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AWOL

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There was no hope of privacy for the next few hours, as the crew divided themselves up to travel in the van, the convertible and the jeep toward Dr Jensen's current lab. Time was short, especially if the darker side of Caitlyn's heritage was fighting to free itself. She shivered as another pang of hunger swept through her.

Abby had called ahead to let Jensen know that they were coming and to give them a heads up about needing anti vamp serum for the re-execution of La Magra and about needing a check-up and a hunger repelling serum for Caitlyn. They had taken a sample of her blood and emailed the results on to Dr Jensen so that she could get some of the analysis done whilst they were en route.

Caitlyn sat in the back of Frost's van with Kevin and Abby while Caulder drove. She closed her eyes and did her best to focus on anything else but the lingering scent of blood. The other two Daywalkers were in the jeep together because Caitlyn had started swearing at Frost when he made jokes about licking the mixing bowl during the blood sample collection.

She was getting unreasonably irritable with everyone and Frost still couldn't be trusted on his own so he'd been put with Blade, who could handle him. King was good at pissing everybody off, so he was in the jeep too, but Kevin was Caitlyn's best friend and had become an expert on soothing her when she was frustrated. Abby was a good peacekeeper as well, so they sat with her as she fought to stay calm. They still needed her to identify another pureblood.

Eight of them were stacked up in the back of the van like sacks of meat, all bound and gagged. Two were crammed in the boot of the convertible and one was double-wrapped in cloth and strapped to the seat in the jeep next to King. Just to be an asshole, King kept flicking the pureblood in the head, because he knew if he annoyed either of the Daywalkers then one of them might decide to throw him out of the moving vehicle. Jack was in the convertible with Gary because there was room there for him and, again, King had said something about being a blood-bag to annoy him. If he knew him better Jack would have said that King was a little nervous or something about tonight, because he couldn't seem to stop himself from making stupid comments.

Just to keep focussed, Caitlyn started talking to the other two. "Did I tell you that my uncle's still alive?"

"I thought you said your mom was an only child," Kevin answered.

"No," Caitlyn said slowly with a frown, "from my dad's side, though I guess that means 'alive' isn't the right term. He told me about the ritual and why we've been turned into animal control. He's Gary's handler."

"Uh, why do we have Gary with us anymore anyway? He already got you into that club." Abby asked.

"I thought I was going to need energy so I could heal Kevin," Caitlyn replied. "I didn't know how badly hurt you were. I might still need something later, especially if I'm going to do the bleeding soon."

"Does Gary know he was supposed to be food?" Kevin asked.

"He's a familiar; that's what they volunteer for," Caitlyn said with a tired sneer. She closed her eyes and shook her head with a soft chuckle and a sigh. She looked up and the other two noticed that her eyes weren't focussing on them. Caitlyn shook her head again, took a deep breath and glanced at Kevin. "I'm sorry…" she whispered, then abruptly burst out of the back of the van as Kevin snatched for her and missed. She was gone in moments as Abby and Kevin yelled through the partition at Caulder to stop the van. By the time he pulled over, Caitlyn was long out of sight.

The ritual had to be conducted at night, and they had perhaps an hour and a half left before sunrise.

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Caitlyn quickly found herself drawn to a hunter and his prey. The short-haired, thirty-something man had already been bitten, and the vampire barely knew she was there until she ripped his head back and threw him into a wall. She kicked the vampire in the head and then swiped his feet out from underneath him. The man grabbed at the wall for support and started babbling when Caitlyn looked at him.

"What are you?" the man whimpered as Caitlyn put her face in next to his.

"I'm a parasite," she said softly, inhaling his scent deeply before burying her face in his blood-soaked neck.

Caitlyn immediately felt awful. She shoved the man away from her and doubled over, vomiting out the blood. She wiped her mouth and leaned against the wall. She kicked the vampire back off his feet when he tried to get up.

Caitlyn's mobile phone, courtesy of Gary and Arvin, started ringing. The human in her won out but she sounded very annoyed when she answered. "What do you want?" she snapped, as she put her boot down against the back of the vampire's neck, forcing his face into the ground.

"Gary informed me that your hungers are getting worse," Arvin's cool voice came over the phone.

"You think I don't know that? What of it?" Caitlyn snarled.

"He also sent me a copy of your blood-work. Have you tried feeding off a human yet?"

"Yeah, it sucked. No pun intended." Caitlyn said.

"Your blood rejects human blood, because you don't need it. However, whenever it is mixed with vampire blood your own blood cells duplicate and mix in freely with it, converting the vampire cells, which is why you are immune to the change. Your own blood seems to be even more infective than vampirism. This is why Deacon Frost has become a Daywalker. Even before your encounter with the beasts I am sure that if it were the other way around and you fed from a vampire it wouldn't harm you. In any case, you should try seeing to your energy needs first. You are thirsty for something, but not necessarily blood." The phone clicked off.

When she thought about it, she'd had a tiny amount of Frost's blood before, and it hadn't made her feel sick. First things first though. The human had run off while she'd been talking, but the vampire was still there at her feet. She grabbed a handful of his thick, dark brown hair and pulled him to his feet. He started to say something and she punched him in the face. "I wonder…" she whispered. Whatever changes she'd been going through, maybe it meant she didn't only have to rely on the energy of mortals anymore. She half closed her eyes and willed the energy into herself. She almost giggled with relief as her thirst abated and she began to feel rejuvenated.

The vampire took longer than a human to stop struggling, but when Caitlyn was done she threw him to the ground and watched as he moaned. The vampire was still conscious, but couldn't seem to move much. She drunkenly stared at his throat for a moment, remembering Arvin's advice and then slowly shook her head. "Maybe next time," she said softly. It was a simple matter to use one of her stakes to put the vampire out permanently.

Now that she could think clearly again she could put her focus back on the task ahead of her.

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AN: Just a short chapter because I haven't posted anything in ages, and to show everyone that I WILL CONTINUE.