I walked into the store just in time to hear Sam tell the Frog brothers I was a half vampire. The transformation in Edgar and Alan at hearing these words was, well, ridiculous to be perfectly frank. Within seconds they'd armed themselves with what I can only assume were meant to be weapons. To me they just looked like water balloons and giant splinters, but hey, what do I know? I walked straight towards them, refusing to be intimidated one bit by their excessively manly show.

Leaning casually on the counter I removed the piece of wood Edgar was pointing at my chest and laid it down between us on the counter. A frown crossed Edgar's face, obvious confusion at my antics.

"So spill." I said to him, getting impatient.

"Huh?" Was all I got in response.

"Vampires. Clearly you know a lot more about them than me and right now I need answers, so spill."

The brothers looked at each other, nodded in some kind of silent agreement, then Edgar began to speak.

"Vampires, Nosferatu, Creatures of the night..."

"I didn't ask for a thesaurus." I interrupted, irritated at his generally excessive behaviour.

For a few seconds he merely glared at me, then he continued.

"They feed on blood, killing the innocent with no other thought than to sate their thirst. They're pure evil, no thought for anything other than themselves. Demons incarnate..."

"Okay I get it. Can't you tell me anything useful?"

"Look, you came to us for help, you need us, so how about you keep quiet and listen to what I've got to say."

I leant towards him slightly, narrowing my eyes in anger. This guy was really beginning to piss me off.

"Then how about you quit with the dramatics and tell me what I need to know."

There was no fear in his eyes as he tried to stare me down. Commendable. Nevertheless, it was he who looked away first.

"Have you killed anyone yet?"

My stare was answer enough.

"Good. If you haven't made your first kill you're only half a vampire and there's a chance you can be cured."

"Cured?"

"Go back to being human."

So there was hope at least.

"How?"

"Kill the head vampire."

"Who the hell is the head vampire?"

"The leader of the vamps that made you"

I blanched at the thought. Kill him. Kill Jari. Or Marcus. Or Dani. Hell I didn't even know which one it was and even if I did, how could I possibly kill them?

"Pierce their heart." Edgar said in response to my unspoken question. "Any sharp object will do. Holy water and decapitation will get it done too. Just know this, no two vamps go out the same way. Some..."

"Oh Edgar give it a rest." This from Sam.

"He's done this before?" I asked, raising an eyebrow in Sam's direction.

"Once or twice." He answered, frowning even more than before. "Every time someone comes in who even slightly believes in vampires he gives them the same lines."

"So this sort of thing happens a lot?"

"Not for a long time. We cleared out the local vamps just after I moved here and we haven't seen any since. A few months ago people started disappearing, but we couldn't find any traces of vampires. Until now."

"Great, I'm here two days and I manage to fall in with the worse crowd in Santa Carla."

"Don't blame yourself. My brother did the same thing when we first moved here. We killed those vamps, we'll kill these. But as soon as this is over, I'm heading out. I've had enough of this town."

"Then your brother...?"

"He's fine, human. He got out years ago. I should have done the smart thing and followed him then."

So there really was hope. These boys had killed vampires before, why shouldn't they kill these? Yet why did the though of Jari and the boys dead, fill me with sorrow? Nope, too many questions there, I'm not going down that route.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

"First we scout out their lair, do you have any idea where it could be?" Edgar asked, back to business.

I hesitated. Just for a moment, but I hesitated. Why? I couldn't have told you. I didn't know myself. I only knew that for some reason I was reluctant to tell them. Tell them I did though.

"There's a cave off the beach. If one of you drives I can show you where it is."

"I'll drive." Alan said, grabbing a bunch of keys from under the counter and preparing to shut the shop. Clearly these boys didn't hang around.

Within minutes we were on our way and I directed Alan to the Cliff easily enough. The problems started when we got there. For a long while I refused to believe we were in the right place, but the bike tracks on the ground were proof enough. It was the cliff that was giving me problems. Three times now I'd climbed it, and I'd always assumed it to be only about 6 meters high. Now, in broad daylight, unobscured by fog or sea mist, I could see clear down to the bottom and this was no small ledge. The cliff was over 40 meters high. There was no way in hell I would ever have been able to climb that, not a chance.

"So where is it?" Alan asked.

I looked down and along the cliff which I now saw curved around slightly and I could see the area where I knew the entrance to the tunnel was. I pointed but none of the boys could pick it out at this distance.

"How do we get down there?" Edgar asked.

I didn't even answer, just looked down at the cliff beneath my feet.

"Down the cliff?" Edgar asked, scepticism clear in his voice.

"Yep." I responded, quietly.

"You've climbed down there?" The scepticism had turned to outright disbelief.

"Apparently so." I still couldn't quite believe I'd done it, it just didn't seem possible. Now I'd seen it, there was no way I was going to even attempt it. Turns out I wasn't the only one thinking that way.

"Well you guys have fun with your suicidal climb, I'll stay here and watch the car." Sam said, refusing to go anywhere near the cliff edge.

"It's okay." I said. "Apparently there's a path a few miles down the cliff edge."

There was a lot of grumbling at the prospect of the long walk, but at least Sam came with us. If it had just been Frog brothers and me I'm not sure I'd have been able to refrain from killing them. They sure do know how to piss a girl off.

"So how'd they get you to drink the blood?" Edgar asked. "Mind tricks?"

"They got me drunk."

"They got you drunk? Geez you really are easy."

Without even thinking I spun around, grabbed Edgar by the neck of his shirt and pulled his face towards mine. The growl that emanated from my throat was more threatening than words could ever be. To his credit he looked me in the eye for a whole two seconds before looking over at Alan for backup. He didn't need it. I threw him to the ground and stalked off. I wasn't that far gone yet, but he needed to watch his mouth. Clearly my warning went unheeded as he spent the next five minutes muttering about 'damn vampires'. I could feel my anger rising again. Why the hell didn't that boy have any sense of self-preservation? Eventually though I gave up and started running, leaving them behind in seconds despite their protests. I could search quicker by myself anyway and we were running out of daylight. Even if I found the path we wouldn't have time to search the cave. I wanted to be as far away from here as possible before sundown.

Despite the need for sunglasses, my eyesight was perfect, better than it had ever been before. I could see every little detail of my surroundings, from the plants to the insects that inhabited them. It was very disorientating to suddenly discover a cacophony of life that your eyes had kept hidden before. Even more worrying was the desire to wipe it out. I increased my pace, desperate to keep those feelings at bay. I knew I couldn't miss the path with this eyesight so I wasn't worried about going too fast.

I estimated I'd gone about two miles from the cave when I came to a place where the beach below disappeared completely. Even if there had been a path further along the cliff there was no way back to the cave, the sea was right up the cliffs, and this wasn't even high tide. With a sinking feeling I realised there was no path. So how had they carried me back to the bikes? Could they fly? I shuddered at the thought, not really wanting to know the answer. To keep my mind empty I turned and ran back to the boys, going at full speed which only scared me all the more. I reached them in no time and was met with scowls all around. My news wasn't exactly going to make things any better

"There is no path, the beach stops a few miles along. Looks like the cliff is the only way down."

The Frog brothers cursed dramatically but there was no response from Sam.

"Then we go down the cliff." Edgar said.

Now that elicited a response from Sam.

"Not a chance in hell am I going down that cliff!"

Edgar started to argue but I cut him off before he could.

"Look, we've only got an hour or so of sunlight left, I need to get as far away from here as I can before the sun goes down, so tonight, we leave it."

"She's right." Sam agreed. "Tomorrow we can come back with some climbing gear and you guys can have a look safely."

"You guys?" I questioned, one eyebrow raised.

"Climbing gear doesn't make that cliff any smaller."

I couldn't help but laugh. "You'll fight vampires but you're scared of heights?"

I got a mock punch on my arm for that one and let it go. The Frog brothers agreed it'd be better done tomorrow so we all went back to the car. After I threatened to throw him off the cliff head first, Alan even agreed to give me a lift back home. Now that dark was approaching I was beginning to get anxious. They'd know I'd been here, I don't know how, but they'd know. What would they do? I had no idea. I just knew I had to get home before the sun set.