I was never a fan of hunting parties, yet this one time I took my friends – I considered them friends at this point – along with me, it was different. I was the leader. Okay, I wasn't leading the party as I was being used as bait, but at least I got dibs on first sip.

The stoners searched the northern part of the suspected area to cover more ground. James sent Ramsay to scout out for the local cell, or someone affiliated with them. He suggested that I could use Draven to help out, but his all too eagerness would probably blow our cover. There was the chance that it could go right, but my hardheadedness on keeping him as far away as possible impeded my thinking.

"It's simple, Lena. Ye just hae to exert power over Draven and he'll bend to yer will easily," James explained. "Ramsay here does exactly what I tell him to do, even if it goes against sheep morals."

"Do sheep morals include chewing on your shirt?"

James looked down and Ramsay was gnawing on the bottom of his shirt. He, armed with a dustpan, hit the ram on the head. "Do I nae feed ye enough?"

Ramsay baaed and trotted away.

"So, we're aware of how the plan works, right?" James asked us right before we took action.

Carmen raised her hand and answered. "Max and Lena have a fake-out. When it comes to the point when Lena's gonna drain him, that should be enough to draw the attention of these VETHA people. The crazy ones. Then, you use the paralysis spell you scribbled on this old prescription sheet to stop them from escaping. Seriously, your handwriting is no different from a doctor's."

"We'll just hope you don't hae to use it. Now did ye take yer anti-anticoagulants?"

"Yes," Carmen replied with an annoyed tone.

"No," Max whimpered.

James pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "I told ye to take it in case Lena goes too far. Vampire saliva–"

"Contains an anticoagulant in which I'll bleed out and die if I get nicked. You're not the only one who knows vampires." He sighed. "It's weird, I can withstand the smell of the shop, yet I can't tolerate that concoction you gave Carmen and me. Also, one lick of the stuff and I get sick to my stomach. And I haven't eaten anything yet. I always eat something before I take any drugs, unless it requires an empty stomach, and it's way past my eating hours–"

"Fine, I'll do the fake-out!" Carmen slapped the piece of paper on Max. Once he took it, she led the way into the alley. After finding a spot wide enough, she leaned against the wall. "To be honest, I've never made out with a woman. I volunteered because he won't shut up about his routine once he's started."

"And to be honest, I'm not the greatest at seducing women."

"Hey, you don't need to seduce me. Just kiss me and grab my bumper."

The way I usually do these things, seducing humans, is by hypnotizing them. It made situations like this less awkward. Initially, the fake-out without hypnotizing Carmen was harder than I thought. It was more than kissing and grabbing her ass. I had to be in the moment and I couldn't get into it. And this wasn't planned with her. Then I remembered what the fake-out was supposed to do. So I planted one on her lips and did my best not to make eye contact. I caught her by surprise on that one, but she improvised much better than I did. While I kept my hands on the wall for balance, she grabbed my ass and pulled me closer.

"Not so rough, would you?" I whispered.

"You kiss really hard so I assumed," she whispered back. Her eyes moved to my left. "You better get to the feeding part quickly, or else they'll take us for a couple making out."

"Okay, okay." I returned to the kissing, this time moving my left hand onto her hip and my right touching the side of her neck. I kissed my way down the free side, feeling for a small vein I could simply take a little sip or scratch with a fang at least. Once I found that vein, everything went downhill from there as the saying goes. I nicked it and then sucked on the sugary sweet liquid that flowed out. Had I known she was AB back in episode one, I'd pressure her into letting me feed off of her. There are ways to keep someone alive for months instead of days, but that's not important now. As much as I wanted to control myself and stop, I continued drinking. Then again, like how food in a fancy restaurant is served in ridiculously small portions, it's the same for drinking AB.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Carmen yelled as she pushed me off.

I landed on my ass, hard. When I looked up, she knew what she was doing after she got drained. She took out a handkerchief and applied pressure to the wound.

Then the people we were luring spotted us. Instead of both checking to see if Carmen was okay, they went after me. I was already on the ground writhing from the landing when one of them thought it was a wonderful idea to kick me while I was down.

"You. Do Not. Trick. Humans–"

"That's enough, Justine," a male voice cautioned his partner. "One hard kick is enough."

"One hard kick isn't enough to get it through their heads, Avery. They need to learn that they can't feed on humans."

"But what if they're willing to feed them?" Carmen brought up. I wasn't sure how that was important at the time since she pushed me away. "I mean, if they consented to give them their blood."

"How can you even say that?" Justine gave me another kick, fucking ow, and turned to face her. "This fucking thing tried to feed on you and you're talking about consent? You do not deserve to be a victim. You deserve to be–"

"Deserve to be what?" Carmen smirked. Sadistic or not, she enjoyed watching them freak out.

"My ... my hand! I can't feel my hand!" Justine exclaimed. "And now my arm–"

"Mine too," Avery said. "What's going on?"

While my vision adjusted back to normal, I saw the two collapse and fall to the ground. Strangely enough the spell James came up with gave them the illusion their hands and feet were tied with rope as their wrists crossed behind them. Not long after, Max and James appeared. Ramsay appeared too, and he nudged Avery to his backside.

"Alrighty, let's get them up against the wall," James said as he took Justine and Max took Avery.

I stood up and walked over to where they placed the two and squatted next to Max. While parts of my body were still in pain, it was times like that I'm glad I heal fast. All that speed and heightened combat abilities at the cost of, well, not tolerating taking a punch or kick to the stomach.

"Aye, would ye look at that." James took his dustpan and pulled down Avery's shirt. "That's quite the intricate branding design. Now which one of ye can tell me who uses it?"

Branding: a time-honoured tradition among keeping human slaves. They're basically livestock, right? Not exactly in this case. These two were loyal fanatics to a clan who hoped on joining our ranks. If they were slaves, they'd be branded on their asses. They were branded on their chests because of loyalty. Then again, not all clans use branding.

"Take a wild guess," Justine replied.

With Max, there were no wild guesses. "The design resembles one used by a Mesoamerican tribe. Considering the intricacy, it's not an ancient, powerful clan but maybe around the time of the conquistadors or later." I have no experience with the clans outside the European continent. Had I bothered learning about them, I'd probably identified them easier.

"You're close but can you pick out the clan?" Avery responded with a smirk. "I bet you can't since there are–"

"There are only three active Mesoamerican clans that fit the description," Max cut in.

The couple was bewildered by Max's knowledge. Hey, they were dealing with one of their own who happens to be not as crazy as them.

Max scrunched his forehead, rubbed a hand along his mohawk, and then shook his head. "It should be easy but I can't pick it right."

"You brought us this far and that's good enough," Carmen said. "We're not getting more out of them with this guessing game, unless, either one is stupid enough to drop a clue."

"Well, if there's anyone who can get loose lips talking, it's me." I examined Justine and Avery to see which mind was easier to break. Apparently neither of them showed much weakness except for the moment of doubt earlier. Since Avery was the closest, I chose him to be my victim. I straddled over his legs, looked him in the eyes, and commanded, "Whom do you serve?"

"You think you can just whisper and stare at me to get information?" Oh how I hated Avery's snarky attitude, but as much as he resisted, he left us a clue. "I'll never reveal who she is."

"Avery you idiot!" Justine snapped. "They'll figure out who Our Master is."

"That, surprisingly, gets rid of one of them," James commented. "The bloke mentioned she so we have two options."

"Justine mentioned Master, that must mean she knows they follow a man," Carmen argued.

"I met a dominatrix who didnae like 'mistress' when I hired her for a night. I'm going with one of the two female led clans."

"Justine said something to throw us off. Besides, Avery didn't sound entranced when Lena did her Jedi mind trick on him."

"Guys, I know who it is!" Max waved his arms to get Carmen's and James' attention.

"Not now," James said before he continued his argument with Carmen.

"But–"

Max wouldn't have been able to get a word in, if not for an intervention. The worried expression on his face was a clear sign he was on the edge of a meltdown. I, however, happened to figure out which clan they were serving. I was unaware the term I used wasn't politically correct, but I yelled, "Their clan leader is a he-she!"

The arguing stopped and Carmen and James turned their attention to me.

"That is not the proper term to call someone who is transgendered or intersex," Carmen scolded.

"Lena's, Lena's close," Max stuttered affirming my statement. "I wouldn't have guessed it myself but the one you singled out, James, is their clan leader. Paz Natividad. He has an androgynous appearance he's sometimes confused for a woman."

"Well, that makes sense." James scratched his own back with the dustpan. "Paz is a wee bit of a hippie with violent tendencies. Is that ri—oh shite!"

We looked to where Justine and Avery lay to find they have bashed their heads against the wall. All that arguing made us forget about them, and somehow not hear their heads bash.

I tilted Avery's bashed in head. "Now why would they do that?"

"They're loyal and will die for him," Max explained.

"Well, I haven't been around die-hard fanatics much. Clan wasn't too accepting of having human loyalists after a wannabe vampire hunter infiltrated. Now if you excuse me, I have some unfinished business." I pulled Avery's head forward and since he did most of the work for me, I sucked from his skull.

"I think I'm gonna throw up," I heard Carmen say. For someone who has been around vampires before, she hadn't seen someone feed from other places.

Not too long after, the stoners arrived. "Save some for us, will you?" Gerald said.

I stopped feeding for a moment, wiped my chin, and turned around. "You can have the other one," I said to them then continued sucking Avery's head. No innuendos intended here.

While feeding I overheard the conversation between Gerald and James. The stoners not only found who was running the operation but also their base of operations.

"What can I say? Homayun and Ariel surely know how to torture information out of people," Gerald continued talking. "We would've fed off them had they not taken cyanide pills."

At the mention of cyanide pills, I stopped feeding. I let go of Avery's head, stood up, and wiped my chin. "Okay, I'm ready to kick some ass."

The moment I moved out of the way, the stoners seized their opportunity and fed on whatever blood remained in Avery.

"What the?"

"They tricked you Lena," Carmen said after placing an arm around me. "Come on now, let's leave before I'm their next meal."

Fucking stoners. But the night wasn't over just yet.

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Not over indeed. Will they find Paz in the next part? Or will they encounter something else? Read on to find out.

If I were to ask an interactive question, I'd ask if you'd ever had to cover for someone when they're down. That may be a bit personal so feel free you share your story (or not). Speaking of stories, feedback is greatly appreciated (votes, comments). Feel that others should read? Go ahead and share!

Edited: 06/23/2020