The hunters said that things were getting worse every night. All across the country, towns and cities were under siege. Some were assailed even during the day and fouler nightmares, only ever seen beyond the wall, were becoming more and more common. Some people blamed her father and his disinterested rule but many more blamed her brother.

  'It's why she reacted so negatively to our killing of the dreamer,' John said, 'because her royal half-brother is one of them.' It wasn't true. She hadn't known Callum was an active dreamer, or even really understood what one was, until they'd killed that poor boy. Part of her said that she had no right to judge them, but the hungrier part of her demanded that she take revenge, the sooner the better. As ever, she simply waited and watched them. 'The King will see sense, in time.'

  'Yes,' Matthias agreed, 'one night, the nightmares will begin to wane and we'll learn in the morning that the crown prince supposedly died of a fever or some such.' Laurel had to make sure that didn't happen. Even now, she felt a temptation to abandon her stalk and go to the palace. She could serve as her brother's loyal bodyguard, and wouldn't that be a delightful fate to inflict on her step-mother? Instead, she remained.

  Gordon was the only member of the group who offered the slightest resistance. 'You lot are talking yourselves into high treason at the rate you're going.' He seemed weary and, when she read his mind, she learned that he was beginning to regret the whole bloody business. 'No dreamer can conjure hundreds of nightmares a night and one certainly can't spawn them miles away. What we're experiencing is a new phase of the Nightmare War and you just want to find an easy way out.'

  John simply rolled his eyes at his old friend, 'I suppose we'll see,' he said. All the others either agreed with him or deferred to him without giving it much thought. The latter described Tamsin quite well. Laurel had read her mind more often than any of the others, hoping to catch either regret over her involvement in the dreamer's death or lingering feelings for Laurel herself. Instead, she found only her obsession with immortality and general indifference towards her life as a hunter. Laurel wondered if she'd ever been genuine.

  'You're still looking for someone to replace your precious Sarah,' Liana's words echoed through her mind but she shut them out.

  She watched the group set up traps. They believed she was still around and, of course, they were right. That night, she sabotaged the traps without making it obvious that she'd done so. Laurel didn't know when - or even if - she wanted to confront them but she now knew not to underestimate hunters or their poisons. John announced the plan a few days later, addressing everyone but Tamsin specifically. 'Right, Tamsin, there's no easy way to break this to you but we're going to have to use you as bait.'

  The young woman's brother objected immediately. 'What the hell are you talking about?!' Sensing his aggression, his moon beast shot to his side and growled along with him.

  John rolled his eyes. 'Laurel has an interest in her. If she thinks she's found a way to talk to her on her own, she'll probably take it.'

  'Weren't not putting her in danger,' Taylor replied, simply.

  At that, Tamsin felt moved to speak. She put a calming hand on her brother's shoulder and said, 'it's alright. I can handle it.'

  John smiled, 'see? She gets it. This is our best shot.'

  Eventually, tensions were settled and preparations were made for the confrontation. Matthias was positioned in a tree, with a crossbow trained on Tamsin's location, whilst the others put themselves on high alert a short distance away. If that didn't work, they gave Tamsin a syringe filled with demon's blood. That had caused another argument but, yet again, she'd convinced her brother to stand down. When her cue came, she pretended to wander off, doing a really rather bad job of acting like she'd got herself lost. Once she was in position, she began scanning the treeline for Matthias, but didn't find him.

  His moon beast did find his lifeless corpse, however, behind the tree he'd been sitting in and went berserk, barking and whining in grief. The others immediately ran to Tamsin's location, expecting a fight but Laurel remained hidden. Gordon rubbed his eyes in frustration upon seeing Matthias's body. 'She's probably been watching us the whole time,' he said. It was something he'd thought a few times before but never vocalised, though Laurel didn't really know why. 'We should leave.'

  Taylor agreed, of course, as did Corey and his father. John, however, wasn't having it. 'We are so close to getting her, it would be a mistake to give up now.' Maria showed her support by stepping close to him but it didn't convince anyone else. 'This is an executive decision. We're staying and finishing the job.'

  'Fuck this!' Taylor yelled. 'Come on, sis, we're leaving.' Tamsin looked to John, then to her brother, and then once again into the treeline. Laurel let herself briefly hope that she was looking for her. She turned away just as quickly, however, and let her brother lead her away.

  'Fine,' John said, becoming increasingly angry, 'you're out! The rest of you, get your arses in line.' Maria squeezed his arm and leant her head against him, cooling his temper somewhat.

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  She could tell from Phillip's thoughts that he also wanted to quit but he didn't feel confident enough to say so. His son pushed, 'dad, come on.'

  With that nudge, he said, 'this is way too risky. She has the upper hand.' Then, father and son walked off, leaving just John, his sort-of girlfriend and his best friend. Gordon exhaled in frustration but remained, helping John set up more traps.

  Laurel took her time, letting out a particulate of blood in order to keep track of Tamsin but, otherwise, dedicating all of her attention on planning John's demise. In the end, she waited for him to become briefly separated from the other two. Maria followed him basically everywhere but, for just a few seconds, he walked behind a tree she couldn't easily see past. She rushed to catch up with him, only to find him missing. She screamed and Gordon came running, behind the moon beasts. A few seconds later, Laurel tossed his exsanguinated body to the ground. Maria, alongside John's moon beast, grieved loudly but Gordon's thoughts were mixed. In truth, he'd come to resent his old friend. The awkward mixture of sadness and relief spoke to her.

  She left them to their sorrow before flying towards Tamsin and Taylor. Both young and relatively fit, they were actually making good progress towards an exit but Taylor was still nervous about being caught out after dark. Tamsin had never been deemed ready to try taming a moon beast, so they only had one between them. It was much better than nothing but it would make guarding their camp difficult. 'I'm not going to hurt you,' Laurel said, throwing her voice.

  'Show yourself!' Taylor said, immediately, crossbow up, head whipping around this way and that. Tamsin seemed indifferent.

  It was more of a risk than she'd yet taken but she emerged, gliding just above the range their moon beast could leap to. 'I mean it. I just want to talk.' Instead, she got a bolt fired right at her heart. She caught it, however, and snapped it dramatically. 'If I wanted either of you dead, you already would be.'

  Taylor went to load another bolt but Tamsin stopped him. 'Don't be stupid,' she said, annoying him but giving him pause nonetheless. 'What do you want from us?' Laurel scanned her thoughts but still found little more than indifference.

  The question actually stumped her. 'I just wanted to talk.'

  'Okay,' she said, walking towards where she was floating, 'what did you want to talk about?'

  'Us.'

  That actually brought out a hint of emotion from Tamsin, as she remembered their time together quite fondly, though her feelings had never been anywhere near as intense as her own. 'You want us to get back together?'

  'This is ridiculous!' Taylor interjected, 'Tamsin, she's a killer!'

  'So are we,' his sister said, absently.

  Laurel read Taylor's mind as he formulated a reply. He actually felt some degree of remorse for that boy's death, though he'd not been directly involved. 'That's completely different,' he said, trying to convince himself, 'we do what we do for the good of humanity.'

  Tamsin rolled her eyes at that. 'If you want us to be together again, I only have one condition.' Laurel was reading her mind so closely that she knew what she was going to say long before she said it. 'I want to become a vampire.'

  It hit her hard. She tried to sort through her feelings whilst Taylor desperately tried to talk sense into her. 'This again?! Tamsin, it's a delusion. You can't become a vampire. You can be killed by a vampiric infection and have a nightmare pilot your corpse around but that's all. You'd die.' She wished she'd been able to read minds when she'd confront her master. If anyone knew the truth of it, she suspected it was him.

  'You're wrong. Father explained it all very well.'

  'Step-father. He was our step-father and he was a nutter. I loved the man, but it's the truth. Please, don't do this.' Taylor's pleas were directed towards the wrong person. If he'd tried to convince Laurel herself, she might've found herself wavering. Instead, he'd doomed his sister by trying to save her.

  'Agreed,' Laurel finally said. Everything Liana had said to her about the nature of nightmares weighed heavily on her mind but seeing Tamsin's face light up sealed the deal. In an instant, she'd been plucked from the air. Poisoned-tipped bolts came sailing after her but far too few and much too late. She knew exactly where to take her and certain things began to make more sense to her. Laurel took the girl to her grand-sire's ruined lair where the perfect prison was waiting to be unearthed. Her blood worked for hours to reshape the rock and, once sun set and seeming legions of nightmares issued forth from all of their hiding places, Laurel ate them as if it were nothing. Particulates of blood simply burrowed through fur and flesh and shadow.

  Tamsin said very little as she was brought down into the cavern, just taking it all in. Soon enough, the only thing the girl could see was the torchlight filtering through the silver bars.

  'Here is where you will live. For years, if need be. If you are wrong about the nature of vampirism, then this will also be your tomb.'

  Tamsin simply nodded.

  Later that night, Laurel watched with fascination, feeding on the girl's fitful dreams, as she pulled a trueborn vampire into reality. It didn't understand why and where it had been born and it didn't see Laurel. What it did see however, was a pretty young woman and her lovely neck and it sank its teeth into her. It was hard to watch but she knew that she had to give it a while. When Tamsin appeared to be on the verge of death, she leapt into action, killing the vampire in an instant. Then, she dribbled some of her blood into Tamsin's mouth, willing it to heal rather than to consume. That's when she felt its presence.

  A nightmare had been born in Tamsin's veins. Laurel withdrew her own blood quickly, to avoid harming it but, as hard as she tried, Laurel couldn't tell whether its consciousness was merging with or destroying Tamsin's. Submitting herself to the whims of fate, Laurel let the process take its course, watching Tamsin's eyes turn red and her face contort into something angry and evil. She lunged for Laurel's neck, immediately, but it was easy to restrain her. She tried to talk some sense into her but the endless biting attempts reminded her too much of her mother and she fled beyond the silver bars. Tamsin, or whatever might've taken control of her body, chased after her and badly burned herself trying to get out. She whimpered and wandered off, to slake her thirst on the vampire's corpse.

  That initial drink seemed to calm her and she composed herself well enough to talk. 'Laurel, it's me. It worked, let me out.' Unfortunately, her words didn't match her thoughts. She certainly thought of herself as Tamsin but she was desperate to escape Laurel's control and gorge herself on the blood of the innocent. Laurel sighed and left the lair to brood beneath the moonlight.