Standing in the room, all was quiet. Other than our deep breathing, no on made a noise. Then, the older hunter stepped towards Alana, but addressed all of us.
“We are here to offer you a proposal.” His gruff voice indicated that he didn’t want to be addressing a bunch of vampires. “We have been aware of your,” he paused “existence for a while now. You first came to our knowledge a few months back, but we chose to bide our time before confronting you.”
“Confronting us?” Alana was calm. “What do you wish to accomplish by having this discussion. And, if you wished to surprise us, you have certainly lost the element of surprise now.”
“Yes, we have.” He answered.
“Surely you few hunters can hope to vanquish us. If that is what you think then you are wrong.” She gestured to the group of us standing to her side and then around the house. “We out number you immensely.” Her crisp, British accent, faded over the centuries was like acid in the room.
The hunter with ice blue eyes and blonde hair snorted and Alana shot him a look, which he ignored. He too, took a step towards her “If you believe that we have come unprepared then it is you that are mistaken.” He had a strong voice, the voice of a leader.
Alana merely stared back at him, unmoving. I could feel the tension in the air.
“You said you had a proposal.”
Alana turned towards me, clearly not appreciating my interruption.
“Yes, we do.” The older man said, this time looking at Alana and Alana only. “We have come to make a deal with you. A proposition if you will.
Alana raised her eyebrows, indicating that he had surprised her. I didn’t blame her; hunters didn’t usually make deals with vampires. Never. “You have come to ask for our help.”
“We don’t need your help.” It was the younger blonde hunter, clearly not liking her assumption. I could guess that she hadn’t been far off.
“I am under the instruction of ask for your assistance in exchange for immunity from us. You will be left unharmed, free to exist with limited interference from us.” The older hunter had a very hard edge to his voice. He was being ordered to do this, I realised. This wasn’t what he, or, I cast a quick glance at the blonde hunter, his comrade wanted.
“Limited interference?” Alana spoke sharply.
“Yes, we will monitor you. To make sure that you are living peacefully and that you are not harming anyone.”
“Or?”
“Or.... we will be forced to take action.” He smiled a very nasty looking smile. That was what he wanted, a reason to vanquish us.
Alana nodded, considering this.
Up until this point Claudia, Quintenn and the rest of the vampires had been still. Now Claudia walked to my side, casting a glance at the blonde hunter. Under other circumstances it would have looked like she was checking him out, but surely not now. Then again, it was Claudia.
“What is it that you ask assistance with?” Alana had stepped closer to the hunters, showing that she didn’t fear them at all. No, she knew we would all defend her if she was in any danger.
“We have been tracking a vampire. His has caused quite a lot of death and destruction and he is becoming increasingly a top priority for us.”
This time Alana’s raised only one eyebrow. “A vampire?” she asked in disbelief. “You need our help with a vanquishing another vampire. What, you want us to do your job for you?”
“No!” the younger hunter stepped right up towards Alana, eyes blazing. Her guards twitched, but otherwise stayed put. “This vampire is different. He is strong, powerful and has many contacts within your world. He has eluded us. All we ask is that you help us track him. We will take it from there.”
“Do we have a deal?” the older hunter waved his comrade off, eyes weary.
We weren’t even introduced.

“Who is it that you expect us to track? We won’t agree unless we have some idea of who it is that we are looking for. We won’t work blind.” Alana, I could see didn’t believe this was as simple as they were putting it across. And she was right. Vampire hunters were good at their jobs; it was what they were trained for. They would never turn to a vampire for help. They must be desperate.
“An old vampire. He goes by the name Micah.” The younger blonde hunter spoke with no emotion.
A strangled sound escaped my lips. I knew that name. It was a name from my past. Suddenly it felt as though the world was getting darker and ready to swallow me whole.
This I was not ready for.
The eyes of every hunter in the room looked at me. A few vampires too, although they knew the reason behind my reaction. Claudia to a step towards me, her eyes fierce.
“You know him?” Blue eyes cast me a questioning look.
I stared back, unable to speak.
“Yes.” It was Alana who answered. “Yes, we know him. We have.... crossed paths with him before” she said slowly. Then she stared both hunters in the eyes. “And yes, if Micah is in town, we will help you track him down. We accept your deal” she said with finality.
“How do you know him?”
“That is none of your concern. As I said we will help you but you will respect our decision to leave some things.....” she shot me a sympathetic look “in the past.”
If the hunters noticed the look Alana and I shared they didn’t acknowledge it.
“Very well. We have a deal.” The old hunter stepped up to Alana and offered her his hand.
She shook it. “Now lets speak privately about this is my office.” She gestured for him to leave the room and he stiffly flowed. With one last look at all in the foyer, Alana moved of in the direction of the hunter, her guards in tow.
That left the blonde hunter standing, facing me. His expression was hard and frustrated. He seemed to be studying my reaction and well he should have been. I had no doubt gone pale.
Learning that the last person you ever wanted to see, the guy who tormented your every nightmare, was in town tended to do that to a person. No matter how strong they were.
Hunters I could handle. This I wasn’t sure about.
Claudia was whispering in my ear and Quintenn had come to stand beside me too.
No. My mouth went hard. I would handle this. I refused to let Micah destroy my life.

I wasn’t paying attention to Claudia, but I let her lead me out of the room. “I cannot believe this!” Claudia was screaming at Quintenn. “How is it that he is in town and you don’t know?”
“I swear there has been no talk. He hasn’t made any moves to come here.”
“That you know of.”
“He hasn’t. Trust me, if he did I would know.”
“Sure you would. Just like you’d know he was in town. I can’t believe that we had to find out from hunters. Hunters!”
Their voices snapped me out of my thoughts. Looking up from where I was biting my lip, I saw the blonde hunter staring at us. He was standing up against the wall talking to his hunter buddies. They were standing in a circle close together and they were whispering. I could see his lips moving, but he was looking our way.
“Shhhh. Not here. We’ve got an audience.” I nodded towards the hunters. Claudia and Quintenn glanced up as I pulled them out of the room, out of the hunter’s line of sight and past James, who was just walking into the room. “Look, this is not a big deal okay. I can handle him, but I don’t want them” I pointed towards the hunters “to know anything they can use. Because, no matter what they say, something feels wrong.”
“No shit Sherlock.”
Oh, I love Claudia’s humour.
“Their gonna use us.”
“That may no be a bad thing.” Quintenn had his right hand on his chin. “We’ve been trying to kill him for decades, maybe with some help we can finally be rid of him.”
“Last time is saw him he was more powerful. The truth is I’m not surprised that the hunters need assistance. Not with him.”
Claudia gave me a look. “This will not be like last time. Okay, never again. Do you hear me!”
“Yes.” I smiled but I didn’t really feel it. At least I could maybe rid myself of him, once and for all. I could stop looking over my shoulder. I could be free....