4. Discovery

Damiana ran on through the dense undergrowth, all her senses fixated on the dangerous aura. When she was a bit closer to her intended target, she stopped to survey. Okay, the aura is definitely vampiric. Great. Their location is within 100 yards of me, thankfully upwind from me. It's not too safe to say they've already sensed me. That is to say if there's more than one. An aura that large must belong to one very strong vampire or a cluster of significantly weaker ones. Pray to Macht it's the latter.

She began to check her immediate surroundings. As far as she could tell, there were no leeches close enough to attack her and not much other life around to give away her location. With so many tall trees and shadowy underbrush and bushes, she had many options for concealment. On the other hand, that gives the leeches ample places to hide from me as well.

Again, Damiana widened the range of her senses a bit more, allowing sounds to come to her expectant, trained ears. She couldn't hear anything except her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. I assume the silence isn't a danger. They're most likely gathered in such a large number that one witch or other unexpected visiftor shouldn't send them into silent panic. If it did, I'd certainly be flattered.

The complete lack of animal life also allowed her to assume a large cluster was present, if their presence could keep away any sort of life. Or just kill them all, instead. Damiana began aiming her senses at what seemed to be the center of the cluster, hoping to use the aura-sensing ability she possessed to focus on obtaining a near accurate number of vampires currently present in their cluster. Assuming they're all there… this is probably their preferable hunting time. Any sort of attack I attempt tonight wouldn't be too logical, seeing as they'd be completely cleared out of the camp. Early morning is out, too. They'd be so hyped up and strengthened by tonight's bloodshed. An attack, if I'm senseless enough to even undertake one, should be at mid-afternoon tomorrow.

Carefully, Damiana began her slow walk closer to the camp. She needed to go slowly: too quick and they'd automatically catch whiff of her scent and the sound of her heartbeat and not waste any time to mob her; too slow and she'd never get there before they all ventured back after their meals. I just need to scout a bit, see what there is to this leech cluster.

As she began her journey towards possible bodily harm, she worked harder to calculate the number of remaining vampires by pinpointing their concentrations of aura. The auras she found were generally weak; the presence of human blood in them was faint. Nothing really recent or overwhelming, as you'd see after a return from a fresh hunt and kill. As far as Damiana could tell, there weren't many around: 2 or 3 near one end and a straggler a short distance from the little group. The cluster must be small if they all leave to hunt at night, or they have enough audacity to assume they're invincible. She snorted with disgust in her head silently. At least if they're that arrogant, I'm more likely to catch them off guard.

About 10 minutes and 90 yards later, at her gradual, wary pace, she finally could make out an outline through the slightly more sparse growth and foliage. The camp wasn't as large as she'd supposed. A few houses, 6 if there weren't any hidden, each able to hold one or two vampires per; a large building, presumably some meeting area or recreation building for the cluster. That thought made her fight to suppress a course laugh. Leeches playing checkers or air-hockey in the same "friendly" manner as mortals. What a sight that would be. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the distracting thoughts. No, focus, Damiana! This is observation time. I can't afford to miss anything. Who knows how far from their bloodsucker they're willing to go. Running for 42 miles straight for a vampire isn't a terrible feat. Okay, I best pay more attention for any possible threats.

Pulling her head back down to reality, Damiana focused back on the remaining vampires. One… two… three… weren't there four before? Repeating her process, Damiana pushed out her search and began checking the perimeter of the cluster's camp. She sensed nothing upsetting until she was within 10 yards of her own location. Instead of sensing the one vampire she had "misplaced", she now felt two of their sickening auras. She opened her ears and began pushing herself to hear any sort of conversation, all the while building up her mental defenses, attempting to put a wall between her thoughts and the prying leeches. I love my abilities to read thoughts but I contemn that I get it from them.

"Jaden? What are you doing back so soon? I expected this… meeting to take longer." A smooth, clear female voice could be heard, a bit of confusion seeping into the perfection of it. The sound sent goose bumps scurrying up Damiana's arm.

"Abby, you expect this to be an easy task? He's trickier to corner than you assume him to b-"

The female, Abby, interrupted the velvety suave baritone voice of Jaden. "He's a damn human! How in hell's name is he that difficult to corner?!"

"He knows his stuff, Abby. He can control his aura and his mental walls extremely well for such an imbecilic race. I admit he's not as great as any vampire-"

Once again, Abby cut in, "Then what is the problem?! If he's apparently not up to your degree of prowess, why in shit's sake is he this difficult?"

Jaden sighed, "Abby, love, that isn't the only problem…" When his revelation was greeted with furious silence from Abby, he pushed forward. "Well, he wasn't at the pre-determined reunion place, either."

"That little godforsaken pile of worthless flesh! Why do we keep him alive? What worth is he to us?!" Abby was pacing loudly, throwing her hands around in all sorts of gestures. "He'd be plenty delicious, you know that. And since we know his location, we can just meet him there personally." She finished off in a dangerously poisonous voice.

"Abby. You're the one who insisted we enlist his assistance. So far, he's been of significant help. He brought the items we needed and all the information we bribed him for. We can't kill him; he's too valuable to us. In addition, think of all the other vampires who receive goods from him. If we killed their supplier, how do you think they'd react?" Jaden used a calm, collected voice meant to soothe.

"They wouldn't know, Jaden! How would they know short of actually being there?"

"Our aura traces would be all over the body and the area." He paused, "There's no way we could take him back to camp, Abigail. That is immensely dangerous." Jaden's voice got deeper, more threatening, as if the female vampire had actually suggested it seriously.

"Why? Why can't we? He might not agree but we could make him!" Abby sounded pleading and desperate. Her voice was extremely close to a whine.

"Abigail, listen! His mental walls could never allow us to convince him that way, and he's too cautious to come anywhere with us of his own accord. Plus, if we did somehow manage to kill him without an uproar from neighboring clusters, how would the witches react? I've felt a small bit of witch aura clinging to his own. He must be in close proximity with one for me to even be able to sense it on him at all. It was on him yesterday and no doubt would have been today." Jaden used a voice one would use on a child after they stole from the cookie jar.

"Jaden… couldn't we just… just steal him? Hold him here for a while? Then let him go later. No uproar, no witch hunting, no nothing. We'd get our information and our fun and he'd keep his business and witch friends!" She was grabbing for excuses, some small loophole.

Jaden let out a long, tired sigh, as if they'd had this conversation thousands of times before. His voice seemed to have aged with that sigh, "That's nearly as bad. His other customers would come looking, following his scent and with more vampiric activity near our camp; the witches would obviously become aware. We're already under close watch for being in such large numbers, I know it. And if we got him here, what would we do with him? We can't hurt him or torture him in anyway; someone would find out, his customers would see. We wouldn't get any more information from him that we haven't already gotten if we aren't allowed to hurt him. Damnit, Abigail, there's no way around this!" There was a solid thud and a rustle of leaves, as if Jaden had punched a tree and the vibrations hit the leaves.

"Damnit… why are you always right, Jaden?"

"Because I know how you act better than even you do, love."

Abby sighed, obviously recognizing defeat. There were a few minutes pause in conversation.

With the pause in conversation, Damiana dared a peek around her hiding tree. She saw the vampires, Abby and Jaden, quickly embrace, and then meet each other in a passionate kiss. Suppressing complete nausea, Damiana took these few moments to take mental pictures and as many physical details as she could of the two. Jaden was tall, about 6'3", maybe in his early 20's. He had short, ruffled hair of a deep brown color. His skin was the color of heavily creamed coffee, indicating he might've had a deep tan when he had been alive, his skin having been lightened further by the paleness his kind possessed. He was lightly muscled, just enough to prevent him from looking too thin and gangly; the many muscles indicated a life of average labor when he had still been mortal. He would have been handsome except for the fact he could kill you easily if he got the chance or had the desire to do so. Of course, he always had the desire, so you were as good as dead around him.

Abby, who was possibly 5'5", was definitely a head shorter than Jaden. Her hair was shoulder length and was a mahogany color that shone silkily. Her skin was almost completely white, a more common complexion for her kind. She had a slight build, as if she'd been a small girl with minimal strenuous activity when alive. She seemed to be about Damiana's age, 15 or 16. If they didn't believe they were above the law and obviously older than they look, Jaden would probably be charged with seducing a minor. Damiana laughed inwardly. A vampire locked in jail was unlikely and even if it did happen, they wouldn't stay there for long.

Before Damiana knew it, the two vampires pulled apart and openly stared in her directions, as if they'd heard her laughter. Instinctively, she tightened her muscles and prepared her daggers for an attack.

Suddenly, as if on cue, another vampire dropped to the ground lightly from a tree a few yards in front her own. The newcomer was nearly as tall as Jaden, with golden hair that went halfway down his back. From what could be seen, he was just as pale as Abby. Damiana didn't ease her grip on her daggers, the reflexive tension refusing to ease. Momentarily, she wondered why, and then quickly banished that inquiry. Being eased by the presence of yet another vampire. Heh, I'd have to be fucking deranged.

"Good evening Abby. Jaden." From what Damiana could see, the newcomer nodded a greeting to both.

"Hello, Reece." Jaden said, a hint of forced civility in his words. He had an arm extended in front of a rather perturbed Abby; to protect her or to restrain her, Damiana couldn't be certain. "I expected you to be out on the hunt. You didn't catch anything. Why return empty handed?"

"Father sent me out to make sure everyone was out for tonight. He said everyone will need their strength for tomorrow." Reece replied, a sneer evident in his voice.

"I don't think what we do should be any of your fucking busine-" Abby began, furiously. Seems like Jaden was holding her back. Damiana thought.

Jaden shot his mate a warning glance then returned his attention to Reece. "No need to remind us, we were just on our way out. Hoping to head a bit farther out tonight, maybe, see what's in one of our seldom hunted areas."

"I'm not sure kissing and discussing secretively during an important hunt are what we tolerate here, Jaden." Reece walked closer, causing Jaden and Abby to retreat a few feet back.

"Reece, I hardly think this is a time for a fight. As you said, we need to conserve energy and any unnecessary energy spent healing injuries is a tremendous waste." Jaden reasoned.

Reece laughed viciously, "That may be what you feel, but what about your mate?" He was suddenly behind Abby, whispering in her ear sensually. "How about you, Abby? Up for a bit of a rumble?"

Abby shivered visibly, retreating into Jaden's embrace. She was so fierce a moment ago… what could he have done or thought to cause her to do that?

Almost instantaneously, Jaden and Abby disappeared, leaving a furious Reece behind to brood. He turned and punched a tree. The poor maple groaned and creaked, landing on the forest floor with a deafening thud. When the air had cleared, Damiana couldn't see the remaining vampire any longer. Damnit! I lost him. Where the hell did he go?

Slowly, Damiana peered around her tree again. Absolutely no sign of anything but a giant fallen maple and some crushed foliage. She stood, keeping all her senses aware for any signs of possible danger. When she was convinced the area was as secure as it would ever get, she wandered out from behind her tree. She headed towards the spot where the 3 vampires were mere moments earlier. As she'd expected, Damiana saw no signs or clues that there had even been anything there, other than the fallen tree.

She continued to venture a little further from her hiding spot, keeping ever vigilant. Any mistake or miscalculation could mean her life this close to a vampiric source. When all seemed clear in her immediate area and the interior of the camp, Damiana broke out into a sprint for the closest building: what seemed to be a supply house of sorts. What they'd need from a supply house, I'll never know. They're damn leeches! They steal lives, what's stopping them from stealing other things?

She burst through the door, shutting it quietly behind her, making sure she didn't brush against anything mistakenly. This was no time to leave any scents or aura traces behind in the open. When the door was securely closed and locked, she turned her attention to the contents of the giant room she'd stumbled upon. Giant was certainly the right word for it, seeing as one could fit a small one-story house inside. At first glance, there just seemed to be rows upon rows of shelves, containing various objects of various sizes. Damiana drifted towards the nearest shelf, allowing her eyes to stray around the room. When she reached the first group of shelving, realization hit her.

"Treasures," she breathed, not daring to speak above a whisper, "They're beautiful." The items on the shelf at eye-level were magnificent gold and silver necklaces of various styles, all sporting a giant gem or some sort. The one directly in front of her was a silver choker with a large oval of jade in the center with delicate silver workings around it, as if the jade were nestled in a bed of silver webbing. Damiana reached out her hand, wanting to feel the smooth surface of the glossy green stone. She just barely stopped herself, realizing what a stupid idea that would be.

But it's so pretty and delicate… it wouldn't hurt to just touch it once. The leeches won't be able to see my fingerprints on it. She argued with herself, the desire to touch that necklace nearly winning out. The portion of her brain still able to reason sent a sensation of dread through her, warning her that touching that wretched necklace could end in some less than desirable results. With every ounce of her willpower, Damiana pulled her gaze away and turned to the next shelving unit. This one had nearly a hundred rings on its 5 long shelves. As with the necklaces, each ring had some sort of precious stone set into the gold or silver of its band. Again, Damiana needed to force herself away from the glittering pieces of jewelry.

As she meandered through the storage facility, she saw everything from ornate furniture to intricately painted urns and pots to brilliant goblets and fragile glass and chinaware. Every item she saw seemed to come from a different period in time and different locations within those periods. One urn, she remembered, depicted a story resulting in a battle scene between an Egyptian man and a fierce monster with massive extending teeth dripping with some sort of liquid. Damiana could only assume it was a vampire. In fact, any pictures or depictions she'd seen so far contained some sort of vampire reference, albeit subtly sometimes. One picture, for example, illustrated a group of people in a marketplace from Medieval England. The only possible reference to anything vampiric was an abnormally beautiful young man with slightly paled skin and a mass of unruly jet black curls atop the crown of his head.

Damiana didn't notice the passage of time as she idled through the many rows of exquisite treasures in the storage building. When she had reached her last row in the very back of the building, she happened upon one of the few windows in the whole building. Damnit! How long have I been in here? It's already pitch black outside! Shit, who knows when they'll begin to come back?!

Damiana sprinted for the other end of the building, or at least tried to. She had to slow her pace to make sure she didn't accidentally touch any of the riches around her. Eventually, when she became too anxious of leaving a trace, she stopped completely. Fuck! I have to take this slow, I'm afraid… if I do make it out of here on time, I can't risk leaving any sort of trace. The keeper of all this will definitely notice and seek me out to "chat" a bit about the things they'll assume I pilfered. I can't risk bringing these leeches anywhere near my family's charges in town.

Unwillingly, Damiana slowed her pace down to a tentative walk through the narrow aisles. She hadn't noticed before how slim the passages were and how disorienting. It took all of her concentration to recall all the turns and curves she'd taken… in reverse.

She checked her watch. Last I checked, it was 7:45. Shit… I've wasted almost 4 hours since the time I've arrived! And what have I found out? Two leeches "wuv" each other, another leech is daddy's little helper, and that yet another leech is a collector or priceless items! Oh, and some human out there thinks he can best these vamps in matters of cunning. I'm unbelievably grateful to Macht that I don't have to be the witch to that has to deal with that dunce. Damiana moved just a bit faster, seeing as she'd wasted nearly all her time ogling instead of gathering at least one iota of information that would be beneficial to her.

Finally, she could see the walls of shelving thinning out and could just barely make out the outline of the exit. Rounding the last corner, Damiana stopped in horror. Voices! Quickly, she evaluated her situation. They pretty close to the exit… I can't risk going out there since I don't know for sure how many there could be. Their auras are most likely too strong by now to easily distinguish separate ones. Ugh! The wretched feel of those auras! I can barely focus!

Damiana slowly backed away from the door, moving back into the maze of antiques. There was no other way out but through that one window she saw and right now, it seemed her only good chance. As her final decision, she turned on her heel and booked it to back through the shelving units, no longer caring whether she touched anything or not; survival took too much priority right now. Suddenly, Damiana stopped short. The quiet… I could hear them only seconds before. Did they notice me already? Wouldn't I have heard a pursuit? Or even the door being forced open? Fucking hell, I can't concentrate with all those auras! That realization halted everything. All those auras. How…? Are they all…? When did they find…? Shit, shit, shit! I have no time for this!

From the other end of the building, Damiana suddenly heard the sound of metal grating against concrete. Damnit! Why in Macht's name do they have a lock on a door they could easily pry open anyway? How could I have been so stupid to not even realize that? Quickly followed by the door being forced off, Damiana heard a voice.

"Oh little witch, little witch? We know you're in here, delicious morsel. No need to hide because frankly, there is no way you could hide forever. Especially not in my father's camp. " Damiana heard the voice of Reece call out in a sickeningly sweet voice call out to her. "Really, my scrumptious treat… I know every nook and cranny in this whole camp. I helped build it myself. There's no place you could hide that I wouldn't find you at." Damiana couldn't hear his advance but she knew by instinct that he was.

"Who said I was aiming to hide?" Damiana remarked forcefully, continuing her frantic sprint through the aisles.

"Oh, I assumed the fact that you were storming past all these pieces of marvelous treasure and barely even pausing to admire them might mean you were in too much of a hurry. I deeply regret keeping you from your previous engagement, Miss Tracker, but I believe you should honor your host with a quick visit. We Marrons choose to show courtesy to those we visit." Reece called out again in a voice he obviously meant to be polite.

"Pardon my manners but I did promise myself that I'd live a few more decades." Damiana said, enjoying her snide remark.

Reece sighed, as if all this banter bored him. "That seems rather selfish. Please, it'd give my father and I great honor to have you as our dinner guest."

"If that weren't so cliché, I'd oblige you. But, I also plan on keeping my blood and not ingesting any more anytime soon." Damiana began looking around, hoping to find another way to exit. Her route to the door was blocked and the run to the window was too great. Plus, the window wasn't guaranteed to open at all. Ah-hah! An air duct! Of course someone who knows his antiques would keep clean, cool air circulating through here. Why I didn't think of that previously, I'll never know.

Running over to the nearest group of shelving, Damiana began to climb. She pulled herself up onto the bureau in front of her. As quickly as she could, she scrambled to the top and began working on the grate. Damnit, why won't it budge? She looked down, hoping to locate Reece's position. Shit, 2 aisles away! That won't take him too long to get here, then.

In a fit of desperation, she cast a quick explosion spell. The grate blew right off, barely missing her and ricocheting off shelf she was precariously standing on. The unit wobbled, tottering back and forth dangerously. Damiana pushed off from the top and reached for the edges of the open vent. Her hands met metal and she clasped the edges firmly, pulling herself up into the black opening.

"Shit!" Damiana shouted, feeling the added weight of another body gripping her ankles. Her grip slipped slightly and the shelves leaned extremely far to one side. She kicked and wiggled and twisted her legs as much as she could but nothing could dislodge the attacker.

"There's no way you're getting out of here that easily, witch!" Reece kept his iron grip on Damiana's ankles. "Maybe this will convince you otherwise." With that, Reece bit through her pajama pants and into Damiana's calf, allowing the warm blood to coat his tongue.

Damiana groaned with the combined pain of the bite, the abrupt loss of blood, and the screaming cramps coming from her triceps. It took so much strength not to cry out.

Finally, an idea hit her. Damiana began swinging her legs back and forth, building up her momentum. After a few swings, Reece was at the perfect height at the top of each swing. "I'd love to spend more time with you, Reece but…" Damiana paused, catching her breath, "I really must be going!" With her last word, Damiana kicked Reece right in the jugular right at the highest point of her swing. Reece let go with grunt and flew into the air. Before he landed on the nearest collection of precious objects, he disappeared from the building. Why he didn't try that when he first realized my existence, I'll never know.

Damiana scurried into the hole of the vent, turning and crawling through the absolute blackness. The vent came to an abrupt end and she reached up, finding another grate and the view of starlight. No longer caring who knew her location, she used another explosion spell to blast this grate out. She hauled herself onto the roof and began running towards the nearest edge.

"Umph!"

Author's Note: Another chapter and ahead of schedule! Thank goodness for snow days.

Our heroine can't seem to help but go from one incident to another, can she?I pray I never have her luck! And what a nasty cliffhanger. Who said umph? What happened to Reece? What will happen to that poor maple tree? All of that and possibly a fight scene in the next chapter! Now a word from our sponsors.

Remember, reviews are always helpful. Any comments/concerns/grammatical errors/pieces of info/general discussion of plot are welcome! My characters thank you and I thank you. Have a nice few days!