A couple more months passed before Calla noticed something was wrong. She had no inside knowledge of the clans and their workings but her mind couldn't shake the feeling that something big was going to go down tonight. She picked up her phone and scrolled through the contacts until she reached Z, and called.

"Hello." a tired voice came from the other side.

"Zaros." Calla said lowly and she heard him shift quickly.

"What is it Redgrove?"

"Something big is going down tonight."

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure, but you should get all your available pack ready at the forests edge, I'll phone to update you once I have more information."

"Okay." he sighed into the phone. "I'll alert the Alpha and we'll be ready in a couple of hours."

"Bye." she said flatly before cutting the connection. She didn't know what was going on, but a thrill ran down her spine.

'We wonder....we wonder....what's going on.'

Climbing the highest point she could find, which kept view of the four clans' lands, she concealed herself and patiently waited. In boredom she'd taken to twiddling with her fangs using her index fingers and thumb, it was a pleasurable sensation of flesh on tooth. It was all she could do as she needed her senses sharp and her wits about her so she didn't miss any detail.

It was three hours before she spotted movement. Vampires from the Celina, Dacus and Kali converged onto Swarmer land. They were quick and nimble, a well planned assault. The vampires were armed with blades and the occasional handgun and quickly dispatched any Swarmers or unaffiliated in their way. Better to kill a hundred innocent men than let a guilty one go free was the logic Calla thought they were using.

She couldn't suppress the Cheshire grin that spread across her face, dialling Zaros back.

"Zaros." she spoke in the quietest of whispers.

"It's Avan. Why'd you call us together Redgrove?" the obviously cranky Alpha growled from the other side.

"The clans are in open war. At this moment, the Celina, Kali and Dacus are attacking the Swarmers."

"What!?"

"It won't be an easy victory for the trio, but if your people play it right you'll be able to sweep the lot of them this very night and take control of the city."

"....How many blood suckers are there?" he asked as he weighed his options.

"Three maybe four hundred." she stated calmly.

"We can't fight that." he snarled. "We have sixty of us."

"It won't be all against you, they'll mostly be fighting amongst themselves. If you go now you'll be able to pick off those on the edges without endangering yourselves."

"It's too risky."

"Oh come on!" she hissed down the phone, no longer concealing her voice. Her eyes looked around and she knew she was safe. "Grow a back bone, before this nights over we'll be claiming at least three heads." 'Four if we can get a hold of Zaros.' "Don't your people enjoy a good fight against the leeches? Or maybe you really are scared and want to live the rest of your lives muzzled."

"....." Calla heard muttering on the other side.

"Fine. We'll come but be warned little blood sucker, we won't be checking identities before we rip heads off." With that the line went dead and Calla couldn't contain a secondary hiss.

'Threatening us!' Her red eyes shimmered in the darkness and she grit her teeth, tensing her whole body. 'Five. Before tonight is over there's definitely at least five of you all dead!'

Calla moved swiftly and under the radar, ambushing a couple of Kali newborns and draining them. She stole their insignia arm bands and wore them herself, setting their bodies alight as she left. With them she easily moved into the heart of Swarmer land and watched as opposing parties hacked and slashed at each other. She had her targets in mind, the rest of them didn't matter.

That thought lasted up until she found a one armed Kali Childe in an alleyway.

"Are you okay?" she ran up to the Childe who took an offensive stance, preparing to strike out with a cleaver. Seeing a small red eyed vampire wearing his clan's insignia made him relax a bit.

"I'm fine, I just lost my arm."

"Where is it sir? Do you need me to find it?" she asked seemingly in panic. A newborn he thought. He used compulsion on her and saw her eyes become dazed.

"I'll regrow it soon. Come, we have enemies to kill." It was a poor decision to drop his guard. He was a new Childe and didn't realise his compulsion was incomplete. As he turned to face away he felt his arm twisted behind his back as he was pushed to the ground. Calla wasted no time drinking from him and his screaming gained no attention tonight. There were many such screams.

After burning him Calla simply couldn't believe her luck. The satisfaction of devouring another Childe was amazing and she made sure not to waste a drop.

'It's a bit like an all you can eat banquet.' She giggled to herself as she ran out from the alley, trench coat billowing back, refocusing her mind on the ones she needed to kill. 'Xavier, Turlin, Leena, Zaros, Avan....decisions, decisions.' She knew she couldn't actually go after Xavier and Avan just yet, they would break her easily. She needed to break through and become a Blood-letter before that and she hoped that Turlin and Leena would be enough to reach that goal.

But Calla knew it wasn't a sure thing, so any unburned vampires she found on the ground she drained. They were usually helpless, missing limbs or even decapitated.

'Thinking about it, there doesn't seem to be an upper limit that we can consume. What happens to the excess?"

It was another hour before she managed to track Turlin's scent and he was fighting animately with another Childe, each with two newborns to aid them.

"I want to know what happened to my son!" the Celina Childe screeched at Turlin as she tried to hit him with a handgun.

"I don't know!" Turlin shouted back as he dodged the bullets, trying to close the gap between them. "We already told your Clan we have no idea."

"He went missing on your territory! You said he'd be fine!" She emptied the clip at Turlin before throwing the gun away and drawing a dagger. "Give me back my son!" she lunged at him, ignoring the newborns beside him as her own engaged them.

"Dammit, he was my son too!" Turlin yelled as he caught her and they tumbled to the ground. Calla quietly crept closer and focused solely on the pair of Childe. "You think I'm not upset!" he yelled right into the Celina Childe's face as he pinned her to the ground. The newborns were cutting into each other in a frenzy, too afraid to engage either of the Childe. Which left Calla a clear path.

"B-but Turlin!" the female Childe said with sobs. "You promised me he would be fine." she finished meekly.

"Sarah." he said softly. "We really don't know who is responsible for these disappearances. And we won't find out if you destroy our clan."

"Then what should we do? Ashe told us you must have been in on it." she glared up at him and his expression became angry again.

"It's always that damn bitch. Ashe this and Ashe that. She can make mistakes just like regular people!"

"She's my Sire!" Sarah screamed in anger.

"Just listen to me-" his grip tightened round her wrists but before he could say anything else he saw her eyes grow wide, looking behind him. It was his parting image as his head was cleaved from his body. Sarah screamed and pushed his body from hers, trying to stand in a flurry. But a heavy kick smashed her back into the ground. With a foot on her chest Calla stood above her and swept down, straddling her and pinning her arms as Turlin had done.

"Well, hello there." she said softly as she gazed at the dirty Celina Childe. "Sorry about your..." she looked towards Turlin's head. "Boyfriend? Sperm donor?"

"E-Ex-boyfriend." she said as she realised she couldn't even struggle against the hold on the small woman. The woman sat on top of her just smiling, not seeming to be in any hurry to move.

"W-What do you want?" Sarah asked as she wriggled on the ground. She was fearful but also hopeful once she saw the Kali insignia.

"Well," Calla locked her wrists above her head with only one hand and brought her other to Sarah's face, stroking at her cheek. "you're quite beautiful."

"T-thank you?" she squeaked as she recoiled from the touch.

"And you have a beautiful voice."

"....."

"And a beautiful scream?" Calla's mouth widened into a grin. "Let me hear it?" As her fangs pierced Sarah's neck, the screaming began.

'There really is nothing quite like a female's scream.' The newborns had stopped fighting and stood horrified at the visage of their makers. One lying headless and the other screaming and flailing. In her mind, Sarah begged and pleaded but the words never passed her lips. Only her shrill screams of pain echoed out. Calla was so lost in the draining that she didn't realise the presence of another Childe until they were close up. She released Sarah and rolled away as a foot slammed down where her head had been, smashing Sarah's to pulp.

She hurriedly got on her feet and wiped her mouth and stared at the intruder. A familiar red head stood before her. Keeping her eyes on Calla, Leena moved towards Turlin and placed his head back onto his body, it quickly rejoining and bringing him back to consciousness.

"Leena?" he asked from the ground.

"Get up Turlin." she said sternly.

"What happened?"

"That's what I want to know." she fixed her glare firmly on Calla who had adopted a much more casual posture.

"I was speaking to Sarah and then....nothing. Leena what happened to Sarah?" Leena stared at the shrivelled up body without a whole head. She was about to open her mouth when Calla lit a lighter and threw it on the body.

"She died Turlin." Calla said softly and Turlin turned to face her. "And we were having so much fun."

"What are you...what did you do to her?" Leena trembled with anger. The scene she saw wasn't pretty.

"The same thing we do to all those kiddies who disappeared." Calla smirked and rolled her eyes like it was obvious. "We consumed her."

"That's impossible....you can't drink from a vampire." Leena said in disbelief as Turlin looked destitute at Sarah's death.

"Why?" Turlin shook in sadness and anger.

"Why what?" Calla tilted her head and played with the tassels on the front of her trench coat.

"Why Sarah?"

"Oh!" Calla gave a small clap. "Don't worry, she wasn't special. In fact, you'd of been the second course." Her eyes moved over to Leena and scanned her up and down. "If dessert here didn't interrupt."

"You planned to eat us too?"

"You and Turlin are at the top of our meal list." she said matter-of-factly.

"You think you can take us both?" Leena snarled and prepared to make her move, the four newborns having already fled. "We've both been vampires for decades."

"And so? Are we going to fight? Maybe you can dedicate our death to Sarah's memory, eh Turlin?" Unable to contain himself Turlin shot forward ignoring Leena, lashing out and consumed with rage. Calla dodged as she backed away and turned to flee into an alleyway. The two Swarmer Childe gave chase as Calla snaked around the streets. She fled onto a main street and turned round the corner with Turlin close behind. As he rounded the corner he was met with the barrel of a gun and swiftly ducked as a bullet was fired off, killing a passer-by.

Calla round house kicked him and he went to block with his arms, but the force knocked him back into the alleyway and into Leena. Calla spun and fired off a couple more shots, hitting Turlin in the shoulder. Leena kicked off the ground holding Turlin and twisted back into the alley. She hoisted him over her shoulder and ran as it was Calla's turn to play the cat.

"Turlin, get those bullets out of your shoulder so the wound can heal."Leena managed to dodge a couple more shots from Calla as Turlin buried his fingers into the wound, drawing out the metal.

"Leena I need to drink." Turlin murmured quietly. He'd lost his head once and been shot twice, that kind of damage required a human-draining to fix.

"Shit." she whispered back as she tried to keep track of Calla. "What should we do?"

"We can't get away from her with me so tired, we either try and fight her together or you flee alone. If we fight, you can't try and protect me, you'll only get yourself killed."

"Grr.." Leena growled as she tried to make a decision. "I told you that woman was a monster."

"You did." he replied with ananxious smile.

"We've been partners for a decade and a half, you're like a brother to me. We'll fight her."

"Get to the park, appeal to her pride. She's a hunter. And true hunters like to kill with their hands."