I noticed that this story is actually beginning to lose followers/favorites...so I wonder, is everyone enjoying this so far? Reviews are much appreciated; it let's me know how I'm doing, what I can improve upon if the story is becoming dull, or if there's anything you'd maybe like to see.

Aside from that, thank you to those that have left reviews, and favorite/followed. It's awesome to log on and see that. So, here's the next chapter. I hope you like it.

He was close.

I fled into the woods, following the blackened foot prints that weaved a trail through the brush and came to a halt at the mouth of a rather large lake. Riggs stood at the edge of a dock that looked to be one loosened nail away from falling apart. The water flowed beneath him, churned by the high winds that raged around us. He hadn't turned, remaining still, calm, and his long frame stooped under the light of the sun casting a crooked shadow onto the water's surface.

As it often did, rage got the better me, morphing my body into something dangerous and hated filled. I pounced, claws digging into the coiled muscles of the Hound's shoulder, the two of us crashing through the discolored wood into the water below. My fingers wrapped around the column of his throat and pulled him up, level with my face. He did nothing, hanging limply in my palm like an atrophied limb and I grasped his chin, forcing him to look at me. Golden eyes averted, staring every which way but my direction. I tossed his body onto the grass.

"You never were able to solve your problems with words," Riggs mumbled, wiping himself off. He was dressed nicely for someone who had ventured into the daylight only to light a building on fire.

"And you were any better?" I asked. "What was the purpose of that back there? I thought vampires were your target, not humans."

His lips pressed together to form a firm line. "It was a small fire. No harm would have been done to them."

"Regardless of that, why are you here? Shouldn't you be with your little coven?" I circled him. "Or plotting how to harm me next?"

Riggs pushed his black hair from his eyes. "I'm here to warn you, Adrian. Not harm you."

I laughed dryly. "Warn me of what, all the nasty things you have planned? I've heard it all already, over and over. I know what you're up to."

Deep creases framed his lips, a sorrowful frown that darkened his face. Riggs shook his head slowly, eyes downcast and focused on the muddy ground. "You have no idea. Adrian, you really don't."

I knew him to be an excellent liar, and a con, one of the best—although this time I doubted, to the smallest extent, that this was another one of his ploys. Terms with the Heaven Hounds, and some of the Hounds on my end, were shaky at best, and with Delilah and Micah progressively becoming detached, I feared I may not know what is happening. My own friends could be out to kill me.

Could Riggs really be trying to help me? I wondered, recalling the relationship we once had. He always looked after me when we hunted together, even in the Pit we maintained a friendly stance. Only after the pressure to breed grew, and I denied him, did he become bitter. But even then he never harmed me. Not physically.

"A Nyx informed me the vampiric armageddon is coming," I said, figuring there was no harm in sharing this with him. If he didn't already know, he would eventually. "He said you have a hand in this, as you have with all the recent killings."

He scowled. "And you trust a Nyx? A little gold, and they'll say anything you tell them to. I would have thought you'd know that much."

"I know full well what they're like. It doesn't mean his warning didn't pique my interest at all," I growled. "They tend to stick to their own affairs, as they very well should, so forgive me. Why would he come to this plane?"

"Maybe Dante paid him off," Riggs looked up at me. "It's possible."

My brow furrowed. "That would be pointless. Dante couldn't care less about vampires."

"No, but he knows they're a soft spot for you, given your previous romantic interests," He said, a bitter edge creeping into his voice. Riggs cleared his throat. "He knows you'd come looking for me if I was planning something like that, and whose to say it'd be me that you'd find, and not an army of those blonde fucks?"

"Think about it, Adrian; you may be an Elder, but you have a myriad of enemies. On both ends. As do I. It's a matter of time before someone picks us off."

"While that may be true, how do I know I can believe you?" I narrowed my eyes at him. "I haven't seen you in over a century, this shit starts, and you finally show your face to warn me."

"And that's all I'm doing. You were a good friend to me at one point in time, I don't want to see you harmed."

I sighed. "Your necromancer buddies?"

"A relatively small group. I offered assistance with spells and spirit contact in exchange for protection. So far, it's working, though it's a pain resting in a salt circle for hours," He shrugged.

"I can imagine."

Riggs rushed toward me and I tensed, awaiting the initial blow of his fists, the tear of his fangs in my flesh, or the clean swipe of his claws. None came, and I stood there in the gentle hold of his hands on my arms, a tentative touch. Neither of us were comfortable, I could see it in his eyes; the two of us were no longer able to share this closeness, not without fearing death.

"Don't trust Delilah, or Micah for that matter," Riggs said, his voice just above a whisper. "They're not your friends, never have been, and I know this."

I shook my head. "They would never turn on me," I denied, for the sake of being stubborn. Trusting them—trusting anyone at all—wasn't an option anymore.

He groaned. "Please, Adrian, now isn't the time to play dumb. You know them. They're as untrustworthy as the rest of us, and to think they'd honestly see you as an equal? You're two hundred years younger than them. They don't mix with other generations."

A dull pain settled in my chest. Sadness, I realized it was, at his words. "They've always been there for me. Why turn now? The two of them had all the time in the world if they desired to kill me."

"Sometimes you have to wait for the right opportunity, even if it takes millenia to get there," Riggs said.

He stepped away from me, parting ways and leaving me with an address to memorize in case I wished to seek him out. In time, I knew that I would. If Riggs was being honest, I had nowhere else to turn. Nowhere but home, where only a small amount of Hounds would have my back. The few supporters I had, I would have to utilize.

In the meantime, I'd have to do something about Eric. He was defenseless without me, and entirely useless in a fight. The Hounds would have him reduced to pile of guts before he could even think to move.

Training was in order.