I never again in this life want to wake up the way I did after being socked in the head...not that I ever wanted to be socked in the head again. I didn't. It hurt. A lot. But waking up with a throbbing ache in my skull and a tender bruise on the very edge of my eye socket, hurt worse than the actual hit. Irritation swept through me, but it was immediately replaced by ice cold fear. I was no longer outside. I was lying on my back, on the floor of a dirt strewn camper that was gently rocking back and forth in the unmistakable sway of road movement.

As these facts entered my brain, stubborn irritation cropped back up. Seriously? I've been kidnapped? Seriously? Teren and I have been kidnapped? Teren...oh God...

I shifted my head and saw the blood first; a trail of it along the floor led me to the slumped form of my honey. He was resting against a faded brown chair with ripped cushions that had been hastily sewn back together in a ragged, zigzag pattern. His legs were a red, sodden mess stretched out in front of him. His head was lying back on the chair and every jarring bump of the vehicle elicited a groan from him.

I said a silent prayer of thanks that he was still alive and, ignoring my aching head, which seemed so trivial now in comparison to Teren's injuries, I carefully crawled over to him. Avoiding all contact with his lower body, I placed a hand on his cheek. He groaned and his eyes fluttered. I looked around the small cabin, but nothing in here was going to help us get out, not with Teren's legs in the mess they were.

I held his face close to me as I took in the small, white kitchen table, that looked about ready to collapse, the stove and small sink, forming the rest of the kitchen, and a room near the back, that probably contained a nearly impossible to use toilet. On the other side of us was the front of the vehicle, mainly consisting of the driver's area. Space over the truck cabin held a thin mattress that was trying to call itself a bed.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily, the driving portion of the camper was enclosed, and I could neither get to it, nor could our captor get to me. I tried to think of a way to block the main door by the bathroom, so that he couldn't get back here when the vehicle stopped, but really, that wouldn't solve anything. Teren would bleed to death and I'd starve to death and the captor would win anyway. Assuming our death was his primary goal...and I was going to go ahead and assume that, since the way we'd been taken wasn't exactly welcoming.

A pothole in the road banged the back of the camper down and Teren woke with a cry of pain. His eyes, unfocused and full of stress, flicked to mine. His face relaxed infinitesimally. "Emma...you're okay." His voice was strained with contained tension. I could tell he really wanted to scream again, but he didn't want to freak me out. He might as well have. I was already freaked out.

I kissed his forehead, after wiping off some of the perspiration. "I'm fine, baby. Shhh...rest, Teren. Please."

He weakly lifted his head to look around at where we were. His eyes rested on his bloody jeans and his face paled even more. "Oh God...I remember," he muttered, then he flinched as a jar in the road bounced him.

"Do you know what's going on?" I whispered, not sure why I was whispering, but feeling the need for quiet at the look of restraint on his face.

He gritted his teeth and shook his head. "No..." I looked down at his legs while he searched my face. They were bad. I didn't know if any bones shards were poking through his skin and I really didn't want to know. Just looking at the blood was horrifying enough.

"Emma..." His weak voice brought my gaze back to his eyes, so beautiful and so filled with agony. "Please...run if you can." I was already shaking my head and his crystal blue eyes brimmed with moisture. "Don't...don't you dare stay because of me." His voice picked up heat. "You run."

I stared at him with a blank expression, knowing for all the world, that I was incapable of honoring his request...and then I nodded. He closed his eyes and laid his head back on the chair in relief. I kissed his forehead again and held in the tears. "Thank you for saving me," I whispered against his clammy skin.

He muttered something that sounded loving and his eyes fluttered, but they didn't open, and he didn't speak again. He didn't move again either, just sat there with his head back on the chair, either resting as I'd asked him to...or passed out from the pain. Needing to do something, I carefully undid his belt, and then undid mine. Thankfully, we'd both gone for the rancher, belt buckle look. We'd even joked to each other about it before this little fiasco. I wrapped the belt around his thigh, above his knee, and gritting my teeth, cinched it tight. He cried out, but didn't wake up. I did the other one. He no longer cried out.

I laid my head on his chest and felt tears that I hadn't been aware of, roll off my nose to splash on his shirt. "I'm sorry, baby. Please hold on..." I whispered, and only the occasional creak of the old camper answered me.

We drove in that near silence for what felt like days. It couldn't have been days, since the sunlight coming through the smudged window over the table never left us, but it felt like days. I worried over Teren's legs, and wondered if my hastily construed tourniquets were actually doing anything. I worried over how I was going to get a man who couldn't walk away from the predator in the cabin. I stressed over where he was taking us. I stroked Teren's cheek, soothing him with reassuring words, that I didn't really feel, whenever a big enough movement brought him out of his pain-induced stupor. And I wished for the first time ever that Halina was with us. Even though it was daytime outside and that wasn't possible, I wanted her to come rip the man's bloody throat out.

Finally, the camper pulled off the main road to a bumpy dirt road. I think my heart went into overdrive. The camper, although frightening in its own way, had been my home for hours, and I was in a comfortable zone of terror with it. I knew every fault line in the rickety table. I'd counted every water stain in the ceiling and I'd even named the resident spiders living in the kitchen window-Fred and Daphne. Whatever new hell we were being led to, was all the more nerve-racking simply for its newness.

The bouncy road jolted Teren to alertness and he cried out in continual pain. When the bumps became a rhythm that wasn't stopping, he clamped his mouth shut and grabbed my hand. He squeezed so tight I thought he might break me. I'd have let him. I brushed back his hair from his now slick forehead and whispered what encouragement I could. Struggling to remain conscious, he closed his eyes and nodded.

Eventually the jarring stopped. Eventually the sound of the tires crunching along a dirt path stopped. Eventually the camper stopped. I'm pretty sure that's when my heart stopped, too. Teren opened his eyes and let out a sharp exhale of relief. Well, as much relief as he could possibly feel right now. With glazed eyes he turned to look at me and, needing comfort as well as wanting to give it, I kissed him. With tight lips, he returned my kiss.

Abruptly the camper door swung open and surprised, we broke apart. A large man, taller and wider than Teren, with coarse, graying stubble that looked as hard and unwelcoming as the man's personality must be, entered the vehicle that now felt tiny. "Well, isn't that nice. Kissing your soon-to-be dead lover goodbye, huh? Sweet." His voice had a gravely edge to it that was as unpleasant as everything else about him. A scar across his lower lip buckled the skin as he smiled. "It'd be even sweeter, if he weren't a spawn of pure evil."

He stepped into the small kitchen area and I protectively placed myself in front of Teren. "Please, let us go. We're just-"

He took another step to stand right in front of me, and I noticed the wide open door behind him. He crisply cut me off. "Don't even try and play innocent." He pointed a dirty finger at Teren, who weakly raised his head and looked up at him with defiance bravely etched on his face. "I know exactly what he is." The man glared at me. "And you too...vampire whore."

My mouth dropped. I'm not sure what shocked me more-him knowing that Teren was a vampire, or him calling me a whore. The scarred smile returned as he took in my shocked expression. "Didn't think I knew what he was?"

"What do you want with me?" Teren quietly asked through his tightly clenched jaw.

The man's smile left him and his dark, close-set eyes narrowed as he looked down on Teren, like he was nothing more than dirt the man had scraped off his shoe. "I want what God has commanded of me. I want to destroy all of your kind." His dark eyes flared with a zealot light. "I will end every abomination on this Earth."

Teren's clenched jaw loosened in shock at hearing the man's passionate words. I started shivering, as I blocked as much of Teren as I could.

"He is not an abom-"

I didn't get a chance to finish my brilliant rebuttal. The man reached out and fisted my hair with his massive palm. He jerked my head away from Teren and my body had no choice but to follow. He tossed me and my prickling scalp into the bench seat at the rickety table.

His finger landed on my chest with a force that I'm sure bruised me. "Your opinion on the matter doesn't interest me, whore." He motioned back to Teren. He was biting his lip to stop himself from crying out in pain as he attempted to move his body, to help me in some small way. "Your life became irrelevant the minute you let that feed off you." He leaned in close and his musky odor sickened me. His eyes flicked down my body. "And you let him inside you...an unholy beast..." He spat on the floor next to the table. "You disgust me."

Embarrassment and rage flashed through me. "Right back at you, asshole!"

He smirked, then slapped me. Hard. My head was suddenly facing the window and my ears were ringing. My jaw felt disconnected from my body and I could feel a warm trickle from a line of blood trailing down my chin. Apparently, I'd cut my lip on my teeth. Wonderful. I'd never been "bitch-slapped" before. I found I didn't like it.

I wiped the blood off with the back of my hand and slowly swiveled my head at the sound of Teren struggling and in pain. I turned to see the man watching in amusement as Teren unsuccessfully attempted to stand and defend me. Tears of pain were in his eyes as he tried to move his wrecked legs. He was breathing heavy, and soft whimpers were escaping him. His face paled to a sickening ashen color; he looked like he was going to pass out again.

The man let out a cruel laugh. "No fun when you can't heal yet, is it?" He leaned over Teren and placed his hands on his knees. "That's when you're easiest to catch, you know. When you're still mostly human...and weak."

"I will rip your throat out," Teren growled. Anger brightened his eyes and a deep snarl rose from his chest.

The man laughed again. Straightening, he kicked Teren's legs on the floor. So much pain instantly filled Teren's face that he couldn't even cry out. His mouth dropped and he gasped as he struggled for air. He seemed incapable of doing anything else. Eyes fluttering, his head dropped back on the chair.

"Teren!" I started to rise, determined to help him somehow, when the man stuck his finger on my chest again. "Stay," he commanded. I froze, pure hatred in my eyes as I glared up at him.

He smirked as he looked down on me. The scar on his lip made the move unnaturally menacing. He regarded me with cold eyes. "Do you love this evil thing?" He nudged Teren's toe, making him cry out.

"Stop it," I snapped.

"Do you?" he asked quietly.

A tear rolled down my cheek as I watched Teren start to come back to consciousness. "Yes," I whispered. My eyes shot up to the man. "And he's not evil. He's a good man."

Laughing, the man leaned over me. "He's not even truly human. He's not a man."

Wanting him to back up, I did something I never thought I would do-I spat in his face. The man didn't seem too shocked by the display, and calmly wiped his face with the sleeve of his army jacket. Straightening, he patted the knife on his belt. I froze as I remembered that this man was dangerous...and armed.

His rough voice dropped an octave. "Here is what's going to happen." He pointed at me. "You are going to help me move this," he kicked Teren's legs, and I flinched as he cried out in pain, "or I can do it all by myself." His lips curled into a cruel smile.

I swallowed as I imagined just how gentle he'd be with Teren's beaten body. I gave him a stiff nod and the man motioned for me to stand. Warily, I stood beside the table. My eyes never left the man's hard face. He bent down for Teren and I glanced back at the open door. Freedom was staring me in the face. I immediately ignored it, as Teren gasped in pain. The man had gathered his legs into his arms and was starting to lift him. Teren was struggling not to scream. I wasn't going anywhere without him.

"What are you doing? Let me take his legs!" I yelled, as I ran around to Teren's shoulders. I attempted to lift his upper body so he was more level. The icy rush of adrenaline coursing through me made it possible, and I lifted Teren securely, if not easily. Teren's head dropped back to my shoulder, as he passed out again from the pain.

The man roughly lifted his legs as he smirked at me. "Did you think I was going anywhere near his teeth? I'm not stupid, sweetheart."

"I disagree. He's gonna kill you, you know."

The man laughed and looked at Teren's limp form in our hands. "I doubt that...but it wouldn't surprise me if he tried." He looked back up to me. "He is evil, after all."

I bit back my angry retort as the man started to move backwards out of the camper. Teren groaned, and his head lolled side to side as we made our way down the couple of steps at the back of the vehicle. I tried to be gentle with my half of Teren, but the man couldn't have cared less about his bloody half, and we jarred him with every step down. Teren came to briefly at the bottom. He lifted his head off my shoulder and made a pained noise before dropping it down again. I kissed his head and whispered that it would be okay, as I felt a couple of his tears hit my collarbone. He was in so much pain...

I was so focused on keeping pace with the man holding Teren's legs, that I barely noticed the reddish-brown, dusty dirt under my feet. I started to struggle with Teren's weight, as my momentary rush of strength started to ebb. When my feet hit wooden steps, I looked up from where I'd been intently studying the circular pattern on Teren's t-shirt.

We were at an old farmhouse that looked like it had been abandoned in the early nineteen hundreds. The porch had missing floorboards, the front door was half off its hinges, and the windows were long gone. They had been boarded over with faded planks of wood in an X pattern. The man started up the steps, which looked about ready to cave inward, and I carefully followed him, trying to readjust my hold on Teren without shaking him too badly.

We finally made it around the missing planks in the porch, and through the half-destroyed door, and entered a small room with a rat-infested couch. I automatically started shifting to the couch, wanting to set Teren down, but the man turned down a side hallway. Teren groaned as his body went in two different directions. Cursing, I adjusted my grip and followed the asshole who'd abducted us. He led us to a lone door in a rickety hallway. The door had an iron bar padlocked across it. The lock was open and the bar was raised-awaiting its prisoners. He turned the doorknob after unceremoniously dropping one of Teren's legs. Teren screamed at that.

The man swung the door inward, exposing a pitch-black opening that seemed to devour all light that tried to touch it. I did not want to follow him in there. Everything in my body wanted to run while the man was preoccupied with flipping on a light switch, exposing a steep set of stairs that surely led down into Hell. But I couldn't run with Teren, and there was no way I was running without him, so I gathered my courage and made the conscious decision to follow the man when he picked Teren's leg back up and started down the steps.

He carefully backed down the poorly constructed wooden staircase. They were the kind of stairs that had large gaps between each step and no backing, so with every long drop you were just positive that a hand was going to reach out from behind and grab your ankles, making you fall and crash into the ground below. But somehow we safely made it down those long steps, Teren groaning with each one, and started walking through a cellar.

I hate cellars. My aunt had one in her house and when I was four, I was accidentally locked inside it for a few hours. She had an old furnace that groaned and whined periodically, and my child mind had transformed the noisy contraption into a monster that was searching me out to eat me. Now, at twenty-five, I was well aware that cellars were no different than any other room in a house...but a lingering childhood fear remained with me all the same. As we approached the far wall, I was already shaking with the prospect of being locked down here.

I struggled with gently lowering my half of Teren's body. The man simply dumped Teren's legs to the ground. Teren cried out as I propped him against the dank stone wall of the dirt-floor room. The air smelled rank-like mold and stale water. I could hear animals scurrying in the dark corners that the single, bare bulb hanging from a chain in the center of the room didn't illuminate.

Struggling with controlling my terror, I startled and screamed when the man touched me. He grabbed my hand, and just as I started to fight him off with every fear-empowered cell in my body, I felt cool metal slap around my wrist and cinch tight with a resounding snap. The man let go of me and confused, I followed the odd sound. I was shocked to see that my wrist was now handcuffed to a wrought iron bar attached to the stone wall.

Knowing it would do nothing, I reflexively pulled at my wrist. The bar didn't budge. Panic welled in me; now I was chained to the wall in this room that terrified me. Genuinely afraid, I grabbed Teren's hand. As he started to come back around, he loosely held mine back. He laid his head against the rough wall of the square coffin we were in, and tried to smile encouragingly at me, but his face was too full of fear and pain to successfully pull it off. At least Teren and I were in this together.

The man's chuckling returned my attention to him. He was smiling at the sight of Teren and me huddled on the dirt floor before him, holding hands.

I tried to appeal to whatever humanity this man probably didn't have. "Please, let us go. He's really hurt. He needs to be in a hospital."

The man laughed once and spat on the ground. "He'll be fine, once he changes. At least, until I stake him, of course."

I squinted as I tried to absorb what he was saying. "What?"

The man squatted down to look me in the eye. He reached out to touch my hair and I instinctively pulled away from him. "I don't relish killing humans, but you can't be allowed to live, vamp lover." He pointed with his thumb at Teren. "I'm going to let him finish you, and then I'll finish him." He brushed his hands off on each other. "All clean." He smirked at me. "You can think of it as me getting justice on your murderer, if you like?"

My body went ice cold with the confirmation that he was planning on killing us...and nefariously too. "Teren would never hurt me. Your plan will fail. He would never kill a human!" I felt Teren squeeze my hand a little tighter and I grasped his like a lifeline.

Weakly Teren muttered, "She's right. I'd never-"

The man brushed Teren's legs with his hands, making Teren stop talking and cry out in pain.

"Stop it!" I yelled at him.

He ignored my outburst and responded to my statement. "Won't kill, huh?" His dark eyes bored into mine. "Not even after he changes? Not even when he's...deathly hungry?"

Teren sucked in a sharp breath and I felt the blood draining from my face. That was the one time we were both a little unsure of. I frantically pulled at the cuffs again as I looked over at Teren. That was when I realized he wasn't restrained. Damn if my sister hadn't been right-on with her fear. Here I was, chained to the wall next to a vampire, just like some damn virgin sacrifice.

I sputtered in protest. "Weeks? You're going to keep us down here for weeks, waiting for him to..." My thoughts trailed off as my eyes ran over Teren's legs, soaked in blood. The man's jacket was streaked with it from where he'd held him up. "He won't make it for weeks." My eyes went back to the man's. "You've killed him already. He won't survive until the change!"

The man straightened and laughed at me. Shaking his head, he reached into his back pocket and grabbed a case. While I snuck a peek at Teren, who was scrutinizing every move the man made, our captor spoke in an amused voice. "I don't have time to wait weeks. This one has nest-mates, who will eventually look for him." He opened the silver case and pulled out a syringe. Tapping the glass, he pushed some pink fluid out of the tip, removing the air bubbles. Smiling, his scar white against his pale lips, he knelt beside Teren and said, "I only need a day."

With that comment, he stuck the needle into Teren's thigh and injected the fluid. Teren screamed like he was being pumped full of molten lava. I tried to push the man back, but he was already finished. He stepped away from Teren, leaving him gasping in pain and clutching at his thigh.

"What did you do to him?" I hotly demanded, straining against my restraints in my desire to throttle the man.

Unimpressed by my display, he calmly held the empty syringe in front of him. "This...jumpstarts the conversion. He'll be dead by nightfall." My body went limp with shock and defeat while Teren clenched my hand with renewed strength.

"What? That's not possible..." I whispered, more to myself than the man.

He answered me though. "You both act like he's something special." He shrugged. "He's not. I've been chasing mixed breeds all up and down this country. They're all the same." He held the syringe up to me again, before putting it back in its case. "I cooked this up myself and it always works. It always forces the change, within hours. I even got this to work on a ten year old once." He said that with a look of cold pride, like changing over a child was an accomplishment.

My eyes were glued to the syringe being tucked back into its case. In that one instant, only a single thought echoed in my head and vibrated through my body: The line was dead.

Looking back at Teren clutching his leg in torturous agony, my first thought should have been for his well-being. I should have cared about his fear of dying, of crossing over into that unknown place. I should have cared about the pain that change was going to bring him, although with the pains he'd suffered recently, I was beginning to believe that the dying part might actually be the most relaxing thing he'd felt in a while. I should have cared that Teren's heart was about to stop and his skin was going to cool. I should have instantly cared about being anchored next to a man who was about experience insatiable blood lust.

But I didn't care about that yet. All I cared about, as the man coldly laughed at Teren's discomfort, was my empty womb; that one needle had instantly evaporated any hope of a child. I wasn't pregnant...and now I never would be. I'd never see a black-haired child in my home. I'd never hear Teren's laugh repeated in miniature. I'd never hear a tiny, musical voice say, "I love you, Mommy." My soul ached with the loss.

I knew on some level, that that shouldn't have been relevant right now. Somewhere in my head, I knew I'd never survive this night anyway, so being pregnant or not didn't even matter. But I'd been trying to have Teren's baby for a while now, and forcefully being made to let go of that dream ripped my heart to pieces. A sob escaped me and I sunk my head onto Teren's chest. His breathing had somewhat returned to normal, but his heart was beating wildly. His doomed heart was beating wildly. I sobbed even more.

Teren's hand came up to clutch my back as I mercilessly wept against his chest. The dying man in extraordinary pain was actually trying to soothe me because my uterus was barren. That thought snapped my head back to reality. Wiping my face off on my shirt, I turned to glare at the man standing a few paces away, watching us with a look of amused disgust on his scratchy face.

I was about to let out a stream of vile profanity that would surely be so scathing the man would instantly change his mind about our captivity and let us go. The man opened his mouth and began speaking before I could though. "You must be third generation at least." He reached behind him to grab a chair, then scooted to the edge of the pale circle of light. Half his face was in darkness, and the light half of him seemed all the more menacing because of it. I swallowed back my obscenities and glanced up at Teren. He was eyeing the man with a clenched jaw and lethal intent.

The man didn't seem to care that Teren wasn't participating in the conversation, and he continued to talk to him like he was-some men did so enjoy discussing their work. "Yeah, it's so much harder to spot you guys, when you can hide out in the sunshine." He shook his head. "It's rare to come across a fourth or fifth and I tell you, they are really difficult to tell apart from humans. You pretty much have to watch for them to feed."

I swear my stomach thumped with a phantom baby kick at the man's cruel words. My dry eyes threatened to spill back over with my heart wrenching loss, but I made myself keep full composure. This...thing...before me wouldn't get another second of my tears.

The man scratched his lice-infested jaw, okay, he wasn't lice infested, but the man was disgusting, and it helped stoke the fire in my belly to make him as physically gross as he was morally. "It was a lucky night for me that I went to that baseball game." He tilted his head and eyed Teren with a raised brow. "That was quite a catch...vampire."

My heart seized. Teren and I looked at each other and a moment of Oh God realization passed soundlessly between us. This evil Buffy wannabe had been there that night. He had seen Teren calmly pluck a ball from in front of my face barehanded. No one else in the stadium had made the connection but the one person who had some divine providence to do something about it.

We looked back over at him when his gravelly voice continued, "I followed you after that...just to be sure." Leaning forward on his hands and knees, he spat on the hard-packed dirt. "I followed you to your vampire nest. A ranch? Interesting." He ran a hand along his jaw while I paled at the thought of him anywhere near Teren's family. "I suppose I'll have to clear them out next."

"You son of a bitch!" Teren suddenly exclaimed. He jerked upright, like he was going to attack the man. Unfortunately his body wasn't up for the task, and he immediately crumpled back against the wall, as the pain shot through him.

The man let out a cold laugh as he watched Teren struggle. "Yeah...I didn't go near the property." He tapped a grimy finger against his ear. "I know what you can do. But I figure there are at least two other mixed...and the full vampire, of course." Teren's upper body went rigid as he breathed in and out with as much control as he could muster. I almost expected him to slip out his fangs and hiss at the man. I think if he thought it would do any good, he would have.

The man spat again before laying out his insidious plan. "I'll go in during the day, stake the mixed ones fast, and then torch the vampire while they sleep. Easiest way to rid yourself of a vampire-cleansing through fire while they nap." His lips started to spread into a smile, but then he frowned. "You got humans there? Breeders?" He shrugged. "I suppose I'll have to toss them in the fire too... I really don't relish killing humans, but, God's work must be done."

Teren dropped his mouth in speechlessness. My mind instantly went to my sister and her charred, blistered skin after the horrendous fire that had devastated our family. I couldn't believe someone would willingly impose that cruel fate on another. I pictured Halina's screams as she was awoken from a deep sleep. I imagined Jack's flesh melting, muscle sliding away from the bone...

I stood and nearly yanked my arm from my socket as I made a move for the man. He only turned his head a small fraction to glance at me in apathy. That disregarding look ignited my already flaring temper. "I'm going to fillet you! You will never touch them! Never!"

I futilely struggled against the cuffs; the iron bar scraped in protest with my furious movements. Finally, the man walked over to me. Teren tried to grab him, but he effortlessly scooted away from his grasp. Coming up to the other side of me, away from Teren, he clamped my throat in his big hands and harshly smacked my head against the wall. Dazed and seeing stars dance in my vision, I slumped down the wall in defeat. Teren immediately put his hand on the back of my head. I felt the wetness there and knew I was bleeding. My vampire would be aware of that too. He snapped his head around to the man calmly walking back to his chair. A low growl rumbled in his chest as his fangs slid out; he looked ready to tear the man to pieces.

The man only laughed again. "Ahhh...there's the beast. I was wondering if he'd show up to the party." He pointed at where Teren was still issuing a lethal growl from deep in his chest. "I've been biding my time, waiting to collect you and your whore. You provided me the perfect opportunity, by telling your friends and coworkers that you were going away for weeks..." He shrugged and a happy look crossed his hard face. "Thank you for that. No one is going to miss you for a long time. I'll be on the other side of the country before the police are even called...not that they'll ever find your bodies."

Feeling more in control of my vision if nothing else, I spat at the man, "Why are you doing this? They're not hurting anyone! They're innocen-"

He cut me off before I could finish my protest. "Innocent? Have they hypnotized you woman?" He spat again and curled his lip in disdain. "They're killers...each and every one of them." He indicated Teren huddled against me, fangs still bared, as if that proved his point.

"And what are you!" I yelled with a derisive curl of my own.

His back straightened and for a moment, I saw a soldier in that green army jacket. "I'm a holy man. I'm doing God's work. I'm ridding the world of anathemas." He narrowed his eyes as he snarled at me, "I'm not adding to them." Before I could respond he said, "They all kill...every one, so don't you say they are innocent, loving creatures. They aren't."

His voice rose and warbled. "My daughter was the innocent..." His eyes watered as pure, righteous anger filled him. "She was tricked by a monster. That thing got her pregnant, then devoured her and the baby in her womb, after he changed." His entire body shook and for a moment, I thought he was going to vibrate off the chair. He didn't though. Instead, he stood. Still shaking in a near epileptic fit, he walked over to stand in front of Teren. From the light of near madness in the man's eyes, I didn't even think he saw Teren anymore. He saw whatever poor vampire had harmed his child.

"He had the nerve to apologize, before I drove the stake through his heart. Apologize! For taking the life of my little girl!" He swung his foot and his steel-toed boot made contact with the bloody pulp of Teren's shins. The movement jerked Teren's legs towards me and his body followed suit. He slumped to the ground around my knees, crying out in pain before stilling, knocked out again from the sheer overwhelming power of agony.

I ran my free hand over his back and curled over him protectively. "Leave him alone! He's already dying! You don't need to torture him!"

The man sneered at me. Ignoring my comments, he contemptuously said, "I watched you let him feed off of you at that restaurant. That's what made me positive I had it right." His eyes ran up and down my body, like I was the most perverted thing he'd ever seen. "You commanded him to drink blood from you and then you screwed him." My stomach dropped as I realized what he was talking about. I had thought we were perfectly alone that night by the dumpster. I didn't know anyone had seen that. Teren had been so focused on my blood, he must not have heard the man, and he'd seen...everything.

My face heated and I raised my chin in defiance. "Yes. I let him drink from me. I let him make love to me. I love him." My eyes ran up and down the creep's body with contempt. "He's more of a man than you'll ever be."

The man smirked again, brought his fist around again, and knocked me out cold...again.