Now came what was quite possibly the riskiest part of all. The four had to be accepted by the vampires of the city. They'd discussed ways to do that, but in the end there hadn't been too many options. So Megan and Jeff would have to play the part of unwilling prisoners, and Mack and Alek would be their captors. They had prepared their story and gone over it dozens of times. It still had weak spots, but they were ones that they had reason to believe the vampires wouldn't notice.

They had not gone far beyond the spot where they left David when they sensed a vampire presence ahead. Mack and Alek softly told the humans, and they stepped into their prepared roles. Alek carried Megan, and Mack carried Jeff, who was, of all of them, the most nervous. He had good reason to be, but he had insisted that he would be all right. They moved forward to meet the scouting vampire.

It was another male, middle-aged this time and stoutly built. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he asked suspiciously. No easy nonchalance here.

Alek spoke. "We heard there was something going on down here, something big. The rumors are all over, and some people up north are scared, but we thought we figured out what was happening." He grinned. "Meeting you, I think we might be right."

"What's happening is that you're coming with me, and the humans too."

"Of course, of course," said Alek placatingly.

The doors and the brightly lit halls were just as David had described them, though to the two humans the lights were merely ordinary, not particularly bright at all. As they passed down the hall leading to the "Control" room, the still-wary scout leading them halted in front of a pair of doors. "Here. The humans don't need to go any farther." He pressed a button in one of the ubiquitous panels set by one of the two doors, and it slid aside. Inside was another corridor, with doors leading off of it on the left, a half dozen or so of them, close in together. They all suppressed expressions of dismay. They had thought there would be two large rooms, but it seemed not. And worse, in the corridor stood what was obviously a guard. The scout took Megan, who started struggling and tried to kick at him, from Alek's arms. He put her down inside and shoved her at the guard, who caught her with easy speed. Another press of the button and that door slid shut. Then the scout opened the second door, and gestured at Mack. "Put him in here." There was another corridor there, a mirror of the first. Mack was a bit reluctant, but he handed Jeff over to the second guard. Jeff didn't fight at all, he was trembling, his heart rate way up, and Mack knew he had to be absolutely terrified. But there was nothing for it now. The plan could still work, it had just gotten a little bit harder, that was all.

The next doorway was the Control room, with its screens and circle of panels. And the vampires' leader was there too, just as David had described him.

"Sir, these two were headed to the city from the road when I found them," said the scout. He looked nervous. "They had two humans with them. They said something about hearing rumors, and figuring something out."

The spidery vampire regarded Mack and Alek for a moment, then without a word his mental power, impossibly at odds with the weak feel of his mind, overwhelmed them both, forced them to their knees. "Tell me why you're here," he commanded.

Alek took the lead, the pair having decided that he was more suited to trying to charm vampires than his less verbose friend. As he spoke, he didn't have to fake a shiver of nervousness in his voice. "Yes Sir. We heard a lot of stories about vampires down south vanishing. Our pack leader was scared, he said it was the Hunter, killing everybody. But we knew it couldn't be. The Hunter is pretty strong, and he's killed a few weak vampires, even gotten a few packs by sheer dumb luck, but there's no way he could kill all of them. He's a human-lover, a pussy. So we talked some about what it could be, and I figured that it had to be that the vampires weren't killed, they were leaving, going somewhere else. Vampires are strong, there isn't anything that could just kill all of them like that! And, well, we figured that if they all were going there, it had to be somewhere worth going. We wanted to go see. But our pack leader was a wuss." Alek's voice turned scornful. "He was scared. He threw us out, said we could go on our own and get killed. We kinda hadn't wanted to go on our own, but our pack wasn't exactly friendly with the others around there, they wouldn't take us, so we figured that if there was really something good down here, we'd go find it. And I guess we did, because you're way more impressive than this Hunter ever could be. Sir."

The story was thin in places, but it played to the leader's ego. Mentioning the Hunter, who had escaped the "all powerful" vampire, was risky, but to not mention him would seem strange, given how much the vampires in the north were afraid of him.

"And the humans with you?"

"They were on the road from Delta north," said Alek. "And we couldn't pass up the chance."

"I see." He nodded. "Very well then. You have indeed found something good. Something very good. You've found the future rulers of the world. Would you like to see humans reduced to cattle, see vampires rule?"

Alek tried to respond, but found he couldn't speak.

"That is our cause. We are gathering vampires here, until we have an army that can bring down the cities. And once we have brought down one city we can increase our numbers until we bring them all under our rule. Will you join that cause?"

"Yes Sir," said Alek.

"Yes Sir," echoed Mack.

The vampire's grip released them, with a sadistic twist of pain that seemed even worse than what David had led them to expect, leaving them both twitching and panting. "Good. Know that if you betray me, you will sorely regret it."

"Yes Sir," said Alek, with a shiver.