Heavy breathing and rapid footfall could be heard against the piercing howls that pursued them. Linda and Lily ran through the dark abandoned streets as fast as they could, a pack of wolves hot on their trail. Snarl and snap! A wolf's teeth barely missed Lily's ankle. The hunt had begun.

  Linda and Lily turned down a narrow alleyway, in an attempt to bottle neck the beasts. But a wolfish silhouette high on a broken wall proved the beasts would not be outsmarted. Just as they reached a corner, a figure dropped in front of them. Linda halted, but her feet slid on the slippery snow and ice. Hands closed about her wrists and she was spun around and held firmly. She fought furiously, urging her sister to keep running. Lily turned and tried to run back the other way, only to be caught in the grasp of the girl they'd met moments before. Two wolves circled them, whining and licking their chops, while others sat from their lofty perches, watching with ears perked forward.

  "Let us go! Please!" Lily whimpered.

  "Ge'off o' me!" Linda screamed, fighting against the man who held her. The man who had tricked her sister. But no matter how she struggled, she was as effective against him as a bumblebee is against a statue.

  Rena pulled a hunting knife from her boot, her other arm holding Lily firmly. "You know this must be done. She can't be saved."

  Linda felt the sickening rage bubble up in her stomach and she threw her weight forward. Still she was restrained. "There gotta be somethin' we can try!" She had accepted her sister's fate, until others decided to deliver it. A cold hand covered her eyes, and she shook her head furiously.

  "Maybe there... is..." Rena's voice intoned quietly, barely audible over the blood rushing through Linda's ears. "But... it might be a fate just as bad."

  "Bad idea, Irene," Cyrus warned. "Bring her here and I'll end it, like we agreed. You're too soft."

  "There's another way?" Lily's shrill voice peeped through the tension.

  Soft whispers. Linda could not make out what all Rena was saying over her own roaring thoughts and struggles. She went still and held her breath, trying to listen. "...choose how much of a monster to be?"

  "What? What do you mean?" Lily whimpered.

  "Oh, come on, really? Of everyone you could have taken on, you'd choose that bog muffin? You know nothing about her!" Cyrus's grip on Linda lessened, distracted. Not wasting her opportunity, she twisted her body sharply and again threw her weight forward. For a moment, she was free of his hands and felt herself stumbling forward, towards her sister. Just as she reached out, the air went out of her lungs as she was snapped back into the nasty man's grasp.

  "Please! If Lily can be saved-"

  "She can't be saved, just have the inevitable prolonged," Rena interrupted. She lowered the knife, but still held fast onto her victim. One of the wolves padded closer and sat down beside the Fisham girl, panting and looking up at the two women. "And bog muffin? You didn't seem to think so poorly of her a few nights ago."

  "Touche. But think carefully, Irene."

  "Rena. Please call me Rena now."

  Cyrus raised his eyebrows and shrugged. To Linda's surprise, Lily was released. But her shackles remained, despite her desire to reach out to her sister. To her further consternation, instead of rushing to be by her side, Lily spun around to face Rena. One of the wolves growled a warning, but remained rooted to the spot.

  "I'll take any chance I can get!" Lily said. "If you know something..."

  "I don't know enough." Rena said frostily, looking Lily over critically. "But you may come with me while I deliberate." Rena sheathed her knife and tucked it back into her boot. Relief oozed down Linda's spine "I will hold off killing you as long as I can, but when you descend too far into madness, I will do what must be done."

  "Wait, what? We're bringing her with us?" Cyrus asked, clearly astonished and displeased. He sighed and his hands released Linda. Not wasting a moment, she scuttled out of his reach and over to Lila..

  "You may come as well, Linda. That was your name, right?" Rena said, looking at the older of the two sisters.

  "You're making 'sumptions we wanna go with you," Linda said, frowning deeply, pitting her chin.

  Rena gestured with a gloved hand to the entry to the alley. "Go if you want, but you'll be hunted wherever you go. With me, you might have a chance - albeit a slim one."

  "Now hold on, Irene..." Rena shot Cyrus a sharp glance, "Er, Rena. How can we trust them?"

  "How can they trust us?" Rena challenged before either Lily or Linda could vocalise the same sentiment. "This is not a matter of trust. It is a matter of desperation. And one thing you taught me, Cyrus, was what we will do, and who we will accept help from, when we're desperate."

  "Surely that's not the only thing I taught you," Cyrus muttered.

  "Well, what will it be? Accept my help, or try to make it on your own?" Rena asked, placing a hand on her hip.

  Linda wrapped her arms about her younger sister, staring long and hard at Rena. "Who are you people?"

  "Don't tell them..."

  Rena smiled faintly. "We're vampires."

  "Damnit, Irene!"

  Nel stirred the spruce tip tea, gazing down into the swirling water in her pewter mug. As the slowly settled into placid stillness, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the flickering candlelight. She then took a sip, staring across the table at her mother-in-law. The clack of knitting needles was barely above the crackling of the hearth.

  "Jill?"

  Mrs. Fisher's eyes momentarily looked up from her task, fingers moving by muscle memory, before she looked back down at her project. "How long has Rena been with the Fishers?"

  "Oh, she was there when I married Jona." Jill's eyebrows rose but her eyelids drooped as she kept her gaze down on her needles. "They didn't tell me everything at first, but, when a girl never loses her youthful bloom, one starts asking. Like you are asking."

  "What do you really think about her being... like... those things," Nel asked.

  Jill put down her knitting and looked archly at Nel over a pair of cracked reading glasses that were held together with wire. "She is not like those things," Jill said stiffly. She then resumed her knitting. "Neither abide sunlight, and both feed on blood. But Rena never takes; she always waits to be given." A smile straightened out the wrinkles on her upper lips, while casting many more around her eyes. "She's also a sight nicer to look at."

  "That doesn't take much," Nel remarked with a soft snort. "How old is she?"

  "Well if I remember correctly, Rena was born in... the late 1900's I believe. She was just barely a young woman when she became a vampire. She'd been friends with Peter's Great, Great, Great..." Jill paused a moment, setting her knitting on the table and began counting her fingers, "....Great grandfather, Jordan Fisher."

  Stolen story; please report.

  "And she'd been following his family the whole time? Feeding on them?" Nel inquired, eyebrows raised in astonishment.

  "That is the story. They also say Rena was once engaged to Jordan, but he married someone else." Jill sighed and shook her head. "That was back before they came here and settled Fisham. Where was it they were from... ah, yes, Vancouver."

  "Where's Vancouver?" Nel asked.

  Jill shrugged. "It was a city along the coast, west of the mountains. But it was destroyed before I was born." She tested her tea with a tentative sip.

  "Before I came here... were Rena and Peter ever... involved... romantically?" Nel asked, finding it difficult to ask the words. She quickly brought her mug to her lips as Jill spat tea out of hers.

  "No! No one would ever... Rena is untouchable." Jill straighted up, adopting a stiff posture as she adjusted her spectacles. "Why do you ask?"

  Nel glanced to the side, her mug hovering below her chin. "Sometimes I think he cares more about her than me. I try not to be jealous, but... I wondered if that was why he alone didn't renounce his oaths."

  "No, no, nothing like that. Peter didn't have a lot of playmates, and his half siblings were too old to want to bother with him." Jill snorted softly in fond recollection. "Peter was always begging to play with her wolves. I think he just grew on her."

  "I know Ash wants to play with her pack, but some of them are wild. I don't trust them to be gentle," Nel reflected.

  "With Rena's influence, they are as tame as dogs," Jill remarked. "But I can understand your caution. Wouldn't want him to think all wolves are friendly."

  "Certainly not."

  "And wolves come in many forms," Jill reflected as she took a long sip of her tea, her gaze growing distant as the candlelight played tricks on her face.

  "This had better be good; I was in the middle of supper," Sheriff Black growled as she dusted the snow off of her hood and shoulders. As she stomped her booted feet, she looked up. There was a moment of brief recognition, then lingering irritation. "You Day girls have some 'splaining to do..."

  "We're sorry, Sheriff-"

  "And you!" A meaty finger pointed at Rena. "Running off to Copperwood alone. You're lucky to be alive!" Sheriff Black's glare bore down on Rena. She calmly met the wroth woman's gaze, frosty and cool to the sheriff's fire.

  "The vamp has been dispatched." Rena said, gesturing to Cyrus.

  "And who are you?"

  "Cyrus." He nodded, keeping himself unusually neutral in contrast to his usual smarmy demeanour.

  "Cyrus who?"

  Cyrus sighed. "Cyrus Tinker."

  "Well I don't know no Tinkers and don't like folk from outside the Ward. You been in vamp territory - you're gonna get searched."

  Cyrus placed his hands on his hips. "And what do you mean by 'searched'?"

  "Ladies, you might want to leave," the Sheriff said, walking up to Cyrus. The overbearing woman glowered down at him, and he lifted his chin defiantly.

  "Alright..." Linda said, taking Lily by the shoulders and heading off. Rena didn't budge.

  "He hasn't been bitten, if that's your concern," Rena informed in a droll tone.

  "Ain't taking chances. Now strip." Sheriff Black rested a hand on her revolver.

  Cyrus raised his eyebrows, letting out an incredulous guffaw. "As you wish!" He gave a crooked smile as he began to disrobe. Rena crossed her arms, keeping an eye on both parties. His vulnerable and exposed state had little impact on her, other than to remind her how small he was in spite of his grand gesturing and macho bravado.

  The Sheriff snorted and walked around him, inspecting his skin. She paused when she saw the blood soaked bandage on his back. "Where'd you get that?"

  Cyrus pointed at Rena.

  "We had a misunderstanding," Rena murmured. The sheriff ripped off the bandage, causing Cyrus to flinch. Black inspected the wound underneath.

  "Well, it don't look like a bite. Some misunderstanding." The law-woman glanced back t Rena, an arched eyebrow suggestive of reappraisal. "There's bandages in the second box on the lower shelf." She indicated with a thumb.

  "Are you satisfied? As much as I never would deprive a healthy woman of a stunning view, it IS chilly in here." Cyrus crossed his arms.

  Black looked up at him, one eye squinted more heavily than the other as she rested her hand over her revolver again. "You best not get cute with me. I don't shoot blanks," she retorted gruffly. She then nodded to his clothes which littered the floor.

  "WELL NOW!" Cyrus uttered in mock offence as he gathered up his clothing. Rena got down the box of bandages. She caught his eye, a brief moment of understanding, and he held off getting his shirt back on until she could redress his wound.

  "You two sleeping together?"

  "No," Rena responded with casual dismissal as she tied the bandage off, albeit a bit tighter than she had intended.

  Cyrus winced. "Not so tight!"

  "But he ain't no random wanderer." Sheriff Black eyed them both, confident in her assessment.

  "Clever lass. While my being here is random and unintended, Rena and I do go back," Cyrus admitted as he buttoned up his shirt.

  "Hmph. You from Fisham too?"

  "No. Never been to Fisham," Cyrus answered. The Sheriff looked him up and down again, suspicion plain on her stern face, her fingers tapping her holster. Suddenly she grabbed Cyrus's chin with one hand, and his nose wrinkled as he contained the urge to snarl.

  "You've seen he has no bite marks," Rena said, trying to tamp down the unease in her voice.

  Sheriff Black did not relinquish her hold on Cyrus's jaw. "Too pale, even for these long winters. Something just ain't right about you." His fingers splayed then curled into a fist, as he tried to bear the indignity patiently, constantly casting Rena dark glances.

  "What more do you expect to see?" Cyrus asked through clenched teeth as Sheriff Black looked into his eyes, searching them. Cyrus returned her gaze. Immediately Rena snapped her fingers to get both of them to look away from each other. She shook her head at him, frowning. He sighed and rolled his eyes, then looked back at a very perplexed sheriff.

  "Well, your eyes ain't red and I don't see no white hairs," the Sheriff said, finally letting Cyrus go. He wiggled his jaw side to side, rubbing his neck. "I suggest you both move along swiftly. And thanks for bringing the Day sisters back. Their mother kicks up fusses at spits, and we don't need that. They're women but you'd think them girls the way they get doted on."

  "Ah... yes. The Day sisters expressed an interest in journeying with us to Fisham. Curiosity, I suppose," Rena said. Black huffed and rolled back her shoulders, lips curled in and a sneer barely concealed.

  "Linda's a homebody. Find that hard to believe." Her harsh demeanour relaxed somewhat. "Lily, though, Lily I can see. Girl's a lazy pile o' butterfly flakes." Cyrus snorted, which earned a nudge from Rena. "She'd be no loss," Sheriff said, waving her hand. "I'll let their mother know."

  "Will you also inform Madam Gold that Fisham the current vamp problem has been resolved?" Rena said, keeping her tone professional.

  "Tch. You done already? Supper's getting cold."

  "I thought she was going to plunge her filthy fingers into my mouth. That old sow purse doesn't look like she's ever cleaned her nails," Cyrus muttered as they stepped out of the she-lion's den that was the Sheriff's office. Outside, the trouble sisters trembled under a street lamp.

  "Things are settled with the Sheriff. She'll inform your parents," Rena told the girls. "Let's go."

  "Wait, are we leaving now? I ain't had a chance to say goodbye," Lily complained.

  "No time. You two need to pack your bare essentials and we need to leave," Rena said very quietly, glancing around lest someone might overhear. "We can't travel when the sun is up."

  "What do we do during the day?" Lily asked plaintively.

  "Sleep. Or don't," Rena said with a shrug.

  "One of you could always ke-ack!" Cyrus stumbled forward after a solid slap along the back of his head from Rena. He rubbed his head and gave her a playful yet scathing scowl. "I was going to say keep watch."

  "Mmm-hmmm," Rena responded, clearly not convinced. "Don't pay attention to anything he says. And don't forget how unkind he was to you, Lily. The man will snake anyone with a pulse."

  Lily crossed her arms, looking away uncomfortably as her cheeks burned and her heart raced. Cyrus could feel the tantalising warmth of her discomfort. Linda wrapped an arm about her sister and glared at him. Her heat was a bit less tantalising, but still amusing. Alas, Rena's warning was clearly redundant. His ship was already sunk; there was no safe harbour with either of those women.

  "Spoil sport," Cyrus muttered, crossing his arms. He then shrugged his shoulders and looked up at the falling snow. "Ah well. When all else fails, I can keep myself entertained. All it takes is thinking of you, Rena."

  Rena rolled her eyes and kept walking.