• *****
    “Well, what a bloody mess.” I commented when we reached the entrance gate. The gate swung on it’s hinges, wide open. Blood from the cut throats on the two guards lying face down on the gravel spilled down onto the cement, staining the rocks and ground it passed. Mouth dry, I bent down and dipped my fingers in a pool collecting near my feet. The blood swirled around my mouth, quenching my parched tongue and cooling the burning questions in my mind. The hunter grimaced, causing me to smirk.
    “Let me get this straight. You want to be one of my kind, but the sight of seeing me consume blood bothers you, I’d even say disgusts? Aren’t you just a walking contradiction? Here, have a taste.”
    I held my blood soaked fingers out to her, shooing aside her guards, but she didn’t move. She continued to glare at me with a hatred rivaling Catherina’s. Being saved by a vampire couldn’t have sat well with her. The guard to her left inched forwards and then brought my fingers to his mouth, licking every trace of the red nectar from my skin. The hunter didn’t seem to believe what she was witnessing and turned away, lip twitching in despise. I laughed, taking my hand back from the guard and ordering him to clean up the mess around us. His companions and him immediately began and I grabbed the hunter’s hand, drawing her closer.
    “It doesn’t hurt.” I whispered, my hair falling on to her shoulder and my fangs just inches from the tender flesh on her neck. I was so thirsty. “At least, that’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know from experience of course.” She yanked herself away and my fangs hung exposed, still aware of the skin that had rested beneath them just instants before.
    “You just risked your life to become one of my kind. Why are you recoiling from my offer?” I asked, sucking on my own finger, desperate for a trace of blood to satisfy my thirst.
    “It’s not an offer. It’s a tease. You have no intention of changing me, monster.” I shrugged and nodded. There stood no reason to deny what she had concluded. It was the truth after all. I turned from her, fingers removed from my mouth after searching in vain, and I gazed at the vast lush land spread out before me. Catherina certainly had exquisite taste.
    “Take me to her.” The hunter’s heart skipped a beat.
    “Who?” She asked pointlessly. I knew she understood my question, but, seeing no point in pointing out that fact, I answered.
    “Your sister.” The hunter tensed and I smirked. She still held a blade on her, infused with witch magic to kill me upon piercing my heart. She proved herself well prepared, another reason to meet her sister.
    “Why?”
    “I may be able to save her from her fate. Purebloods occasionally pocess that power.”
    “And what power is that?” The hunter asked, skeptically.
    Even with all her training, she’d never learned of the skill I spoke of. Good. My kind kept this particular ability very secret, a heavily guarded secret punishable by deletion if revealed. Luckily, I didn’t fear the COV (Congress of Vampires). They couldn’t catch me if they wanted to.
    “Take me to her and I’ll show you.” I tempted.
    She rose an eyebrow at me. I chuckled. “I don’t kill my own kind, hunter. Even if your sister wasn’t born like me, she is like me now. That’s all that matters to my kind.” She cringed at the mention of her sister’s regression from being human, but seemed convinced. Even if she didn’t take me to her, I’d find her sister eventually. Curiosity could convince one to do the dumbest things imaginable.
    “Fine...” She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the necessary oxygen, and I watched it pass her lips with mild intrigue. I’d never needed a breath. What did it feel like to constantly need a supply of air? Catching my interest, she halted the instinct and continued our conversation.
    “I’ll take you to her. She’s not far from here, a short drive into the hills.”
    “Secret lab, right?” The hunter gave me another annoyed glare, but nodded. “I figured as much. You captured one of my friends a couple of months ago, a young vampire girl with dark green streaks in her hair and two lip piercings.” The hunter’s eyes fluttered for an instant as she thought and then she nodded, finding amongst her memories what she wanted.
    “Number 6-3-8-5-4-2. She killed three of my men.”
    “Jocelyn.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Her name, it wasn’t that spray of numbers. Her name was Jocelyn. I found her in the mountains just before she died and she told me where the lab is. We’ll take one of Helen’s cars. She won’t mind.” I stated firmly, heading for the garage where Helen kept all of her corvettes and lamborgini’s. The hunter dashed in front of me, one hand on her hips, and I almost stumbled into her. Upon regaining my composure, I glared at her, nearly eye level and not appreciating the motion.
    “I don’t think so leech.” I smiled. So original, the hunters these days. I’ve lost count of how often I’ve been called that. “We’ll take my car.” I let out a heartless laugh and a flock of birds scrambled from a tree to our left, rising into the brightening sky in a panic.
    “Uh, no. First thing, it’s a hunter’s car. If anyone sees me, they’ll get the wrong idea and secondly, your car doesn’t have window coverings. See that?” My finger pointed steadily at the light erupting over the hill tops. “That’s called the sun and I’m a vampire. Sun and vampire don’t mix. Now we either take Helen’s car or we flit there. Which do you prefer?” The answer was obvious immediately.

    The woods in the mountains were still asleep as I weaved along the twisting roads, Helen’s blood red sport’s car operating perfectly under my swift reflexes. Nervous as ever and on her guard, the hunter twisted in her leather seat beside me, hands wrapped around the hilt of her blade stashed in her boot. She kept her eyes on the road after surrendering to the simple fact that she couldn’t see out the side tinted windows. The front view wasn’t much better, but at least she could make out the harshest images. Her pounding heart thudded in my ears and ran my tongue along the dry edges of my mouth, fingers digging in my pocket. Straight blood didn’t sustain my kind for very long. We needed either the pills or live prey and I didn’t drink the animals fleeing in the forest from the sound of the car approaching.
    I popped off the top of the pill container, carefully disguised as a thing of mints, and slipped two into my mouth, puncturing my wrist with my fangs to allow the pills to slip down.
    The wound healed instantly as I pulled it away, but the sweet, metallic smell remained. The hunter, grimacing and body tensing, lowered her window, allowing a flood of fresh air into the stuffy car, pushing out the blood scent as I licked away the blood still clinging to my wrist.
    “I’m sure there’s an air freshener in here somewhere.” I teased and she spun on me, repulsion painted on her face. “Suit yourself.”
    A moment of silence passed us once more and I noticed the human struggling with expressing something. I understood perfectly. Despite my positiveness that I could kill her before she killed me, having an armed hunter next to me didn’t exactly register on my good idea meter. I doubted she felt any better. We weren’t farther then a mile from the subterranean lab. As long as nothing happened, it’d all go according to plan.
    “Why do you take those pills? The vampires I’ve interrogated all confessed that they are unsatisfying and occasionally cause illness varying from stomach aches to extreme migraine and vomiting.”
    “Well, aren’t you brilliant? Would you rather I take a bite out of you?” I suggested and, in one fluid movement, she drew her blade. Stupid human. “Calm down. You wouldn’t be any use to me dead anyway.”
    “Why?” She asked, warily. “You claim to already know the lab’s location. What use could you have for me?”
    “If you didn’t know the answer to that question, why’d you get in the car?” She blinked, amazed and caught off guard.
    “I don’t deny that the promise of healing my sister blinded my judgment-”
    “Don’t get the wrong idea. I may be able to keep her from the F phase, maybe even return her to her prey-hunting-the-predator status, but the vampiric urge will never leave her. Hope you like your steak rare.”
    “At least she’ll be my sister again.” The hunter confessed in despair and desperation. She’d do anything. Easy prey and yet, I wasn’t drawn to her like I commonly found myself attracted to easy prey. Something about her didn’t feel right. She hadn’t thought this through and that wasn’t like hunters. Something didn’t feel right at all.
    “I don’t give a crap either way. No matter the outcome, I’ll be keeping in touch to make sure there’s no potentially dangerous side effects.”
    “NO!” The hunter demanded, raising the blade and a fierceness erupting in her eyes. “You’ll leave her and me alone after this.”
    “Or what? You’ll kill me? Go ahead.” She froze. “Kill me, stab me, one quick jab won’t kill me. Come on. Prove you’re serious. Prove that you’re truly a fearsome hunter.”
    The mocking proved too much for her. She jabbed at me, but before it made contact, my right hand snatched her wrist and twisted at lightening speed. She gasped, dropped the blade as she pulled away, and, clinging to her aching hand, scowled at me while I twirled the blade in my hand, just beyond her reach.
    “You’re slow, predictable, and, quite frankly, stupid. Hold the blade loose, but improve your reaction time so you hold it tighter when I try to take it. Don’t immediately go for your goal, either. Wait for an opportunity and then strike at your main target. The prize is always worth the wait.” I returned the blade and she took it, furious, but returning the shinning metal to her boots. Smart girl.
    “Why are you keeping me alive?” She asked, eyes returned to staring blankly out the window, the scent of pine and wet earth wafting in to the car. The air fluttered the hunter’s hair, making her look younger, easing the harsh lines on her consistently tense face. Had I once been human, I may have felt sorry for her fate, destined to hunt my kind until her death.
    “I doubt your sister will cooperate with you dead, even in her twisted state.” The hunter sneered at me and I shrugged, unaffected. Stupid humans. No concepts beyond what they were told to believe.
    “So what? You’ll get her to cooperate and then kill me?”
    “You whine like a newborn.” I groaned, fingers stroking my eyelids as we rose higher, nearly reaching the mountain’s peak. “You’re still alive. Would you like me to change that?”
    More silence.
    I came to a stop at the end of the road, trees blocking our progress and lifted myself out the open window, resting comfortably on the door. As the hunter went to open her door, I held up a hand, my eyes darting around the silent woods, sun filtering in through the treetops. She froze and joined me in my silent evaluation of the territory. I inhaled deeply through my nose and a rush of images connected to the scents floating in the air erupted in my head. Eyes closed, I filtered through them, searching.
    Three teenage boys smoking pot. A curious twenty year old, new to the neighborhood and wondering where this rode led. A middle aged man walking an aging black lab. Two hunters, trailed by hunters in training (fresh bloods as my kind mockingly labeled them) descending into the lab, cautious and timid, glancing constantly over their shoulders. They sensed a vampire’s presence, but were unaware of it being below their feet not above. The visions blurring into nothing, I was released from them and, smirking, bent down to speak with the hunter.
    “The Tribunance, they attempted to kill your sister.”
    The hunter, eyes set before her, dug her nails into the flesh of her palm until they pierced the veins, knuckles white and blood collecting in her nails. A pain rivaling that plastered on her face when she confessed her sisters fate overcame her and I, engulfed by the tempting scent of her red blood, slipped away from the car. A moment later, she got out herself and joined me through the woods.
    Still wet and soggy from the rain of a few days ago, the leaves and twigs merely collapsed beneath our feet, absorbing our weight welcomingly. With the rising sun, more birds and other creatures woke from their nocturnal state and my skin dissolved into goose bumps, trepidation at what was coming flowing through me. Sun, why the freakin sun!
    I picked up my pace, a steady walk for me, a near run for the hunter. She began to gasp for breath as I broke into a jog and had to sprint to keep pace with me. Her pounding heart didn’t help. How long since my last meal? My fangs sharpened, piercing the skin of my lip. Why didn’t the pills ever seem to actually help me? Even when I was a child, the pills only managed to block off the need while they floated around my tongue. The second I plunged them into my stomach, the effects vanished and the lust returned. Other purebloods discovered themselves to be pretty much immune to the pills, but I certainly didn’t like being a part of that group. The rarity of those cases only added to the insult. I was a pureblood and a strong, honorable one at that. I had no right to have this defect.
    I stopped at a seemingly unchanged spot in the forest. The trees were just as vastly spaced, allowing all those walking through to see for a good hundred feet. The leaves were thick under foot and even the smell was the same, the same sweet, heavy scent of damp wood. The hunter nearly collapsed beside me as she caught up, holding a stitch in her side and gasping horrendously for hair. The blood on her palms had collected to block off the wound and the blood collected under her nails had lost it’s strong odor, but her pounding heart still invited a taste and the fangs continued to shrink and lengthen, an urge I’d need to quench soon.
    As if to remind me of the urgency of the whole situation, the leaves parted for a moment, allowing a strip of sun light to cascade down upon my back. I recoiled, hissing, grasping my shoulder and the hunter tensed, hand on her blade. Realization dawned on her face and she rushed forwards, throwing open the covering of the lab, leaves and broken twigs falling to the side. The metal trapdoor creaked when she tossed it aside and stood back to allow me inside, an insistent look on her face. I dove inside, the skin on my back stinging as if I’d just pressed it to hot metal. The hunter followed me, shutting the door behind her and plunging us into darkness, blissful darkness.
    Cold air pressed against my face and the burn forming on my back cooled until only a mild throbbing remained. The hunter slipped past me, uneasy and one hand clasped tightly around her neck. After a moment of her fingers passing blindly along the wall which I could barely see as a deep gray block, she connected with the light switch and flicked it up. Illumination flooded the space and I waited patiently for my pupils to retract. Once my sight returned, I looked around, the hunter turning on countless computers resting on silver, metal tables.
    The room was a bit larger then I expected, capable of housing at least fifty people comfortably. The walls were lined with books, tables, computers, counters, hanging shelves, and glass cases containing odd medical devices and organs in grotesque liquids. A large, flat table nailed to the floor rested in the middle of the room and the lights built into the ceilings nearly reflected themselves off the blinding silver top. Needles and labeled glass bottles filled with clear liquid had been set up on a tray beside the table. Straps dangled ominously from the edges. An operating table, perhaps for those unwilling to be dissected.
    “Put your sister on this?” I asked and touched the table lightly. It was ice cold. The hunter spun on me, furious once more. Was there anything I said that didn’t piss her off?
    “Of course not! I only use that for cases that the Tribunance wants to examine themselves.”
    “Right, right. When you’re playing nice. Got it.”
    I turned away from the table, vampire blood radiating from it and filling my nose and allowed my eyes to come to a stop on a pair of glass doors leading down a light filled hallway lined with doors. A quick tapping revealed that it was glass proof. Reeling back, I plunged my fist into the material and was nearly sent stumbling. The hunter stood still, smirking, as I steadied myself and decided to explain.
    “It’s a new blast door designed by the Tribunance. It’s unbreakable and bullet proof. Even the strongest vampire’s couldn’t break in or out.” She said proudly. I groaned and rose an eyebrow at the identification pad beside the door.
    “You know,” I mumbled, bending down and popping off the bottom of the machine, “You don’t need to break the defensive line to defeat the army.” I yanked at a yellow wire and the doors opened. The hunter’s jaw dropped, stunned. “Yep.”
    I strolled through and the hunter angrily followed, still fuming over my technological knowledge. I breathed in deeply and scowled. There were other vampires beside her sister that were confined in these cells. Small windows had been imbedded into the metal doors and a weak vampire boy, eyes drooping and exhausted, looked up as we passed.
    “You didn’t mention your other victims.” I accused.
    “You didn’t ask.” She countered.
    “So, you keep your own sister in these prisons.”
    “It’s for her own safety.”
    “Bull s**t.” I spat and stopped in front of a door bearing a metal plaque reading 438. A body stirred in the back of the room, but the vampire in this one was better off then her comrades. She could sleep on the bed or read a book or curl up on the tiny lazy boy that her sister had provided. A door off to the side no doubt led to a bathroom.
    Beneath a mass of filthy black hair, a pair of blood eyes looked up at me, head tilted to one side and a book held in her hands. The blue-gray dress hung limp on her deprived frame. She was starving.
    “Hello.” I offered and the vampire pushed back her face to reveal a drawn face, desperate, but strong.
    “I am Ruth Tilani, a fellow vampire. What’s your name?” The hunter gave me an incredulous look, but I held up my hand. She fell silent.
    No response. I stuck out my hand and mouthed “key” to the hunter. She attempted to defy my order, but I grabbed her hand, pressing it onto the finger print identification and the door slipped open. Just as quickly, I dashed inside, shooting a mental shot at the door and forcing it shut. The task caused me to stumble, but I still managed a smirk at the hunter. She pounded on the finger print identification, but the door wouldn’t budge. She yelled at me and I shut the window, busy and attention turning to the girl.
    “Hello vampire newbie.” She smiled weakly, still curled sideways on the chair. I stayed near the door, giving her space. She didn’t trust me yet. I needed to approach her cautiously.
    “Your captor said your name is Agatha, but that was the human. Does the vampire have a different name?” She watched me carefully. I doubt the hunter knew my kind changed their names after being changed. It’d been tradition for so long, I wasn’t sure if this girl would know to do it instinctively.
    “Tamara.” She whispered. Her voice was harsh and dry. She needed blood.
    “Tamara... a powerful name. Is Agatha dead?” The answer to this question was important. How much did Agatha still live in the vampire gazing back at me?
    “She died a long time ago.” Tamara confessed. Good. I could handle a vampire that accepted what she was far better then one who still clung to the human half of herself.
    “You do realize what will happen to you?” F phase. It couldn’t be avoided if she remained a vampire.
    “Yes.”
    “Do you want to leave?”
    “Yes.”
    “You’ll never see Rina again.”
    “I know.”
    “And that’s okay?”
    “Yes. She was Agatha’s sister, not mine. I have no family.”
    “I’m afraid you’re wrong there.” She blinked at me, confused. “You’re a vampire and, ignoring the fact that you were changed by someone I can’t stand, that fact alone makes you family. So long as you don’t betray me or my friends, you’re part of my family, at least until you get on your own two feet.”
    There seemed to be no response to that. She merely nodded and I dared to approach her. Coming to a stop before the couch, I held out a hand that she took shakily, hands’ thin.
    “You need blood.” I commented, stating the obvious. She nodded once more and rose to her feet, wobbling and unsteady. The pounding on the door caught her attention. Her pupil’s dilated. She’d just realized how close the blood behind that door was. The book slipped smoothly from her grasp.
    “You’re aiming a little too high at the moment.” I mumbled leading her to the bathroom. Her eyes never wavered from the door and the sound of Rina banging herself against it. Hunger was etched on every line on her face, her hands like vibrators in my own, desperate and thirsty.
    “A hunter’s blood, at least those who descend from witches trained to kill our kind, is the sweetest, most powerful blood there is. It’s intoxicating, mind numbing, and, if you lack the control necessary, lethal in many cases. Many perfectly edible hunters have been discarded because the risk was too high to the vampire who slayed the hunter in the first place. What a waste...”
    Once I had her in the bathroom, she calmed a bit. The shaking weakened until, to the unobservant eye, she appeared to have stopped completely. The warm water seemed to help and steam clouds rose from the tub as it filled. I slipped off the rags from her thin body and helped lower her into the clear water. She inhaled deeply as the scalding water touched her flesh, but the grimace soon faded into a smile of internal bliss and she sunk lower into the water until it completely covered her head. My kind doesn’t need air. She remained submerged for several minutes before lifting herself from the embracing silence only to dive in once more as if the air filled world was too much for her. While she remained in her separate world, I examined her carefully, evaluating the damage and the chance of recovery.
    She was thin, Holocaust thin to my kind. Her flesh and muscles clung to her bones, the only form of firm support remaining. Along her chest, the ribs stuck out beneath her skin. The skin itself was blotchy, not the smooth, pale white accustomed to a healthy vampire. Her cheeks were shallow as well as if a spoon had carved out the inner pieces of her mouth. The eyes protruded a bit along with the bones of her hands. She’d need a lot of blood to recover. Starvation... I’d never heard of one of my kind dying from it, but the experience itself so completely destroyed the mind that, if continued for many months, the vampire may be so delusional that the COV decided to have him or her eliminated for the race’s protection. I’d never lost a vampire to that human inflicted illness. Though I didn’t take much pity on vampires who were once human, I wouldn’t loose Tamara. She could be useful later.
    Her head broke the surface, sending ripples through the previously calm water, and she smiled weakly at me. I returned the smile, pulled the plug from the tub’s edge, and handed her the largest towel I could find in the bathroom. She wrapped it around herself after briefly and sadly examining her thinned structure. She looked more hurt then frightened. After all, it was someone her old self had trusted who’d done this to her.
    “Rina’s just a human. They’ll do anything to protect themselves.” I attempted to reassure her. I knew it had little effect. She shrugged and ran a hand absently through her tangled hair.
    “That’s no justification.”
    “It’s as understandable as a cheetah eliminating another cheetah. It’s just their way of survival. Except, in this case, it’s more like a hyena attempting to kill the cheetah. Let’s get you dressed.”
    Once I’d managed to find some clothes that almost fit her (obviously Rina hadn’t contemplated her weight loss...idiot), Tamara looked much better, at least more vampiric. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail that cascaded smoothly down her back. The white t-shirt and blue jeans looked common but her own beauty immediately made the outfit look more impressing. Buried amongst the large clothes, it was impossible to determine her actual size. She blinked at herself in the mirror as I rolled up the pant legs around her thin ankles.
    “Am I always going to be this...” She couldn’t seem to say it. She lifted the front of her shirt and grabbed at the weak skin encircling her stomach.
    “You’ll return to a healthy weight with some blood. You’re just extremely hungry basically.”
    “I won’t die?” I laughed at the sincere concern in her voice.
    “No. We can’t die from starvation.” She gaped at me.
    “But-”
    “We can go crazy and do things that lead to our deaths, but the lack of blood in itself won’t cause our demise.”
    “Oh.” She said and looked at herself once more in the mirror.
    “How do you look, Tamara?” I asked, stepping back as she ran her fingers through her hair once more. She seemed deeply saddened by her reflection. Her eyes glimmered in the light and her lips parted.
    “Why are you helping me?” She asked and she turned to look me in the eyes, placing the mirror at her back where she wouldn’t have to see what she had become.
    They bore into me and, despite her weak state, I felt her attempt to reach into the heavily guarded depths of my mind. Annoyed, I sent a jolt at her and she immediately recoiled. Her long fingers wrapped around the edges of the sink and the rapid breathing lifted her chest up and down in quick recession. Apparently, she still hadn’t lost the instinct to perform that now pointless action when frightened.
    “I’m afraid that part of me is private and be warned, most of my kind would have killed you for that. Walking on egg shells at the moment is not a bad option.” I suggested. She gawked up at me, her fingernails digging into the porcelain sink. I sighed. She was young. She didn’t know better.
    “Are you all right?” I asked blankly. She nodded and stood still to prove it. Standing up straight seemed to take most of her strength and her knees gave out beneath. I shot forwards and with one arm wrapped around her waist, led her back to the bed.
    “My head’s spinning.” She groaned as I laid her down. She grasped at her head, nails digging in and then her eyes shot open as she leaned over the bed and dry heaved at the floor, clutching her sides. I placed a gentle hand upon her back to keep her from collapsing to the floor and waited patiently.
    “Better?” I asked as she sat up whipping at her mouth. She nodded and curled up on my shoulder. She shook beneath my hands and her breathing had returned, rapid and raspy as it slipped down her dry throat.
    “You’ll be better soon. You just nee-” I flung her from me and she slipped across the floor, fangs protruding from her bottom lip. I shot up, furious and mental shots sending cracks through the concrete floor. “How dare you attempt to drink my blood! The blood of a Pureblood! I should kill you where you sit!”
    “You’re...you’re a Pureblood?” She stammered. My glare confirmed what I had screamed. “Forgive me. I-I didn’t know.”
    Closing my eyes, I calmed down. She was a new vampire after all. There was no reason to get so upset. She didn’t know the rules and had to be starving. She cowered beneath me, pressed against the wall and eyes filled with fear. What sort of hunter had this woman been? She shook before me like a rat before a fully grown cat. No strength or determination or confidence. Just fear. What had Lianell done when he’d changed her?
    “It’s all right. What does the Hunter Clan know about Purebloods?”
    She gaped at me, mouth opening and closing in a desperate attempt to utter words. With a groan and an eye roll, I reclined onto the bed and motioned for her to join me. Pulling herself jerkily onto her feet, she took a seat and I waited for a moment. My words had to be carefully chosen so she understood. Her memories of a hunter were no doubt blurry, which might explain her cowering attitude, and she may have trouble recollecting things. In time they would clear, but I wanted answers now. It would decide how best to handle Rina who, judging by the sound from outside, had taken to waiting impatiently by the door.
    “Tamara, you need to understand something. The only reason I’m particularly interested in you and Rina is because you are an extremely rare thing. Hunters usually kill themselves after being changed. I’m surprised you or at least Rina didn’t. Most can’t live with themselves once they realize what will happen to them. They’re afraid of the F Phase and would rather die then face it. The last known hunter vampire was over a thousand years ago and she was young when she was changed. She hadn’t been a hunter long enough to hate us entirely yet, but she also didn’t know much. A vampire, angry with her for killing one of her kin, attacked and killed the ex-hunter. You’ll be lucky if the same doesn’t happen to you-”
    “I’m not afraid of death.”
    “It doesn’t matter.” I growled. She couldn’t interrupt. I needed to make sure she understood. “You will not be welcomed openly with my kind. Many who have been harmed by your family will detest you. Some may take it upon themselves to kill you. I’m not the one who changed you. I’m not your mother basically and as such, have no right to defend you should another vampire attempt to eliminate you. However, if you prove yourself useful, by giving us information on the Tribunance and other hunter families, I may be able to convince the COV to spare you, but you have to tell me everything you know.”
    “I-I...I don’t remember anything. I’m sorry.” She gazed up at me with sorrowful eyes. “If I didn’t see Ruth outside every couple of hours, I wouldn’t even know I’d had a sister.”
    “Your lust for blood and the transformation are having an effect on you is all. You haven’t been taking blood tablets either. There are some Transforms who can live like normal humans for a couple of years if they take the tablets, but without them, your vampiric side takes over. Until you drink, your memories will not return. I was just hoping that you may be able to recall something.”
    “No...I’m sorry.”
    I growled in my throat. Couldn’t anything go right today? First that problem with Amy and Dylon, then Lianell at Helen’s party, then Rina showing up and causing a major problem, and now this stupid Transformed was completely useless to me. She’d locked herself up when she realized she’s become a vampire, before the blood lust took over and cleared her mind of anything else. Once I fed her, her memories would return, but then so would the hatred of my kind. She wouldn’t cooperate. She’d probably kiss herself. What good would a dead hunter vampire be to me! And what about Rina? This all didn’t feel right. Ugh!
    I shot up and spun away from her, irritation clearly plastered on my face, and Tamara fled from the bed to the other side of the room. At least she’s learned to stay away from me when I was annoyed. I needed to stay calm. Getting upset would help nothing. But she was from such a prominent family and even if there was peace between our two kinds and hunters only killed F Phases, the COV knew very little about the hunter families. Names, locations, pictures, anything was useful at this point. But Tamara was no help to me and the lack of even blood tablets had encouraged her drop into the F Phase. Even if I quenched her thirst, she’d sink into madness within the month.
    “I’m sorry Tamara, but if you have no information, I have no justification for keeping you alive.”
    I slowly turned around to let my words sink in. Tamara had risen to her feet rather shakily and watched me with fearful and pleading eyes. She knew what my words meant. The human piece of her probably thanked me for it. But allowing an F Phase to run around was out of the question particularly one with hunter instincts implanted after years of training.
    I barely had to think about it anymore. From years of practice, I knew my eyes glowed violet for a moment. A gust darted around the room, shaking books from the shelves and rattling furniture. Tamara crossed her arms before her face. Sparkling specks flew from her skin and clothes and filtered into the air. She gasped, but didn’t scream and then it ended. The wind stopped. My hair gently descended back on to my shoulders. The books laid spread eagle on the cold floor and where Tamara had stood remained only a handful of dust. A second later, a small breeze scattered it around the room. Body numb, I turned from the destruction and opened the door. Spotting what stood before me, eyes gliding across the guns directed at my chest, I couldn’t resist an eye roll.
    “Nicely played, Rina.” I groaned as the seven hunters kept their hands tightly clamped down on their weapons. Each one wore a mask, hiding their identities should I survive and seek retaliation. At least they weren’t stupid enough to think I’d come easily. They were foolish to think I wouldn’t kill them on my way when I escaped, however.
    “It seemed the easiest way to coax you away from your friends.” She stated, smirking despite herself.
    “Nicely done, as I said. Using your own sister as bait. Knowing I couldn’t resist the temptation of a hunter turned vampire. Not to mention the fact that it was Lianell’s fault, a vampire most know I detest entirely. Oh, of course. You told him where to find her, didn’t you? He’s never been the type to question assistance. Idiot. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Hunters have been known to sink exceptionally low, but I am curious. How will you explain my murder to the COV?”
    “Simple. You attacked and killed Agatha and then came after me. I killed you in self defense.”
    “And the other hunters?” I gestured at them and they tightened at the sudden movement. I chuckled. “Jumpy aren’t they?”
    “They were never here.” She retorted.
    “But of course.” I straightened up, adjusting my outfit. It had gotten rather twisted in all the commotion following Amy’s rescue. “Well, I appreciate putting all this planning into just my destruction. However, may I ask one more thing before we continue?” No objections. “I am simply curious as to why you are so determined to kill me.”
    “You’re a pureblood. Other vampires respect and fear you. They follow your orders blindly. If we kill of all of you, the vampire’s structure will collapse and they be pushed into chaos. Once that happens, we’ll be able to pick them off one by one until your entire race is extinct.”
    “So, this about waging war on my kind? Since when has the Tribunance allowed that?”
    “They don’t. We’re renegades, rogues.” Rita spouted proudly. Moron. One should know better then to tell your opponent what your agenda is.
    “Then I’d doubt they’d mind your elimination. Actually, I’m sure they’d prefer you over me.”