"There were three Level Es?" Kaien looked up from the sheet he was currently recording on. "There must have been a mistake in the reports."

Zero nodded, and so did I. I was too distracted by the tattoo on my back. What was it? Was it something dangerous? My skin crawled as I imagined Ereon planting something on me that made me his puppet. Was I only ever going to be thrown around as a tool for purebloods to use?

"Akira came back with a vampire an hour ago," Kaien put down his pen. "He bound her with Mother Metal chains and put her in the dungeon. We think she's one of Ereon's underlings."

"What do you want us to do?" Zero reached up to scratch the back of his neck, right where the first curls of his tattoo started.

"Go down and see if she's got anything to say," Kaien pinned us with a grim look. "I want to stay away from torture if we can."

~~~

The Hunter's dungeons were just as sombre and dismal as the dungeons under the academy. The large rough stones underneath our feet made no sound as we made our way down the stairs, and torches were placed every few metres, casting shadows that moved as we walked past. The vampire was in the second last cell, and as we reached the end of the row, Akira's voice could be heard, rising in frustration.

"How are you related to Ereon?" I caught him sticking his face in the vampire's face, deep lines forming that turned his face into that of a monster. The vampire didn't respond.

She wore a white shirt and black pants, both of which were torn and dirty, and was kneeling with her wrists chained behind her to the wall. Her ankles were tied in a similar fashion.

"Kaien sent us," Zero said in reply to the wary look Akira shot us. The vampire's eyes lifted at the sight of us, and unexpected relief flashed through the red pupils. I blinked.

Had I imagined that?

"You'll have no more luck with her," Akira growled, turning back to face the vampire. I hadn't missed the look of contempt he shot me as soon as I stepped inside. "Has Kaien sent orders for torture?"

"There will be no torture," I was the one who spoke up this time. "It would only kill her."

Akira stared back at me.

"Haven't you forgotten?" His lips curled upwards. "Vampires can withstand many things. That's why your forsaken race is still walking the earth."

I met his gaze evenly. 

"Kaien asked you to leave this to us." That wasn't really true. He'd told us to assist Akira in the interrogation, but there was no reason for him to doubt Kaien's orders.

With a mutter, Akira shoved past us, out of the dark cell. His heavy footsteps could be heard thumping up the stairs, and as they faded, I felt more relaxed.

"Let's hope he's not going to the old man," Zero muttered to me. I mentally agreed. Perhaps it was rash of me to make up something like that.

But we wouldn't have gotten anywhere with him here, I reasoned. I could only hope Kaien would ignore the incident, if Akira did ask him.

"What's your name?" Zero knelt down in front of the vampire. You would have thought he was playing good cop if he didn't have such a nasty expression.

Looks kind of constipated actually.

The vampire clearly wasn't stupid, by the way her eyes narrowed at Zero, her pale lips pressing together tightly.

"I said, what's your name?" Zero repeated. Same response.

Looks like I'll be good cop.

"How are your wrists?" I kneeled beside the rings on the wall that connected the shackles on the vampire's wrists and ankles. Like most female vampires, she had slender wrists and ankles, seemingly fragile, but strong, unbreaking beneath the weight of the heavy shackles. Angry, red, rings of skin rubbed raw from the manacles fizzed with the occasional spark underneath the mother metal, unable to heal. Letting my light flow from my hand, I encased her wrists in the light, creating a thin barrier between her skin and the harmful mother metal.

"Thank you," she murmured quietly, but didn't look at me. The tone of her voice said everything. She was grateful for my help, but she wasn't going to give anything away. Her loyalty was touching, but vexing.

A faint splash of colour caught my eye, and my heart skipped a beat. Between the strands of hair covering the back of her neck and collar of her shirt, I could see bright red skin underneath. Not caring what Zero or the vampire thought, I reached forward, parting her hair and tugging her collar downwards.

A small red coil curled upwards from underneath her shirt, the elegant swirl reminding me of something I had only just managed to push out of my mind.

"What is it?" Zero stepped around the motionless vampire, leaning down to peer at her neck. His eyes narrowed at the curl, and he returned to his earlier position.

"What does that tattoo mean?" He hissed to the vampire. Wearily, she raised her eyes to meet his. A tired smile crept onto her features.

"So you know about ze Mark?" Her voice was heavily accented, the origins of it from somewhere far away. "Zen you are ze vuns Master has Marked as well. It is an honour."

Her words slid past my ears like I was underwater. Everything slowed down, as she continued talking, her voice like bubbles that gurgled past. Close by, but indistinct.

"What does it mean?" Zero's voice was harsh, a grating sort of sound that tore the soft haze surrounding me. The dark red line came into focus again, and the vampire responded.

"You are his to control," the vampire's eyes gleamed with pride. "And his to be known as."

Fury swelled up in me, pushed by a mix of desperation and terror.

"Cut the grand speech," I snatched back my light in a vicious swipe. "What's going to happen to us? Why is he Marking us? How can we believe you?"

The vampire didn't flinch as the mother metal settled back on her skin, nor did she react to my outburst.

"He vill contact you soon," she smiled at me, craning her head back to look at me. Her fangs slid onto her lips enticingly, piercing the red flesh to let blood seep out in two dark trickles.

I stiffened as the scent reached my nostrils, pushing aside the temptation as my senses swelled to their limits. Zero behaved similarly, his nostrils flaring and the groove between his eyebrows deepening.

"Two vampires," the vampire cooed, looking coyly at Zero. "So young. So strong. Of course ze Master would choose you two."

"Enough!" Zero snapped, standing up. The woman wasn't done.

"And accepted in ze guild. Zey may never guess who you are, but ven zey do, ze vorter flows quickly vunce free. Execution. Betrayal. Perhaps you should quit vile you're ahead. Return."

~~~

Perhaps I should have expected it. After that vampire's warning, it was only a matter of time before I was contacted.

A dream. That was the first thing I thought, but it didn't stop my skin from prickling at the fog that swayed past crooked, spindly trees. Grey on black.

White.

Something hurtled out of the trees, shooting directly towards me.

Crackle.

A piece of paper flew straight into my face.

I could never read things in dreams. I couldn't 'see' the words. I just knew they were there, even if they weren't facing me. It was the same thing this time. 

Return.

Immediately the paper slid off my face, tumbling off with the wind. A shadow stood in its place, made up of dead straight lines, like a cardboard cutout. It didn't talk, but only reached out with shadowy hands towards me. I ducked and scuttled backwards. That caused a reaction.

"Dammit," it muttered. It sounded like a girl. "All of them are the same."

She swung her arm around, and a glittering white net appeared in its wake. I gaped. Why did that look so much like my light?

Light blinded me as the white strands crisscrossed over my face, and I felt panic sink in as the net bound me. My breaths came out in harsh gasps as I began to struggle.

"No. No!"

My legs were free, but all they could do was uselessly kick and unbalance myself. I hit the ground  painfully, my arms bound to my sides, writhing uselessly as the shadow hauled me towards it. There was a thumping in my head that kept getting louder. Darkness sunk in and all I could hear were my gasping breaths, matching the rhythm of the thumping.

~~~

"Saki!" Sweat dripped into my eyes as I jolted awake, my heart thumping, breathing wildly. Thumping came from the door. "Saki!" 

"The headmaster wants everyone to come to the main hall," Zero informed me when I opened the door. His eyes narrowed at my sweaty, dishevelled appearance, but he didn't comment. "There's some kind of big mission. You should hurry." 

I nodded mutely, closing the door. My mind spun as I turned around to find some clothes. The floor was cool underneath my bare feet, and there was the tickle of a night breeze through the slightly open window. It was soothing and calmed my wild thoughts. Nightmares weren't common, but they did exist. I took a deep breath.

When I came out, Zero was waiting outside the door. He didn't say anything, but just turned and walked off, and I followed him. As we walked, we passed other hunters. None of them looked tired or sleepy, but rather, just as awake as they would during the day. 

Vampires move at night, and that's when hunters kill them. 

Had these hunters just come back from a mission? I wanted to look at them, and see if there were any signs of a fight, but didn't want them to catch me. I'd already had disapproving stares sent in my direction. 

The hall was half full by the time we arrived. Hunters clustered around the edges, leaning against the tall marble columns and walls, leaving an empty space in the middle of the wooden floorboards for whichever poor soul wanted to stand under scrutinising gazes. At the opposite end, Kaien stood on a raised platform, leaning against the railing that surrounded it on three sides. 

"Who still isn't here?" He inquired, his voice immediately halting the murmurs around the hall.

"Haven't seen the Inori group yet," one hunter commented. He stood closest to Kaien, leaning against the platform himself. He was tall and skinny, but the thin coat he wore made sure the bulges of sinewy muscle sent a clear warning not to mess with him. The hilt of a broad sword extending over his shoulder might also have helped.

"Nah, we're here," a small hand poked out from behind a small cluster of hunters. They shifted aside to reveal a woman with mismatched eyes and crooked smile. A small group of hunters nodded in agreement behind her, all of whom shared the same mismatched eyes.

Kaien nodded. He cast a gaze around the room, and I realised with surprise, that the double doors we had come through had somehow closed. I had a sinking feeling that all the other entrances were barred too. Was this really a mission brief?

"I know it's strange that I've called you all here," Kaien began, his voice ringing out across the room, in the empty space below the raised ceiling. "But from sources, we believe there are spies in the association."

There was a cold silence across the room. No shouts of horror or gasps. I saw nearby hunters nodding grimly. They'd all expected it, and it was no surprise to them, I thought numbly. They were all experienced enough to know that the most crucial aspect of defeating an enemy was information, and you needed spies for that.

"We cannot say, but we need to take an phys- an examination of each one of you to check for any traitors."

Traitors.

The word was sharp and stung me. The tattoo. I looked at Zero, and he glanced back. A small nod. We'd both heard the slip-up. A physical examination. It was impossible to hide the tattoos on our backs, and they were no fools. They'd immediately see the resemblance to the vampire's tattoo, and who knew where that would take us?

Execution. Betrayal. Perhaps you should quit while you're ahead.

~~~

*builds pile of cushions*

*peeks out from behind cushions*

h-hi guys?

*ducks back in*

So, uhhh, I'll just talk from here, yeah? I know. I ditched you all for....I've lost track now. A very long time. I have a whole list of excuses, from school stress and exams, to finally getting off my lazy ass and beginning to exercise, to rage-deleting the wattpad app from my phone when it wouldn't open, and would keep shutting down the minute I tapped on it...yeah, ok, maybe I should have reinstalled it, but uhhh, I kind of made a decision, that I wouldn't stay on Wattpad very much nowadays, since this year, I'm in my senior years, and will be sitting my HSC next year (you aussies will know about it). It's basically a bunch of exams that make you hate the subjects you thought you loved. So yeah, it's not exactly a hiatus...well, it kinda is, it's a half-hiatus, how about that? I'm not going to make any promises, since I don't think I'll be updating this story for a while after this chapter - it was already half finished when I finally came back here, so I just finished it while I had a creative surge.

 I'm not going to officially discontinue this story because I do hope to finish it eventually, maybe when I finish exams next year, or I'm procrastinating one day, but no guarantees, yeah? I'm enjoying the story too, and I feel like you guys also enjoy it. And I also want to rewrite the first chapters of the first story, since I reread and realised how cringe it was, written from a 12ies' perspective, now that I'm 16 :) But that will probably come much much later, after I've finished this book (and maybe a third book? That's a pretty long shot though). So yeah, I won't be on that much, maybe never, but I still love you all, and I am so so so so so so so so so so grateful to all of you for reading my stories and joining me on my journey. It's honestly one of the most important aspects of my life that I think really helped me and built who I am along the way. You guys are all amazing, even the silent reader that doesn't vote (no hard feelings, I'm like that too :P) and I am forever indebted to you guys for the happiness I feel when I check wattpad and I find out my story's gotten more votes and reads. I wish all of you the best of luck in your own endeavours, whether they be on wattpad or not, and stay awesome!

Lots and lots and lots and lots of love <3

Evil_Incubator

P.S. I just realised that last paragraph sounded like I'm saying goodbye forever, but I'll still be alive, and plan to come back here eventually :)