Dreaming was not a familiar concept to me. Normally there was awareness, then the silence of sleep. Waking up was wholly different. That process varied from calm and peaceful to throttling a wolf before my eyes had opened. But dreams? I was never aware of them.

Never once had I been able to make a choice, to move around. A few months of studying lucid dreaming to try and better understand my abilities had been useless. The book went into the trash can. I should have kept it because the landscape before me certainly wasn't reality. Not unless a horde of elves had spun illusions in front of me.

Parts of this world looked familiar. A rolling series of hills made sense. The sky above was lit with a faint glow similar to the moment before dawn peeked over the horizon when it bounced off of clouds.

Other things were abnormal. Next to me was grass that didn’t move correctly. It bowed and waved in uneven patches as if the wind was randomly choosing sections to punish. Each plant tinted by a set of diluted watercolors.

My thoughts felt stranger still. It was almost the same as tracking people. Words in my head tried to speak with that other possessive tone. The muscles on my shoulders ached and burned. I felt tired and worn looking around. My limbs felt half asleep.

Finally, there were pillars. Large, jutting objects painted with swirls of gray and other strange patterns. They were more real than anything else in this landscape. Maybe the paleness of the sky and hills made them seem more intense than they should be.

I wanted to touch one. No. I needed to with a raging focus that had never crossed my mind before. Along with the need was a certainty that everything in this dully splattered world would make sense if I could just lay a hand upon one's base.

It was hard to move in this dreamscape. The more I tried to go in any direction, the worse my performance. Each limb felt unaware, like dragging someone else's body an inch at a time. Part of my brain screamed at each leg, to bring the nearest pillar closer so I could lay a hand on it. To touch it and see if it felt as alive as they looked.

Progress only happened when I distracted myself with something on the horizon. Looking at the fields of grass would let me slide forward, or contemplating patterns on the pillars. I was making headway. Reaching a protrusion was still beyond me.

My mind bent towards moving each limb again and the distance dwindled.

One hand reached out in desperation. I was finally near enough to touch the carved surface, but my legs weren't taking that last step. No, they stayed behind and the rest of me fell face first into the alien landscape.

On the way down my fingers brushed against a pillar's base.

My earlier certainty was a delusion. Nothing made sense. A darkness passed over my fallen form, swallowing up everything in its path. Like a black hole had shown up to devour me whole. Then someone spoke.

"She must survive." The voice said.

I woke up terrified.

Nothing responded quickly. Part of my mind tried to figure out if this was another dream, another part tried to move all my limbs at once. I wanted to scream, but my mouth wasn't responding. Was I even breathing?

The last concern overrode all the others. Time passed and the only thought available to focus on was the air moving in and out of my body, too fast to hold onto. A slow, rhythmic thumping grew in volume and betrayed that I still had a pulse. Numbness flushed my entire body.

A nightmare. The first in my life, which explained my uncontrollable shivering. Never had I felt this sort of fear before. The past held anger, apprehension, frustration, but not fear. Not like this. It felt like my mind and my body were in two different locations and both of them too stricken to move.

The door slammed open and I still couldn't function well enough to stand and defend Kahina. Instead, my bulk fell to the floor and sat there.

"Are you alright?" Shaggy's voice felt muffled by the cobwebs still residing between both ears.

"Maybe." My own word didn't make sense and I tried to blink my eyes a few times. Things weren't quite in focus yet. The thudding of my heartbeat still slammed into my head. What if that hadn't been Shaggy? What if that had been another wolf after Kahina? Numbness retreated enough for me to feel my mouth.

"Good, the temperature flared in here, I saw you passed out it had me worried." Shaggy’s breath was coming in slow gasps, had she run down here? Her little camera feed must have a thermostat.

"Me too." Whatever had just happened certainly had me freaking out. The only reason I didn't sound panicked was the murkiness that still clouded my thoughts.

"What?" Shaggy asked.

"What time is it?"

"One, you were out for nearly six hours. Anthony and Lennon are already checking the grounds for anything out of ordinary. The rest are on rotation with a staggered practice schedule." Ann stepped over me to the cabinet with the blood bags. She swapped them out quickly and quietly.

"Practice?" The idea of handling normal things felt weird to me.

"Routine breaks up the stress." Ann recited the fact like she was reading from a textbook. Maybe it was in a manual I missed for dealing with volatile situations.

"Thanks." I stood up slowly.

"For the explanation or letting you sleep?" Shaggy's voice tipped upwards towards the end. Maybe she was trying to relieve stress through poor jokes.

Standing on both feet proved challenging. The world tried to trick me into falling by spinning around relentlessly.

"Yes." Single words were easier to articulate.

"Yes to which one?" Another set of rubber gloves and an empty blood bag went into the trash. I looked at Kahina and it almost seemed as if her skin was radiating intense heat that hadn't been there before.

Ann followed my eyes.

"Conversion. Her body is burning off the last of its old human cells and replacing them." Her voice quickly explained.

Conversion was a topic covered by vampire documentaries. Reality felt far more intense to watch. Kahina's change wasn't a television show. I hadn't expected to watch the last of her humanity vanish. Two thousand years of coexistence couldn't prepare anyone for this. They started human, but vampires ended up something else entirely. No matter what legal rights we shared.

"Anything new?" The words came out a lot clearer now.

"Sir? There's still the report from Adolpha Kundre. I think you'll find it interesting." There was that word again.

"What does that word mean?"

"Adolpha? Noble wolf, in latin, basically. It's an old title denoting rank between packs. Law enforcement wolves tend to come from higher packs." I nodded along with Ann's explanation like it made sense. "She's as close to leadership as they get short of Alphas. Noble cast anyway."

"What's on the report, Shaggy?" I asked.

Her teeth ground, clearly irritated. Vampires ought to have dental in their medical plans. Shaggy's eyes shut tightly and then opened back up. "I'll show you on the way out."

"Do we need to do anything else here?" I was still looking at Kahina's shimmering form. The heat she was kicking off must be incredible. If nothing else it meant she was still alive which was a good sign.

"No. The room's vented in cycles and the air purified, she'll be alright down here." Shaggy tried to usher me to the door. I sat glaze eyed looking at the bed where she lay, possibly dying. How could Ann ask me to leave Kahina?

"Sir, we need to go. It's been nearly twenty-four hours since an attack, and the papers I scanned seem to imply more is incoming. We'll need to hold them upstairs if at all possible."

"Wolves?" I asked.

"Come on." Right, the front line was a far safer place to hold off any attackers. Letting them get too close to Kahina while she was defenseless would be terrible.

I would violently stop anyone who tried. Maybe my scores on the range were nonexistent, but there were certainly advantages to me protecting Kahina that no one else in the household would be able to provide.

Shaggy got the door behind us, punched in the code and locked up the room. We passed the second security gateway before she explained anything.

"Adolpha's papers showed movement from other members of the assaulting pack." She started with a juicy piece of news.

"Do they always tell households that information?" I asked.

There was a pause from her. "No."

"Lucky us."

"There's a lot of concern about the Lady Rhodes living through her conversion." Her words sounded like a confession.

"People from outside the house?" I probed for more information. Keeper was invested since he was Kahina's sponsor. Sensei since he trained most of the house. But other people outside of that?

"Far beyond. We're getting a lot more help than a household should normally receive." She said it, but it didn't feel like we were getting assistance. I had never gone through a normal conversion before. Maybe they just threw the potential vampire onto a slab near the morgue and waited.

"That's good right?" I asked.

"Yes and no, more help is almost always tied to more opposition."

"Did her report show anything else?"

"Yes. There are at least ten other wolves from the same pack with immediate transit plans to this region." She said. I ran through the chances of survival in my head. Three had almost killed her, ten would certainly rush at one time, probably right after dawn when our vampires were asleep.

"These walls aren’t enough." I glared off towards the front of our compound.

"They’re good, but we don't have enough people, and cameras only give so much warning. We've got patrols going on inside the property." Ann looked around. Even though we were supposedly in a secure location she kept one hand near her firearm.

"Great," I remembered some stuff. We had fallback points, rooms that we could hold out in. Hallways that had been modified to make good kill zones. Morbid but Sensei and Kahina had believed in being prepared.

Ten wolves could tear through one of our hallways in record time. Even if we got silver in them they could last long enough. A few seconds against a wolf with anything less than perfect aim wouldn't be pretty.

"That's not the worst part." Her pace slowed down.

"What is?" My mind was still trying to weigh out the chances of success. Shaggy’s aim was clearly fantastic. Was the rest of the household as good?

"Fifty-Five is a mercenary pack, normally overseas, but they were hired by another group I've never heard of." Shaggy had her PDA out and was staring at the text on the screen.

"Who?"

"This is weird, the report only lists this as speculation since it isn't an official group, but they're called The Order of Merlin." Ann sounded worried over the name of the group. She had every right to be.

I felt my thoughts hiccup and the same line replayed itself in my mind over and over. The Order of Merlin. Those bastards had been around when Julianne had died. If they hadn't been in those woods then Julianne would still be alive. There would have been no opportunity for her to be shot in the back.

They had forced Daniel into rigging my home with explosives. The Order chased me trying to find some heir who was dead and ash. After they got the cremated remains they pressed the trigger to the bomb at my apartment.

"Fuck." Those filthy bastards were showing up again to ruin my life. Now they wanted to take Kahina. To take what was mine and add another head to the trophy wall. It didn't matter that a huge amount of their people had died in those woods. No, they should all be brought violent retribution.

Trembling started a course through my body, a conflict between the part of my brain telling me to be calm and the rest of me screaming to tear something down. When I got mad, truly mad, it rushed over every perception until all that was left was the need to hit anything resembling the problem.

Ann, no I was using the wrong name again, Shaggy wasn't at fault. The only thing left was a wall. I turned and every muscle available was used to punch the vertical surface. My vision went dark as I hit the wall. A jarring connection of flesh to layers of material made me smile. There was something uplifting about the tensing of muscles then unleashing them in unison to crush an obstacle.

"Sir?" Shaggy repeated the questioning tone a few times before I finally pulled my fist out of the deep crater in the wall. The skin across my hand was shredded and blood flowed outward from gashes. My wrist had a sharp twist of intense pain from damaged bones. It felt so good that I punched the wall again with the other fist.

"The Order of Merlin." I finally said, slowly extracting the other hand from a second crater.

"Yes. Sir, are you alright?" At least she answered my question first. Both hands were bleeding now from the torn flesh. Would they heal? My gunshot wounds had repaired in days. Torn legs had healed in a few days as well. A few bloody scrapes on my hands wouldn't take that long.

"I'm fine."

"Those don't look fine." Shaggy stepped in and tried to grab one of my hands to look at. I pulled both arms away from her and growled.

"They'll be fine," I said.

Both hands started to itch like mad, a brief glance down showed that they were scabbing over already. The pain from my wrists had dimmed to a tiny throb. I looked back to the wall to see that one of the spots I punched went clear through to packed dirt behind the concrete. Both holes were at least a foot deep.

"Call Daniel, tell him what you told me." Daniel Crumfield knew about the Order of Merlin, and if they were involved then this was inter-species. We might get Sector help and the change would be that much easier.

"Why would Danny know anything about the Order?"

"Just ask him, Shaggy, now." I was getting blood all over the suit Kahina had bought for me. Sure there were spares back in my closet, but it felt wrong to treat her gifts this callously.

"Sir? What does he know about them?"

"Just call him!" I yelled at her then staggered off through the hallway and out of Kahina's secret passageways.

Once escape was achieved I looked at my hands again. The blood matted near the wounds already. They were quickly healing. Not as fast as a vampire, better than a wolf, and far faster than a human. It was a mixed blessing. Normally if I abused any of my abilities then a sense of exhaustion swept over me causing sleep. My recent nap should prevent the worst of it from hitting.

"The Order of Merlin," I muttered to myself while trying not to shake in anger again. Dark thoughts spun by. I had a score to settle.

For the rest of the night, I walked around the walls, mostly on the outside so I could feel the full boundaries of the home. If I walked the area enough then I would be able to bend my perceptions to view this place as mine. Four months here and no matter how I tried it always felt like Kahina's home, not mine. But Kahina was mine, right? What was her's was mine, or was that the other way around?

Ownership felt easy to transfer. Belief mattered. I had to feel like I owned it, however vaguely. Anyone can delude themselves for a moment. Felling possession over an object for long enough to be useful was extremely difficult.

Feet carried me another lap around the building. All my mind could focus on was the number of wolves. Ten. They would sneak in most likely. If they were a mercenary group then they probably had a plan of attack. Maybe picking off any single targets that presented themselves. Maybe one of them was already here and had attacked earlier.

I should have been walking inside the wall, not outside. Anyone with a scope could score a headshot and end me. Not that wolves were likely to use man-made weapons. Most other races preferred their natural gifts over a gun. Wolves looked funny holding a rifle anyway. None of them were made in a comfortable shape for their altered grip.

Vampires moved too fast most of the time, so a gun was useless.

The Order of Merlin was composed of humans. They would happily use a gun if it meant achieving their goals. And for some reason their priorities involved killing Kahina. Why?

Another lap was completed and no answers had presented themselves. Then another. My feelings about the area weren't settling right.

Ten years ago fighting against ten wolves would have been almost fair. There had been a time when my unique perceptions had let me tackle any challenge in front of me. Even half broken I still matched up against other races with ease. It took a matter of focus and believing in myself. Or believing that I owned everything that lay before me like some sort of lord.

Wait, Lord. Hell. Why hadn't I noticed that sooner? Evan had called me a Lord. That had to be tied into it all, my abilities and perceptions were and had always been directly related to my perceptions of ownership. That I lorded over the items and people in question.

It was such a simple connection that it had to be wrong. Ridiculous even. I pursued that line of thinking but got nowhere useful. Once I looked up my feet had wound to the west wing of our building. Dawn was starting to peek out with that strange glow the morning gets before the sun has actually risen. Light bounced off the clouds in a false dawn.

Ann's voice was yelling at someone. I changed my path to head closer to the shouting and see what all the fuss was about. Words became easier to make out the closer I got. Shaggy was shouting at Lennon, the second of Kahina's two vampires.

"Lennon!" Shaggy was yelling in his ear.

"Lennon what happened here!" Lennon stood motionless outside the sliding glass door to a servant's lounge. A dull yellow glow poured outward illuminating the scene.

In front of Lennon was Jacky's body, crumpled on the ground. Her red hair looked almost brown and the normally white undershirt was darkened on one side. I knew how blood looked at night. Always the same unassuming patch of thick oil sitting where nobody expected. Worse, Lennon’s hands had blood on them and his face was smeared with fresh trails.

He stood there without movement. The same motionless process all vampires did when they were heavily thinking about something. Their brains stopped dedicating attention to the blending motions they were taught by their sponsors. It made him look like a statue that someone had painted.

"Sir, talk to him. He's not answering me." Shaggy threw up her hands in frustration.

"And say what? That's blood on his hands and mouth."

"No shit." She dug her phone out and snapped pictures of the scene.

"Don't you think he killed her?" I tried not to ask the obvious question, but she didn't seem to be making the connection.

"He didn't. She was dead when I came out here and Lennon showed up afterward." Shaggy flipped out her phone and made a call to someone.

"And the blood?" That was all over the partial vampire's form? He made my battered hands look clean in comparison. At least I didn't get it all over my face.

"Vampire, fresh blood. Even a partial will slip, I watched it and tried to stop him." The explanation was quick, clinical, and annoyed. Obviously the other person she was calling hadn't answered yet. "Next time I'll shoot him, maybe that'll get through his thick skull."

I stepped closer to Lennon. Interrupting a vampire lost in thought was dangerous. No one should do it without a cross ready. When they came to by force it was typically on auto pilot. That was a polite way of saying they would probably start attacking.

Tips like that were covered in public school. It was explained with the same passionless tone as many other basic concepts. Dogs bite. Fire is hot. Jumping off the fourth floor can kill you. Interrupting thinking vampires can get you hurt.

"Lennon, it's Jay, snap to." I risked it anyway.

His eyes didn't even blink. Lennon’s glare bore into the body on the ground. Jacky, another dead in a household of people I barely knew. Body number two. How large would the count get?

Lennon’s stance made me wary of getting too close. Jacky's blood was still pooling slowly in the dim light. Her unmoving body looked peaceful compared to the partial's face. Red smears lined his mouth and streaked to one ear. The lack of expression reminded me of those pillars in my nightmare. Motionless, frozen, terrifying.

"Lennon, it's almost dawn," I said. Vampires normally felt uncomfortable with being out in daylight even though it didn't harm them. I had no clue where he slept and wasn't the type to tuck in a grown man.

He didn't respond.

"Lennon. You need to wash that off." " I dared reaching out to him. Shoulders are good neutral ground for touching. They can be used to demand attention, turn people, make people sit down. It was almost as good as someone's hands, you can guide the entire body through a person's hand.

"Shaggy," Her eyes closed for a moment and then she opened them again. "We call anyone yet?"

"Anyone official? No. I'll take care of it. Because I can’t wait for another visit from the police." Ann popped out her phone and dialed. The scowl on her face was probably better than anything I could whip up right now. "This is just the kind of shit I need on my watch."

Lennon hadn't responded yet. Even getting closer to him didn’t gain a result. Shaking the vampire did nothing.

"Can we get him a towel?" I asked. Cleaning him up might make this less disturbing.

"To clean up what's left of Jacky? What a great thought, Jay!" She yelled at me. I don't know what was more startling, Shaggy raising her voice or using my name.

"No. That won't be necessary. I'll take care of her myself." Lennon spoke up for the first time. His soft voice slipped out from that startling face.

"You okay?" I asked.

"No." He didn't offer any more information and knelt down by Jacky's prone form. One hand reached out and pushed back her hair carefully. There was finally an expression on Lennon's face and it wasn't a good sign in the slightest.

"You and her?" I said in response to his sad and lingering gaze.

"Not yet." He sat there trying to gather her hair up. Jacky’s constantly wavy hair had never been straight. It was even worse when the strands were clumped with the blood. "Now, not ever."

"Alright?" I was confused. Shaggy ignored me and went back inside. The glass door shook fiercely with her slam.

"She would have made a good first, don't you think?" The tone in his voice should have worried me more than the question. I didn't know how to answer but tried to sound positive.

"Sure."

"They're important you know," He said.

"I know." I had no clue what he was talking about. It seemed like the supportive thing to say.

"A first isn't merely a title, it's a bond back to life. A reason to wake up each night. Your anchor." Lennon looked at me. "A reason to live."

That was the sort of statement where someone is trying to impart a message, but it doesn't click. By the time it made sense Lennon had run off. No doubt to get something for the dead body. Jacky laid there, her hair almost perfectly tucked behind the ears. Oddly the only thing that ran through my mind was how out of place she looked with straightened hair.

Lennon might have been talking about himself, or Kahina, or vampires in general. A bond back to life? A reason to wake up? I opened the sliding glass door and looked inside for Ann, she was still venting into the phone attached to her ear.

"Lennon took off."

Shaggy closed the phone mid-sentence and turned to the wall. A moment later she was leaning into it with her shoulder and rubbing her forehead.

"Alright. We deal with the body until it gets wrapped up.I'm stuck as the first witness. Lennon should have given a statement since he disturbed the body." She was tapping the phone against her leg now. "Tomorrow night we'll have to send him off for a statement, that'll leave us with Anthony and fourteen staff, then you."

"Against ten wolves, the Order, burnouts." I sighed while thinking about our odds.

Shaggy's face twisted further in annoyance. "Danny says to call him," She said.

"About the Order?" I wanted to make sure that she wasn't talking about something else.

"Right, won't tell me anything about it, says he'll only speak to you." She twisted her lips in annoyance. It was nice to know that no matter how quick Shaggy could get answers from Daniel, that there were certain things he wouldn't tell her.

"Can I use your phone?" I asked her. Shaggy had the only one nearby.

"Sure. Speed dial twelve." She passed me the phone and stepped back outside, no doubt to watch over the body until someone official bagged it up.

Maybe I should be worried about how we bagged up the bodies. Any human murder would have a team of people here inspecting each leaf. Vampire laws had all but removed human law enforcement and their forensics from anything in their households. Vampires tended to keep the pursuit of offenders personal, not legal.

"How much do you call him?" I muttered to the closing doorway. There was no answer, Shaggy must not have heard me. The phone rang exactly three times before it was whipped up and Daniel's voice answered.

"Hello, what are you wearing?" Daniel's voice was deep, alluring, and creepy.

"Wrong person." The drunk needed help identifying who was the on the phone. Though why he would answer his office like that was beyond me. I pulled the phone away and squinted at the numbers. Maybe this wasn't his office phone.

"No, no, my man, what are you wearing. Or better yet are you using Myers phone?"

"A Deckard." That was what he called it earlier. "And yes."

"You're learning, I approve, now walk further away from Myers and let's talk." There wasn't anyone else in the room that I could see. Still I looked for a quieter corner off to the side and picked up the phone again. "You breathe far too heavily," He said.

"I do?" I asked while looking at Shaggy’s phone in confusion.

"It's a cell phone man, not a popsicle, pull it away from your mouth a little," Daniel said. My poor little prepaid phone conditioned me to believe all phone users were deaf.

"Talk," I told him.

"She's far away right?"

"Yeah, man," I threw the word back at him. "Tell me how the Order is involved."

Daniel groaned on the other end of the phone. You could tell by the noise that he hadn't decided where to start yet. "Well, it's all your fault to be honest."

"How so?" How many years of friendship did we have? Not enough to prevent me from wanting to strangle him through the phone. My fault that Kahina was being targeted?

"Can't say."

"Can't or won't?" I probed for more information.

"Won't because I can't. So here's the short version. You have a handful of wolves, an unknown but likely high amount of vampire burnouts, and possible but unlikely human backup." Daniel listed things off and I could hear papers being shuffled around through the phone. He must be reading off of a list.

"Is Western Sector going to help?" It was interracial now wasn't it?

"No. I'm not even having this conversation with you, and I won't be erasing all the records of this phone call once we're done." Daniel's idea of a secret code was sarcasm.

"Why?" I asked while glaring at a nearby wall. The urge to hit things crawled along my back once more. Daniel’s words weren’t helping. It was all junk that I could already figure out.

"Wolves are hired out by the Order of Merlin, but there's so much paperwork there that officially Sector doesn't know.” Daniel shuffled his papers again. “The only reason we know now is because Adolpha Kundre gave away information she shouldn't have."

I stayed silent. Really it was that or start yelling. Having Western involved would make this whole thing a lot easier on all fronts. They had the manpower, the tech, and probably a secure location that no one could crack. The fact that Daniel said he couldn't help was frustrating, but I hadn't expected a lot.

"Here's what I can say. Don't trust the other vampires." Daniel stated.

"What?" Don't trust them? All other vampires? Keeper had stated he was going to help somehow during this transition.

"I told you, don't trust anyone other than Kahina."

"How about Shaggy?" I asked.

"Shag a who?" He asked.

"Ann."

Daniel started laughing hysterically. It took a few minutes for it to die down as I sat there waiting. This was the worst part about phones, it was hard to be intimidating through these glorified tin cans. How did anyone glare through a phone?

"Myers is fine as far as Kahina's life is concerned." Daniel finally calmed down enough to get a sentence out.

"Keeper?" I wanted to hear it straight from Daniel, not just in my head.

"On our team, sort of, but you won't see him until after the change. Tribunal law says elders can't help a new household survive their first night.” Daniel was still fighting off bits of mirth during the explanation. “Which is silly since it's more like a week, but Kahina Rhodes won't be successful if an established vampire steps in."

Having experienced both firsthand, the difference between a full vampire and a partial is frightening. Burnouts were the worst form of partials. They were humans who expected to die and sold what was left of their lives to the highest bidder. Then they threw themselves into the job. If they died during work or during the final transformation, no big loss.

"Why is the Order involved?" I needed to get everything out of Daniel possible. It was that or scream in outrage and destroy a far more fragile wall.

"I can't get into all that, but I'm working on it. Hopefully, man, hopefully I'll buy time until after the change. Not that it'll stop their more zealous members from trying." The Agent's teeth were gnashing as he spoke. I could almost see Daniel trying to yank out his already shortened hair.

"Great." I wondered if his suit ties were clip ons or real. If they were real maybe one could be used to strangle him.

"You need to protect Kahina and I'll try to keep the bulk of the Order distracted. Not that it'll help against the other vampires and their little squabbles, and Fifty-Five will charge ahead based on some mercenary code unless they find out about the Order of Merlin. Pack mercs don't like working for human first groups."

"Thank's for the help."

"I'm not kidding, Jay, Western Sector can't be involved without serious repercussions. You're on your own with Kahina, and if anything happens to her-" His normally joking demeanor had shifted around in just a sentence.

"What?" I said while trying not to shake with budding anger.

"If anything happens to her, it's bad news for everyone else," He said that. If anything really happened to Kahina I would make it my life’s mission to punish everyone involved.

"What's so special about her, Crummy?" Besides the fact that she was mine. Besides being brought over to vampirism by Keeper.

"Like I said, man, it's all your fault." Crummy sounded tired and frustrated by now.

"Why?" I said with more anger than expected.

The phone clicked off on me. I dialed back, but there was no answer. Not even a voicemail. Daniel clearly wouldn't explain more. First Evan was prevented from saying anything. Then Keeper said he couldn't, now Daniel. No one was being forthcoming because of an invisible conspiracy.

At least Crummy confirmed a number of people after us. He basically told me to keep going and things would click sooner or later. Twice he told me these problems were my fault. Why the hell were they my fault? How was Kahina knowing me a problem? Maybe it was this Lord thing. That was the only thing special I knew about myself, but how it was an issue for Kahina didn't make sense.

None of this explained why I had the strange dream when sleeping near Kahina. Where the overwhelming primal fear that had paralyzed me originated from. Maybe I was that stressed out.

Shaggy pounded on the sliding door. It shook as I walked across the room to see what demanded such abuse of glass. She had one hand out and I passed back the phone.

"Were you able to squeeze anything out of him?" Ann asked me.

"Nothing useful," I said.

"Typical." She glared at the phone then shoved it into a pocket. "Sector Agents never say anything useful when it matters. It's in the training."

"He'll try to keep the Order out of it, but that still leaves Fifty-Five and burnouts."

"At least they won't be as quick as Anthony and Lennon. They're further along from waiting with Lady Rhodes."

"That's something." Shaggy worried me,

Daniel said she was trustworthy with Kahina's life, but that didn't extend to everything else. Why was that? Julianne had told me before she passed that I didn't ask the right questions, or indeed any questions.

"How do you know Daniel?" I tried to edge around what was annoying me without risking Shaggy’s anger. Everyone who could help Kahina was needed regardless of my own worries.

Shaggy stared at me for a moment then answered. "Our parents were friends, and he helped me get this job."

"He never mentioned you," I said. Nowhere in the last few decades had we ever talked about Shaggy. Her list of reasons was too short and a little suspicious after hearing this Sojourn thing.

"Daniel didn't mention you either. He keeps his life compartmentalized. It’s part of their training."

"Oh." Her explanation made perfect sense. Daniel only really involved me in drinking, idle chatter, and missing person cases. Then more recently I threw myself in the middle of his Order of Merlin mess.

"Why the speed dial?"

"Having an Agent a phone call away is extremely useful," She said.

One question remained. I had to ask because either Daniel had been screwing with me, or with her. "Why did he ask what I was wearing?"

Ann's face went crimson in a single moment. The flush of color was enough to let me know there was something else going on. Some sort of relationship between Shaggy and Daniel that went beyond the professional.

Daniel was getting married, though, to his boss' daughter. Maybe it was a last ditch at flirting before he tied the knot. Or was that a lie? Or was Shaggy living a lie? The background check required to get into a vampire household would be significant. Neither the Tribunal or Kahina would have let anyone questionable get into a position like the one Shaggy was in.

A loud noise of breaking glass disturbed my thought process. Ann's gaze snapped to the outer walls while mine turned up to the source of the noise, a second story window.

Ann whispered into an earbud that was normally unnoticed. Probably code for our location and an alarm level. I tried to make out what happened. Looking near the window's edge showed where part of the wall had caved in.

"Down!" Shaggy shouted.

Prior experience as bouncer and 'collections agent' trained me to never hesitate at that word. My face tried to become one with the ground in an instant. There was a crash of noise from the building. I turned to look at the second gaping hole in the house. A giant disk of some sort was still poking out of a wall.

"Stage two, wake everybody up!" Ann was shouting now. "Sir!" There was a third disk coming in, this time more apparent as it descended almost carefree like a frisbee. If frisbees had older angry brothers on steroids made of metal.

I got up and ran towards the wall. Someone was attacking our fortifications from outside the property. Another two sailed overhead by the time my frantic pace made it to the high walls. Scaling them was beyond me but there was a gate to the south. Fallen leaves crunched behind me. Air whistled as another disk flew overhead, followed by the loud slurred cheers of men.

"We're out!" A female shouted.

"We need more!" One of the male voices shouted. A very familiar voice. There was some grumbling from a few others. Maybe five or six different people were on the other side of the doorway.

"I'll find some." Someone said.

"We need more beer too!" The familiar male voice said.

"Got it!"

"Grab some food!" The female said.

There were only a few groups that had those two voices, might be drunk, and would be mad enough at Kahina to do something. Add in the excessive strength needed to toss that chunk of metal across hundreds of yards it became even easier to narrow down. Wolves.

The road became visible as I made it through the gate. Sure enough, in the middle of the street was Thomas and Stacy. At least they had clothes on.

There was a truck on one side with the tailgate down and some cheap camper shell on top. Cars were parked in a sloppy barricade on both ends of the street. The road was all but barren of traffic on a normal day, and even less traffic went through at night. They must have set up recently or I would have noticed them in my laps around the house.

None of the wolves had attacked the house personally. Hopefully, this was just extreme vandalism. I walked closer. There wasn't a breeze to consider, no cover noise to drown out my footsteps. Sneaking wasn't one of my skills anyway.

"Thomas!" I yelled.

"Hey hey! Look, Killer joined the party!" Thomas threw something glass to the ground. The shattering sound filled the moment of silence.

"Want a drink? You can join us in demolishing your old lady's house." The wolf started digging through the back of a truck. "Then I'll have to throw you a beating or twelve." Surprisingly his words weren't completely slurred. Close, though.

"Great, the person I never wanted to see again." Stacy said. She always dressed like a mouse, clothes that covered almost every ounce of skin, long drab dresses, but her mouth spewed out a string of pure hatred for me. Her voice had grown rougher over the last few months.

"Now is a bad time." I said.

Thomas eyed me while drinking the entire contents of a bottled beer. "It's a perfect time!" Then he threw it toward the house. Moments later it crashed into something.

"You need to go." I tried again.

"You don't get any say in what he, or I do." Stacy chimed in. She didn't look as drunk as Thomas. "You're not pack, and never will be." I didn't even bat an eyelash at her comment. Now was not the time to quibble about me being able to join a pack.

Thomas dug into the back of the truck looking for another beer. He found one, drained it, and hurled the remains over the wall in the same line they threw the metal chunks. Julianne’s brother went for another.

"Found more!" An unfamiliar wolf jogged up with metal disks under each arm. He was a large dopey man that looked allergic to the sun. Under both arms were manhole covers. They had been tossing sewer caps over the wall in an act of dangerous vandalism.

"Haul ‘em over!" Thomas yelled happily.

Cars would get into wrecks if they hit the streets wrong in the morning. Worse, each hunk of metal could cleave someone in two. Every ounce of damage made it harder and harder to defend Kahina's home.

"Thomas. We can't do this now." I said.

"Sure we can." He took a moment to power through the newest bottle and tossed it into the street for some lucky morning driver.

This was nonsense. Three wolves having a drunken pity party? Leaving this kind of disaster? It was all yet another mark against Kahina’s reputation. We should have been making the change somewhere more secluded. A large estate property away from neighbors and foreign packs. But no, I was stuck here dealing with an asshole that I wasn't allowed to kill. Not Julianne's brother, not even if he deserved it. The conundrum annoyed me even more.

"Get out of here!" I yelled at them. "Go!" My hands motioned for them to leave. It was dark out, but they wouldn't be completely blind to my motions. There was enough ambiance from the cab of the truck and street lights.

"What is he trying to do?" The unknown male tried to catch up with the conversation by asking Stacy.

"Treating us like wild mutts." She crossed her arms and took a stance that screamed defiance. The tilt of her hips, the opposite slant of her shoulders, narrowed eyes. It was surprising that she didn't attack me. Stacy had made no secret of how she felt about me.

In her eyes, it was my fault that Julianne was dead. Between her glare, Thomas, and the fact that Kahina was somewhere behind me in a coma it was a surprise that I hadn't snapped. My head was pounding. There was no apparent reason for it other than the stress of dealing with Stacy and Thomas now, of all times.

"Leave, Thomas. We’ll settle this later." I tried reason again. Hell, we could duke it out on the playground after school for all it mattered right now.

"No. We can settle it now." His words were becoming less slurred despite the amount of alcohol he powered through. Wolves had an unfair metabolism. He was probably burning off a bottle at a time with each metal slab he threw.

"I've got to go." My own words surprised me. Why would I say something like that? It felt like something was going wrong back at the household. I tried to focus and track Kahina's thread. Another bottle crashed in the distance. The shattering sound pissed me off.

"You heard her, you don't get to tell us what to do." Thomas said the friendly tone was gone and replaced by defiance.

My mind was trying to figure out what was wrong. Was I that upset at dealing with Thomas? Was it something back at the house?

Ann stepped up slowly behind me. Her footsteps weren't disguised, but cautious. Maybe one of her classes had a course in approaching potentially hostile wolves. I could see the training manual now. Step one, don't approach them. Step two, don't irritate them more. Step three, why am I still hanging around? Here I was, treating them like dogs, ordering them around, and somehow getting closer to where they were parked.

"Sector is on the way. I've reported that this is a local pack vandalizing property and not an attack related to transition." Shaggy said behind me.

Her words shattered my attempt at forming a link to Kahina. I turned around to see Ann only a few feet away me. Shaggy sounded controlled, but her facial features weren't. She looked downright pissed. There was a nervous tick above her left eyebrow that I never noticed before.

"Transition?" The dopey unknown male said. "Here? Tonight?" He didn't seem nearly as drunk compared to Thomas.

"Yes. Now leave before someone shoots you by mistake." I doubted Shaggy could shoot anyone by mistake. Any bullets she fired would be deliberate.

There was a moment of silence between the pack members.

"Listen, shrimp, that fang snatched backstabber deserves whatever happens to her." Stacy started to badmouth Kahina. Her words came out heated and angry.

I tried to talk at the same time, but for an entirely different reason.

"What did you say?" Shaggy asked me. One hand had dropped to the gun at her side. It was holstered, but that didn't mean much with her lightning fast draw speed. If it came down to a fight between the three wolves and Shaggy there would be no contest.

"Something's wrong." I repeated myself.

"Yeah, you're missing the good part." Thomas ran by with a huge metal slab, building up momentum for a toss. "He shoots!" The disk came out of his grasp and started sailing over the wall. Both of the wolf's hands shot up into the air.

"Tom, we should get out of here." The dopey male wolf said.

"He scores!" Thomas shouted.

"Fuck them. I've got a debt to settle with Killer here." Thomas turned to me and started yanking his shirt off.

"You don't want to do that, Tom." Dopey sounded slow and doubtful. At least his words were sensible. My silver wasn't equipped, both claws were in my pockets. Then there was the headache and the nagging feeling that something was wrong. I closed my eyes and tried to check on Kahina again.

"What is it, sir?" Shaggy asked.

"Kahina?" I asked. She was the only thing back in that compound that would set me off. The only thing in there I gave a shit about. It only took a moment to connect this time.

Mind spirals outward. Away from body. Across the distance. Quickly. The danger is real. Present. More than foolish wolves. Travel through buildings, walls, stone and dirt.

Feel her room. Her body stuns me. Can feel the shimmer. Feel energy pooling and crawling through.

A darker being displaces air. Their body still. Only currents are from the doorway. Feel woven fabric and the weight of dense metal. Smooth fingers curl against the frail wooden bed frame. Vampire. Blood letter. Tick.

There was an unexpected crunch as knuckles collided with my nose. It was a familiar feeling. Not the first time I had landed on my ass. This was a lot harder than normal. A human couldn't hit hard enough to send me flying, but this punch was powerful enough to send me rolling across the street.

"Jay!" Shaggy yelled. I looked over to see her with a gun out and aimed at the two wolves. They both were twitchy.

"I'm alright." My words were slurred through a river of liquid dripping down my face.

"Good. Get up." Thomas' words came from my right.

I ran an arm under my nose and checked to see how bad it was. The resulting blood told me things were somewhere between great and terrible. I would survive. Though this was yet another suit ruined by blood. Three in three days. There was a reason my old wardrobe was mostly cheap jeans and t-shirts.

"Check the cameras. Someone's in the room." I told Shaggy. My nose hurt and my eyes were watering a little, but healing would solve it. Thomas seemed unwilling to wait and started circling. First one direction, then the other with an excited look on his face.

"I've always wanted to see if you were as good as my sister said." He leaned over and waved his hands at me to get this fight started. "Big bad tracker."

"Tom?" The dopey one said with lowered eyebrows. He hadn't taken on an aggressive stance, but Stacy looked all too willing to jump in and start kicking me.

"Nah, man." Thomas hopped around a bit. "Don't care. The princess here deserves to be knocked on his ass again."

I pushed myself up, ignoring Thomas' rant. Ann had her gun leveled with one hand, and the other on her PDA. She kept flicking her eyes back and forth.

"If I gotta spend a night in the kennel so be it." Julianne’s brother said.

"Stacy?" Dopey tried again. Stacy looked up at him and sighed.

They did that silent thing that wolves do. Where they're communicating but no one outside of the pack would be able to make sense of it. Shaggy had a growing look of concern on her face then completely dropped the gun aimed at Stacy and ran back to the compound.

Thomas rushed in and swung a boot into my mid section. I curled with the foot and tried to throw him off balance. He was too fast for me to grab onto. Damn wolves.

"Tom, we should check out this transition thing." Stacy was grinding her teeth, but at least her words sounded supportive. Thomas turned around and started yelling at her.

"You want to let him slip away?!" Thomas said. "He's half the reason Julianne died!"

I took advantage of the situation and staggered to both feet while trying not to wince at the pain in my side or face. The river of blood from my nose had nearly stopped. My suit soaked up the rest.

"Later, Thomas." I couldn’t plead about it. Begging a riled up half plastered wolf would give the man a free pass to kick my ass even more.

"Shut up!" Thomas turned to me pointing an accusing finger. "Why shouldn't we curb stomp him, Stacy, why the about-face?" His attention turned around again.

I tried to follow the link again while he was distracted. Thomas and his angry tone faded into the background as my mind traveled.

Little Hunter runs across grass. Fast. Not enough. Lights flare across the building. Quiet alarm disregarded. Every shadow feels deeper. Find Dangerous Mate.

Room even darker. Chills crawling across the room. Dangerous Mate laying on the bed. Energy swirls up walls, like tendrils reaching for life. They swirl back to her center and creep back out again.

"Of course I don't want to actually kill him!" Thomas' words came to the surface of my thoughts like a submarine breaching the ice. "I know exactly how she felt!" He kept going, and I was trying to concentrate on the other figure in the room. Who was the mystery vampire?

"No, Kahina shouldn't die either! Why am I explaining this to you? Fuck you two think too loud." Thomas was yelling in the background at the other two wolves but his words were nonsensical.

The Tick moves forward towards Dangerous Mate with a jerk. Halts. Fights to stand straight. Is conflicted. Feet press one way. Hands another. Hear Tick protest. Words. Know that voice.

"Noooooo" It says.