"Well darling, it seems we have arrived," Samaira announced with a bit of dramatic flair to Emilia as they stepped out of the car.

After wheedling the information they needed from her contact, Samaira had driven to the given address which turned out to be an unassuming second-hand bookstore on a quiet side street with the most uninspiring name of The Old Book Store. Although the store's shutters weren't drawn, the sign on the door indicated it was closed.

Undaunted, Emilia stepped up to ring the bell but just as she raised a hand, a shadowy figure appeared, startling both witches. The door creaked open to reveal a middle aged man with glasses who smiled before waving them in, "Miss Feronia and Miss Patel, your timing couldn't be more perfect! I've been expecting you."

The witches exchanged wary looks seeing as Samaira never mentioned Emilia's name when arranging the meeting. Emilia frowned at the man but allowed him to usher her in, Samaira close behind. To their surprise, the place was a whole lot larger than it seemed from the outside.

The interior of the book shop was cosy with small tables and chairs interspersed between rows of shelves. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but that was the whole point, Emilia thought to herself. A secret society, dealing in stolen information, that wasn't able to hide itself from attention would have been an epic failure.

The man led the way to a door which he unlocked to reveal a winding staircase leading down. Although narrow, it was well lit, taking them to a large basement. Looking around, Emilia was surprised to see rows upon rows of cabinetry, neatly filled with earthen jars, each labelled with dates and descriptions that didn't make any sense to the witch. The tops of the jars were covered with lids, preventing her from viewing its contents. She eyed the nearest one which read: Dated 25th May 1015. Young wolf from the Grey Water Clan wanted pustules for a week.

Emilia could only stare in dumbfoundment while trying to figure it out. Walking a few steps ahead, the man continued down the rows until they reached a brightly lit space that looked similar to a common room, equipped with couches, a mini kitchenette, and even a pool table. Under the white fluorescent light, Emilia finally had a good look at the man.

He was of average height, with a face that was longer than it was wide, a high and wide forehead and noticeably square jawline. His burgundy red hair was short and neatly combed back, which had the effect of accentuating his already wide forehead. A bulbous nose overshadowed most of his features, especially his thin lips, except for his deep set blue eyes; those very eyes contained a sparkle and sharpness that couldn't be hidden even behind such thick rimmed, round glasses.

One thing that struck Emilia as odd was the way the man seemed to have aged considerably, lacking the youthful look all supernaturals had and instead appearing more like a human in his forties.

Still smiling cordially, he introduced himself. "I am John Miller, current head of the Enlighteners."

So this was their elusive leader, Emilia thought with some surprise, although she managed to keep her frosty demeanor in place. More importantly, why did someone who took great pains to hide their identity for years, especially from those within the Committee, suddenly reveal themselves to her?

***

Across the city, Andy and Bran were having last-minute doubts about breaking and entering. Or rather, the issue wasn't the entry into the secure location, but exiting it in one piece. The server vault containing confidential data was located in an industrial park at the edge of the city, somewhere between a well manicured golf course and the distant mountain views of the Mojave Desert.

The building itself was nondescript, neither large nor small, a square white building among many other buildings of its kind. Andy, having worked there not long ago as part of its security detail, still had access to the building and knew the layout pretty well. The issue was he had never stepped foot into the actual server vault itself, separated from the rest of the building by a door vault with its own separate access card.

The two werewolves were seated at a taco bar around the corner from the building, munching on a shared bowl of guacamole and chips.

Between bites, Brandon asked, "Why are we trying to do this in broad daylight?"

"Because security is tighter at night. It's when you'd expect a break-in, after all," Andy calmly replied. "The best chance we have is the lull during lunch break when half the task force leaves to get food." He glanced at his watch, "Which should be in five minutes."

"How do we get in?"

Andy mulled the question, "Think you can fit through the HVAC air vent?"

Brandon was slender. For a werewolf. But in comparison to the average human? He could've easily passed off as a college football quarterback. He gave Andy a very peeved glare, "Not going to happen."

"Then I guess we walk through the front door." Andy wiped his hands on a napkin. "Alright, let's go." Brandon turned his gaze in time to see a group of people exiting the building through the main door. The two wolves waited till the group was out of sight before making their move. As they exited the taco bar, Andy explained the plan.

"That's your idea?!" Brandon was incredulous.

"Can you think of a better one?" When Brandon didn't reply, Andy reassuringly said, "It'll be fine! They know me, so chances are they won't bat an eye when we enter the vault." Still silent, Brandon wasn't buying Andy's bullish optimism.

Andy walked straight to the door with a confidence Brandon desperately tried to emulate, flashing his access card and keying in the correct passcode. They entered the building and hurried without looking like they were hurrying, until they reached the monitor room. Andy knocked twice before entering.

"Hey Joe! How's it going?" Andy greeted the bear of a man seated in front of the multiple monitor screens transmitting the live feed of the entire building.

"Andy! Wasn't expecting you here. Weren't you recalled to New York Headquarters by the White Oak's Clan Head?" The man asked before standing from his seat.

"Yeah, they did, but then HQ sent me over. The tech guys over there noticed an anomaly in the server database and needed something rectified in this server vault. I brought the IT guy with me," Andy replied while pointing a thumb to Brandon, who waved in greeting, "you mind letting us in?"

"Sure thing." Joe led the way to the vault and unlocked the heavy door without hesitation, swinging it open with ease. Brandon glanced around the room filled with towers of server racks neatly arranged in rows. Not far from the door was a row of computers which Brandon made a beeline for. Joe and Andy stood by the door, close enough for Brandon to catch snippets of their conversation.

"Did you catch the game?"

"Yep, the Knicks beat the Hawks 40 to 32."

"Damn, I'll need to watch the highlights..."

Brandon hurried through the system, skimming through the hundreds of file folders as fast as he could, but nothing unusual stood out. With no other choice, he began randomly opening folders to run through files but there was no mention of vampires or curses in any of the documents he read.

"Alright, I'll leave you to it then," Brandon caught Joe's words as the big man turned to leave, "I'll need to let HQ know you're here."

"Hey don't worry about it, I'll let them know," Andy replied, making a show of taking his phone from the pocket of his jeans.

"It's fine, I'll do it. Gotta follow protocol anyway," Joe replied with a wave, already walking back to his monitoring station. Andy's gaze snapped to Brandon and they exchanged looks of horror.

'And this is what happens when I leave the planning to this stupid oaf,' the strawberry-blond man thought, ferociously clicking through files, while the subject of his anger hopped from one foot to the other near the vault door, already mentally preping himself to receive quite the beating from Joe.

Already on the verge of throwing in the towel, Brandon's hand froze on the mouse for a second as he stared at an oddly named file in a subfolder. Clicking it, he skimmed through the contents before his green eyes bulged in shock. Without wasting time he pulled out a portable drive and began downloading the entire folder.

The moment it was done, both men fled towards the exit, all pretence thrown out the window. They had just passed the monitor room when a loud roar sounded from within. Seconds later, the largest wolf Brandon had ever encountered burst through the open door towards them, bits of torn clothing still falling off its body as it charged at full speed towards them.

Andy yelled, "Run!"

"What the hell do you think I'm doing?!" Two steps behind, Brandon hollered in panic as the ginormous raging furball gained on them.

"Run faster!"

***

Elsewhere, on a lonely road in front of a currently empty building that once housed a building materials supplier, Gavin sat behind the wheel of Lannetta's brand new Honda Civic, with Hailey riding shotgun and Aidan in the back. Before leaving, Lannetta had strenuously stressed that they needed to do a run around before and after meeting the blood dealer just in case they were being tracked.

Gavin had taken her words very seriously, circling the area twice before finally pulling up front. The wolf was staring daggers at the building lot, unable to conceal his irritation at not being allowed to follow them in. He shifted his gaze to Aidan and then to Hailey before saying, "Be careful."

Hailey made a playful salute at him, "Roger that."

Gavin was not amused. "Hey, I mean it. You're going in blind and I can't follow. You don't know how freaking stressed out I am right now."

His fretting earned him Hailey's trademark eye-roll, "Oh come on. We're just buying animal blood. What could possibly go wrong?"

Aidan's uneasy voice carried over from the back seat, "Could you please not jinx it?"

Hailey landed a peck on the werewolf's lips before hopping out of the car, with Aidan close behind. Gavin watched as the two humans made their way past the unlocked gate and into the building, out of sight. He could do nothing but sit back and wait, eyes moving to and fro across the rows of buildings adjacent the current lot, many of which were unoccupied.

For long moments, nothing seemed out of place. And then Gavin saw them. A set of familiar faces, all members of the White Oak Clan, werewolves he'd met over the past five years.

They were part of the elite security force that was responsible for the safety of Cedric Livingstone, the acting Clan Head, who just so happened to be Emerie Livingstone's uncle. These tough-as-nails wolves were loyal to Cedric, often to a fault. Gavin had found their blind devotion to the wolf elder somewhat nauseating.

The elite wolves easily vaulted over the fencing at the back of the building before disappearing from view. Gavin had no time left to question why Cedric's best wolves were in Vegas, flinging the car door open and vaulting out of his seat.

Inside the building, the unsuspecting humans had been busy making the trade. "Where's the blood?" Asked Hailey to the dealer, a young man in an oversized hoodie whose left eyelid kept nervously twitching .

"It's all set and ready to go," he pointed to a large steel keg with wheels. Aidan unscrewed the lid and found himself shocked and mildly disturbed at finding the pungent metallic scent of the blood within oddly pleasant, before it dawned on him that he remembered its flavour and aroma from his previous life.

As Hailey left with the portable keg, Aidan took out the stash of cash Maxim had provided, handing it to the nervous dealer who immediately began counting it.

The hollow echoes of heavy footsteps coming from the back of the building caught the both of them off-guard, but when Aidan caught sight of the tall, brutish men stalking towards them with predatory grace, a chill ran down his spine, instinctively knowing the newcomers were werewolves.

For the briefest of moments, the part of him that remembered how to fight almost took over, until Aidan snapped back to reality. He shouted at the panic-stricken man beside him who had frozen mid-count with wads of cash in both hands, telling him to run, before racing with all his might towards the car.

As a mere human there was no way he could outmanoeuvre, outbeat, or out-anything a werewolf. In fact, he was pretty sure they couldn't outrun these werewolves either, just as his inner voice began screaming entertaining food-swear words at the fast approaching wolves. Would they make it close enough for Gavin to help?!

Even as he ran, he felt a familiar sensation, like the mildest feathery touch within his sternum. 'There it is again'. Instinctively, he reached for it, but like before, the feeling of almost grasping and failing by a hair's breadth repeated itself. Aidan groaned out loud in frustration, even as he struggled to pick up speed.

Belatedly, he remembered making a promise to work out more, on the night Byron and Flint had kidnapped him, a promise that unfortunately, he never kept. He was once again paying the price, as his legs struggled to keep the pace. Behind him, the blood dealer was no better, huffing in ragged breaths as he lagged behind.

A terrified shriek followed by a horrifying crunching sound had Aidan glancing back in time to see the crumpled body of the dealer against a far wall. One look and he knew the man was gone.

Aidan bit back a sob as his mind reeled from the horrific sight. 'Th-they killed him?!'

"Damn it, we need them alive!" One of the werewolves yelled at the one responsible for ending the human's life.

"We only need one of them alive," the killer werewolf replied nonchalantly, heartless eyes now focused on the fleeing Aidan.

A/N: Hi! Chapters are unedited so far. I'll try my best to edit when I can. If you like the story, don't forget to vote or leave a comment! Or if you notice a plot hole I may have overlooked, do let me know...