Someone was poking her in the back. "Is this a private slumber party or can anyone join in?" they asked.

Sidney sleepily rolled onto her back. "Hmm? Hey, Callie, what's up?"

"Hopefully you. You maybe want to detach yourself from sleeping beauty there and come outside?"

Her head snapped round to the man sleeping soundly beside her, she then let it fall back to rest on the fine grit dusting the floor. "It's not a dream then." She sighed and motioned for Callie to back up so she could crawl out.

Callie flung her arms around Sidney's waist for a tight hug. "We were so worried about you. Do you know where you are so we can come get you?"

Sidney frowned at her. "Are you telling me you're not actually, physically, here?"

"Visiting like I do with Lucien. I had a heck of a time trying to connect with you though. Ended up having to scry for you and the dowser told me where to look."

"So you are here."

"No, my body's in the middle of Mount Street in Seven Tower City."

"But you need to be close by to connect like this, don't you? So you should know where I am."

"That's what has me so confused right now. You're in the middle of some huge forest but the only place with trees near the city is Delmont woods, and this is not Delmont woods."

"No it's not," Sidney agreed. "So how did I end up here anyway? The last thing I remember before I woke in the forest somewhere above the waterfall, is dancing with Brian."

"When you were leaving the club, Brian left you for a minute and when he came back out the doorman said you'd staggered off. He tried to follow your scent trail but it led nowhere. Vanished just like you. That was three days ago."

"Three days? I've only been awake a few hours."

"You were the last in a long line of supernatural disappearances. Fourteen witches; including you, five vampires; five shifters; two fairies; one troll; one pixie; and one leprechaun. We thought the club had something to do with it and the suspicious disappearing act the owner did right after you, did seem to confirm it, but now I don't know."

"You could be right," Sidney mused. "The place was full of non-humans. It's like we were drawn to the place." She leaned in close to Callie's ear. "I caught his thoughts earlier; he seems to think someone called Mama brought me here. Whether that's someone's name or his actual mother, I don't know. He's also amazed that I can go out in the day, like it's unheard of or something... I think maybe I should stick around and find out what's going on."

"Okay, not that you have much choice until we find out where you are." Callie stepped back from her, she visualized a couple of the blood bags Sam had insisted they bring with them and they appeared in her hand.

"Now that is cool!" Sidney exclaimed excitedly, snatching a bag and draining it. "How about we meet here once a week or so, then we can keep one another updated with our progress, at say... just after first light on Mondays?"

"Fine by me," Callie agreed, pulling her in for another hug.

"Can you bring more of this?" Sidney swung the empty bag in front of her face as they pulled apart again. "There seems to be a shortage of humans, so I think I'm going to need it."

"You only want me for my blood," Callie accused, jokingly.

Sidney laughed. "You and I both know that the last thing I want is your blood. Maybe a change of clothes too," she called as Callie disintegrated in a show of sparkles that danced in the light breeze.

She climbed to the top of the waterfall for a look around; see if she could spot any landmarks that might help with her location. Using the sun to determine her compass bearings, she found that to the South were vaguely familiar lightly snow-capped mountains. To the West, nothing but forest as far as her eye could see. East was a vast expanse of water she assumed was the sea. And to the North, really far in the distance, looked like a tower or a church spire.

Something whizzed past her head almost knocking her of balance and landed with a slash in the pool beneath her. A tightly tied carrier bag floated to the surface and bobbed about with the force of the water spraying onto it from the cascading waterfall. She gracefully dived in after it, curious about its origin. Two more joined it in rapid succession; the last almost smacking her head and sinking immediately. She dragged all three to the edge of the pool, opened them and laid the contents out.

The first contained four sets of underwear, socks and a sweater; the second her hiking boots, loose combat trousers, jeans, another sweater and light jacket; and the third, six bags of A+ blood with a note attached

Hope this lot is OK.

See you in week.

Callie

She tied the carrier bag containing the blood to a long branch and dangled it in the water to keep it cool. After she took a quick glance around, she stripped out of the filthy white mini dress and into the comfortable combats. She sighed, feeling more like herself again.

"Yo! Helllooo! Miss?" called a male voice from the tree line.

Typical, not a sinner around until I get naked, she thought as she hastily pulled on her sweater then sat down on the rock to pull on her socks and boots before answering him. "You can come out now."

A teenager emerged from behind a tree, bounding easily over the rocks; the longbow at his back bouncing with his movements. He was dressed in loose cotton trousers with a camouflaged pattern and khaki T-shirt.

"I wasn't spying on you, I swear it," he assured her, his thoughts stating the opposite. "I'm looking for an injured deochfola; don't suppose you've seen him, have you?"

Deochfola: that's the word for drink blood or vampire. He's the one that shot Dainton and he obviously has no idea I'm one too, she saw his thoughts. "No sorry, I only got here a short while ago. It's probably lying low for the day," she replied.

He sat down beside her on the rocks, right next the submerged blood bags. "Probably, or he's dead. Where you headed?" he asked eyeing the clothing lying in front of her.

"Not sure," she hedged. "I'm new to the area and don't know my way round yet. I thought this would be a good place to hold up for a while."

Another male voice called impatiently from the deep within the forest "Will....William? Where are you lad?"

He jumped up. "That's me Da. Got to go. See you around then," he called as he headed for the trees. "Be careful round here at night, the area's ripe with deochfola. We got seven of them the last couple of weeks and their sympathizers too."

"Thanks, will do," she called after him.

His thoughts were graphic. The witches and shifters were being held in a locked compound. All the vamps had been executed on sight, their bodies stripped of clothing and anything of value. Without the charmed silver of the amulets any of them may have had, they burned when the sun rose.

A small pebble hit her on the thigh, drawing her attention to the crevice. "Thank you. I owe you my life twice now," Dainton whispered from the shadows.

"Be quiet," she shushed him, without moving her lips. "They haven't gone far enough away yet." She waited until she could no longer hear the boy's thoughts before starting to question him. "Why are they hunting you?" The prompted question made him reveal the memory, and she was curious to know whether he would speak the truth.

"A rabid deochfola killed her Sire about a year ago and went on a rampage in their village. She managed to slaughter eight families before they caught her. Now they think we're all like that. Mind you, their leader is a mouthpiece and doesn't like anything that's not Siofra. They've been going from town to town campaigning for support for our ultimate extinction, slaughtering any of us they can find along the way. They even take the humans somewhere, probably to try and starve us out of hiding."

His thoughts revealed he was speaking what he believed to be the truth.