The cloth sack was rough against Lucy’s face as she awoke. Panicking for a second she attempted to struggle before feeling the white hot burn of silver around her wrists and ankles binding her to what felt like a stiff wooden chair. Panic quickly took over but Lucy attempted to stay still, refusing even to breathe as the silver continued to burn like acid against her skin.

  “You're awake, the sun set almost half an hour ago, but I suppose between the stake and the silver you probably needed time to heal, right?” A gravelly voice asked and Lucy didn’t know how to respond, Ebba had never told her what to do if she was ever kidnapped, in fact very little of what she had been taught came to mind.

  Lucy hesitated as she heard footsteps pad along towards her occasionally stepping in something damp causing a small spsh. With a start the bag was ripped from her head and thankfully her eyes adjusted quickly to the dim room.

  “Are you able to speak? I was a little rough with the st one I grabbed, I think she was too new. Hate to think I’ve broken you as well.” The man before her responded, he was tall, almost the same height as her sire so maybe six foot, the tattered hoodie and denim jacket covered much of his body as did the baggy jeans but from the stubble and dirt covering his face, almost hiding a deep scar on his jawline. The human, and she was sure he was human given the heartbeat, may have been homeless.

  “I can speak.” Lucy finally responded, her voice coming out weaker than usual, the effort it took to speak highlighted the deep pain in her chest and looking down, her blouse was soaking in dark dried blood.

  “Good and don’t worry about your chest or any of the other wounds, you do as I say and they’ll all have plenty of time to heal, understood?” His almost bck eyes bore into her as he awaited a response. Lucy’s weak nod seems to satisfy him though as he pulled back. “Good, now I have one task for you, Lucy, childe of Ebba. You’re going to turn me into a vampire.”

  Lucy blinked once then twice more, confusion taking over her features as she stuttered out a response. “I, you want me to turn you? Are you not a Hunter? Why would you kidnap me for that?”

  The man rolled his eyes. “What I am is irrelevant, what I will be if you wish to continue your unholy existence is a vampire. You know how to do it right?”

  Lucy looked down praying that Ebba was looking for her. She slowly shook her head in response.

  “Fucking hell, how old are you?” The man asked, exacerbated.

  “Twenty-nine. I was turned six years ago.”

  “Six, bloody perfect.” The man paused to rub at the stubble on his face before continuing. “Well you’ll still be capable of turning me, you need to drain me of all my blood, then once I reach the edge of death you need to feed me your blood, as much as you can. Understood?”

  “You want me to drain your blood? Why wouldn’t I just kill you?” Lucy questioned. Lucy watched as the man huffed a ugh and walked to the left, she turned to try and follow him as he went but the movement Caused the silver to chafe and dig deeper into her limbs.

  “You mean like you killed David Rovaldi? Or what about Isiah Thompson? There was Joss Brown as well. Honestly the list goes on with you Lucy doesn’t it? So new for a vampire and yet such a long list of bodies left in your wake.”

  Lucy scoffed at the man’s mocking tone watching him come back into view with a key and a wooden stake. “ I’m a vampire, my Sire says no vampire gets through this life without some bloodshed.” Lucy continued after the man before her didn't respond. “And so what if I have a little issue with self control, it’s hard stopping yourself. If you want me to turn you, you’ll see exactly that, buddy.”

  “Rest assured I’ll never be anything like you, leech.” Lucy rolled her eyes as he continued. “Besides the point I’m making, and something you need to understand, dear Lucy, is that I have information about and evidence for many of the killings, you, your siblings and your Sire have committed. Be they for food, punishment or sport, I have worked to track as much as possible, and I have set up a number of automatic emails set to get out one week from now to the police, if you turn me, I can rise and turn those of saving your bloodline from endless investigations and allegations while also keeping vampires out of the news while parliament is debating a curfew for Supes. If you choose to drain me and flee, those emails will go out. The public will know of your crimes and seek your family’s heads, if you’re not run out of this country, you will be burned, stabbed or beheaded and your decision here and now will have sealed that fate for you, and however many countless vampires get caught in the public's crossfire.” The man leaned down and Lucy could see him fiddingling with something under the chair, she heard a click and in an instant the chains were ripped away, chunks of skin tearing away with them as she let out a scream at the harshness of the Action. As she held her wrists in front of her and looked to the man as her eyes began to change colour she scowled at the smug grin on his dirty face.

  “So time to make your decision Lucy, kill me or turn me.”

  The question caused fear to pool in her stomach, mixing and cooling the rage she felt at his confidence. Sadly she knew this was no choice. Nodding her assent Lucy stiffened as the ragged man moved forward immediately, a knife slipping from somewhere in his clothes. Bracing herself for the strike she was surprised when nothing happened, instead a smooth mechanical clunk sounded behind her and suddenly pain as the silver chains pulled away, the putrid smell of burnt flesh left behind. As the st of the chains pulled from her legs, Lucy’s fangs were fully unsheathed, her eyes bzing with an ethereal green glow, the pain and blood loss combining with the indignity of her capture, all feeding back into the bloodlust that made her a vampire.

  The man cared little, as he walked backwards away from the vampire with a wry smile on his face he shed his dirty jacket and hoodie revealing an equally dishevelled tank under it wrapped around a surprisingly well formed core.

  “Come on love, let’s get this started then.” He responded as he dragged the knife clean across his wrist, the scent of blood tugging at Lucy’s senses. In a fsh she had left the chair and tched onto the wound, the blood tugging out of him in quick hot pulls. They stood together like this for a few moments, the knife held tightly in a white knuckled grip as the vampire hunched over draining the blood from his body.

  As his grip sckened and blood lost started to take effect lucy let go for a moment watching with a bloody grin as the man slipped to the floor with a dull thump. Crouching low over him, she let his eyes catch his gaze and once she had him focused on her, she stretched her will over his.

  “How do I cancel all the emails going out.” She asked in a small whisper. The words trying to take power over his mind.

  He sat still for a moment as blood continued to leak slowly from his writer, after a moment his mouth turned up in a weak grin.

  “Do they teach you lot nothing anymore? We can’t be hypnotised, none of your magic works on us, be pretty shit hunters if they did. Only way to stop them going out is to turn me, understood?”

  Lucy scowled, her hatred for the man before her growing by the minute. Moving quickly once more she snatched the knife from his hand, a move that almost brought a look of shock to his face before she used it to stab a hole in her own wrist, dark bck red blood oozing to the surface but waiting to spill over the wound. As she brought the wound to his mouth he hesitated a moment, staring at the pooled blood, he watched as a single drop began to spill down the side of her wrist at the new angle before moving forward himself, his mouth covering the wound and having to suck to draw out the blood.

  Lucy watched as he began to draw her blood, his face contorted in a look of disgust at first before slowly morphing into one of need, as his tugs grew more fervent pulling more blood from her at each time she just watched, his eyes seemed to lose focus, his movements growing erratic, as he continued to drink she leaned forward whispering into his ear.

  “I hope when you wake up the hunger consumes you, that you become everything you have been taught to hate Hunter.” She spat the st word like a curse, but she went unheard as he continued to drink deep of her blood. “Your fellow hunters will mock and deride you , and your fellow vampires will hunt and hate you. You’ll be lost between two worlds, and it’ll still be more than you deserve.” He continued to drink at her wrist before she decided he’d had enough, pulling him away took some effort as he had quickly gone from disgusted to ravenous for the blood, but once she separated him from the source and her arm began to heal, the life force that had kept him alive as his arm continued to leak blood started to ebb. His eyes dropped as he fell back into his haunches, his limbs growing heavy, his eyes nguidly followed Lucy as she rose walking away looking for an exit.

  As the light began to dim in his vision he managed to whisper one st time, his words being picked up by her sensitive hearing. “Go up the stairs and put all the locks on from the outside, I can’t escape. Please.”

  Lucy looked back for him but didn’t respond, as she left the basement the hatch door she exited remained open, and his vision darkened, his death overtook him, he felt the first stirrings of hunger.