Danger. It was, again, the thing that woke me. The scent of the predators was coming close to me. I kept my breath steady, and I kept my body still. I moved one tail slightly to the right and peeked out. I was still curled up next to the vampire’s chair. From the corner of my eye I could see the vampire sitting there calmly. But all my attention was on the group coming toward us both. They looked human, but they smelled like predators. They didn’t notice me, so I kept still and hoped for the protection of the vampire.

Everything changed quickly. The lead predator spotted me first. It sniffed the air and took in my scent. It bared its teeth at me, but not like a human might. I was in danger. I didn’t hesitate to stand on four legs and raise my tails threateningly. The predator laughed, and a few others who had noticed me did the same. But I wasn’t going to die without a fight. A low growl filled the back of my throat and echoed through the otherwise silent room. It was only a moment later before the entire group of predators echoed back the growl. I disregarded my fear and scratched my claws on the ground. I hardly noticed digging into the stone beneath me.

The vampire’s voice broke into our standoff. “Now now. Ashford I did not bring you here to antagonize my special guest.”

The lead predator kept its eyes on me as it replied. “Can I have it when you are done? It smells delicious.”

The vampire paused and I felt my sense of safety waver. “Does it? Then again, I am not like you who treats every gift as a meal. No Ashford. For now she is mine. But I may one day throw you a bone.” Laughter filled the hall and the predators looked unhappy about it. I however had no idea what was going on.

“Of course, my queen.” The... Ashford? said and bowed its head in submission. I was not fooled. I remained ready to attack or flee.

“Calm down my darling. You are safe right now. He won’t try anything. Will you Ashford?”

“No, my queen.”

“See.” The queen vampire leaned over the edge of the chair and looked at me. I didn’t trust the large predator standing only feet from me. I didn’t truly trust the predator close to me either. But I had no choice. If both the predators and the vampires wanted to kill me, I would not be able to stop them. So my head moved up and down and I sat back as far from the predator as I could. One of my tails wrapped around my legs and the other two remained on alert. Now that I thought about it, I could feel the magic pooled into them and so I let some of the magic slip out of my feet. I looked down and was pleased to find a small patch of grass. This was much better.

If any of those watching thought it odd that I grew grass no one said anything. The vampire bared its teeth at me before sitting back in the chair. “So now we know that it was you werewolves who had her so on guard before. Ashford, tell me, what kind of animal does she smell like to you?”

I had thought the predator would growl at being asked, but instead it gestured to another of the predators. “Sable is better at that kind of thing.”

“Very well. Sable?” The vampire asked with a gesture.

The predator took a deep breath. My hair rose up, the predator was taking in my scent again. “I can’t be completely sure, but perhaps a fox of some kind.”

“That’s all?” The vampire seemed disappointed. I watched in interest as the smaller predator looked nervous.

“From this far away that is all I can tell. If I could come closer to it...” That was not going to happen. I let out another growl and stood on my two feet. The predators seemed surprised by this but even more so when I pointed a shaking claw at them. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself by not being able to speak their language so I moved my head slowly left to right. I hoped they would understand.

The vampire laughed. “Well that seems clear enough to me. So a fox hm? JongIn.” A vampire stepped forward from the left side of the hall. “Do you have any werefox at the moment?”

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“I believe I just might my queen.”

“Bring the fox to me when you can and perhaps I will purchase the beast from you to accompany my precious here.”

“Thank you, my queen.”

The vampire merely waved its hand and the other vampire stepped back into the crowd. “Anyway, what brought you here in the first place, Ashford? We were interrupted last time by the presence of the precious being over here and you never quite got to the point.”

“The point, my queen, is that we need to take back some of the land to the east. The humans have taken over there and my pack runs out of space to run. With the humans close by we have to be careful not to attack them. If another war would start...”

“Yes. Yes. We all know what happened the last time your kind was discovered by humans. Oh and precious. You can sit down now.” I blinked slightly. I hadn’t realized I was still standing next to the queen. I nodded my head and sat back down. I stopped paying attention at this point. I didn’t have much interest in land or humans. Why tie yourself to one place and not travel where the food went? Speaking of, my stomach chose that moment to remind me of my lack of meals. There wasn’t much I could do however. There were no bugs or small animals in this room, and I was not sure the queen would let me leave on my own. So I took to digging through my tail looking for a snack.

I was lucky enough to find a few smaller bugs. My stomach was not quite as empty but it largely protested the misuse I was putting it through. I apologized and took a moment to look around at the beings here. The predators had left already, but I could smell a few other animals in the room although they looked like humans to me. I was able to scent out the two who had captured me. They smelled so human, but I could see signs that they were vampires. This didn’t seem right and I decided to investigate it when I could.

My attention turned to the queen. The pelt was still as stunning as before I had gone to sleep, but as I looked more on its face I came to a new knowledge. This queen was female. I had known there were male and female of course, but the scent of the vampires were all the same, except those two. All these predators disguised as humans lacked the normal markings of male and female. But now I could see that you could tell female and male by their face. I began to recognize face markings that I hadn’t known before. Or perhaps I had. I looked out at the gathered group once more. I spotted the large vampire who had led me here. This was a male. The second vampire I had met on the way was a female. Both of my capturers were male.

I was so lost in my discovery that I didn’t smell her at first. But one of the vampires walked forward and I saw the female walking with him. She looked human too, but she smelled of home. She smelled of family. I stood on my four feet and approached her. The hall was silent and she wouldn’t look at me. I growled at the vampire who stood so close to my family. His eyes turned to the queen. Mine did not. But the queen must have done something because he moved out of the way quickly. I approached the female.

Her eyes were looking down but they wouldn’t look at me. I butted my head against her leg and nothing. I whined and nothing. Finally I stood on two legs and touched her face with my hands. She looked up when I made her. But her eyes were dead. She was prey. She was no longer a predator. I was filled with sadness for her. My arms wrapped around her and I buried my nose against her neck. The human words filled me and whispered them to her. “Go in peace Sister.” I was not sure where those words came from but the female's body relaxed. I opened my jaw, there was a shout from the room. They couldn’t stop me from burying my teeth in the body and ripping a hole in her throat.

Blood covered me and the body. I swallowed the bit of meat, knowing I would carry this member forever and live in her honor. A hand wrapped around my wrist and threw me across the room. My tails swished angrily as I landed on four feet. I looked up to find a vampire about to drop something on the female’s dying wound. I knew that if its blood touched the wound the female might yet survive. But that was not the female’s wish. My tails gathered the magic quickly this time. I ignored the shouting and those who tried to approach me but found they could not. My eyes were on the body of the female. I could suddenly see her true form. The human body disappeared from the vampire’s arms and instead the body of a fox was dropped to the ground. I made my way to my sister and curled around her body. I closed my eyes so I could not see those trying to enter my protection. I only listened to the slowing heartbeat of the fox.

Finally the last breath left her. I cleaned her face before I released the magic. Angry faces filled my vision and I let out a yip. I quickly stood and tried to run back to my corner. But fingers wrapped in my pelt and made me yip again, this time in pain. Everything froze and all eyes turned to the queen. She looked bored and was eyeing the dead fox with dislike. I didn’t like that. She had to respect the dead. But before I could say anything she turned her eyes toward me. Her eyes were blood red. They were the eyes of the predator and I no longer felt safe from her. This vampire would eat me before I could do anything to stop her.