Her mind was crowded with too many thoughts. Desperately she tried to gather the thoughts together, organize them to make sense of the situation. It had all happened to quickly. Not only that, but too many improbable things had happened. The vampire – he had carried the mark of Chronos. In all honesty she hadn’t expected the clan to survive, and above all she had never expected to become a victim. What in the world was going on? But that was not the only problem she had. In the haze of her vision, she had seen her savior slay the creature.

Hearing the question, she ignored it as she tried to stable herself against the wall. Lifting her left hand, she brushed it against the back of her skull. A frown marred her face as she felt the warmth of her blood coat her fingers and pain shot out from the injury. A long string of curses escaped her lips as she stared through the darkness to the blood on her hand. If she was a target of vampires, bleeding all the way home would not be a wise choice.

Balling her hand in a fist, she glanced up at the vampire hunter. “I’m fine,” she snapped her answer before she tried to move away from the wall. However, she didn’t get too far, the motion causing her world to spin. Steadying her hand against the wall, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was moments like this that she cursed the fact that her body was that of a human – it was much too fragile. When she opened her eyes, she noticed that the vampire hunter had not disappeared. Narrowing her eyes, she glared at the man, “If you’re waiting around for a ‘thank you’, you’re not going to get one.”

---

Many still considered him inexperienced. He was young for a vampire hunter. Then again, it was difficult to actually gain much experience in the field. It was one thing that he had been told when he had been brought into the Order. The life expectancy of a hunter in the field was low. So while the politics of the organization or the world ever bothered him, he had decided that he was thankful to have the support of a group behind him. He could disobey the rules, go hunting vampires on his own – go on his own rampage and vendetta. However, in the Order there were people he could trust. If he ever got in a jam, he had people who could help him. The Order had slowly become his family, a system on which he could trust.

Perhaps this is what gave him courage as he left the building. Blending in with society while on a mission was always a challenge. After all, it was difficult to hide the necessary weapons under a t-shirt and jeans. Therefore, it often included a large coat – even in the warmest of weathers. Luckily, this night he didn’t look completely out of the ordinary. Perhaps he looked like he walked on the darker side of life, but that wasn’t a false assumption.
Stopping at the corner of the street, he stood under the light of a lamppost as he observed the humans who wandered the street. Any of them could become a target. Vampires had no morals, they would go after whoever they deemed worthy enough to become his food. But that wasn’t his concern right now. What Mark needed to do was find some information, which mean either eavesdropping on some strange conversations or finding a vampire willing enough to… talk.