The faintest hint of dawn, invisible as yet to human eyes but all too obvious to his, was on the far horizon when he and Aidan stopped. Aidan had been trying to show David as many of his bolt holes as possible, but there were a lot of them scattered across the desert, and this one was new to him.

Like most of them, the entrance was blocked with a large boulder. Inside this one the tunnel was small enough that he had to crawl, though the chamber at the end was fairly roomy. Aidan went ahead down it, while David pulled the boulder back into place across the entrance. He knew now that a vampire would never leave a bolt hole open during daylight, Aidan had left his unblocked that first day only for the breathing David's sake. As the sun began to rise outside, the pair settled themselves on the rough stone floor. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but once the sun lipped up over the horizon, David was out cold, and knew nothing more until it vanished again at sunset.

When night had again fallen the pair rose quickly. They would need to move fast now. They set off across the desert, towards the readily visible glow of the city ahead. And as they ran David began to sense other vampires in the darkness ahead. He had learned a bit of how to interpret the odd extra sense from Aidan. It had a limit of a mile or so, anything past that would be impossible to sense at all. It was directional, roughly, so he could tell where the other vampires were, but it was very hard to get a sense of distance, and nearly impossible to get a sense of numbers, there was only a sense of strength. A particular feeling might be a single, strong-minded vampire, or a dozen less powerful ones. But what he sensed now was fairly clear. A tiny little source, surely just one single weak vampire was ahead and slightly to the left, where the road would be. Ahead and to the right was a stronger source, moving fast. An old vampire, or a group, no way to know which, approaching the road as well.

Aidan and David exchanged glances, and there was no need to speak. For this, David's first fight with another vampire, it would be better if he faced the lone, weak one. They split, David veering left, Aidan right, and Aidan was quickly out of sight behind the low rolling hills that covered this area. David ran on, but as he got closer, he slowed. He could see the thread of the road just ahead, and as he jogged nearer, he could see a single form standing on it. No, he suddenly realized, there were two forms there, the one of them holding the other.

Realizing what must be happening, he sprinted forward, then skidded to a halt a mere two yards or so away from the pair, the one, unbreathing, a vampire, the other, his wrists gripped firmly by the undead, was hyperventilating, his eyes rolling in terror, very much a living human, no doubt an exile as David had been. David gave the vampire a solid, challenging push with his mind. The vampire growled at him in return, and tried to push back, rather ineffectually.

"This one's mine. You can have him when I'm done, but I got here first, he's mine."

David ignored the nasal voice. This was probably one of the fearful ones, the ones who had become vampires entirely out of cowardice rather than real evil. David increased the pressure of his mind, and the vampire froze in place, suddenly held, his will overwhelmed. David pushed further, sending out a command. The vampire slowly, unwillingly, let go of the human man's wrists and stepped away. And that was all that David needed. With one smooth motion he drew his sword and leaped forward. He covered the last two yards in a flash, and with a single, full-powered stroke he beheaded the vampire.

There was a spray of blood, and the headless body dropped to the ground. Just like that, thought David. So easily! The human, suddenly drenched in the thick, dark blood of his assailant, dropped as well, and for a moment David wondered if he'd somehow managed to hit the man too, but when he knelt down and examined the human, he found no sign of injury. The man had simply fainted. David looked again at the headless corpse of the vampire. It looked very human, sprawled limply on the road. But it wasn't, he knew. He found that he felt no remorse. He had regretted the cow more then he regretted this. And rightly so, he thought. The cow never did anything to hurt anyone. The vampire...