Looking up was sort of a shock.  It was really dark!   Evil looking clouds scudded across the moonless sky like dark creatures running before a vicious predator.  The wind whipped her cape, almost tearing it from her body.  She grasped it tightly, seeking the warmth within.  The radio had said this was the coldest night since the same day in 1812.  "Why am I out here?" she wondered.  Her throat hurt and her body ached.  "Oh, yea.  I have got to get some blood.  Damn, how could I have been so careless!"

Actually, she knew how she'd been so careless.  With Christa staying with her, she'd had a steady supply of blood.  She'd gotten careless about having a little stashed away.  When Christa had gotten the phone call and had to leave so suddenly, that she'd had nothing to sustain her, had been the farthest thing from her mind. She’d been trying to make Christa feel better, not thinking about drinking blood.

But last night had been almost as cold and she'd not felt like going out.  She'd had more than a little brandy and fallen sound asleep and slept through the entire day.  Now, here she was, wondering what to do.  She turned toward the hospital.  She wrinkled her nose at the thought of bottled blood, but it beat feeling as bad as she was feeling.  There sure wasn't much chance of finding anyone or anything to feed on with the weather the way it was. Her sense of danger tingled and she reflexively did a double blink to confound any attack or observation.  One second she was there, and then she wasn’t.  She was in the alley across the street, watching and waiting to see what was going to happen.

Then she saw it.  It was loping down the middle of the street, tongue lolling out, its dark grey pelt making it look like one of the wind driven clouds she'd been looking at earlier.  Turning the corner, she saw a group of six people that were obviously pursuing the fairly large werewolf, and it was running.  That was strange.  She'd have expected it to be on them and tearing them apart.  Something was different and she was very curious as to what it was.  Every danger sense she had was screaming, but she knew she needed to understand what was going on here.  Anything that would make one of the puppies run, especially one that size, was something she needed to know about.

One of the pursuing men dropped to one knee, shouldered a weapon and fired.  Eliza heard a sharp crack, saw the muzzle spurt a short tongue of flame and the creature tumbled and howled.  It struggled to its feet as the group surrounded it.  The six surrounded it at a respectful distance, close enough to control its movement but far enough away to be out of immediate attack range.  It slowly circled looking for a weakness.  The men were armed with short poles tipped with triple barbs.  From the gleam, she realized that the trident like device was made of silver.  She shuddered, thinking of her own reaction to silver.  

The circle tightened and the werewolf slashed with heavy claws and snapped with powerful jaws but the circle gave in one direction and tightened in the other.  If nothing changed, the outcome was obvious.  The creature reached the same conclusion and took the only action possible, it charged the weakest area of the circle, accepting trident sticks but taking two of its attackers down.  A vicious hand to hand fight erupted where it was almost impossible to follow what was happening in the confusion.  

Eliza withdrew a little further into the shelter of her alley.  The fight was getting closer to her and she did not want to be involved with this.  There was no doubt she was watching hunters at work and she had no desire to be their next target.  A body came flying into the alley and almost landed at her feet.  The beast lunged toward the victim.  She raised her shattered trident shaft to fend it off and Eliza saw that the next attack would have Vicki's throat torn out.  The wolf recoiled and lunged forward, jaws set to crush the life from its prey.  Eliza acted without thinking.  Vicki was still her friend.

She leapt forward, fangs extended and knife in hand.  Her small body hit the massive werewolf with surprising force.  The speed at which she was moving multiplied, many times, the force of impact.  The jaws closed on her left arm and the pain of the crushing force was excruciating, but Vicki's throat was spared.  A short grunt of pain escaped her as she tore at its eyes with her fangs and stabbed its abdomen repeatedly with her long knife.  

Eliza's hissing and screeching, with the wolf's growls and howls crated a momentary ruckus of significant proportions.  The creature had not been expecting to encounter an enraged vampire, nor had it expected the viciousness of the reprisal attack.  The humans stared, transfixed, at what was happening.  The wolf released her arm and tumbled back into the street where it faced four of the remaining hunters.  It turned and ran, escaping into the darkness.  Eliza, bloody fangs and dripping knife, turned and saw that Vicki was alive and safe.  Their eyes met.  Eliza blinked and was on the other side of the street, watching the hunters regroup and support their wounded.  

The pain in her arm was diminishing as she healed.  Feeding had just become more important to her.  The damage to her body needed fresh life to recover properly.  She was consumed with a searing, burning thirst that almost made her scream with the intensity of it.  She had to restrain herself from rushing out and grabbing one of the hunters but she knew that would not be smart.  The realization that Vicki had joined the hunters was sinking in and she knew that Vicki must have recognized her.  She rubbed her aching arm and wondered what she should do.  The pain in her throat and the ache of her body made if very clear that feeding was the next item on the list of things to do.  This was not a time for gentleness.

The unconscious man had served her needs.  She'd taken him from behind and he'd never known what hit him.  She felt better but her victim looked pale.  She hoped she'd not drained him too much.  She ran from the alley, hysterically screaming.  The bouncer from the bar came running to her and she pointed to the alley.  "They hurt him," she screamed.  "They hurt him.  You've got to help him."  The big man moved quickly and saw the situation.  He assumed mugging and picked up the semiconscious man.  He gently helped man into the bar, totally ignoring Eliza.  She grinned, knowing he wouldn't freeze to death in the ally and his return to consciousness showed she'd not drained him beyond recovery.  She rapidly put distance between herself and the bar when she heard the sirens of the approaching police car.  

She'd nearly killed that man and that had not been her intent.  She'd saved Vicki, who was with the hunters, probably jeopardizing her own life.  That was not her intent.  The cold wind caressed her body, but fed and flush with life, she only dimly noticed and enjoyed the sensation.  Her thoughts were dark and she was confused.  She wanted guidance, but she didn't want to be told to "do what she had to do" with Vicki.  She didn't want to have to do anything.  She wanted her life back, not this mess she was facing.

Her danger sense tingled and she turned a corner and approaching her from the other direction was the reason why.  It was the werewolf she saved Vicki from earlier that night.  She not only saved Vicki, but the confusion her presence had caused had probably saved this creature too.  It stopped and stared at her.  Rising to a standing position it snarled, turned and vanished around the corner and into the night.  A chill rippled through her body and she wished she were somewhere else, doing something else.

Vicki watched as Eliza disappeared.  As she did something returned to niggle at her mind.  This was like deja vu.  Somehow, if she wasn’t mistaken, this had happened before.  Her face changed, hardened, as she thought about what her friend Eliza had become.  She was now one of the hunted and Vicki was the hunter.

Jimmy ran around the corner and skidded to a stop.  “Are you ok Vicki, are you?” he almost screamed at her.  “You could have been killed or hurt badly. How can you have been so foolish as to have that thing follow you?” he went on.  Grabbing her shoulders, he shook her, hard.  “Dammit Vicki, don’t scare me like that again,” he cried.

Vicki looked grimly at Jimmy and pulled away from his grasp.  “Let go, Jimmy, you’re hurting me,” she snapped.  “You know who that was, don’t you?  That was Eliza that came between me and that creature.  For some reason, it seems familiar, as if she’d done that or something like it, before.  It’s there, but I can’t quite grasp it,” she said.  “You know Jimmy, I kicked my drug habit thanks to these people.  If they want me to hunt vampires, werewolves and other abnormal creatures of the night, then you know I will.  If it hadn’t been for them, I’d be dead now.”

Sadly, Jimmy agreed with her.  “You know that if you hadn’t left the apartment that day, none of this would have happened.  You just had to have those damn drugs and nothing was going to stop you.  I’m glad they found you but I wish you didn’t feel that you needed to do their dirty work to pay them back.  Stalking these creatures isn’t a job for you.  There has to be another way for you to pay back what they’ve done for you.” 

“Stop right there Jimmy, if you can’t go along with me then just go home and leave me be.  I know you don’t agree with my choice but it is my choice.  When they rescued me from that gutter, I swore then and there, I’d help them with their task.  If I have to kill Eliza, then I will.  I know she was a friend, but she’s become this evil thing and must be destroyed,” Vicki ranted.

“You’ve lost your marbles, Vicki.  Eliza has been nothing less than a friend to you.  She has saved your life countless times and been there when you needed her.  This is how you repay HER?  This isn’t like you Vicki, you’ve changed.  You aren’t the same sweet Vicki I fell for,” Jimmy said.

“Eliza deserted me when I needed her the most,” Vicki whined.  “She hasn’t been around in months and she hasn’t phoned.  She doesn’t answer or return the calls when I call her.  Some friend.”

With an angry look, Vicki turned and walked out of the alley and back up the street the way they had come.  She didn’t look back to see if Jimmy was following or not.  He was, but she never noticed.  She was deep in thought and Jimmy would have been shocked at what she was thinking.

Vicki had changed.  Between the drugs and the training from the hunters, she wasn’t the same girl he’d met three years ago.  He knew she was a working girl when he’d met her.  He worked the streets in much the same way.  It had never made a difference.  To him she was someone to be protected and he did it.  Eliza had, in a way, started the change in Vicki, the self defense training for one.  But this hunter stuff, he just didn’t know.  They had zero tolerance.  Take that werewolf for instance.  They would have tortured it before killing it. Not his way of doing things.  It was fine to be afraid of it but it hadn’t done anything.  They’d come on it and they were like hounds to the fox.  He still felt there was something more behind Vicki’s turning on Eliza.  He just didn’t know what it was.

Vicki was remembering though.  What she remembered was somewhat hazy, but it was there. The night of the attack.  She thought it had been a mugger.  She was almost convinced and no one had tried to change her mind.  The nightmares though, Oh God, the nightmares.  She saw the thing.  It wasn’t a man with a knife.  Eliza then, just as she had been tonight.  Now, for the first time it all came back, clear as a bell.  She saw that ugly man-beast.  She thought she’d been a goner.  Eliza had jumped in all fangs and blade.  She had killed that one though.  Not before he’d cut up her arm.  Rubbing her arm, her fingers slid over the scars.  Now she knew how Eliza had healed her.  The healing powers of the vampire are legendary.  The scars, though faint, were a reminder of all that had happened and until now, she hadn’t been absolutely sure how she’d gotten them.

Shaking her head, she wondered why Eliza had to be one.  She didn’t want to have to hunt her and kill her.  She also knew this was going to be a difficult task.  Eliza was very quick and more so with the vampiric powers.  She was adept at self preservation.  Vicki had learned a thing or two also.  She was firmly convinced they had saved her life and she would do anything for them.

If she could save Eliza in the process though, she would.  She owed her.  That’s why she’d kept quiet when she recognized Eliza on the street.  Vicki swung the trident staff up under her arm and started walking again.  She had much to think about.  Where did this leave them?

Eliza’s thoughts were dark.  The fact that Vicki was now one of the hunters really threw her into confusion.  She knew she hadn’t seen Vicki or Jimmy in months and that bothered her.  She had totally lost touch with her friends and that was not a good thing.  Especially finding out that she was now hunted by them.  “What had brought Vicki to this point,” she wondered?  She had been waiting for the call to help Vicki, which had never come.  Eliza was surprised that Jimmy hadn’t told her what was happening, yet that wasn’t fair either, because she’d stopped answering their messages.  

Everything seemed to be falling apart once again.  She was alone once more.  Oh yes there was Adam, but he almost seemed more interested in Christa, than in her.  “Maybe I’d do better being on my own.  Forget friends.  Who needs them?  Who am I kidding?” Eliza thought, “I need friends.”  She missed Jerry more than ever.  He was the one friend who’d never asked anything of her but to have a good time.

Which brought her back full circle to Vicki.  That’s what they’d always had.  A good time.   Well most of the time.  When she wasn’t saving Vicki’s butt, that is.  Some of those thoughts brought a shiver and some a giggle.  They’d had some really good times, some really bad time and some just so times.  So why is this happening now, where does this fit in the scheme of things?  

“I don’t want to hurt Vicki,” Eliza thought.  “She’d been a good friend until the drugs got hold of her, then it was a downhill slide.   I still don’t want to hurt her or Jimmy, but do they feel the same?” she wondered.

Eliza blinked herself to her apartment and slowly went inside.  Oh just to get warm, she headed right for the coffee maker and grabbed the brandy bottle to add a dollop to her coffee.  Quick heat she thought.  

“NO, STOP RIGHT THERE, ELIZA” she yelled at herself.  “Damn girl, you are getting too caught up in the sauce.  Any excuse to drink the brandy.  Look how many bottles are in the garbage,” she shuddered at the thought.  Geez, she was as bad as Vicki in her own way.  She hadn’t realized how much of the brandy she had started drinking.  Any excuse to drink it, she was bored, cold, hot, upset, anything to have it and to get to the unfeeling part.  She needed to get a grip.  Putting the brandy away, she grabbed a hot cup of coffee and sat on the couch.  Toby made his way over and delicately sniffed, jumping into her lap and making himself comfortable.

Gently rubbing the cat, Eliza thought about the events of the night again.  Vicki sure knew how to handle that trident.  Looks like she had some good training.  “I just hope she doesn’t turn it on me,” she whispered.  Toby opened one eye and looked at her.  “No cat, just go back to sleep, I wasn’t talking to you.  I won’t disturb you again,” she said.  

Grinning slightly, she lapsed into deep thought again.  So deeply in thought, she jumped when the phone rang.

Unceremoniously dumping Toby on the floor, she headed for the phone.  “Hello?” she spoke into it.  Jimmy, it’s good to hear from you.  Why are you whispering?” Eliza asked.

“Look Eliza, I know what you are.  I know how you felt about Vicki and hope you still feel the same way.  I’m in Vicki’s apartment, she’s sleeping and I feel we need to talk.  There’s so many things you don’t know and need to.  Can you meet me somewhere to talk?” he hurriedly said.

“Sure Jimmy, I’ll meet you.  Just tell me where but don’t bring any of your new friends, please,” she told him.

“Very funny Eliza, you know that all night diner  a short distance from Vicki’s place, meet me there in fifteen minutes, ok?”Jimmy asked.

“All right Jimmy, fifteen minutes it is. See you there,” Eliza told him.

Putting on her cloak again, she blinked herself to the diner.  She wanted to get there earlier than Jimmy to make sure he arrived alone.  She didn’t need to be ambushed.  Standing in the shadows, she was invisible to the eye.  On this night though, there were no others about.  It seemed to be even colder than before. 

She saw Jimmy arrive and quickly head inside.  Looking around, she blinked herself to the corner just before the diner.  She walked to the door and moved inside.  She glanced around the near empty diner and saw Jimmy sitting at the booth in the back.  Moving toward him, she gave him a smile.

Greeting him, she said, “Gee Jimmy, good to see you.”

Looking nervously around, Jimmy replied he hoped she’d still be glad when he was finished.

Putting her hand on his arm, Eliza told him to calm down and tell her why he’d wanted her to meet him.

Swallowing hard, Jimmy began talking.  They talked for an hour straight.  Jimmy telling her all that had happened since Eliza had stopped coming by.  About the drug filled days and nights and how Vicki had sunk deeper and deeper into the drugs.  Jimmy was only an occasional user and had seen what was happening.  He’d kicked the habit, Vicki hadn’t.  He told her about everything until the night that Vicki hadn’t come home. 

Looking at Eliza, he told her that this is where Vicki got caught up with the hunters.  He didn’t think that she knew then that Eliza was a vampire.  She knew  now though.  Jimmy told Eliza about how the hunters had helped save Vicki’s life that night.  How they’d helped her kick the drugs while feeding her the story that it was all everyone else’s fault that she was like this.  How they needed her help to rid the city of the terror that was stalking it.  How vampires, were-animals and such were an abomination and must be destroyed.

“Can you understand Eliza, can you?” Jimmy asked sadly.  “I watched as she sunk to the depths of hell, I’ve watched as she came back to life.  Oh so very different though.  Not the sweet, giving Vicki of before.  This Vicki is hard.  Dedicated to eradicating all things that differ from “humans,” as the hunters say.  I just don’t know what to do and I’m trying to save her from herself,” Jimmy said quietly.

Eliza looked at Jimmy sadly and said, “I don’t understand all of it, Jimmy, but how can I help her.  She was, after all, a good friend.”

Shaking his head, Jimmy replied that he didn’t know if Eliza could help at all.  It depended on Vicki herself and what she planned to do.  She wasn’t talking about it. 

“I’ll try and keep you informed, Eliza, but a word of caution.  Watch your back.”

“Thanks for telling me all this Jimmy.  Give her an extra hug for me, but don’t tell her its from me.  I’ll talk to you soon,” Eliza said as she made her way to the front.

Paying for their coffee’s, she raised a hand in salute to Jimmy and left.

Making sure no one was watching, she blinked herself home. 

Once again removing her cape, she settled in the chair to think over what Jimmy had just told her.

Sinking deep into thought, she realized that most everyone seemed to be coming after her.  Not in friendship either, most wanted to do her in.  She’d already had run-ins with the hunters and she didn’t want or need anymore.

Deep in thought, she didn’t notice the passing time and slowly fell asleep. Then the dreams started.  She knew they were dreams, she thought they were dreams, they were dreams weren’t they?