I rushed down the hallway and made my way downstairs, only to encounter Em’s parents, who were just about to head up to their room.

“Aurora, darling, is something wrong? You appear to be upset.” Em’s mom stopped me by softly taking me by the arm.

“Uhhh…” I didn’t know how to reply to that.

“Mom, she will be back later.” Em called out to her mom from the top of the stairs. She must’ve followed me. She smiled down, but I knew that was only to get her mom off my back.

“A friend asked me to check on her… she’s having a bad time and I’m kind of worried.” I made up an excuse on the spot.

“How are you going to get to her? Do I need to call a taxi?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. She lives closeby.”

“Oh.” Em’s mom let go of my arm. “I’ll leave a key behind the right lantern next to the door, okay? That way, you can let yourself back in.”

“Thanks!” I smiled and then put on my shoes that we’d left here. “I’ll try to be as silent as possible when I come back.”

Ilse nodded. “Good luck with your friend.”

I nodded back and took one last look at Em, who was still standing at the top of the staircase. She gave me a smile, which I swiftly returned. I sure as fuck hoped I could deal with whatever this was as soon as possible.

With my coat on, I left the house and jogged down the driveway to the street. The recent snowfall made me wish I had picked some more practical shoes.

When I ran out on the street, I saw a black car with tinted windows sitting nearby, the lights on and engine running. The only other car that was parked out was a dark gray van sitting halfway onto the curb on the other side of the road a bit further down.

I quickly got into the black car, assuming it was Aileen’s. As I approached the passenger side, that was confirmed as she opened the door from the inside for me.

“Quickly, get in.”

I did as she asked. I had only barely closed the door behind me as she floored the gas pedal and the car shot forward.

“What the hell is happening, Aileen?” I tried to get my seatbelt on but she stopped me and threw a bag at me that had been sitting on the center console.

“Put this on.”

“I’d like answers.” I refused it to open it at the moment.

“Look.” Aileen looked both annoyed and understanding at the same time. “Just get it on, I’ll explain while you are doing so.”

After a second of internal debate, I opened the bag and started taking out whatever was in it. From what I could see, it was a set of black clothes. A black military pants, a black sweater, a black balaclava, some black gloves and then some combat boots and accompanying socks.

“Are we going for a fight?”

“Pretty much.” Aileen nodded to the back of the car. When I looked over, there was a rather big sword laying there on top of a black blanket. The sword was still dripping in blood.

“What the fuck, Aileen?”

“Did you see that black van in the street?” Just when she asked that, Aileen practically drifted around a corner. Luckily enough, the road was pretty much deserted at the moment.

“I did.”

“The blood on that sword is from its occupants. They were planning to assault the house.”

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“What!? Em’s house?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Remember that I was looking into that company that attacked you and Ria at the park, right?”

“Mhmm.” I started to undress and put on the clothes Aileen had given to me, as this seemed incredibly serious shit I’d gotten myself into.

“A couple of hours ago, they suddenly popped up on the radar again. Some activity had triggered one of the systems I had set up together with Alex. I came to this neighborhood to check it out, as I didn’t think it was going to be so serious. But right as I drove past, my radio receiver intercepted a message for the people in that van that they got the green light. It only clicked afterwards that you three would all be inside of the house.”

“So you decked them before they got a chance to attack?”

“Pretty much. It was very close, though. If I had been a minute or two later…”

“...” I stared at the floor for a second. That could’ve gone very wrong… Images of Ria flashed before my eyes once more. “...But why do you still need me?”

“I found a message on one of their phones, presumably their squad leader, that they had captured someone earlier in the evening. That someone had left three of their guys dead already.” Aileen took something out of the side of her door and threw it on my lap. It was a phone, with a picture lit up on screen. A picture of someone tied to a chair.

“Oh shit.” I called out as I recognized the face of the woman… It was Helen. She looked pretty beaten up. But that didn’t make the entire situation make sense. If anything, it made it even more confusing. “I… don’t understand….”

“I’m pretty sure this is a trap we are driving into.” Aileen explained.

“Could you explain?”

“It’s more of a hunch than anything else…. but…” Aileen took another corner, this time I had to hold myself against the door or I would’ve been smacked against it. “I think someone… somehow… got footage of you and sent it to their organization. And it slipped through our nets.”

“But why send only… what… six guys after me? I killed their entire team last time.”

“Because they don’t want to kill you.” She replied. “They want to use you.”

“...”

“That team that I killed in that van, probably had your girlfriends and their family as targets. So they could force you to do whatever they please. Just imagine being a criminal network and having an immortal tank do whatever they please. You could wipe out their entire competition in a day… and that’s just one of the possibilities. And the only thing they need to do to keep you in check… is to keep a gun to your girlfriend’s heads.”

“But they are immortal too.”

“One, they don’t know that. And two, their families aren’t.”

“....Fuck…”

“But right now we are heading towards their plan B, to make sure that’s out of commission as well.”

“And you think Helen is their plan B?” I strapped in the last of the combat boots Aileen had given to me.

“She must be, otherwise she would be dead already.” She nodded. “I’m guessing that within this and ten minutes, you’ll get a call on your cell phone. As their team won’t reply to their radio’s anymore, they’ll rightfully assume they died in their attempt. On the phone, they’ll say that they have a hostage you care about and that they want to meet at a location so they can give you their terms.”

“How would they know my cell phone number?”

Aileen looked over to me and shook her head. “It’s not hard to get someone’s cell phone number. How do you think phishing attempts know so much about you?”

“I’d prefer less sas in this situation… But I guess you are right…”

“Sorry, I do that when I’m pumping myself up for combat… Anyhow, I asked Alex to trace where the signals have been coming from and they all came from an industrial complex out of town. It’s recently been bought up by a shell company and from the image I presume that’s where they are holding the driver.”

“Helen.”

“Yeah.”

“But they can expect we are coming, right?”

“I’m kind of banking on the fact that they don’t expect us to be this fast, and that they don’t expect there’ll be two of us. That’s why I wanted you out as fast as possible. Hit them before they can do anything about it.”

“Do you have a plan?” I asked, putting my other clothes in the bag.

“I’d like you to just beeline for Helen and get her out of danger. You might be a decent fighter and a vampire at that, but you are still a newbie nonetheless. Assess the situation, rush in, grab the target, get out. In the confusion, I’ll go in and clear the fuckers out.”

“Maybe a stupid question.”

“Go ahead, there are no stupid questions.”

“Would you have anything bulletproof that I could shield Helen with, apart from my body. So she can be protected from two sides.”

Aileen smiled. “That’s definitely not a stupid question, and in the matter of fact, I do. I’ll give it to you once I stop the car, it’s in the trunk. Rather heavy but you should be able to handle it easily. Speaking of which… we are going to arrive in a minute. So whatever mental preparation you need to do. Do it now.”

-However this ends up… it’s going to be one hell of a thing to explain to my girlfriends… Why can’t criminals just… not….-