mob1

Chapter 1

The man had just stopped outside the door and was apparently waiting for someone to arrive. His figure was framed against the light from the restaurant and he appeared oblivious to the dangers lurking in the shadows. It was ironic that the light that sheltered so many from harm would be his undoing. His hunters waited, crouched in shadow, as their victim stood, oblivious to his danger.

Cathryn or, as she liked to be called, Cath waited with the others of her group for the given signal to go after the vampire she had come for. It was not her first night out but this was going to be one of her first important kills, as she would be leading this hunt instead of tagging along as usual.

/I�m not really leading though,/ she thought, shifting her gaze to survey her group of slayers. The one in the middle had light blonde hair and sky blue eyes.   He looked much younger than he was but had a way of commanding the attention of those he spoke to. Which was why he made such a good leader. Still, Cath had waited for a good many years to be in the lead. Until now she had done this waiting patiently, but now it was hard to sit still crouched as she was with the rest of her patrol in the shadows. Her blue eyes sparkled with anticipation as she watched the male shift nervously.

�How long is he going to stand around for?� Cathryn muttered. She was greeted by several annoyed stares and a few motions to be quiet. Nick silenced these voices with a single icy glare. He turned and looked apologetically at Cath and she smiled appreciably at him in return then shifted her gaze back to the scene in front of her a little less impatient now that she had been reprimanded, but much. She consoled herself with the thought that it was only a matter of time before their target went off by himself and then the fun began.

One of the first rules for killing a vampire was to catch them alone so their death would not be noticed. It was a rule all abided to strictly because the Rogues failed to kill where it would be unnoticed, they might find themselves in serious trouble at the hands of their leader, Blaire Denin. Cathryn shivered at his name. Their leader was definitely not someone to be messed with, and she was already on his bad side. Though what had caused it was hardly her fault.

Cathryn turned to survey the group again, trying to pick out the newer faces. There were quite a few, as there had been a rough hunt a few weeks before and some of the slayers had died. Cathryn had spent a long night listening for the names of those that had not made it, and had vowed that she would avenge their deaths.

Of course, it was a given that most of them would die during a hunt. Few slayers ever made it to retirement age. That was a harsh reality that she tried to ignore, but sometimes it was hard. Death could come at any time, on any night. Tonight even, though she doubted that scenario very much.

Cathryn turned toward the vampire again. This was her big hunt and she was determined to concentrate on it.

Just then, the vampire looked over toward them, apparently able to see them despite the fact that they were hidden deep in the shadows. For a brief moment he seemed to meet her eyes before beginning to back down the alley. Cathryn was shocked. Could he indeed see them? Throughout her five years as a slayer, she had been on many hunts and seen many vampires, but something seemed different about this hunt, he acted as if he wanted to be caught. Wearing a pendant that openly proclaimed that he was a vampire in public and even separating himself from a group of people. She thought she saw a hint of fear but also of immense pride in his silvery blue eyes, but now was no time to wonder. Nick gave the signal and the hunt was on. Together they would all face down this scourge.

As the group stood up to face him, he turned and started to sprint down the alley. Cathryn, a naturally quick runner sprinted ahead of the rest of the group. As she followed him around sharp twists and corners on the alleyway she was only dimly aware that the shouts and cries of the group faded away as their owners were lost in the maze-like alleys.

~~~~

The vampire sprinted down the alleyways. Taking the turns that he had rehearsed with the rest of the group a dozen times or more. Tonight he was to be the bait. A lure to the slayers so that they might fall into the trap that was set for them. But first he had to get there. With the speed that desperation lent him he raced around yet another corner. Just three more corners and he was safe. The only thing he was worried about was that the person who was running after him might catch him before he reached that point. As a rule, he didn�t dare look back in case he lost track of where he was. Two more corners, one, and he�d made it.

At first it seemed as if there was no one there and that he was alone and indeed for a moment he felt that way, but then his sharp eyes picked out the forms of those hidden in the shadows. There were two vampires for every one of the patrol members, each armed and fully prepared to fight when their leader gave the signal. The place, which they had picked to fight, was good. Open yet deep within the catacombs that made up the alleyways, it had two exits and a rather large area for combat, which would definitely be to their advantage.

He gave a sigh of relief and stepped into the shadows to join the group while another member similar in appearance took his place and signaled for them to get ready. Too bad for the slayers that they had no idea what was awaiting them. Several members slapped him on the back and offered their congratulations on the run and he flushed with pride.

He�d only been a vampire for a year and considered himself lucky to be allowed to help out on this hunt, even if it was just for his speed, he was sure to get a chance at the fun later.

~~~~

Cathryn sprinted around the corner to find herself face to face with her adversary.    The man had stopped running and was apparently bent over in exhaustion; he had reached the end of his limit. He had looked at her for quick moment before stepping into the shadows where his face wouldn�t be revealed, and his silvery eyes reflected the glow of the lone street light that cast its light overhead. Cathryn shuddered at those predator eyes, which seemed to be focused on her every move.

Cathryn triumphantly stepped forward and pulled out her stake. She neared, she prepared to strike and put an end to his miserable life. But only after he answered a few of her questions. The vampire stepped back closer to one of the walls, as if to gain some sort of protection. A dead-end for him. She realized, as he seemed to. Nowhere to go from here but down since he obviously couldn�t get up the strength to run any further although the area was open for him to escape from. She looked behind her instinctively for reinforcements but found none. Not that it really mattered anyway. She could definitely handle this one by herself.

�Time for you to die scum.� Cath said, her voice as hard as steel as she took another step towards him. But his time was not up yet. The vampire in question stepped into the light and Cathryn found herself looking into his liquid silver eyes. He appeared to be only nineteen, dressed in a black leather jacket and jeans. He looked more like a lost tourist than a killer. Early on, Cathryn had learned how deceiving looks could be. This was no ordinary vampire, he was the leader of one of the vampire groups. She gasped and took one quick step back, and the vampire seemed amused at her reaction, for he smiled slightly, and Cathryn could see his fangs quite clearly, marring an otherwise handsome face.

/ Something is wrong,/ she thought to herself. /I knew I would have recognized him earlier along with the rest of the group, there isn�t anyone else with those kind of eyes. Have I been following the wrong vampire?/

No matter though. One was as good as another as far as she was concerned. And even better at this point. This one, Jory, was the leader of a group of vampires that had been responsible for a massacre of slayers a few weeks back and without the leader, his supporters would lose all order. Masking her moment of shock, she strode forward purposely, with stake in hand, prepared to use it if he attacked, or even throw it if he tried to run. Jory did no such thing, and even lifted his arms, making him an easy target.
�Wait,� He said his voice velvet despite the situation, �the show�s just beginning.� With that he signaled to the shadows and a group of close to forty vampires stepped out. Among them the one she had been after originally.
Each of them was armed with a long knife and a vicious looking dagger. Alarmed at the sudden change in odds, Cathryn shifted towards the place she had run into this mess from only to find it filled more vampires. She moved against one of the walls that was the only safe place at the moment so that her back would at least be protected.

One of the vampires laughed mockingly and the group of vampires began to taunt her. �The hunter becomes the hunted.� One said, and another, �How does it feel to be the one trapped in a group of many, with each one of them ready to tear you apart?� Yet another commented, �How fitting, a slayer meeting death the same way that she has ended so many others lives.� With that they began to close in on Cathryn. Desperately, she raised her stake and prepared to go down fighting.

�I may die tonight, but at least I�ll take a few of you with me!� Cathryn yelled even then realizing that tonight was the end for her. That nothing she did would help. But death was better than the alternative, becoming one of those /creatures./ At least she would die bravely.

�What no cries for mercy?� One of them said, taunting her as the circle drew in closer.

�You think I�d be stupid enough to expect them to have an effect?� Cathryn looked at the one who had last spoken in scorn.

~~~~

Jory was impressed; he would have expected her to beg for mercy. He�d seen it happen hundreds of times to both slayers and the ones that they hunted. Granted, some of the vampires that died had deserved it, but the majority were innocent. Not like it used to be, before everything went wrong.

It was time now, for him to teach the Rogue Slayers a lesson, one that they would not easily forget. But for a moment he felt pity for this girl, and for the end she was about to meet. She was obviously brave and well trained, not that it would do her any good. She faced him squarely.

�Quick death?� She asked, with a strange calmness in her voice, his surprise at the question must have showed, for she grew grim.

�Just because your group has broken all the rules doesn�t mean we have to. Quick death.� The slayer sighed in relief, then raised her stake.

His group closed in around the slayer, and it became obvious that she was not equipped for fighting a group of any size. He raised his hand, and began to drop it, the signal for the beginning of an attack.

~~~

Just then, another voice came out of the alley. �Wait!� A young woman stepped out of the alleyways from the opposite direction that all gathered had come from. Her face flushed from running to get there. Her golden eyes glimmered in the dark as she stepped toward the group and her hair that almost matched her eyes was damp and darker in the back with sweat. Her step was light and she looked eager to join in the fray. However, her enthusiasm only served to annoy Jory. /Now of all times, why did another one have to show up?/

Impatiently, he waved her away, but she kept on coming quickening her step and starting at a run. It wasn�t until she was almost face to face with him that he realized that she wasn�t part if their group.

�We don�t need any more help.� He said, motioning for her to move on. Instead, she stepped up to him, and began to pull something out of a pouch at her waist.

�What makes you think I�m here to help you?� She pulled out a wooden stake and lunged toward him, faster than he could react. Jory fell, and hit the ground hard. Something he wasn�t capable of noticing anymore.

~~~

With no further warning she started attacking the remaining vampires with stakes she pulled out of a small bag at her waist. She got at least four more before those surrounding her could react. Then she found herself surrounded by a group of angry vampires, each armed with knives and more than willing to fight for their fallen leader. She was amazingly quick and agile, using speed as her ally and dodging the majority of the attacks she faced. At the same time she used her dodges go bring her in attack mode against those not expecting it. In the first few minutes of the attack she managed to take down three more vampires. In a group numbering close to forty though, those few hardly seemed to matter. Soon Cathryn�s ally was bleeding in many places from attacks that she could not dodge.

Seemingly invincible, she was ignoring all blows that came to her as she worked her way towards the slayer in the middle of the melee, nearly dancing circles around her opponents in the process of doing so. That was what startled those she had come to fight most of all. She had several good gashes on her arms and neck that could have, and should have individually resulted in her death. But she kept coming on!

~~~

Cathryn had no time to appreciate this unexpected help. She was attacked by a vampire that slashed a crimson line down her arm, breaking the moment of inaction. Cathryn screamed in pain, and she raised a stake and aimed for his heart. Her aim was true and the undead creature died with a look of surprise on his face. Quickly she turned to face another opponent, blocking the dagger with her stake, while pulling out another stake, one of the five she had brought with her. She pushed up, forcing the vampires arm up high, and killed her enemy quickly, holding on to the end of the stake and retrieving it even as another vampire slashed at her. Cathryn dodged as best as she could, but felt the dagger go through her shoulder. She dispatched this one quickly, then turned to face another opponent, and another before she found herself out of stakes. Cathryn was pushed down by sheer numbers and slashed at on all sides. The last thing she heard before falling to the ground was the yell of her strange ally as she battled her way towards the finish. Then one of the vampires Cathryn had slain crashed onto her and, as she hit the cement, she saw a brilliant flash of light, and then only darkness.

~~~

Cathryn�s unexpected ally determinedly fought her way toward the stranded slayer in the center of the melee. In her mind she saw the expression of the first one she had killed on this night. She ducked under a flashing knife and stabbed upward, leaving the vampire to a quick death before leaping nimbly away as she turned to face yet another enemy. On the edge of her vision, she saw the slayer go down under a body and shouted in frustration as she worked her way toward her. She felt countless slashes against her arms and legs from those she couldn�t turn fast enough to attack, but she kept on fighting through a red wall of pain with a doggedness that was astounding and horrifying to her enemies, who couldn�t understand why she didn�t just die.

She fought with a viciousness that was inhuman, as if she couldn�t feel what was happening at all, focused only on killing one adversary then another until there was longer a need to fight. Many of those gathered there seemed to realize that and tried to escape her wrath, some successfully but some not. Just when she looked ready to collapse, the last few remaining fled in a panic. And she was alone. For a moment, she just remained still and an onlooker would have thought that she was about to drop from exhaustion, or loss of blood, but there was more stamina than one could have imagined in her delicate frame.

Then, at last, she stumbled over to the pile of bodies that nearly covered the girl and began the gruesome task of lifting them off of the unconscious slayer. A flashlight appeared in her hand and she used it to shine down on the unconscious form of the girl whom she had rescued. She was wearing an I.D. pendant that identified her as a member of the Rogue Slayers and, more importantly, it featured her name, Cathryn. She had dozens of deep cuts all over. For a moment it seemed that it would be too late for her to do any good but then the slayer stirred and her rescuer sighed in relief.

~~~

Some time later Cathryn came awake after one of the bodies that had been on top of her was pushed away. The glare from a flashlight made her close her eyes and she wondered why the others had not shown up to help her. Quickly the flashlight was switched off and Cathryn was able to open her eyes to the sight of her ally. Odd amber-gold eyes stared at her with a look of concern evident. Cath ached all over and felt blood seeping through her clothes in several places; she wondered how her ally must have felt, with wounds that appeared ten times worse. She then felt herself lifted up into a sitting position. Cathryn knew she couldn�t have done that by herself, she couldn�t even manage the energy to move her head, and much less the leaden weight that was the rest of her body. Her ally with the odd eyes critically examined the many cuts on her arms and legs.

�You�re not hurt too badly, even though it looks pretty bad right now.� She murmured, more to herself than to Cath. �The most that you�ll need is stitches, and I can take care of those myself. For a moment there I thought that it would be too late for you.� She had a haunted look to her eyes that suggested the possibility that she�d seen something like this all too recently. Haven�t we all. Cathryn thought, already slipping back towards unconsciousness. Vaguely, she wondered if the other would take her to the hospital but she couldn�t find the words to say it. Instead she looked back at her ally and noticed several long gashes on her face and on her arms and legs several cuts that were definitely in need of some serious aid. Not to mention the fact that she was covered in blood, some of which must have belonged to the vampires. Cathryn remembered back to training where she learned that if enough blood was exchanged between a human and a vampire, the human would undoubtedly begin to change over into a vampire.

�Your arms,� Cathryn gasped, close to weeping with pain and exhaustion, �and your face, you�re going to become one of them!� How could one live with such deep cuts? She wondered, even if only one of the several that traced her wrists, neck and shirt had hit a major blood vessel, she would surely bleed to death and surely one did. No one was that lucky.

The other noted her concern and said softly, �It�s too late for me, about five years too late.�

Cathryn�s eyes widened in horror and she tried to scream, to yell and to get someone who could take her out of this nightmare, but her voice gave out on her. Just before Cathryn completely lost consciousness again she thought she saw tears forming in the vampire�s amber eyes. Then, she thought that she felt herself lifted up and gently carried away before sleep came and with it peace, if only momentarily. The last thought that went through her mind was that she had known that this hunt would be almost monumental to her but definitely not in this way.

~~~

Quite some time after that, there was a groan and slowly, one of the presumably dead vampires got up and rolled to his feet, silver eyes flashed in the darkness as Jory looked down in amazement and realized how just close the stake must have come to his heart. This should not have happened, he thought to himself. I should have been ready. With a cry of pain, he wrenched it out and sat for a moment, hand to chest to staunch the bleeding that had begun as the obstruction was removed, thinking back on what had happened only a short while ago.

The first thing that he remembered was the amber eyed girl, or rather, the vampire. Those eyes were a giveaway as to what she was. As he looked around at his dead companions, he had no doubt that she must have been responsible for the majority of the deaths of his comrades. They hadn�t counted on facing vampires that night and had only carried their steel daggers. Jory wondered if perhaps there was a possibility that she belonged to a new group of slayers, but that was impossible. He knew for a fact that there were only two groups of slayers, the traditional ones, and the Rogues. In fact, he occasionally gave the former ones tips as to who their group should go after. After all, that was part of his job.

Grimly, he thought back to the slaughter, for that was the best way to describe what must have happened. Guardians were rare enough as it was. The twenty he had brought with him were mostly newcomers to his group. In the back of his mind, Jory wondered why he had been spared. Was it merely a coincidence or was there another reason that he was left alive? Somehow, he doubted that it was an accident. He had seen the look of recognition in the other vampires face the moment before she had attacked and he was sure he knew the girl, he just couldn�t manage to place her.

His head swam with questions he knew he couldn�t begin to answer. A vampire helping the Rogues fight against vampires? That seemed ridiculous, but it had happened. As he started out over the alleyway, he noticed that both the vampire and the slayer were gone. If only he had some sort of clue . . .

Then he saw it, whether by mistake or design, there was a small piece of paper lying on the ground, next to him, upon looking closer, Jory realized that it was an address. Myra Kliss, 204 Jade Apartments. So the name was Myra. Jory smiled in a way that conveyed no trace of happiness. The next time he faced her, and there would be a next time, of this he was sure, he would know his opponent well. But first he had to get out of here before the rest of the slayers came, after all, if they found him he wouldn�t be receiving the quick death he�d come so close to. Not the first time for that either, He thought, remembering a now distant hunt, the only difference being, last time I wasn�t fighting against the slayers . . .

Slowly, he got up and slipped away into the shadows, trying to make it back to the Safehold, the Guardian headquarters as quickly as possible. However, he had not counted on the lightheadedness that came with the loss of blood he had endured, not to mention the fact that the stake had been made with wood, which inhibited the rapid healing that he would have otherwise enjoyed. While his cuts couldn�t kill him, that didn�t stop them from being as painful as they would have been otherwise, or as much of an influence on his state of consciousness. Several blocks from where the slayers would later come, he leaned against the cool walls of the alley to rest for a while before going on, but as he rested he found himself growing more exhausted and finally slumped to the ground, unconscious.

~~~

The patrol that Cathryn had been in before the attack waited timidly before the office of Blaire Denin. When it was finally their turn to speak to him, they were ushered in, one by one, leader first, of course. An arrangement Nick didn�t look too happy about.

�You did what?� Blaire yelled at the patrol. Many of them shrank at the sound of his voice and several began eyeing the door. But Blaire wasn�t through with them yet.

�How on earth did you manage to lose Cathryn of all people! Do you know what kind of trouble we could be in if she gets turned?� Several of the members paled at this term. There was not one among them who hadn�t heard how Cath had bested Blaire in her initiation fight. There was no doubt in their minds that she would be a formidable enemy if she was indeed now a vampire.

�There was evidence of at least three people escaping and neither Cathryn nor Jory were among the bodies we found.� One of the members timidly mentioned.

Blaire had already heard that Cathryn had supposedly single-handedly beaten well over twenty vampires. While he doubted that, somehow they had been killed. But the fact that Jory had escaped annoyed him most of all. The Rogue Slayers had long suspected that he was going to try something like this, for there had been several recent reports of similar incidents happening throughout different areas. Blaire�s group had been given an opportunity to exterminate this menace once and for all and had failed.

They had found the Guardian leaders identification pendant and one bloody stake on the ground and Blaire was smart enough to put two and two together. They had been so close to getting him too! If they had been just a few minutes faster in finding the area, he would have been theirs. And Cathryn might have still been with them. As the patrol was ushered out of his office, he thought about what it would mean if Cath was indeed turned.

�By God, why her of all of them. . .� While Cath was by no means a favorite to him, he took pride in the fact that all of his members had come back from the hunts, alive or dead. But now, with one of the best of his fighters gone and presumed dead, he wondered how he would manage. Blaire sat down to wait for the dawn and, hopefully a word about his missing slayer.

~~~