Valundra was beautiful. It could not be argued for it was the simple truth and, if anyone tried, s/he would only draw attention to her or his own imperfections.

Her flesh was paler than ivory and bore no blemish. Her lips, exquisitely shaped, were a crimson only a few shades lighter than the blood that flowed beneath her marble skin. Her eyes were truly matchless: large, slightly slanted, and fringed with long and thick black lashes, they looked as though blood had been poured into her irises and then set to flame – flames, it must be added, that were never put out. Her black eyebrows were cleanly separated, with no stray hairs between them, and began thick and close to the eyes and the bridge of her nose, rising away to gradually thin out until the last few hairs stood in single file half an inch away from her temples.

Her hair? Imagine the blackest of all nights were plucked from the sky in strands and placed upon her head; imagine further that the stars were liquefied and injected into each strand, and that the light is inconstant: silvery shimmers in the purest black. That was Valundra’s hair. Long, parted perfectly in the middle, and pin-straight but for the ends which curled upwards. Her hair was uneven, but perfectly so, for two curls hung just under her chin to frame her oval face. Two more curls sat just above her shapely breasts whose nipples and areolas bore the same crimson as her sensual lips. Another set of two curls snaked their way around a tiny waist, settling several inches apart to decorate the domain of a belly defined by a deep navel and an elegant abdominal curve that led to the richly curled down of her pubic region. The longest of her hair reached a well-formed and rounded rear, and curled around her wide round hips. With large breasts, a tiny waist, and a curved belly to join her wide hips, Valundra was voluptuous.

Her legs were long and slim, as were her feet and toes. Her hands were almost delicate and her fingers were long, thin, and finely-tapered. The nails, clear as glass, gleamed, bearing the most subtle of points. Her smooth neck was as her limbs, long and slim, but it was strong enough to support her impeccable face. Her cheekbones were high, bringing even more notice to her eyes, and her slender nose dipped in at the bridge and out again to straighten all the way to its rounded tip.

It should be noted here that, although the girl was beautiful beyond question, something in her looks suggested a darkness to her nature. Perhaps it was the slight point of her glassy nails, or the night black of her hair; maybe it was the almost blood-red of her lips and nipples or that the position of her hair’s upturned curls was almost sinister. Most probably, it was the colour and slant of her eyes coupled with an almost marquis shape of her pupils. This was accented by her eyebrows and by faint lines above them and on the bridge of her nose, signifying that she was quick to anger and that certain death might come to those who angered her sufficiently. That was Valundra: beautiful and deadly.

Valundra used no art to achieve her loveliness, yet some would hesitate to say she was a natural beauty for that would imply that Valundra was natural. Well, whether a creature such as Valundra was natural or not, who can say? But her beauty was not artificial, and she was not human. Her red eyes were surely proof enough, but it was what lay behind those crimson lips that was the true evidence.

Teeth the tint of purest white marble and as lustrous as pearl; the front teeth normal, flat incisors. The next four, however – although they might be mistaken for misshapen incisors – were an extra set of canines in place of the teeth that should have been there, which were not incredibly noticeable with almost rounded points. But the main set of canines were dagger-shaped, razor-sharp, and longer than most human canines. These teeth lengthened when it was time to drink, upper canines protruding onto the bottom lip. The drink was blood, of course, for vampires can feed on nothing else without being violently sick; preferably human blood as it contains more nutrients for a vampire. Such was Valundra: creature of the night, flesh too pale for the sun’s glow, tears of blood, and an ability to become a bat.

Now, Valundra was not evil; she never enjoyed feeding on blood, particularly human’s, and she hated being a vampire even though it meant never falling ill and no scarring since a change from woman to bat and vice versa would completely cure almost any physical injury. But Valundra had not always been a dweller of the dark, no, she was born human.

Indeed, there had been a time when her flesh was slightly darker than ivory and when a blemish might appear on occasion; a time when a blush would pinken, and sometimes redden, her cheeks; a time when her lips and nipples were a much lighter shade of red. Her nails had been rounded and translucent with a faint gleam, her eight front teeth had all been incisors and her four canines had been of no particular notice and did not lengthen. Her hair had shone, but did not quite shimmer, and the length had been fairly even with most of the hair curling at her rear, but for those strands that had been damaged. It had been a time when no anger lines helped to define her eyes, for she hadn’t angered often enough, but a smile did often grace her face. It had been a time when her eyes were not fiery rings, but warm, inviting black pearls. That was a long time ago. She had been fifteen then, and although she looked no more than eighteen now, she was at least in her nineties.

Mind, vampires and other shapeshifters do age, but only if they bear offspring and their offspring continue the line. It’s here that some misconceptions should be cleared up. A cross or any other symbol will not kill a vampire or even frighten one away. The myth was perpetuated by the Church to make its people believe it had absolute power and could protect them from anything. Garlic will not kill a vampire, but – as mentioned – it will make them vomit. Blood drunk from a person who has just consumed garlic will not harm a vampire in any way.

The sun will not turn a vampire to dust, but as little as three hours in full sunlight can cause third degree burns. This is due to a complete lack of melanin in the skin. A very cloudy day is usually fine, especially if dark clothes are worn. The reason for such pale flesh is the bat alter ego. Bats feed at night and are covered with dark fur; thus, on the rare occasion that they should venture into sunlight, their flesh is hidden from it. To avoid burns – burns that can be completely healed by the change, but are painful nonetheless – most vampires choose not to walk in sunlight, and this helps with the slow aging factor. Suntans as well as sunburns damage and age the skin, and since vampires keep to the dark and can heal quite easily, their skin has no damage and they remain young-looking.

But the main reason vampires and any other shapeshifter live so long is that, in combining human and animal, Nature cannot decide which lifespan to give the creature, so the shapeshifter is virtually immortal and invincible. Only through conception, and having one’s descendants conceive, is the body reminded that it must age and die, but the reminder only lasts two years each time, after the mother in question should have stopped breast-feeding.

The near invincibility is once again a result of indecision because of the combination. Evolution is the slow change of one species adapting to changes in its environment to become another; cross-breeding is the copulation of two different species to create another. A chimaera is a creature formed from the parts of different species. Shapeshifting is quite different. When the shapeshifter changes, the body reverts back on the evolutionary scale to a common ancestor of the human and the animal in question. It then travels back up through evolution to take on the other form. In this way, it’s as though the body is reborn, so any injuries that were suffered simply disappear. Add to that the combined immunities, speed, strength, and special features of human and animal, and here is a creature (vampire in this case) who is very hard to kill indeed.

But as suggested they can be killed either by serious injury coupled with a prevention of change, or by the heart or brain being seriously damaged. Otherwise they can die of old age if their line goes long enough. True, many tried and few succeeded in killing one alone. But when a mob of humans greatly outnumbered one or more shapeshifters, the latter usually ended up captured and killed or killed on the spot. Since very few humans tolerated any shapeshifter, much less those who fed on them, all shapeshifters found it necessary to hide their alter egos. It was a shame really, that humans could not accept what they knew so little about. Of all shapeshifters, very few needed humans to survive, and those who did were very careful about the humans they chose. Humans who wanted to die, humans who deserved to die, humans who were freshly dead, humans who had no reason to live, and humans who were about to die were the usual prey.

Contrary to popular belief, the vampire was not a life-draining being of lust and sadism. No, in Valundra’s mind the bat’s inbred memories echoed: tiny, naked, helpless, pink newborns burrowing into their mother’s warm fur for life-giving milk; some orphaned and taken in by those who could care for them; strong bats lapping more blood than necessary to bring back to those who were not as fortunate; the whole colony huddling together for warmth and comfort in their roost during the day; rising at night to a world of black and silver and sending echoes of sound to find sleeping animals whose blood would sustain them for the day. Many animals are compassionate by nature and all but the human are innocent; the vampire bat is no exception.

They prefer the blood of other animals to human blood, but vampires must drink human blood to sustain their human half; if one half fell, the whole creature would die. Thus, vampires drink human blood only because they have to. Very few shapeshifters are evil, and those who are, are so because of the human half, not the animal. But Valundra had been born into a time where people followed the Church’s word without question, and the Church taught that the human body was made in God’s likeness. They thought it the devil’s work that a human should take an animal shape and forsake their God-given one, and that anyone suspected of having this ability should be destroyed. Born into wealth, human, and sheltered by her mother, Valundra had never thought much of it, but certainly she was raised to follow the Church and she diligently obeyed.