"He should have been here twenty minutes ago," she said to herself.

She and Jeremy had been eating together ever since Finn and the others had left for New York City. He had been a great help dealing the loneliness she was feeling and he was always prompt when they were going to meet up somewhere.

Seeing as how he had not told her his guard duty schedule changed and no one had seen him, she was growing increasingly worried.

Rachel was just about to head down to the guards' changing rooms when the lights suddenly went out.

There was a moment of complete silence when peoples' minds registered what had happened. Then the screaming started.

Rachel ducked into a nearby room, closing the door so that she felt protected by whatever was going on outside. She kept the door opened just a crack so that she could peer out into the darkness beyond.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was met with a terrible sight. THe prisoners that had been locked up downstairs were now marching through the corridors, grabbing whomever they could and sinking their fangs into soft flesh. The drained bodies were tossed to the floor as the vampires contuinued on, laughing at their deeds.

Rachel slowly backed away from the door, looking around the room to find a place to hide. She had ducked into what appared to be an office and she rushed over to the desk.

She began searching frantically through the drawers until she found what she was looking for. She grabbed the revolver and checked to make sure the chamber was full.

The door suddenly burst open and she dove under the desk. It was too late, however, the intruders had already seen her.

"Come on out, girl," one of them (a female)said. "We know you're in here and there's no use hiding."

The other one (a male)said: "Indeed, we can smell your sweat and fear. Come out now and we'll make your death relitivly painless."

Rachel drew the hammer back as quietly as she could and aimed it out towards the room. Two sets of feet appeared in front of her and stood there for a few moments. She could hear them both sniffing the air like animals and she knew they were trying to scare her further. It was working and she had to steady the gun with both hands to keep it from shaking.

The male bent down and suddenly she was looking into pale, blue eyes. The male grinned at her, mouth open slightly as if to better show off his fangs.

"You're not really going to use that, are you, girl? You don't look like any killer."

Rachel didn't reply, instead she clenched her jaw and fired. The bullet hit the male square in the face. Blood splattered across her and floor, bits of bone and brain matter mixed in with it.

The male crumpled to the ground and the female screamed at the sight of her fallen compaion.

Without hesitation, Rachel aimed the gun at the female's leg and fired a bullet into her kneecap. The female fell to the ground with a piercing shriek and Rachel shot her in the head to silence her.

Rachel pushed the bodies in front of her and rummaged through the drawer she had found the gun in. She grabbed a box of bullets, replaced the three she had used and placed the box in her pocket.

She edged towards the door, hesitant step by hesitant step. She paused next to the door and slowly opened it. She saw no signs of life out in the hall and she stepped out into the corridor.

"Rachel?"

She jumped and spun around, holding the gun out in front of her. She lowered the weapon as she saw that it was Artie who had spoken her name.

"Oh, Artie, thank God it's you."

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I guess so. Are you?"

"For the most part," he replied. "I saw someone get their throat ripped out which was pretty tramatizing. Why do have blood all over you? Did you shoot one of them?"

"Two actually."

He raised his eyebrows, "Okay. We need to find Ms. Corcoran."

Rachel agreed, "Do you have a gun?"

Artie picked up the revolver in his lap. "How do you think I made it this far? Come on, let's go see if our commander's alright."

They found Shelby in her office along with two of her top captains, Russell and Stephen.

"Get in, quickly now," Russell ushered the two humans inside. As soon as they were in the room, the werewolf shut the door and locked it. He then took his position by the door again.

"Are you two okay?" Shelby asked, looking them both up and down.

After they had both confirmed they were, Artie asked if anyone knew how the vampires had escaped.

"I've yet to see any of the guards. They're the only ones who would know for sure."

"The closest we can figure," Stephen said, "is that they overpowered them somehow. But I don't understand why any of the guards would have opened a cell door. They don't need to be fed until next week."

"Is there any way they could have broken through the door?" inquired Rachel.

"Those doors are reinforced with steel. A vampire wouldn't be able to break through them. No, the door must have been opened. We just don't know why."

"There may have been a fight," Shelby said. "It happens when you have a bunch of wild animals locked up together. If that's so, then the guards would have to break it up and they may have been overpowered that way."

Something suddenly hit the door and the occupants of the room jumped a little. All of them pointed their guns at the door and fired as it burst open. After the initial shock left, they realized no one was there.

Russell looked to Shelby for orders and she nodded. He cautiously headed into the corridor, gun at the ready.

A blur moved from the left side of the hallway and Russell was tackled to the ground. Three more vampires dashed into the room, each one taking hold of and confiscating Rachel's, Artie's and Stephen's weapons.

The vampire who had tackled Russell hauled the werewolf to his feet and dragged him into the office. Another vampire entered the room and kicked the door shut behind him.

"I would put that revolver down, Corcoran. Unless you want your charges to die that is."

Shelby ran her eyes over Stephen, Russell, Rachel and Artie who each had the fangs of their captors poised at their throats.

She sighed and palced her gun on the floor.

"Now slide it over to me."

Shelby shoved the gun across the floor with her foot. The vampire snatched it up off the floor, shook out the bullets and tossed it into the corner.

"You're one of Anderson's, aren't you?"

The vampire raised an eyebrow, "I'm of the Dalton Coven if that's what you mean. I don't consider myself under the rule of that traitor though. Helping you werewolves, it's disgusting. Not to mention his soft spot for humans. You know he cares for that fucking slave of his more then any member of the coven."

The vampire shook his head at the idiocy of it all.

"What's your name, vampire?"

"Sebastian Smyth, not that it's really any of your buisness. Anyway, I didn't come here to exchange pleasantries. Where's Anderson?"

"He's not here."

"Yeah, obviously, that's why I want to know where he is.

When Shelby remained silent, Sebastian nodded at the lacky who was restraining Russell. The lacky increased the pressure of his fangs until blood began to trikle down the werewolf's neck.

"I sent him on a special mission. He's not even in the state."

"Is his slave with him?"

"I don't believe Count Anderson has a slave."

Sebastian rolled his eyes, "Fine, that one that he's gone and fucking attached himself to. The pale one with the blue eyes, is he with Anderson?"

"He might be."

Sebastian growled and strode forwards until he stood toe to toe with Shelby. He grabbed her by the shoulders and bared his fangs.

"Answer the question, bitch."

The ghost of a smile lit Shelby's features, "You know, calling a werewolf a bitch isn't much of an insult. It's what we are after all."

Sebastian hissed and backhanded her.

Rachel gasped while Russell, Artie and Stephen struggled harder agiast their oppressors.

"Where did you send them!?" growled Sebastian.

Shelby remained silent and Sebastian hissed again. He looked at the vampire restraining Russell and nodded.

The vampire pulled his lips back as far as they would go and plunged his fangs deep into Russell's jugular vein. The werewolf shouted and tried to twist away from the vampire, but this only resulted in tearing his skin open. The vampire kept Russell on his feet as he drained the rest of the body. He dropped the bloodless corpse on the ground and grinned at Shelby with his bloodstained mouth.

"The other werewolf is next and then we'll start on the two humans and something tells me Anderson won't like it if we kill his precious humans. So what will it be, Corcoran? You either lose the other three and we torture the information out of you, or you tell us where you sent him and let the rest of you live."

"You really think I'm stupid enough to think you won't just kill us once I've told you where Count Anderson is?"

Smyth and Corcoran stared at each other for a few moments. Then Smyth growled in disgust and shoved her to the floor. He strode to her desk and sat down at the computer.

"I'm assuming the files are on here somewhere. Neal, make sure she doesn't go anywhere."

The vampire who had been Russell's guard leapt across the room and grabbed Shelby, pinning her to him.

The room was silent except for the tapping of the keyboard as Smyth began shifting through Shelby's files. About ten minutes later, the vampire grinend in triumph.

"Ah-ha, they're in New York City, are they? Let me just get the address and we'll be on our way."

Smyth picked up a pen and notepad, copying the directions of Jeremiah's hideout down. He stood up, pocketing the folded note of paper. He strode over to the door and opened it.

"Thank you, Corcoran, you've been great help. Oh and don't worry. I've already had someone contact the police so they should be arriving shortly. Have a good day."

Smyth swept out of the room and his lackys shoved their prisoners to the floor before hurridly exiting the room. They heard a click and knew they had been locked in.

Stephen helped Artie back into his wheelchair before him and two humans joined Shelby on the other side of the room, away from the corpse.

"I-is there any way out of here?" Rachel asked quietly.

"No," responded Shelby. "I'm afraid we're stuck here until the police arrive."

"Surly you have a key," said Artie.

"The only way the door can be opened is with the key pad and something tells me that they had the foresight to disable those."

"Shouldn't you try it?"

It was plain on Shelby's face that she thought this was a lost cause, but she entered her key code to humor him. Just as she had suspected, nothing happened.

"There's always the chance that one of our own managed to get out and they went for help. Maybe they'll show up before the cops do."

"Prehaps," said Shelby, "but I wouldn't get my hopes up."