“Okay… I think you misunderst---” I couldn’t finish. His mouth was suddenly on mine, his damn hands holding my head close to him. He was slightly too cold, meaning he didn’t drink blood before he came here. Oh hell no. I tried to get away but he just pushed me until we hit the couch.

“Daniel! What the hell are you doing?” I said as I fell on my back his mouth finally gone. Damn vampires with supernatural strength. He straddled me, his hand flying up to my mouth to keep me quiet.

“You were too young for me ten years ago and sadly you left before you could reach the legal age, but now you’re here and so damn yummy,” he said, lust filling his eyes. You’ve gotta be kidding me…

I took his hand off my mouth, holding him by his wrist. “Oh no. Buddy, that is so not why I wanted to go for a drink,” I said as he ran his other hand up and down my chest feeling up my muscles.

“Oh please, no need to pretend.” He smiled as he leaned forward and licked a wet line up my neck. I grabbed his throat, squeezing hard to keep him away. He was a vampire and he clearly hasn’t eaten yet. Letting him anywhere close to my throat was a bad idea. He just licked his lips, gridding his ass against my crotch, then stopped and sighed with disappointment. “Don’t make such a face. You’re really not going to go along with this are you?”

“Sorry, not that you’re not hot or anything, but… I called you for a reason.” I smiled apologetically and let go of his throat. He finally got off me.

“Yeah, yeah, you want to ask about the Mercenaries…” he said as he walked to the minibar and grabbed a glass of bourbon. I sat up and raised my eyebrow at him. He drank up and smiled. “What? I thought I would try my luck. You really are hot, you know?” He winked at me.

“Uh… Thanks. So about the Mercenaries…” I prompted him, though I was still in a bit of a shock.

“Right right,” he said, the lust fading away from his gaze. “You know, just because I’m a Walker doesn’t mean I’m privy to all of Baltazar’s plans. I don’t know anything about the Mercenaries in itself… I don’t know where they are or who paid them, my guess is as good as yours.”

“So you just came to fuck,” I accused him my tone full of annoyance. If he just told me this over the phone I could’ve done something much more productive today.

“Hey!” He had the decency to sound offended. “I’m not that much of an asshole. No. There is something I thought would be good if you saw.”

“Great, what is it?” I asked and he smiled.

“Follow me to the night, boy, and you shall see,” he said and walked out of the room.

It was dark outside, snow falling once again. Silver Springs was not a big city, but it was big enough to have its own street filled with bars and clubs. That of course belonged to the vampires. The other parts of their territory were mostly businesses like restaurants, bigger shops or cinemas, and so on. Even at this late hour, it was quite alive. Uh… well… Not-alive? There were a lot of vampires here. Mostly surrounding the bars and clubs, mixed with young people who had no idea what terrible creatures they were partying with. Daniel led me through the town, ignoring all my questions as to where we were actually going. I gave up after ten minutes of the silent treatment.

We walked for a while… If I knew he wanted to take me right to the edge of town I would’ve suggested we took my car. We got right to the edge of the forest where a factory stood. It was old, not used in many decades if I had to guess. He easily opened the front gate. Well, I was hundred percent sure that a teenager would soon lose his life here. It should be locked, it was a health hazard. I followed him in, all senses on high alert. The factory smelled of vampires, alcohol, blood, piss, and rats. It was terrible, the combination made my wolf anxious. Vampires didn’t have that good of a sense of smell, so Daniel just walked on, through the open space, right towards the stairs on the other side. He was at ease, confidently walking on. The same didn’t go for me. I didn’t like it here. I felt exposed, surrounded by shadows where enemies could easily hide. I quickly followed him up onto the second floor.

Where the hell are we going? And a little ugly voice in the back of my head said: “What if he’s leading you into a trap? What if he’s working with Baltazar and the Mercenaries and he’s going to kill you?”

I told that voice to shut up. Daniel was a vampire which automatically made him at least a bit of a jerk, but he was my friend. And I somewhat trusted him.

He suddenly stopped, standing still for a second before he turned and walked into a room on the right. It was a small room, probably an office before the factory closed down. There was a small window on the back wall. He grabbed me and without explanation pulled me to it. I looked out the window. There was nothing but the forest. Daniel, who was leaning against the wall next to the window, rolled his eyes at me, then pulled me even closer to him, so my back was flush against his chest. I looked out the window again and saw nothing but trees and snow.

“Dan—” I wanted to ask what the hell was I supposed to be looking for, but his hand came around covering my mouth.

“Sh! Listen…” he whispered in my ear leaning against my back. And it was so very uncomfortable to have a cold hungry vampire behind my back. But I did as he said and concentrated hard on my hearing. At first, I heard nothing but our heartbeats and breathing, nothing but the wind in the trees, nothing but the faraway city… I almost wanted to turn around and ask if this was just an excuse to feel me up when I finally heard something.