mage whisper, “That’s the Great Lord Xander right?”  at the Nymphs nod the Mage sucked in his breath.  “No wonder the council won the war of supernatural.  Even I can feel the raw power coming from him.”  He did not hear anything else as the thick double doors closed behind him and he turned his full focus on the council sitting in a semi-circle around the room lifted high off the floor he had always assumed it was to make those standing in front of them feel inferior.  “Alexander Monforie reporting as requested.”  He lifted his right hand over his dead heart and bowed showing respect to the council.  

Seated on the council was Damion Bontifort also a vampire like himself and one of his oldest friends.  They had been born around the same decade and had a bond of friendship. Sisicly Southerland another vampire though she was two hundred and sixety eight years younger than himself she was a strong leader for her clan.  Branden Smith a phantom possessed human, a wraith by the name of Victor, a Dwarf lord with a long beard and only one name Boragdon, there was an Elven lord Minetelos Silvermoon diplomatic lord and advisor to the elven king as well as a Nymph or Nyad Lady Mina Lighten with her hair wet as if she had just stepped from the ocean and her skin luxurious and moist nearly dripping from her fingers rounded up the council of the Supernatural world.  These seven made the laws of the races and it was his job to ensure they were not broken for no reason.  The members nodded and then Damion spoke, the head of the council spoke, “Xander, there is a mission that requires your expertise.  If you accept you will be delivered your mission objectives by your handler.  Will you accept the mission?”  Xander had listened to his old acquaintance and when he had finished speaking Xander took the time to think.”this is a time of peace, is the supernatural world really in danger?”  As he spoke the oracle entered the room and was quickly ushered forward to the center of the room and standing beside him he was not surprised that her face was covered by a chiffon scarf.  She interrupted the meeting and without bowing she said in a voice that reverberated with power born of age and blood and the sound of it turned ones blood to crystallized ice while burning all at the same time.  “That which makes us what we are is about to end.  Exposure threatens and a cure that will save will be twisted to destroy another.  Destruction and devastation the likes of which one cannot even begin to imagine.  The Four horsemen ride and all of this will come to pass if one step is missed.”  Finished the oracle began to collapse and Xander was there to catch her.