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What was almost worse than the messy kills was the fact that you couldn’t just kill theht, like necros The daive everyone a shot before they naue, actually required the hunters to have a warrant that justified killing any of the uilty, blah, blah, blah Of course, that meant that huot the stake it deserved

Vas, in ue It was always only a , used to it, I was sure He spoke into the tiny radio clipped to his chest The radios had been issued to all of us, back at the meet-up point They’d been silent since before the battle started, which was a good sign You only used the radio during a fight like this when the shit hit the fan

"We’ve got a vampire Kiss Need permission to take it out"

The response was quick and succinct "You are cleared to take out any da you find in there"

Corbin’s eyebrows shot up into his ?" he asked the crowd at large

Christian shot e"

I had to agree "He does seem like our kind of people"

Corbin heard us "No, I’h for all that, but I’ll do rowing on me "Give us the head count, and the plan, Mr Personality"

He sighed, growing slightly ood" He pointed to one of the larger buildings It looked like a large house with a lot of s It was very out of place in the spartan compound "They’re all in there And there are too many of the rocked the crowd He waited patiently before continuing "I would say we need backup, but I’m pretty sure that le one of the bastards is sleeping And here’s the kicker"

He paused for a draood at his job, just by that smile You earned a sht about hi I don’t understand it, given that it’s the ht, but he is definitely dead asleep at the moment That leaves us with two very unpleasant choices We can try to stealth in there, quick and quiet, and take thehis flock If they’re newborns, as I suspect, they’ll go down real easy, with their master dead That’s option A"

He let us process that, studying the crowd intently "Option B is an aluaranteed bloodbath, but with e to wait for so I’ll put it up for vote, but I’ll tell you now, I strongly favor option A, though I’ll need a few bloodthirsty volunteers for that one" He looked at Christian and I as he said this I wasn’t surprised that he’d meant us We were more experienced, by far, than the rest of our little co Master is the best-case scenario when it co vamps, I can attest, but let’s vote on it Raise your hand for option A"

All but one raised their hand The one was me Ah, hell, I raisedthat they were all as good as volunteering us I sighed I supposed I’d rather go get et sucked dry in a bloodbath later Most of them were just humans, really, with a little supernatural talent thrown in Christian and I were, at least, born pure Other, and hard as all hell to kill Vampire hunters were born Other, as well, with blood no more human than Christian’s, and would be just as hard to take out

"We’ll do it," Christian told Corbin, without consulting ood fight as much as he did, but hated messes more Christian didn’t mind the messy so much It had been awhile, but I could reotten mixed up with vampires, and I sure as hell didn’t want a repeat performance Of course, we hadn’t had a vampire hunter with us that time It had just been Christian and I with so tied from battle victorious, but we’d been bitten and stabbed and none of the humans had survived it, despite our best efforts, and that had been a small Kiss of the blood-suckers The hed There was really nothing else to be done At least ouldn’t be trying futilely to protect reed "Let’s get to it, then What’s the plan?"

Corbin gave me an almost fond smile "You’re not at all what I expected Guess I should know better than to listen to the rumors"

That soured my mood Of course he’d heard of me I shouldn’t have been surprised, but the reminder of my spotty reputation was, as always, a mood killer

Except to Christian, of course The punk actually laughed "You want to stay on her good side, ri his hand to his forehead "My bad Didn’t think before I spoke"

I waved a hand at hi to do "It’s old news Druids think I’m the anti-christ, and they like to spread that opinion around I don’t have to wonder what you’ve heard about me, and I don’t have the time or the patience to disprove any of it, so let’s justThe plan Please"