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CHAPTER TWO

Hei stepped out onto the street- night had settled. The team back in New York had already set up an apartment for her, and that was where she was headed.

She gripped the folder, her knuckles glaring white in the near darkness.

Ever since Hunter Redfern, one of the most prominent members of the infamous Redfern family, had disappeared, the council had been wondering why the vampire world wasn't in chaos.

All they knew was that there was definitely something, or someone, holding them together, and that person was at least as powerful as Hunter.

Perhaps even more powerful.

This was someone smart enough to remain in the shadows, for it was alarmingly true, that no one in either the darker circles or the renowned Circle Daybreak knew their identity, not even whether they were male...or female. The only thing the council knew was that this someone had a brilliant mind, and planned strategically and with the utmost attention to every last detail of their attacks, and thus always managed to slip out of the useless- wait should she not say that about the group of which she was a... member? She smiled at the use of the word, but could think of nothing more appropriate to replace it at the present time. No, they had only informed her of this- situation shall we call it- recently; they knew those feeble eyes and ears which they had oh so carefully laid out were nothing compared to her. They would never grovel at her feet for help until the very last second, in fact, knowing the stubbornness and idiotic pride which the council held to themselves, in the millisecond in which when the opposition would prepare to announce 'Checkmate'. In those cases, she just killed the opposition. In fact, as she now pondered over it, she had never had an opposition. Her steps quickened, though always, with the casual walk of an unsuspecting girl, not the graceful stalk of a hunting cat. For she was hunting.

She was always hunting.

Of course, the council's wishes should take priority, however- she grinned in the near darkness- she would make them wait. Hei was never one for priority. Did darkness ever have a priority? Oh yes, right, its priority was to take over the day.

Step, snap. Hei stepped on a twig. Her every move was in accordance to her walk- the innocent girl.

She was a planner herself. And she always got what she wanted. And boy, if that was what this mysterious force, person, vampire, witch, shapeshifter... she ran through the possibilities, was used to- bad luck. By this time, she already had more clue to this 'someone' than the council did.

It had to be a vampire.

Even though the possibilities of another species to run their own would be a smarter thing to do- yes, she called them species- they would never listen. And even if they did, there would always be the slight muffled outbreaks from tight control... unless this was someone they all respected. Or more likely, conformed to. Obeyed. Dogma.

Feared.

Snap, plunge, jump back.

She was lucky today, another witless vampire so easily lured by her naïve looks- perhaps he hadn't noticed her eyes were iridescent at the present moment? They had always scared people off; she had soon realized whenever she was hunting her normally level amber eyes would turn a euphoric iridescent colour. If iridescence could be termed as colour.

She was human, but her eyes were that of a huntress. They scared people, and dumb people were always liable to be frightened by something which was not a part of a norm. Or rather, their norm.

Hei slipped the sword back under her long coat, her other hand still tightly clasping her folder. This was one thing she wasn't going to lose. It contained her weakness.

Only the strong admitted to having a weakness.

Because only the strong learn to obliterate their own weakness.

Vampires had once been her weakness...

Now, she was theirs.

She smiled at the irony of this. You might have noticed by now that Hei always smiled. Maybe that was because she never cried... well, okay, she had cried before, I mean, everyone cries right? It ashamed her to look back and see that just yesterday when she had actually been too immersed in her own thoughts of escape she had walked into a tree. Just like that. Trust me, when someone like Hei walks, she walks fast, and of course, it hurt. Rather like walking into a brick wall. But at that time, tears had sprung if only for a second to light her amber eyes, but of course she managed to preserve what was left of her rather tattered dignity and picked herself up without so much as a tear dropping to the ground. Thank god she was alone... her reputation would be ruined.

As she walked now, the sky was turning a rich velvety dark, and the wide streets turned into haunted alleys.

She reached for the key to her apartment. It was another one of those darkened alleyways she had gotten so sick of during her first years as a slayer. The familiar graffitied walls brought back memories. If "walls" were what they could be called. She took one moment to look appreciatively over these "walls" and concluded that they looked more like a dilapidated pile of rocks. It worried her how these rocks looked like they were about to fall down. Of course, knowing her luck they would fall down at this very moment and crush her to death. She narrowed her eyes and aimed a death glare at the pile of bricks which had somehow irked her. She was only human you know. If thirty thousand bricks came crashing down on her, she would be squashed. Quite like the many bugs she herself had in turn squashed, but of course she was sure her eyes wouldn't bulge out like those of mosquitoes or flies. In fact, if it did happen, she highly doubted she would even have eyes. Naturally, she admitted to that, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

And with that last bright, rather charming thought, if she did say so herself, Hei walked into the apartment.

It was a long time since she had lived in an apartment like this. But she would never forget the last. Some things were hard to forget.

And some faces- she would never forget.

flashback

"Mommy?"

"Yes dear?"

"Why can't I have pretty clothes and a daddy like all the other girls?"

Her mother smoothed her hair back from her face, and lifted her onto her knee. She realized her mother was trembling and her eyes grew wide and iridescent. Her mother put a cool hand to the girl's warm cheek, and said, "because you are not like all the other girls."

The child looked up, and with all the earnest passion of her young years exclaimed, "But I want to be like all the other girls!"

She felt wetness against her own cheeks- hers, or her mother's?

When we are young, we are selfish.

When we are old, we regret.

Her mother rocked her in her arms.

"Mommy?"

"Yes dear?" her mother whispered, her normally clear voice hoarse.

"Why aren't the lights on?"

Her mother didn't reply.

And the girl knew. She knew there were other people in the room with her, with her mommy and she knew she knew that her mommy would never reply. Because now she could feel the comforting warmth on her face was not tears but had the unmistakable coppery tang of blood. She had never screamed before.

Her mother had always said to her, "Darling, what would you do if one day... mommy wasn't here anymore?" and she had always replied, "Mommy will always be here right?" and her mother, with an aching smile would nod and brush her hair back from her face. Her hair was always too long, but her mother loved it.

But today she finally realized the answer to that question.

"If mommy isn't there anymore..." she whispered amongst the red veil she now saw the world in, "if mommy isn't there..."

She looked around and saw the most vicious eyes she had ever seen. There were two sets of yellow eyes and perhaps in another time she would have thought they were pretty. She had never screamed before. The girl remained silent, and listened.

"Daddy," the young vampire looked up to the darker, taller shadow beside him, "do I have to drink the girls blood too? They are vermin! I don't want to drink the blood of vermin! Yuck!"

And still, the girl remained silent. Vermin? All she knew was that her mommy was dead and they were going to kill her as well.

"If mommy isn't there..."

She ran, she ran from the yellow eyes, she ran from the room, she ran from her mother, and perhaps, she ran from herself and the answers she was facing.

"If mommy isn't there I will run and when I grow up to be big and strong I will kill whoever took my mommy away!" She screamed like she had never screamed before and ran as fast as her legs could carry her, clasping onto the first person she saw and holding on for dear life, not letting go until she was...in the end...sitting in their house.

She then realized how lucky she was, because that person wasn't a person, well her young mind couldn't handle such thoughts, it was a person, but it was also a witch! And she said she would help her and protect her. She said that all those horror stories she heard was true she said vampires were bad, everyone was bad she said there were monsters and werewolves...

And all the girl asked was

"What is vermin?"

end flashback