Chapter 2 - Day 1 (night)

Tilting her head to one side, Yoanna studied the big redheaded Vampire as he stormed into the dining cum meeting room with Ella, his young human wife following along in his wake as fast as she could given how long the stride of the near seven foot Vampire was and the advanced state of her pregnancy. Her dark, almost black, eyes blazed with exasperation and all the fire in her Puerto Rican blood.

"Something seems to be troubling you, Marcus. What is wrong?" Her tone was measured, calm, but it cut across the room and made him pull to a halt, his body drawing up in realisation of his behaviour and who was witnessing it.

Pausing, Marcus gave their Queen a belated bow. "My apologies for my absence and behaviour, my Queen. I just had word that, Sinn was spotted back in town." The room broke out into heated mutterings at the name. "Sinn, she is a Hunter that we have had 'dealings' with in the past. She can be… troublesome," he explained to Yoanna, his body tensing at the explosion that was sure to follow from his wife. Her fondness for Sinn was something he'd never been able to understand.

Catching up to him, Ella sighed in frustration and grabbed at his arm. She was tired of trying to hold a conversation at the same time of keeping up with his long legged stride as he tore around the mansion in a rage over Sinn. She was over eight months pregnant, moving fast was no longer on her list of things she wanted to be doing. "Marcus, you know she isn't that bad! Really, she isn't that bad!" she threw beseechingly towards Yoanna in case she reacted to Marcus' anger over Sinn and ordered her death before she could explain more about her.

Rounding on her, Marcus planted his hands on his hips as he glared down at her. "Ella, how can you say that with all the trouble she has caused us?!"

Planting her hands on her own hips, mirroring his stance and more than matching his mood, Ella tilted her chin up and glowered up… way up as he was a seven foot mountain of stubborn muscle, to meet his light green eyes. "Oh, and how many times has Sinn come through for us in the end?!"

"In the end!" he pointed back, throwing her words back at her. "And the first time we met her she put a gun to my head, Ella!"

"Well she didn't shoot once I explained what was happening, did she!"

Throwing up his hands and growling in exasperation, Marcus steered his wife over to a chair and made her sit down. When it came to the matter of Sinn they just could never agree as Ella was always willing to give the young Hunter the benefit of the doubt. "I am sorry, Yoanna. My wife believes that Sinn is good at heart… and maybe she is," he added before his wife could interrupt. "But she is very dangerous and I do not trust that her turning up again at the same time that you have come to be with us, is a coincidence, my Queen."

"Oh, I'm sure it isn't," Yoanna smiled in anticipation. In fact it was exactly what she had hoped would happen when she had made the decision to visit Bitten. It was a place more than any other that Sinn returned to. "But know this," she raised her voice just enough so that everyone in the room could hear and understand. "Sinn is mine! No one, and I mean no one, is to touch her!"

Frowning in confusion, Ella turned her attention to the gorgeous blonde Vampire and studied her intently. She was sure that tone in her voice when she'd said that Sinn was hers had been more possessive than anything. She could tell by Marcus' expression that he had taken her words to mean that she would 'deal' with the problem that was Sinn, as in killing her if she turned up. Ella had heard it differently though. That had been the same kind of possessive tone that Marcus used in the bedroom sometimes. As she looked at the others though, Ella wondered if maybe it was pregnancy hormones playing with her emotions as no one else seemed to taking Yoanna's words that way.

Standing up again, ignoring Marcus frustrated sigh, Ella made her way closer to the Vampire Queen. "Yoanna, my Queen, if I may, if… when, Sinn shows up, let me speak to her first?"

Sighing, Marcus gently took his wife by the arm and turned her to face him. Somehow he had to make her understand. "Ella! There is no way I am letting you near, Sinn-"

"But she will talk to me, Marcus. If she does come by I could find out nice and calmly why she's here before everyone blunders in with weapons and teeth drawn like they usually do and anything gets out of hand with her."

"Or," Yoanna interrupted as the couple squared off against each other again, "we could just ask her." Smiling to herself, Yoanna gestured upwards with a delicate tilt of her head.

Cursing his distraction, Marcus belatedly felt the stirring of air coming from behind and above him from the high beams that crossed the room but it was too late. Sinn was only slight of build compared to him, five foot five to his seven foot, but she was well trained and combat hardened and slammed into him with skill and force from above, sending him flying as she landed in a crouch as agile as a lethal jungle cat.

Yoanna felt a thrill of anticipation as Sinn rose from her crouch and drew her weapon in one smooth move. She was dressed in her familiar black jeans, t-shirt and leather jacket. Even the gun she already had drawn was black as was the silky strands of hair she tossed back from her face as she took her attention off of Marcus and turned her way.

With Marcus down and out of the way, Sinn spun around towards the blonde Vampire. The gun waivered in her hand, shock running through her along with the realisation that she had seen her before. Many times before. Haunting her dreams, her very explicit and erotic dreams, and her life from afar. "You?" Tightening her grip before she dropped her weapon, she sighted down the barrel and placed her finger on the trigger.

"Sinn! No!" Ella stepped into the path of Sinn's gun, putting herself between the young Hunter and Yoanna. She couldn't let anything happen to the blonde Vampire. It would mean the end of Sinn… the end of everything. Her body was tense, poised on the verge of lethal action. The look in Sinn's eyes though was full of confusion and anger that shifted to worry as Sinn focussed upon her. Her gun shifted, her finger quickly moving away from the trigger as she started to lower it. Taking a steadying breath, Ella held up her hands to show she was unarmed as she moved cautiously closer. She didn't fear for herself but she feared that one wrong move might trigger Sinn into moving on Yoanna again. "Sinn…"

Spinning back to his feet, Marcus felt rage bursting through him at the sight of Sinn pointing a gun right at his wife's face. Snarling in fury he closed the gap between them with all the speed his Vampire powers afforded him. Reaching out, he grabbed Sinn by the back of her jacket and snatched her back, tossing her across the room away from Ella with all his considerable might.

Marcus saw the horror on Ella's face at the same time as he heard a dull THUD from behind him. He could lift and throw a sizable truck with ease, her weight had been nothing compared to that. But as he turned be felt little more than a mild feeling of disinterest as Sinn's body came to a boneless rest at the base of the marble column on the other side of the room that she had slammed into nearly head first.

He smelt the copper tang of blood in the air before the dark stain spread out in a growing pool around Sinn's head as she twitched then grew deathly still. "Ella, no!" He tried to grab Ella and stop her from moving towards Sinn, he didn't want her anywhere near Sinn while the gun was still in her hand just in case she was still somehow conscious, or managed one last twitch, but Ella shook him off forcefully and stilled him with a glare of anguish and fear as she rushed towards her fallen friend.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sinn knew she should be hurting but she couldn't feel anything. Her vision faded in and out, adding to the feeling of disconnection as she watched light glinting off the pool of blood she was laying in. It was her blood, she knew it was. There was so much of it. Too much. She could taste it in her mouth, feel it gathering in the back of her throat, thick and choking as it cut her air off and bubbled out of her mouth with every weakening breath.

She had come close to death too many times but this felt different.

"Sinn! Sinn!"

Sinn heard her name coming from a distance so far away it meant nothing. She was dying, she knew she was. And she was okay with it. She was sick of fighting. Sick of being manipulated. She just wanted to sleep and be at peace for once.

"Oh, Sinn," not daring to move her, Ella gently brushed aside Sinn's blood soaked hair and laid her fingers against the side of Sinn's throat, feeling for a pulse. It was so weak and thready she could feel Sinn's life slipping away with every slowing beat.

"Everyone leave now! Guards get him out of here, lock him up! I told you she was mine, Marcus!" Kneeling in the pool of blood, Yoanna gently supported Sinn's head and neck as she turned her onto her back and gathered her broken body into her arms and cradled her against her body. "Go, be with your husband, Ella. It may be a while before you get to see him again."

Ella shivered a little at the venom directed towards Marcus in Yoanna's voice. Her husband was in trouble but her concern right then was Sinn. With every blink of her eyes she saw again and again was her body flying through the air and heard over and over the sickening crack as she had slammed into the pillar head first. "Is she- is there anything that can be done?"

"Normally… no. Her injuries are grievous but…"

"But," Ella dragged her gaze away from Sinn, hope rising at that one word to almost die again at the concern in Yoanna's cerulean blue eyes as she gently caressed Sinn's face through the mask of blood. The familiarity of her touch made Ella wonder where they might have met before but it didn't seem possible that they had. Part of being a Hunter was being able to sense who was a normal human and who was a Vampire or Werewolf. It was a skill that Sinn was especially good at and she had rarely, if ever, passed up the chance to use it to her advantage. So how had Yoanna managed to get close enough to be so possessive of her?

"Can you keep a secret, Ella?"

"Yes, especially if it will help Sinn."

"Hmm, you really do like her, don't you?"

"She reminds me of the path I was heading down before I fell in love with Marcus. I had been hunting for so long and all I saw was the bad in Vampires until I got to know him. I just keep hoping that she might get to see that you are all not as bad as she thinks and would… well… be able to let go of that life. And I think she has learned to trust us a little but it can be a little one step forwards and two steps back with her sometimes."

"She has not had it easy growing up."

"You knew her when she was young?" Ella stared at Yoanna in amazement and wondered what Sinn might have been like when she was a child.

"Well, younger. Has she ever told you about her accident?" Yoanna tapped Sinn's left hip.

Ella's eyes widened at the motion of Yoanna's hand and the implication that she had seen Sinn undressed enough to know about something like that. "I saw the scars on her hip before she had them covered with a tattoo a couple of years ago but she refused to talk about what caused them."

"I saw it happen. Ten years ago. She was riding on the back of her boyfriend's motorbike. He was being young and stupid and picked the wrong car full of Vampires to try and race at some lights. They deliberately clipped his bike and crashed them down a ditch. Sinn landed away from the bike, very badly hurt. Her boyfriend wasn't so badly hurt but official records say he died on impact. In all actuality though he was torn apart by them. I nearly just drove on but something made me stop and I made them leave before they could start on Sinn. I helped her to heal a little before I was forced to leave myself."

Her voice was so dispassionate and matter of fact as she talked but Ella could see that the memory of that day and what might have been if she hadn't stopped, troubled Yoanna. "You helped her to heal? How, I didn't know that could be done?"

"I shared a taste of my blood with her. If I had had more time and known where she was I might have been able to heal her completely so she would have had no scars and wouldn't have been in a coma afterwards. As it was though, what I was able to give, gave her enough of a chance to survive and created a bit of a bond between us. Or maybe it's just her that created the bond because I find I am unable to stay away from her for too long," she admitted with a small smile. "I had- have grown tired of looking in at her life from the outside and only being able to get close when she is bloodied and broken. Her recent change of attitude gave me hope enough to come here to try and force her hand… and now it could all be for nothing thanks to your husband!"

"I'm-"

"Don't say anything, Ella," Yoanna sighed, holding up a hand dripping with Sinn's blood as she bit back on her anger for Marcus at what he had done. "It is not your apology to make and, if she survives, it is up to Sinn if she will accept one from Marcus or not."

Gently easing Sinn's head back, Yoanna cupped her jaw and parted her mouth. Her heart broke a little as Sinn's blood spilt from her mouth and flowed down over her restraining hand. She so wanted to taste Sinn's blood for herself again and see if it was still as magical as that first time but there was no joy to be had in seeing her losing it in such a way. She bit into her own wrist, sharp teeth slicing through skin, muscle and veins with ease.

"If this works she might start convulsing so make sure you are out of reach for the sake of your baby," she warned Ella. Yoanna put her wrist to Sinn's mouth, holding her in place as her blood filled her mouth. Massaging her throat she forced Sinn's unresponsive body to swallow over and over. "Come on, Sinn. Come back to me." Closing her eyes, Yoanna pressed her lips against Sinn's temple. Desperation gripped like a vice around her heart with every passing second without response. "Come on," she begged softly.

There was nothing.

And then, like a switch being thrown, Yoanna felt it as life flowed back into Sinn's body. She thrashed about within her arms, her body trying to reject the feel of the blood flowing down her throat and the flesh between her teeth even while instinctively she kept swallowing down the life giving liquid as it filled her mouth.

Yoanna continued to hold Sinn close as her thrashing quietened and she grew still once more. This time though the stillness was more natural, her breathing and pulse strong.

"Is she okay?" Ella whispered as she edged closer to Sinn and Yoanna despite the Vampires warning to stay back.

"She's sleeping for now. As to if she is okay, that is up to her body to decide still. Has she got a place in town? I would keep with me here but if she wakes up somewhere she doesn't know or feels threatened it will just panic her and I don't think any of us want that."

"We believe she usually rents a cabin further up the mountain on the other side of Bitten. We've tried to find out where before but usually by the time we know she's in town she's heading off again and there are so many cabins up there she probably doesn't even rent the same one each time. If she's got a key on her or on her bike we should be able to find it easily enough though."

Running a hand over Sinn's jacket, her fingers sliding through the heat of the blood coating it, Yoanna felt the outline and weight of keys and fished them from the inside pocket and handed them over to Ella. "Get someone you can trust to find out where she's been staying and have them check the place out. If they see anyone there or hanging around, tell them to just get out of there. It could be her Mentor. I do not trust him normally and if he found out what just happened here he would probably kill her."

"You know Sinn's Mentor too?" Ella's eyes widened further. The Mentors were the Hunter's keepers. They were the ones that trained them and gave them their missions. Ella had thought her own had being harsh… until she had wanted to find out what she could about Sinn and had reached out for information. Her own Mentor had admitted to only knowing of Sinn by reputation and when it came to Sinn's Mentor the only reply Ella had got was a sneer of disgust.

"I know of him," Yoanna clarified. "I've nearly ran into him a few times before but since Sinn's Mother was killed eight years ago he's been keeping an even lower profile than normal, and he was pretty much invisible before then. I might have been able to stop him from poisoning her life before now if I could have gotten close enough. Now, go find out what you can about where she's been living if you would please. There isn't too many hours left in the night and I need to know she will be safe before I am forced to retire for the day."

Retire, such a pleasant way of saying that her body would just shut down and she would essentially be dead. It was when a Vampire was at their most vulnerable. All but impossible to wake. And that was most certainly not a good way to be when there was anyone let alone a Hunter around.

Yoanna gently picked Sinn up off the cold floor after Ella had left. She could feel the cooled blood soaked into her clothing, making the fabric stick and pull with every movement. "I think we need to get you cleaned up my darling, Sinn."

The dark haired beauty was taller than she was but with the extra strength that came with being a Vampire, Yoanna could have carried a car with ease and so had no trouble carrying her through to the rooms they had provided for her use at the mansion. Usually she preferred to keep her daytime sleeping location secret but the rooms had proved to be handy on occasion.

While the huge bath tub filled, Yoanna carried Sinn into the double shower and turned the spray on. Peeling the blood soaked clothes off them both she let them drop to the floor. They were barely salvageable but knowing her loves fondness for black clothing she had no doubt that not even the leather jacket would be missed with all the others she owned. As for the weapons hidden within them, a bit of cleaning would have them back up to full lethal potential. Yoanna was hoping though that she might be able to introduce a bit of colour into her life and clothing choices and less of a need for so many weapons eventually.

With the tub full, Yoanna lowered Sinn into the steaming water and climbed in with her so that her body was supporting Sinn's. There was still next to no response from Sinn but that didn't stop her from savouring every touch as she cleansed her body of every trace of blood. Even though she tried to keep touch impersonal even while tracing the delicate ink of the tattoo upon her hip, Yoanna couldn't deny that she hoped for the chance to do it again when Sinn was awake and willing and able to return her touch.

God, but she was so beautiful. Her body muscular and slender but curvy in all the right places. Her skin was lightly tanned which made the spill of inky black hair all the more startling in contrast. From top to bottom, Yoanna felt she was perfect but she had always had a special fondness for those green eyes that were shuttered to her right then.

All Yoanna could see were the long and thick inky black sweep of lashes right then. Once open those eyes could burn with intense green fire that even hooded by thick lashes could make any Vampire or Werewolf with an inkling of self-preservation take a step back in fear from the naked hatred they could spew when she was mad. Yoanna wanted nothing more than to see a different kind of passion in them again though… If Sinn was in agreement that was. She would never force her. She had seen it once when Sinn was mostly innocent to the life she now lived and the horrors in it and even then, that one glance had had Yoanna convinced it was something worth giving up ones soul for to see again.

As impossible as it was, Yoanna wanted that innocence back for her. She had seen that battle taking place within Sinn, her hesitation on hunts that had led to a change she had traced back to her visits to Bitten and time spent with Ella. Above all, Yoanna wanted that for her… anything else was just a hope and a dream that had been born on a night ten years before when their eyes had met.

Unable and unwilling to help herself, Yoanna gently tilted Sinn's head back, feeling the softness of her dark hair flowing around her fingers as she caressed her softly parted lips with her own in a upside down kiss of tender hope. She felt the softest of sighs against her mouth and thought she felt Sinn's pulse pick up. By then though her own heart was hammering against her ribs so strongly she could barely hear anything else. "You really are my delightful Sinn," she whispered against her mouth.