Emilia rolled her eyes while searching through her purse. "Nothing that won't pass in a few hours. It's just a little protection to keep me from getting my face eaten off, literally."

She pulled out a small metal tin. Emilia popped off the top before swirling her finger on the ointment and putting it on the bite.

"I had him lined up for a good shot." Jayden almost whined, pressing a button on his watch to make it stop glowing.

Paul gasped. "You were going to kill me?" He moved to try to get up but collapsed to the pavement. "What the fuck is this?"

Emilia put up the silver tin with a shrug. "Just a minor neurological agent specially crafted for vampiric metabolisms. It might have the subtlest hint of garlic and consecrated wood. Honestly, you were so much sexier when you weren't a big baby." She turned to Jayden. "You can start questioning him anytime now. We only have about 5 more minutes before his friends decide to join in on the snack." She pointed at herself and smirked.

Jayden swallowed before nodding. Emilia leaned against the wall and kept her eyes on the entrance to the alley. She did not like the nervous flash she saw in his eyes.

Paul started to laugh bitterly. "You two are idiots to mess with us."

"So this is a group effort." Emilia nodded, not turning to look at him.

"Who else is involved?" Jayden asked, playing with his watch.

Emilia looked over and smirked. Jayden currently hovered a few steps away from Paul as if afraid he could still get bit. Amateur, she mused to herself.

"Why would I tell you?" Paul hissed before a groan escaped his lips.

Emilia smirked and walked over to them. She squatted down to Paul's level and tilted her head. "You know. I could help you out here; a little vile of blood in my purse could clear out the agent in your system. All you have to do is talk."

Jayden shrugged. "That seems a little too nice for a guy the feeds on innocent girls in dark alleys. I have a few pellets that could end the conversation and his habits."

Paul looked between the two of them with narrowed eyes before spitting out blood-clotted spit.

"You two won't be able to stop it now." Paul hissed before coughing. "The preparations are almost complete."

"Then I guess I can't help you pass this out of your system quicker." Emilia shrugged and pulled out her guns. "And, we won't be doing this the nice way."

Paul's phone made a musical tone Emilia recognized as she stood back up.

"So you are using Bifrost." Jayden tilted his head. "Just like I thought."

Emilia raised an eyebrow at him, and Jayden blushed.

"I've been doing research," Jayden hissed.

Paul laughed and shook his head. "The families will take care of you. If they don't, he will."

Emilia's next question became swallowed on seeing two people turn into the alley. She looked up to meet Jayden's gaze. His hand went to his wrist, and she shook her head. There could be another way, but then Paul jumped towards her with fangs bared. Emilia let out a curse as Jayden shot a light pellet at Paul. The alley briefly shone with a warm illumination, followed by three curdling.

"You fuckin' idiot!" Emilia screamed. "Now they will activate the fuckin' council. All the covens are in Red Light. We need to move!"

"We need the mobiles!" Jayden yelled back while picking up Paul's phone.

Emilia ran back towards him only to hear the sound of two low growls coming from the edge of the alley. The flash and screams probably gained the attention of anyone standing outside Red Light. Why did Emilia have to be paired with such an idiot?  

"Time to go on defense!" Emilia hissed, moving to the other side of the alley and placing her back against the wall.

Jayden looked as if he was about to protest before his eyes widened, and he followed her example. He motioned above her head.

Emilia looked up in time to see three bats fly into the alley. She shot them with her gun, causing them to go down in high-pitched screams and dust piles.

"Look," she hissed. "That is how you dust someone without alerting the whole fucking block!"

"Sorry, just trying to be efficient." Jayden shook his head with an almost hurt sound in his tone.

"We are near a vampire club and in the middle of fuckin' London! Why—" Her tirade was cut off by the other two vampires from the club strolling up to them, hands in their pockets.

She recognized them from the Petrova table. One had whitish-blonde hair and stood about a foot taller than the one with black hair. The black-haired vampire made a soft tisk-tisk sound as the whitish-blonde-haired vampire let out slow growls.

Jayden moved further away along the wall. He took what looked like a glow stick from his pocket and cracked it on his leg before throwing it a foot behind him. Hissing sounded from the shadows as some other vampires scattered.

"Now, now," the dark-haired vampire sighed. "I do believe the law allows us to be here. Hunting without cause is illegal."

Emilia pressed her lips together and shared a look with Jayden. He shrugged his shoulders, making Emilia mentally curse him.

"You have the right to gather and mingle with humans," Emilia concurred, keeping her gun aimed at his heart. "That right was taken from your friend, Paul here when he decided to try feeding on me."

"He did!" The dark-haired vampire gasped with a mocking hand on his heart. "And, here I thought the two of you were heading out for a jolly little romp. The good thing about sex with a vampire is you don't have to worry about them giving you a disease."

"Or shitting on you during sex," Emilia muttered.

"What was that?" The whitish-blonde-haired one asked, his eyes narrowing at her.

Emilia shook her head. "Don't worry about it, Billy Idol."

"Oh, I like that. Maybe you should start going by Billy now." The dark-haired one smiled.

Jayden pulled another stick from his pocket and cracked it. He threw it to his right.

"Yeah, I think I will start going by Billy." He nodded with a new sense of calm coming over him. "The rest of you guys can go," Billy called out into the darkness. "We've got this handled."

A furry of wing sounds could be heard, making Jayden ease a little bit.

"What happened to these two," the dark-haired one asked, shifting his foot in the dirt.

Jayden shrugged. "Side-effect from me defending her."

"Seems a little bit like a set-up. Don't you think Darren?" Billy raised a finger to his cheek in mock thought. "I don't think the council would like hearing about this, might bring down your whole little organization. Which one are you part of?"

"Doesn't matter. Nothing would have happened if he answered the questions and didn't try to suck my blood." Emilia shrugged. "We wanted to know more about the girls that have gone missing after using Bifrost. He implied you are all part of it and that we should be really concerned. Made it seem like all the covens were involved." She let out a mocking tisk-tisk. "Maybe I should call one of my guild connections about it."

Billy narrowed his eyes, and Darren laughed lightly. Jayden's eyebrows furrowed together in slight confusion.

"They don't have jurisdiction here." Darren shrugged. "It is just a bunch of you rag-tag, wannabe hunters, running around like disorganized bitches in heat."

Emilia pressed her lips together again. She kept her gun steady. They were stalling. Emilia did not know why, but her gut had tightened in apprehension. She began to run simulations in her mind for possible outs that did not involve one or both of them dying. There really were not many options. Emilia knew better than to think their vampire friend had gone far, but she did not want to risk exposing her magic to them.   The last thing she needed would be to have creatures aware of a magic-wielding hunter in London.  That would be a sure way to die if she didn't die here.  

They had walked straight into a messy situation and pissed off a major coven family—scratch that—all of the major coven families.  Fuck yeah!  She sarcastically thought.

A soft trickle went up her spine. On instinct, Emilia shot above her head. Dust trickled down on her. For a moment, the four-starred at each other before Jayden let off two stake shard rounds at Billy and Darren. The two dodged his shots. Jayden's missed bullets exploded midair above them, causing the vampires to hiss as burns seared their skin from the holy water but did little to deter them.

The vampires split up to attack the two hunters. Emilia found it amusing that they decided to attack them based on hair color, not size. So, she got lovely Mr. Billy running at her with blood-red eyes. His barred fangs and nails lengthened during his charge.

Emilia sent two shots at him while dodging his swiping hands. Her shots missed his heart by inches. She growled in frustration. If Emilia had actually been training, she probably would have hit the mark on the first try. He wasn't a difficult vampire to take down with his assault patterns.

She ducked from another of Billy's attacks. Emilia rose from the ground to jump and used the wall to kick herself even higher. Billy turned to see a flurry of stake bullets coming down at him. Three hit him in the heart, and he turned to ash with a muffled high-pitch scream.

"Yeah," Emilia laughed. "You most definitely still had a butthole."

Her amusement became short-lived when she turned to see blood splatter on the wall. A hissing curse escaped from her lips, and she ran down the alley. Emilia grabbed one of the slowly dimming daylight rods off the floor as she slowed her pace. The alley wasn't that long, and she could already hear activity coming from the next street. 

A soft groan sounded to her right. Emilia used the glow from the stick to illuminate Jayden in a heap with Darren's face over his neck. The vampire removed himself to the edge of the shadows; the bullets from Emilia's gun followed his retreat. He dodged them with a smirk. 

Darren was stronger than she expected. Maybe by a century or so, which would mean his butthole theoretically had shut up.

Emilia felt a trickle going down her neck again and groaned. She opened her purse and threw it in front of her. Emilia fired at two gun clips that came out, and they exploded in balls of sunlight. There was a series of screams as dust rained around her. 

Emilia fell beside Jayden and searched inside his pockets until she found two more sticks. She cracked them against her leg before throwing one of them a foot in front of her and held the other tightly to her chest.  The alley became softly illuminated by the light, and Emilia scanned around them before sighing.

Alone. She thought in relief while briefly examining Jayden's neck. 

And then, she felt another prickle of apprehension.  

***

Dating Advice from a Hunter:

My makeup routine is totally dependent upon the date, and I only use the highest grade stuff I can find.  Sometimes it includes a neurological agent to numb an attacker and possibly shut down what is left of their inner organs.  Other times, it might be a nice eyeshadow to keep a fae from using a spell.  Just remember to blend.  No one wants your date to see your defenses and think you don't trust them...

Happy hunting,

E.V.

***

Chapter WC: 1,987

Story WC: 6,824

Thank you for reading!  I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Who or what do you think is in the alley now?  Dun-dun-dun!!!!