Disclaimer: I do not own Companions of the Night. As much as I'd like to, I don't.

Chapter 25: Looking for Michel

After she sat in the dark for 10 minutes, she finally got up, dragging herself right into bed. She was feeling exhausted now. It seemed to hit her so fast too. She figured it was the combination of being in pain and then losing blood that just made it all happen. She hugged her pillow close to her, smelling Michel on the sheets. She sighed quietly as she let herself drift back to sleep.

When her eyes flew open at the sound of yelling, she groaned and rolled over. She pulled herself up, realizing that this time she thankfully couldn't remember her dreams. She blinked a couple times, letting her eyes adjust fully to the darkness of the night. She glanced at the clock when she could finally make silhouettes out of things in the room. It flashed back at her in digital red writing 9: 00. She had slept a little over three hours.

How come no one woke me? So you wouldn't be in the way. Duhh.

She sighed at that thought, wondering about Michel.

She finally got out of bed and slipped some shoes on. She walked out of the room and into the living room. She looked around. Some vampires had left she supposed. Some guardians were still here though. But no sign of Michel.

"Where's Michel?" she asked turning to a guardian she had recognized from earlier.

"He left hours ago," he said as he began to walk up the stairs where she believed the source of the yelling was coming.

She was shocked, "He left? Where to?"

"I don't know. Maybe to feed or something. I'm not his caretaker." He shot back uncaringly.

She sighed. Great. Now I'm cooped up in a house full of vampires.

She then sparked an idea. She turned and saw Keira walk in the room. She was wiping blood off her mouth. Kerry's stomach turned slightly, but tried her best to shake it off. "Keira, can I barrow your car, if it's no trouble." she asked as politely as possible.

She gave her a piercing stare as her hand dropped from her mouth, "What for?"

"I just need to get away for a little while. Michel made me abandon mine. So, I'm car-less."

She walked over to her, suspicion in her eyes. But she none-the-less, handed her the keys. "Have it back by 2, 2:30. I need it back by then."

Kerry nodded, "Thanks."

She walked outside and to the mint green Toyota Camry. She knew it was hers. She had seen a glimpse of it last night. She got in and started it. She backed up and then put the car into 'drive.' She drove out of the neighborhood, wondering where Michel was.

After driving around, she stopped for food at a fast food place at 9:30. Kerry hoped Keira didn't mind if she ate in her car.

She drove out of Rockland and got on South 1, staying in the Maine state. She finally got off the highway and drove around for a while. She found herself in Portland wondering around. It was around 10:40pm. As she drove, she listened to music from her vast CD collection. Keira had good taste in music. She liked all sorts of styles.

Kerry finally just pulled into a nightclub at 11:20pm. She got in and heard the thud of the music pounding in her ears, making her own heart race.

She sat at the bar. The bartender came up and asked her if she wanted anything but she just shook her head. She turned to see all the sweaty people crowded on the dance floor having a good time. A few minutes later, a man sat next to her. "Can I buy you a drink?" he asked so nonchalant.

"Sure," she said looking at him. She used him as a meal ticket for liquor. She wasn't legal yet, but she had a taste for alcohol.

The guy got the bartenders attention and ordered two margaritas on the rocks. He handed her the drink. "So, I haven't seen you here before."

"I'm from out of town," she replied.

"Yeah? Where from?"

"Connecticut," she said.

"What's in Connecticut?"

"University of Phoenix," she replied simply. Though, of course she was lying since she didn't have the money for college. But she was dragged to Connecticut. They really thought some vampire cult thing was there. So she went with them to stay in the group and find a vampire. Apparently it paid off.

"Cool. Hey, you wanna ditch this place?"

"Excuse me?" she said slightly shocked. She wasn't about to be picked up by some man she just meet at a nightclub. "No thanks."

"You sure?" he asked sincerely, placing his hand on her arm. She shivered. She knew right then that he was a vampire. According to Michel, Maine was practically swarming with his kind because this was the main battlefield of their war.

She jerked back, "I'm good, really."

He gave her a suspicious glare.

She turned away from him. "I think I'm gonna go. Thanks for the drink."

She hopped off the stool, only drinking half her drink. She realized she shouldn't drink so much since she was driving anyways.

As she walked away, she felt a cold hand clasp over her arm. She was pulled through a door and into a small hall where there were two pay phones, a water fountain and then the bathrooms. He pulled her up against the wall. "You're not going anywhere," he growled at her.

"Leave me alone," she said firmly, now seeing him clearly for the first time. He had light brown hair that had highlights of blue in it. His hair looked like it went past his ears, but she wasn't entirely sure. He had his hair spiked, making the blue stand out nicely. His eyes were a liquid hazel. But they were sharp.

"Vampire hunter," he hissed in her ear.

She was shocked. How the hell do all these stupid vampires know she was with some stupid hunters? "I'm not," she said sternly, "I was with them strictly to find Michel."

"Is that who I smell on you?" he snarled in her ear.

"Get off of her!" a semi-familiar voice said. It wasn't Michel's, that's for sure.

A knife went into the shoulder of the vampire. He yelped, but it was smuggled by the music. The vampire fell to his knees. Kerry looked up in horror.

"Kerry," he said surprised.

"Will?" she asked shocked. He looked a lot better from when she last saw him. She looked back down, "Oh my God! What did you do to him?"

"Dead man's blood. Kerry, he's a vampire."

"I know," she blurted out startled. Not only did he grow out of his acne and lose the dorky glasses, he turned into a vampire hunter too…

"You know? Is it true then that you are a hunter? Your name had come up a couple times, saying you were trying to trick them, that one of them takes a liking to you." He stabbed the vampire again with dead man's blood. Kerry jumped.

"I…" she didn't know how to respond to that. "I…haven't seen you since high school. How've you been?" Her heart was pounding.

"I've been good. You wouldn't believe how many vampires I have killed. I—" he was so damn enthusiastic about this.

"Yeah, let's stop right there. I don't believe in torturing, so stop with the dead man's blood."

"It's the only way they'll talk," he snapped.

Kerry snorted, "Has it even worked yet?"

"It will eventually!" he snapped again.

In a blink of an eye, the vampire had gotten up and lunged at Will. She jumped back against the wall. "Don't kill him!" she jumped forward, but then jumped back.

The vampire glared at her from the side. Ah, shit. I'm caught in the middle again. I want neither of them dead.

"Kerry, run! Get help!" Will pleaded and demanded at the same time.

"Don't," the vampire snapped, "you move! Back against the wall."

She did as he said.

"More hunters are coming. They'll wait till sun up and watch you die in the sun. You are the dark creators of the night. You are Satan's little spawns. We humans are the Light of God."

"Shut-up!" the vampire threw him harder against the wall. Will began rattling off the Lord's Prayer. He was thrown to the ground by the vampire. "You might want to turn around, Kerry," the vampire said as he took hold of Will and pulled him up, slamming him into the wall again.

"Oh my God!" she gasped. "Don't!" she screeched. Tears formed. He was an old friend. She couldn't stand to see him die. "Please!" she begged.

He was hesitating. She didn't think it was on her account. He looked at the door. He closed his eyes. A grin came across his face. He swerved and put his face in Will's. "I've got a better idea," his tone was mischievous, "Why don't I let the vampires that are about to come in here take care of you, and I'll take care of the girl. She'll get a quicker, easier death and you will die in agony." Kerry winced at the last sentence.

Sure enough, two vampires walked in, one a girl and one a boy. Aw, how cute, they were holding hands. "What do we have here?" the girl asked. She had dirty blonde hair that was long and almost to her butt. It was completely straight, like from the 70ties. And she had the prettiest blue eyes, like waves of the ocean. She was petite and stood with an air of confidence.

"Good question," the man replied. He turned towards the vampire, "What do we have here, Rodney?" He was an interesting fellow. He had a mohawk and his hair was green like the grass. To match his hair, his eyes were a deep green.

" Hey Seth. Rachel. We've got two hunters, but she," he glanced at her, "has three different scents on her. The dominating one is Michel's."

"So does that mean she is Michel's?"

Great, they're referring to me as if I wasn't even here.

"I don't know. Maybe…"

"He may not admit it," Kerry spoke up, looking at the girl vampire, "But he can be possessive of me. He doesn't let anyone else touch me…"

"And the two other scents?" the vampire who still had hold of Will asked expectantly.

She sighed just thinking about it, "A guardian and another who thought it was necessary at that moment to read my mind." Rodney raised his eyebrows at her. "By the way," she was able to continue as if nothing was wrong, trying to hide her emotions, "have you seen Michel anywhere tonight? I haven't seen him since he first woke up."

Rodney shook his head. Kerry looked at the other two vampires. "Nope," she replied.

Kerry sighed wondering where the hell he could be. "Know where he would be at?" she asked again.

"He's probably off somewhere in this area. He won't be here. For some reason he hates this spot. Not sure why…"

Just then another walked in, "I came to see the party."

Kerry slowly turned only to met Joey's face.

Rodney spoke, "We've got a hunter and someone that belongs to Michel."

"You!" Kerry let out a disgusted tone.

Joey's eyes flickered to her and darkened, "Well, well. Look who it is." He walked over to her with an air of sickening confidence. He grabbed Kerry's chin. "What are you doing way out here, my dear?"

"Go to Hell, Joey," Kerry spat, jerking away. He let his hand drop.

"Tsk tsk. You shouldn't have an attitude like that for someone who is capable of killing you fairly easily."

"Michel will kill you if you did that."

"Not if you deserved it." Joey shot back.

"I've never killed a vampire. Just because I was with hunters doesn't make me a potential threat."

"You knowing about us and roaming freely with your knowledge is a threat."

"I never told the hunters anything. You were there that night. Remember?"

"Oh, I do remember."

"You had seemed so sincere then. What happened?"

He snorted, "Sincere? Please, do not get the wrong impression of me. I want to know what it is about you…What you have over Michel that makes it so that he hasn't killed you yet."

"I don't have anything over him." Kerry said sternly. "You're just paranoid and think I do."

"I'm not paranoid," his voice was dark and stern, "I'm just wary of humans. Especially those who somehow worm their ways into being close to one. All humans are scum!"

"And you're vampire scum!" Kerry shot at him angrily.

His hand lunged for her throat, cutting off her air supply. He leaned in close to her ear, "Did you forget what I told you?" he squeezed tighter. Kerry made gasping noses. "The one about where I would not hesitate to kill you? I'm a strong man of my word, Kerry. I advise you don't forget it. Don't forget who you are in the presence of."

Seth laid a hand on Joey's shoulder. Joey waited for one more moment, then he released his grip. Kerry fell to the floor, catching herself, gasping for breath. She coughed as she tried to intake the much needed oxygen. "You, Joey, are an asshole." Kerry said in between coughs. She looked up at him to find him glaring down at her. She looked at the ground again, seeing how dirty it was. She got on her knees and used the wall as support to get up. She resisted the urge to spit in Joey's face. Instead she took a shaky breath in than back out. "I'm leaving now."

Rodney still had hold of Will, who had shock evident in his eyes and face. Rodney looked at her sternly, looking her up and down. "Some history you got there," he mumbled.

"Should we just let her go?" Rachel asked.

Seth shrugged.

"Of course not!" Joey spat. "She's a threat! A problem."

"But she's not our problem," Seth replied. "If she belongs to Michel, then she is Michel's problem. Not ours."

"You can't just let her go!" Joey spat angrily.

"Seth is right. And we have nothing to hold her by."

"Of course we have something to hold her by!"

"And you need to cool it," Seth said darkly, moving towards Joey.

Joey growled.

"We have to respect the fact that she is someone else's." Rodney said, assessing the situation, watching Joey very carefully. "There are also guardians out there and others of us. I think we should let her do as she pleases. If she does anything she shouldn't be doing, it would be Michel's fault, not ours."

"Meaning, Kerry, don't do something you'll regret," Rachel said firmly.

Kerry acknowledged that with a small nod. After a moment, Kerry asked again, "Can I go now?"

Joey growled lowly. Rodney glanced at him and then back at her, "Let her go."

Seth pulled Joey out of the way so Kerry could step forward then Rachel moved out of the way. She glanced at Will one more time, not being able to do anything for him. He returned the glance. He looked like a scared little puppy. But she had to turn away from it. Kerry began to walk out of the hallway and back towards the thudding music.

"You better not stick around this area, Kerry. It's not safe when you don't have a friendly vampire by your side." Seth warned.

Kerry stopped for a moment as he spoke and when he was done, she just gave a small nod without turning around. She walked back out into the main area. Everyone was so oblivious to what just happened there. That there were four vampires all in one area and two hostages. She pushed past the sweaty people who were just having fun and getting drunk with their friends. She finally found the exit and pushed through the door. She was hit with cold air. Shivering slightly, she walked out onto the sidewalk, passing a few clubers. She made way to the car, desperate for warmth. When she got to it, she settled in, letting the heat run. As she shifted into reverse, she saw that it was now midnight. She got onto the main road, wishing she never went to that nightclub.

About 15 minutes later, she realized she took a wrong turn. She found herself on a dark narrow street full of alley ways. She slowed down instead of speeding up, noting that her doors were locked. She pasted some junky looking cars. She finally got out of the narrow street. She figured that she was almost back to the main road. She hit the brakes when she saw a parking lot to a rundown building. It had a junky car that Kerry wasn't even sure if it ran anymore. But not too far from it was a nice black SUV. Kerry pulled into the parking lot, parking not too far from the SUV and right under a street light. It made her feel better being under it. Kerry opened her door, turning off the engine.

She saw only one alley way. So she inched forward. She made herself move a little faster until she got to the edge of the alley way, she peaked down it, not sure if she was making out figures or just shapes in the dark. She walked in the dark alley way. She had gotten pretty far in the alley way, not too far from the end. That's when she stopped dead in her tracks. She recognized him even though she couldn't see his face. And he was attached to the neck of his victim. Shivers were sent down her spine. Curiosity only got the best of her, though her logic senses screamed at her to run. And yet…she wanted to be with him, forever. She went up, almost behind him with a yards distance. She leaned up against the wall and waited for it to be over. She noticed from side vision that he had tensed.

It's alright, it's just me. I'm not looking if that's what you're worried about. I only came to talk about…with what happened…

She said this in her mind, but he hadn't relaxed. Maybe he hadn't heard her. Maybe that was because he was taking someone else's blood, listening to their memories and thoughts.

She saw his body begin to relax and she turned her head completely towards him. She saw that he was detached from the woman's neck. She heard a low growl and became alarmed. Michel turned towards her as the body dropped to the ground. His cold blue eyes held fury and blood lust. She tried to jump back, but her back just pushed up against the brick wall even further.

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