That night, Jason was on a roll.

Not only had he saved a group of children from a rampaging low-class vampire, but he had also found one of their hideouts. The place was messy and it stank, it wasn't very spacious either, but it was big enough for those demonic creatures to hide from the sun— which, by the way, wouldn't take long to appear.

He took them by surprise, obviously, and it didn't take long for him to take them out one by one with bullets straight to the heart.

He looked around and wrinkled his nose under his mask. The stench of putrefaction was strong and he soon learned why as he found a small mountain of piled up limp bodies. Even if he had seen every single missing report Bruce sent, it would be totally impossible for him to recognize them.

So, Jason exhaled and brought his hand to the earpiece in his right ear.

"I was about to communicate with you," only to hear the voice on the other end speak before any words left his mouth.

Jason frowned, puzzled.

"Something happened?" he wanted to know and although he wasn't looking at Barbara, he could picture her in front of the big computer in the cave. Rolling her eyes, or leaning herr weight fully on the back of the chair.

"There is something we need to talk about. Batman wants everyone in the cave."

"And can't it wait?" he asked, amused by the tone Barbara was using— although aware that if Bruce was summoning everyone it must be for something important— only to continue before she could answer. "I have a mountain of corpses waiting to be identified. So if you could send the cops to my location—"

"Damian brought a vamp to the cave."

Jason blinked once. And then again. And then he had to take back the steps he had taken, as if that was going to have any effect on what he had just heard.

"That the boy did what?"

"Ugh! Just return to the cave, now!" she repeated and then cut the communication line.

Well, Jason didn't need her to tell him a third time.


It was no surprise that by the time he stepped out of the elevator, everyone turned to look at him. Bruce, standing from a position of clear superiority, his back to the large screen in the cave, with Dick to his left and Damian to his right. Barbara was sitting with both arms resting on the table while Tim, across from her, was leaning back in his chair.

The only stranger in the cave, who was sitting a safe distance from Tim and Barbara, and had her back to the elevator, was also the only one who didn't turn to look at him. Perhaps she was shy, but the strong tension in the environment made it clear that it was not due to some introversion.

Jason walked briskly to his seat next to Tim. His gaze resting briefly on what would be the vamp Barbara had mentioned when he pulled out the chair.

She wasted no time in responding, holding his gaze for the briefest of seconds before looking straight ahead again.

He narrowed his eyes. It was only for a split second, but Jason had felt an instinctive need to draw his weapons, or at least put a ready hand on one of them, even though she had barely moved. It was weird, and he wondered if everyone in the cave felt that way.

He didn't say it out loud, though, as Bruce spoke.

"Explain the situation, Damian," his father ordered as he looked back at his only blood son.

Damian had to hold back the sigh that threatened to leave his lips and instead just kept frowning. If it was his father, he was sure that somehow he already suspected what had happened and just wanted him to confirm it in front of everyone.

"It is what it seems, father," he replied simply. "You were late. I had to act and she helped me. The culprit was a high-class vampire and—"

"So, she basically saved your ass?" Damian turned to glare at Jason, who had shamelessly interrupted. His arms now crossed over his chest, giving the appearance that Raven's presence didn't bother him at all, even though everyone in that room probably knew better.

"Jason—" Dick tried to intervene.

"No, no, let him talk," but then it was Barbara who cut him off, waving a hand back and forth as if Damian's annoyance was a minor thing.

Which, considering it happened so often, it probably was.

But Jason just shrugged before resting his elbows on the table and it was Tim who decided to continue in his place, looking at Damian.

"You let a vampire save you and then you brought her back to the cave. The only reasons Bruce would allow that are either she's a huge threat or someone we can use. And seeing that she doesn't have any kind of physical restriction, we can assume that it is the second option, or is it not? However, I fail to understand why it is that we are all necessary for this."

Jason's gaze fell to the table. "As far as I'm concerned, there's no reason to join forces with a vampire."

"But there is," the vampire they had been talking about spoke up after listening all this time.

All eyes were obviously on her, but Raven wasn't intimidated at all.

"What do you mean?" Barbara asked then.

But it was Damian, frowning as if remembering something, who spoke.

"It's because of what that vampire said…" he guessed, looking at Raven and when she nodded, Damian looked back at his father. "The Queen? Do you know what he meant?"

"It's what we were looking into," Dick answered for Bruce, soon walking over to the computer to bring up some files and images on the screen. If Jason, Barbara and Tim hadn't been really interested in the conversation, now they were totally involved.

Bruce nodded then as well, looking over at Dick's presentation.

"I had heard about her during a fight against Slade Wilson," he began to explain. Everyone except for Raven— who obviously didn't know him— made a face at the mention of the name of the high-class vampire mercenary. "But at the time there wasn't enough data, so I sent Dick to investigate."

"We've been collecting leads ever since," he said. "Mostly rumors. One of them was that whatever was happening, it was happening in Jump City."

"But it's not like that," Raven rose from the seat she was in, her hands resting firmly on the table. "I came here following her trail. She has been turning bad people non-stop into upper- and middle-class vampires, and they have been creating servants of their own. Innocents pay for it. It's disgusting. I want to stop her."

"That's adorable," Jason commented, almost teasingly, before leaning back in his seat again and narrowing his eyes at Raven. "But how do we know that you're not one of them and are just leading us into a trap?"

"Right,"" Barbara agreed. "There is nothing about you in any database we have access to. And believe me, we have a lot."

Raven was silent for a few seconds. Although her plan to go there had been effective and she had been prepared to answer as many questions as she could, she knew that it would be difficult for her to get hunters to trust her on the first day of meeting them.

She didn't blame them at all, but being rejected wasn't the most pleasant feeling.

So she pursed her lips and took a deep breath before continuing.

"Maybe not me, but my mother," she decided to confess. "Arella Roth. She wasn't the most…stable person. She didn't register me when I was born, didn't send me to school. And, um, she was afraid that hunters were going to take me away from her, so she hid me away."

Once again there was silence. A silence that was only filled by the sound of Dick's fingers typing on the computer. Raven took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to slow her pounding heart as they tried to verify the information. Soon, the relatively old image of a slim woman with long black hair appeared on the screen. She was younger and healthier than the last time Raven had seen her, but she was Arella without a doubt.

Her resemblance to Raven was undeniable.

But Dick narrowed his eyes.

"Not enough information," he reported, frowning at the screen in confusion. "Neither to deny, nor to confirm your story."

"What about your father?" Barbara asked.

Raven was hesitant for a second as she opened her mouth, but soon closed it and shook her head. "I have no idea," she admitted.

The silence was awkward for a moment, at least until Tim spoke again;

"And to all this," he said, getting everyone's attention. "This… Queen, what does she want?"

Raven straightened up in her seat.

"I'm not sure," she decided to answer honestly. "I only know that she has been looking for vampires willing to go to the ends of the world for her. Either of their own free will or because they've been promised something in return."

"Which she can easily find here," Damian crossed his arms, knowing for a fact that the only reason the existence of vampires in Gotham remained an open secret was luck and a lot of hard work from the contacts of Wayne Enterprises. "In addition to the ones she has brought with her."

"An army…" Tim concluded, with a hand on his chin and his eyes fixed on some point on the table in front of him.

Raven nodded.

"I think we can work together, at least on this…"

They all looked back at Bruce. In the end, he was the one who had the last word when it came to something that involved them all, even though they didn't always agree, it was a consensus that they had reached many years ago.

He kept his expression stern.

"We can't risk any of us being turned," he said, his gaze fixed on Raven, with a posture that seemed normal, but that anyone in the cave could tell was actually on guard. "So we can't trust you."

Raven swallowed hard, although she wanted to intervene, the objection couldn't leave her lips when Bruce spoke again:

"However, it's worth checking the information you have," he gave Barbara a nod and she reciprocated by getting up and heading to the computer next to Dick. Then Bruce looked back at Raven. "You could easily join her plan and help her, but why did you decide to come to us?" he wanted to know. "Why do you want to get involved?"

Why did she decide to go with the humans?

She blinked and looked down at the floor, her right hand squeezing her left elbow. If she thought about it, it wasn't a difficult answer to give. Maybe hard to understand, but she didn't expect them to.

"I don't want… more innocent people to suffer," she replied.


They decided that Raven would stay with them, at least until they verified the information she would provide. The vote wasn't exactly unanimous, but there wasn't much objection either. It wasn't like they could ignore the one who called herself Queen.

As they headed for the exit, Bruce fell behind a few steps.

"Damian," his father called out to him, making him stop, and the others— except for Barbara who was still at the computer— pay attention. He didn't care at all. "Keep an eye on her."

"Why me?" he demanded, frowning.

Given his background, Damian knew that his father didn't trust his judgment or his abilities enough, in any case, his father probably thought he was overconfident, so Damian thought it would be wiser to leave the babysitting job to Grayson, or Tim. Rather, he was hoping that Dick would volunteer himself.

However, his father only kept his expression straight and Dick shrugged.

"Hey, don't look at me, you brought her here," his older brother held up his hands.

"Exactly," Damian raised both eyebrows in disbelief when his father spoke. "As long as we remain ignorant, the situation will be urgent. Jason and Tim will do the legwork. Barbara, the research. Look for anything that might give us a clue as to what's going on. I'll talk to some old acquaintances and Dick will return to Jump City."

"Is this some kind of punishment?" he questioned, soon returning to a frown. "Is this your most effective way of telling me that I'm grounded out of patrol?"

But his father did not respond to that.

"Keep an eye on her."

Curiously, Damian didn't have time to object, as Jason decided to intervene, taking a couple of steps toward them and leaning on one leg.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Bruce?" he asked. "Leave the kid in charge of the who-knows-how-old-girl?"

His teasing tone camouflaged his concern for his little brother easily, but that didn't stop Damian from glaring at him again.

"Enough of that, Todd. I'm 19," he replied, not expecting the shocked silence that followed his words. Damian looked at them all in confusion.

They did know he was 19, right?

"Wait. Wait… 19?!" Jason took a few seconds, as if he were just taking in the information before putting a hand to his head and looking around for Dick as soon as he could. "Dude, we're ancient!"

Dick suddenly looked stunned too. Too much to respond when Tim chuckled and Damian just rolled his eyes at how immature they could be. Even his father had softened his expression. So before they decided to include him in the conversation, he walked towards the elevator, nodding to Raven for her to follow. It was more than certain that Alfred had already prepared a room for her.

Even without looking at her, Damian could feel her gaze on the back of his neck as they walked.

"What?" he asked, a little rudely, when they were both in the elevator. Raven had a small smile, it was just a curve to her lips, but it was clearly a smile for Damian. Sincere and almost amused, even when she was no longer looking at him.

"It must be fun… having a family like that," she commented.

But Damian just frowned, not caring that he seemed so confused. "That's what it seems? That it's fun?"

She nodded, and then the elevator doors opened, revealing one of Wayne Manor's vast hallways. One of the corridors that people never had access to when Bruce Wayne had to throw one of his charity parties for obvious reasons.

Damian was the first out, used to the magnificence of his family, but stopped as soon as Raven was slow to follow. He didn't frown, however, as his gaze settled on her, totally in awe and entranced by the decor. Her slightly parted reddish lips made it clear to him that it wasn't something normal for her and almost, just almost, Damian thought she looked like an ordinary and naive human girl, like some of the girls his brothers had brought to the mansion on certain occasions.

"I didn't know you were millionaires," she commented, looking at the paintings that adorned the walls.

Observing as much as she could in fact, getting only a few steps ahead of him.

This time Damian did frown.

"Have you never heard of Bruce Wayne?"

Call it arrogance, but Damian had always believed that his family was one of the best known in the world. Either by those who only knew the Waynes as businessmen or by those who knew of their nocturnal activities.

But then she stopped and shrugged as she said, "Let me rephrase that. I didn't know that the Bat family was the billionaire Wayne family. My mother hid me away, hadn't I already said that?"

Damian nodded once, noting that it wasn't something she wanted to talk about. However, there were things that weren't adding up and he felt that he had to understand them first before trying to form any alliance with her.

He couldn't ask her at the moment, though, because just then they met the family butler, who gave a slight bow in greeting when he noticed Raven.

"Dear boy, miss," he greeted. "Mr. Wayne told me to prepare one of the guest rooms on the second floor."

"Thank you Pennyworth. I'll take her," he offered, and although Alfred seemed surprised by his initiative, he didn't object at all, instead just giving a nod so they could all go their separate ways.

They continued straight ahead and it wasn't hard to find the room Alfred was referring to, as the door was unlocked and the interior had been efficiently cleaned and tidied.

Like all the rooms, this one had a personal bathroom and a television, as well as a double bed and a window that overlooked the mansion's gardens. Raven's window probably wouldn't open, though. Knowing her father, he knew that if the girl wanted to sneak out of the mansion he wouldn't make it easy for her.

Raven sat on the bed and ran her hands over the soft comforter before looking up at him again, curious.

"You want to ask me something, don't you?" she spoke fearlessly, folding her hands in her lap after a few seconds.

He nodded, deciding to leave the door open, but leaning back against the frame.

"If you've been in hiding… how exactly did you know about us?"

She kept a small smile, not exactly happy, as she looked down at the ground.

"It was only until my mother passed away— at the hands of a vampire, ironic, huh?" She rolled her eyes at him before continuing, though Damian knew she was only doing it so he wouldn't feel sorry for her. It was funny, but being something similar to what he had been through, he understood why she didn't want to delve further into that side of her story. "Anyway, I ran away and was left alone. I wandered all over the country for a while. Too scared to talk to humans... and then I ran into different vampires who helped me. One raised me for a while, the younger ones helped me later. They took me in and told me about you— they told me what I needed to know about you, but not your secret identity."

"Which," she added. "I'm surprised you were so quick to reveal"

He kept looking at her, one eyebrow raised. He hoped she didn't think his father didn't already have a contingency plan in case she decided to expose them, or some other stupid action. It would be very naive of her. It wouldn't have been that easy if it wasn't like that after all, but she seemed to misunderstand when she added a few seconds later:

"Ah, they are good vampires, don't worry."

Damian exhaled.

"Do you think they have information that Grayson can use?"

But Raven made a face, obviously uncomfortable.

"I don't know, but I don't think they'll appreciate the fact that I give their location to a hunter."

"Weren't they good vampires?" the suspicion in his voice was clear, though not accusatory.

She was silent for a few seconds, staring at him, as if trying to figure something out, before sighing.

"You said it yourself: all vampires are your enemies. The only difference is that some prefer to live in peace, as if they had never been converted…"

As difficult as it was, almost impossible, she didn't add —although they both knew that.

He clenched his hands into fists imperceptibly. He had nothing to answer to that. At least nothing good. In his experience, every vampire he'd come across had only caused more chaos than good.

Not just in his experience actually.

A rampaging vampire had turned Jason's mother. One of the upper class had murdered Grayson's family just to show his power. An erratic servant had killed his grandparents, his father's parents.

His own mother...

Damien exhaled.

The only exception to that rule was Raven, who had helped him, but that didn't change things. The truth was that he wasn't very attached to his father's idea either.

He didn't want more innocent people to get hurt either, though.

"We need the information," he told her, breaking from the wall to leave the room. "Grayson will find them whether you give us their location or not."

Raven watched him go and kept her gaze fixed on his back for a few seconds until the door was closed behind him.

The hostility with which he had treated her at the beginning was no longer perceptible, but the mistrust and rancor in his words were just as noticeable. Part of her wanted to know why, to talk to him, and to understand the reason for the path his family had chosen to take. The other party already knew.

She plopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, clutching the fabric of the comforter between her fingers before bringing her hands up in front of her face and staring down at her slightly sweaty palms.

Damian Wayne had been skilled and strong enough to keep up with the fight against her. He was only a human, but the aura he gave off was almost as intimidating as that of a normal vampire. She couldn't deny that she was intrigued by him.

And she could only imagine how strong his older siblings or his father were, who already gave off a vampire-like aura when hostile, so she understood why her friends had specially warned her about them, but…

Raven dropped her hands to the bed and sighed.

If she had to dance in the palms of the complex Wayne family to stop the Queen and get even a slim chance of living a normal life, she would.