"The Dark Stranger" © VeGirl 2014

I snuggle close to Vincent as Damian drive us back north again. The car isn't really made for three people in the front seat, but the close proximity to Vincent suits me perfectly. Intermediately he lifts an arm to check on his wounds that are healing impressively.

"Angel huh?" Damian snickers while shaking his head amusing. "I would never have thought..."

"Yeah it's not something I like to shout from the rooftops." Vincent grins wayward. "Not when you have been on the run for a good twohundred years..."

Damian snickers. "Join the club..."

"You're two hundred years as well?" I ask curiously.

Damian laughs out loud. "Hunted I mean." He keeps snickering while glancing at me, knowing that I am waiting for an answer. "I'm twentythree."

"...and...you've been that for...?" I am forced to pull the classic question, which only adds to Damian's humour.

"You're a nosey one," he laughs.

I feel Vincent's hand on my leg squeeze, probably for me to back off, but all I do is glare at Damian. "So... it's a classified secret then?" I probe.

"No," he snickers. "I've been a vampire for fifteen years."

I raise my brows. "Fifteen? Is that it?" I am stunned while contemplating the anticlimax

"I never thought I'd been dismissed because I was too young." He is bubbling with laughter and I can't help but to join in. This is not the relationship Vincent is used to have with him, that is quite obvious by the tension in his muscles. "You're older than that?" Damian raise his brows inquisitive.

"Hrmm..." Is my elaborate answer which even makes Vincent snicker.

"Well...?"

"Yes." I snarl.

Damian holds his hands up in surrender a brief moment. "I get it, it's a sensitive subject." He keeps snickering teasingly, making me purse my lips while turning my attention to the pitch black passing scenery. The moon is the most prominent source of light and albeit my sour mood, I am breathing deep, feeling peaceful.

I have Vincent back and all is well in the world.

"So, you've never figured it out?" Vincent is talking to Damian who narrows his eyes at his friend. "The angel thing?"

"No, you do not smell like she does..." he flicks his head, meaning me.

Vincent frowns at the implication. "Cloaking spell..."

Damian raises his brows while nodding contemplative. "Really...?" He keeps nodding thoughtful. "Would that work for me?"

"For the predator?"

He sighs. "I have hunters on my track."

"Hunters?" I am involved in the conversation again. "First of all; there are people hunting vampires? I thought you said you were supposed to be a myth. How many are you?"

"Classified information..." he says through clenched teeth. "You know... the secret kind..."

I glare at him. "Yeah and angels walking the earth are hardly front page news," I throw in sarcastically. "We're all mystical people."

With one raised brow he slowly turns to pin me with a suspicious look before he slowly turns back to focus on the road ahead. I guess we all have trust issues. We ride in silence for a while; all of us deep in contemplation until my need for answers overwhelm me. "What happened to you? You promised not to let me go..." My euphoria over having him back changes into desperation and worry. "I needed you!"

He tries to wrap his arm around me, but I furrow my brows suspiciously. "They kicked me out and denied every try to get back to you."

"Really?"

"You don't think I would abandon you there do you?" He manages to enclose me in his arms and tips my face upwards to meet his. "I've searched for you for two hundred years; I'm not ready to give up that easy, sweetie." He hugs me closer and I relax against his strong chest. "How did you find me?"

My eyes flicker towards Damian as I start to explain. "Esme did a locator spell, and we decided to ask Damian for help due to his... superior... olfaction..."

Damian snickers.

"The problem was that I couldn't ask Laura for the cell number, because... err... ten years had passed..."

"Excuse me?" Damian looks puzzled at me. "You were only gone for a few days..."

"No... Esme trickled with the time frame and..."

"She what?"

"She turned back time."

"There is an Esme who can change time?" Damian's mouth falls open in surprise. "Here I thought that I was the odd one out, but it turns out I am the most plain and ordinary in the group." His sentence turns into mumbling the further he gets and I can't stop the grin that merges on my face. "Don't ridicule me." He pins me with a look that reminds me of the bloodshot eyes from earlier. A shill runs through me and I'm nauseaus again.

"I would never..." The tone is sarcastic, but the image of those disturbing moments makes me want to poke my eyes out, so the essence of my statement is sincere. "What I don't get though is how Esme could locate you and then turn back time and we found you in the same spot. Would they keep you there for ten years?" I look appalled at Vincent who grins wayward at me.

"Once I was pinned in an angels trap for eighteen years..."

I gasp.

"I had just located you and they wanted me to give you up." The look in his eyes makes my inner clench and I wish we weren't stuck in a car with Damian. "I refused to let them take you."

Tears blur my vision and I don't know what to say so I stay silent.

"Good choice," Damian murmurs.

Despite the surreal situation I start to laugh through my tears. "What happened to the dark stranger that Esme warned me about?" I look at the beat up face of the man next to me. "And what about the dangerous associate of his I was warned to stay away from?" I snicker. "You are both lovesick romantic fools."

They both glare at me. "Remember that you have donated some of that pulsating blood in your veins for me sweetie. I look forward to tearing you apart to get to it," Damian threatens.

"What?" Vincent's shriek makes my blood run cold.

"It was a deal; just a business transaction."

"Samira! Don't you understand the danger you have been putting yourself in?" He is chastising me and that makes my inside boil.

"Don't you understand that I arranged for your rescue?"

Vincent shuts his mouth and the silence of the car is suffocating instantly. Defiantly I press my lips together, certain that I would not speak in this matter more. I knew what I had signed up for, but what kind of options had there been?

Damian who has silently sat by during our quarrel is now growling. "We're in trouble..."

"What?" I look up at Damian who keeps looking through the rear view mirror. "What's the matter?" both Vincent and I says joined in the strained ambiance only adding it further.

"Do you know them?" Vincent keeps glancing back at the dark ominous car that is closing in on us quickly.

"Hmm..."

"Care to elaborate...?" I can hear how sharp my voice is.

"Rivalling clan..."

"Clan... as in vampires...?"

"Yeah..." He has already accelerated and I have to hold onto the handle to keep steady. "They're fast and we have two options...one is trying to outrun them...I'm doing a piss poor job at that..." He strains his voice as he cuts the corners. "The other one is battle up; but with your poor condition I don't think that is the best idea," he grunts.

"I'm fine!" Vincent grunts in return and Damian gives him a glance as if to evaluate his health condition and the truth to his statement.

"Well I don't think I can outrun him," he contemplated while cutting the corners a little too steep. "Can we fight?"

"Yes!" I press out with Vincent mirroring my fierce action.

Damian broadsides into a halt in the next corner, pressing me into the side door. Adrenaline and worry makes the air tingling with power as we watch the black jeep close in and stop a little way from us. We sit there in the car anticipating what will come.

"Shall we get out?" I hiss through clenched teeth. We watch the cardoors open slowly and I think I hold my breath as two people slowly prance towards us.

"Maybe you should stay inside...?" Damian opens his door and step outside.

"Hell no," I say under my breath and get out with Vincent on my heel. As some kind of backdrop we slowly join forces with Damian against his advice. The ambiance in the darkness surrounding us is vibrating with a mix of threat and fear.

"Crossing boarders without pass are we?"

"I am exactly where I should be, how about you?" Damian answers confident with a hint of humour as if he has the situation in control. "You've come from Miss Eldora's celebration?"

"Err...yes."

"Who did you say you were...?"

"I'm from the western district; Tyrec."

I have to focus to not raise a brow as I listen for these rough guys probe Damian for information.

"You brought dinner." One of the guys has a mean shine in his eyes and the other prance closer, making my skin prickle menacingly. "They smell delicious."

"They're not for..."

I feel my fear and anger accelerate until the prickling feeling is almost making the night sky around us sparkle. 'Calm down' flows into my head in Vincent's soothing voice. 'If you expose us this will go out of hand and I'm not really up to speed just yet.' This secret connection of ours had slipped my mind and his words sooth the horrid tingling along my spine. 'Now let's focus on Damian, something is wrong' he says and I do my best to regain my wit.

"I thought I told you to stay in the car?" Damian glares at us and Vincent is quickly looking scared and pulling me back towards the car. "I don't think our families would be able to keep the borders open if we nibbled on the main course..." Damian smiles wayward, making the two strangers snicker.

"Yeah... we didn't know who you were when we noticed the car."

"Yeah, it's cool man."

"Thanks'...well happy hunting..." Damian grins while backing closer to the car where Vincent and I have hurried around to get to our seat. Damian flipped his phone up the second we closed the doors. "We have a couple of rogues on our hands," he said to someone in the phone while driving off. "Yeah they're near the border to Miss Ellie's area."

I'm trying my best to grasp what is going on; Damian's strained expression is quite frankly alarming.

"Yeah I'll alert them. Keep in touch." The silence in the car is as alarming as that face of his as he flips through the contact list in his phone.

"Is there anything we can do?" I ask silently.

Damian snaps out of his contemplation. "Err... no, sorry I think my family can handle it." He gives a weak smile. "It seems we have a couple of rogues on our hands; it shouldn't be too hard to handle." His feigned reassurance falls due to the strained expression.

"What's a rogue?"

He seems surprised by my question. "Err... it's a vampire who's been casted off by his sire." My quizzical expression must have been obvious enough, because he smiles wayward and does his best to explain the world of vampires. "We are quite... selective when it comes to creating fledglings. I told you we aren't that many in my family."

I nod contemplating.

"Unfortunately once in a while there's somebody who creates a new vampire without authorisation and abandon it."

I still don't get it.

"And these guys could be such?" Vincent asks. "How do you know?"

"When you are just created, things are... crazy... it is quite hard to adapt, and if you don't have a sire to teach you, it often result in beasts that has to be put down."

"What?"

"We can't have somebody exposing us all to the humans; that could cause a riot."

"...and blow the whole myth-thing...?" I deduce and he turns and catches my eye in an impressed way. "But haven't you already broken the confidentiality-clause by telling us?"

"Hmm..." he looks like he's been caught with the hand in the cookie-jar and breaks up in a wry smile. "Well, you're in no position to expose a secret like this, now are you?"

My brows fly up in surprise.

Damian's phone interrupts our conversation and we can only perceive Damian's curt answers. "Yes but they shouldn't be that hard to spot." After that sentence follows a lot of short disagreements and grunts that is easily recognized as negative. "Yeah you better!" he snaps and ends the call.

Throughout the trip back in the dark night several short clips of conversation proceeds, which shows no sign of reassurance. Calls keeps coming intermediately and they seems to aggravate him more for each call. "So now I have to... Are you totally incompetent?"

His irritation is hitting the roof as we pass Phoenix on our way north. "So now I have put these people in danger..." His eyes flicker towards us. "What am I supposed to do about that now?" He listens for a reply but the answer he gets simply makes his face fall before it hardens. Without a word he ends the call and swing the phone down to the pedals of the car, making in crash ominously.

"Spill," Vincent says and as I watch them as Damian's face darkens until his eyes almost has the same hue it had when he fed that evening.

"I just signed your death sentence by sending trackers after you."

.