Blindly, he ran, tears of betrayal clouding his vision. His heart blocked his throat, threatening to choke him. His shallow breathing came in ragged gasps - each one more biting than the last, causing stars to flare into existence on his corneas. But nothing mattered now except escape. Escape from the one he'd trusted more than anyone. Escape from the one he'd pledged his life to. The one who had nearly killed him.

He ran as fast as he could through the damp, fetid alleyways searching for hope and redemption. Ran as fast as he could with the breath-stealing burning in his side that seeped an ugly heartbreaking red. He didn't know how much farther his body would take him, but he had to get away. Had to get away from the grief and pain he had been dealt. Even as he stumbled and fell, his mind cried out for him to continue moving. To get away this wasn't far enough. Scratch would still find him still choke the life out of him for fleeing. His head thwacked on the pavement, and his bloodied lips let loose a small groan. His legs uselessly scrambled for purchase on the piss-soaked concrete as his hands tried to claw their way to freedom. His mind fought to form a coherent thought, something that would help him escape from Scratch, but nothing managed to slip past his blinding, hateful pain except for the futile, repetitious litany of "I don't want to die; Don't let Scratch kill me."

After an eternity of unfocused images swimming through his mind, something tried to surface. A warning bell klaxoned and tried to alert him to an unknown presence. Someone was close-by. Someone who meant him ill. He struggled to open his eyes and focus, but the fog that engulfed his brain ate away at his vision. "Scratch?" he croaked past dry, cracked lips. "Don't kill me, Scratch. I'm sorry. I don't want to die, Scratch. Please don't kill me." But the figure wasn't Scratch or the pleas fell on deaf ears as once more the pain embraced him, lancing up through the vein in his neck. His body convulsed, his hands instinctively trying to rid him of the excruciating, beautiful torment pulsing just below his jaw. He vainly tried to scream, but only managed a bloody gurgle deep in his throat. The roar of his life-blood rushing from the fresh wound drowned out the sounds of the surrounding night, and Kiol's body surrendered to the vampire's kiss.