Chapter One- Conrad's Point of View

"Hey, Count Fagula," Doctor Worth snickered, smoke winding up from his cigarette. As I met his gaze, he sat on the edge of his desk, his lips curled into a crooked grin of pleasure. Hell, everything about him was crooked- his teeth, which were eased onto the surface of his death stick, which was evidently crooked as well. His fingers pulled it out of his mouth and he blew a cloud of smoke out from his slightly parted lips before he continued.

Well, actually, more like before I interrupted him.

"My name's Conrad Achenleck, not 'Count Fagula'." The smoke drifted into my nostrils, and I couldn't help but submerge into a coughing fit. Even though he's not technically a doctor, I thought angerly, He should know better than to chew up his life with those damn cigarettes.

I could see Worth tense up, ready to lash out at me and start the usual quarreling, but he glanced back at the motionless body heaped up on the table in the back and relaxed, sighing, knowing that this wasn't the time for such. "As I was saying," He huffed, taking his eyes away from mine and crushing the cigarette in the ashtray. "Hanna's run off."

Hanna! Stupid me! Ever since the... incident... I'd forgotten about him.

I padded over to the zombie, the one who couldn't remember his own name. He was curled up on the hard, shiny surface of the operation table. His eyes were closed, tight, and he hadn't moved since yesterday. Worth had confirmed that yes, he was still just as alive as he had been before (however much that was), yes he appeared to be in a coma of some sort.

"And not just any coma." Worth had said as he'd shown Hanna and I the rune markings all over No-Name's chest and back. I didn't know a thing about runes, but I knew Hanna used them for his spells, and simply drawing them somewhere could do all kinds of things.

So just what had happened to No-Name?

Not even Lamont was sure, and none of us were there to wittness it. Apparently, he's walked out of the apartment he shared with Hanna during some ungodly hour of the night, saying he would be back soon. When he never did come back, Hanna went out to find him and found him unconscious in an alleyway behind the building, with those runes all over him.

Neither Worth or Lamont were able to work a miracle on him either. They didn't know what to do, they couldn't begin to theorize what had happened. Hanna hadn't said a word since for hours, which was unusual for the normally bouncy, off the wall redhead.

So when Doctor Worth told me that Hanna had gone off somewhere, well... I felt a pang of worry.

"I'm going after him." I stated flatly.

Worth had a new cigarette between his lips now, and the smoke was simply overwhelming. Vampires like myself aren't usually sensitive to these kinds of things, but my eyes were seriously watering.

"Aye, eh, come back soon." It was kind of odd hearing Doctor Worth talk to me, not scream or insult, simply talk.

I shrugged off the awkward silence that followed by shouldering through the door and into the night.

Thanks so much for reading what I have. Don't own any of these characters. Sorry that chapter one is a tad short, but the next one is Hanna's POV, and some chemistry starts brewing... but I won't spoil it 3