A knock at the door pulled Kahina out of break down mode. Emotions warred across her face, each successfully being reigned into a stern mask. I stood up and backed away to give her the space she needed to retain any sort of commanding presence.

Mister Rays and Kahina's other guardian swept in the door. Behind him stood Ann, one hand casually hanging off of a belt loop near her gun. The Second's gaze swept across the room and noted the mess. I could see his lips quirk in a disgusted fashion.

"Quite brutal I see," Anthony said.

"I want a full report on how these men were able to slip by screening." Kahina responded without any tremor in her voice.

"I'll see to it." The Second replied.

"Miss Myers," She addressed Ann in the hallway. "Please ensure that you file a report on your actions here tonight and send a copy to both Sector and the Tribunal."

"Along with the Alphas?" Shaggy asked while walking back into the room.

"Make sure it's complete, but do not send it to the Alphas yet. We'll need to figure out which pack this was before the rest of them show up and start howling for revenge." Even after a crisis my woman wasn't above a terrible joke. The slight gleam in her eye gave it away.

"Lady." Ann bowed, something people only seemed to do around Kahina. An eyebrow raised in my direction then she marched off.

"Mister Fields." Only orders ever started with my last name. "Make sure her report is accurate with regards to your actions." Kahina wanted me to omit certain portions. Specifically where I ripped open the wolf's head. We agreed that my odd abilities should never make it into a report.

"I'll forward the report for you, Lady." Mister Rays preferred all outgoing paperwork be approved through himself or his assistant.

Kahina's eyes met mine briefly and nodded again. None of her earlier weakness showed. Her glance sent a message.

I nodded.

Neither of us really trusted the vampires under her. Not after Kahina had chased one down and decapitated him. She would want me to make sure Anthony Rays wasn't the only channel we submitted a report through. I had my own contact in the Sector agency. Ann, Shaggy, took care of most of the paperwork since I accidentally hurled three fancy phones into walls from aggravation.

Reporting was frustrating but required. West to east coast there were five major branches of control. One for each species, Tribunal for Vampires, Pack Alphas for wolves, The Council for elves. Humans had their government that made less sense than the other three combined. Each one established for the same reasons.

Mediation of their people.

Between them all was a joint peacekeeping force that consisted of Sector Agents. Sectors branch of government controlled most of the interspecies actions for the continent. They took any race and made them lethal machines that kept the rest of us in line if our respective governments couldn't. Essentially law enforcement with a utility belt and the training to back it up.

Kahina, as someone who neared completion the change over to vampirism, had to report to both Sector and the Tribunal.

I was friends with a Sector Agent. Childhoods on different sides of the tracks, though. We hung out a little more often in the last few months. He at least tried to rebuild our friendship after nearly shattering it. That mostly consisted of taking me out drinking at any bar but the one near home. It was working. Some of the best relationships in existence centered around alcohol.

After we were alone in the hallway Ann started questioning what had happened. "Sir, what the hell was that?" Shaggy asked.

"What was what?" I said.

"The jaw popping, brain punching burst of manpower."

"Did you think these muscles were for show?" I asked. Shaggy managed to convey her response through body language alone.

"Again, mister big and tall, and ignores the question, sir, what the hell was that?"

"That..." Big and tall? I could see how she might say that. Shaggy was almost as short as Julianne had been. "is why she keeps me around."

"I knew you couldn't be that good in the sack."

"We need to head out." I ignored her comment and shifted the conversation.

"Not until after we get cleared." She shook her head.

We were stuck on the compound for a few hours. My suit was a mess so cleaning up would be good. The household was in a bit of a tizzy trying to mop up and preserve a crime scene at the same time. Sector agents normally left vampire households to the Tribunal but when it became interspecies related things got touchy.

Wolves attacking vampires in a household of humans was about as interspecies as you could get. Though, most of Kahina’s core staff couldn't legally be treated as human while serving her. It was the visiting businessmen that brought Sector laws into play.

Normally Sector Agents kept packs and vampires in their respective corners. Without Sector, our tenuous interspecies balance would collapse. We needed referees and enforcers. We needed people that everyone could go to when another race was stepping on toes.

In some ways, they also allowed us to keep from segregating too badly. Some of the older territories in Europe still had wolves in mountain communities and humans living under feudal vampiric lords. Not good for morale.

I took a shower, again, which washed away wolf remains and stress. Kahina would probably kill for a shower as well but as the head of house she had to stay present. Hell. Once again I missed the obvious. I should have stayed in there, blood-drenched, and smiled at that asshole she called a Second. Perhaps even fiddled with the cross under my shirt in a none too subtle manner. Even better I could have planted the wolf’s broken skull on the desk as a trophy while laughing at Anthony.

The fantasy made me happy.

Ann startled me with a yell from the other side of the wall, asking for details on what had happened. I gave her a rundown that excluded my extra senses. She didn't need to know all my secrets, even Kahina didn't know them all.

I only met two people, both elves, that had a slight clue as to how different I was. Candy refused to tell me, she created the apparition that had invaded my sight during the last shower. Evan was the other, and in a forest I was banned from with a promise of death if I returned. That threat was issued by Julianne's grandfather.

"How do you want me to write off the jaw ripping thing?" Ann yelled.

"Emotional outburst," I said.

"That's good. I'm sure he'll love seeing that clever phrasing." She did her reports on some little handheld PDA. "Which pack did you want me to put on this report under your name?"

Kahina had told people that I was a loner. Didn't belong to any specific group. Most people took that to mean that I was a wolf as well. It explained my muscle bulk well enough and gave a cover story for the extra senses.

"Not pack, Shaggy." I heard a thump against a wall somewhere and a few words ground out through a clenched jaw.

"So you keep saying. But Kahina wouldn't lie to us, sir. It's part of our employment contract." Ann picked up where she left off with the conversation.

"She didn't lie," I said. Kahina frowned on false statements, it was bad for business. Telling them the whole truth was a completely different situation.

"I set a new suit out for you. Unless you'd rather run around nude and howl about your victory." Shaggy said.

"Tempting." I ignored the second part where she implied I was a wolf again. Shaggy couldn't conceive of a world where other races existed. She even told me the Purge had been successful and warranted.

The Purge was glossed over in certain college courses. Each version of the story alluded to the same concept. Take a farm family in the middle ages, give them two dogs and a cat. The cat purrs nicely and is thusly ignored. One dog goes rabid. Suddenly all dogs are dangerous because they can become diseased, and they need to be put down. Father takes both out to the woodshed in the back and solves the rabies problem. Then refuses to talk about the dogs and removes all signs that they ever existed.

Only the cat remains, purring. Instead of a dog, you have every other race on the planet. Things we could only guess at now. The cat, of course, would be the races that were allowed to survive. Never mind that felines also get rabies.

The Purge was advertised. What races were purged wasn't. Time had also managed to eradicate most written records and many oral ones. Everything useful was systematically destroyed.

Hell. Shaggy was still talking. "No problem. It's on the chair in there."

What was on the chair? I glanced through the shower door and saw an obvious pile of clothes. They were tailor made. Apparently Kahina didn't believe in generic suits for my frame. Fitting my shoulders without billowing out at the waist was difficult.

"Careful there," I said.

"Don't worry, your pride's intact. You're not my type anyway."

"Alright." I wonder if I should be offended. Probably best not to ask.

"Don't worry, you'll be invited to the wedding." She sounded vaguely amused for once. It was a change of pace from her annoyed or plain tone.

"Who's the lucky guy?" She didn't answer me. I shrugged it off, my brain was elsewhere anyway.

It took longer to dry off a second time. Or I stood there just replaying the events over and over. Kahina had been close to dying. Stupid, stupid me. At least I stopped the two wolves.

I checked Kahina's location. Then checked again. Then once more. I checked so much the side effect of my abilities kicked into overdrive. Sleepiness. My eyelids drooped and shoulders were growing heavy. A brief bout of rest would do wonders to get me back into shape.

"Let's go!" Shaggy's voice yelled at me. It was enough to shake off the specter of sleep.

I got dressed and hustled out the door. My tie hadn’t been replaced so I went without. Life felt better without wearing one anyway.

"Reports off," She said.

"Alright."

"We'll have to stop for some bullets before we leave." Shaggy was running hands over various pockets. God knows how she managed to pack so many clips away and still look like that. Her pockets were flat.

"And everyone else?" I asked as we started moving towards the small armory Kahina had on site.

"No deaths on our side. Four wounded, two of ours, two visiting businessmen, email says they haven't stopped bitching since the gunfire started." I doubt the email said it in those words exactly.

"Property damage?"

"Nothing we can't fix. The dents in the office walls are second to the bloodstains on her rug. Smooth move there, sir." My response was another shrug. "We should be clear to go once sunrise hits."

"Great." Hours away, the nights were too long now.

"We can hover over the Lady, like everyone else. Or patrol, primary force has already cleared the grounds but maybe they missed something." Shaggy frequently glanced between the device in her hands and our surroundings.

As much as I wanted to be near Kahina, to make sure no one else got in the way, the idea of being around all those people made me feel redundant. We headed outside to see if anyone else was lurking nearby.

"How's she doing?" I asked.

"Don't know. Her feelings aren't in Mister Rays'-" She tried to imitate the way he drug his last name out to almost three syllables. "initial report. Just prelims on who's behind the attack and finger wagging for letting her come so close to death."

"Too close," I said.

"You didn't do too bad."

I started walking down one of the other paths. There wasn't much to see. Whoever was here had left and we weren't on the outer walls. Ann managed to keep quiet for five whole minutes before opening her mouth again.

"Who is Julianne?" Shaggy asked. Answering wasn't easy. Neither Kahina or I talked about Julianne.

"My old boss," I answered.

"A partial vampire? Like the Lady?" She scrunched up one side of her face and pursed her lips.

"No. Nothing like Kahina." If she had been Julianne would still be alive.

Ann checked out some more ammunition from the range then we headed back to the carport. I popped open the back door and laid out across the seat for a nap. There was another click of noise as the driver's door opened and closed. Ann settled in, fiddling with her PDA. Little electronic beeps joined the background noise as I drifted off.

It only felt like a brief moment before she was jabbing my side with some sort of baton. "Wake up."

My brain wasn't quite back up to speed. Things were brighter but not yet dawn outside.

"Phone." She tossed the ringing device into my lap and I stared in confusion. "Answer it, stupid."

"Yeah?" I put the phone to an ear and answered.

"Jay?" Kahina. Her voice was groggy. Not surprising this close to dawn. Her body was likely starting to shut down as the sun came out. She would last slightly longer by avoiding sunlight.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I'm pushing up the timetable." She sounded exhausted and stressed.

"What? Why?" I sat up and banged into the roof of the car. One hand carefully rubbed the top of my head. Ann barely lifted an eyebrow at my image in the rear view mirror.

"Too much risk in waiting." Her voice contained a hint of tremoring.

"We could take more time, figure out who attacked, train your people better," I said while desperately trying to figure out all the ways in which we were lacking. Maybe we could build a trap dungeon, add in impossible to get to rooms. I don’t know, anything.

"No. We'll do it tomorrow night, I'll need you here." She grew firmer as we spoke. Exhaustion from near sunup still sat in her voice.

"Of course..." My voice drug out in uncertainty.

"You'll need to meet Keeper. There's still a lot to get sorted out."

"Whatever you need," I said into the tiny phone.

"I won't pretend I control what you do during the day, but everyone's on alert. This is your last chance for free time." She had just been attacked and was thinking of my needs. I should cancel this whole trip. "Be here by nightfall."

"You sure you want to do it so soon?" The idea that she might be dead by the end of the week wasn't comforting. Maybe we could cut the trip short. If nothing else it would keep me close.

"Yes. Be here tonight." Her voice started to crack. The phone beeped in my ear.

"Kahina?" Too late, I was talking to a dead line.

Ann plucked the phone from my hands before it could be thrown against the car door. They were too darn aerodynamic. Seeing pieces of computer chips everywhere served as a quick method of stress relief.

"Bad news I take it?" Shaggy said.

I didn't answer. Ann was clever enough. We operated around the same time table, and Kahina's big night was when she took a final dose of vampiric blood. Enough to push the condition from its current slow development to a full transformation.

Vampirism was an affliction that came with pros and cons, like every race. But vampirism operated much like a virus. The first thing it did upon entry into a new blood stream was travel towards the brain and rewire it. Little impulse changes that were designed to break down the body's ability to resist. Reducing white blood cell production, removing other foreign viruses and making sure it was dominant. Then it slowly took over and ate all up all the normal blood in the body, replacing it.

That was the hunger part of the condition. It wanted to spread to new untouched blood.

Vampire transformation was controlled by Sector government and the Tribunal. It required evaluations, checkups, and a sponsor. Kahina had all of those before we even got together years ago. She had been taking the transformation almost as slow as one could go. The longest portion of the stretch was because she waited for me.

"Where we headed?" During my brief moment of thought, Shaggy turned on the engine and put us at the curb of the compound.

"South," I said.

"Okay." Her voice was questioning as the car turned onto the road. Pre-dawn traffic was typically peaceful.

I gave Ann directions to my home. If Kahina was going to be making the shift over to full vampire tonight then there were a few things I wanted from my stash. More crosses for one. Kahina's household didn't have a lot of them for obvious reasons.

After that, I tried talking to Evan. Both actions would distract me from tonight's impending disaster. It was like roulette with a loaded gun. Bullets in all the chambers but one. Kahina's chances at survival had terrible odds. Add in the likelihood of her dying to assassins, or the strain on her body during the change, or anything else…

No, best not to think about it.