Fortunately the talk with the Queen was brief. She had a sarcastic, "I told you so" smile on her face when Lily informed her we couldn't get anything from doctor Affelt and we were returning to the matriarch to give her the sad news. She didn't even look at me, which I admit made me happy. We returned to the lab accompanied by a single vamp.

The first thing I saw when we entered the laboratory was the huntress, pinning Francesco to the wall. I couldn't see her face, but the man was visibly frightened. I was speechless, but luckily Lily wasn't.

"We don't have time for this now, huntress. You can have your fun with him when we get the hell away from here," she called out matter-of-factly.

The bald woman shook her head and seemed to snap out of a trance. She almost jumped away from Francesco, revealing that she already managed to unfasten his belt. The man sighed in relief.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to..." she started apologizing clumsily.

"You didn't mean what? To rape me? Or to get caught?" Francesco cut her angrily, hurriedly wrapping his clothes more tightly around him.

The huntress didn't respond, just moved further away from her victim.

Everyone was silent after that, so I went to find Milena and say my goodbyes. I embraced her and promised I'd find a way to cure her. She smiled, and just told me to keep safe. I couldn't hold my tears. I just found her and I already had to leave her, with the vampires. She wiped my face with her thumb and planted a kiss on my forehead.

"You can do it brother. Everything will be fine," she soothed me.

I nodded, a lump forming in my throat.

By the time I got back to my companions they were ready to move out. Our vampire guide took us to the outskirts of the city before the sunrise. I looked back at the looming skyscrapers in the first morning rays and we were on our way.

The plan was simple. With Roman and Iza we had a meeting point established, in case something bad happened to any of us. Of course, they could already be too out of their minds to be checking on this spot, but I had some hope. For the next few days we marched and foraged, mostly in silence. Francesco kept his distance from both women. When we stopped for the night he would put his sleeping bag as far as he could from them, watching them gloomily from time to time.

I couldn't blame him. With his parasite dormant, he was waking the thirst in one and lust in the other. Truth be told, the women seemed to keep away from him as best they could. But from time to time I caught the huntress watching Francesco with a mixture of desire, shame and cruelty, that made my skin crawl.

One evening we were all sitting by the fire, when Francesco came closer to me. I think he didn't know how to start, but I could tell he needed to talk.

I smiled at him and said, "So what did you do before the emojis? I used to create web pages and was hoping to go to university."

He looked at me gratefully. "I was the head of security in the first lab. That's where I met Thirteen," he said thoughtfully.

"Thirteen?", I asked.

"Yup, that bald bitch. She was subject thirteen. Never gave anyone her name. So we all called her just that, Thirteen," he clarified. "Suits her. Brings bad luck all right," he added bitterly.

"It must have been hard in the lab when the outbreak started," I wondered.

"It was... strange," he mused. There were feral emojis outside the lab. There were some inside. The scientists were trying to mutate the worm to render it useful. They made Thirteen... First she was like a sex machine. She was alluring as hell and not contagious. She used to have stunning, auburn hair then," he recollected. "She could have anyone she just as much as smiled to. I kept away from her to a stay alert," Francesco continued his story.

"But the situation became dire, we needed something fast, to combat the emojis, that were starting to overwhelm us. The docs did something to Thirteen. She lost her allure, lost her hair in the process. Gained inhuman strength and heightened senses. It was as if she stopped in between first and second phase of the infection," the head of security continued.

"They gave her this giant axe she's still wielding. She learnt to use it as if she was born with it. They were fools – she was already half emoji. With her power she could force anyone she fancied to satisfy her desire. I was not allowed to stop her from it either. Not that I would be able to, anyway. She was our only chance of getting out of the lab alive," Francesco sounded bitter.

"She fought our way out. I've never seen anything like that. The gore was everywhere. We were covering her with rifle fire, but I don't think she really needed it. It was like a frenzy. When she was finished, there were dead bodies everywhere. The fucking monsters looked really human when they were lying in the pools of blood," he shuddered at the memory.

"She turned around to us, barely wiping her face. There was madness in her eyes. One of the doctors understood it. He went to her willingly, to save the rest, I think. I didn't stay to witness. I took my squad, there were three security officers beside me, and we got the hell out of there. I should have probably stayed with the docs, but I had enough. They created all those monsters so I thought I'd let them deal with it," there was a hint of shame in Francesco's voice.

"Me and the boys became nomads. We foraged and hunted for the animals that the emojis didn't eat. We did our best to take out smaller groups of monsters. We hid from the bigger ones. From time to time we met other groups of survivors, some were even trying to settle down. There were others too. Bandits. We knew they were there, because we found several camps robbed, people killed with gunshots, not eaten," the man's face went dark.

"One day we found a particularly damaged camp. There were... children, for fuck's sake. We buried the corpses, so the monsters wouldn't eat them. We were almost finished, when Thirteen appeared from nowhere. Even if it was only her we would be in trouble. But she came with a horde of emojis. She led them straight to us!" he almost shouted.

"I was the only one to make it out alive, the others..." his voice faltered. "I ran till it went dark. The emojis wouldn't attack me, but there could be the bloodsuckers. I needed to find cover. And then I saw a tree house. I thought I was saved. Maybe it'd be better if the emojis got me then," the man went silent.

Suddenly the huntress was right beside us.

"Get up Francesco," she said coldly.

He had to obey. He flinched, when she got closer to him.

"Hold still", she ordered.

"What, you've finally made up your mind? You're going to rape me with them watching?" Francesco tried to sound defiant, but there was fear trembling in his voice.

Lily approached a bit, but was just watching the scene, a surprising glimmer of satisfaction in her eyes. I didn't know what to do. Thirteen put her hands on the slave collar. She just stood there, motionless, her breath short like after a long run. Francesco barely breathed. After a long moment, she clicked open the collar, but didn't move back. She was looking the man straight in the face, her fingers tightening on the metal of the enslaving device. She licked her lips. Her eyes were losing focus.

"Huntress," I called, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She turned to me abruptly, taking the collar away from Francesco's neck in the process. The man sighed, relieved. Lily looked disappointed for some reason.

"What?" the huntress snapped.

In her eyes there was desire and anger, that made me shiver. She took a deep breath steadying herself and rubbed her neck. I didn't say anything. I had no idea what to say.

"I won't be guarding you so that you don't get your throat cut in your sleep," the vampire grimaced to Thirteen.

She just shrugged. "Francesco wants to live and we're his only hope for not turning into a monster. There's no need to restrain him like that any longer. I'm sure he'll be a good boy," the huntress said, her voice tired as if after a battle. "Besides, I'm still much stronger than him," she added with a smirk.

The next few days passed without any incident. The two ladies were watching Francesco more and more hungrily, but they kept their distance. The man warmed up to me, and we talked much about our lives before the worm and our current plans. He never mentioned the huntress again though, and I didn't ask. It seemed it was too hard for him to talk about.

We reached my and my friends' rendezvous point in the early afternoon. The sky was clear and the sunlight still warm, but the wind brought bitter cold of November. An old concrete bunker was barely visible under dried grass and heaps of colorful, fallen leaves.

I carefully slid into the dark entrance and felt the wall for a note from my friends. We had a deal – if any of us got separated from the rest, they could count on the others to come here from time to time and give their position. But now there was nothing here and I was losing hope. I was still inside, when I heard a howl. I stumbled outside, just to see Iza and Roman in their half human forms. Shit, we weren't supposed to fight them.

"Stay back boys," Thirteen said, shielding me and Francesco from the wolves. Lily joined her with a sigh.

"Don't kill them!" I shouted seeing the huntress readying her axe.

She nodded and turned it, so as not to hit with the blade. Luckily Roman and Iza weren't fully turned, they haven't completely changed into emojis either. They lacked strength and speed, so our ladies made short work of knocking them unconscious.

"Give them the shots," said the huntress handing Lily two syringes. The vampire started with Roman, rolling his sleeve up and carefully doing the injection. Iza must have been hit lighter, because all of a sudden she opened her eyes and jumped toward Francesco. The huntress intercepted her mid-flight with a powerful punch straight to the jaw. The girl collapsed to the ground with a thump.

With both werewolves injected there was nothing else for us to do then wait for them to wake up. Roman was the first one to come to his senses. He was completely human now, with bruises healing as we watched.

"What the fuck has just happened?" he asked, looking alternately at me and my companions.

I explained the whole situation as simply as I could, watching his eyes go wider with every new event I recounted.

Iza woke up somewhere during my speech so I had to start all over. Sun was down before I finished. Thankfully my companions set up the camp in the meanwhile, so we had a nice fire to warm up at.

"And that is why we need to speak to your alpha." I finished my tirade. The wolves' faces went dark.

"There's no way alpha is going to help you. Hell, I doubt you'll even be able to speak to her," Roman's voice was gloom. Iza nodded in agreement.

"And why is that?" I asked incredulously.

"Because right now she's in the process of looking for her fated mate."