- VERONICA -

The next seven days were among the worst of my life. I dream of the night my family was murdered sometimes, but those nightmares usually came once or twice a month, and when they did, a good dose of sleeping pills and antidepressants put me right back to sleep. Ever since my encounter with those two vampires, I began to have them every time I went to bed, and when I woke up no amount of pills would come close to putting me back to sleep again. In my dreams, the images are the same, only more vivid and in order. It's as if someone has taken up a broom and dusted my memories, rearranging them to perfection for easy access. The only difference is that Remus starts to appear in all of them. I would see him standing in the attic, his bat wings opened and spread out over the corpses, and in those dreams he comes for me, to drag me from where I was hiding. At that point, I'd wake up and run to the bathroom to puke my guts. You'd think it's bad enough that the poison in his blood is taking over my body, but, apparently, his existence is also taking over my mind, eating me alive slowly from the inside out.

That morning I wake up the same way, and even though I've slept a few hours each night I feel like I haven't slept for a month. The moment I open my eyes, I run to the bathroom with the need to throw up whatever is left of my dinner, and nothing comes out but the acid in my stomach. I remember hearing new mothers talk about morning sickness which sounded pretty close to what I'm suffering. If this is what comes with having a baby, I swear I'll kill any man who even suggests that I have one.

It's pure torture, and I have been tortured, cut open, stabbed, and bruised enough to earn bragging rights about it in a room full of war heroes, but none of it even come close to what I've been suffering. All my senses are both heightened and dulled at the same time. I can feel every little thing that happens in my body, smell every scent I haven't noticed before on my clothes and furniture, but I can no longer taste certain things in my food. My eyes are so sensitive to light I wake up with a big bad migraine that contributes to my need to puke every morning. I have an aversion to some food now - mostly processed and frozen meals for some unknown reasons - and my craving for red meat is at its worst. The smell of soap and washing detergent makes me sick. In fact, everything makes me sick.

It's Remus' blood in my body that's causing all this. I figured out that much because the symptoms seem to lessen or disappear after I take another antidote, and they return with a vengeance when it begins to wear off. That knowledge coupled with my daily dose of agony drives me mad every time I enter the kitchen. As soon as I step into that room, the image of those bat wings flashes back in my mind, and I find myself wanting to stab something to death for at least the next hour.

Today is no different. I'm at the height of my rage halfway through my bowl of granola when I hear a knock on my front door. I look at the clock and it says six in the morning. No deliveries come that early, and I have no friends or family close enough to be calling me at this hour or they'd cease to be considered one. I take out my phone to check on the security camera I'd installed around the house. There're two people at my front door, one male, one female, both in their twenties from what I can make out of their faces and bodies. They seem to be unarmed from what I can see through the cameras. The woman has nothing in her hands, not even a handbag, but the man is carrying a small backpack on one shoulder. I've never seen them before in my life.

I rise from the table and grab the gun I've stashed in one of the drawers, picking out a small knife to slide into my jeans' back pocket on the way to the door. Making sure my door chain is secured, I move to stand by the wall before I open. It's how I usually greet all my visitors. I don't take chances, especially when I'm out here alone in the woods.

I study the two of them through the small gap I've opened, my gun already loaded and positioned where I need it to be.

"What do you want?" I ask, noting where their hands are and how they stand on their feet. These are professionals, trained to react quickly to threats and to kill quietly and efficiently. It's in their every gesture and the way they hold themselves. I check my weapons again, twice.

The woman gives me a knowing smile and glances down where my gun is positioned behind the wall. She keeps her hand where they are and holds her position at a distance that allows both of us enough space to not feel threatened by one another. "Lucien sent us," she says casually, "we're his contact here. You can put the gun down."

Lucien. That name infuriates me as much as his boss', but that short, right to the point introduction tells me everything I need to know to lower my weapon. The fact that they know him tells me they work for him, and since Remus obviously wants my cooperation enough to poison me to make sure I stay on his leash, then he would have instructed them that I'm not to be harmed. That, and now that I see them up close I can tell they're both vampires. Their veins tend to be more visible when they're out in the sun, and their pupils dilate twice as much with the slightest amount of light. They would have come to me during nighttime if they're here to hurt me.

I unlock the door chain and step aside to let them enter. The gun I still keep in my hand, just in case. The curly-haired, brown-skinned female comes in first, then the blond male, showing me the hierarchy between the two. She's wearing a black leather jacket with studs all over and a pair of blue jeans tight enough to leave nothing to the imagination, and by that I mean I can see the deep lines of her muscles, as well as how deadly those thighs can be if they ever wrap around your throat. The male is wearing a crisp black shirt with the top three buttons undone and a pair of slim-cut designer pants. His sleeves have been rolled up to his elbows, and his hair matches the latest male fashion I saw in the magazines. He's smiling at me, showing two rows of perfect white teeth, and eyes that sparkle like those of the male models you see in perfume ads. I turn to the female, and she holds her hand up for a shake. I hesitate.

"I'm Rae, and this is Chris," she gestures to her companion who makes no attempt whatsoever to conceal the fact that he's checking me out. Men, I resist the urge to sigh out loud. Do they ever think about anything besides utilizing their ability to breed? "We're your contact here and have been sent to brief you. I suggest you take my hand, girl, before I decide to throw whatever's left of my humanity out the window. I promise your life won't get any easier."

The tall, blond male next to her wince at those words and suddenly finds my doormat highly interesting. Apart from his Thor-like bulk and his angelic face, he gives me the impression of a normal, harmless guy, and I have to admit it puts me a little at ease. Rae, on the other hand, is going to be a joy to work with. I liked her the moment she opened her mouth. I don't trust sweet, soft-spoken females. They tend to be most heavy-handed when they stab you in the back. I suppose all that pent up energy from trying to be nice has to go somewhere.

"Veronica," I say, shaking her hand and then Chris.' "Call me Vera." It's not that I want to be on a nickname basis, but the thought of allowing everyone else to call me by my nickname except that arrogant bat pleases me.

I lead them to the kitchen, as that's where I conduct all my businesses with the rest of the human race, and now, apparently, with vampires. It's also where I hide the most weapons, and here there's enough room for me to move around and defend myself in case of an attack - not that it helped in any way the last time that had happened. I invite Rae and Chris to sit and pour them some coffee. Me, I stand against the counter where my knives are within reach. The gun, I place by my side at an arm's reach. All the while Rae keeps an eye on my movements in between her sips of the coffee, most likely trying to guess where all my weapons are. Chris, to my surprise, appears overly relaxed, as if he couldn't care less where I place my hands or my feet and seems to be more interested in the size of my bra or the shape of my backside. I don't mind men looking at my assets, as long as they realize what's mine stays mine.

"So," I say, eyeing them as I sip my coffee, "what exactly do you do?"

"You don't waste any time," Rae raises a brow and chuckles, "I like that."

"I don't chat with vampires," I tell her. "I kill them. No offense."

She smirks. "None taken."

Chris rolls his eyes at Rae and turns to beam at me with a smile that probably makes most girls' knees weak, unfortunately for him, my knees only ever become weak in the presence of a thick, juicy red piece of a dead cow, or a cheesecake.

"In short, Rae is the Head of Operation here." He leans forward with the cup in both his hands. I like that he doesn't appear arrogance or vain, despite his looks. Chris is just flirtatious and friendly, from what I can see so far. "So basically she gives orders and herds us around to get things done. Me," he winks, "I'm the guy you come to when you need something, and I know everything."

"More like the nerd we use to gain information," Rae cuts in, "but yes, he knows everything, and he's our welcome wagon."

Head of Operation and the welcome wagon. I can see why.

"How many of you are there?" The first thing I need to know is how big of an operation this is and what I'll be getting myself into.

"How many of us are working together?" Rae asks and thinks about it for a few seconds. "Our network consists of about a hundred or so vampires who're working to bring down the syndicate, but if you count the humans we work with, it's probably more than twice that number."

It's a pretty large organization, and I'm starting to have a bad feeling about what their needs for me are. "Then why do you need my help? You obviously have enough people working for you."

Chris sips his coffee and smiles wryly. "We do, but for the past two decades, we can only get information about transport and money changing hands. The raids we've done were on temporary holding facilities. To this day we have no idea where their headquarter is or who operates at the top level. The victims we've rescued were kept blindfolded and in the dark the entire time, and the mercenaries we've caught were simply guards who had no information about where the victims came from. They know what they're doing, and their chain of operation is kept strictly on a need to know basis."

It does sound like a highly professional and functional drug deal. I can see why they've made no real progress for decades. "And the kidnappers? Surely you can trace them back to their buyers and go from there?"

Rae shakes her head. "That's the problem," she says. "The kidnappers are humans. They're random crooks who work independently as opposed to one being on a regular payroll. The syndicate sends some middlemen to spread the job offer, and after someone has taken the job and delivered, they, too, go missing. In short, they don't use the same guy twice. So to get one of the kidnappers alive, we need to catch them in action, but since they do a background check on the victims before they move in, we have to rely on our human partners to do the job."

"And they're not doing the job." I can see where this is going.

"More like they can't," Chris replies and pauses, turning the cup of coffee in his hand as if searching for the right words. "They target single women and men with little to no families in their twenties or younger. It's already difficult to find people to work for us, and the ones we've managed to find have either ended up being captured, or we lose them the moment our tails get too close. We need the targets to be able to handle their captors. That's...where you come in."

"I see." I can't help but sneer at the irony of it. "You want me to be bait."

Rae gives me a grin. "You fit the description," she says and makes a point at looking around the room, "and from what I'm seeing, girl, I can't wait to see you kick some asses."

So, she does know where I keep my weapons. I make a note of that and remind myself to think twice before getting into a fight with this woman. "How do you make sure they'll target me?"

"That's my job." Chris smiles, dragging his gaze slowly from my head to my toe and back up again, probably imagining something inappropriate. "And I'm pretty good at it, don't worry."

I suppose they must have a way, and I'm glad it's not my job to worry about. "Then why not just let them take me and follow my trail to their main holding facility?" Interrogations take time, and I don't see the point of going around the bush, especially when I'm more or less at their disposal. I should be able to stay alive during a raid, or even break out of the holding facility when I need to, but even if I can't, I don't see why they'd care.

"My orders are to catch them in action and interrogate," Rae replies. "For now," she adds.

For now, of course. They probably need some time to see how much I can be trusted with the job, but I have a feeling there's also something she's not telling me, something I need to know about the syndicate. As of this moment, however, I have another, more pressing concern. "So what do I do if I need something? How do I contact Remus?"

Rae raises a brow. "You mean Lucien."

"I mean Remus."

Rae chuckles. "My orders come from Lucien," she says. "Lord Remus doesn't deal with these things personally. He operates on a whole different level from what we do around here. In fact, I'm surprised he even showed up here at all."

He did a lot more than showing up, I want to say, and I suppose if I hadn't stabbed Lucien with a Wolfsbane injector before he could recruit me, he wouldn't have bothered to grace me with his presence at all. It does present a problem, however. "So you're saying he's too high up the food chain to be called upon?"

Rae shakes her head and smiles in the way that tells me how ridiculous my question was. "Remus Valentin is the top of the food chain," she says. "You don't call on him. You file a request, which goes through about five offices before it gets to Lucien, whose job is to fix everything himself before he hands it over to the boss. If you're lucky enough to get an audience at all, the whole process usually takes a month or more. I get that he's hot as fuck, but you don't strike me as a girl who wants to sleep with a hot vampire. Why do need to call on him?"

That last sentence wasn't mild in any sense of the word, and I can feel the hostility in every syllable. His subordinates are loyal, down to the ones he rarely comes into contact with. I draw a breath and squeeze my eyes shut at the direness of my situation. This does present a pretty big problem. On one hand, I need to tell them about my concern, on the other, I'm not sure if I should reveal my weakness if they don't already know.

My silence must have alarmed them to a certain degree, because a few seconds later, I see Rae putting down her cup and stares at me, her dark eyes narrow sharply like she's readying herself for an attack. "I am waiting," she says, "for an explanation."

My hand inches toward the gun by reflex, but I make myself stop before it does. I have to think clearly before I act. The fact that I'm stuck in this situation anyway means that it's simply stupid to make even more enemies, especially out of these two that seem willing to play nice. Now that I know more about who Remus is and that all his underlings are loyal to a fault, I have to be careful what I say and do when it involves him. They need to trust me that I mean Remus no harm or they'll watch everything I do and every move I make. The first step to gaining their trust, I conclude, is to come clean about my situation.

"He poisoned me with his blood and gave me a month of antidote," I tell them. "In cases of emergency, I may need more." It's what I've been worried about. What if I lose the antidote? What if he forgets to send me more? What if his middleman decides to pay me back for what I've done to their fellow vampires? I can't trust Lucien. The only thing I'm certain about him is that he wants to kill me and then tear me to shreds for the sake of it. While I doubt he would defy his beloved master for that satisfaction, I'm not going to rely on the hope that he won't make it look like an accident when he's too fed up with me one day. I need direct contact with Remus if I am to stay alive long enough do this.

To my surprise, Rae blinks at me as if I've just pulled a unicorn out of my ass. "He gave you his blood?"

"More like tricking me into taking it," I reply. "Why?"

From across the room, Chris shifts a little in his seat and looks like he's just accidentally chewed on a bone. Rae, however, is staring at me in shock, eyes wide in utter disbelief.

"Why?" She repeats as if I've just asked the most ridiculous question in the world. "Remus Valentin is old blood. His line is pure and dates back to thousands of years. His blood is more potent, more powerful than that of ten vampires combined, if not more. You have no idea how many vampires would kill each other for a drop of it. How does it feel? Do you have any special powers? Are you growing wings?"

I feel like shit, I want to tell her, but considering how everyone seems to immortalize the hell out of this prick, I figure I shouldn't and I keep my mouth shut. According to Rae, I've won a lottery, a jackpot no less. According to me, I've won nothing but agony and a leash around my neck. It would have been nice if I have some special powers along with it, but as far as I can tell, I'm not about to start shooting webs or developing the ability to climb walls or anything similar anytime soon. In fact, the only thing that's developing pretty fast is the list of reasons why I want to see him dead, but I can't tell her that, can I?

So I tell Rae my symptoms, and as expected, she appears half disappointed, half relieved about the fact that his precious blood is of no benefit to me whatsoever. Jealousy can be deadly whether you're dealing with humans or vampires. I can just imagine how the majority of the latter would look at me if they know I've been fed Remus' blood, given that what Rae says is true. I swear that damn bat is making my life as difficult as possible on purpose.

"Well, that sucks," Rae chuckles and picks up her coffee again, "but you won't have to worry about the antidote. I can get a message to Lucien pretty quickly, and he has direct contact with Lord Remus. Did he drink your blood by any chance?"

"No," I reply. "Would that make a difference?"

She pauses a little, and I can see decisions being made in her head. The conclusion arrives quickly, as I expected. This is a woman who works fast, takes no amount of nonsense, dangerous, for lack of a better word.

"It would complete the bond," she explains, watching my every gesture as she does. "For vampires, feeding somebody our blood forms a one-sided bond. It connects that person to the giver or the one who turns you. I'm not sure if the amount you ingested was enough, but given how powerful his blood is, there's a chance you've already bonded to him in some ways, and if he drinks your blood too, then the bond is no longer one-sided. It's why we don't drink from those we intend to turn. We bleed them out, before giving them our blood."

Now, this has just become highly interesting, I resist the urge to grin at that thought in my head. I may actually have a way to pay him back for what he's done. After all, any kind of bond has its pros and cons, depending on how one chooses to use it. I happen to know exactly how I'm going to use it. I just need to know the details. "What happens when you're fully bonded?" I ask, sipping my coffee and trying to appear only half-interested.

Rae eyes me as she drinks hers, and I make myself meet her gaze. If I look away now, she'll know I'm trying to hide something.

"You feel each other's presence," she says, still watching my reaction like a hawk. "Strong emotions are sometimes sent through the bond, and other times you can feel their pain. Some pairs can even send mental messages through if they're bonded well enough. I think, and this is only a wild guess, that Lord Remus can probably tell when you're in trouble. He might also be able to track where you are, which might also be why he's given you his blood, now that I think about it."

"So I can be captured, and he can find the den." I nod in agreement. Of course, that's why. Feeding me his blood means I can't run or betray him for at least a year, and if he can track me, then I'm the most useful bait ever. If that's true, he probably won't let me die from the lack of antidotes, which takes care of my main concern. The good news, however, is that I can probably use that as leverage somewhere along the line.

"That bond still has to be tested, so for now, don't get yourself caught just yet," Rae adds.

"I get it. You don't want to waste your bait until you know for sure. One more question," I say, gesturing at Chris with my mug. "What just made your Golden Boy here suddenly stops leering at me?" Chris' altered reaction to my mention of Remus' blood is something I just can't let go. If I am to last in all this, I need to know exactly what my situation means among them.

Chris swallows and looks away. Rae just laughs out loud. "Girl, you might just be the only one immune to his charms. This just keeps getting better and better."

I want to roll my eyes and tell her I wouldn't fall for a vampire even if he looks like a cast member of the Avengers and acts like one, but I can also see why most girls might fall head over heels for him. Chris fits the image of that perfect, fun-loving, prom king girls want to jump into bed with if only for the sake of bragging rights, which is probably why he's useful for getting information and being a welcome wagon.

"The answer to your question," Rae continues smilingly, obviously still finding all this immensely amusing, "is that no matter how much our Golden Boy wants to pursue his goal of getting every female figure we ever work with on his bed, nobody in their right mind is ever going to touch what belongs to Remus Valentin, which you are now, in a way, having been given his blood."

"I see." So it's like he's pissed on me and now I'm his property. Great. While this could work for me as a vampire deterrent and some sort of protection, a part of me is dying to sink several knives into that assuming, arrogant bastard. The next time I see him, which might never come if Rae was telling the truth, I promise myself I'll make him suffer appropriately for marking his territory on the wrong human. For now, I'll play the role of an obedient girl who's good on her words. I'll play bait. It serves my purpose, and I need to lower his and his underling's guards. I need them to trust me.

"So," I say, bringing the carafe with me to fill up everyone's cup when I walk over to sit at the table, "what do you want me to do?"

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A/N: Sorry for the length of this chapter, but since it's more dialogues, I hope that wasn't too tiring to read. The latter chapters are shorter, I promise. Please comment and vote if you enjoy the story. It helps other people see it and may give it a try :) Thank you.