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"Where?" His voice was calm and smooth, almost hypnotic. I had heard that most vampires, if they survived the first few tumultuous months of unbridled bloodlust, possessed the ability to exert some form of compulsion. I couldn't help but wonder if that ability had been passed on to Castor through infusions. He was certainly more vampire than anything. The other hunters usually leaned one way or another, but it wasn't quite as extreme as it was with him.
"I could take you," she said warily. "If you spare me."
Castor paused as if he was considering it. "How far away is it?"
"Not far. Maybe ten minutes on foot?"
I was surprised the vampires were willing to hunt so close to their nest. Then again, maybe I just had some weird werewolf hangups about the sanctity of my den.
Castor nodded, keeping his gun trained on her. "Go ahead."
I glanced back at the mother and child, who looked at least as petrified of us as they were of the vampires. I couldn't blame them, either.
"What about them?" I asked.
Castor looked back at the humans, as if he had forgotten they were there. The woman seemed to take that as her cue to flee, and she snatched her child up onto his feet before they both took off running the other way.
Castor nudged the gun in the vampire's direction, and she started walking. I followed behind them both, unwilling to trust that she wasn't leading us into a trap. Then again, I guessed that was kind of the point of going back to her nest.
I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. I certainly knew what it was like to get drawn into a world you had never wanted any part of, and if nothing else, her terror at least seemed genuine. I couldn't read Castor at all, so I had no idea if he was actually going to spare her or not.
"That's it," she said, pointing up ahead at what looked like an abandoned warehouse. It was in a part of town that seemed pretty abandoned itself.
Castor looked up at the building, pausing for a moment in contemplation. "How many exits are there?"
She paused to consider it. "Two main ones, and the loading bay."
"And windows?"
"They’re boarded up," she answered. "Because of the sunlight."
Castor nodded, turning to me. "Stay here, and make sure she doesn't run."
"You can't go in there yourself," I protested.
He shot me a silencing look. "It wasn't a suggestion. It was an order."
I swallowed hard. When he handed me his gun, I looked down at it in confusion.
"If she moves at all, shoot her," he said firmly. "Right in the chest, like target practice."
"Yeah, I know," I said, taking the gun.
I watched as Castor went around to the front of the building and pulled something out of his coat. It was some kind of wire wrapped in a tight coil. It didn't look nearly thick enough to secure the door, if that was what he was trying to do. Was he sealing them in?
"What is he doing?" the vampire asked nervously.
I glanced down at her. "That’s none of your concern," I said, not wanting to admit I didn't know. Castor had already disappeared around the side of the building, anyway.
"You're hunters," she said, hugging herself. "I've heard of you."
Even though making conversation with my prey was definitely not something Castor would've wanted, social impulses made it hard to just outright ignore someone. Especially a woman who was clearly in distress, vampire or not.
"We are," I answered.
"You're not like him, though," she said, eyeing me warily, but not quite as fearfully as she had Castor. That was probably not a good thing.
I glanced around, hoping to catch sight of him. Why did he have to go off on his own, anyway? Especially when it was just me and him. I was torn between obeying his orders and going after him, but I knew that I might just end up blowing his cover and putting him in even more danger, so I stayed put for the time being. Some strange part of me felt like I would know if he was in serious danger somehow. It was probably delusional, but it was keeping me sane for the moment.
