The day was hot, and dust hung in the air as he trudged down the road. The sun was to his left, slowly sinking lower. All too soon the day's heat would be ended. The lights would be switched on, the city behind him huddling in the center of its protective glow. And he would be alone on the road in the dark. He shuddered. Much as he wanted to put his hope in reaching the shelter of light before the vampires found him, he'd be most of the night on the road before he reached the glow of the nearest settlement. And it was entirely possible that somebody from the city would have sent them word and he'd be turned back. Many of the old technologies had been lost, but radio was simple, and still worked just fine to keep people in touch. And given the attitude of the city's people, it was very likely that they'd done so.

He sighed again. I remember wondering what I'd do if I were faced with death, he thought, almost absently. I guess now I know. It's weird that I can be this calm, but it almost doesn't seem real... I just hope that they don't turn me. I wouldn't want to be a vampire.

Most people who got contaminated with vampirism didn't turn, of course. Perhaps one in thirty rose again after dying with the vampire taint. And just being bitten wasn't enough, you had to get the vampire's blood in you somehow. People still argued if it was a purely scientific thing, or something supernatural. You could detect the vampire taint with a microscope. Thankfully, or what little of civilization that remained would have torn itself apart with suspicion and mistrust. But you couldn't predict who would actually turn. It didn't follow any pattern of age, race, or gender. Some people had the taint, and stayed dead, some had it and rose again. That was just all there was to it. In a way it was far more terrifying than if everyone tainted became a vampire. There was the uncertainty, the hope that somebody might rest in peace, the fear that they might not.

Not that David had known anybody who was tainted. When the light barriers had finally been built, the protected populace had finally been able to winnow the tainted out from among them. He'd heard horror stories of that too. Sometimes the tainted were left to live, and their corpses burned when they died, but in some places the tainted had been burned alive. He shuddered again. That's still better than coming back as a vampire.

He trudged on, too bruised to really move briskly, but trying to go as fast as he could. The sun sank. As it touched the horizon, the lights of the city came up behind him. He glanced back over his shoulder at the distant glow, lighting the sky behind. The city itself was well out of sight, but the lights were visible for miles. As the sky darkened he could make out a faint hint of glow ahead of him. His destination, still miles away. And full night had fallen. David tried to suppress another shudder. Maybe he would get lucky. Maybe...

"Look Raven, the humans have sent us dinner. How nice of them!"

David stopped, glancing around. The cruelly taunting male voice had come from the right, but he couldn't see anything but unremarkable dirt, the occasional rock, and some scrubby brush.

"They're so kind," said a female voice from the left, and suddenly he could pick out two forms in the gloom. Two vampires, the male on one side, the female on the other, both of them lean, dressed in dark colors, and both of them advancing on him. He drew his mace gun. It couldn't kill them, but the concentrated spray would stun them for a bit... Then in a flash the male was right up against him, and had grabbed his wrist. David cried out as the vampire twisted, and the gun dropped from his suddenly limp hand.

He'd heard stories all his life of how strong and fast vampires were. But he'd never really realized what a moving vampire was like. It was like a striking snake, but more startling. You didn't expect that flash of motion from something that looked human. Suddenly the female was at his other side, grinning at him with too-sharp teeth. She grabbed his hair, twisting her fingers through it, and forced his head back. David let out an involuntary whimper. He tried to pull away from her grip, but he might as well have been pulling against a rock for all the difference it made. She ran fingertips down his throat and he shuddered, whimpering again. The male laughed, a cold sound of sadistic enjoyment at David's fear, and kept his grip on David's wrist, keeping him pinned between the two of them. The female leaned in, her breath cool against his neck, and licked the side of his neck, her startlingly cold body pressed against him.

Then a third voice spoke out of the dark.

"Raven, my dear, I've told you before it's not nice to play with your food."

"Aidan." the female vampire spat the name with enough venom to drop an elephant.

"Indeed." The owner of the third voice strode into view. Cheshire-like, his white-fanged grin and alabaster wings appeared out of the gloom first, followed by the rest of him, short, fair skinned, dark haired. The same stranger David had seen the night before.

"Go find your own dinner," growled the male, still holding David's wrist.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I owe that young man a debt of honor, you see. So I must insist that you let him go."

The female practically hissed. "Honor is for the weak!"

"Really?" The grin broadened as the winged vampire continued to stride forward. "If I'm so weak, Raven, why can I smell your fear? You reek of terror more than the boy you're holding." Then his grin changed to a flat, hard look, tinted with anger. "Let him go now or you'll sorely regret it."

The male dropped David's wrist and stepped back. The female kept her grip on his hair a moment longer, then let go with a frustrated snarl. "I should kill him right now, you human-lover."

The flat looked flashed over into a snarl. "If you do that, I will torment you for a year and a day, and then leave your miserable carcass for the sun, Raven. And you know I do not make idle threats."

She backed up a step, the defiant snarl wavering, then both of them vanished into the darkness. David sank to his knees, weak with relief. He found he was trembling, shivering uncontrollably.