The waiting is the hardest part. When you know the place you are staying in will soon be under siege but you have no idea when it leaves you kind of on edge. Everyone tried to get some sleep and eat, going into the other little rooms in the warehouse, but I stayed in the big room, waiting for the alarm to go off and the windows to be broken. It was nothing compared to waiting for Baggers to find our hideouts. This was a nice little Sunday picnic compared to that.

A little before the sun set Tony sat down next to me, underneath one of the big windows Gia had warned us they would come through. "Okay, so here's the deal," Tony sighed, scratching his scalp beneath his gelled black hair. "I may be a smidge jumpy about humans helping me because this guy 'helped' us when we were still being hunted and he turned out to be an undercover Bagger."

I smiled grimly. "I guess they liked sticking to good ideas." Tony gave me a "what in the hell are you talking about?" look. "They sent a Bagger to do the same thing to us. Trouble was he turned to our side while undercover. Kind of backfired on them." Tony chuckled a little and I smiled, thinking about David. He'd become so loyal that he'd killed his boyfriend to protect me and our cause. So we had a guy who was trained to be a Bagger but was on our side. Not wise of the government now, was it? "But still, I get why you're protective. It's cool. Just…sometimes you've got to take a leap of faith." Now I was thinking about Lucas. He'd seemed so dangerous but I knew we would need his help. I took that leap of faith.

Tony nodded. "I get that just…easier said—"

At that moment the sound of bells rang throughout the warehouse and I leaned back, bracing myself for my move. A large brick came crashing through the window and arms quickly followed. I grabbed the disembodied arms by the wrists and pulled the body through the window so the man fell on his back in front of me. I put my switchblade to the guy's throat and looked over at Tony, who stared in amazement. "Sometimes you have to practice. Then doing becomes as easy as saying." I grinned then pressed my switchblade to his throat as his fellow hate mongers began to appear.

Before they could start attacking the man I held cried, "Uh, guys? Little help here?"

Everyone froze and stared at me in bewilderment, the vamps included. "One more act of violence and your friend is dead." The VHB exchanged glances. "I'm not kidding. I'll kill him."

A man in a long leather jacket, clearly meant to be modeled after Hugh Jackman's in Van Helsing, glared at me and shook his head. "Do it and you'll only further what we believe. That you monsters are evil and have no regard for human life."

"Look at the forehead, Bubba," I scoffed. "I am human." He tried not to look taken aback but he was. "Still feel all unjustly superior?"

He eyed me and glanced down at the man I held. "It just shows how easily swayed woman is."

"Oh hell no," both Gia and Astrid growled, taking a few steps forward. This was, of course, taken as an attack and bar-like fighting broke out. I felt my shoulders slump.

I looked down at my hostage who stared at the fighting sadly. "It's like I'm not even holding your life in my hands, I swear," I sighed. The guy gave me a helpless look. He didn't seem mad or scared. He just seemed put off. "You…you don't care about vampyres do you?"

He gave a little shrug. "I don't like them but I don't dislike them. Never really encountered one."

"Aha…so your father is in the group?"

"Brother," he sighed, nodding over to the holier than thou Hugh Jackman wannabe. "Pulled me out of college in New York to fight vamps. Said that if I stayed in New York people would try to brain wash me and take me from the path to God." I scoffed. "I know, I know. Honestly, I don't think God would want us to exterminate an entire people. He had to have created them for a reason, right?"

I smiled and decided not to enlighten him about the existence of many gods, including a Christian deity according to Nyx. It was just nice to see someone who didn't use their faith as a reason to hate. As opposed to most cynics, I always fully endorsed religion. It is a helpful tool when used to get one through a difficult time or remind them of what's right and wrong. Just because some idiots used it for hate didn't make it bad. Like guns. Guns alone aren't bad. People giving them terrible purposes are the bad ones. "Take my advice kid," I chuckled kindly, while still holding a blade to his throat, "go back to school or just get out of here at the very least." The boy nodded respectfully and, in that moment, suddenly looked a bit like Rosto. I had to shake my head of the thought.

Just then sirens blared, getting closer to us until they were in front of the building. No one but the boy and I really noticed, or at least cared. A large, high ranking, officer burst through the front door with a little woman and several male officers behind him. All of them had guns in hand.

"Now that's enough!" the leading officer barked in an accent which can only come from the Deep South. "Drop any weapons and put your hands up!" Everyone did as they were told. The boy I was holding palmed my knife and smiled at me. He was hiding it so I wouldn't be in trouble. What a little sweety! "We were warned that there would be some sort of gang activity here tonight."

The smaller female officer pointed to me. "She's the one who warned us, Sarge."


"What do you mean that's all you can do?" I growled as the VHB men, minus the college boy, were led away. "They tried to kill—"

"Which we have no real proof of. Look, we've got destruction of property and breaking and entering. What more do you want?" the sergeant gave me a weary look.

I stared, completely flabbergasted. "I want you to have them tried for conspiracy to commit murder."

"They came at us wielding weapons," Astrid sighed, somehow managing to be calmer than I was being. "There are definitely laws against that."

The little woman looked up to her sergeant. "There must be something more we can do, Sarge. I mean, they did break the law and they've fully admitted to coming with the intention of killing everyone in there."

"Every vampyre in there," the sergeant corrected. "These laws only apply to human beings. There is no precedent in the event of a group of vampyres being killed. I'm sorry," he sighed, unapologetically, "but this is how it is. You folk aren't humans therefore I am not bound to protect you."

I stared, feeling hate and anger rolling through my entire body. It made me dizzy. "What are you saying?" I asked quietly, making my friends a little nervous. They knew that the quieter I got, the angrier I was.

"I'm saying that they ain't human," he replied, plainly. "We were better off when they were being experimented on. At least then we could have classified them. Come up with laws which applied to them."

"While they lived through being tortured?" I growled, just getting angrier. "Didn't you see the film?"

The sergeant scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yes I saw the selective shots. Blatant propaganda."

"It was—"

"Good day!" the sergeant interrupted, walking towards the men in the police cars at a brisk pace. My stomach churned as he chuckled with them and asked how their mommas were.

The female officer handed me a card. "My name is Monica, Detective Monica Handler. I…call me if you guys ever need any help." I gave her a clear "how will this help at all?" face. "Not everyone feels like the Sarge and his boys. There are plenty of us who want to actually uphold the law, not play semantics with it." She gave me a warm smile.

"Yeah, like we can trust you," Astrid scoffed, looking at her scuffed up boots. Was she crying?

"You can," Monica sighed. "I know it's hard but…I've got to believe this will get better." Gia smiled and nodded at the woman, letting me know that she meant what she said. Sometimes psychics were useful. But only sometimes. Monica held my hands and looked into my eyes. "And you especially. You're one of the few actually out there fighting for this. If you ever need anything give me a call."

I shrugged. "Thank you, but my team is moving out tomorrow night. I would be much obliged if you would keep an eye on these folk though."

Monica nodded. "Of course. Where are ya'll going to?"

"Florida," Gia replied, taking charge to let me know that this woman was 100% trustworthy. "We've got some friends whose group needs our help."

"That's not too far off for me and mine to help," Monica said, nodding at Gia then turning back to me. "Besides which, I have friends in high places who owe me plenty of favors. I can get someone to help you where ever you need them."

"Thank you," I sighed, taking in the police officer's warm presence. "We need all the help we can get these days."