A single, solitary tear fell onto the paper, blurring the word 'warning'.  Mara wiped it away, and smeared the word all over the page.

"Aw for pete's sake!!" she said, leaning back into the chair.  She was so frusterated! Why were all these feelings welling up now?? And why was Damon sneaking into her dreams? And ten years AFTER the fact?  It didn't make any sense!  "Dammit!" she shouted to the ceiling. "You think you can just waltz into my life 10 year after you've died?? After I've learned to live with the pain?? NO!! No...it just doesn't..." Mara could feel her anger starting to diminish.  "It just doesn't work that way."  She realized that she was now standing, and slumped to the floor, feeling hopeless.  Then finally, she let the tears come.  "Why do you still make me cry?" she asked herself almost silently.  She felt a drop on her arm, then roll off onto her shirt.  She lowered her head to look at it, then rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. It was raining outside.  She looked out the window from her spot on the floor in utter disbelief.  "No way..."  She jumped up and jogged to the window.  "No WAY.  This is absolutely ridiculous! I can NOT be so upset that it's RAINING..."  Now she was ultimately confused.  "Dammit Damon..." But with that thought, her mind began to wander again.

Gods he was beautiful.  Sandy blonde hair, tall, and built.  Oh, SO built.  But it was his eyes that caught her attention.  Red. He had red eyes.  She knew it wasn't normal, even if normal was a relative term nowadays.  Even with the Disaster phenomenon, the eye colors followed suite in blues, violets, grey, and in some rare cases, gold; no greens to date yet though; but never red...unless you were a demon.  That's why she followed him in the first place.  She knew he had to be a demon.  She thought that he might be a member of BD, and if she found a member alone; though uncommon, it was best to take them out then and there.  So, that became her plan; get rid of him now, so she wouldn't have to deal with him later.

He turned a corner into an alley, and she followed, though slowly.  She began to draw a steady, pulsing aura of khan into her fists, powerful enough to be ready for whatever may happen, but not powerful enough to give her away.  She slinked around the corner to be welcomed by a dark, damp, disgusting, and very empty alley.  There were no dumpsters to hide behind, no doorways to slip into, no fire exits to climb up.  Unless he dissappeared into thin air, (and even for a demon, that was difficult), he wasn't in this alley.  She stopped abruptly and looked back toward the street and realized that the few people that did populate it had vanished, and the place was completely deserted.  How could she not have noticed? Was she getting sloppy?  She spun back to the alley, nothing.  She whirled back to the street, no one.  Deserted.  The khan slowly befan to drain from her hands, "How..." she thought.  Then she felt his hand grasp her tightly.  One around her neck, the other firmly over her mouth.  Gods! He was strong!  Both her hands instantaniously flew to the one around her neck, trying to pull his hand away from her throat, but to no avail.  She let go and ignited her fists in a blaze of khan, hot, powerful waves pulsing through her body.  She swung her arm into the air, letting down a rain of energy blasts; quite powerful ones too.

"That's got to get him" she thought.  It would be the equivilant of acid raining onto mortals.  The bolts hit him and sizzled sickly, she could smell burning leather from his coat.  As soon as she let the bombardment fly, she turned her attention back to the hand around her throat.

"Oh..." he whispered in her ear as he hunched over to protect his head from the shower of khan.  "You can harness your khan, that's rather convincing, this will be fun.  I didn't sense you until you were right behind me.  I must admit...I'm impressed."  He moved with her while she struggled.  "You're good at hiding your power, you have alot of it."

He was beginning to choke her now.  She had to get his hand loose!  She lit up her arm with even more khan, and it began to glow menacingly.  She tried to elbow him in the gut, but he caught her firey arm right above the elbow with a third arm of his own.  Not all that uncommon with demons, but unexpected nonetheless.  She struggled to get free; her only remaining arm pulling on his hand around her throat to stop the bruising grip he had on her.

"You're Mara, aren't you?"  he asked quietly over her groans, staring down into her green eyes from a good foot above her head.  Now she was positive that he was Black Diamond, how else would he know who she was?  It also surged her anger.  Where did they pick up THIS powerful of a demon??  She didn't have to hold back, yet she couldn't must the strength that she knew she needed!  He didn't take his eyes off her, and she couldn't break his stare, so naturally, she noticed a fire in his eyes; but it wasn't rage...it was passion.  The bastard was enjoying this a little too much.

She began to muster as much khan as she could, it slowly emenated off of her and grew.  When she began, the waves of power infected the air around them, giving the alley an almost zero-gravity effect; his coattails, her hair, loose papers, everything hovered slightly.

"Well, now there's no doubt who you are."  He said with a twinge of surprise in his voice.  He hadn't expected her to show this much power. She let go of the hand around her neck momentarily, once she gathered all the khan she could muster, (without weakening herself so much that she would have problems getting away), and thrust her elbow into his gut.  Deep into it.  He let out a low grunt, coursely inhaling, and coughing as he exhaled.  She began to wind up to hit him again, but a fourth arm shot out of his side, and grabbed her last defense, then he tightened his grip on everything.  She began to sputter, and tried to cough, but the hand over her mouth prevented it.  The bubble of air shot back down her throat, and she began to gag.  She struggled to get free, pulling on his arms, and twisting her body around like a worm on hot pavement, but she could feel her strength slipping away from her.

"My, aren't you a strong one?  I really am very impressed."   He looked down at her face, "and so pretty too."  She tried once more to get away but her body had been drained from the failed power-up attempt, and lack of air.  "You know," he said as he gripped her tighter, "you are not making this any easier on youself; I can feel your power failing."  She knew that he was right, and finally, she stopped stuggling all together.  "Whoops.." he said as she fell limp, and as he let go of her, she dropped to the floor.

  She just lay ther for a moment, unable to move.  Her eyes were closed and at first he must have suspected her to be dead.  "Aww man...way to be inconspicuous..." she heard him say.  "All you had to do was walk, you knew she'd find you; you're a demon for the love of god."  Her stomach did a back-flip; HE had been searching for HER!  He crouched down next to her, and upon closer inspection, realized she was breathing; it was shallow, and slow, but steady.  "Oh Jesus...thank god."  He whispered.  She felt him pick her up, and for reasons FAR beyond rationality, she felt safe.

"How exactly would a demon go about being inconspicuous?" She asked weakly.  He smiled, and looked down at her those beautiful eyes.

"You'll be fine, you're just weak.  But I have to say, even though I took a beating from you, I'm glad I found you first."  He said quietly.

"Who else..." she topped to take in some air, "...is it Black Diamond?" she asked, half in a daze, half out.

"Don't worry about it, I'll keep you safe, you rest."  He said, then inhaled deeply, "Ah!" He jumped suddenly. "Damn girl, you broke a rib.  You cause serious pain, now I know why they're after you."  But Mara had already passed out.

She pulled herself out of memory lane, and her fingers traced thier way to the scar he had left on her nck that night.  Later she realized it was because he had to use his khan to keep her under wraps, and it had burned her neck.  Abruptly, it began to glow, and burn under her touch.

"Yah!" she yelped and pulled her hand away.  "That's weird, it's never done that before."  she thought.  She made her way to a mirrir on the grimy wall by the door.  She pulled back her hair, to reveal the scar, it was still glowing, but the burning had begun to subside.  "How in the hell?" she murmered to herself, stroking the abnormality on her neck.  Just as suddenly as the burn had begun, she felt a presence.  The presence felt strangely familiar.  "It can't be."  She thought to herself.  "There's no way."  She then worked her way back towards the window, closed her eyes, and slowly put her fingertips to the glass, surging small amounts of khan through them as she did.  "I wonder if contact is possible..." Griff would have her head for this.  She had many enemies in Blue Haven, and in this particular portion of the galaxy, putting out her location probably wasn't the best idea in the world, but she had to try.

She felt the power welling up and gliding to her fingertips, her hair was beginning to stand on end from the energy.  "You're out there, aren't you?" she whispered, almost inaudibly. She felt a power surge coming from the west, taking on a 'wind voice'.

It seemed to come up out of nothingness.  She looked to the right of her, cocking her head slightly without opening her eyes.  She pulled her head back to center, and paused.  Should she try to make full contact?  Whatever this thing was, it wanted to get through to her, and it was trying, hard.  She ignored Griff's voice in the back of her mind, and slowly lowered her palm to the glass, putting down more spiritual receptors.  "This is dangerous..." she thought, "who knows who this might be?"  Anyone who was even partially connected to their khan and paying attention could feel her now.  They could probably follow the telekinetic path right to her.

Suddenly, a white-hot light flashed in her mind, and began to burn through her fingers, and into her palm.  She winced, but did not pull her hand away.  "Damon?"  She said without making a sound.  Seemingly, from the outside it looked as if she were insane, unless you were in her head.  "Where are you?"  She asked quietly.  She realized her voice was trembling from the pain that was now slowly gliding up her arm.  No response came, so she tried once more, a little louder.  "Damon?"  This was ridiculous!  She had no reason to believe that this was him!  She, Mara herself, had buried him!  She sait quiet for another moment, then the pain her arm started to become a piercing, stabbing pain; horrible, but not unbearable.  She didn't pull her hand away.

There was no doubt about it now. This was definetly a demon's connection she had intercepted, no other connection could burn like this.  Then, the pain got to her.

"DAMON!" she screamed, and pressed her hand against the glass.  The sudden increase in khan made a strong pulse of spiritual energy that hoverd around her in a halo, then quickly fanned out in a circle, imploding the window.  A sharp piece cut her arm, but she kept her hand up.  Shards of glass floated aimlessly, held there by her khan, as if time had slowed down; then another flash of light, only much brighter and hotter.  She was flung backwards from the window a good six feet and landed painfuly on her back, barely missing the corner of the wall.

She lay on the floor a moment to regain her composure, glass strewn all over the room.  The connection had been severed.  She sat up shortly after, and examined her hand.  It wasn't burnt, neither was her arm, but they sure felt like they had been.  Shivers raked her body as she stood, wavering slightly.  She caught sight of her reflection in the mirror, and realized she was sweating.

"Sweating, but freezing...that's probably not a good sign."  She picked up a rag from the sink, and wrapped her arm in it where the shard had done it's damage.  She walked over to get a glass, and filled it with luke-warm water; she was really dehydrated.  Her ears were ringing, she could feel a migraine coming on, and her arm was on fire.  She scanned the room for painkillers, taking a swig of water as she did.

Suddenly, there was an intense banging at the door.  "Hello??" A man from outside shouted, "Are you alright? We heard a scream!"  Mara nearly choked on the water, spurting some of it on the floor.  She shot the door a dirty look, then wiped her chin dry.

Immediately, she stopped scanning for painkillers and started scanning for pants.  She found a pair slung over the end of the bed.  "Where is Sakuya?" she asked herself, "she should have been back by now."

"Hey! I asked if you were alright!  The window shattered, what's going on?"  the man screamed again, incessantly continuing to pound on the door.

"HANG ON."  Mara yelled while putting her legs into the ratty, old jeans, spilling some water out of the glass as she did.  She hopped to get them up over her butt, and began to sip them.  The, just as quickly as it had started, the rapping stopped.  There was a shuffle, accompanied by a nasty word Mara couldn't make out, then three small, light knocks on the door.  She recognized the voice immediately.

"Mara hunny? It's me. Open up." It was Sakuya.

"Thank god." Mara thought.  It's about time, what did she go do?  "I'm comin'!" She stated loudly as she made her way to the door.

She put her hand on the door knob, and began to open it.  "What citizen of Blue Haven are you that you would actually be concerned about another human's well..."  Mara's voice trailed off as the door swung open to it's fullest extent, revealing the three occupants of the hall behind it.  "...being......" she finished as she dropped the glass of water in astonishment.  Standing behind a man Mara had never seen before, and to the side of Sakuya's delicate frame...was Damon.