His mother's hideout ended up being a storm cellar hidden behind an abandoned building. She led the four of them downstairs, pausing only to light a few oil lanterns as they want. It was small and cramped with five people inside, but it would do.

"Jesus…" Felix said as he looked around. "You've certainly stocked up, lady."

He wasn't wrong, Alain had to admit – his mother had filled the shelves of the cellar with various supplies, from food and water to medicine to weapons and ammunition. There wasn't a single inch of space left bare on the shelves, so packed full of gear as they were.

Him and Felix helped Az over to a nearby cot and laid him down on it. Before they could do anything to stop him, Az ripped the dagger out of his torso, then pressed a spare blanket against it to stem the bleeding.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," he insisted. "Check on my lady."

Alain nodded, then moved to examine Sable. She was gritting her teeth due to the pain, and she was still bleeding, or at least the closest comparable thing an undead could do.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"Blood…" Sable breathed. "Assuming present company is okay with that."

Alain's mother bristled. "You want to drain my son-"

"Mother," Alain said, cutting her off. "We've done this before. Sable has a lot of self-control. You can trust that she won't suddenly lose it and bleed me dry."

She let out a grunt, crossing her arms. "Very well. But if she drains you too much, I will stake her."

"Hopefully, your aim is better than the last hunter who tried that," Sable spat. "Alain, if you would be so kind?"

Alain lowered the collar of his shirt, then sat down next to her. Sable immediately latched onto his neck, and he flinched when he felt her pierce him with her fangs and began to drink. The sensation of being drained of his blood was unpleasant, but ultimately, it was necessary, so he didn't complain.

And even besides that, he still trusted her.

It stopped just a short while later. Sable detached herself from his neck, and offered him a rag to hold against the puncture wounds. She wiped the blood from her mouth, then turned back to Alain's mother.

"Satisfied?"

"Not at all," she said. "That was disgusting, made even worse by the fact that it was my son. Alain, how do you feel?"

"Fine," he reported. "Having a vampire suck your blood isn't exactly a pleasant experience, but it could have been so much worse. And besides, I think I'm getting used to it at this point."

"Is that supposed to reassure me? Because it doesn't."

"Look, I think we're getting off on the wrong foot, here," Felix offered. "Let's just forget that particular thing happened and move on to discussing what's actually important."

"Before we do that, I have some questions for my mother," Alain said. "Mom, why did you leave? What happened?"

"How much do you know?" she asked.

"Just what the Tribunal told me before sending us here."

Her eyes widened. "They sent you?"

"Yes, I know – we can't trust them, except unlike with Sable, I'm inclined to believe you this time," Alain said.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I don't understand… how did you even get into contact with them? That's the entire reason I left – they were hunting me down, and had already gotten to your father. The one saving grace was that they didn't know I had a son. You're telling me that was all for nothing, because they found you anyway?"

"It's not like that," Alain insisted. "Mother, I stumbled into this world by complete accident. Sable and Az – that's the big guy – hired me to escort them somewhere. I had no idea what they were, and from what they've told me, they weren't going to reveal that to me, either. In fact, they were perfectly willing to let me go off on my own once the job was done, but the circumstances changed and we all got dragged into something much larger than we could have ever imagined. You heard what happened in Los Banos, right?"

"I did," she confirmed with a nod. "In fact, that's what got me to start poking my head out again – I heard the Tribunal was investigating, and knew nothing good would come of it. You mean to tell me that all of you were involved there?"

"We're the reason why it was stopped, mother. All of us, Sable and Az included. Some madman was trying to give himself immortality through ritualistic human sacrifice, and we just barely managed to stop him in time… at least, I think we stopped him; it was hard to tell."

Suddenly, she lunged forward, grabbing him by the shoulders.

"What did you say?" she demanded. "You all think you stopped him? Did he complete the ritual or not?"

"It backfired," Alain reported. "He killed the girl, but whatever came of it, it killed him and everyone else in the room, too. We just barely managed to get away-"

His mother released him, her eyes widening in fear.

"No, no…" she muttered. "That damn fool…"

"What's going on?"

"Thought I had more time, but this… this is-"

"Mother!" Alain demanded, getting her attention. "Talk to me. What's happening? What did that ritual do?"

She took a shaky breath to calm herself. "...The ritual did not backfire. It was completed exactly the way it was intended to be completed, at least from the sound of things."

"But that can't be true," Sable insisted. "We watched it backfire – watched their bodies be consumed by some kind of… creeping darkness. You're telling me that was the entire point of the ritual?"

"Yes, I am," she explained. "Look… the ritual promised eternal life, right? But it didn't say how they were going to receive it. That darkness? It's… something far worse than you can imagine. They got eternal life, at the cost of their freedom, their sanity, even their flesh. They are all now servants to something far, far worse than you can all even imagine."

Sable and Alain exchanged a glance.

"Mother, the fuck are you-"

"Son, listen to me," she interrupted. "What's going on here… it's beyond anything you can comprehend. This goes back centuries, to the very origins of mankind itself."

"Are you joking? Is this Biblical in nature, or something?"

"That isn't far off. Look, ultimately, that's not too important. All you need to know at this point is that we need to stop whatever the Tribunal is about to do, because it goes beyond even them."

"Okay," Alain agreed. "Right… what do we need to do?"

"They're going to come for me," his mother said. "We all know they are. The only question is how they intend to do it. So I think what needs to happen is that I need to make myself known, for once."

Alain caught on immediately. "No," he said firmly. "Mother, you are not using yourself as bait-"

"Son, for the love of God, just call me by my name," she said tiredly. "And second off, if you have a better plan, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, it's best if you just listen."

"Fuck that," he declared. "Moth- Heather, I just got you back not even an hour ago, and now you're telling me you plan to put yourself directly in the line of fire once more? And you honestly expect me to just be okay with that? Have you lost your fucking mind?"

Heather bristled. "There is no other alternative-"

"Yes, there is. If you're going out there, then I'm going with you."

"What?"

"You heard me right," Alain stated. "I've found you, which means that at this point, as far as the Tribunal is concerned, I've outlived my usefulness. They'll come for me at some point as well, not to mention my friends. If you honestly think that the smartest play here is to go off on your own to try and draw attention to yourself, then I'm sorry to say, but you're delusional."

"And what about you, then?" Heather demanded. "You expect me to be okay with you putting your own ass on the line?"

"No more than you expect me to be okay with what you're doing. Fact is, there's no play here that doesn't involve someone putting themselves in the line of fire. We're all just going to have to accept it and move on."

"Do we get a vote?" Sable suddenly interjected. "What makes you both think the three of us are okay with either of you running out there like idiots by yourselves?"

Alain blinked. "Sable-"

"Shut up," she commanded, fixing him with a harsh glare. "We all thought you were going to die not even a full day ago. Do you have any idea what that was like? And now you're telling us that you're planning to paint a target on yourself yet again. Well, I'm not going to stand for it. You've done enough, Alain, now let someone else put themselves on the line instead for once."

"Sable…"

She ignored him, instead turning towards his mother. "They're going to be coming for all of us, like he said. That makes all five of us valuable targets for them. You need someone to be bait? Well, consider me on the hook."

Sable turned back to Alain. "I'll be the one going out there, and that's final."

Az bristled. "My lady-"

"Don't," she warned. "This is my decision, Az. Does anyone else have any objections?"

"Several," Alain volunteered. "But… you're not wrong, admittedly. And I can tell you're not about to be talked out of this, much as I may hate it. Okay… so what's the plan, exactly? How do you intend to draw out the Tribunal the way we want?"

Sable's only response was to smirk. For some reason, Alain felt a chill go down his spine.