Vlad was running, and even at a breather's pace it felt amazing. He zoned his hearing into the corridors in front of him to check if the coast was clear and ran as fast as he could. He knew now it was either flight or submission, but there was no way he would be able to find a way out of the camp on his own. Armed guards patrolled the perimetres constantly and the bars where made from thick argintalium.

The only thing he could think of now was Anna. She was his only chance.

Vlad tried to search for a smell or a heartbeat that would tell him she was near. He could hear footsteps in the distance behind him, and quickened his pace, his vampire speed already starting to wake itself up after a year of enforced rest.

Then he heard her. The strong thumping sound of her heart and the light patter of her shoes down the corridors, her footfall lighter than the slayers' heavy boots.

He sprinted round bends and down a small staircase, around a corner and there she was.

Anna had been in a complete world of her own, and so was utterly bewildered when she saw Vlad speed into view.

'Anna!' and quick as a flash his arms were gripping her shoulders as she took in the panic etched across his face. He gulped, trying to recover himself. 'Anna, you have to help me. I... I need to get out of here.'

'What?'

'They tried... they were going to do all these things to me.' He let go of her and tried to recover himself. 'I tried to say no, they kept... but I managed to get out, and now they're after me, and I don't know what to do. Please Anna, I can't stay here any longer. I don't know what they're going to do to me...'

Anna tried to get a grip of what he was saying. 'Ok, Vlad. Calm down.'

'No, Anna, we don't have time. They'll be coming after me right now!'

'Ok, listen, errr' and she looked around quickly before spotting a cupboard marked 'Caretakers'. 'Quick, get in here,' she said, and before he could object she had grabbed him and put him in the cupboard. She was about to close the door when Vlad's eyes flashed.

'They're coming.'

Quick as a flash she'd been pulled into the cupboard with him and the door had shut with a click.

Anna momentarily stopped breathing for what felt like hours, until the thump of guard's boots ran past them. She let out a long breath, causing Vlad to let out a muffled chuckle as it tickled his chin.

'Shhhh,' she said, smiling. The cupboard was completely black, and Anna's heart fluttered.

In the dark with a vampire.

'Don't worry,' Vlad said, putting his hand on her arm.

'Do you think we can get out now?'

'No, there are more coming.'

'Vlad,' she said in a hushed whisper, 'what's going on?'

She felt him relax slightly as he whispered into her hair.

'They... I was having lunch and these slayers said I had to have my UVS levels analysed, but instead they took me to this... it could've been a hospital, but garlic, Anna, it was more like some kind of torture chamber...'

Anna felt her breath hitch in her throat and her eyes widen in the gloom. They had taken Vladimir there... to that horrible place where they pulled out teeth and cut off arms. She felt her other hand instinctively jump up to grasp his shoulder, stupidly checking everything was still there.

'What did they do to you?'

'Nothing... I managed to get out. But from what they were saying they wanted to perform some kind of experiments on me.'

'Oh stakes...' Anna was appalled. She should've told him, then he might've known what was actually going on.

She gripped his shoulder tighter and gulped. 'The other day, I followed my...these slayers, through a door into a secret section of the camp. They had lines of vampires in there, all being experimented on differently. I watched this doctor start to torture one of them...'

There was silence for a moment as her words trailed away.

'What happened?'

'They caught me and said I wasn't allowed back in the camp anymore. They're all in on it, Vlad. No one else seems to realise how barbaric it is. I came back because I wanted to warn you, but then I never got the chance... and now they've taken you there too.'

'Anna, it's alright,' he said fiercely, then his arms circled around her and pulled her into a hug.

Anna froze for a moment, then relaxed against him and hugged him back. She felt like crying. She didn't know what to do or who to trust. Now a vampire had her wrapped in a tight embrace. A vampire was pressing his mouth into the crook of her neck, and yet she had never felt more comforted in her entire life. Shut in there together, they were the only two who knew or cared about the horrific things the slayers were doing, and the only ones who wanted to stop them.

Silence was in there with them for a moment, then Anna felt Vlad's lips move in the dark.

'I think it's safe.'

Anna heard a click of his fingers and the door swung open.

Vlad broke away from her and gave her a long look, checking she was alright.

'You know I don't appreciate being shoved into cupboards,' he said with a small smile.

She looked apologetic, then narrowed her eyes at him. 'Hang on, you sleep in coffins.'

Vlad laughed. 'Yeah, good point.'

He was about to get out when Anna grabbed his arm and stared at him.

'Wait, did you just opened the door by snapping your fingers?'

Vlad looked down at his hand in surprise. 'I didn't even notice.'

'What's going on? How did you do that?'

Vlad looked at Anna, trying to predict how she would react.

'Er... my vampire powers are sort of... coming back. I missed a shot, just by accident. I didn't even notice until I realised I could hear and smell things properly again.'

Anna didn't know what to say. She'd just been shut in a cupboard with an unmediated vampire, with his mouth at her throat.

'Anna?'

'I...'

Vlad took a quick look down the corridor, then grabbed the cupboard door and swung it shut on them again. Anna felt a lot more comfortable knowing he couldn't see the expression on her face, but she could still feel herself trembling slightly. She didn't know what to do.

'Anna, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you or anything. Please, I know it might be... scary, but... I need your help.'

'But... what if... you could of hypnotised me for all I know.'

Vlad was silent for a moment. 'I haven't.'

Anna was annoyed with herself for believing him.

More heavy boots ran past the cupboard, and there was a muffled buzzing sound from a walky-talky. She moved closer to Vlad instinctively and wanted to stake herself for doing so.

'Please Anna, I don't know who else to trust.'

His hand came up to grip her shoulder, then on impulse she moved forward and pulled him into a hug again, resting her head against his chest.

'Me neither.'

Vlad and Anna broke apart from their embrace when a loud alarm reverberated down the corridor. Anna pushed open the closet door and blood-red flashes of light hit them from all sides. The entire camp had gone into red alert.

'That's because of you, isn't it?'

Vlad nodded, following her as she walked out into the corridor.

Anna looked down at the empty corridor, alive with a dozen warning lights. Lately she'd been questioning everything that she had always taken for granted. Now it felt like all the mud was being washed away by a tidal wave of water, crisp and clear.

Vlad was right. The only people they could trust and rely on were each other. Vlad was a rock in this whirling sea of moral madness. He was a vampire, but that was irrelevant now. They were friends, and friends didn't let each other be experimented on.

She knew now. It was all wrong, all of it. She'd felt guilty for not being a normal slayer; one who despised vampires and liked to see them reduced to prisoners. She'd been brought up living in fear of the evil vampires that her slayer father had heroically fought against. Vampires had been a real life danger, and when they had been rounded up and put into the vamp camps, everyone had breathed a sigh of relief and got on with their lives. They hadn't stopped to think about how horrific it was to imprison a whole race who had no control over what they were. Vampires weren't human, but they definitely were people.

Vlad was a person, and Anna was going to do whatever she could to protect him.

Anna turned around and took the vampire's hand.

'I'm getting you out. We're getting out of here, then we're going to end this. Not just the torture, all of it.'

Vlad's eyes widened in surprise. 'You mean...'

'These vamp camps are wrong, Vlad, and we're going to do something about it.'

They held hands as waves of red light flashed around them and deafening alarms buzzed in their ears.

Then they ran.