Hadley was having a bad day. You know one of those days where a weird guy with grandpa hair tries to bite into your jugular vein, weird? Everyone has had that experience right? No?

Well, Hadley had it. It was nine thirty p.m.

She came out of the Turkish restaurant with an elephantine mass of trash. The bag ripped midway and it splattered on her apron.

She groaned in disgust and went to a sink located outside in the fenced off area not too far from her. A rat scuttled away. She jumped.

She hated absolutely hated this!

Vladimir and Stefan were on their way back to their vanquished castle. Vladimir turned his head to Stefan.
"My brother I thirst. Let us convene here for a bit."
It was beyond Stefan why they lingered in the new country anyway. Nothing was nee here for them.

But Vladimir said they had to wait until dark to move; now he wanted to feed. Stefan rolled his eyes.

"Let us then make haste. These young-uns of the Americas bore me."

That was when Vladimir spotted a short girl with long brown extensions tied back with a red scrunchie that matched her soiled apron.

He smiled. That was easy. He stalked toward her. Hadley sensed something was amiss. She glanced behind her back to see nothing but cold, infinite darkness.

She returned to the task at hand and found a man of five feet four watching her with interest. She gasped. When had he got there?

He had white hair and eyes the colour of fresh blood. She shivered in her skin. Was she dreaming or was this a demon?

"Hello, girl. I thought it fitting you see the face of your attacker before you perish."

Hadley had a thrill of terror run down her spine.Before she could scream or anything else his white hands cupped her pulsing, dark neck. He breathed icy breath onto her. She thought it would be vile but the breath was sweet, pleasant even.

He ran his warm appendage forcefully on her neck...hard enough to bruise. Then he prepared his fangs for consumption. His teeth traced rather gently, for so brutal an act he was about to commit, scouring her neck for the jugular. An artery would splatter blood everywhere...

Hadley was sure this man was assaulting her but for some disgusting reason he had a fetish for necking before taking someone by force.

Vladimir was imagining her taste then Hadley butted the back of her head into the man, hard. They both felt dizzy. Vladimir's hold on her neck loosened. She extended her leg back and kneed him in the crotch repeatedly. Vladimir winched.

He retreated. He didn't expect her to fight back. She looked so docile at first, to him. Stefan was on a rooftop nearby. He watched with interest. Normally, if it were a man he would intervene but this was a woman...less powerful.

"If you fight him off. I just might let you live,"chuckled Stefan.

Vladimir growled in pain. He hobbled to her, intent on finishing her and not as softly as he was doing before. She jabbed at his larynx then up his face.

Stopping his breathing and blinding him. He didn't need to breath so that would not have stopped him but his eyes were a crucial sense despite his sense of smell being good.

"Stop fighting!There's no escape for you!" said Vladimir.

Hadley's resolve to fight strengthened. She made a move to break Vladimir's arm as it extended toward her. It couldn't break but he was outwitted. Any move he made she countered with jabs and knee jerks.

"Give up, Olma. She's too strong of a prey. Find something else. The night is not young anymore," Stefan said.

Hadley jerked at the old voice. Vladimir tired, disappeared. Hadley ran back inside, exhausted.

Vladimir watched, from the rooftop,he now joined Stefan on as the girl returned to the human world unharmed.

"Te-a prins, Olma."
Vladimir coughed but he could not admit defeat.
"Numai de data asta," he said to Stefan.
Vladimir coughed and his companion laughed at him.

Stefan left Vladimir at Port Angeles. He refused to return with Stefan to Romania.
"I cannot be at peace until I find her and kill her," he said bitterly.

Stefan looked at Vladimir. His eyes burned with something other than rage. But that was to be discovered by the man himself.

"Very well, you know where I shall be when you do find peace. Te iubesc, Olma."
Vladimir only grunted. Then they parted after millennia of travels, companionship and struggle together.

Hadley took some paid leave off after her attempted rape experience.Mr Aagha was sympathetic. She needed money however so she fell back on doing people's assignments and delivering groceries or cosmetics.

At least she wouldn't work at night for a while. Vladimir returned to the dirty back of the Turkish restaurant. He scented the area....many males above twenty...caucasian, lots of oily foods...no girl...there was an old woman though. The scent had gone cold by a week.

He followed her scent to a downtown area where Mexican boys played basketball and where a group of African Americans smoked tobacco and weed in the alleys.

A man with studs passed by him with a stocky grey dog with a big head. It barked uncontrollably when it saw him. The man looked for the source his animal's distress.

"Bitz, what's wrong, bud?"
The man turned the wrong second. Vladimir had taken to the shadows. So, only the dog could see him.

The man only saw the group on the next alley smoking. Some of the men looked directly at Vladimir in perplexment. Vladimir stared hard them with gleed eyes. One man with an oversized beanie cap socked his comrade's shoulder.

His comrade looked lost.
"We be going...dere be something amovin' that be not natural."

The whole group heeded the man and they shuffled away. The man with his dog realised what they meant he tried to look at Vladimir but only felt this ominous horror. He shook and quickly tore away. His dog barking and looking back at Vladimir.

Vladimir was not out for them today. He had a score to settle. Hadley was busy turning off the gas when she felt a draught. The window was open and her curtains shook violently. She tilted her head.

"When did that happen?"
She hadn't opened that window today. She closed it. When she turned she screamed .

Lounging on her grandmomma's ratty couch was a pallid man with white blond hair.
"Thank you for closing that. It was getting draughty."

She eyed the room for the nearest weapon she pulled out a blade.
"Put back the kitchen knife. It will only hurt you."

He was holding her arm. She screamed again and he pulled her hand back and the knife cluttered loudly on the floor. She screamed and he covered her mouth.

"Shut up. If anyone comes in here I'll kill them too. Do you remember me?"
Hadley had been having nightmares about this guy. How had he got to her that fast? How did he find her home?

He was strong. He only used a hand to restrain her. He removed his hand from her mouth.

"Și Ștefan a spus că ești puternic."
He scoffed. She moved and he tightened his hold.
"I am strong but the fact you are attacking someone weaker shows how much of coward you actually are."

He raised a brow. Funny, it sounded like she understood what he said.
"Acum, că te comporti ... aș putea face acest lucru nedureros pentru tine."

His face was close to hers. He breathed her in. She knocked her cranium into his nose. It crunched. He yelled. She elbowed his eye and he let her go. She took a heavy pan and hit him in the face.

He fell. She tried running. He took her ankle.
"Don't go easy on me I won't make it painless for you."
He started she got her chance and used the heavy cast iron pan on his fingers. He whined. She opened the window and jumped out of it.

"HELP, yoh! I'm being attacked!"
Her neighbour's lights turned on and she cried and screamed as Vladimir picked himself up to finish her off.

He smelt burnt tobacco leaves and hemp. Then he smelled fear, sweat and a mongrel.

"Seriously? What are the odds? I really should have killed those men."
The group of Rastafarians and thugs came to the commotion. Even the man and his staffie dog appeared. He spoke to the girl as Vladimir watched.

They entered her house. The dog came scurrying to him jaws open.

Vladimir went out the window.
"The assailant is gone, Hadley. I think he doesn't like dogs."
The dog licked her. She squirmed.
"Don't you like dogs?"

Vladimir was taken back. He was beaten by a girl who was only five foot three.
"I don't like that Hadley girl and I definitely don't like dogs."