"Uh, Orion, over and out."

I turn the volume down on the radio but don't turn it off, and I look over at the two vampires. Then I look at Aria, still hulking about nearby, and finally Khalil.

"What's the over-under on them shooting a bazooka at us when we roll up there?"

Instead of Aria or Khalil answering, the vampire called Vincent does instead.

"Zero percent. They made the official promise."

"Yeah, I don't remember asking you, Dracula."

My eyes shift towards Khalil and Aria questioningly. Aria doesn't respond, her red orbs staying locked onto Vincent and Christina both without fail. I've never seen her so intense for so long. It's starting to make me uncomfortably wonder just how "good" she was as a fey hunter in the bad times.

"As much as I wanna say otherwise, Ori, I think the dipshit is right. I don't think they're going to do anything right away. They might be super pissed about their dead bloodsuckers, but they're not going to want to kill off two more when they might be able just to offload all the fey they have." Khalil shrugs his shoulders a little bit when he finishes.

"Aria?"

"What?"

"Anything to add?"

"No."

"I don't think you gotta be all 'redcapped' out anymore, by the way. I don't think these two will do anything, and if they act stupid when we get there, I'm sure we'll have enough time to get back into ready form."

She gazes at my shoulder before looking back up at me.

"I get your point, Aria, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we're good. We'll keep Christina here with us. Sorry, you're a bartering chip. I hate to do it, but it is what it is."

Christina looks at me and slowly blinks her eyes once but doesn't say anything otherwise. Her long cornrow braids don't even look like they were disturbed after breaking my nose, save for flecks of my blood on her forehead and scalp. That sucks, it hurts my ego. I can tell Christina is more careful than a simple soldier because she hasn't shared any information or been baited into talking more than is necessary. Maybe if we all hadn't tried to kill each other in the last hour, we could have been friendly, but I think that ship has sailed. Oh well.

"Aria?"

"Fine." She hisses; it's the same manner of speech she's been using since Aria transformed, so I'm pretty sure she said that without irritation.

She takes a few steps back, and her lidless red eyes start to phase and shift, followed by her body, arms, chest, and legs. Bones crack, muscles pop, and teeth begin to reform. Ten seconds later, she stands before us with her pale, shimmery, and moonlight-kissed skin back to normal. Her dark eyes focus on me, and she reaches back to brush her long black single-braid hair behind her shoulders.

She moves forward and sits next to Christina–who spends at least three seconds denoting Aria's staggeringly different visage–in the back seat and behind Vincent at the wheel. I stay in the passenger-side seat next to Vincent, and Khalil slides in on Christina's other side.

"Alright man, take us back to your shithole 'The Evil Dead' vampire place."

Vincent turns the ignition key of the ATV, and the motor immediately starts right up without any trouble. He turns and takes off in the direction, I assume, to be where their vampire hidey-hole is. I adjust my backpack with the compound bow slightly as we bump and jostle from the rapid pace through the forest. Each big thump grinds my broken ribs, and I close my eyes, trying to block out the pain.

The drive goes faster than expected, especially since there is no conversation. I was half-convinced that some of the dips and holes we hit along the way were done intentionally to make me grimace in pain. I'm a little surprised when we do not at all wind up pulling up to a sneaky shack hidden behind some copse of trees that leads to an underground bunker. Instead, a majestic homestead made of wood, glass, steel, and stone stands proudly on the top of one of the hills. My only thought on seeing the proud structure is: Fuck. We pass through two security checkpoints–one of which has a host of massive dogs almost the size of ponies sitting down, attended by nearly as many individuals holding thick chain leashes to keep the dogs properly seated. I'm suddenly really glad we didn't have to deal with those.

Each time we pass by individuals walking around, they stare with hardened looks in our direction, and unsurprisingly, I do not feel as confident in my plan as when we first started. A memory triggers in my mind of Cassandra's voice telling me, "Nice place, but never go there," as I gaze over the parts I can see of the homestead, and I realize that this must have been the place she was warning me about. She might have understated the "nice place" part, just a hair.

Oops. Real bang-up job of decision-making, Orion.

Finally, Vincent pulls the ATV into an open slot of a garage for other terrain vehicles, and guards stand about ten feet apart in every direction, all of them with assault rifles in hand, pointed down at the ground. I swallow and casually slip out of the open-aired vehicle, looking around and trying to act as casually as possible. I look busted up, I know, which probably doesn't lend any threat level to my appearance. After all, they're carrying assault rifles, and I have a compound bow. It's like bringing a slingshot to a gunfight.

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It's not even me that the guards are all mad-dogging with glares, I notice. It's Aria who seems to be the object of their ire. We all filter out of the vehicle and slowly gaze around. I was expecting Tallulah, but that is clearly not going to be the case. A guard makes his way about halfway to us and stops.

"Good evening, my name is Micah. I'm to escort you and Miss Christina to a secure location. Mister Vincent, I'm told you can go?" He looks from Vincent to Aria, me, and Khalil as if confirming that's true. I answer as casually as possible.

"Yeah, he can go. Christina stays with us."

"Understood, sir."

"Orion."

"Mister Orion, then. Please, follow me."

He turns and starts to move off, assault rifle carefully pointed downwards in his hands. I note that he didn't even ask if we needed any medical assistance, but I shouldn't be too surprised. The ring on my finger isn't buzzing, at least, so that at least makes me feel like we're not walking into a trap. Vincent immediately heads for another part of the homestead at a rapid clip. Christina follows along with us, keeping pace directly between Aria and Khalil, and maintains her absolute silence.

I get a good look around at the lovely exterior of the home and am a little jealous of the opulence they've managed to sculpt here. I note little touches here and there which represent the vampire's house. A bear's head is carved into a stone step in one place; small adornments are on some of the wooden decorative beams, showing a bear standing proudly on its back two legs. These folks are powerful, for sure. I reach up and take off my knitted cap, stuffing it into one of my back pockets so that they can see my slightly pointed ears if they look.

We step through a side gating but don't go directly to the large house; instead, Micah seems to be taking us to a small guest cottage on the property. It looks just as luxurious as the main homestead but about ten times smaller.

Two guards are standing at rigid attention out front of the cottage. Both have little beads of sweat on their foreheads and necks, suggesting they're human. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest, though. I can already see the tendrils of light changing the color of the night sky. It'll be dawn in less than an hour, and there's no reason any vampires would be visible to the sun when that happens. Micah steps past the two guards, pulls open the door for us, and then gestures for us to head inside.

We four move into the cottage's interior, which is more significant than it appears outside. I see two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a living and lounging area. Micah stops just inside the cottage and focuses on Christina.

"Miss Christina, I'll secure your resting space today."

"Thank you, Micah."

She reaches up and touches his shoulder in a brief showing of thankful emotion, the most I've seen her show, save for when she was screaming at my face. She then allows him to lead her into one of the bedrooms. A button is pressed, and I hear what sounds like concrete slabs being slid into place, covering up the large window in the room. I peer over, and sure enough, there is some kind of a light-blocking pocket window creation that has slid over and firmly sealed, turning the room into pitch black. Micah turns on the lights and then steps out of the room. Christina closes the door behind her, leaving Micah to stand at attention outside her doorway.

"You guys got some kind of set up here, I'll say that."

Micah initially doesn't respond, but after I stare at him long enough, he finally mutters.

"Yes, the liege lord ensures that all guests–welcome or not–when granted hospitality do not need to worry about their accommodations." His tone suggests he wants absolutely nothing to do with talking to me.

"Sorry about your friend, Christina. Kind of bad luck all around."

His head turns, and he focuses his serious, meticulously groomed bearded face more directly on me. I can tell he wants to use that assault rifle on me because his hand holding the stock tenses slightly on it, and my ring starts to vibrate for a few moments before fading away.

"Alright man, relax, I'll let you do your job."

Khalil is poking around the sink area in the kitchen, so I look to see what he's doing.

"What're you doing, Khalil?"

"Trying to find a first aid kit so I can try to make you less terrible-looking."

"That bad, huh?"

"Yes." Aria and Khalil both respond at the same time.

"Damn. By the way, I think my nose is broken."

"Yeah, it's definitely broken. You're lucky she didn't get you in the eye or something with that headbutt."

"Okay, you're going to make me look in the mirror now."

I stride across the floor, setting down my backpack with its compound bow weapon still in it next to the breakfast bar of the kitchen. The weight off my back and the pressure it was putting on my broken ribs feels good when it's no longer there. Making my way into the bathroom, I flip on the light and look at myself for the first time in crystal clear focus.

My nose is a little crooked along the bridge, and bruising has spread out on either side to give me a bit of a raccoon-like appearance. Half of my face below my nose is covered in dried and sticky blood. I grimace at myself. I'll have to have Aria or someone else set my nose. I exhale, knowing it's going to hurt like hell when we do that, too, but I don't want to get my nose started bleeding again, especially with my shoulder as it is.

My black t-shirt is plastered to the side of the shoulder I was shot in, and I groan as I take off my shirt to get a first-hand look. I drop it to the floor and turn slightly in the mirror to see the already widespread bruising where I hit the tree from Christina's bullrush.

Khalil comes up behind me and peers inside. A low whistle makes me look at him behind me in the mirror.

"Damn, dude, I'm glad you're okay. I thought for a second at first when I saw you fall–" He breathes in, his eyes faintly watering as he tries to clamp down on the emotional response now that he has just a moment to show it.

I don't make a deal out of Khalil showing emotion because it's generally hard for him if it's not jokes, good vibes, or the occasional spout of anger. Emotional vulnerability is not a term Khalil would like to understand. He's the family I chose to have, and I know the same goes for him.

"I'm alright, mostly. Kind of."

He brings in a little first aid kit, the sort that you get for ten dollars at a drugstore.

"Sorry, it's my travel one. I didn't see anything out there to help."

"Better than nothing. Are you okay?"

"Yeah dude, I'm good. I didn't get touched; that fucker was lucky he had that gun to stop me. Stronger than I thought he'd be, too."

"Yeah, they're much stronger than I thought, too," I murmur, grimacing at the damage Christina inflicted on me in hardly a second's worth of time.

Khalil lowers his voice slightly, whispering next to me in the bathroom so that Micah doesn't overhear. I turn on the water in the bathroom and watch it swirl around the fancy bowl on top of the vanity.

"What did that talk about patrons and all that mean?"

"It was just something Cass told me to say if we ran into any of the vampires here. Was supposed to stop bullshit from happening."

"It worked, mostly."

"Yeah, for now." I nod in response to him, then reach over to pick up one of their lovely hand towels. "Not sure how far it'll take us, but I'll ride the train until it stops, you know?"