We fell.
The air sped past me as we both fell down, and into the alley. I tried to aim where I landed, but both of us ended up missing the dumpster. Me by millimetres, Logan by a mile. I landed half a second before he did. I tried to absorb most of my landing on my rear, but as I made contact with the ground, my body twisted and my head snapped back, hitting the concrete. My head throbbed and pain ran all down my bones. My body ached instantly.
Beside me I heard Logan’s landing. He landed just as heavily as me; I heard a crunch and him curse. His mouth rang out throughout the alley, shouting a string of profanities. I rolled over, slowly and painfully, onto my side and glanced at him.
He was lying beside me, on his back. His knees were curled up to his stomach and his teeth were clenched. He was clutching his right shoulder. I noticed immediately that it was dislocated. He continued to keep his teeth clenched while he took long, deep breaths. I guessed it hurt. A lot.
I heard a rustling noise above me and my eyes shot from Logan to the roof top. I made eye contact with a vampire. He was looking down at us wistfully, but there was something in his eyes that told me, both he and the other vampires weren’t stupid to try and follow us down.
Lucky us, I thought dryly. Only we were stupid enough to make that jump. The next thing I knew they were gone from my sight. I wondered if they’d come down from the church, but they never did.
At this point Logan was on his feet, and I scrambled to join him. “Are you okay,” I asked unsure.
He looked at me, with eyes that were blazing both with pain and anger. “Am I okay? No Roxi, I am not okay!” he shrieked.

I shrugged, rolling my eyes. “Fine, whatever, I was just asking.” I watched him walk over to the entrance of the small alleyway. “What are you doing?” As I asked, I realised what he was doing and winced.
I watched him take a few short breaths to ready himself, before he slammed his shoulder, hard up against the corner of the wall. I heard a crunch and a click as his shoulder snapped back into place. He cried out again and I watched as he punched the wall with his good hand. The he turned, and leaning against the wall, sank down until he sat on the floor.
It only occurred to me then, how desperately my body was screaming at me to sit down, so I collapsed in the middle of the alley where I stood. I sat down and crossed my legs in front of me, wincing as pain shot up my back. “Well, that was fun,” I muttered.
From across the alley where he sat, Logan snorted. “At least we’re alive.”
We were both breathing heavily. My whole body was sore and my own shoulder ached. In half an hour I knew I’d be okay and as good as new. Looking at Logan, I couldn’t help feel sorry for him. He’d been right. It was he, who would suffer most for our jump. He already looked battered and bruised from the warehouse siege. And now fresh injuries covered his body. I didn’t think I could count his cuts and bruises on all my fingers and toes.
Something suddenly occurred to me. Was this how his whole life as a hunter was like? Was he constantly injured and hurt because of his job? Why would he do this then? I wasn’t sure how I’d handle this lifestyle if I wasn’t able to heal. And yet he did things like this, time and time again.
I felt a sudden respect for him. No matter how much I disliked him sometimes, and how much I wished this mission could be over, so he’d leave. He still did this job, knowing he could get hurt, even killed, so that people could be safer. I hated to admit, even to myself that maybe he wasn’t this heartless, cold person I sometimes believed him to be.

We sat in silence, and I was lost in my thoughts of him. My stomach was starting to turn slightly, so I knew that I was already healing. I was looking down at my hands, trying not to throw up when Logan finally spoke.
“Look, about last night” he spoke slowly. I looked up and met his eyes. “I feel I owe you some sort of explanation,” he continued. “I understand that some of the things you told me were probably difficult for you to say, especially to a hunter like me.” He was looking down, away from my gaze and he looked very uncomfortable. He wasn’t the type of person who explained himself to anyone, I’d already figured out that. Even to Frank, so why me? “I’m sure my reaction must not have been what you expected, but you must know, that’s how I am. I like to know all the facts, and when I look at something I look at it from all angles.” His eyes rose and met mine. He had a strange searching expression in them, and I didn’t quite understand it. “Last night I just wanted to get my head around things I guess. I didn’t mean to make you angry with me.”
I really was genuinely surprised, I hadn’t expected him to apologize or explain his actions in anyway. I’d gotten so used to him being a certain way. Where he only explained what he was required to and nothing more. “Why are you telling me this now?” I asked. Of all the places to have this conversation, here and now wouldn’t have been my first choice.
He didn’t answer immediately; his expression was one of concentration. He looked like he was thinking about what he should say. Then his face changed and he shrugged. “Because when I entered the church, you looked like you wanted nothing more than to kill me,” he said, smirking.
I tried not to smile, and failed, as I got to my feet. “Logan, if I wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead.”

He laughed and painfully pulled himself to his feet. “Ditto.”
I had been stretching my muscles, but his comment pulled me to an abrupt stop. He’d spoken it lightly and he hadn’t seemed to put a lot of force behind it, but it still sent my mind spinning. This was the guy who was supposed to despise me. Who thought I was a leach sucking the world dry. Wasn’t that how he’d put it? Did he not want to vanquish me now and where the hell had that come from? I was still a vampire, after all.
I decided not to ask though. I didn’t want to push my luck. He’d already told me more than I’d ever expected him to. Instead I asked, “Can we go back to the Manor now?”
My mind kept running over and over why the vampires hadn’t came down after us. We would have been an easy attack, what with Logan being injured and all. But they hadn’t come down and I couldn’t help but get a bad feeling over that. I wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible, just in case they decided to come back.
Oh, god, I thought. I hope they didn’t completely destroy the church. Father Riley would kill me.
“Yeah, lets,” he stopped and his left hand shot to his belt. “Oh, crap, I left my dagger back in the church. We have to go back for it.”
His dagger? And he wanted to go back for it? “Can’t you just get a new one? I’m sure you have dozens.”

He shook his head. “I do have dozens, but this one was my fathers. I can’t replace it. He gave it to me when I killed my first vampire.”
He turned and started to walk towards the church entrance. I sighed and followed. “How old were you?” I asked curiously. “When you killed your first vampire, that is.”
He smiled, remembering. “Twelve.”
Twelve? That figures, I thought dryly. At twelve most boys are too busy playing with soccer balls and foot balls, but not Logan. No, when he was twelve, Logan was busy vanquishing vampires.
He saw my expression and must have guessed what I was thinking. “My father wanted me to be able to defend myself, just in case,” he explained. “He didn’t actually let me fight the vampire, but he showed me how to vanquish one. Then he let me stab it,” he shrugged. “He gave me the dagger afterwards as a reward.”
When we entered the church I was shocked by the sight of it. Pews were overturned and broken. Tables lay on their sides and candles were scattered all over the floor. I felt guilty, instantly. Poor Father Riley, I thought. He was going to be upset; I better stay and help him clean it up when he gets back, it was the least I could do.
But when I looked across the church I was surprised to see him already standing there. It occurred to me then, that a bunch of vampires attacking us and ripping up the church would have caused quite a lot of noise. One of the nuns from next door, must have called him and he’d come right back. I let out a tiny sigh of relief. It could have been worse; he could have come back when they were still here.

As we reached where he stood, at the front of the church, I noticed he was holding a large knife. No wait, scratch that, he was holding a dagger. I recognised it. It was the dagger Logan had, had that night at the club BlackOut. It must have been the one he wanted to come back for.
Father Riley was looking down at it, a troubled expression on his kind face. He was turning it over in his hands, studying it. He looked up at our approach. His eyes met mine and they were filled with worry and fear. I was instantly alarmed and desperate to know what was wrong. Before I had a chance to ask anything however, he turned his attention to Logan. “Is this yours?” he asked.
Logan was looking back at him, his face filled with confusion. “Yes, it was my fathers” he said, reaching for the dagger. “I’m glad you found it, I wasn’t sure I’d get it back.”
Father Riley didn’t release the dagger when Logan’s fingers grazed it; in fact he pulled it back slightly. “Was he a member of The Order?”
Logan took a step back, pulling back his hand, alarmed and confused at Father Riley’s harsh tone. “No. No, he wasn’t” he shook his head. “But my grandfather used to speak about something called The Order.”
Father Riley was nodding thoughtfully. “I see.” He turned to me and held the dagger out. I took it and looked down at it. It was silver and very beautiful. It had a wide, ridged handle and it looked very old. It must have been in Logan’s family for generations. When I flipped it over, my breath caught.
Oh. There was a crest on the handle, right on the edge of the dagger. It was an eagle like bird, standing on a rock, with a snake in its mouth. I sighed. I knew this crest; I’d seen it a dozen times. Suddenly Father Riley’s actions and behaviour made sense. And I didn’t like it.