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for the first time.
    It was raining, as if the sky itself was mourning the passing of another hunter. I stuck to the shadows, wearing a trench coat that shielded my skin from the sun. If you want to remain hidden from humans, it’s startlingly easy. They don’t look at you if you don’t think you’re significant. And I used a little glamour for those around me so they didn’t notice. It worked for the most part.
    A man in black with a toddler was mourning over the freshly dug grave as they lowered the casket into the ground. The Harker’s husband and daughter maybe? Was the toddler the newest Harker?
    I’d hoped not. That’s some fucked up shit. No one ever imagines that Harkers start out small, helpless. Like the rest of us.
    Then I saw a fragile-looking young woman sitting on the muddy ground on the crest of a hill overlooking the procession. Her hair was dyed blue, and her vintage black dress was dirty from sitting on the ground without an umbrella. She was soaked to the bone. Her left wrist was bound in gauze all the way up to her elbow. Even from a distance, I could smell the infection in her blood.
    She looked…desolate. Without direction. Without hope.
    “You’re going to catch your death out here, Harker,” I said to her.
    She whirled her head at my voice. She wasn’t just the Harker. She was…pretty. Beautiful even. She’d apparently been so deep inside her own thoughts she didn’t notice me coming up to her. She shook herself with a bitter laugh.
    “Wow,” she said, her voice naturally raspy in a way that stirred my heart in ways I didn’t know it could. “I hadn’t expected to see a vampire today. Are you here to kill me too?”
    The question stung a bit, but I suppose it was warranted after everything she’d been through.
    “I’m here to say hi.”
    “Hi?” she repeated sarcastically.
    I grinned at her despite my reservations, despite the chasm between us. I am, after all, a vampire and she is the Harker. She didn’t really respond to my smile, instead looking as sad as when I first came up to her.
    “Yes, hi. I’m Jude.”
    “Jude,” she repeated, and my assumed name sounded wonderful inside her mouth. “I’m Edie. Uh…” Her eyes faded. “I’m the Harker, I guess.”
    I’d have done anything to make her smile in that moment. I don’t know why I offered it, but it popped out before I could stop it. “It seems like you need some help.”
    I could smell the infection on her, the bad reaction between her blood and whatever vampire blood was running through her system. It would corrupt her body until it was no longer hers. It was such a shame.
    “ You want to help me ?” she asked. “Why?”
    I cleared my throat, really wondering what I was getting into. “Because I can figure out how to get Anthony for you.”
    My words made her scramble to her feet. “Anthony?” she demanded, a little color from anger blushing her cheeks. “You know Anthony? Where the fuck is he?” She was ready to march off right then and kill him, even in her weakened state.
    Her face fell when I said, “I don’t know. But I promise I will help you in any way I can. And that I’ll help you stay alive as long as possible to do that.”
    She looked at me suspiciously, as if wondering how I knew she was dying. Finally, the minutes ticked by, and she nodded. “All right. What do I have to lose?”
    That was five months ago. And every lead I’ve been able to find has turned out to be a dead end. Thing is, no one wants to be the first to really talk about Anthony for fear of retaliation. These two vampires tonight had been seen with him a week ago in Houston, so he is close by. I gleaned that information from an obscure source. After these two vampires died, I’m sure that any other prospective source won’t divulge any more information.
    Tonight, as I watch Edie’s car drive off from the parking lot to make the trek up to Austin, I curse under my breath. Why couldn’t one of the vampires tonight