She had sensed the Hunters approaching. Three of them, spread out across the block, taking up position to wait for their prey. In the past she’d have simply run at the first scent of them, disappeared over the rooftops, down the lanes to an empty area, left trouble behind for someone else to stumble into. Now however, she could feel power growing in her. It brought confidence, and hunger. She was becoming just like them.

She lay still in the shadows, watching and waiting for her moment. Two of the three were newbies, but the leader radiated threat. They would flush out the prey and he would finish it off, throwing them the scraps. The handle of her blade was warm with the thought of it.

Cass wasn’t their target this time, however. It was a lone man, walking purposefully down the centre of the street below. He was heading in the same direction as her. She tried to get a read on him but came up blank. He was a void. Just a hat and an overcoat and an air of confidence. He looked familiar, somehow. Her instinct told her he was to be avoided. She would simply watch and wait. He was not what he seemed.

The hunters had fanned out, aiming to surround the man and close all at once. The two younger ones on the flanks, the leader back a little, just out of her field of vision. She could sense him though. He was patient, confident, alien.

Below her now, a young hunter crept along the wall of the alley. She could feel his excitement, his breath, the blood pulsing through him. Without thinking she leant over the edge and found the blade in her hand.

Twisting onto her back she lowered herself slowly down to hang from her ankles, feet wrapped around the thin metal gutter of the rooftop. Another stretch and she was right behind him, watching his hungry breath steam the thin night air. Calling to her.

The blade lashed out, cleanly severing the head. She caught the body as it slumped and rested it against the wall to prevent any further sound. The head itself had made no more than a dull wet thump on the puddle strewn concrete. It peered up at her now, fangs grinning out from beneath its top lip.

Next moment she was back up in the shadows of the rooftop, peering out through the rain. They hadn’t seen her. The thrill in her stomach slowly sank back down to a dull ache.

Vampires. Pack Hunters close in to the Grid, feeding off each other when no other meat was available. They were one of the reasons Quarters and her had been forced so far off Grid in the first place. Her stomach twisted again at the thought, then subsided as she stared down at the blade still in her hand.

It was quivering slightly. The blood previously coating it was spreading in the rain, shrinking down into a thin red line on the curve of the blade. As she watched it too disappeared, absorbing into the metal.

“Blood drinkers.”

Cass sprung to her feet and turned to see the leader standing on the rooftop across from her, arms crossed, a thin smile on his lips.

She hadn’t felt him at all, hadn’t noticed him until he wished to show himself, had projected his voice into her.

“These blades were made for us long ago. Very powerful things. Very hungry. You must be both powerful and hungry to wield one. If not now, soon. The blade will turn you to the path.”

She could feel the words slithering into her brain, wrapping themselves around her. She wondered why he was bothering to talk at all, and then she realised he was buying time.

“We know all about you. You’ve become quite famous you know. I wonder what that will make me once I’ve drunk from your pretty white throat?”

Cass sent her senses arching out around her. Where was the other one?

A sudden cry leapt across the night from the main street below to answer her question. It seems the prey wasn’t quite as helpless as it looked.

The leader’s smile sank back into his face and Cass felt a confidence warm her. He’d needed help. She was stronger than him. She began to walk towards him.

He took only a second longer to reach the same conclusion. With a suddenness that surprised her he sprang away, landing on the street below and sprinting off through the rain.

Cass stood still on the rooftop and watched him. She could probably catch him. His vampire tuned abilities made him fast and agile, but not like her. He could wait, however, she had other things to do.

Besides, she’d already fed today. She looked down at the blade in her hands. It had already fed. It glistened in the rain, drops dancing off its edge. It felt warm and strong.

He’d called it a Blood drinker, said it would turn her. She looked over the streets below, across to her goal, closer to the dull glow of the Grid.

In this place, what did it matter who led who?