Tonight's trip into the unknown was longer than the short drive to Chinatown. This was deeper into the city area; the traffic was impossibly horrendous. Impossible because I didn't think that so many people would be out at night. They were all vampires, at least, I thought they were. Maybe there were brave humans in these cars. Brave but incredibly stupid.

Nisha was quiet tonight, gazing out at the glittering lights of the city. Life still carried on although it was nothing like it had once been. That was what we'd been taught, the past was grand, the future was bleak. We had flourished as a race but were blinded to the threat hiding in the shadows. Humanity was crumbling at the hands of the creatures in this vehicle. The very same creatures that I was siding with. Would it save humanity? I don't know but what I did know was that without humans, the vampires would be left to consume a substandard meal.

They'd evolve to consume other kinds of blood but it would take time and I guess some might die. Did Alaric care about that? I couldn't honestly say. He wanted to save his people and create law and order yet he had a list of people that he wanted dead. Yes, they had betrayed his family but what happened to forgiveness? Were they not worthy of it?

The thoughts kept looping through my mind, I had no answers for anything and to be honest, I don't know if I wanted them. Knowing the truth could be detrimental. Then again, being an accomplice to murder was more detrimental.

"How many are on the list?"

"After last night's efforts, six."

"And how many do you hope to erase tonight?"

"With any luck, six."

Silence hit us again as Silas moved the limo onto the off-ramp, taking us from the inner-city bypass and into the streets that were bursting with life. I'd never seen so many people out at night and I realized that there was a vampire plague.

"Humanity will not cope." I murmured.

"We know." Nisha finally spoke. "This is what has happened because Hendrick was left in charge. He didn't maintain any control over breeding or turning. Father would be appalled if he could see the population explosion."

She paused, looking a little sad.

"At least that's what Silas says."

"You don't want to be the top species?"

"Of course we do," Nisha said with a mocking laugh. "But when the numbers are tipped too heavily then it is a problem. We cannot be the top species if we are starving."

"Having the largest populace does not make us better than humanity," Alaric interjected. "It makes us stronger. We have the ability to win the war that the humans wage against us, we just have to make them fight for us."

His fingers flicked out at the people on the street. They did not look like soldiers. Aside from the obvious lack of appropriate clothing, they just didn't have that look to them.

"What about slayers?"

A soft chuckle broke out between Nisha and Alaric. They might find it amusing but I didn't. At the moment, I was in limbo and would be frowned upon if slayers intercepted us. The only thing that would save me was the fact that in time, the vampire part of the hybrid nature would dissipate and I'd be human again. I'm sure they'd throw me in jail until that happened. That is if I was that lucky. Maybe they'd kill me for being a vampire sympathizer.

"They are being dealt with."

"Do you know who they are?"

"We do. As luck would have it, we created a list of them."

Nisha smiled, waggling her own notebook at me.

"You're dealing with them?"

"Struck three off last night."

In between clothing shopping, she must have been quick.

"Maybe she could spend the night hunting the hunters with you."

Nisha glared at Alaric

"You want to send a hybrid out into a city full of hungry vampires to search for slayers? The one group of people that she should avoid? Have you lost your mind?"

"It would be a valuable lesson."

"No, it would be sending the poor, defenseless lamb to her slaughter. You might be five minutes older, Alaric but you sure can be an idiot sometimes."

"And you have seemed to have lost your sense of humor."

"I don't joke when it comes to slayers."

Me neither.

"Besides, she needs to be seen with you. She's your partner, you're the one that is trying to fool them into believing this charade."

"It's not a charade."

Nisha's interest turned, an eyebrow lifting.

"Changed our mind, did we?"

Alaric shrugged, favoring the city street with his gaze. Nisha rolled her eyes and looked out to the other side of the street. And here I was, stuck in the middle of warring siblings.

"You need to be unified, not making snide remarks or snapping at each other," I muttered.

I didn't want to be dragged into this and not win. Life as a breeder was never going to be fun but at least if I kept the doors and windows locked of a night, I'd be alive. These two were dragging me into a bloody war and they couldn't even keep the peace between themselves.

"What about the rest of the world?" I mindlessly asked.

"What about it?"

I turned to Alaric with a heavy frown.

"You return your family to rule, you do away with your enemies but what happens outside of this city? Are you going to stay here and rule this city or are you going to venture out into the world?"

Alaric and Nisha exchanged glances, looking a little confused.

"The world is dead, Emmeline. Didn't they teach you that?"

"They told us that humanity was dying and that the vampires were taking over the world."

"Humans." Nisha scoffed.

Her arms folded as she turned back to her view out the window, unimpressed with everything.

"It's to be expected Nisha, they want single-minded soldiers and breeders to create the next generation of soldiers. They want parents to instill the same mindset into the next generation. Hatred flows from parent to child and it continues until the loathing becomes volatile, the human is so incensed at their own dismal life that they do what they believe is the best and perhaps, the only option. They sign up for the armed services without a thought for their own safety."

Alaric shifted on the seat to look at me, a deep concern resonating on his face.

"What they neglect to tell the masses is how bad they've let this become. Aside from the fact that they ignored us when we offered agreements and peace treaties, they engaged the services of slayers. They think that they are better than vampires and humans, which in a way, they might be. The slayers are hybrids."

"Who is turning them?"

"We have a thought on who it might be but perhaps they've abducted a vampire and are keeping them hostage. We won't know until we've exposed the hierarchy."

"Hendrick?"

"Yes." Alaric hummed with distaste. "This place is a mess and it is because of him. As for the state of the world, I guess we can't blame him for it. Hendrick merely went with the flow, watching as the governments around the world to start their wars against our race, watching as they lost to us. We are superior and it might sound like I'm gloating but it is the truth. A human walks out onto the battlefield with a gun in hand and is geared up to fight but fails to see that the vampires are already waiting. We can see their shadowed shapes in the darkness, we can hear them in silence and in the noisiest battlefields. We move with speed and stealth; the human does not hear us."

I knew that all too well. Alaric managed to sneak up on me easily and by the photos of the vampires he'd killed to protect me, it was obvious that he wasn't alone in this ability.

"They waged their war and they began to lose in vast numbers. That's when they started the breeding program, putting growth hormones in the water supply."

"Wait, what?"

An eyebrow raised as Alaric turned from the window to look at me.

"Terrible, isn't it?"

"But effective." Nisha offered. "Soldiers with rippling muscles and mothers that create them."

"Have I been affected?"

I looked down at my body; my chest was large but I didn't think it was abnormal because all the girls were like that. My body was lean and muscular but again, everyone was like that.

"Did you drink water?"

"It's all that we were allowed."

"Then you have been affected. When you complete the turn and become a vampire, your body will flush any toxins out. With any luck, your body will see the hormone as a toxin and send it packing too."

The limo slowed at the end of a pedestrian mall, it was lined with brightly lit shops and filled with a lot of bodies. Vampires? Highly likely. Humans? Probably. I was beginning to think that we were fed a lot of lies when it came to our enemy and maybe there were humans out there that knew the truth.

"Have fun shopping Nisha," Alaric said in a cheeky tone.

Silas opened the door, Nisha waved with her own smug grin. As she stood upright, she flicked the back of her leather jacket down. For a moment, I saw two guns, tucked tight against her back.

"Nisha,"

She turned back and looked at me with a curious frown.

"Stay safe."

Her face softened for a moment and then the façade went back into place.

"Always."

Nisha turned, walking into the crowd with a saunter that was seductive and confident. Silas was already behind the wheel again, moving the limo back into the traffic.

"Nisha has been trained by the best, like me."

Alaric gestured to the man driving us around, pretending to be a servant, hiding the truth.

"He wants revenge for his sister's death, he knows that there is only one way to get what we want so he learned from the best while we were babies. When we were old enough to walk, he began our lessons. Night after night, we learned as we hid from the world around us. Every single moment of our lives, he's done everything he possibly could to give us this moment. What I do, I do it for our family but none more than him. He gave up his life for us, to raise two children that didn't belong to him. Yes, we are a family but it's not the point. He shouldn't have to raise his sister's children."

"How old are you?"

"Fifty."

I was stunned for a moment, Alaric chuckled.

"Surprising, isn't it?"

I nodded silently.

"Vampires are eternal, we are immortal. We get through our childhood and our bodies stop growing and changing."

"But how could this world change in fifty years?"

"Because we're feeding on humans that have growth hormones in them."

"Oh," I said dryly.

"Yes, oh. The government forgot to look at the bigger picture. They wanted a super soldier and were determined to create one by any means possible. In theory, it is a good idea but it's helped us as well which they obviously didn't want to do. Now we're this pumped up creature that was already superior in ability. The war had already begun, once we started to evolve it became supercharged. They were dropping faster than what the government could keep up with. Country after country fell to the blight as they call us. From the heart of Europe and expanding in all directions. When we reached the shoreline, we seized boats and continued. The governments across the world realized that their race was in trouble, had an emergency meeting where they realized how bad it really was."

"How do you know what was going on?"

"Because we have spies everywhere. It's a war, Emmeline, spies are normal and expected. Once each of the countries gave a figure of their populace, they formed a plan to move everyone to one continent. Can you imagine that, Emmeline? The entire human population in one country. It was a stupid move of course; the vampires just followed their food to the next country. As a race, we lined the coast and slowly herded them away from their escape. They thrive in their towns, spitting out the next generation of soldiers and then send them off to war."

"And the rest of the world?"

"Returning to the way that it was before humanity evolved into the destructive little monster that they are."

"Vampires are no better."

"Ah, how true. My father was the one that demanded our race follow our food, he was the one that placed the leaders into provinces that lined the coasts and created the circle around the humans. For his efforts, the leaders vowed to follow him and his successors provided that they remained within power in their own provinces. Silas said that my father granted their requests because he had what he wanted, loyal subjects."

"Except for one."

Alaric nodded, with a wistful look on his face.

"Well, a few. Some of the leaders aren't to be trusted anymore. Maybe it was a flaw that my father had in trusting them to begin with. We are ruthless, we will do whatever it takes to survive. If it means that we remove a person that is in our way then we will do it."

What a sales pitch, Alaric should do it for a living.