Chapter 2

Clark heard a siren slowly getting louder and louder as it got closer. The bodies of her parents and brother and the vampire that had attacked them in the middle of the night lay on the front lawn of her parents' home. She was covered in blood and still held one of the legs of the chair she'd used to create several makeshift stakes to take on the murderous vampire.

Neighbors were standing around the carnage as the new dawn light crept across the front yard. The siren was getting insistent, but she still didn't see any police cars or fire engines or ambulances. Not that any of them could do anything now. It was over.

The incessant buzzing of the siren was getting on her nerves. She opened her eyes and saw her bedroom. Looking around, she realized her alarm had been trying to make its presence known for nearly a quarter of an hour. She reached over and turned it off.

She sat up and headed for the bathroom. She'd taken the day off yesterday after getting home at dawn and just caught up on some much needed sleep and a little reading. Now, it was time to get back to work. She had vampires to kill.

Walking into the station, she yelled back the greetings she got and took the ribbing for missing a day with a sardonic grin. She'd been tracking vampires for nearly twelve years and had yet to take a single vacation, missing work only because of injuries or mandatory court appearances.

She went directly to the head of the department and knocked on his door.

"Come in," came the muffled reply.

She opened the door and then closed it behind her. She sat down in the visitor's chair across from the chief, a medium built gray-haired man in his early fifties. The VHA ran its local offices much the same as the police department. Clark worked out of the 46th precinct of the VHA in New York City, which had one of the highest populations of vampires in the world. It was perfect for her.

"What's up?"

Mark Graves looked up from his desk at his best Hunter. He'd always gotten teased about his name. It had seemed that he'd been destined from birth to work on the VHA task force when it was still under the jurisdiction of the state police department. When the VHA had finally been granted its own separate powers under the law, he'd been given the 46th precinct to run as he saw fit. He still thought accepting Dana Clark into his department was the smartest decision he'd ever made.

"I got a tip on a lair. Seven vampires and their servants. I'm going to need back-up on this one."

Graves nodded. Normally, he would have asked for confirmation on the tip, but Clark was never wrong about these things. And the fact that she was asking for back-up, instead of trying to go in alone, told him she was sure about the information, whatever its source.

"Got anyone in mind?" He knew she preferred to pick her own teams and raids usually went better when he didn't force Clark to work with certain people.

"Johnson, Cooke, and Ross. Debbie and Carl are good at taking down the servants and Dale can help me with the vamps. Are they available?"

Mark looked over his assignments listing:

Cooke, Carl - investigating Reeves murder
Johnson, Deborah - free day
Ross, Dale - standard patrol

"Well, Carl's busy and you'll have to convince Deb to give up her weekend, but Dale's available."

"Okay, what about Jason Albright? I want a full team, at least four of us."

Albright, Jason - James family murder, follow-up

"Yeah, he's just got some tidying up to do on the James case, but that can wait a day or two. Go ahead and put him on your team. You goin' in today?"

"Yeah, I don't want to wait. I'm not sure how long the info will be accurate."

"Who'd you get the tip from? I thought you took yesterday off?"

"I did. I got the tip the day before. Or rather that morning. I pulled an all-nighter. Well, I'll go let everyone know what's up."

Clark left him to make the changes to the assignments. It wasn't until half an hour later that Mark realized she'd never answered his question about the tip.

Clark called Ross in from his patrol and then got on the phone to Debbie. She knew the woman wouldn't be happy about coming in on one of her off days, but Clark wanted Debbie on her team and they had to go in now.

"Hello?" came the sleepy voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey. It's Clark. I need you for a raid today."

"Clark? Shit, it's fucking six in the morning. This is the only day I get to sleep in, goddamn it," Deborah whined into the phone. She knew as soon as she'd heard Clark's voice she would do whatever the woman asked of her, but she wasn't going to make it easy.

"I know, but you know you'll get double pay for coming in and it's a full lair; seven vampires and their slaves. We gotta move today, though."

Clark wasn't sure why she was in such a hurry, she just had a feeling that she shouldn't wait even one more day and she'd learned to trust her gut instincts.

"Alright. Fine. Give me an hour and I'll be there. Who else is going?" she asked as she pushed back her covers and went to her closet to pull out appropriate clothing for an assault.

"I've got Dale and I need to call Jason Albright to see if he can put off what he's working on right now to join us."

Debbie nodded at the names. They were good in a fight and always watched the backs of those they worked with. A lot of Hunters went into a raid with something akin to 'no guts, no glory' on their minds, trying to make a name for themselves. They usually got cut down pretty quick, but she'd been unlucky enough to work with a few that had managed to survive their hunting adolescences and tried to avoid future partnerships with them as much as possible. Clark was always very picky about who she teamed up with, so Debbie wasn't too worried.

"Sounds good. I'll see you in a bit."

Clark hung up the phone and then dialed for Jason's cell phone. Hopefully, with the early hour, he hadn't started on anything yet.

"Albright," came the clear voice.

"Hey. It's Clark. Wanna go hunting?" she asked with a grin.

"Love to, but I got some things I gotta finish up on the James murders."

"Graves said you could put that stuff off for a day if you wanted to be on my team. I've got seven vampires just waiting for you to take a crack at them."

"Alright then. I'll call Graves and confirm. See you in a few."

Clark smiled to herself. Jason was a good Hunter. He didn't have the tracking sense that most Hunters used to find vampires and their hideouts, but he did have an uncanny ability to know when things weren't right. He'd kept the teams he was on from walking into traps on many occasions. He was considered a good luck charm.

Clark pulled out her map and located the general area that Gabrielle had told her the lair was. Then she got in her car and drove out there. She made sure to leave orders for her team members to give them something to do while she was out checking the lay of the land.

The warehouse was exactly where Gabrielle had said it would be. She could sense the vampires within and saw movement behind the dark and dirty windows. Servants. They were probably just having breakfast after tucking their masters in for the day.

Clark started her car and turned around to go back to the precinct. She was already planning the attack based on what she'd seen. There were overgrown fences around the warehouse that would give good cover to her and her teammates.

Once she was in the station again, she commandeered one of the planning rooms and drew a basic map of the area with red and blue markers on the whiteboard so the others could see what they were up against.

"So, the servants are on the bottom floor, vamps in the basement. You said the basement's been dug out to make it bigger?" Dale asked.

"Yeah." Clark looked at her team. "We'll all go in at the same time and clear out the slaves first. Once we're done with the slaves, you two," she pointed at Dale and Debbie, "can back us up with the vamps. We'll be hitting them in the middle of their deepest sleep, so they probably won't put up much resistance, but if the basement's been dug deep enough, they'll be safe from the sun and could end up really giving us a run for our money."

They all nodded. There was probably a getaway tunnel that would connect with the sewer system under the city and if the demons made it to that point, they'd lose them. They'd all worked with Clark before and knew it was their job to keep the vampires from escaping long enough for Clark to kill them all. They could make kills themselves, but if forcing a kill meant letting another get away, Clark would stake them instead of the vampires.

"When do we leave?" asked Jason. He hadn't been on a raid in a couple months and he was itching for some action.

Clark looked at her watch. "You've got one hour to get your gear together. Then we leave. We'll hit the warehouse at twelve twenty."

Clark was famous for her odd timing of things. From past experience, the team knew this particular timing was to hopefully catch the servants at the end of their lunch, not only taking them by surprise, but also on heavy stomachs.

"Alright, get to work."

Clark wiped the board clean while her team members filed out of the small room. She sat down at the table to think for a few minutes. It wasn't unheard of for her to take on five vampires at once and come out on top. So why had she decided she needed a team on this one?

She tried to remember if she'd gotten any strange vibes from Gabrielle. Well, other than the normally strange vibes she got from all vampires and the strangeness she got in particular because of her age.

Nope, nothing.

She tried not to dwell on the fact that not a minute had gone by since talking to Gabrielle that she hadn't thought about her. Clark had met many vampires. Most were beautiful. It seemed to be part of the code they used to decide who was granted vampire status and who was turned away, though there were some who were decidedly challenged in the area of physical beauty.

Clark had seen many of them pass as humans, obviously enjoying their duplicity. But as soon as they were alone, they let their fangs grow and reveled in their vampiric nature, merrily showing off for Clark in an attempt to impress her with their superiority.

Gabrielle had done nothing to try to dazzle her, except maybe when she'd taken the stake from her hands, but that had been more to prove a point than to amaze Clark with her ability.

Clark shook her head. She was having a hard time keeping in mind that Gabrielle was a vampire, an evil demon spawn from Hell, and not just another human like herself. Clark slammed down on her next thoughts. Sure, Gabrielle was intelligent, beautiful, even had a bit of a wry sense of humor, but damn it, she was a vampire.

"Just don't go there, Clark," she mumbled to herself and left to sort out what equipment she'd be taking on the raid.