Bethalie tried to decide how best to handle the situation facing her. Anyone could pass by at any moment, including any police officers who happened to be out doing their night rounds. If a cop drove by and spotted the scene, she could be in hot water. Just imagine her explanation of things.

"It's alright, officer. Just ignore the dead body on the ground and the brain matter on the building there. I had to kill her. She was a Vampire. It's my job to kill Vampires, you see."

Humans probably wouldn't go for that. Despite the fangs and the female's belly full of blood, she would be arrested, charged with murder, and then thrown into the crazy house. Not wanting to suffer through shock therapy, Bethalie glanced around, her mind formulating a quick plan. She spotted a discarded mattress someone had leaned against the dumpster at the far end of the alleyway and she headed toward it, knowing it was a feeble attempt, but her only other option was tossing her coat over the body and hoping that would make it invisible to any passersby.

Hoofing it past the two Vampires and down to the dumpster, she grabbed hold of the soaked, smelly thing and then froze. The wet, moldy mattress was creating quite a stink, but there was another scent, one that overpowered the mold and the garbage, turning Bethalie's stomach. The vile, sharp, almost sickly sweet odor was unmistakable. There was something dead in that dumpster. She didn't have time to go searching through it just then, though. That would have to wait.

Gathering her strength, Bethalie heaved and dragged the sodden, disgusting mattress away from the dumpster and toward the dead female, having to use every ounce of her strength because the thing weighed a ton. She noticed the male Vamp was on his knees now, clutching the side of his neck and swaying unsteadily. Well, it seemed she was going to have three bodies to deal with.

Damn.

If anyone came along she'd just have to shoot them. There was no way she could conceal three bodies. All the same, she heaved the mattress over to the woman lying in a pool of blood and rainwater and dumped it over her. It was a poor effort, but it was all she had. That bit done, she took a breath, swiped the dampness from the drizzle out of her eyes, and turned back to the male Vampire, reaching to unsheathe her Bowie knife. "Try not to scream. I don't need anyone hearing us."

He looked up at her with unclear eyes and slack features and she felt a waft of anger go through her. The jackass should have let her help him before! Bethalie shoved his hand aside and quickly pressed the blade of her knife against the wounds, hearing the instant sizzle of his flesh. He tried to stifle the deep, guttural cry that burst out of him, but failed in his attempt. She didn't hold it against him, though. She knew it hurt like blazing hell.

She held her breath to keep from choking on the scent of charring skin and kept the knife blade still for several long seconds. When she pulled it away, the skin was blistered and burned, but the teeth marks were cauterized. His blood loss was staunched, but he'd lost quite a bit, which meant he would need to feed soon. Very soon. And if there wasn't any synthetic food around, he'd find the nearest edible...thing, simply because he'd have no choice. Which meant she would have to kill him for doing what his survival instincts were forcing him to do.

The Vampire suddenly fell forward onto his hands, breathing hard and trembling unsteadily. "Y-you have to get out of here. I've lost...I'll need to feed," he rasped harshly. "Take the human with you. Please!"

Hmmm. This Vampire didn't want to kill anyone? That was different. "Don't worry. I won't let you hurt him," she stated firmly.

"It'll take more than you to stop me, woman!" he said raggedly. "Now, go! Please!"

If she left him, he'd just find someone else and she'd have to kill him later. So, she decided to spare them both the extra effort. Quickly sheathing her knife, she grabbed a baton, extended it with a hard flick and swung it with all her strength, bringing it down across the back of the Vampire's skull, the impact jarring through her bones. He let out a strangled groan and collapsed onto the pavement, landing with a hard thud next to the mattress. He didn't move after that. It was almost impossible to knock a Vampire totally unconscious. It took way more strength than any mere mortal possessed. This one, however, was already half out from blood loss, so it wasn't too hard to send him on his way. Hopefully, he'd stay out for a while.

She almost hoped she wouldn't have to put this one down. He seemed to have a conscience.

Holstering the baton, she bent and grabbed hold of the sodden mattress, maneuvering the thing so that it was covering both bodies. Sort of. That done, she hurried back to the human, hoping and praying that no one wandered past. At this point, it really would be easier to shoot anyone who stumbled upon the scene. One more body wouldn't make much of a difference.

The man still wasn't moving, no surprise, but his eyes had lost that tortured, Dear God, help me I'm dying, look. The silver had stopped bubbling and had already hardened over the wounds. When the flesh started to heal, the silver would simply fall away. At least, it would if he lived that long.

"You'll be alright," she lied to him. "Don't worry. This will wear off and you'll be able to move in a while." Probably just in time for The Big Guys to come along and rub him out.

But, again, it wasn't her job to deal with that little bit of business. While he was with her, he'd be looked after.

After standing guard for a short while, the sound of squealing tires split the silence of the night and a moment later brake lights turned the alleyway red as her utility van backed in from the opposite end, screeching to a halt right by the two downed, partially covered Vampires. The driver side door opened and Evyn stepped out, leaving the motor running and hurrying around to pull open the rear double doors.

"Wow. You've been busy!" she stated, eyeing the scene before her.

Had she now? "Come help me with this one first," Bethalie said, waving her assistant over.

Evyn hurried to her, her gaze landing on4e the felled human, her sharp, pixie-like features registering overt surprise. "He's kind of cute! Is he still alive?"

Bethalie turned again to the man lying immobile at her feet. Now that it had been mentioned...he was kind of cute. "He's still alive."

"So, how are we supposed to deal with this sort of circumstance?" Evyn wandered. "You usually bring home dead bodies. What are we supposed to do with a live one?"

"Live ones," Bethalie pointed out. "There's a male Vampire over there that's still alive, too."

Evyn seemed unfazed. "So, we'll take him back and...kill..."

"Help."

"Help him. Of course," Evyn agreed with a shrug. "And we'll help the cute human, too?"

"We will," Bethalie stated, deciding it was time to get matters handled before they really did get caught.

Bethalie turned and hurried over to the van, climbing into the back to grab hold of the steel cable that belonged to the winch that was bolted to the floor, pulling the cable out with her as she jumped down onto the wet asphalt. Evyn was already there, unhinging the metal ramp bolted underneath the back of the van.

"He'll have to be put down, you know," Evyn said matter-of-factly.

"I know," Bethalie answered, dropping the winch cable and grabbing hold of the mattress to heave it away from the bodies.

"It's too bad. He really is cute," Evyn said, pulling out the ramp and filling the alleyway with the metallic clatter and crash as she dropped it to the ground.

It was too bad. Not to mention unfair. But, it was out of their hands.

Once the mattress was off the Vampires, Bethalie knelt down and wrapped the steel winch cable around the female's ankles, securing it by using the large metal hook to tie it to itself. She then pulled a small remote from another of her coat pockets and pressed the small green button. The winch's motor hummed to life, filling the air with the loud sound. She hit the red button on the little remote and a second later the female Vamp went skidding across the pavement and up the ramp, disappearing into the van in less than four seconds flat.

She'd had the winch built to be as fast as possible, which allowed her to get the dead bodies out of sight with the utmost speed. Again, having to explain to the authorities that she was a real-life Vampire hunter would only ensure that she spent the rest of her days receiving shock therapy whilst wrapped securely in a snugly fitting white jacket that tied up the back. And that did not sound like a good time.

Evyn stood by, waiting for further instruction, so Bethalie hitched her head toward the male lying on the ground and Evyn jumped into the van, reappearing a moment later with the winch cable in her hands. They both flipped the Vampire over onto his back, hooked it around his ankles, and Bethalie hit the red button, feeling a little bad that he had to be ripped across the asphalt and up the ramp like a hunk of meat, but the winch didn't have a slow button. Hopefully, his long leather coat would protect him from getting a serious case of road rash.

The human, however, could not be winched into the van, so she shut off the winch and she and Evyn put the ramp away and secured the double doors. The man, cute though he was, was at least 6 feet of solid muscle, and he was dead weight. She and Evyn tried to be gentle with him, but their only course of action was to each take a leg and drag him over to the van. By the time they managed to heft and heave and manhandle him up into the back floorboard, which took a solid ten minutes and several attempts, there probably wasn't a single spot on him that wasn't scraped and bruised.

While Evyn was trying to arrange his limbs to a more comfortable position, Bethalie decided to take a peek into the dumpster. The source of that unmistakable smell was probably just a dead pet that someone had discarded, but she had to check. Just to be sure.

At the dumpster, Bethalie climbed up onto the metal ledge that was used to lift the receptacle so it could be emptied and grabbed hold of the plastic lid, heaving it backwards and letting it crash loudly against the brick wall behind it. The stench of rotting garbage and decaying flesh that rolled out of the thing filled the air and Bethalie quickly covered her mouth and nose with her coat sleeve, having to fight not to gag.

Evyn didn't fight it. From behind her, she heard the woman start to retch. Breathing through her coat, which really didn't help that much, Bethalie reached for her weapons belt, removing her tactical flashlight and clicking it on, the bright beam illuminating the mass of refuse. She peered into the dumpster, her gaze running over the piles of rotted food and filled garbage bags, her ears picking up the sounds of rodents moving about somewhere down in the rubbish. She shivered. Ugh. She hated rats. Vampires, Warlocks, flesh eating Demons she didn't mind. But, rats? Hell no!

After a few moments of studying the contents, her gaze fell on the thing that she sought. And it was no dead animal causing the stench. Hmmm. Apparently, she wouldn't be adding a new name to her Bucket List after all. She'd just found her target. Despite the pale face that was half-eaten off, thanks to the rats no doubt, she instantly recognized Adam Turner.

Finding a dead Vampire wasn't completely shocking. Darksiders resolved arguments by killing one another, just like humans. Murder was universal. However, there was one very disturbing fact about finding a dead Vampire in a dumpster.

And that was finding a dead Vampire in a dumpster.

This was something that no Vampire, nor any other Darksiders, would typically do. Leaving one of their own where they could be found by the humans was a major no-no. In fact, it was absolutely unacceptable.  

Human minds didn't often go to the fact that there really could be Vampires and such lurking out there, feeding on people, which was why an attack on a human could be chalked up to anything from a wild animal attack to depraved cultists on the loose. But, discovering the actual remains of a dead Darksider was something else altogether. That wasn't speculation and blind guessing. That was proof. And that might start something that neither side, Daylighters nor Darksiders, was prepared to deal with.

And some naughty creature had left stone cold, irrefutable evidence lying right out for everyone to see.

"What is it? What's in there?" Evyn questioned hoarsely.

"It's my guy," Bethalie answered, using her free hand to pull out her phone and snap a quick picture as proof before jumping back to the ground.

"He...he's in there? Dead!" Evyn gasped, her eyes wide. "Someone...left him in there! Where anyone could find him!"

"Indeed. Lying right there all vamped out," Bethalie stated, trying not to bend over and throw up. She'd probably have the scent of decay in her nostrils for weeks.

"What should we do? Try to get him out?" Evyn wondered, clutching at her stomach.

"No. We'll call The Big Guys and let them know what's going on. We aren't equipped to handle a rotting corpse," Bethalie answered, pocketing her phone and holstering her flashlight.

"On it," Evyn nodded, pulling out her cell and knocking out a text message faster than Bethalie could blink.

The Big Guys could handle this little situation and if they chose not to, that was on them. Her business was going after live offenders and putting them down. Cleaning up the already dead ones, which she hadn't ever come across before, was out of her jurisdiction and probably above her pay grade. And anyway, she had more pressing matters to deal with.

There was a wounded live Vampire in the back of her van and if he came around, they would have a problem. He'd need to feed, whether he wanted to or not, and not only was there a human in the van, there was also herself and now Evyn. That was three ready food sources, so it was simply a matter of who he went after first. Although, if he was smart, he'd go after the human. Feeding off either her or Evyn would only kill him, too.

"Let's roll," Bethalie said, starting for the driver side door of the utility van. She wanted to get Evyn away from the male Vampire as quickly as possible.

Once she and Evyn were safely belted into their seats, Bethalie threw the van into gear and gunned the engine, shooting forward out of the alleyway, leaving behind the remains of Adam Turner for The Big Guys. Hopefully, they would take care of him before the sun came up.

Bethalie careened through the darkened streets, following Evyn's directions back to her own car, which was parked in the same alleyway she'd left the van in earlier. Once Evyn stepped out of the van and slammed the door shut, Bethalie pressed the accelerator and raced toward home at a breakneck speed. She needed to get the Vamp nourished before something...unfortunate had to happen. There was a problem, though. She didn't keep a supply of Synthetic Blood Product on hand. By the time a Vampire made it back to her home, they didn't need food anymore.

Bethalie pulled her phone from her pocket and hit the Walkie App. "Evyn, make a run to the nearest drug store. We need a couple bottles of Stat."

"I'm on it," Evyn answered almost instantly.

Stat was the term the Darksiders used for the synthetic food they were forced to eat. It was a term that meant a farce, a facsimile, something not as...desirable...as the real thing. To encourage Vampires and other Darksiders with a taste for blood to stick to their diet, there were places that offered Synthetic Blood Product, or Stat, scattered throughout most major cities around the world. To the average human these places were nothing more than 24 hour pharmacies. Everyone knew the big names where you could walk in at three in the morning and get a bottle of aspirin and a tube of lipstick. Or perhaps even a few bottles of nutritional Synthetic Blood Product, which contained everything that a Darksider would need to stay healthy, including a high dose of caffeine to keep their nerves settled.

Bethalie always found it strange that the human population didn't question the reason why there were countless pharmacies, in the same city, that stayed open all night long. These places weren't exactly jumping with customers between midnight and five am. One or two pharmacies being open she could understand, but all of them? One on every corner? But, humans had a don't ask, don't tell thing going on, which actually made things a lot easier. Not that a human could get their hands on anything that a Darksider needed. To get it, one either had to show their true self, or present ones affiliation by producing nifty little electronic I.D. cards that signified you were working for The Big Guys.

Bethalie's home was just outside the Harbor District, right on the shore of Port Angeles. In its heyday, it was a busy and flourishing seaport where ships unloaded and the goods were housed and later distributed all over the North West. Now, it was just a collection of historic and mostly abandoned buildings, all left to fall to rack and ruin as time moved on.

Her place was in an old processing plant facing the harbor. The brick building dated back to the early 1900's and it was only two stories high.  No one built sky scrapers in the North West back in those days. Most of the archaic equipment had been hauled out once she'd taken over the place, but she had left a few things intact and had some other things installed or modified. Starting with the automatic garage door. She hated to deface an historic building, but it was necessary for her line of work.

Just down the street from her building, she took out her trusty remote and hit the little blue button, barreling along dimly lit Shore Front Drive and suddenly banking a hard left, careening into her building through the open garage bay and screeching to a halt, the sound of the screaming tires echoing through the cavernous space.

Jumping from the van and out into the brightly lighted garage, Bethalie hurried around to open the rear door, seeing that the Vampire hadn't moved a muscle. Hopefully, he wouldn't until Evyn showed up. She fought the urge to get into the van and check to see if he'd already expired. Getting close to him could get them both killed. The scent of her right under his nose would make him want to feed and feeding off her would mean he'd be following her into the Hereafter.

It was a lesson she'd learned from her Granny. Lacing her blood with trace amounts of silver would kill any Vampire who decided to make a snack—or an example—out of her. So, anyone who tried to drain her would be dragged down to hell with her.

Seeing that the Vampire was still out cold, she moved to the back floorboard of the van to check on the human. She climbed in and leaned over him, finding his eyes bright and alert, albeit filled with a measure of terror. She couldn't blame him. The poor man. He'd been chomped on by a monster that wasn't supposed to exist, paralyzed, had his flesh all but lit on fire, and then was forcibly stuffed into a van by two strange women and sped away into the night. She'd be scared, too.

"Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you," she said, though it probably wasn't a very soothing statement for him to hear. Wasn't that what every serial killer said just before they gouged their victim's brain out with an ice pick?

However, in this case, she was telling the truth. But, those she worked for would indeed have plans on gouging his brain out with an ice pick as soon as they learned about him. It really was a shame, too. He was cute! She could see just how cute now that they were in the well-lighted building. He was a big guy, muscular looking, with broad shoulders and long, well-shaped legs. He had close cropped, honey colored hair, a day's worth of honey colored stubbled, sparkling green eyes, a square jaw and chin, and a perfectly straight nose. He was dressed in khaki cargo pants, an army green t-shirt, an olive colored safari style jacket with numerous outside pockets, and scuffed up work boots. Looking at him, she saw that he had a healthy glow to his skin and a few laugh lines at the corners of his eyes. He obviously spent a lot of time outdoors and it would show sooner or later. All in all, he was a very good looking, outdoorsy, rugged type of man who looked like he should be on a billboard hawking camping gear.

It was just too bad that he was doomed.

"We'll get you some place more comfortable as soon as my assistant gets back," she told him, trying not to think about the fate that awaited the handsome man.

It wasn't more than a couple of minutes later that Evyn's black Lexus came screeching into the building, squealing to a halt beside the van. Evyn jumped out and hurried over, clutching a plain white paper bag in her hand.

"What do we do first?" the woman asked in her usual, efficient tone.

"We make sure the human is safe first," Bethalie stated, hitting the remote and starting the garage door to lowering.

Evyn sat the bag on the rear seat of the van. "Let's do it."

It took some maneuvering, and probably a few more bruises added to the man, but they managed to get him out of the van and onto the concrete floor. Once he was lying there, it was fairly easy to pull him across the floor to the far side of the space and into the old fashioned elevator.

"Go up with him. I'll call you as soon as I'm done with the male," Bethalie stated and Evyn obeyed, stepping inside and closing the gate.

Bethalie waited until the elevator had clattered and clanked its way up to the second floor before turning and going back to the van to get the bag of Stat. She removed two clear glass bottles that were the size of old fashioned soda bottles, but were sealed with white plastic caps. The bottles were filled with a liquid that could be confused with red wine. It was enough food to fill a Vampire's belly and strengthen his body. Hopefully.

Bethalie climbed into the van, avoiding the corpse and the pool of bodily fluids surrounding it, setting one bottle down and twisting the cap off the other before kneeling next to the male and giving his shoulder a shake. He didn't move. So, she shook him harder. Still no reaction. She could see him breathing, so he hadn't expired, yet she couldn't rouse him. She was faced with a choice then. Maybe another Ward would have left him there to fade away without bothering to expend the energy to try and help him, but...she couldn't do it. Bethalie Sanderson didn't work that way.

Taking hold of his shoulder, she gave him another hard shake, which did nothing, so she decided to give his pale cheek a sharp slap, thinking she might just have to pour the food down his throat. She waited a second and then gave his cheek another slap, putting a bit more force behind it. This time his eyes flew open and almost instantly his sharp teeth were barred and a growl burst out of him. Before she could blink, he was away from her, pressing himself against the back partition of the van.

"Get away from me!" he snarled the warning. "Go! Now! I don't want to hurt you!"

Ignoring his words, Bethalie held the bottle out to him and his pale, opaque eyes snapped to the ruby colored liquid. "Here you go," she said, giving it a little shake. "Take it."

He looked confused for a second, but quickly moved forward to snatch the bottle from her, downing it in a few swallows. She opened the second one and handed it to him, hoping it would be enough to slake his thirst. He took the bottle and drank it, but a bit more slowly, which was a good sign. She knew the Stat contained everything he would need to heal himself, so hopefully she wouldn't have to kill him. It might weigh on her conscience to put down someone who technically hadn't committed an offense.

The Vampire finished off the second bottle and sat it down beside him, moving to lean his head back against the partition, shutting his eyes with a satisfied sigh. That was her cue to get on with business and leave him alone to heal.

Bethalie climbed out of the van and pulled her phone out, hitting the Walkie App. "Let's get to work," she said into it.

The elevator clamored back down to the garage and Evyn stepped out, closing the gate and sending it clamoring back up, which would keep the human safe. That bit done, they were ready to get down to business.

Vampire disposal was a hand's on process. For all the world's modern technology, there were still only a scant few ways to dispose of a Darksider's body. Fire would burn it to ash, which took hours and required the help of a high heat, long burning flame. Not an easy thing to accomplish outside of a mortuary. Or there was the way she preferred to do it, which was immersing the body in a mixture of pulverized silver, lye, salt, Helibore, and a few other rare herbs. The powdery, potent mixture covered the body and ate it away down to nothing. There wasn't so much as a tooth left behind.

Her great, great grandmother had come up with the recipe, but Bethalie had adapted it so that it was stronger and would work faster. In a mere twenty four hours the body would be dust and there'd be nothing to do but shovel up The Mix and dispose of it properly, i.e. have "Waste Management" come and haul it away.

Bethalie and Evyn used the ramp to remove the female from the van and drug her over to the work area, leaving a trail of blood behind them as they went. They laid her out next to the huge cast iron, silver lined trough and went about the business of removing her clothes, which The Mix wouldn't dissolve. They pulled off her thigh high leather boots with the six inch heels and then removed her blood soaked leather coat, followed by her leather pants and her corseted leather top. The clothes would be burned and any jewelry she had on would be disposed of, which was Evyn's area. She knew a guy who melted it down, turned it into something unrecognizable, and then sold off the pieces. The profits went half into his pocket, half into the local food bank for humans. They had to eat, too.

Once the clothing was bagged and the jewelry laid aside, they hooked the now nude body up to the steel cables of the winch that was suspended from the ceiling, and it was hoisted up off the floor by the wrists and ankles, allowing them to easily guide it down into the trough. The winch was an integral part of their operation. If she had to put down a three hundred pound Yarek Demon, she and Evyn wouldn't be able to lift it up into the trough on their own and there would be no way to dispose of it, which could be problematic, to say the least.

They grabbed their shovels from the pegs on the wall and started heaping in Mix from the massive cast iron hopper sitting beside the trough, the bare flesh starting to sizzle as soon as the first shovelfuls hit. They covered the entire body with several inches of the sparkling, silvery, color-flecked, sand like mixture and then stood back, sweaty and tired. The Mix was already doing its thing, bubbling and undulating as it dissolved both flesh and bones. Hanging the shovels back on the wall, Bethalie went back to the van to check on the male Vampire. He hadn't moved.

"What do we do with him?" Evyn asked, swiping at her short, dark brown hair that was damp with perspiration.

"We'll leave him," Bethalie answered. "When he comes around he'll find his way out. We'll the clean the van out tomorrow." They certainly couldn't hose it out with him in there.

"What about the human? What are we supposed to do with him?" Evyn questioned as they made for the elevator.

"We'll have to let The Big Guys know about him," Bethalie answered, not liking the sick feeling in her stomach speaking those words caused.

She usually didn't come into contact with the human victims. By the time she got involved the human had been taken care of already. Having to send a man, who was alive and relatively well, to his death was not a good feeling.

The elevator clattered down to them and Bethalie opened the gate, finding the human lying right where they'd left him. Stepping in and shutting the wooden gate, they clamored back up to the second floor, with Bethalie trying very hard not to dwell on the fate of the man who was staring up at her as if she was about to start pulling his internal organs out through his eye sockets.

The elevator opened up into a small hallway with a fire escape door at one end and a large, grey metal door that led into her living quarters straight ahead. The poor man had to be pulled across the concrete floor of the hallway and through the door of her apartment, then across that floor, which was thankfully smooth hardwood, and over to the sofa in the living room area. Once there, they had to heft him up onto the sofa cushions, all three of them breathing a sigh of relief once he was stretched out and resting comfortably. She didn't know who the ordeal was harder on, the human, or her and Evyn.

"Should I let The Big Guys know about him now?" Evyn asked hoarsely.

"Not yet. Let's have some coffee first. I think we could use it," Bethalie answered, shrugging out of her coat and laying it over the back of the sofa.

She really did need some coffee. It had been a long night. But, really the coffee was just a way to postpone the inevitable, which was sending an innocent man off to be murdered simply because he'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time.