Only when the sounds of battle finally faded from her ears, did Gliss finally stop. And when she did, a strangled sob of impotent frustration seeped through clenched teeth, and she lashed a fist so hard against the nearest wall that she ripped free a shower of shattered masonry. Utter self-loathing surged over her like a sickening tide at the thought of what she'd done, and what she had just left behind her.

She slumped against the building, dragging in huge breaths and clapping a hand to the ragged wound left behind in her neck by Glaive's little princess. Although it was starting to close, she knew Brooke had managed to extract some of her blood and the thought filled her with dread. She had no idea if the girl would be able to sort out any meaningful information from what she'd taken, but it threw a terrifying variable into the equation. If Brooke was able to figure out what she and her clan were really trying to do there could be disastrous consequences.

Then her mind lurched unwillingly to Capper and the hatred she felt for herself came back with a vengeance. He'd trusted her and she'd simply used him to get what she wanted. Her Elders would be proud of her for not letting personal feelings interfere with the importance of her mission, but she wasn't. For all she knew he might be dead already after the Baelock assault. The thought made her feel sick. In all the scenarios she'd played out on her journey to the city, she'd never considered that she would have to contend with her own infatuation.

Okay, girl, she thought grimly. What's done is done. Pull yourself together. You still have a job to do.

Steadying herself, she patted the cold sphere of the Keystone that sat securely in her jacket pocket. Once she'd cleared the wall of the Glaive estate it had been relatively simple to elude the two guards that tailed her into the city, but now she was alone in a very hostile world. She needed to get to the trains, get a ticket, and head for home as soon as possible.

Unfortunately she hadn't had the chance to grab her belongings – doing so would have been far too suspicious in the middle of a battle. That meant all her money still sat in her chamber in the Glaive mansion.

By no means an insurmountable problem, however, when surrounded by the seething masses of Veridian Shores. Second by second Gliss regained her composure, pushing Capper and all the feelings wrapped up around him into the back of her mind. She started thinking as she'd been taught to: there are always options, if you look hard enough.

Taking care to keep her stride smooth and soft, she stepped from the ally, back into the ebb and flow of the pounding night-life of Veridian Shores. People washed over her, their blood filling her senses and her eyes flashed up, scanning faces and filtering through the cacophony of voices. Lights poured from the ranks of bars and clubs, carrying music and flesh out into the streets. The thick smell of petrol swirled in the air as cars, buses and trams trundled back and forth, jammed with unwary humans.

She followed the smell of the sea air, her heightened senses picking it out through the smog of cologne, cheap food and body odour. Street by street she made her way in the direction of the transit hub that connected the main train station to the vast network of ports that fuelled the city's economy. As she closed in on the industrial hub the roads grew darker and narrower, turning into a tight grid of factories and warehouses. The growl of heavy machinery that never slept took over the air, but she could still sense the presence of prey in abundance.

More than once, however, she was forced to conceal herself from passing vampires. At a distance she could feel their Aspects – although she couldn't be sure if they were from Clan Glaive she had no intention of getting close enough to find out. Right now she had to be invisible. So she drew her Aspect back to little more than a shell around her small frame, giving no indication of her presence to any would-be captors.

Alley by alley, street by street, step by step, Gliss moved closer to her goal.

She caught an unsuspecting human not far from the docks. Wrestling the well-dressed young man into the shadows, Gliss drained him dry and relieved his corpse of its wallet. Therein she found more than enough money to pay for a ticket back up to Iron Hollow.

Cleaning up the blood and making herself as presentable as she could considering she'd just had to fight her way out of the Glaive compound, she started walking towards the main station, her muscles and senses revitalised by the fresh blood. Burying her hands in her jacket pockets, Gliss kept a wary eye on the nearby rooftops, her Aspect gently pushing in all directions of any sign of pursuit.

It seemed her emergency feeding session didn't garner any unwanted attention. She emerged back into the streets, now in sight of the huge dock cranes that loomed against the night sky, their primeval structures lit up by rows of sickly lights along their metal bones. Containers swung through the air like ungainly birds, to be deposited on the decks of waiting freighters that filled the enormous bay area.

But the docks were not her concern. She took a final right turn that opened out onto a broad avenue clogged with traffic and people, all of them spilling in and out of the mountainous cuboid of Veridian Shores' travel hub. She currently faced the main civilian entrance, a series of large rectangular doorways policed by half-hearted rent-a-cops. To the left the freight trains were fed into the unloading bays that joined on to the main loading yards; to the right, the passenger trains were corralled, most coming from other southern settlements that tiptoed around the coast.

Amidst all this, Gliss was looking for one big train: the long distance passenger behemoth that ran the length of the continent, starting in Veridian Shores in the south and terminating in the northern mountains of Iron Hollow. It wouldn't be too hard to find, no matter how daunting the structure seemed.

She set off towards it, shoulders squared and eyes downcast, one hand fastened around the cloth-covered bulk of Keystone. Concentrating, she worked her way deep into the flow of people, allowing herself to be shouldered and jostled when necessary. For someone of her size, if she started barging her way through the humans it could raise a lot of unwanted attention.

That latitude only went so far, though. About halfway to the train station she felt a hand slip into her pocket, as gentle and swift as a breeze. She instantly released her grip on the Keystone to clamp her fingers around the offender's wrist and yank it out of her jacket. A yelp of surprise sounded nearby, and when she looked up, she saw that the hand was attached to a male human who couldn't have been more than fourteen.

He looked at her in surprise, then his expression darkened and he tried to pull himself free. Every fibre in her body wanted to lunge forward and drain the kid for his stupidity, but she couldn't – not here. So she contented herself with a hiss of annoyance and shoved him backwards into the sea of human flesh where he vanished from sight.

Idiot, she thought to herself as she returned her hand to the pocket containing the Keystone and marched on. She reached the main doors of the train station without further incident, joining the flow through one of the slab-like sliding doors that gaped open, she remained on alert, eyes flickering around the gantries, shops and bars that were scattered through the cavernous concourse.

As the major transit artery for the city, no one clan could claim a full monopoly on what passed through it, not least because of the substantial human security that was in evidence here. Gliss spotted at least eight from where she had entered – men and women clad in heavy grey jackets, dark trousers and bowl-like helmets. They carried short, bolt-action fire arms that, while unable to kill her, would still do sufficient damage to slow her down if she got on the wrong side of them.

Keeping her head down, she made her way to the nearest ticket kiosk and joined the queue, one hand tightly clutching the wad of notes that would pay her way. Impatience began to gnaw at her as one by one the customers ahead purchased their tickets, moving at in unbearably slow pace. She took calming breaths, concentrating hard to keep reign on her Aspect.

At last she reached the kiosk counter and purchased a one-way ticket for the Central Continental Liner that would carry her all the way home. She turned from the counter, the tension in her body easing ever so slightly.

Then she felt someone lock onto her.

Gliss froze for a fraction of a second as she tried to pinpoint the direction of the presence that had brushed against her Aspect. Jaw tight, she looked back over her shoulder and up. On one of the upper level gantries she saw a young man staring down at her, his brow furrowed with confusion. The moment their eyes locked she knew he was a vampire and the cold grasp of fear enveloped her. Had one of the Glaive guards managed to tail her to the station? Or had they simply guessed and beaten her here? Or was it someone else entirely? Glaive wouldn't be the only clan that kept tabs on the transit artery.

The man started moving towards the stairs and Gliss stopped trying to unwrap the riddle. Instead she glanced up at the looming departure board to gauge just how long she had before her train set off.

Ten minutes. She had that long to lead this individual off course, dispose of him and get back to the main platform. Turning, she set off towards the women's bathroom across the concourse from her, doing her best to track the movement of the interloper using just her Aspect, pushing it back behind her like a minesweeper. She felt his presence flare as he arrived on the ground floor, closing rapidly on her. Gliss cursed silently under her breath that she'd been forced to ditch the duelling rods. Without time to grab anything more concealable she would have to rely on her own hands and the element of surprise.

With the other presence so close she could almost taste it, she ducked into the bathroom, now able to feel the other vampire's full force blazing in her mind. Now could pick up the subtleties of its Aspect; thankfully the vampire was not from Glaive or Baelock as far as she could tell, lacking the subtle strength of the former and the invasiveness of the latter. Slipping past the other women in the bathroom as fast she could, she drew her Aspect back to herself, pain beginning to swell behind her eyes from the constant manipulation.

Backing into a dank stall with crumbling tiles, she closed the door. A moment later she the heavy footfalls of the other vampire, and his voice cut through the air.

"Everyone out," he hissed. "Veridian Transport Security."

There was a faint shimmer of voices and the patter of feet as the other women quickly exited the room, leaving them alone. Gliss stopped breathing, standing statuesque in the small, grimy cubicle. His footsteps grew softer as he began padding around the room, searching for her. She heard the rasp of a weapon leaving a sheathe and tensed herself, waiting for the opportune moment. There weren't a lot of places to hide in a bathroom.

So as soon as he stopped in front of her hiding place, Gliss lunged forward, channelling all her energy into one massive surge. Her small frame hit the stall door, ripped it from its hinges and carried it straight forward like a battering ram.

A second later she felt the slab of wood smash into the other vampire's body and it broke in half as they collided. The force hurled her pursuer across the room and he smashed into the one of the mirrors above the sinks with a crash of breaking glass.

Shaking the splintered remains of the stall door off her, Gliss bounded forward and kicked out as the man tried to rise, sending the smoothly carved stake in his hand flying across the room. She ducked the swing from his other hand and smashed a fist into his diaphragm lifting him off his feet. Her change swept forth before she could stop it, fangs spearing forward and eyes shifting as she grabbed him by his shirt and threw him like a rag-doll into the far wall.

The vampire left a human-shaped dent in the wall and fell to the ground, covered with pieces of broken tile and masonry. As he dragged himself to his knees, Gliss sprinted forward and unleashed a wild, spinning kick, swinging the heavy heel of her boot into his jaw with bone-cracking force.

Breathing heavily, she darted back across the room and retrieved the stake, then stalked over to where the dazed vampire lay groaning, spitting maroon blood and broken teeth. He tried to scramble backwards away from her but she didn't give him the chance. Grabbing him by his short crop of dark hair, she yanked him up and slammed the stake into his heart.

As his death scream rang out, Gliss was already out of the bathroom, plunging into the crowds before anyone could respond to what was happening. She didn't know who the vampire had worked for, but right now it didn't matter. His death knell would attract others who were nearby – she was certain of that. It was time to leave Veridian Shores, and hopefully never come back.

She set off towards the central platform where her train would depart from; a monstrous specimen that bisected the station from end to end, crossed by a dozen arching walkways. The train waited there, the low, bass rumble of its engine still audible despite the hubbub of commuters. It loomed out of the ground, easily thirty feet, wrapped in thick metal plates to withstand the worst weather of the badlands. Its scarred hull, gun-metal grey, was studded with heavy-framed rectangular windows that spilled creamy light onto the platform edges.

Slowing sharply, Gliss skidded to a halt in time to present her ticket to the train guard at the barrier line, forcing herself not to look back as a commotion erupted around the women's bathroom. The last thing she needed was to look more suspicious than she did already. The guard, a thick-set, grey-haired man with a bristling moustache looked down at the ticket, up at her, then back again. Eventually, with a noncommittal grunt, he nodded and handed the ticket back to her.

With relief flooding through her, Gliss stepped past and ducked into the nearest open door of the hulking train. The crisp white light of the interior embraced her and she jammed her hands into her coat pockets, striding head down through the carriages. Wider than any other trains on the continent, the liner had a broad central walkway, flanked by seats split into fours, front to back. Gliss kept walking, on and on until she reached the rearward section where there were fewer human passengers, as well as putting as much distance between herself and the sight of her altercation as possible.

Eventually she flung herself into the corner seat of an almost deserted carriage, body trembling with leftover adrenaline from the fight. Clenching and unclenching her fists, she took a moment to calm herself, shrinking against the thin cushions. The din of the station was dimly audible beyond the thick walls, but she sensed no vampires in the immediate area. It would seem that she had made good her escape.

Gently, in the brief window of calm, she removed the Keystone from her jacket pocket. In slow, painstaking motions she unwrapped the cloth to reveal the object, its gemstones glittering under the carriage lights. So small in size, and yet she'd risked everything to get it. The Elders of Iron Hollow had placed their trust in her, and she'd proved worthy of it. Despite everything that happened with Capper, now Gliss regained her sense of perspective. What was happening in Iron Hollow was far bigger than any personal feelings she might have. Once the tomb was opened, nothing would stand in the way of her clan regaining its former glory.

The doors of the train finally boomed shut and Gliss relaxed, closing her eyes, basking in the feeling of safety that she hadn't felt for weeks. Even though there was a long journey ahead she was beyond the reach of any hunters from Glaive. By the time they disentangled themselves from the conflict with Baelock, if they managed it at all, she would be long gone.

She felt the vibrations as the titanic engines of the train thundered into life, shaking the whole magnificent structure of the vehicle. With a groan of the superstructure it heaved itself out of its berth, the steadying clamps releasing one by one as it picked up speed across the platform. As the buildings of Veridian Shores climbed up around them, Gliss dug one sharp nail into her thumb hard enough to draw blood. Then she touched it to her tongue and began the Blood Call.

It was time to let her family know that she was coming home.