Being a vampire hunter was tough – the nights were almost as long as the days, you were constantly in danger, and most important of all you had to distance yourself from your old life.

It was for their protection as much as it was for yours. She'd only been doing this for 5 months but she'd already noticed the way that hunters and the people they were close to had a tendency to wind up dead. Alexis was one of the lucky ones, the really lucky ones...She'd never lost anyone to the bloodsuckers, and so far she hadn't died. Which was more than she could say for most of the 'slayers' she'd known, and it was easy to see why.

The night was cold, but not very dark, yet they'd been told to keep watch on the old building from the bushes from just about 100 feet away. It wasn't a safe distance, it wasn't even close. If it was a witch they'd probably be okay, but anything else would be able to see them and their steaming breath without even trying. It was mistakes like that that cost lives.

"Are...Are you sure Shrapnel was right about this place?" the girl next to her whispered.

It was her first time and it was obvious that she was terrified. Alexis felt a little sorry for her; after all, she had been terrified the first time too - everyone was. After all, every hunter knew what they were up against, had memories haunting them of a flash of fang, or a pool of blood, or a scream in the darkness. The only way to get into one of these gangs was to have seen one of them first hand. Hunters didn't advertise – that was another good way to get yourself killed, and God knows there were too many ways to do that already.

Alexis forced a smile, although through her scarf the other girl probably couldn't even tell.

"Look," she whispered. "If this is the right place it's best to keep quiet, and if it's not then think of this as practice."

The girl looked hurt, but this time she didn't let herself feel pity. It was survival of the fittest and she wasn't going to let this scared little newbie get her killed.


It was another two hours before anything interesting happened. The girl had worked herself up so much in the first hour that Alexis thought that she could almost hear her frantic heartbeat, but after that the calmness and dreamlike quality of the lamp lit street had lulled her into a kind of half sleep. But Alexis was wide awake and watching the building as intently as she had from the begging, waiting for some movement or sound that would give away danger. Which was why she knew to duck when she did.

In the distance she could hear the low purr of an expensive car, probably quite large, and coming this way. Luckily, the shadow of the wall and the bushes hid her when the car's headlights swept the street as it turned the corner, before gliding to a stop outside the old house. Something very wrong was going on here. This wasn't how tonight was supposed to go.

They had tracked the bloodsucker down for the last week or so – it wasn't hard. To the rest of humanity the murders barely registered - what couldn't be covered up was always blamed on serial killing humans or animals. Only Night Worlders and hunters would ever link them with vampires, and sometimes even the hunters weren't so sure. But these cases were a dead cert. The killer was obviously a traveller, not caring about where they disposed of bodies or how because they knew that it wouldn't be their problem in just a few days.

But that kind of vampire didn't have dark gray Porsches with tinted windows. The definitely didn't have private drivers. It seemed that they had stumbled on something bigger than they could handle.

Alexis' whole body ached as adrenalin surged though her, and it became so hard to keep her breathing slow and quiet that it was taking all the willpower she could muster. She was so, so out of her depth here. Every hunter knew that They were out there, doctors, lawyers, students. Your neighbour could be one. Your best friend. That was another reason why it was so important to distance yourself from people, to keep your identity a secret in case one got away. But that kind of monster got left alone - they were too hard to track because they rarely killed, and there was too much mess involved in killing them.

This was something totally different. Most vampires didn't have the kind of money that bought you cars like that. In a sick kind of way they were like the humans they fed on – average Joes working 9 to 5, just they didn't exactly drink wine with their evening meal. Whoever this was, they were someone important...

Maybe someone so important they don't have to care about their kills.

Every instinct was screaming at her to run, to bolt from those bushes like a rabbit and find somewhere safe. But she couldn't move – half from self preservation and half from sheer terror.

The car remained outside of the building for a few minutes before she heard the murmur of voices coming closer and closer. This wasn't just a single bloodsucker – there had to be four or five at least from the sound of their footsteps, and they were heading out of the building towards the Porsche. In a second they'd be in view. In a second they'd see her and her terrified companion. The second after that she'd probably be feeling fangs in her throat. She saw a flash of white as her body screamed out in terror at the thought.

But all of her fears were in vain – the group didn't seem to be expecting any kind of attack. They were talking and laughing with each other like old friends, and they were nothing like the vampires she knew. They were smartly dressed in business suits even though most of them looked like they were only in their late teens. There was another at the head of the group who looked older, maybe 30, and it was easy to see that he was the one in charge from the way the others were looking at him and baying for attention.

She thanked her luckiest star for that bloodsucker, because he was the only reason she wasn't dead right now. Hunters weren't exactly hard to recognise, what with the dark green scarf covering her lower face. Not to mention the selection of wood and silver knives through her belt.

She risked a breath. The girl beside her was curled up, crying or praying she didn't know. Either way she guessed that the girl would be dead in a few days, either from making a stupid mistake on a mission, or just hunted down in her own home. She wasn't strong enough to survive, that was clear.

But please God just let us survive tonight.

One by one the vampires slid into the car. Even through her fear Alexis couldn't help but admire the graceful way they moved; so fluid and confident. And they were all eerily beautiful, from the pale skinned boy in the black suit to the dark eyed Asian whose skin seemed to glow gold from beneath. The vampires were always beautiful, even the females enthralled her, even though she had never been interested in human women like that.

Her breath caught in her throat as the leader stood by the car and looked up at the sky for a few moments. The lamp light made his red hair shine like wet blood.

Please don't see me. Please don't see me.

At last he moved to get into the back of the car, but as he did his gaze swept over the road, and for a second his predatory, golden, eyes met hers, and her heart must have stopped. He was looking right at her, he'd seen her. She was dead.

Only he couldn't have, because he carried on getting into the car, and immediately it pulled off in the opposite direction, slow and purposeful as a big cat.

But as the girl next to her let out a shuddering sob and the adrenalin fizzing in her blood made Alexis' ears sing, she couldn't help but think that she'd seen him smirk at her.