"Losing Blood, Chapter Five" by Stacey ´Midnight´ Twiggs

    Lenaye watched the undead scum called Agustus leave the bar, with a sort of attitude she'd love to kill him for. Sure, he was a bit too strong for her to kill alone, but she knew a hundred other hunters almost as strong as herself who would love to team up to hunt him down and chop him up. She figured one bullet to the head would have him paralyzed long enough to get the job done. She wouldn't even need a hundred other hunters, probably just one or two.
    A tap on her shoulder interrupted her thoughts. She turned to see that a female vampire, one who could rival her in looks but not in brains, had been the one to try and get her attention. She thought about pulling her dagger but realized it just wasn't worth it. This vampire was possibly weak enough for her to take by hand if she had to.
    "Yes?" Lenaye asked exasperatedly, as if the vampire was the one trespassing in her territory, not the other way around.
   
    "It's almost feeding time. I'd suggest you leave before you become my dinner." The female vampire told her.
   
    Lenaye had her dagger to the vampire's throat before she could even blink. She jumped back, startled, and put a hand up to her now bleeding throat.
   
    Lenaye knew that she'd pushed her welcome by doing that, so she sauntered casually out the door, waving a goodbye to the vampires. Once out of sight, she jogged the rest of the way back into town. Other than Agustus, she hadn't run into any vampires she was particularly angry at and wanted to kill. Although that female vampire was quickly making Lenaye's hit list. This wasn't the first time she'd threatened to take blood from her.

    Lenaye jogged around the corner and immediately ran into a much younger, much weaker hunter than herself. She stood her ground, but the younger hunter flew to the ground, having lost her balance from the impact. Lenaye made no effort to help her as she went scrambling back up to her feet.

    "Morgan. What are you doing here?" Lenaye asked.

    "I have a job." She told her. It was then Lenaye noticed that she was panting as if she'd been in a hurry.

    "Who for?" Lenaye asked. She wanted to know what vampire Morgan was supposed to kill.

    "Um... actually I don't know his name." She said, flustered.

    Lenaye gave her a skeptical look. "Then why are you killing him?"

    "He bit me."

    "He bit you?"

    "Yes."

    Lenaye laughed. She knew there was no way Morgan could find this creature if she didn't have information about him. "Good luck." She said sarcastically, before walking off.




    Morgan watched the most distinguished and honored hunter walk off. "Thanks!" She responded to her actually wishing her good luck. As rumor had it, Lenaye was always crabby and sarcastic, but maybe people were wrong about her. Maybe she just had a bad reputation
    Morgan took a deep breath and continued running. If any luck would have it, the vampire would still be roaming the area that she'd gotten bit at. She wondered how old this vampire was. He seemed pretty young, now that she thought about it. If she were paying attention to what was directly in front of her, she would have noticed the mortal walk out from around a corner of an apartment building straight into her, but she was looking all around for any signs of a vampire in the area.
    "Oh, I'm sorry!" She apologized to the second person that she'd run into in the same half an hour period of time.
   
   "It's ok." The man said quickly. His hand flew up to his neck, obviously covering something.
   
    She squinted her eyes a bit, trying to see what he was hiding. She had a pretty good idea what it was. "Are you ok?"
  
    "Yeah, just looking for somebody." He said, trying to push past her. She wouldn't let him by.

    "Who you looking for?"

    "A friend."

    If she let him go now, she may never see this man again. "What's your name?"

    "Preston." He sighed irritably.

    "Mine's Morgan." She extended her hand to shake his. He almost took his hand off his neck, but instead shook her hand awkwardly with his other hand. He then tried to push past her once more, and this time she let him past, but she followed him no less.

    "Why are you following me?" He asked her angrily.

    "What are you hiding?" She asked.

    "I don't know what you're talking about."

    "What are you hiding on your neck?" She asked.

    He spun around to face her. "I'm not hiding anything!"

    She took a big risk by saying, "I'll show you my bite marks if you show me yours."

    His eyes widened. He thought about it for a moment before slowly sliding his hand off his neck. His palm was tainted red with a bit of old blood, and his neck hadn't even been washed off. Whoever bit him, bit him only ten or fifteen minutes ago. Which meant positively that the vampire was probably still in the area.

    "Oh my gosh..." She murmured to herself. Then, like she promised, she pulled the collar of her jacket away from her neck so he could see her bite marks too.

    "I'm trying to find him. I had him in my apartment but he got away." He explained quickly, and just as flustered as she'd been with Lenaye.

    Her eyes widened. This guy was trying to catch the vampire too, no doubt to kill him. But he wasn't even armed; did he have any idea what a vampire could do to an unarmed mortal?

    "How long ago was this?" She asked.

    "About... ten minutes now. I didn't even see what direction he went in." Preston answered.

    "Let's go." She grabbed him by the arm and together they ran down an ally that was nearby. If there was anything the learned in school for hunters, vampires liked dark places best. This was the darkest they could find. She was secretly glad that she had a new friend, whom also was trying to kill this vampire. She didn't feel so alone anymore.