A slow clap sounded to her right, making Emilia stiffen. She turned to see two red eyes glowing near the edge of the shadow.

"Now, now," a female voice playfully chided. "Do not worry. I'm not going to act like one of the stupid Petrova family and go in for blood. There is no need for either of us to gain that much attention."

Emilia narrowed her eyes. "Easier to believe if I could see you."

"True," the voice laughed. A twinkling sound that made Emilia's goosebumps heighten—she was not equipped to fight this vampire. "Esme, provide some light that won't kill us."

The light started as a swirl before it illuminated the alleyway. Emilia saw a tall female vampire with pin-straight red hair standing in a long black coat without an emblem.  Beside her, a shorter lady with curly black hair controlled the light. The lady, Emilia assumed to be Esme, continued to swirl the ball of light above their heads as a few more vampires appeared from the shadows. Emilia recognized the emblems from all the major families on the jackets of the vampires walking forward.

"Do not worry," the red-headed lady stated. "We saw how the Petrova family acted. We will handle this matter internally."

Emilia licked her lips and nodded. "Good to know."

The red-headed lady narrowed her eyes. "You are a hunter from America. Is this not outside of your jurisdiction?"

"I am not part of the Hunters Guild." Emilia watched the lady relax for a moment and then smirked. "But, I have friends who are."

"Ah." The red-headed vampire smiled. "Maybe we know the same people. I will be sure to update them on the episode tonight."

"Lovely, can I tend to my friend now?"

She shrugged. "If you can. It looks like Andrin did a number on him. We will be in touch if there are any discrepancies."

So he did lie about his name.  Classic vampire move.  Emilia thought.

Emilia smirked. "I look forward to reading the fine print when you do."

Then, in typical vampire fashion, they disappeared into the darkness without even providing a name.

Emilia waited a few moments before she picked up Darren, wait, Andrin's phone. She then walked over to her purse. Emilia dropped the phone in the purse while looking for her own. She found it a foot away from the small silver tin and her lipstick. Emilia went back to Jayden and smeared the salve on the bites she could see and a few of the cuts. She left the bang on his head alone because it stopped bleeding. Emilia bit her lip before placing the lipstick on him.

"This isn't your shade, but it works." Emilia smirked at his bloodied face.  The purple lipstick probably blended well with the emerging bruises. "I am going to need you to stand," she whispered, shaking his shoulder.

Jayden's eyes fluttered as he tried to focus on her.

"What the fuck, I don't—" he started, but she cut him off with a stern voice.

"I am going to need you to stand so that we can walk out of here and don't wipe off the lipstick. If they change their minds and come back, I can't protect you, but the concoction in the lipstick can. Now come on, I can treat you at my place, but we cannot stay here," Emilia hissed.

Jayden moved to get on his feet as Emilia supported him underneath his armpit. The two stumbled their way to the edge of the alley. Emilia stopped to pick-up a few more phones that Jayden pointed out. They got to the main road and turned to meander their way towards Regent Street, but then Jayden puked. Emilia furrowed her eyebrows, not looking forward to the concussion monitoring he'd be under.

She did not try to move him again. Jayden would not be easy to move much further. Emilia cursed while taking out her phone. She looked through the contacts before calling Taxi. Jayden leaned his head against the wall.

"Don't fall asleep! Keep busy. We can't just walk around with phones that they can track—well, if they aren't already," Emilia muttered as the ringing tone sounded in her ear, followed by the click of Taxi answering. "Oh, hello."

Jayden watched through hooded eyes as her face changed from annoyed to relaxed.

"Yeah, it's later than we expected, but as you can see from my location, we are okay. We need a ride." Emilia's eyebrows knitted together in annoyance as a male voice said something to her. "I know. I wouldn't have called if I didn't absolutely need your help. You'll see what I mean when you get here. We're both carded. So, technically, it is all good, and the families didn't seem like they were ready to kill us just yet."

More chatter came over the line before it went dead.

"Our ride will be here in about ten minutes," she stated, squatting down beside him. "Now, what about these phones?"

Jayden's breath came out heavily as his eyes closed. "Well, it isn't like they could use face recognition."

Emilia smirked at him before pulling a phone out. She saw a few message notifications from Bifrost and pressed on the button. To her surprise, the message opened automatically.

"This one wasn't locked." She laughed in shock. "Open your eyes and try these two. We could turn them on airplane mode."

Jayden winced as he slowly went through the process of checking trying to unlock phones. "This one doesn't work."

Emilia shrugged and took the phone from him. She put it on the floor before slamming her heel into it.

"Three out of five isn't too bad. We should be able to figure something out from this." She smiled while throwing the other one back into the alley.

"We?" Jayden asked as a black hackney stopped in front of them and honked three times.

Emilia once again helped Jayden to his feet. A slender man in his mid-fifties jumped out of the car and went to open the door for them. A faded Houston Astros baseball cap hid his salt and pepper hair. They eased Jayden into the backseat before Emilia jumped into the passenger seat.

"You have really done it this time, Emilia," the man hissed once inside the car.

"I know, Dad," Emilia muttered.

He glanced at her before sighing. "They will find out what happened, and then your mother is going to be flying over here. She will yell at me for letting you be this foolish. I just wanted to be a nice retired taxi driver who might occasionally get into skirmishes because he sees something that needs to be handled. But, now, none of us are going to be able to do what we want. They are going to come over here and try to bring their type of order."

"I know," she sighed as they merged with the traffic.

Part of me hopes they do. She added mentally, thinking of how relaxed the families seemed together and the mention of a mysterious he.  A dull ache began to form near the back of her skull as she felt some sort of power reach towards her.  Emilia closed her eyes and quickly raised her mental defenses as she placed a hand on her heart, feeling it race.

The car swerved sharply as if trying to avoid someone.  "Did you see him?" Her dad hissed.

"Who?" Emilia asked, turning in her seat only to see the outlines of a man fade away.  "I felt the power surge," she responded before swallowing.  I don't want to have to deal with this. She thought.

"We will just have to keep our defenses up," he responded, clenching the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

Her father turned a right and sped down the road.  Emilia nodded and looked down at her phone.  She scanned through the text messages until she found the chain with Crazy Rock Man. Jayden groaned lightly in the backseat. 

"He isn't going to turn, is he?" Her father asked, glancing at the man through his rearview mirror.  "That's the last thing we would need."

Emilia glanced back at Jayden.   He looked as if he had fallen asleep.  She shook her head.  "Nah, I gave him the salve and put my lipstick on him. It should kill off the virus before it multiplies. He will most likely have a bad headache in the morning that's exacerbated by a concussion. And, don't worry. Mom will probably use me as a scapegoat again."

Her dad nodded before turning to her with a smile. "How many did you kill?"

She shrugged and smiled. "Probably ten to twelve altogether. Mostly through light rounds."

"Then it was worth it," he whispered. "I'll take some extra turns and see if I can still transform this hunk of metal in an underpass. Safehouse three would be best for this situation, but I still give us about sixteen hours until we get a knock on the door.  Do you want to run?  With those power surges, it might be our best option."

She shook her head. They both knew the drill after a massive kill and the possible repercussions when it involved the Petrova.  This other matter, well, maybe she could place a nice bandaid on it without becoming too, too, involved.  Someone else might be able to manage it.  She just needed to gather the information to avoid the real danger.

Emilia bit her lip softly before sending a message to the crazy rock man and then leaned her head back as the phone dropped to her lap. London city lights flashed past her eyes as they drove towards safety. 

The open message on her phone read, "We need to talk," and a small cloud with three dots formed immediately underneath it.

***

Dating Advice from a Hunter:

Some of my best dates were my worst ones.  Nothing says you survived online dating more than letting your friends know about the one time a leprechaun tried to convince you he had lucky charms at his flat, and y'all should go check it out.  First off, doubtful the guy is that important.  Second, leprechauns aren't really known for the generosity.  So, never follow.  It will just end in disappointment on multiple levels and, you, holding your heels on the first tube in the morning.  No one needs to see those mascara eyes.

Happy hunting,

E.V.

***

Chapter WC: 1,741

Story Total: 8,565

Thank you again for reading! I hope y'all are having fun reading all of these novellas :)