'I wish they would turn off these damn alarms! They're making my headache worse.'

'They're on for a reason though.'

'What reason?'

'Level 1 emergency it says. That means one of the vamps has escaped, but there's not much being said over the radios.'

'Why not?!'

'I don't know, do I!'

As far as Vlad could hear there were only two of them, and they were more than a little stressed. He was crouched with Anna outside the security office, hidden behind a large filing cabinet. One patrol of slayers had ran past them, but they had been too busy to even cast a glance at where the Vlad and Anna were hidden.

Vlad had been trying to listen in to the slayer's conversation in the office. It was odd getting used to the new depths of sound he was experiencing. One of the slayers had the slight rasping breath of a smoker, and the other had a slight twitch and kept shifting irritably from one foot to the other. Beyond that he could hear a woman in the car park arguing on her phone about something to do with chicken dippers, and a cyclist whirring through the air as he sped down a hill towards some traffic lights...

Anna shifted uncomfortably beside him. 'Let's just make a break for it. The longer we wait the worse it's gonna get.'

Their position wasn't going to last long. CCTV cameras were on every corridor, and their location would surely get out to the patrols soon enough. Although they would recognise Vlad instantly on the cameras, Anna hoped to garlic that the slayers wouldn't know her, as she had put up her hood since running out of the cupboard.

From their place behind the cabinets they could just see the exit. Not only were there two guards manning the control office, but six more slayers were standing outside it, each holding a UV gun and an argentalium spray canister.

'One shot from those guns and I reckon I'm dust.'

'One shot?'

'I dunno, they're extra strength,' he said, peering at the label.

Anna thought about Vlad beside her, then imagined hoover dust in a pile on the floor. A loud bang of a door reverberated through the corridor and Anna jumped to her feet in shock.

For some reason she felt much more confident standing on her feet. 'Let's just do it.'

She pushed open the reception door and walked in assertively. It would've been a rather large room if it hadn't been for the boxes and boxes full of stakes, guns, and garlic gas that were piled high against the walls. Anna would've called it a vampire's worst nightmare if she hadn't seen those horrific dissection rooms. One slayer was sat at a computer in front of notice board littered with slayer propaganda posters, and the other was sitting on his desk with his feet on his chair, rubbing a cigarette packet absentmindedly.

Anna recognised the latter as the same guard from earlier, and he smiled as her as she walked in.

'Anna, what are you after?' His name was trickling back to her. Something like Sebastian, or Steven?

'Brian!'

Brian? Close enough.

'What!?'

'What're we supposed to be doing?'

Brian didn't even bother looking around at his panicking colleague. 'I. Don't. Know!'

'Well, you're not being very helpful you know!'

'What do you want me to say? I know just as much as you do.'

Anna opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly cut across by the slayer at the computer. He was clearly very on edge, and from the look of it Brian was also close to cracking.

'Oh garlic! Oh garlic, oh garlic, oh garlic, oh garlic.'

'What is it, Pete!?' said Brian, attempting to take a measured breath.

'They've just changed the security status of the camp to lockdown. We've got to reinforce all the gates... I haven't booted up the program for that in garlic knows how long...'

Brian sprang up from his desk and turned to face Pete. 'What!? You were meant to update the security system last week!'

'Don't you dare have a go at me after that stunt you pulled yesterday with the files on vampire voodoo...'

Anna felt a cool touch on her arm and her skin tingled all over. She twisted to see a very perplexed looking Vlad poking his head shyly around her. The two slayers were so unbelievably stressed and distracted they hadn't even noticed him.

'Get it running, Pete! If we don't do it sharpish there'll be an enquiry again...'

'It's loading, but until the system recognises the program the reinforced argentalium doors won't close.'

'Oh, for Pete's sake...'

'What did you call me?!'

Brian was grabbing his hair like he wanted to wrench it from his scalp. 'You are driving me crazy! Just get it installed, I need a fag.' His grip closed around his cigarette packet and he turned towards the door.

It looked like he had forgotten Anna was even there, but the shock in his eyes wasn't from seeing her. He looked Vlad up and down, then he retreated as quickly as he could, his hand reaching for a pocket stake. Then his legs hit the side of his chair and he was falling back over it, landing with a thud on the scratched lino.

Pete was frozen fast to his chair, and for a moment no one moved. Then Pete was pouncing for the nearest box of UV guns. His hands found one, but before he could even switch it on Vlad had jumped at him and wrestled it out of his hands. The contents of two boxes went flying across the room as Vlad held Pete pinned up against the wall.

Pete was struggling and yelling various vampiric insults. Most blurred into a mess of inaudible panic, but Vlad was pretty sure he was called a 'sun shy blood Nazi'. That one was new.

Vlad fixed him with a stare and the guard's whole body went limp.

'You're not going to remember any of this. None of this is real. You're not at work, you're at home in bed and you need to get back to sleep. Go to sleep.'

Pete sunk down to the ground and within ten seconds he was a curled up ball of sleeping slayer.

Vlad span around to where Anna was dealing with Brian. His legs were still trapped in his upturned office chair, and his arms and neck were pinned down in a tight and unyielding grip.

'Anna, get off me! What are you doing?'

He looked across at Vlad as he walked over, and at the slumped body of Pete of the floor.

'He's bitten him! Oh my garlic, he's bitten him! Anna, why are you...'

'He's been hypnotised, you stupid lump.' She looked up at Vlad and they shared a quick smile. 'Was that hard?'

'Hum, I'm still having to fight off a bit of the brain fog, but it worked!' he said with a toothy grin. 'What do we do now?'

Anna had an idea. 'Tell him to take of his clothes.'

Vlad just looked at her.

'Trust me, ok?'

Vlad's brain clicked into sync with hers. 'Is that going to work?'

'Well, it can't hurt.'

Brian was looking between them and listening to their conversation with absolute horror. He was writhing on the floor, and even when Vlad leant down next to him the slayer still wouldn't look the vampire in the eye. Brian was scanning his gaze up and over everything, as far away from Vlad as he could look.

'Brian! We're not going to hurt you, just cooperate!' Anna said, trying to shake him through her grip on his windpipe.

'Brian!' Vlad grabbed the guard's head and swivelled it around to meet his gaze.

'You're feeling very tired. Forget everything that just happened and curl up here. You want to fall into a lovely dream, but first you want to give me your clothes.