Jade stood at the bow of the boat, eyes trained steadily on the land they approached. It was just as scarred and desolate as any other they traveled across but it differed in that it was covered in more nature from the beginning, swallowing cities and towns nestled in the distance. They had finally made it. According to the map, they were close to the mouth of a river which would narrow the further they followed it inland. It would take them exactly where they needed to go. Or, they hoped. She looked up at the scatter of stars above. Night had just fallen. The vast sky looked clear and unaffected by the turmoil below. It was like she could forget what was happening just by looking at it. She sighed and looked down at her pale hands gripping the boat's railing, seeing the rolling waves below. She didn't quite know how to feel now that they were here. She turned away to get her team. As soon as they were docked close to shore, everyone gathered on deck.

"So this is it," Beck said, coming to stand by her. She nodded.

"We just have to follow the river," she replied.

"Do we know what to look for? I mean, the trees and foliage might block it from view," Andre pointed out.

"We'll worry about that when we get there. Let's eat, gear up, and head out as soon as possible. We're almost there," Jade stated, facing them. They did as they were told. Even Tori did nothing but offer her a smile before joining them. Jade waited for them to get ready, feeling confident more so than any other time in their journey. She had been feeding more often, on both vampires and animals, as well as small doses of blood from the team. She could feel the difference in strength and would need every bit of it should they run into trouble. When everyone was ready to go, they followed her off the boat.

Silence surrounded them until the jungle took its place, the sounds of various animals new to their ears. Jade remained focused with all her senses trying to sort out what was an animal and what could be a vampire. No one talked, afraid to disrupt her concentration. While Jade led the group forward, Tori covered the back. She was just as invested in their surroundings. A jungle was a new environment for all of them and they were wary of what it held. They stopped once to freshen up a little by the river before moving on. They had a few moments where an animal either traversed the treetops or darted past them in the underbrush, but other than that they hadn't encountered any danger.

"It's strange," Andre commented, stopping to look around yet kept his shotgun up and at the ready.

"What's strange?" Beck questioned, looking to him.

"Where are they?" he remarked.

"Who?" Sikowitz joined in. Jade tensed, realizing what he meant. Everywhere else they had been vampires infested the area. Yet here, they hadn't even run into one. Tori lifted her nose to the air, brows creasing and hands clenched.

"What is it?" Jade inquired, voice low with caution while trying to sense what she had. It took her a bit longer, but as soon as she smelled the scent of humans, she caught Tori's gaze. Almost like they could read each other's minds they felt the danger at the same time. Jade opened her mouth to warn the team but a dart suddenly embedded in her neck. She snarled and yanked it out, immediately feeling nauseous. It was the same reaction she had to drinking Tori's blood. She stumbled and almost fell but Tori was there to keep her standing.

"Run!" she screamed, alerting the others. They bolted like frightened rabbits, evading the men who suddenly burst from cover to catch them. Tori pulled Jade into motion but she was hit by another dart, this time her back, and soon she was suffering too much from vertigo to do anything but keel over and stop herself from heaving. Tori yanked out the dart then scooped her up and kept running. She didn't know where the others had gone but she hoped they had gotten away. All she could do right now was run. She was quickly followed but she was faster and outran them. She kept going until she grew tired and had to slow down. She regulated her breathing and looked down to see Jade clutching at her torso. She groaned and buried her face in Tori's chest.

"What was in those darts?" she wondered aloud.

"It feels…like when I…tried drinking…your blood," Jade gasped out. Tori's eyes widened in realization. It was likely that hybrid blood had been used, and if that was the case, then that meant there were hybrids here. Jade abruptly climbed out of her hold to half fall and half catch herself. Tori tried to help but the vampire held her back with a raised hand. She leaned on a tree, her body doubling up, and then she was dry heaving. Her legs shook and she collapsed. Tori whined and crouched down next to her, a hand on her shoulder.

"We need to keep moving. They could still be out there looking for us," Jade told her, the words rushing out while she had time before her body was wracked with pain again, trying to dispel the bad blood in her system.

"But who are they?" Tori questioned, glancing around and scenting the air.

"Who cares? They aren't friends and that's all that matters," Jade bit back. The hybrid rubbed at her back, trying to comfort her, but froze. She snarled a warning and stood to defend Jade just as six men surrounded them. Their clothes as well as bodies were strong yet worn. The expressions on their faces were rough and promised pain. Tori was the first to start talking, her words in Spanish. The leader of the group stepped forward, interested. He answered her and she replied. Jade looked from one to the other like it was a ping-pong or tennis match. The longer they spoke, the angrier the hybrid became. She growled low and crouched. Jade tried to ask her what was happening but was cut off when the men rushed forward. Tori fended off each one, unwilling to seriously harm them, but she had a harder time when they drew their weapons. Regardless of the rising danger she kept them back the best she could.

She didn't want to kill anyone, but when one tried to get to Jade she punched him hard enough to cause irreversible damage to his head. He collapsed, instantly dead. Tori cringed, momentarily shocked by what she had done, but then Jade was on her feet to disarm another that got too close. She shoved him away then looked to Tori. They made eye contact, their hands barely brushing, then split to take on their opponents. Tori was more careful to disarm and injure but not kill while Jade had no qualms using all her strength. Tori downed one and Jade managed to use another's machete against him, ramming it through his middle to pin him to a tree. His blood spilled and she wasted no time tearing into his neck with her nails to get more. She drank until he had no more to give. She pulled away just in time to catch an attempted strike, broke the man's wrist, and then tossed him aside. She snarled and advanced on the last two standing.

Tori's fierce expression wavered when she saw Jade's mouth stained red, painting her fangs, and contrasting with her pale skin. She looked every bit like the monsters they had been killing. She was seconds from calling to her and reminding her of who she was, but that was when reinforcements arrived. Everything happened too quickly. A gun went off and Tori yelped, her hand going to her stomach where blood ran over her tan skin. Jade roared her anger and leaped to tear into the one who had shot her, but she was grabbed from behind. She fought the hold on her, and would have gotten free, but a syringe was jammed into the side of her neck, causing worse effects than the darts had. She shoved away from the one who had caught her and fell to her knees. She tried to get to her feet and reach Tori who was being dragged away, but the world was spinning too much. She ended up expelling the blood she had recently acquired and then promptly blacked out, hitting the ground hard.

,~,~,~,~

4 Months Later

Andre sighed and looked up from their campfire at Beck and Sikowitz fighting once again. Or, maybe it was more like disagreeing. Ever since their run in with the band of pirates, or raiders as Beck called them, they hadn't seen the vampire and hybrid of the team. Andre was starting to lose hope of ever finding them. Their escape wasn't a coincidence. They hadn't been the intended targets. So, they backtracked to the boat to think up a plan. They often returned to land in order to scope things out, keeping the spying to a minimum so that they weren't caught as well as keeping up with their own food and supplies. In the time that passed they learned why vampires were few and far between.

The raiders of the nearby city had come up with a dangerous form of entertainment. Vampires were caught, trained, and fed then pitted against others like a twisted version of dog fighting. The hidden arenas required passwords to enter as well as some type of pay. The possibility that Jade had been captured for the sport made them all worry. The reason behind Tori's capture was still unclear but didn't make them feel any better about not knowing. If anything, they felt worse. And now they had to take action soon. It had been too long. They were already on borrowed time and for all they knew both could be dead. Andre stood up and stomped over.

"Alright, alright! Chill!" he shouted, pushing them away from each other.

"I'm not going to get involved in this. If we lose, we'll probably be killed. Those people don't care about preserving any kind of life at all," Sikowitz stated, eyes on Beck.

"And if we don't buy our way into that arena, we'd be letting Tori and Jade down. We might as well be accepting that their dead," he retorted. Beck was the one to come up with the plan to get in to see the fights. How they would do that, he wasn't sure yet, but he was willing to barter for supplies. Once they were in they would see if Tori or Jade were there. If not, they would check the next, and so on and so forth until they found them.

"What if we don't find them and get caught, hm? It would all be for nothing," Sikowitz said, dropping down to sit on an overturned bucket.

"No, it wouldn't. It would mean that we tried, and they deserve that at least," Andre told him. Beck nodded next to him.

"Then I'm going to watch the boat while you two find a way in. I'm too old for this," Sikowitz replied, unwilling to put himself in a situation he felt he couldn't survive in. He was surprised he had escaped the first time. He didn't have strength and he could barely wield a weapon. He wasn't even a good runner, which was why he always stayed on the boat while the others went to scout. This was no different.

"Fine then. Me and you, Andre. Let's go with him to the boat, grab anything of value, and come back," Beck said, turning to leave. Andre glanced at Sikowitz then followed him. He sighed before traipsing after the younger men.

,~,~,~,~

3 Months Later

Tori groaned and rolled over on the dirty ground, her hand pressed to her broken rib. She had been callously dumped back in her cell after a brutal fight with a beast of a vampire. It was smarter than any others she had fought before and used its strength properly instead of swinging blindly. What was wrong with these people? She figured that if the world wasn't going to get any better, they would find some way to make the most of the situation. She just wished she didn't have to play along. They wisely kept her fed just enough to be able to put up a good fight, but not enough to overpower them and escape. Not that that would be easy. She saw how many men guarded the area. The fights were always bloody and unforgiving. Her first nearly got her killed because she wasn't prepared for the hunger crazed vampires they made her fight. Once she got the hang of it she quickly became the favorite. Not even the older hybrid in the cell next to her could quite compete with her youth and dexterity.

His memory of the past was weak but she learned that he had been one of the first to go through the process back before they started capturing younger targets who had a better chance at surviving experimentation. He believed to be the best of his kind, arrogant, and prideful. He had been fighting since the fights became a thing and won every battle. He was the secret-but-not-so-secret weapon until she came along. She couldn't help but feel like she was the new puppy in a house that was already owned by an older dog. He kicked her around, growled at her threateningly, and generally made sure that she knew her place. She let him think that he was the boss so that she didn't gain another enemy. She hoped to have him as an ally instead, one who could help her escape, but that was looking like a slim hope. He wasn't interested in being allies. She pushed off the ground to sit up, the shackles around her wrists and neck clinked with her movement.

"Stop fidgeting. I'm trying to get in the zone here," Garett complained, his slight Scottish accent rough on her ears. He was rude to the highest degree, and even after she tried to be genial or learn about his past, he only turned her away. It wasn't like she really wanted to know how he ended up here anyway. She rolled her eyes and looked over at him.

"And the screwball vampires making all that noise isn't a bother?" she shot back, gesturing to the other cells where vampires paced restlessly. He shook his head.

"I'm used to that. What I'm not used to is whiny pups who don't shut up," he snarled. Tori let out a low growl, teeth slightly bared, but forced herself to relax. Being used and abused constantly for entertainment in a hostile place was making it hard not to give in to her instincts to fight back as any wild dog would. She felt nothing but fear, anger, and frustration daily. She found herself taking it out on her opponents, tearing them limb from limb with ease. She felt a small amount of guilt for killing them for no reason other than entertainment, unlike survival as it had been before, but she reasoned that it was her life or theirs. She rubbed at her side then stood to start pacing. She did it in order to think as well as piss Garret off even more. It caused the chains to drag and clink against the floor which made him furious. He had the worse temper.

"Will you knock it off?" he yelled, getting to his feet. He reached through the bars and yanked on one of her chains, knocking her to the floor. He tugged so that she was dragged closer then pulled her up to hook his strong arm around her neck, pinning her to the bars.

"Don't make me break your pretty little neck," he threatened. She growled and bit his arm, drawing blood with her sharp teeth. He howled and released her. She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, eyeing him with a smirk in the dim lighting provided.

"You little bitch. You're lucky I'm not fighting you. I'd snap you in half. You'd be dead in seconds," he stated, his eyes blazing gold.

"Not before I run circles around you and then shove your head further up your ass than it already is," she retorted. He grabbed at the bars with a roar and began exerting enough force to bend them slightly. Tori was unconcerned. She had already tried to break out that way but she was too weak to attempt it. Not even Garett could get free. When he couldn't get to her, he raged, yelling expletives and promising to kill her as soon as he got the chance. Tori only slumped against the door to her cell, wondering as always where Jade could be or if she was still alive. She was pretty sure the others had escaped and were as safe as anyone could be in this destroyed world. She closed her eyes and willed away the tears that sometimes came when she thought about her vampire. She whined involuntarily and Garett began threatening her again but she didn't care. Soon after, a command in Spanish told her to be quiet.

She was then ordered to stand away from the door. She obediently listened, learning a long time ago that she was treated a little better if she did. The handler came in and set up the restraints necessary to take her out of her cell. It looked like she had another fight to win. She was taken through the short hall to the room that would open up into the arena, which was no more than a huge metal enforced pit. She was released and left alone in the locked room. She didn't have to wait long for the door in front of her to admit her. She walked out to noisy applause and yelling from above. She stopped to wait, sizing up the two vampires she faced. She let out a sad exhale then crouched, baring her sharp teeth and locking her gold eyes on the vampires leaping at her. She lunged to meet them head on. A minute later and they were nothing but body parts while she stood victorious in the middle of the pit once again.

,~,~,~,~

2 Month Later

The skittering of the rat drew closer, but Jade didn't move until it was too late for it to get away. She caught it swiftly and bit into the rodent, discarding the body a second later. It wasn't enough. Nothing was enough. She was slowly going crazy, being teased and taunted with fresh blood then only given so much of it. She saw the affect it had on the lesser vampires held captive. They quickly went insane. Just right for the massacres they called entertainment. She was barely hanging on, but it was getting harder. She was so hungry and angry and worried and frustrated all at once every night she was awake. Ever since she woke up from being captured and feeling like crap she was kicked around. Countless times she had wanted to fight back or throw a barbed retort at the men who treated her like an animal, but she played dumb and acted like any other base instinct vampire. She had hoped that she could catch them off guard at some point, but they were careful. They knew how to handle creatures like her. The best she could do was wait for the perfect opportunity then strike.

She would die trying to escape. She had to find Tori. She had to know if she was even alive. She worried about her constantly and hoped she was at least doing better than her. Without the sunny hybrid around she fell into despair, the only quiet vampire among the many growling and roaring their insanity around her. She huffed out a breath and clenched her teeth when she heard someone come in. She turned to see the girl who visited her once in a while. She was the daughter of the man who held her prisoner. She had an unhealthy interest in vampires and was learning how to handle them so that she could help her father. But when Jade met her, she knew that the teen was aware of her intelligence yet hadn't brought attention to it. The way she looked at her was calculating and she watched everything Jade did. Then she started visiting her, offering her a little more blood than was allowed, and generally helping her for reasons Jade didn't know. The best part was that she knew English and spoke with a slight accent. She walked over to kneel in front of her cell and Jade crawled closer to face her.

"Why don't you speak? I know you can," she said softly, looking the vampire in the eyes. Jade held her curious stare, noting how her eyes were almost the same shade as Tori's. She glanced around to make sure no one else was present before finally talking in what felt like a forever of silence.

"I want to seem no better than the others. I hope to escape and I can't do that if they know I'm different. They'll put me under heavier guard and I can barely fight as it is," Jade replied, her voice scratchy. The human tilted her head and her dark eyebrows furrowed.

"This isn't right," she muttered.

"No kidding," Jade snarked.

"I knew you weren't like them. Have you ever…um, bitten anyone?" she questioned.

"Vampires, all the time. A human? Never just for blood. Maybe if I had to, for defense. I don't ever plan to actively feed on humans," Jade answered. The girl played with the hem of her tattered red dress, her eyes down, before they flicked back to Jade.

"Why not?" she wondered.

"Like you said; I'm not like them," Jade responded, smiling a little when the human did.

"My name is Sofia. Nice to meet you," she suddenly said, holding out her hand so that it passed through the bars. Jade took it in hers and watched as the human shuddered from her cold grip, goosebumps traveling up her tanned skin.

"Jade," the vampire replied, letting go a moment later.

"I'm sorry I didn't approach you before. I wasn't sure if you were as I thought, but you are," she said, interest lacing her voice as it always did.

"It's nothing to apologize for. You might want to be careful with your curiosity. It kills," Jade warned her, slightly joking. Sofia smiled and stood.

"I thought I should tell you that they'll be in to take you to another fight," she warned Jade who nodded and stood up too.

"Thanks," she replied. Sofia prepared to leave when a plan came to Jade. She quickly reached out and grabbed the human by the wrist, halting her. She looked back at the now desperate expression on Jade's face.

"Can you do one thing for me?" she requested. The human nodded, waiting to hear what she had to say.

"The hunger, it hurts. I know they starve us so that we aren't strong enough to escape, but, if I promise not to cause trouble, could you get me a little more?" she wagered, making sure to seem utterly pathetic and needy. She could act when needed and now was definitely the time. Humans had soft spots, and this girl clearly had one for Jade, because she reassured her with a gentle smile and a nod. She shifted so that she could grip Jade's hand in hers, giving it a squeeze before letting go and leaving. Jade smirked triumphantly, a fang exposed. If she could just hold out a little longer and build up on blood she could break out. She was more than sure that the guys had gotten away so her number one priority would be to find Tori.

She hated to think that her hybrid could be in the same position as her, or worse. Just as Sofia said, they came for her. She was removed without care and thrown into the arena once again. She made sure to play up the starved impatience by pacing like a wild cat in a cage. The door at the other side of the pit opened to admit someone Jade hadn't been expecting. It was another hybrid. The sight of him solidified the idea of Tori having to fight this way as well, and it made Jade's need to find her increase. She tensed where she stood, eyeing the muscled block of a man. He grinned menacingly and his eyes glowed yellow. The crowd went wild, the announcer foreign to Jade's ears as he talked a mile a minute. She didn't want to have to kill a hybrid, but it looked like she didn't have a choice.