Chapter 4

Clark woke in the middle of the day. She hopped out of bed and did a cartwheel down the hallway. Her body felt incredible. She'd never felt so perfectly... alive. She jogged into her workout room and began her normal routine. She had to up the weight on everything by at least fifteen pounds. Running through her usual forms, she felt a fluidity to her movements that she had never been able to attain before.

It started to unnerve her. Gabrielle had done something to her. It was like she was high with none of the usual side effects. Clark was once again reminded of her personal motto: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Clark made lunch for herself, though it was her first meal of the day and it was actually closer to dinnertime. She ate her sandwich on her back porch and watched the sun make its descent. She was lucky enough to have a home somewhat away from the main city. The thick trees around her property helped to give the illusion that she was in the middle of nowhere.

She finished the last bite of her sandwich and downed the last drops of her soda, but remained outside. Twilight was coming on and it was nice and peaceful. Finally, she turned back into her house. She went into the kitchen and washed her dishes and put them on the rack to dry.

Coming back into the living room, she stopped dead in her tracks. Gabrielle sat on her couch, her large cloak covering her body from head to foot, the collar turned up so that Clark could just make out her eyes.

"How in the hell..." Clark trailed off as her gaze went to the windows and saw that it was still somewhat light out. Vampires were not supposed to be able to move around in the daylight.

"I wanted to get an early start today. We have very little time," Gabrielle told her.

"You didn't answer my question," Clark growled.

"Well, you didn't really ask it," Gabrielle replied and Clark could see the smirk in the shadows of the collar.

"Fine. How in the hell did you get here when it's still light outside?"

"I moved very quickly and kept myself covered. I am temporarily blind, however. It will take a few hours for my eyes to repair themselves."

Clark looked at her in wide-eyed shock. She had basically admitted to Clark, the notorious vampire killer, that she, the leader of the vampires, was in a very vulnerable position. It was light outside, so she couldn't run, and she was blind, so she wouldn't be able to see if Clark was about to plunge a stake through her heart, though Clark was sure her other senses would tell her if something like that was about to happen. Still.

"Are you insane?" was the only response Clark could come up with.

"Maybe. Please, we need to get to work."

"What the hell could be so important you'd let yourself be blinded? You couldn't have waited another hour for the sun to go down?"

Clark tried to figure out why she was so angry that Gabrielle had been injured. She was just a vampire. Apparently, a very stupid vampire.

"A group within the Third Order has decided to attack the VHA directly. They intend to go after the Hunters individually. I had hoped they would continue to deliberate for another few months, but some of the younger ones in the Fourth and Fifth Orders pushed for immediate action and the rest agreed. I've run out of time," Gabrielle spoke quickly.

"Wait, wait. Third Order? Fifth Order? What's that?" She'd read about the Vampire Order, but it was always assumed that it was like a fraternity that all vampires belonged to simply because they were vampires.

"The Order of the Vampires refers to their proximity to my father. I'm the only surviving member of the First Order, those born directly from a union between my father and a mortal mother. The Second Order consisted of those who were born from unions between my siblings and other mortals and from conversions by blood invitation. There are none left from those ranks. The Third Order continues with those born from unions or blood conversions from the Second Order. There are nineteen of them still alive. Eleven of them have chosen to exterminate the VHA one Hunter at a time. We have to get to them first."

"We? I thought I was your hired gun, or should I say stake?"

"No, there's no time for you to take them out by yourself. I'm going to have to go with you and hope my presence isn't discovered. As long as none of them get away to report that I was there, my secret should be safe for a little while longer."

"Why are you doing this? Besides being afraid that they're going to turn on you, though that's certainly a worthy reason."

"You wouldn't believe me."

"If you say it's because you care about humans, then you're right, I won't believe you."

Clark waited. Gabrielle remained silent. Clark laughed.

"You're too much. Fine, how do you wanna do this?"

"You're the Hunter. I'll tell you what you need to know and then you come up with a plan."

"Start talking."

Gabrielle described the eleven members of the Third Order and their usual feeding habits. She told Clark how to get to their lairs and gave detailed descriptions of the layouts of their homes, including the escape tunnels that would allow the vampires to get away at the first sign of trouble. There were alarms rigged throughout the various dwellings. The upper echelon of the Vampire Order guarded themselves much better than the vampires Clark normally came across.

"That's because the vampires you usually go after don't even have a rank within the Order; it's too distant and convoluted to calculate. A rough count would be something along the lines of forty. You yourself would probably fall somewhere around three hundred, but that's just a guess on my part."

Clark stiffened at the mention that she might have vampires in her ancestry. Gabrielle felt the silence and turned her head to look away even though she still couldn't see yet.

"I'm sorry. I was just trying to explain... It doesn't matter. You just need to understand that the vampires you're about to go up against are stronger than any others you've ever come across. Well, except for me. They have about a third of my strength. Their strengths are also very different from mine. None of them can move the way I can, so you don't have to worry about facing that kind of speed, but they will still be faster than you. You're going to have to anticipate and move before they do."

"There's no way we can take out all eleven vampires in eleven different locations before the sun rises tomorrow."

"We're not going to. I can remain awake during the day; I just can't be in direct sunlight. We'll continue through the day. You'll have to help me though."

Clark looked away from the unseeing eyes. "You'd trust me not to just leave you out in the sun?" she asked quietly.

"Yes. You gave me your word."

"And I'll need your help to defeat these vampires," Clark added what she thought was the unspoken part of Gabrielle's internal reasoning.

"Yeah."

"Well, the sun's been down for an hour. We should probably get ready to go. We'll hit Victor's place first. With a name like that, he's just begging me to kick his ass."

Gabrielle laughed. Victor had always been a pompous ass and getting to watch Clark kick it would be truly amusing. She felt Clark rise from the couch and concentrated on trying to see the movement. There was nothing but darkness.

She hadn't fed after healing Clark of her old injuries the night before and now her body was seriously depleted of its own recuperative powers. She needed blood. Her fangs unconsciously grew at the thought and Clark watched her.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm just a little hungry. Don't worry, you're not dinner," Gabrielle wryly told her.

Clark snorted. "I'd like to see you try," she said.

An instant later, Gabrielle was next to her. An iron grip held her head to the side and exposed her neck. Gabrielle made no move to lower her face, but Clark could see the struggle she made to keep herself from doing so.

"Please don't make challenges like that when I'm in need." Gabrielle stepped back and released her chin. "I'm sorry. I'm starving. I need to leave." Gabrielle let her left leg brush against the coffee table and backed away, using its edge to guide her.

"You can't hunt blind," Clark reasoned, though she had no idea why she was arguing. In fact, she was trying to understand why she wasn't angry with Gabrielle for the pseudo-attempt on her life. Instead, all she felt was a low-grade worry and an even stranger need to want to help Gabrielle.

"Well, what do you suggest? I need blood and you happen to be the only one within range and I won't kill you." The pain Clark heard in Gabrielle's voice was surprising. She couldn't decide whether it was from hunger or the thought of killing her.

"Well, could you take just a little, enough to heal your eyes so you could see well enough to hunt?" Clark couldn't believe she'd just offered her precious blood to keep a vampire alive.

"I've never.. I've never let any of them live. The ones I've fed on, I mean."

"Conversion only takes place when the victim takes in the blood of his or her attacker," Clark quoted from the textbook she'd had to learn in order to pass the VHA's certification test.

"I know, but.. Y-You don't understand..." she trailed off.

"What?"

"The feeling is.. It will change you forever. I won't do that to you."

"It's my choice. You need to heal and help me kill the vampires that intend to kill my friends."

"I will heal, but I won't use you to do it. It'll take us an hour to drive to Victor's. By then, I should be better. Both of us together can handle Victor and his servants and I can feed on them and Victor to heal completely."

Clark couldn't argue with Gabrielle's logic and felt a strange sadness at knowing she wouldn't be on the menu tonight. She suddenly realized she wanted to be the one to help Gabrielle. She also wanted... Shit, don't go there, Clark told herself.

"Let's go."

Gabrielle nodded and used the couch to guide her towards the front door. Clark stood in front of her and waited for Gabrielle to reach her so she could lead her out of the living room.

Gabrielle felt Clark's upper arm and a thrill ran through her at the feel of hard muscle and soft skin. If she could have given in to her first impulse, she would have melted into Clark's arms and then kissed her with everything she was. Instead, all she could do was stand there and wait for Clark to guide her to the front door and then to Clark's car.

By the time they arrived on the road that would lead to Victor's mansion, Gabrielle was able to make out the halos of streetlights. She assured Clark that once they were inside Victor's lighted home, she would be able to see well enough.

Clark parked the car at the end of the long driveway that led to Victor's house. Clark had decided to take advantage of having the leader of the vampires with her and use the direct approach. They would simply go up and knock on the door. Clark's long trench coat hid the massive armament she carried on her body.

Gabrielle reached out and rung the doorbell that would summon one of Victor's servants to answer the door. When the door opened and the servant saw who it was, he bowed.

"Mistress, please come in. I don't believe my Master knew you were coming."

They stepped inside and Clark remained behind Gabrielle. She kept her head down. She was a famous name, not a famous face, but she had to assume that those higher up in the Vampire Order knew what she looked like, though she had no idea about their servants.

The servant noticed Gabrielle's edgy look and immediately knew what was wrong.

"Mistress, please. Take what you need," and he offered his neck to her.

Gabrielle was at the end of her resistance. Her fangs extended, trying to reach the flesh beneath them before Gabrielle could bow her head. She lowered her head and sunk her teeth into the taut flesh. The blood rush was instantaneous and Gabrielle pulled with all her strength. The servant was dead before he realized what was happening.

Gabrielle let the lifeless body slide to the floor. She concentrated for a few moments and focused completely on her eyes. A minute passed and then she opened her eyes. Her sight wasn't as clear as it could have been, but she could see quite well. She ran her tongue over her chin to clean off the few drops that had spilled over her lips. She turned to look at Clark. She couldn't read the expression she found there. It wasn't disgust, as she'd feared, more like curiosity.

"Come on. Victor's probably in the study. That was Mario. If he's answering the door, then Julia must be upstairs. Grace is probably in the kitchen, judging by the smells. Dinner for the servants would normally be in about half an hour," Gabrielle explained.

"Right, you keep Victor occupied and I'll take care of the slaves, then come help you."

"Alright. I'm sure Victor can already sense my presence, but that's a good thing. It should mask yours. I need to hurry or he'll wonder what's keeping me. See you in a few."

Clark didn't even blink when Gabrielle disappeared. She just headed off in the direction of the stairs to find Julia.

She found her tidying up one of the massive bedrooms. Clark pulled out her pistol with the silencer already attached and fired the gun into the back of the woman's head. Julia dropped to the carpeted floor, which muffled the thud of her weight hitting the hard surface. Clark turned and headed back down the stairs to find Grace.

Gabrielle stopped in the doorway of the study and found Victor sitting on a long couch, a cigar in one hand and a book in the other.

"Those things stink," Gabrielle told him.

"I don't smoke them for you," Victor replied. He closed his book and set it aside. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"About?"

"About this decision to attack the VHA directly. There's no reason to declare war on the humans."

"They've already declared war on us."

"But that's because you and the others kill them indiscriminately. You kill innocents and take criminals as servants. It's no wonder they want to see us all burned to ashes."

"You've always defended them. You're weak, just like they are. The only reason anyone in the Order listens to you is because you were First Born. We should be ruling over the humans, not hiding from them."

"No, we should be living with them."

"Give it up, Gabrielle. You lost on this one. The others agreed that it's time to teach the humans once and for all who their true masters are."

"No. I don't think so."

Gabrielle moved incredibly fast and Victor was totally unprepared for this side of the diminutive blond. She tore at his throat and held Victor's wrists in an ironlike grip. He tried in vain to free himself from her grasp, but he couldn't move. She sucked in his blood with a desperate hunger. It had been millennia since she'd tasted the blood of one of her own kind.

She sucked him dry. But even without the blood lubricating his body, Gabrielle knew he was still alive. She looked up to find Clark watching her. She held out her hand and Clark tossed the stake to her. She turned around and regarded the near corpse laid out on the couch. She'd never actually staked anyone before. She'd always burned them to ashes. It seemed cleaner somehow.

"I'll do it," Clark said near her left ear.

"No. I think I need to do it."

Gabrielle gripped the stake tightly, though it was a fraction of her true strength. She could have crushed the wood into pulp without even straining herself. She held the stake above her head for a moment and then slammed it down, punching through the bones and muscle tissue of Victor's ribcage and piercing him through the heart.

Victor's dry and lifeless eyes stared at her in their last expression; disbelief. She released the stake and stood back up from her bent position over his body. She gave him one last look and then turned to Clark.

"Next," she smirked.

"Raymond," Clark announced.

It was a ten-minute drive to Raymond's and they went through the same routine of parking and then walking up to the door. They were let in and Gabrielle took care of the servant that answered the buzzer. She was getting quite full.

Raymond had only the one servant, so they both went to search for the man. He was in the backyard swimming laps in his Olympic size swimming pool. He finished the lap he was working on and then climbed out of the pool, wrapping a small white towel over his shoulders.

"Ah, Gabrielle. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit? And who's your friend? You finally decided to take a servant?"

"No, you know I'll never take a servant. I'm here to ask you to reconsider your decision to eradicate the VHA," she said evenly.

"Ah, you know I can't do that. It's time we fight back. The humans have been maligning us for millennia. We can't just sit back and let it continue. You must see that."

Gabrielle shook her head. She'd tried. She glanced to Clark and nodded her head once. Clark shifted forward. The stake appearing in her right hand was batted aside, but the one in her left found its mark. Raymond crashed to the ground, twitched once, and then was still.

Clark grabbed at her right wrist. "Goddamn it!" she swore. Twice in as many days.

Gabrielle reached out and focused on the new breaks in the radius and ulna of Clark's right arm. It took a quarter of an hour for the breaks to be completely healed and then they were back on the road and heading for the next vampire on Clark's list.

At the end of four hours, they'd exterminated five more on the list of vampires Gabrielle had deemed renegades. They'd gotten lucky on the fourth house call, finding one of the others on the list visiting.

"It's almost two AM. You said they'll be out hunting by now," Clark commented.

"Yeah. They probably won't be home until late. Who do you want to wait for? The others you'll have to take during the day and that could pose problems with me helping you."

"Well, having you will give me instant access to all of their lairs. I can just pretend to be your servant, delivering you for a surprise visit. It'll be strange, but by the time they question it, I'll be in. Which of them do you think I'll need the most help with?"

"Blake. He's the strongest of the Third Order. His Master let him drink before he died."

Clark tried to think of circumstances that could cause a vampire to die slowly enough that he could consent to giving his blood, the one thing that would give him enough strength to heal himself. Finally, she decided to just ask.

"How did he die?"

"There are poisons that can affect the healing abilities of my kind. If enough damage is inflicted after the poison has been administered, our bodies become unable to heal themselves and die the way a mortal would under similar conditions."

"But you healed me. Why couldn't someone have healed him until he was able to heal himself?"

"I'm the only one of my kind who knows that our healing abilities can be focused outward. None of the others have ever been interested in doing such a thing."

Clark mulled this new information over.

"How did you learn about it? That you could heal others."

"I spent a long time in seclusion at one point in my life. I found a wounded animal. I.. was saddened by its pain and wanted to help it. I did it without thinking. Later, I did it on purpose to heal dying animals I came across while in the wilderness. I felt it was payment for the lives of the animals I took to survive."

"Wait, so you can live on animal blood? Why do you kill humans then?" Clark was suddenly angry. She felt like she'd been lied to.

"I can survive, not live. My body was shutting down when I finally came out of my solitude. I think I was insane for a while. I.. I did things I would normally not have done in an attempt to quench my thirst. I also think it was only because I was so old that I was able to survive at all. I don't believe any of the others could live for any length of time on animal blood."

"What did you do?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"I want to know."

"I.. I massacred an entire village."

"The whole village?"

"Yes. And please don't ask, I don't want to answer that question any more directly than I already have."

She killed women and children, too, Clark filled in the answer to the question she'd been asking in her mind. For someone who professed to not be able to read her mind, she sure had an uncanny knack for doing so.

"You feel guilty," Clark said, a little surprised to realize Gabrielle was remorseful for the heinous acts.

"Of course I feel guilty. They were innocent people. They didn't deserve that kind of death."

Gabrielle felt thick tears forming at her eyes. She tried to hold them back, but they fell anyway. Clark looked over at her and then back to the road before what she saw registered on her brain. She did a double take and pulled over to the side of the road.

Bright red tears were tracking down Gabrielle's cheeks. Gabrielle turned her face away from Clark's inspection, but Clark reached out and grabbed her chin. She turned Gabrielle back to face her. She touched one of the tears with her other hand and brought the finger to her lips. Gabrielle grabbed her hand before she could touch it to her lips.

"Don't. It's just as potent as the blood in my veins. You'd be powerless to resist it."

She wiped the blood tear from Clark's fingers as she slid her fingers away from the woman's. Clark still held Gabrielle's chin with her other hand.

"I've never seen a vampire cry."

"It's not something we do very often."

Gabrielle looked down, not wanting to make eye contact with the woman.

"I don't know what to think about you. You don't act like any vampire I've ever met."

"Maybe you've just been meeting the wrong ones," Gabrielle tried to joke, but when her eyes met Clark's she sobered instantly. She caught her breath and spoke as evenly as she could. "I can't be this close to you, Clark. Please."

"Why not," Clark breathed. She was having a hard time concentrating.

"Please, Clark, let go of me," she whispered.

"Tell me why," Clark insisted.

"Because I'm about to kiss you and I have no idea what will happen after that, but it will probably involve things you don't want. I can't think clearly much longer if..." she stopped in mid-sentence.

"Promise you won't bite me and won't make me drink from you," Clark asked her. She added, for her own safety, "No matter how much I beg you to."

Gabrielle melted. She lunged forward and latched on to Clark's lips. Their tongues met and caressed each other, their lips slid over each others' and Clark's hand slipped around to grasp the back of Gabrielle's neck.

The kiss was deep and lasted for quite a long time. Clark wanted to explore every single square millimeter of Gabrielle's mouth and was well on her way to doing so. Gabrielle stroked Clark's tongue with her own and invited her to go deeper. She sucked slightly on Clark's tongue, but not enough to alarm her. It took considerable will power not to graze Clark's lips with her fangs. She wanted to taste Clark's blood. She also wanted to taste the other essence that was Clark, but she knew that would be a little difficult in the car.

Finally, they parted. They were both breathing heavily and Clark was entranced with Gabrielle's fangs, which were extending and retracting in time with the rhythm of her breaths. I just kissed a vampire, Clark thought suddenly. No, I kissed Gabrielle, she amended. She grinned.

"I can see you," she said. Gabrielle looked at her quizzically. "You said you hoped I would see you and not the demon. I can see you, Gabrielle," she repeated.

Gabrielle smiled and it was the first genuinely happy expression Clark had ever seen on her face. More blood tears ran down Gabrielle's cheeks, but Clark knew these were from happiness.

"You know, you're bleeding all over my car," she joked.

Gabrielle looked down, but all her tears had fallen on her own clothing. She laughed and wiped at her cheeks. "I don't normally cry like this. I mean, it's a waste of blood and it's too easy for someone to get a taste. I don't know what's gotten into me."

"What would have happened to me if I'd tasted that tear?"

Clark was curious. She'd brought the liquid to her lips without thinking about it. She'd wanted to make sure that she really was seeing Gabrielle cry blood.

"I think you would have become one of us. I can't be sure, but I know it only takes a thimbleful from one of the Third Order to cause a conversion. I'm much more powerful, especially now with all the recent kills, vampire kills at that. Even if it hadn't triggered the change, you would have begged for more. Those that don't get enough to change become addicted to the blood. Some of the others enjoy torturing their slaves with a few drops of their blood and then refuse to give them any more. As far as we know, there's no cure. The cravings continue until either the person is given more or they kill themselves."

"I'll be careful."

She leaned in again and kissed Gabrielle. She ran her tongue lightly over Gabrielle's fangs and felt them extend. The eroticism went straight to Clark's groin. She pulled back and opened her eyes again. Gabrielle's vision was glazed over and Clark pulled back another inch to give her some space. Gabrielle shook her head slightly.

"We really need to be careful. There are things I want to do to you..." She let the sentence hang. "We should get back on the road." She glanced at the clock set in the dashboard. "It's nearly three. Come on."

Gabrielle moved back to her own side of the car and Clark started up the engine again and pulled out onto the deserted highway. There was only another ten minutes left to their journey and Clark pulled all the way up Blake's driveway and parked off to the side. She decided it was less conspicuous than if Blake passed their abandoned car on his way home. She knew he'd be able to feel Gabrielle's presence anyway, so there was no point in trying to hide their transportation.

They sat in the car for a short while and planned what would happen once the sun came up. They'd brought an opaque body bag, one that had a Velcro flap over the zipper, so not even the smallest amount of light could seep through the chinks. It was standard transportation fare for vampires. Very few still used coffins while traveling, preferring to alter the standard issue body bags of the police.

Gabrielle's was made of a sturdy weave, the kind army-issue duffel bags were made of, dyed black and covered, both inside and out, with embroidered black silk. Clark studied the embroidered designs on the silk. It looked like a total mishmash at first, but after awhile she was able to make out different symbols in the chaos. Some were familiar to her, but most were foreign. She resolved to ask Gabrielle to explain them when they had time to talk.

Gabrielle glanced up. "He's near."

Clark nodded and set the bag aside. They got out of the car simultaneously and headed for the house. Clark rung the doorbell this time and a minute later, one of Blake's servants answered the door.

"Mistress. It is an honor. Please come in." They were lead into the front room. "My Master is not back from the hunt yet. Is there anything I can do for you while you wait?"

The servant tilted her head to the side and looked expectantly at Gabrielle. Clark wasn't prepared for the insane jealousy that flared in her heart now that she had acknowledged that she felt something for Gabrielle. She didn't want Gabrielle to touch the woman, let alone drink from her. But she knew Gabrielle was hungry. She'd had to heal Clark of three broken ribs and a broken leg after the last confrontation with the two Third Order vampires.

Gabrielle stepped forward. She was very hungry and restraining herself with Clark was almost more tiring than the healing she'd had to perform several hours earlier. She sunk her fangs into the woman's neck without hesitation. She drank her fill and let the dead woman fall from her arms. She turned around to see Clark's angry expression.

"I can't explain it, but I want to feed you like that. I don't want you drinking from others, but I know you have to," Clark told her.

"We'll talk about it later," Gabrielle promised.

Clark nodded and then moved to drag the body out of the room. A few minutes later, she returned to wait with Gabrielle for Blake to arrive.